The Winds of Change

The air is cool and crisp, there is a thick layer of frost on the ground and the leaves have all but disappeared due to last week's strong winds. The winds of change are blowing through my spirit as well, and I have decided to take you all on the journey. I've got to tell you, I have internally debated about this post for weeks, my extended family, friends and neighbors along with my dedicated readers are privy to parts of my life and thoughts through this blog that I'm not sure that I was even aware of until I put them in writing. Many things can be difficult or embarrassing to discuss, but as I have said before, I would not be a good author if I don't deal with a few tough issues.

Where do I begin this odd little story? A few months ago? A lifetime ago? With my epilepsy diagnosis? I am positive now that it is all tied together, but I am not sure how, and I am also somewhat sure that this blog is tied in. Which is why I am asking for your open minds as you read my story-if anything catches your eye, please comment or pass along to someone who may have a comment. That is the whole reason I am putting this out there; to share my journey and to connect with others on a similar path. Okay, down to business.

So, I believe that this story really heats up a couple of months ago when I had one of my dreams; and I say it this way because I have had these dreams my whole life. I'm pretty sure I can remember the first one because it was so upsetting; I had been sleeping with my Mom, couldn't sleep well and had dreamt that my Dad had been killed in a car accident. You can imagine my young girl screams when I answered the phone later that morning to find out Dad really had been in an accident, luckily he was fine. Another very memorable one was from middle school when all I could see was blood and later that day my friend was goofing off in the hallway and tore hiss bottom eye lid off on a door hinge, I'm pretty sure my Mom had to pick me up from school that day. Recently I had one that Tom and I crashed in the bus that my parents travel in so I had my Dad check all of the brake systems, only to find out it wasn't the brake systems, but another much more extensive (and expensive) one. So anyway, I'm pretty used to the dreams by now, and they never come all the way true, that is to say, the dreams are much worse usually than what happens in real life. Which is a good thing, because the dreams are very traumatic for me (and whoever is in them with me!).

The dream that I had was that Tom was leaving me, and if you know us at all, you know that that is as far a stretch as we could get, even in the dream I knew it wasn't right. But, this one was different, I could not get control of myself; not during the dream, not after the dream, and not for quite some time that morning. As usual, it was my morning chores and my critters that finally got me somewhat pulled together. It was up at the barn when I ran into our neighbor that I rarely see, Don King, no not the one with the crazy hair. We had quite a nice visit, he was always so happy to hear news of the latest llama rescue. I was very sad to hear that Don had a massive stroke later that day, and died the next, but was happy to have given him a few grins that day.

This was only the beginning of a very strange series of events for me, my sister in law was in a very serious accident, we had foreclosure papers in the mailbox (that same day) although our mortgage had not gone into foreclosure (not even a missed payment, just a misunderstanding), we lost a llama; to be honest, I can't even remember it all now. I kept saying to myself okay, so this is why I had the dream and it will stop now, and things have calmed down a bit. But, since that dream, there have been changes to my other odd abilities, like knowing who is on the phone, or who I will see when, nothing important or life changing, actually quite irritating, but quite persistent.

Around the time that I had this dream, I had a booking at The Royal Roost, and the way things had been going, it was not at all surprising when they cancelled and asked for a return of their deposit. Being the cheap ass that I am, I normally will only return half of a deposit, but because I was so mentally drained, was not prepared for a battle and simply mailed the entire deposit back. The gal was so appreciative of my kindness that she offered to do an astrology reading for me for free. I must say, a chill ran down my spine, and I got the feeling I get in my stomach when it is connected with my dreams, I felt strongly that she had been put in my path for a reason. I checked her out as best I could and somewhat reluctantly agreed. I had to go through a little bit of a hassle to get the information she needed, but I knew it was something I had to do, because at this point I needed a little bit of guidance.

