Dealing with health issues

I guess this week was "doctor" week for me.  On Saturday, I had a little surprise!  I passed a kidney stone!  OUCH!  So Sunday morning bright and early, Josh took me to the Urgent Care in Ash Flat.  Not how I like to spend my Sunday morning, for sure...

But the staff were really nice.  They took an xray to see if there were any more stones in my system.  Yep, a nice big one in my left kidney.  Wonderful!  More adventures in health care!  Just what I need....

So I called our family doctor, Dr. Douglas Bernard in Batesville.  They didn't have any appointments open on Monday.  We had a previously scheduled appointment on Tuesday morning, so that was when I went in.  John and I really like Dr. Bernard.  He's a good doc.  He takes time to talk to us.  And listens to us.  And we get to talk about "farm" type stuff.  He referred me to a Urologist, Dr. Emery, and got me scheduled for an xray/ct and an appointment on Wednesday.

So, Wednesday morning bright and early, we head back to Batesville.  The xray was uneventful.  Dr. Emery's staff was nice.  They listened to my situation, did a CT scan of my abdomen, and put us in an exam room to wait for the doctor.  He was very thorough.  It seems this stone is too large to pass out the duct from my kidney.  In fact, it's probably been growing there for several years.  So, there are 2 courses of action.  1) put a stent in my bladder to enlarge the duct to the kidney and then use ultrasonics to try and break up the stone.  This will involve 2 outpatient procedures in Batesville 10 days apart.  Once the stone is shattered, I would then have to pass the pieces... Fun, fun!    2)  Have a 2-step surgery which will involve making an incision in my back and installing a tube.  Then, in a second procedure, Dr Emery would use the tube to remove the stone from my kidney.  This would require staying in the hospital for several days.  Again, more fun.

We opted for option 1.  Doctor Emery will be out of town all week next week, so I have the stent put in on 4/1. 

Wednesday was also food co-op day.  Since I was in Batesville, Gena and Kevin received the order without my help.  And my help really wasn't needed.  Gena said it took about 15 minutes to divide up the orders.  The driver was very nice.  Our next order is in 6 weeks.

My friends, Linda and John Smuzer, from Concrete Washington are here visiting his Aunt Vivian in Mountian View.  We were supposed to get together for lunch on Thursday.  Because of the doctor adventures earlier this week, I asked Linda if we could re-schedule.  We're going to Mountian View for lunch on Monday.

Linda and I have been friend since 1992.  We originally met during a knitting class in 1989.  In 1992, I found the Spindrifter's Spinning Guild in Bellingham.  What a wonderful group of ladies!  I became good friend with many wonderful people because of this group.  Linda, Margaret and Nancy are special people.  Very dear to me.  Debra and Terry helped me a lot when I first hurt my back.  Debra took me to many a doctor appointment when I couldn't drive.  We learned a lot together.  We had many "fiber adventures". 

As with many things in life, things have changed.  Some of us have moved, changed our life circumstances, divorced, married, found new loves, had our children grow up and move from home (and find their own loves and have children)...

I moved away 9 years ago now.  But I still keep in touch.  Seeing Linda and John is always wonderful.  And a bit hard on my heart.  It makes me miss my friends... 

I love my life here in Arkansas.  John and Josh really make life worth living.  I love being in the woods, having my birds, dogs, cat.  And my spinning and knitting keep me busy.  But, sometimes I miss watching X-Files with Margaret while teenager Virginia (changed her name to Alex years ago) playing with the cats while Margaret's mom was quilting away...  Or going to St. Distaff's Day Spin-in in the snow...  Driving to the ferry in Edmonds to go look at fleeces with Terry.  Having Irish coffee and scalding hot pot pie because we missed the ferry... all in the snow.

