Grandma, life

The current prognosis for Grandma is not good. I am not there, so I have to rely on reports coming through Mama from Grandpa. The real issue is that the dementia has set in with crippling results. Grandpa has to care for Grandma as he would a convalescent patient. She is not totally incapacitated, but she is close. Unable to go to the bathroom on her own, she often will not seek help to get to the bathroom so the results must be cleaned up after the fact. She is not eating at all and drinking very little. The only nutrition she receives is from drinking one or two containers of Ensure. She is not able to carry on a conversation with any relevance. She has confined herself to the bed because of the pain she is in and the lack of desire she has to be anywhere else. Because of where they chose to move, the burden for her care falls completely o Grandpa. When he is too worn out to provide such care, Grandma will have to be committed to a nursing home for what time she has left with us.

Her downward progression reminds me of my dad. Late in his life, after he was placed in an extended care facility, his dementia steadily worsened but he had lucid times during my visits with him when conversation seemed normal. But just before he died, he was sick with the flu. Very sick. That one illness accelerated his decline in a frightening manner. Thought he recovered fully from the illness he never regained strength or experienced any clarity of mind after that episode. The last time I visited him, I was able to talk to him as I fed him his meal of blender softened mush. It seems close to what Grandpa is experiencing now. You have to admire Grandpa for his expression of love through all this. We will wait to see what happens and make plans after the fact.

Back at the farm, the evenings are starting to cool sufficiently that it is once again pleasant to do an evening walk. I try to make the walk to the beginning of our road and back to get the exercise. It is a mole walk when I make the round trip. I have found that it helps me sleep much better. When I do not have the opportunity to walk the extra distance, I have problems with pain in my legs as I try to lay down and sleep. With the cool evenings come very cool mornings. The smell of Fall is in the air even though the daytime temperatures are still in the low nineties. I like this shift in temperatures. It is always my favorite time of year as we move from Summer into Fall. It will still be some weeks before we see cold temperatures, but the promise of those days is reinforced each morning.

Yesterday, Mama separated the young does from their mama. We tried to do so the evening before but were not able to catch them. When we feed in the morning is a far better time to get hole of them because they are wholly focused on fighting for their place at the feeder. Since Mam had that chance, she made the most of it and now the little girls are in the area we cleaned and made ready for them the day before.

They are not happy about the relocation, nor are we confident that their brother will be allowed to nurse now that they are not taking all the milk offered by the mama goat, but we tried. I have a friend at work who is asking about the little ones. He and his family have a place where they could keep a few goats and he is doing the initial questioning to see if that is the right option. Mama is starting to seek buyers for the goats we have a s we wait to see what Dolly and Aspen will deliver in the seeks to come.

I have a half-day class to teach this afternoon. That is a rarity, but it at least allows me to have the morning to work from home. I am not only growing accustomed to working from home, but also having an extra hour to sleep in each morning I do work from home. Only the need to teach a class gets me up at what was a standard time prior to Covid. At some point, we will start reporting back to the office again on our two days per week schedule, but for now, I will take the extra time at home.

Life goes on and God’s blessings are ever with us.

Summer and Winter and Springtime and harvest, sun, moon and stars in their courses above,

Join with all nature in manifold witness, to thy great faithfulness, mercy and love.