She called me last Monday morning for our appointment. I wasn't sure what to expect, but I was excited, anxious and very afraid for unknown reasons. Her name is Sajit, and she really did a great job, jumped right in, while not getting too overly technical she did not get too over the top either, stayed on a playing field that did not scare a somewhat normal person like me away. Here I am writing an article like this, calling myself normal, okay maybe I really have lost it! Anyway, an astrology reading is much more than what sign you are, it involves things like houses and moons and suns and things that I would never even consider myself qualified enough to talk about, but it can really paint a picture of what you "bring to the table" with you, so to speak. She made very clear that she is not a psychic or anything and that this reading was just something to learn from. Boy was it ever!

I shouldn't have been surprised when she brought up psychic abilities, I knew that's why she had been put in my life, but I really don't like to talk about my oddities, so of course I burst into tears the minute she mentioned it. Dead giveaway, here I was trying not to give away any information-ha!!! She had already pegged my every personality trait and idiosyncrasy and had asked if I was ready to look further into my spiritual guides and gifts-oh, is that what you call it?

Let me take you back just a bit. Last year for Christmas my parents got me the book The Secret for Christmas (thanks Mom and Dad) and it literally changed our lives. It was funny, because it was on back order and I happened to get it at a very low time in my life. I had just been fired from a job (shoveling manure for a vet that I was unhappy with anyway) that I hated and was over checking on their place while they travelled when it arrived, right after the new year. Well, that book was the start to my children's book, Naked~Nure and this blog, again, thanks Mom and Dad. I bring up that book because it is a huge part of the "spiritual" journey that I find myself on now, as well.

I say that because after I got off the phone with Sajit I no longer felt the dread, duty and fear that always came along with my "abilities". I now am starting to feel a little more excited and open to them and feeling as if obviously there is a strong reason for them. Any of you that know me, know that I will start any problem with research, and at this point in time, I have done very little. Some very interesting things are coming up, which is why I chose to share with all of you this early in the ball game. I have decided to use this blog as part of a diary and as a connection. Since it is strongly involved in the roots of this experience, I believe it will help it grow, with help from those of you who wish to share.

Back to my minuscule research; when I was diagnosed with Epilepsy I got a book called Epilepsy: A New Approach. Another time when my "abilities" were on the red alert and bothering me, I bought a book called The Gift, Understand and Develop Your Psychic Abilities and then recently after my chat with Sajit I bought a book called Opening to Channels; and as you know my favorite book ever is The Secret. Well, what do all of these books have in common, absolutely nothing, but me, of course! That's not really true, as I got to reading the newest one that Sajit had recommended, it was almost as if I had read it before. I could take a sentence from any one of those books and replace it with one of the others, it is almost uncanny. The subject matters are really quite different in all of them, but take bits and pieces of information and they fit together perfectly and make one Judy Jeute-ha!

Many years ago, when I was seeing doctors often about my seizures, I remember asking them if there was a connection between paranormal activities and epilepsy only to have them mumble some sort of non committal answer. That was ten years ago now, and sad to say when I typed it into Google, it was only other people asking if anyone else had that connection or if they were crazy. I did find one good article here, but would love to find some responses to some of those questions posed on the medical sites that are years old now. I will not bore you with a bunch of technicalities, but my epilepsy related problems are based in the right temporal lobe, which is also the lobe which is said to be related with paranormal activity. I also know that there is a connection because on my bad brain days my "abilities" are much more in tune, and vice versa, when my abilities are strong, it is very draining on my brain.

Okay, so I've said it a few times in this post, but it's very important for those of you that have anything to say, good or bad to say it. We have the Marines, engineers, scientists, moms, gardeners, teachers and everyone in between reading this, so we should have all sorts of spiritual opinions and I am open to anything. If you have read this blog at all, you know that it is important for me to say what I mean without offending anyone, so with that said, from now on I will use the tag Metaphysical when I am posting about this odd little subject! That way if you think this is all a bunch of hoo-ha, you can still enjoy the blog and skip a day or so here and there! Have a miracle of a day!

P.S. I wanted to add that if you'd like to get in touch with Sajit Greene, MA, LPC, just let me know. She is a counselor that went into astrology to get a better understanding of her clients.