A cool, foggy morning

We've had a nice week so far.  Mild temperatures get me in the mood for looking at seed catalogs!  What to plant?  We usually have garlic, onion, asparagus (not old enough to harvest yet), rhubarb, tomatoes, bell peppers, potatoes, cayan peppers, carrots, beets, turnips, collards, okra, musk melons, cantaloupe, Cranshaw melons, yellow squash,acorn squash,  zucchini, Jerusalem artichokes, cucumbers... A few years ago we also had popcorn.  That grew really well.

My friend Michelle and I took a day trip to Baker Creek Seeds last year.  Baker Creek Seed Company     That was fun!  I hope we're going to go again this year.  Michelle and her husband Jerry are coming to visit today, so I'll talk to her about that while they're here.

Here's a picture from a few years ago, just the harvest one morning.  Things were growing really well!

Here's what our garden looked like last spring when we plowed it, getting ready to plant.  This was taken April 10th last year.

My niece Tricia is having her second baby in July.  I've picked out the yarn and pattern I want to use to crochet her an afghan.  You can see it on Ravelry, link is here...  Tricia's baby afghan.  I've got to print out the instructions, then I can get started.  I love starting a new project!

Cricket and I took a walk down the hollow to the stream.  It's running, slowly but running.  This is the melt from our sleet/ice/snow storm earlier this month.  We're supposed to have rain this weekend.  That would be nice!

I spent part of the day burning leaves yesterday.  My back is aching today from raking!  I originally hurt my back while I was raking leaves, back in May 1999... and believe me, it really hurt!  I blew out 3 disks!  OUCH!  My back went POP! I fell down on the ground and just laid there for about half and hour before I could even try to get up.  That was the pits!

Spring may have sprung!

Monday morning I went out to feed the chickens and discovered my banty hen, Pebbles, had 3 little chicks!  Wow!  What a surprise!

Pebbles with her babies.

My hellebore have been trying to bloom since before the sleet/snow we had recently.  And now that the ice and snow are all gone, they are blooming merrily.  The daffodils are not far behind.  Everything is waking up and poking their little heads out of the ground.

Hellebore by the den

The south entrance to our home

Yesterday's high was 80!  What a change!  Last week we had ice and couldn't even get out to the highway, today we have to fun a fan!  Amazing.

I went to our friend Doris' on Monday night to help start the Hardy Homesteader's Quilt for this year.  We're doing a nice queen size quilt, the motif is Candy Corn.  I spent the evening ironing the fabric before we started cutting the pieces.  I think we'll get it all cut next week and can start to sew after that. 

This quilt should go together rather quickly.  The blocks are 12 inches square.  Background is a nice autumn leaf fabric with greenish blocks at the intersections.   I'll post pictures once we've got something together to show you.  Here's a link for the basic block. Basic Candy Corn quilt block.

We've lived here 8 years now!  Time is flying by.  One of the items we love to eat, but have a bit of a challenge finding is bulk dried fruit.  I love snacking on raisins, figs, dates... and John loves pineapple.  Josh loves apricots.  We have to drive about an hour to find bulk goods.  The little Memmonite store in Dalton is great.... West Plains has Meadowbrook...Meadowbrook Natural Foods.  There's a store in Jonesboro also, but we don't get to Jonesboro very often.

So, several families we know have decided to go together and make bulk orders from Country Life Natural Foods. Country Life Natural Foods We get our first order today.  It's being delivered to my friend Gena's house, because we don't have a garage or anything that would be a good place to sort out a large bulk order.  If you live in our area and want to be part of our "Co-op", please let me know.

Circle Dance Afghan

I finished the Circle Dance Afghan and sent it off in the mail to my step-daughter Tammy.  She was thrilled to receive it.

I sent the yarn leftovers with the afghan.  I explained to Tammy and to granddaughter Ariel that the knots in the stitching which joins the blocks together willl eventually come undone and someone will need to keep repairing it.  That's what the yarn is for.  Ariel told me she would make sure it doesn't come apart.

Here's how the afghan looked when completed.
Circle Dance project page on Ravelry

Weather changes and life changes...

