Diary of a Mad Woman Gone Sane

It's finally spring in the presert! You know how I know? The weather isn't really a good indicator, because it's still chilly especially at night. And the wind is blowing most of the time. Everything is turning green underneath the yellow. The pronghorn antelope are back, some with new babies. There are more birds out and about. We have ravens all year, so it's good to see something else. Once again the bugs are slowly becoming greater in numbers. Little baby bunnies can be seen. Wildflowers are beginning to pop up and my trees are starting to get leaves. The rancher has calves among his herd. It's still too cold in the school bus to start seeds, so I wait patiently. I've learned the mistake of starting seeds too early and losing everything. This is what I call fake spring. Colorado has it too, and so does Montana. It bridges the gap between winter and summer. It might rain or snow or hail, you never know. It's in the 70s and 80s during the day,

Becoming a mom is the best decision I've ever made. Mind you, I didn't want to have a kid. I did, someday, but not at that time. Joe and I were struggling, financially and in our relationship. I had unwittingly begun to use drugs with a friend at work, and I was having fun. Probably too much fun. Joe was having issues keeping a job and I was over it. I didn't realize that he was going to probably save my life. I went off the pill and we began "trying " to get pregnant. That's a funny term. Anyway, I was pregnant in about 2 months of our trying. I hated being pregnant and I was a complete lunatic for a while. The lunacy was probably caused by his testosterone. I had morning sickness for 6 months. I was losing weight, but he was growing. I finally gained all the weight after that, but I could only eat crappy, greasy food. Fruits and vegetables were pretty much off the menu. We had a very challenging labor. 32 hours in total, and an emergency c-sectio

Around July 2021, the dogs and I had our first experience with a rattlesnake. It was late afternoon, around the same time as the 2nd adventure. I saw a small brown circular thing by the bus door. I was feeding the dogs. It was about the same size as the dog bowls. Suddenly I heard the rattle. Then the dogs saw it. I had 7 at this time. The boys were a few months old. Lucky was about 6 or 7 months old. I shooed them away and told them NO. I went to grab my gun. When I came back, he was under the front of the bus between the axles. He was mostly focused on the barking dogs. The dogs were going crazy. The boys were inside the bus. I shot at him but missed. There was a propane tank uncomfortably close so I was having issues hitting the snake and not the tank. He turned his focus on me when I shot at him. He was coiled up. About the size of a small dessert plate. He leapt at Lucky about 6 feet away. I couldn't tell if he had hit her or not. She jumped back right as he hit he