Yuck! (And Yay!)

After dealing with Nic and La both having colds (snotty noses, coughing, fevers, general sooking) last week it looked like I'd caught what they had. Wednesday afternoon my throat HURT. Got some throat soothers that were useless. Next day I couldn't swallow and my voice was at a whisper, even more painful. So I got some pain tabs, which did nothing. Hoped to wait it out but this morning I had shooting pains in my ear from my throat. Hm. Not a cold. I go to the doctor, who asks why I'm there... "Probably strep." "Okay, let me have a look. Yep, it's strep." Yuck. Yuck. Yuck. And I've got a thousand things to do! Silly thing couldn't have come at a more convienient time!

Meanwhile, La is having a grand time learning the animals names and what they do. "Sheep... bah! Mum, cow mooooooo!" The horses still get called cows (er... close bubba) but now the one nearest us, a lovely bay named Bubbles gets called by his name. "Bubbal!" and offered "Gas!" (Grass... close bubba... close!)

I also am wrestling with chicken coop ideas. I was going to do a little inexpensive one and just use the tin-cobbled together lean to for the sheep but with the way we've set ourselves up today I can look into something a little bit better. I'd really like to do a small shed that has a pen for the regular sheep, a small one that can be used for birthing ewes/young lambs/ill ones recovering, a small place for a goat and a chook house attached with a run extending. It'd also have a round-pen on the outside for the sheep and a small run to push them through. That'll require a bit more research before I invest in it so it doesn't end up with a bunch of design flaws.

Now the investment set up I mentioned is this: instead of getting a standard $45K home-loan from the bank, we'd held off to look into running a line of credit instead. With interest rates being what they were, we figured we'd top up La's school investments, get ourselves some furniture and tend to the things that need fixing (bathroom, study, deck, some areas of fencing) and set myself up with a proper show outfit (blowdryer, grooming tools), schooling (for me, to turn this into a nice little home business and set up farm plan etc), buying the initial sheep (since they're quality bred sheep vs the cheapies in the local ag rags) and an agility set up.

However we met with a guy today that Nic knows who was able to set us up with a MUCH better deal via having a line of credit instead of a loan, which plays on the equity of the house (we have the title outright and no other debts) so that we'll actually be able to do a lot more and I'll be able to turn my little sheep hobby into a nice little business and it'll have a lot of tax benefits etc. Sitting down and looking at it, it'll save us a bundle and is such a much smarter way to do things, even with regards to day to day spendings, so I'm really chuffed with that! Hopefully down the road since we have a much larger line of credit (was actually less percentage to take a $350K line than a smaller one and what you don't use doesn't accure interest) we can actually look into bigger investments and hopefully reap a tidy profit there. So, so, SO chuffed! Cross fingers it goes through!