The past few days have been very cold and icy.  We had sleet on Sunday/Monday and below freezing temperatures.  Then it snowed.  And so, we've spent the past week indoors.  Today the weather turned warmer and the 3 inches of frozen yuck started to thaw. 

When Cricket and I went for our walk this morning, the driveway (and all the world around us) was totally frozen.  I walked down the driveway on the ice sheet, and my feet didn't even leave a footprint!  The ice didn't crack... not a sound.  Very strange.  We walked down to our little "seep" area.  And all the little pools were full of frozen water from what little melting we had yesterday.

By the time the mail came at 3PM today, most of the driveway was ice free.  Now it's all mud!  I went to town to do some banking and came right back home.  By morning the drive will probably be frozen again. 



One of our friends, Chris, advertised a steer he had for sale.  Another friend, Julie, and I bought him and he was taken to the processor last Saturday (2/28).  The processor called on Tuesday and said our meat is ready for pick-up.  Julie and her girls picked it up this morning.  She was so nice and picked ours up too and brought it over!  Thanks Julie!! You're the greatest!

Josh and I then spent about an hour trying to find freezer space for it all.  We ended up putting some of the ground beef in our friend Jennifer's freezer, next door.  I called Jennifer to make sure that was OK.  We left a package of steak in her freezer as payment for the space.  That tickled her!

John thought that half a cow was too much meat for our storage space, and he was correct.  We have it all stored for now.  We shouldn't need to buy any beef for several months now.  That's a good thing.  I like it.

I also like the fact that I know how this steer was raised.  I know what it ate.  And I know how it was treated.  He had a good life, eating grass in a real field.  No toxic chemicals.  I like that.

Chris also told us he's going to have milk for sale once his cow has her calf.  I told him I want to be a regular milk customer.  I really LIKE raw milk.  I like to make cheese and butter.  I like to make fresh custard.  And I love drinking cream in my tea and coffee.

I haven't started any seeds yet.  I need to decide what to grow this year.  In the past, we've had a fairly good number of tomato, potato, pepper, squash,  and cucumber plants.  Last year I planted more melons.  They did OK.  Not great, but OK.  The carrots were OK too, but not as good as the previous year.  I didn't plant any collards last year.  I might this year.... Last year, our best surprise was the Candy Roaster squash.  It grew VERY well, tasted great and stored very well.  I will definitely be growing more of those!

Josh burnt off the weeds in the garden last Saturday.  It was a beautiful day, it got up to 70F.  And then it started with the freezing rain on Sunday... by Monday morning it was a winter wonderland again... But I've already talked about that.

I decided to close my Facebook account.  I took this step for several reasons.  First, Facebook is VERY anti-guns.  I own several pistols and a .22 Henry rifle and a .410 shotgun.  John and Josh each own several rifles, pistols and shotguns.  We live in the country.  We have poisonous snakes in our yard and woods.  We have predators who try to eat our chickens.  A raccoon  chased our cat right onto the front porch.  And if I hadn't turned on the light and chased it away, it would have eaten Rusty for dinner!  And it's now been confirmed there are cougars, black bears and wild hogs in this local area.  I need a gun when I go for walks in the woods!

So, the owners of Facebook might not like guns.  That's their right.  But it's my right to have a gun.  And I do!

Facebook is just a company, after all.  It's nice to think of it as a cool, friendly virtual place to share pictures and thoughts with my friends.  Look at things for sale, or learn about activities other's are attending.  Collaborative learning.  Sharing my knitting and crochet with my cousin's wife.  Swap recipes. Look at the neighbor's goat pictures. I will miss those.

But I won't miss the snarky people.  The easily offended, politically correct people.  I kept in touch with my friends, traded recipes and pictures, and crochet patterns... before Facebook ever came into existence.  And I will still be doing those things when Facebook has lost it's glitter.

I'm just feeling the need to be more in control of what and whom I correspond with.  Who I let into my little world.  Who I spend my time with.  Online or in real-to-goodness life.

If you're feeling like you're missing my witty Facebook posts, send me an email.  I can be just as witty, one on one.