Non-news, guests, travel for Victoria, work

My visit with the doctor yesterday was a bit of non-news. She did not offer anything to me that the chiropractor had not already suggested. I asked her if the current pain was likely a lifelong condition from this point forward. Her answer was, “Pretty much.” Pain management was the main topic of conversation but not a path I look forward to walking for thirty years. Nothing in the three bulges along my spine or arthritic buildup in several areas of the spine are bad enough to require surgery. In fact, the doctor said that there is nothing, even in the area causing me the most pain, that could be surgically corrected. That is not bad news but it is not good news either. No surgery works for me. No pain would be better.

For improved health reasons, Mama and I will make the required diet changes to alkalize my body, I will add the herbs to combat arthritis and we will move forward. I will take what analgesics I must when I must but nothing expensive of invasive. The doctor asked to see me again in a month but I will not likely go back until I have to – whether for my back or for some other reason. I told Mama that although I creak and groan when I work, I always feel better for having moved and bent and stooped and straightened in the work. So, I will keep working and do my best during the recovery to not hurt myself further.

Kaylen and Brianna came over last night for supper and we grilled some burgers and steak. Mama fixed some of the best potato salad she has ever made. We had made a crock pot of black beans and served them as well so there was plenty to eat. My only regret is that we did not have time to water the yard plants and we did not take the time to put the hay in the barn. (But last night was time to visit and I was hurting badly enough that I did not want to risk lifting pallets and bales of hay and alfalfa. I can do the work, but I have to move slowly and carefully as I do it. Being on a tight time table is not optimum for the lifting and twisting work needed to put the bales where they need to be. Hopefully, we will get the hay put up this evening before church. That will give me an hour to do what would normally take twenty minutes.) We had a good visit that stretched later into the evening than we had expected. Mama and I finally got to bed a little before 11 pm. I was wakened by my alarm this morning. That does not happen but a handful of times year.

Mama and Victoria will be watching the Echevarria kids today. During all that activity, Victoria will be packing to fly to Chattanooga to spend the week with Cori, Nate and the kids. Cori and Nate will be in their final week of training with BIMI and having Victoria there to watch the kids will save them several hundred dollars in child care services. Why a mission’s organization would charge their own missionaries for child care services is questionable but that is how things are. Victoria is not complaining. She gets the kids all to herself for a week. Mama is the only one complaining. She was planning on us driving Victoria over and the two of us driving back but work and money constraints prohibited that. Besides, they will be here in September for a few weeks as they attend meetings in our area. We can take our time and visit then. Additionally, Brittany is more than likely within a few weeks of delivering the twins and I know Mama will be needed there for that. I would like to be able to visit for a few days at the birth and since we cannot spend our money twice, I would like to save it for that event.

Mama is off work for the summer and she is thrilled about having the extra time. But being off also means that she will not be getting a paycheck. That, she is not too thrilled about. Even though the checks she gets are not a whole lot, she did enjoy getting them every week…and it helped. She enjoyed giving her tithe. She enjoyed having a little bit of money of her own to spend as she liked. People keep asking her if she will continue working at the school and she is unsure how long she will do so. Next year she will work but the following years are not so settled.

We will take it one year at a time.

Travel and visiting, help and more help

Last week I attended a conference in Houston. It was a good conference and I hope I got enough out of it to justify the expense on my employer’s part. I made some good contacts in the training sessions and was also able to visit with family over the course of the week. On the way down I stopped by to see my sister Sarah. While I was in Houston, I made the trip over to see Joshua and on the way back home, I stopped by to see Martha – and pick up a few things she has been holding for us. It was a good trip even though I spent a week away from Mama and the farm. Actually, it gave me the time to rest my back; whether I wanted to or not.

