From the weather to rough nights

Sunday, January 24

Crawling out of bed in the mornings has been difficult. Wanting to stay tucked into our warm bed we’ve been sleeping in a bit later. However we are still usually up and at ’em no later than 7:30 on my days off.

This morning we woke to a lovely pink sky…

The forecasters called for rain today and they were right. It has sprinkled off and on all day.

This patch of ice has been here since our last snow…

I wonder if the rain will finally melt it?

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It was a good day. We heard another good sermon then I was off to work and CountryBoy cleaned and readied the cabin.

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Wellness news: CountryBoy weighed in the same this morning and I was up 0.2. It’s no wonder since we’re still trying to finish up all the not-so-good stuff we have in the pantry. Thankfully we’re also eating lots of nutrition and antioxidants and still feeling good. Losing weight is a lot harder as we’ve gotten older.

Farm news: 13 eggs

Monday, January 25

The sound of rain on the metal roof, the crackling of the fireplace, the smell and sound of coffee percolating on the stove top – those are the things that help create a warm and cozy atmosphere in the farmhouse during our winter months.

We woke up to rain and it rained all day and most of the night. It was very dark in my office but I don’t mind. The light from the computer is usually enough to work by. As I was laying out one of our pages I decided to snap a photo of my computer screen so ya’ll could see just a little bit of the process involved in getting our pages put together…

This is our Times Past page. The top part of the page is text from a 1949 edition of our local paper along with scans of the ads used during that time. It’s one of my favorite pages to lay out because I find the stories and ads from long ago interesting.

I worked a little later than normal but we had gotten a later start on laying out the pages and I wanted to finish the page I was working on before leaving. It was still raining when I left so I chose to forego dropping off the culled kitchenware items at the thrift store and instead came on home.

In the evening I spent some time crocheting. I am on the third skein. Not bad in less than a week.

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Farm news: 12 eggs

Tuesday, January 26

It was a very short night. Soon after I finished reading a chapter in my book and turned my light off LizzieBelle started a fit of coughing. Bless her heart it lasted a good while until I picked her up and carried her downstairs so she could get a drink of water. Back in bed she had a few more coughs and then we all finally got to sleep. That is until 4:30 when she started coughing again. It lasted a while and when it appeared as though she wasn’t going to stop anytime soon I went ahead and got up, got dressed and carried her down. She got another drink and then went outside to do her business. She was fine after that with only a few short coughing spells. I did a little googling about the cough and since she still has a hearty appetite we’re going to give it until Thursday to see if she improves. If not, we’ll call the vet. I’m giving her colloidal silver in her water and food and today she’s only had a few short spells. My poor baby!

Anyway, CountryBoy ended up getting up too so we turned the burner on and started the coffee. It was going to be a long day. In fact, I debated with myself the whole way to work about whether or not to stop at McDonald’s to pick up some more caffeine. Then I couldn’t decided whether I wanted it hot or iced. As I approached the restaurant I decided that I didn’t need the calories from a sugary hot or iced latte nor did I need to spend the money so I drove on in to work. Mind you, I was a half hour early because I’d already been up half the day! But before all that mental debating took place, I stepped outside to go to work and was greeted with this beautiful scene…

It was going to be a good day. Long maybe, but good.

I finished laying out my pages and for a few brief seconds I wanted to put my head down on the desk while I waited for the rest of the pages to be finished by the editor. I busied myself with small tasks and soon I was printing pages out and exporting the files so that I could send them to the printer to be readied for the presses. I left at 1:30 and dropped the culled kitchenware items off at the thrift store then headed home.

We were expecting a guest to arrive between 3-4 so I took the opportunity to lay down on the couch for a few minutes. I may have dozed off for 15 minutes or so but it felt good to just rest. At 3:45 I decided to get up expecting our guest any minute. I checked the cabin email and the guest had messaged and said he would be there around 5 o’clock. Now, we had planned to go to the big town to pick up our glasses, get some diesel fuel for the tractor and get a bite to eat. When we discovered the guest was arriving later than originally planned we decided to go on ahead and go. I kid you not, we made it to town and back, stopping at two different places so we could each get our glasses and filling a can with diesel fuel in one hour and 15 minutes. Now my brother would say we are thirty minutes from anywhere if that tells you something! I don’t recommend it but we made it safely and were back home about 15 minutes before the guest arrived. whew!

I heated up some leftovers and sat down to blog as I waited. When I’m finished here I’m going to do some crocheting, catch up on Instagram and then call it a night. Early. Very early!

