Doctor, Maggie and Aaron, Lilly and Mama

Yesterday morning I left work to sit with Mama at her doctor’s appointment. The main reason was so that I could hear what the doctor advised Mama but also so that the accounting of the exam could be handled the right way. The x-rays showed minimal damage to the cartilage on her left knee but the residual thickness of the padding on that joint was far less than on the right knee. The main issue is arthritis and we can effectively deal with that. There is not any immediate danger for her and an MRI is scheduled for next week so we will have better insight if any other intervention is needed right now.


The MRI request proved interesting. If we pay privately, that is, we do not file with insurance for assistance in paying for it, the cost is $400. If, however, we pay through our insurance, the cost is $2800. Since we have a High Deductible Insurance Policy, we pay the cost in full up to $3000. That means, if we want to use this to meet our deductible, we can file through insurance and pay $2800 and then have to pay nothing the rest of the year for Mama. Or we can pay the private pay amount and walk away with $2400 in our pocket. I’ll hang on to our cash for now; which is proving hard to do since I will have to pay $900 to repair the A/C in the mobile home.

Maggie called while we were in the doctor’s office. She and Aaron spent the night at the house of one of Aaron’s uncles, just north of Seattle, WA. From there they will drive to the ferry station this afternoon and depart, Lord willing, on the 6 p.m. ferry bound for Juneau, AK. They should arrive at 4 a.m. Sunday morning and are supposed to stay with a fellow Coastie until they have rested a bit. Between Bellingham, WA and Juneau, AK is some of the most beautiful scenery in the Northern Hemisphere. I hope they take time to enjoy it. Pray that Maggie does not get motion sickness on the long ride north.

After we left to doctor’s office we met the lady selling the lamb. That was fun. They are good people. The family had come to Decatur to buy raw milk from a local supplier and to celebrate the 13th birthday of the oldest child. The supplier is not a dairy per se, but he milks some prize winning Jersey show cows to keep the milk supply stocked for sale. It is $7 per gallon so we passed up purchasing any this time. Anyway, Mama loved the lamb. She is about the size of Rosie. She is fed using a baby bottle so those supplies will be easy to come by. She eats about eight ounces of powdered milk per day – mixed in roughly twelve ounces of water. So keeping her fed is not going to be a burden either. Now the lyrics to that familiar tune are, “Mama has a little lamb, little lamb, little lamb…” You know the rest.

My hope is that raising sheep will supplement the raising of cattle – which has not worked out well for us so far. Grandma and Grandpa are not thrilled so far but I am hoping that when they see the ease of raising sheep vs. raising cattle they will see that going forward, as we all get older, this will be much easier on us both physically and financially; provided we keep it up. Time will tell.

Mama took the lamb for show-and-tell to the church school and to Lindy Lumen, an animal loving friend of hers from church. She got home pretty late in the afternoon and after putting the lamb and the ram (whose name is “Shorty”) in their separate places for the evening she was pretty worn out. The kids at the school loved the little ewe, which is not much bigger than Rosie, and Lindy hugged and snuggled the little one during the entire time Mama and Lily were with her. I think Lily was worn out too.

I got the chance last night to put the stain on the concrete floor of the apartment and laundry room; after I repaired the door on the chicken coop and killed the egg eating hen. It took about an hour to prep everything (mostly cleaning by sweeping and mopping) and about an hour to apply the stain. I will see tonight how it turned out as I clean the floor to remove the residual acid and apply the sealer. Mama was pleased with the initial results.

So far life on the farm has not been “kinda laid back”, but Thank God I’m a country boy.