Friday evening, when I got home, Mama and I spent time together getting the animals fed and watered, checking the cattle and picking some produce from the garden. Saturday was the busy day. Daniel and James Wycoff came over and helped me put in the new front door. Before they had gotten there I had already gotten the old door ready for removal – pulling of the inside and exterior trim and cutting the door free of the brick mold. Mama, being Mama, decided that since we had the door off and since we had help we should rearrange the fridges in the house. So, we took the fridge that is in the kitchen to the garage and moved the fridge from the garage to the kitchen. That done, we installed the new door and I put the trim back on the exterior of the door. By the time we finished all the labor on the door, the fridges and they had assembled a rabbit hutch, lunch was ready. By the way, I had been tending to the grill during all of this so we could feed Daniel and James – a small token of thanks. When we sat down to eat Mama mentioned that we had done all that work in a little over two hours. That was big encouragement to me and Mama.

Monday, I resituated the frame on the door to allow for better closure and I set the catch plates for the deadbolt and the latch. I also mixed concrete to back fill under the threshold since we had to chip out the old concrete to set the door in place. Later this week I will get the interior trim put up and we will be able to call it good. Then I can start on the interior doors. It was a pleasure to have the help we had for that job – the solid oak door we put up is very heavy. I would have had to have help no matter the condition of my back.

Also on Monday afternoon, I took the time to tear down the Styrofoam insulation panels from one area in the coop ceiling. A rat had made his home in the void between the panel and the metal roof and had accumulated enough sundries that the panels were sagging under the weight. When I took the panels down, I swept up over twenty pounds of chicken feed that had been stored in the ceiling. There were sticks and twigs and even a few cattle cubes, but mostly it was just pellets stolen from the feeders. It looked like we had poured a bag of feed into the rafters. I had to admire the work it took to carry all that feed from the floor of the coop, piece by piece, up the wall, through the tunnels provided by the shape of the metal roof and into each area for storage.

Later Monday evening, Norman met me and Mama at Rick’s so we could get twenty bales of hay. Norman loaded it all. Mama gave me a very mean look when I tried to help. It is still sitting on the trailer because I will need help to unload it and put it in the goat barn loft; hopefully this evening.

I have an appointment with the medical doctor this afternoon after work. We will see what path forward she recommends. At least Mama knows that while I am at work I will not be doing anything that will hurt my back…beside sitting all day.

She is planning on enjoying her first week off for the summer.

A busy week, watching the babies, loving it

If all goes well I have a busy week ahead. I will travel to Houston today via Rogers, TX. I am hoping to visit with Sarah and Fabian on my way down. I am not sure how often they get visited but this seemed like a good time to do so. While I am in Houston, I plan on driving down to see Joshua. It may not be a long visit, but it would be a shame to be that close to him and not make the effort to drive the two hours to Victoria to take him out to dinner. On the way home from Houston I plan on stopping by Martha’s to visit and to pick up some items she is holding for me and Mama. Wednesday will end up being my shortest night in town, but it is also the day I will be in a class for eight hours. It will be a full schedule if I do get to keep it, but you know how life is; you make plans only to change them as life actually happens.

I am a little worried about the cows running out of hay while I am away. There is too much available right now to set out a fresh bale but I am pretty sure it will be gone before I get back late Friday night. Mama and Victoria will figure something out and Mama is fully capable of getting a bale set out.  I am just not sure she will. Other than that, things are set for me to be gone a few days. It even rained last night – not a lot, but enough – so Mama will get out of watering the plants tonight. She will have to water on Thursday if there is no more rain between now and then, but we have things set up so that watering is much easier than it used to be.

On the way home from the doctor visit I had after work yesterday I stopped at the pet store and picked up some fish to put in our cattle trough. I have it set up with a float so that it is constantly full but Mama does not like the algae growth that accumulates when she cannot dump it and scrub it clean. If the fish do not help with the growth at least they will be fun to watch for a few months. I do not know how cold a water temperature they can survive but we should be able to keep them until sometime in November, at least. If I know Mama, I will have to get an aquarium to winter them over in. My plan is to dump the tank when temperatures are too cold to keep the hose hooked up and let the coons have the fish. I am not sure Mama will allow that to happen. Time will tell; you know how Mama gets attached to things.

