Monday, February 3
While I was at work CountryBoy hauled the log splitter behind the side-by-side over to some neighbors to split some wood. He went to two different places where he cut and split some wood. At the second place the neighbor was home and offered to load the split wood in the back of his truck and he brought it over. CountryBoy didn’t want to bother him but he said it would give him something to do. CountryBoy gave him a couple dozen eggs and both men were pleased.
I really like the barter system. Lately we’ve been able to barter eggs for services rendered from neighbors. I know that they truly didn’t mind helping out but it makes us feel better to give them something for their time, trouble and the use of their equipment. Thankfully, everyone is always pleased to get a couple dozen country eggs. It would be nice to see the barter system make a comeback.
At work I had laid out all the pages I could (getting a jump start on tomorrow) so I left a half hour early. It was 68 degrees on my way home. SIXTY EIGHT! in February! It was such a warm, lovely day we decided to head over to get the wood at the other neighbor’s place. I asked LizzieBelle if she wanted “to go buys in the truck” and she went ballistic running all over the house. She LOVES going anywhere with us in the truck. Well, she got a little too excited this time and she ended up hurting herself somehow. As she was running around we were locking up the house so we really didn’t see what happened but all of a sudden she went to yelping and howling and holding her right front leg up. These things always seem to happen to us after hours so we took her with us, got the wood and came home. She had calmed down on the drive home and she rested the rest of the evening even sitting in my lap (until my legs fell asleep) while we played Fast Scrabble. Oh, I won the first game and he won the other two. My mind was on LizzieBelle. That and ending up with all the weird consonants – Q, V, Z, J – ugh.
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Farm news: nine eggs
Tuesday, February 4
I am up way too early and got very little sleep for fear of rolling over and disturbing LizzieBelle. She did get up and move to another spot on the bed without whimpering or yelping but that spot was in the middle of my side of the bed. I literally ended up with a corner of the bed to wad myself up and try to get comfortable enough to go to sleep. I did manage to get another hour or two but then my knees, legs and hips started hurting and I couldn’t find a position in the amount of room I had to make them stop so I got up around 5:30. I’m tired. I may need coffee via IV today.
It’s raining this morning.
We’re calling the vet’s office when they open to get an appointment for LizzieBelle. She’s not interested in food or water so we need to find out what’s wrong with her leg. We are hoping it’s just a pulled muscle.
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As the wee hours of the morning passed we kept a watchful eye on LizzieBelle and decided to wait a day or two before taking her to the vet. gasp! I can hear y’all now gasping for air as you read that. Here’s the thing… we are firm believers that our bodies can heal themselves and we like to give them a bit of time for our immune systems to kick in and start kicking out the inflammation, toxins, or viruses. Our thoughts hold true with our animals as well.
We had been rubbing CBD salve on the area we thought was hurting since the onset of the injury and I got her to drink some water before I left for work. I called home to check on her and CountryBoy said she was comfortably resting.
When I came in from work I was met by a hobbling LizzieBelle anxiously waiting for her treat! Yay!!! I carried her outside to do her business and a bit later she ate her crunchies and drank lots of water. Another yay! She has been comfortably resting ever since…
My poor sweet Belle! We are SO glad her leg is feeling much better. From now on we are NOT going to say anything to her about “going byes in the truck” until we are outside where she can run in the grass in the hopes that this doesn’t happen again.
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The drive home was dreary but I enjoyed seeing all the fog strewn across the mountains…
It was a short day today as I had most of the pages laid out yesterday so this afternoon I spent some time working on the hexagon afghan. I’ve had to tear out the borders of every piece and re-do them with a different stitch before I can start joining the pieces. It’s quite a project. I have the right border finished and I’m working on the next ‘column’. (You join the tops and bottoms in columns first and then you join the columns together side by side.) Here’s what I’ve got so far…
I’m still working on joining the second column together and then I’ll stitch these together. I’ve decided to re-stitch the borders of each hexagon as I go alternating between that and joining pieces together. It saves a bit of monotony.
I really enjoyed making the hexagons but this joining business is tedious work.
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I managed to make it through the day without a nap. Here’s hoping I sleep like a rock tonight. Now for a game or two of Fast Scrabble before heading to bed.
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Farm news: nine eggs again today!
Wednesday, February 5
Last night’s Fast Scrabble game ended up with one win for each of us and I had a very much needed good night of sleep.
I was mentally prepared for an all day ironing extravaganza after last weekend’s big birthday bash. Every bed and then some had been slept in therefore all the sheets had to be washed, dried and ironed. I managed to knock it out in 5.5 hours. Not bad.
Since there was only a light rain falling when I left work I decided to go on in to town to drop the donation items off and to deposit my check. Saves me from having to do it tomorrow when it may be raining harder.
Speaking of rain the forecaster’s are predicting rain for the next 12 out of 14 days. Thankfully the ‘ditch’ CountryBoy created in our driveway is working the way we had hoped. The mountain runoff is flowing in the ditches then across the ‘ditch’ in the road and on into the big ditch that leads to the creek. The water is no longer running down our driveway which is excellent. We still need to solve the flooded barn problem but we’re tossing around ideas.
We finally got our quote for the small pond we want to put in. $1200. gasp. The pond will be located where the mountain runoffs converge and the overflow will run towards our existing ‘ditch’ in the road and eventually to the creek. In the long run we think this will be money well spent. Not only will it help with drainage and mountain runoff it will be a lovely addition to the beauty of the farmstead. It will be a while before work can begin as the ground needs to dry out. We asked if we could make payments but maybe by the time the ground dries out we’ll have the money (seeing as it’s raining for days on end!).
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LizzieBelle is doing great! She’s no longer limping and she’s able to jump onto my lap and on and off the couch. Whew, we are SO thankful!
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Farm news: five eggs
Dream Valley Farmstead 