Sick house, moving, no plans

By the time I got home from work Wednesday afternoon, I had a painfully sore throat. I could barely talk without causing sever pain. Needless to say, I stayed home from church that night. What I found out only a few minutes after I got home was that Victoria had left work early due to a sore throat identical to my condition. Grandma and Grandpa had each been nursing a cold for several days, fever, lots of drainage and a slight cough. What Victoria and I were showing symptoms of was different but no more concerning. I took some Nyquil that night and went to bed early. That meant Mama had to close up the chickens Wednesday night and she had a few issues in doing so. Since the chickens are used to her coming to tend to them in the morning – and she always has a treat for them – when she showed up just before dark, they started to come out of the coop to see what Mama was doing. It took several minutes to get them to stick with their nightly routine of getting up on the roost. Of course, I did not find that out until I got up Thursday morning.  

Prior to getting out of bed for the day Thursday morning, I got up about 2 a.m. and took another dose of Nyquil to help me to help me rest but I felt no better when I did get up, so I began taking Ivermectin. I took three doses on Thursday and began to feel better as the day progressed. I was scheduled to present a class yesterday, but I was glad to have passed that obligation off to someone else just before I left the office. That is how fast this sickness hit me. Last night I had a rough night due to the constant drainage, but my throat is not hurting me, and my cough has stilled a bit.  When Victoria saw my improvement, she began taking the Ivermectin as well and today she is much improved.

Meanwhile, Grandpa saw the doctor but was told that what he was experiencing seemed to be allergies versus something more serious. We will run with that for now as he seems to be doing better. Grandma is not showing signs of improving. Her cough is not terrible even though her sinus drainage requires a full box of tissues per day to deal with. Grandma’s appointment with the doctor yesterday afternoon was canceled due to a water main break in Decatur. That break shut down most of the medical complex in Decatur and our doctor is in that complex. Mama, so far, has been unaffected by any of our illnesses. Praise the Lord! She just has to deal with all these sick people.

Brittany and Maggie are dealing with recurring sicknesses in their homes as well. For Brittany, it is a little more of an issue since she is on her own, but for both of them such sicknesses interfere with work schedules and incomes. Fortunately for me and Victoria, we can substitute a paid day off for a sick day when needed, but yesterday and today, I worked from home to maintain my schedule. So, for me, it is a pretty easy workaround. Not so much for my daughters.

Late last night Mama and I relocated the four ducks we have been raising in the grow out pen. As we placed them with the mature ducks, it was evident that we had waited long enough. The four were all as large as or larger than the smaller mature ducks. The young Jumbo Pekin duck was as large as the larger of the mature ducks while still being a little bit smaller than the mature Jumbo Pekins. The four were mostly feathered out with only a few patches of their baby down exposed. All four new ducks have some type of top knot. One is very pronounced. Mama calls it a crested duck. I think of it differently. There was a little snapping at the four newbies from the occupants of the enclosure, but it was minimal – as is typical with the ducks we have integrated in the past.

I do not have a lot planned for this weekend. That is probably good a thing since I am not feeling well. Grandpa and I were planning on setting some Tee posts to strengthen the fence in the barn lot but all the rain we were forecast to get passed us by. The ground we are driving the posts into is much easier to penetrate when it has been soaked, so we will wait a bit longer. Mama was planning to sell some ducks and chickens at Trade Days tomorrow, but to do so requires that we register our flock with the Agricultural Commission of the State of Texas. We have not done so yet, so that sale is off for this month. It is not expensive to do since we have fewer than one hundred chickens. It is just frustrating to have to do in order to make any fowl sales.

In Honduras, Nate, Cori and the kids have been without full power for several days now. A severe storm took out the transformer that supplies power to their block but with a temporary workaround they have had sufficient power to keep the refrigerators functioning most of the time but little else. They were without water for a couple days but that has been restored. With ambient temperatures at 102-105 degrees, it has been miserable. One issue they face that most of us do not is keeping Blake’s insulin properly refrigerated. So, after almost a week in the dark, they relocated to the Reirick Center at the church grounds. I do not know how long they will be able to stay there but at least they have full power and hot water for showers. It has been a challenge for them.

It has been a challenging week for all of us.