Week 9 - Knitting and Weather and Reading

Sometimes, one has to wonderful WHY, oh why do we have a cat?  Some would say it's for the companionship, others would say because they wanted to provide a home to a rescued animal...Our Gilligan hates not being the center of attention. So much so, he is willing to sit anywhere to be in your view.  Here, I'm working on a 2 color sock that requires quite a bit of my attention.  Naturally, Gilligan decided that HE needed that attention more than the sock did. He slowly worked his way up onto the table, then onto the arm of my chair and finally onto my lap where my view of the knitting was totally obscured.  Mom snapped this photo as proof.  Silly Kitty!  I ended up putting the knitting down and giving him my full attention for a few minutes.  Then I pitched him off my lap and went on knitting. 

I am the cataloguer at the local library.  That means any book that comes into the library and it's decided that it will be put onto the shelves must go thru my hands.  Occasionally a book crosses my desk that gives me the giggles or stops me in my tracks.  Just such a book crossed my path this past week.  The title is God Went to Beauty School by Cynthia Rylant.  It was new several years ago and I was so delighted by the contents that I got a copy of myself and one for my mom and one for my daughter-in-law.  Written in a poetry-like form, it tells the story of what God saw and did when He went to beauty school, ice skating,  and several other quite ordinary endeavors.  I highly recommend this book for a lovely quiet read that's guaranteed to make you feel good and smile.

We've had a fairly mild winter so far.  Only 3 snow days in December and nothing since then.  And the temps have been so out of normal - mostly 50's to 70's in January and February.  Today, we were sitting in the studio discussing our garden plans for this year when Mom came in and told us that it was snowing...yes, snowing!  It's been snowing off and on all day and no accumulation because the ground is so warm.  They say, if you don't like the weather in Missouri, just wait 15 minutes, it will change.  Today has proven that to be  so true.  

You can barely see it, but that's snowflakes coming down...by the time it hit the ground, it melted.  No build-up...no icy roads...the temps are around 35 degrees but the wind makes it feel much colder.  March is our drought month so this moisture sure is welcome.  We are expecting more rain toward the end of this net week...yeah!!!

Thanks for stopping by.

Week 8 - He Lives!

Okay, that might be overly dramatic....But now you want to know the rest of the story, don't you?  Here goes...

John got sick right after he moved to Utah in 2013...the pneumonia affected his heart and he's been under the care of a cardiologist since then.  He's doing very well and we are perfectly confident in the doctor's treatments and recommendations.  .  

Now, a short while ago, he saw his cardiologist for his regular checkup. The doctor wanted him to see another cardiologist specialist...which he did.  That doctor wanted to have him do a stress test and echo cardiogram in preparation for possibly doing a procedure to help with his Atrial Fibrillation.  He had both of the tests a week ago Friday...on the way home, yes, on the way home!  He received a call from his regular cardiologist that they had seen something hinky on the stress test and he was going in to have an angiogram on Tuesday - no waiting...no discussion!  So, Tuesday morning sees us at the Hospital at 6:00 a.m.  His procedure was at 7:30 and by 7:40 they came in to tell us (me and mom) that they'd found a blockage in one of the arteries in his heart and were putting in a stent...he was back in recovery by 8:30, slightly groggy but awake enough to talk to us and know what had happened.  His regular cardiologist came in to talk to us and said that the blockage was at 85% on the central artery in the heart.  They were able to install a stent and the damage to the heart will take about a year but he should be fine.  He starts Cardiac Rehab in about 5 weeks...some slight changes to diet and carrying nitro glycerine tabs in his pocket - just in case.  He went back to work today - the rest of last week he was off and by the 2nd day he had cabin fever so bad so he's really happy to be back at work.

We are so thankful for the amazing staff at Mercy Hospital...from the wheelchair pusher to the surgeons, from the nurses to the patient advocates...they were absolutely the best!  

All of the above, and they still haven't decided what they want to do about the AFib. I think the heart blockage took precedence...now they can look at what they might want to do about the AFib soon enough.

As one might imagine, last week was mostly about John's situation so nothing much else happened.  This blog post will be short of necessity.  I'll try to post more next time.

In the meantime, thanks for stopping by.

Week 7 - Ummm, I have no words. See for yourself

Let's start off this post with my day on Wednesday...here is where I spent the day.