Royal Ranch Royalty

Rose, digging for rocks
Rose, waiting for rocks to fall out of the sky.

Rose is Time Out for bringing rocks into the house,

I can't remember what Rusty the Rabbit did,

but I'm sure it was naughty!

Rose, Lily, and Gigi

Tom, Lily and Spike (no longer with us)

Rosie and Lucy

Lily and Harry at nap time

My Babies!!!

Good Morning!! It is time to introduce you all to one of our wondrous creatures here at the Royal Ranch, and today I have chosen to do a Two for One, since that seems to be the theme for the week! Meet Rose and Lily, or better known around the neighborhood as Heimer and Hammer. That is short for Rosenheimer and Lillehammer, the town where the winter Olympics were held in 1994, for some reason the nickname stuck for Lily, so Rosenheimer was not a stretch for her look alike sister, Rose. They are Bullmastiffs, but are much smaller than they should be, so we lovingly call them our midget mastiffs.

We got the sisters for Christmas in 2003. We had lost our beloved Great Dane and were only planning on getting one puppy. It was really quite a crazy way to get a dog, we met the gal on the side of the highway at a Krispy Kreme, nice way to pass the time while waiting though! Anyway, she showed up with a crate full of beautiful female pups and Tom and I each grabbed one that we knew we had to have. So, of course, we left with two. Good thing the kids aren't as bad as we adults are-ha! The girls are some of our only animals that we actually paid for, and this is an important point for me; we did this because we were working with a large breed of dog and had young children. We could not take our chances with having anyone else's training in the background of these dogs' thinking, and as you can see from the pics, we don't have to worry about behavior issues with them too much.

It really is funny how things work out though, Tom had grabbed Lily, who now is more his dog, and I had grabbed Rosie who now follows me around, to the bathroom, to the barn, to the truck, to the office, to the laundry room, to the..., you get the idea. They are quite famous, as they have a peculiar habit that they started as bitty babies, they love rocks. They'll even play with rocks that are almost as big as they are; but they're favorites are about six inches in diameter and when they get into the forest or the beaver ponds, they'll dig up plants to get to the rocks underneath! I think that the UPS man looks forward to winter time when their rocks gather snow and it looks as if they are making snowmen. Only at The Royal Ranch!

Today is a Two For One!

A snapshot from that day!

Hi Again! I just wanted to let you know that I put a video up on YouTube finally! It is of the bikers from last weekends ride in support of our kids that went through that terrible tragedy three years ago now. It was so great, because Tom has always been on the ride, and this time decided to see it from our perspective, and as you can hear in his voice, it is rather touching! Keep an eye up the highway, towards the top of your screen, the bikes go on and on for miles, even this video does not do it justice, it literally takes them hours to get from Columbine High School To Platte Canyon High School, usually a 50 minute drive! This video is worth checking out and passing on! Thanks devoted readers and friends~Judy.

Tom, On His Own

These are the only evidence of that day!!!

Usually we take many pics on our hikes-ha!

In all of the craziness of the kids being sick, Tom reminded me that I had forgotten to post about his llama adventures. Do you remember the day I was so proudly headed off on a pack trip with my black hoody? Well, the flu had other plans. My daughter woke up sick that morning, so I was unable to go on the trip. What you must know about Tom and I, is that I like to do things by myself, I'll go to garden shows alone, don't mind having lunch by myself, etc., so the pack trips that I have had to do when Tom is at work really are not that big of a deal to me. On the other hand, Tom does not like to do things alone, he doesn't like to ride his Harley alone (likes to have another bike along, it is safer), prefers not go to public places by himself, etc. So a trip alone into the mountains with my pack llamas was a nightmare for him. As a matter of fact, this is where I have to tease him a little, he even wanted my nine year old daughter to stay home alone sick so that I could go with him!!! I made sure he knew he was perfectly capable, packed his lunch, helped him load the llamas, and pushed him out the door!