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Farm news: 13 eggs plus one huge turkey egg sure to be a double-yoker

Wednesday, January 27

The lights were out at 8 o’clock last night and that was even after I read a chapter in my book. Thankfully, we all had a good nights’ sleep. LizzieBelle only had one small coughing fit right as we laid down that lasted less than a minute. whew.

I found myself with an unexpected day off which was a pleasant surprise! It’s not even noon and we’ve accomplished quite a bit. It’s funny how some days phone call after phone call produces little to no results and other days one phone call produces results. This morning has been one of those days where we’ve gotten some results. Since I now had the day off the first phone call was to the vet seeing if they could get LizzieBelle in today. They could. Her appointment is at 1:30. Fingers crossed there’s nothing major going on. The second call was to a local gravel hauler. This is the first time we’ve called him but he said he could deliver two truckloads this morning and would be done before we had to leave for the vet appointment. Yay! The third call was to a violin dealer in Lexington. In my decision to rid the house of things that aren’t being used I’ve decided it was time to knuckle down and get the string replaced that was broken and to either get the bow re-haired or buy another one and then list it on Marketplace and pray it sells. It needs a good home where it will be used. I’ve tried to sell it in the past but I’m sure the thought of having to immediately find a place to repair it turned people off. With the repairs taken care of maybe more people will be interested. So, after LB’s appointment we’ll head to Lexington and see what the violin place says.

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While having coffee this morning CountryBoy requested some Thieves in the diffusers today. With all the winter ‘stuff’ going around and the coronavirus he thought it would be a good idea. I agree and am always happy to oblige diffuser requests! In both downstairs diffusers are four drops Thieves and three drops of Citrus Fresh. Both are essential oil blends from Young Living and both smell great by themselves and together. The Thieves EO blend helps support the immune system and we’ll take all of that we can right now. It’s nice that it smells good, too!

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The second and last load of gravel for the day arrived ten minutes before we needed to leave for LizzieBelle’s appointment. It didn’t take but a few minutes to spread it and pay him then we were on our way making it a few minutes early. Since we have no cell phone we had to knock on the door to let them know we had arrived. Minutes later a tech came out and got our information and a brief description of why we were there. The tech said she would talk to the vet and a decision would be made as to where they would examine LB. From my research I had an inkling that she was suffering from Kennel Cough. How she got it I was stumped. The Vet came out to the truck a few minutes later and asked some more questions. She was thinking it was Kennel Cough as well and would examine her right in the truck because it was highly contagious to other canines. We don’t have a clue where she would have picked up the virus. She has been known to greet some of our four legged guests, then there were the few days we looked after Nanook, really known as Elsa, so who knows. Since we’ve had LizzieBell she’s always had a slight cough (especially when she gets excited) so we didn’t think too much about it until the episodes started lasting so long. Thankfully, there was nothing seriously wrong that a little antibiotic wouldn’t take care of. I was on the right track with the Colloidal Silver. We also left with ear cleaner. Ear trouble is another issue she’s had since we’ve had her. We also had the vet check out a fairly large bulge on her side. Thankfully it’s just a fat pocket that apparently suddenly appear in older dogs. That’s a huge whew! I was concerned that it might be a tumor. $45 later we were on our way to Lexington after stopping at the bank, the post office and the gas station.

Once in Lexington we found ‘Old Town Violins’ and only had to go around the block once because we passed it. Luckily the guy told us that they were in an old Victorian house so we knew what to look for otherwise I’da thought we were in the wrong place. It was a beautiful shop chock full of violins on the first floor, violas, cellos and basses on the second and cases on the third. We stayed on the first floor admiring the architecture of the old house and looking at all the beautiful violins pricing from $400 up to $1600. There may have been cheaper or higher priced ones but those are the prices I saw on the ones I checked out. About 15 minutes and less then $3.00 later we were on our way with a new string and a working bow. YAY!!! Now to research a price and get it listed.

After that we headed to one of our favorite pizza places (it’s really the only restaurant we’ve been to while in Lexington but it’s so good!) and had the Ol’ Chicago 7 plus Canadian Bacon on their specialty hand-tossed crust. Gone in sixty seconds! Just kidding, but it didn’t take us too long to polish it off. The next stop was just across the way at Target. I wanted to look for a leather fanny pack for my camera and I am in desperate need of some new bras. I know, too much information, but hey, this is my journal!!! Anyway, I picked out three different bras and two different sizes and went to try them on only to find out that the dressing rooms were closed. I was told that they have a 90 day return policy. Well, if I didn’t live an hour a way that might be OK but not knowing what size I needed I wasn’t about to buy a bunch of bras and then have to drive an hour to return what doesn’t fit. I ended up hanging them all back, paid for the fanny pack and walked out of the store into snow flurries. Actually, there was quite a bit of snow on the ground already. CountryBoy stayed in the truck with LizzieBelle and he said it started snowing hard right after I got in the store. We enjoyed watching the snow the whole way home. It hasn’t been snowing here quite as long but we’re still hoping to wake up to a couple inches.