Yes, that is Juror #41...while I have no argument with doing one's civic duty, spending an entire day sitting on hard wooden benches and waiting for the defense and the prosecution to complete their voir dire process to then NOT being chosen for the jury makes me cranky.  Top that with the fact that they let me have my knitting (bless them) but NOT my kindle or cell phone (I understand not wanting the prospective jury to be able to take pictures or post on the net or research - but they wouldn't let me read on my kindle and I hadn't brought a real book with me!) That makes for a long day and a cranky Sally!  Granted, what probably pushed me off the jury was the fact that it was a drug related case and both my brothers are law enforcement officers and the defense seemed to want to defame the arresting officer...that would not have set well with me, let me tell you!  I can still be called for a case anytime between now and the end of June...if I serve on a case, then I won't be called for a minimum 2 years.  At least this week is over!

Now to other noteworthy happenings here at Pieceful Harbor...that being my crazy husband and his best friend. Our barn was built in 1937 - we know this because the cornerstone says so.  It has the original wooden sides and the original metal roof. With all the wind we get here in the Ozarks, the roof takes a beating and will occasionally lift off the boards.  Such is the case this weekend.  John and his friend, our next door neighbor, decided that today was the day to repair the barn roof.  Now, this is a tall barn - and the 22 foot extension ladder is not tall enough to get him where he needs to be to fix that metal roof.  What to do, what to do......well, in the Ozarks, you use a tractor to lift the ladder in the bucket and then extend the ladder to to top of the roof.  Typically, you would hear the following, "Hey, hold my beer...watch this.'"  

You need a spotter on the tractor.  That's our neighbor, John...he's in charge of the emergency brake on the bucket holding the ladder...and calling 911 if necessary.  

Three screws later, the job was done.  Mr. Wonderful said it brought back memories of being tied to the yardarm on a huge navy ship and changing the airspeed 'birds' many years ago...'Piece of cake", says he!  

I will say, he has better stamina, energy, and balance than anyone I have ever known...And he wonders why I call him my Hero!

I'll have some more news next week....hopefully it's good news....asking for unspoken prayers, especially on Tuesday...until then,

Thanks for stopping by!

Week 6 - Just Keeping Up

This winter, both John and I have had some medical challenges..nothing truly serious, just challenging.  His cardiologist wants him to see another specialist regarding another cardiac procedure for his Atrial Fibrillation...his heart has begun to reduce in size (Yeah!!!) but the AFib is still present and they want to try to get his heart back into normal rhythm.  Another series of tests this next week and they can come up with a plan of action.  My doctor does routine blood tests every 6 months and in October found that my kidneys were shutting down...I didn't even have any symptoms so this was news to me.  She took me off a couple of my medications and the kidneys have now 'repaired' themselves but I can no longer use those two meds...this is fine except one of them was an anti-inflammatory for my arthritic knees....I am now reduced to using pain meds 3 times a day just to be able to ambulate around with a cane at times and I can't stand much longer than 10 minutes or walk much more than 100 yards without crazy pain..  My concern was with addiction and she assures me there is no fear of that with the meds she has me on so I'm good. 

John has been getting things ready for spring around here.  He sent his riding lawn mower in for it's Spring Tune-up this last week.  Today he want out and collected soil samples to take to the Missouri Extension Center for analysis...hopefully we won't need to add any more amendments to the soils so our 'grass' grows well for the cows.  Speaking of cows, how about a cow picture?

From left to right you have Beast, Belle, and Rosie.  Beast and Belle belong to our son and his family in Utah...Rosie is ours.  Rosie is almost 18 months old and the others are a bit over a year old.  They are so fun to watch out in the field.  And easy to spot, even in the snow!

Yesterday we went into Springfield so I could have my eyes checked...it turns out one of my eyes needed more correction than the other and I ended up ordering new glasses...I'm going to try transition lenses this time...that way I won't have to carry around my sunglasses.

It's hard to tell but these are incredibly similar to the ones I'm wearing now...but with an adjusted script on the left eye.  Can't wait to get them sometime near the 13th of the month...

And now, for just a bit of humor...

That's just about all I still fit into!

Thanks for stopping by!

Week 5 - I'm trapped, and I can't get out!

Last week I told you that we had a fox problem here at Pieceful Harbor.  John and our neighbor put their heads together and decided that the only way to handle the one or more foxes was to trap them and dispatch them.  They placed a trap out near our tree line in the north field the other day and primed it with raw chicken.  They did NOT, however, actually set the trap.  The idea was to get the creature used to getting food from the inside of the trap without fear of it trapping it...once it had taken the bait a couple of times, they really set the trap.  