He called a few times on his way up the trail and was making great time. It was a trail that we are very familiar with, so we have really familiar stops and know where we should be and how long it should take us to get there. His llama "train" was four llamas, not too bad for one person to handle (this is where I make sure to put in my two cents, of course I have done it on my own!). Since he was picking up the camp, the llamas were empty on the way up and had not given him any problems. He said that as he was packing up the camp, he could hear me saying, "take your time, Hon, if the packs aren't right, they won't ride correctly the rest of the way down the trail!". Tom has a tendency to always be in a rush, so I am the one to slow things down and make sure the animals safety and comfort are always in the forefront. He said he had even taken time to put the "ass straps" (I believe the correct term is crupper-ha!) on that we have made for each of the llamas to make the loads ride more evenly on a descending climb.

So, off he goes, quite proud of himself that he had gotten everything packed up so well and that the llamas were behaving so nicely. He said he was almost halfway back down when he decided it was safe to have a beer. Hunter, the last llama in the pack string was carrying his beer cooler, so he headed back to get one and had just reached the cooler, when Pepper, the lead llama (this is where he made the mistake) took off like a shot! He said that all four llamas, loaded to the gills were running full bore through the woods tied together. This time, he said he could physically see me throw my hands up in the air and scream "What are we going to do Pita?" (that's what I call him, originally it was because his middle name is Peter, and he's from NY, and that's how it sounds, but sometimes now I think it stands for Pain In The Ass-love you honey!)

Anyway, he said that string of bolting llamas was out of sight within seconds, he was still standing there with his jaw hanging when he could no longer see them. He said he just kept thinking how I was going to kill him, and yes he was correct!!! The only thing for the poor guy to do was to head down the trail after them and to hope and pray they stayed on it. As he's walking he's picking up our hunter's gear that he had just spent so much time painstakingly packing up on top of the mountain as it is now sprawled all over the trail, and wondering to himself exactly how much of this stuff he was going to have to carry out himself!

Amazingly enough, Pepper had gotten caught up on a tree a good quarter mile down the trail and hadn't gotten anyone injured in the process, thank god!!! Tom said that he was very tempted to shoot him when he got there, but leaving him tangled in the tree until he got the other llamas settled was punishment enough! So, he finally gets everyone back together and on the trail and thinks, thank goodness he can come home tonight, maybe he can finally have that beer....only to open his beer cooler to a bunch of shards of glass and foam-oops!!!!

Again, I love you honey!!!

A "Small Man's" View

I had to chuckle to myself (yes, Mom, all by myself again) the other day. I was going to my class in town, so I had my truck full of recycling. I had seen this guy coming down the mountain weaving in and out of traffic behind me in his new little smart car, so I couldn't help but take a look when we got to a stop light in Denver. Needless to say, I was a little shocked when I saw the look of superiority and disdain on his face. It took me a couple of minutes to even figure it out. I think this guy was looking at my big diesel truck, full of trash and how un-eco-friendly I was. By the time the light turned green I was laughing out loud, the look of disdain had turned to one of anger and he sped off.

I mean really, how funny, this jackass that speeds up and down the mountain in his imported fad car, in his imported suit and shoes (no, I couldn't see his shoes, but the story isn't as funny without them!) with his disposable Starbucks cup in hand a minimum of five days a week. All the while talking through some contraption on his ear, watching a device on his dash to tell him where he's gone the past four days that week to eat a couple of more disposable meals. This eco-friendly fake out has the right to look at my full to the brim with recyclables, F350 Diesel pickup that does not leave my driveway more than twice a week, with disdain.

I was dressed to the nines that day, you know, in my best Goodwill duds. But all joking aside, I can pull together a very nice look without leaving a carbon footprint to import it. I had my black hoody in the seat next to me at the ready to unload my recyclables of course, but I was sporting a look that even Mr. Butthead would've respected. My ten year old insulated Tupperware cup in it's usual spot in my cup holder I was ready for a day filled with errands since I have to pack everything into my one big trip to the city.