Before we went into the restaurant we gave LB a dose of her medicine. Once I finish blogging I’m going to put some drops in her ears. The vet said it might take up to a week or a bit longer before the cough is completely gone. We’re just SO glad it was nothing serious such as congestive heart failure or a cancerous tumor.

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It’s been a very productive day. Like I said, all of the phone calls we made today produced immediate results. Nothing like taking advantage of a surprise day off!

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Farm news: only 10 eggs

Thursday, January 28

It was a beautiful morning! We woke up to a nice layer of snow on the ground and the morning light reflected its beauty. As I waited for the truck to warm up and defrost the windows I walked around and snapped a few photos…

We still get excited when it snows! Some people ’round here think we’re kinda crazy for leaving Florida for this but we love having four seasons and our thought is if it’s gonna be cold it might as well snow so we have something pretty to look at.

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It was a steady and challenging day at work. The server kept crashing and had to be restarted multiple times throughout the day. This is the most that it has crashed in one day which leads us (the staff) to believe that it is on its last leg and won’t last much longer. Let’s hope the boss realizes the enormity of the situation if the server ever refuses to come back up that one last time. We (the staff) have babied it for almost a year by mostly working off our desktops and even screen sharing each others’ computers but there’s only so much we can do. Thankfully, we all kept plugging away today and nothing was lost. With all the technical difficulties I ended up staying the whole day.

This evening I spent some time taking a few photos of my violin and researching the value of it. I had every good intention of learning to play it when I bought it but there just aren’t enough hours in the day so it’s time to let it go. Time it found a good home where it will be used and enjoyed. Once all the photos were ready and a price was decided upon I listed it on Facebook Marketplace where I hope the right buyer comes along.

Friday, January 29

It was a cold but sunny day. I had to work at the newspaper this morning closing out the month, printing the statements, folding and stuffing envelopes, then running them through the stamp machine. While there I worked on a couple of ads for customers giving me a head start for Monday morning. I left at 12:30 and went to the B&B to work the rest of the afternoon. I had wanted to work on the big Contacts project as well as do a little bit of ironing. I left there at 5:30. I spent the rest of the evening sitting by the fire and relaxing. We were in bed by 8:00!

Saturday, January 30

We had another rough night. LizzieBell started coughing around 2 o’clock and couldn’t stop. I finally got up, grabbed my robe and her and went downstairs. She got a drink and went outside to do her business. I thought maybe we could go back upstairs but she continued to cough off and on for the next hour. She and I curled up on the couch under a blanket and each tried to get some sleep. I think she may have gotten a little more sleep than me but she was groggy most of the day. Me? Thank goodness for two healthy size mugs of coffee!

As we drank our coffee we were pondering what to do today. The only thing I had on the agenda was laundry, crocheting and publishing this blog post. CountryBoy decided we needed to make a run to Rural King for some whole and cracked corn along with all the other ‘feed’ we typically get. We decided to also do some grocery shopping since we were out. I threw a load of laundry in the wash and even got it dried and put away before we left leaving me one load to do when I get home.

Today’s errands put us in three different towns. We took LizzieBelle with us and drove the backroads to Rural King then hopped on the interstate heading south to the grocery store. From there we hopped on the interstate still heading south to the next town so that I could get some non-homogenized milk at the health food store. (I’m determined to make a successful batch of yogurt which I’ll get started tomorrow morning.) While still in that town we ate at another favorite pizza place (yes, pizza is a weakness!) before heading home. It was another successful day off. I think by the time my next days off roll around I’ll be ready to just stay home!

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I did manage to get some crocheting in today and used up another skein. That makes four skeins down and five to go. Almost at the halfway point! I’m wanting to have the blanket finished by the middle of February so I can get them in the mail well before any due dates.

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We still had quite a bit of snow on the farm compared to all the other places we’ve been today. It’s currently raining so I’m not sure how much will be left in the morning but the forecasters are calling for more snow tomorrow. yay!