 And the next night, this is what they saw ...yes, folks, that's a possum.

Needless to say, they let him go...he's not the creature that is killing out chickens. so he got a hall pass! As John said, "I've go no war with you!".

Things have been pretty quiet here on the farm...the above is the most exciting thing to happen this week. 

Thanks for stopping by. 

Week 4 - When One Lives in the Country...

When one lives n the country, one must remember that certain things are inevitable.  Power outages are not addressed quite as quickly as those same issues in the city.  Items one likes in the markets are not always available in the country.  Movie theaters are farther away - necessitating driving farther to get away from reality for a short while.  And wild animals are more prevalent in the country.  

That was brought into blazing clarity this past week.  You've heard me talk about John's rooster, Foghorn Leghorn and his harem of 6....about 3 weeks ago, Foghorn went missing and John found the evidence of his disastrous meeting with a fox out in the meadow.  And Thursday, 3 more of the females met their own demise.  I had spotted the fox earlier that morning - he certainly wasn't suffering from starvation....and now he's had 3 more chickens during the morning....I'm kinda hoping he had indigestion after his hunting and killing spree!

We have tons of gray foxes here in southwest Missouri..and they aren't warm and cuddly creatures, in spite of their looks.  They are grisly killers!

I mean, 3 chickens in one morning?  Killers! John is going to place a Have-a-Heart trap over in one of the fields where he thinks the fox 'travels'.  He won't actually set the trap for a few days, only put it there with some chicken meat...once the fox is used to having it there - and getting some food there - then John an arm the trap and catch the bugger...and then he can dispatch Mr. GrayFox so the remaining 3 chickens are safe from that predator.

On another note, John and I cleaned out the area of our sitting room where I'd put all the items we had been storing in mom's room - until she moved in with us, that is.  We spent over 6 hours sorting and purging and then John put all the stuff we are saving up into the attic - including 11 huge plastic tubs of quilts - yes, that is eleven!!!!  The sitting area is now clear of all items except one cabinet that will stay - it houses some quilts behind a glass door and can act as a TV stand.  John is devising a plan to do some minor repairs to a wall and then paint that room - and we can then place the book shelves and mount a huge TV and actually use it as a sitting room!  I can't wait!!!

It's cold and rainy and mostly an icky day today...not complaining - we need the rain.  But it is what it is...cold and rainy and icky.  I'm off to make a cup of tea and knit for a while.

Thanks for stopping by!

Week 3 - When Snow Turned to Ice

Our weather since the New Year has been just weird!  Christmas Day's temps were in the mid-60's, then we had some subzero days, and then back up to 50's and 60's...last week we went from 60's to under freezing and today it's back up to the 40's.  In addition to below freezing weather, we had rain, sleet, freezing rain, and ice.  The library was closed on Friday due to ice and John doesn't work on Fridays so we all stayed home safe and warm.  

Ice on the window....looks pretty.

Icicles hanging off the roof.

Cold Big Green Egg.

The trees outside the front door. Brrr.

The ice did not accumulate more than 1/4 inch which is good...at that thickness, we did not lose power..Yeah!

I recently saw some cute memes that made me think of my nephew, Scott....He is in middle school and just starting to take chop classes...he made mom a beautiful turned-wood pen...Here's to you, Scott.

I know these aren't supposed to be funny but they sure did tickle my funny bone.  And they are so true!

Got to talk to my friend, Shelly, in California via Skype this morning....I miss our visits so much and whenever we get to Skype, it's like we were never separated....She and our other friend, Meredith, are my quilting muses!  Good friends are hard to find and when one is lucky enough to find one, or two or three, it takes lots of work to keep them, If they're worth it, it doesn't even feel like hard work.  That's the way I feel about Shelly, and Fran, and Meredith.  

Oh, here's another picture of some of our property.

One of the cedar trees by the road dropped some branches...several trees on the property dropped branches but I couldn't say if they were due to icing or were just hanging out and fell with them wind and the rain and ice.  Needless to say, John has a morning of limb-gathering in front of him.  

We are expecting more rain and higher temps this next week. With luck, we won't have any more ice this winter.  Fingers crossed.

Thanks for stopping by.