My life seems to be turning in a positive direction.

Hello frieds and family, I have a few extra minutes this morning, so decided to write to you all. Lately I have had some great things happening in my life. First, I have added to my animal "farm"... I have a borrowed goat, named Matilda. She is a LaManche (she has no ears), and is very friendly. I can walk her with a dog lease and she will follow without resistance. She wags her tail when she sees me coming. She is so cute and sweet. I love having a goat. She has never had a baby, therefore does not have milk yet. Hopefully she will be bred in the next year. She is just borrowed from a nice young couple in Sandpoint. I hope they decided they don't want her back as she is such a delight! I now have one goat, 4 laying hens, one rooster, 6 meat chicks (to butcher in another month for meat), 10 baby laying chicks, 7 rabbits, 2 dogs, 1 cat, 1,000's of worms. I also have a bathroom full of starts for my garden. My garden has been rototilled and is ready for a new fence and soon the plants will be added. I have blueberry bushes, and strawberries ready to plant. Also rhubarb plants (what is left after the goat ate most of them). I am going to have just about every common vegetable in my garden. I hope to have time to go to the Farmers Market with my produce and eggs. But, now time is minimal because...I NOW HAVE THREE JOBS. One is a temporary US Census job, one is the part-time restuarant job washing dishes and preparing/prepping the food. But the newest one, the one I hope to make my regular job...is...I got hired to work as an RN in a home health department of the hospital in Libby, MT. It is an hour drive to work (not too bad for living in the boonies!). I hope to be able to start in a week or so, after they finish checking my references, and work history, etc. I will be working 15 hours a week doing the home health. I am so excited to have some money coming in at last. I really need to catch up on some bills. Especially medical bills! I had a really interesting thing happen yesterday. I was doing my Census job. I had a locked gate at one address I was supposed to visit. So I got out of the car and walked through the woods to find this address. As I was walking along an old, unused (recently anyway) path, I heard what sounded like an dog grunt! At first I imagined a big dog coming after me. But as I heard no further noises, such as barking, I figured I would just keep going. Later I told a fellow Census worker about it and she said, "It's sounds like it might have been a bear". She has lived here locally most of her life and she seems to know a lot about the local area. She said that she saw a bear cross the Hwy just the night before. So what I am saying is that I probably walked by a bear in the woods and startled him, that is why he grunted. I probably scared him more than he scared me, only because I am to green to know that I should have been scared. I have been told not to walk in the woods again, until I have a gun to carry with me. I love living in the boonies!!!! Yogi, the bear that comes to my house to eat the fruit from the fruit trees, has not been seen yet this spring. I am hoping that my dog will keep him away. Little Sweetie can be a really vicious dog! LOL. I plan to fence my garden and goat pasture in such a way that the bear(s) can not get into them. It is getting to be time to keep my garbage can in the house. If I leave it outside it will attract the wild animals. I will be adding other "pest" preventer items to my yard for safetly also. Well today I have to work at "Mom's Cafe" in Clark Fork, ID. I only work 4 hours at a time but that is an improvement over the 2 hours that I used to work. Right now we never know if we will be busy or dead in the restuarant. It is a little early for most tourists yet, and the locals don't come out in bad weather (rain and wind) usually. It also depends on how close it is to most people's payday. I won't be doing Census work today. For those of you who do not know. My birthday is Saturday, May8. I will be 27 again!!!! Sorry kids you are now older than your mom. I work Saturday, then in the afternoon I may go to an auction in Thompson Falls, just for the fun of it. My new friend (I met through the Census job) may go with me. I don't expect any gifts from anyone, but if you would add yourself as a friend on my blog, that would feel like a present to me!!!! Hope you will add yourself to the list so that I can write to you (like this) more often. Have a great day. Love Cathy