In the mountains in Colorado a car like that just doesn't fit in, at least 80% of cars here are four wheel drives, and rightly so with the types of roads and driveways we deal with. Although it isn't funny, I'm afraid that the electricity that it will take to run the guys' life support machine when he bounces off the windshield of one of those four wheel drives, driving the way he does, is going to be his last big energy expenditure. There is a time and a place for everything. Come on!

That's my truck in the picture, built Ford tough. I love my truck!!!

Flu Vaccines and Vaccinations in General

Okay, another post where I could really step on a lot of people's toes here, but you need to keep in mind that this is one person's opinion, but a rather strong one at that. Actually, if you were to ask my parents or husband there isn't much that I really care about that I don't have a strong opinion about, but that's another story.

Back to vaccine's, if you read late last night, you'll know that the flu has passed through my household for the first time in MANY years. As a matter of fact, I think this is the first time in my adult life that we have ever had the actual flu; fever, chills, body aches, etc. Two out of three of the kids have had it and even Tom got it and missed two days of work, which is unheard of. I honestly can't remember the last time that he was home due to being sick, like many of you, he does not have sick time, so he either has to take vacation time or no pay.

So, with that being said, I would like to say that I think that we are going way to far with the vaccines! In my opinion the reason the flu bugs are getting so smart is because the vaccines are getting smarter as well. I strongly believe that if we would allow our systems to naturally become immune to most of the things that Mother Nature hands us, that we would be better prepared to deal with some of these more serious bugs.

I did get the shots when the children were younger, and hated every minute of it. Those shots are ones that have been around for years and have been researched extensively, if a vaccine has not been researched for more than ten years, it does not go into my child, period. I try to find a happy medium between re-exposing my country to things that we have hopefully already rid ourselves of, and deciding not to go to extremes. I think that our government and media make it very difficult for a person to make a wise choice for themselves and has used many fear tactics to get citizens to get these shots, partially to make money for pharmaceutical companies.

I really believe that this is true with animals. Case in point; last spring we had brought in some llamas that still had their fighting teeth and to integrate our herds we needed to remove them. To do this, we take a specific type of wire and saw the teeth off so that the llamas can't hurt one another when they determine their positions in the hierarchy. We figured that we would have the vet out since we were handling all of the boys anyway, we ended up de-worming, vaccinating all of them and doing the teeth on a few of them. Two of the older boys needed their front teeth worked on as well. The following fall when it was time for our packing season, two of my best packers were extremely underweight, and we even lost one of them due to a stress fracture. There is not one doubt in my mind that it is due to all of the work that we had done on him that spring. If I could turn the clock back, I would do the teeth only, maybe the de-worming, and have left it at that.

I have always done the kittens and puppies the same way; get the initial shots, follow up with any legal necessities like rabies and that is it. So far our track record is exemplary, we had a Rottweiler that lived to be 13 and a Great Dane that lived to be 11. Our rescue Great Pyrs have not been quite as good, but those I have not been in charge of until they came here. We had a cat that had tested positive for Feline Leukemia and was told to immediately put down, he lived to the ripe old age of twelve, and for a mountain cat, that is OLD!

I believe that vaccines can be an underlying cause not only to undermining Mother Nature, but to much more serious issues like cancer in animals (do I dare say it out loud, humans?), immune issues of all sorts, and again a huge money maker for pharmaceutical companies that are already making plenty of money from Americans that don't know enough about what they are buying.

Now, don't get me wrong, I do understand that many people do need these vaccines and should rightfully get them. To me, that makes my argument all that much stronger; if those of us that have good, strong immune systems would quit falling for all of the hype, it seems to me that the vaccines would work better for those that really need them.

The Flu Came Flying Through

Dear Readers,
Please excuse my absence as I have been very busy taking care of my family that has been sick with the flu. Although I love them dearly, they act quite queerly, and give me no time to rest, least of all time to do the things I love best!
Love,
Judy