Both calves and the baby goats are growing as expected. It is delightful to watch the three little goats as they race across the yard, over the rock pile and back again. They move with such sure footed-ness, but still, it is almost frightening to see how fast they cover the ground especially when they get to the rocks we have piled up on a mound of dirt. Last night I watched them hop from cinder block to cinder block while the blocks are laying on the side that exposes the open side to the goats. At best, there is only a two-inch-wide surface for them to balance on and yet they were hopping from one to the other. I have thought about getting Mama a side-by-side to drive around the farm. It would be facilitated by a bridge type crossing through the fences so she would not have to open and close gates. My concern is that I could not give her access to the goat area because the goats would not be the least bit intimidated by the access – not like cattle would.

We love our life on the farm. We are both hoping we can heal up enough to really enjoy it without all the pains we are now feeling. If not, we will adapt and bear the pain to have the blessings of the farm; at least for the next several years.

A new addition, farm shopping, getting help

Mama and I got to watch as Big Mama had her calf. We went over to the barn lot Saturday morning to check how things were with the cattle and saw Big Mama laying under the cedar trees at the barn. There was already something coming out her backside – part of the birth sack. Mama got worried that something was wrong but I made a couple calls and got her reassured that everything was actually okay. The entire birth took about twenty minutes. As we watched I saw a front hoof first appear. Then the other and a just a moment later the head. The calf went back and forth a bit in the birth canal but finally, after the front shoulders made it through, she slid out onto the ground. Mama, or rather the grandkids, named her Marshmallow because she has a very white face. She is doing very well, perhaps better than the little bull calf #95 had almost a month ago. Big Mama is still very heavy looking. That may never change. We watched for a good bit of time as the calf struggled to stand. It was very entertaining to see her flop, tumble and collapse as she put into use muscles that had never been tested. Now she is up and running around like a pro.

I spent the first part of the morning driving to get feed, pick up our meat at the meat market and get milk at the dairy. The trip to Muenster is about 50 minutes each way. Since I was driving right past the feed store on my way to get the meat Mama did an early inventory of feed at the farm and had a list ready by the time I got to the store. I was surprised we needed twelve sacks of feed total but it has been over three weeks since Mama last made the trip. Having gotten the feed, I went to the meat market and got our pork. It was a total of five flats of meat, each weighing about sixty pounds. That will keep us in pork for a while. On the way home from Muenster I would normally go through Forestburg towards Alvord. Dry Valley Dairy is only a six-mile run from the tiny town going towards Montague from the turn in Forestburg. Since Mama and Victoria have been talking about getting some fresh milk, I turned toward the dairy and got them two gallons of milk. I think the extra stop added less than twenty minutes to the overall trip. It is a route we will have to take each time we go for feed.

Mama and Victoria attended a youth rally at church in the afternoon. I was worn out and hurting by the time they needed to go. All of us had laid down for a short nap before the church function but my nap turned into a several hours long rest. I am doing better. As I worked about doing what I could Saturday morning into the afternoon, I felt like my back began to limber up but the pain never let up. I did not feel as stiff, but I felt a lot more pain. It made Sunday tough to get through as I led the singing but I made it.

I will be traveling to Houston tomorrow afternoon and will not be back in the office until Tuesday next week. We have Memorial Day off and I have arranged for Bro. Daniel and his sons to help me install the front door Mama and I bought several weeks ago. I would have needed help even if I was not hurting as badly as I do. It is a very, very heavy solid wood door and jam. It will change the look of the house once it is installed. Mama is ecstatic. I will be relieved to get it done and have the door safely in place.

Bro Daniel is also going to build me a Banty house so we can make the Banty’s a proper yard. Although, he may not get to do it now as easily as he had thought he could. He has been out of work for a couple months (which is why I asked him to help me out with the new Banty coop) but tomorrow he has an interview for a position at a local bank. He is excited about the prospect. We are all praying it turns out well for him. Even though our coop may be put on the back burner again.

Maggie and Aaron are making good time crossing the continent – and enjoying it as they go.

Mama’s homecoming, non-storms

Mama made good time getting home yesterday. She walked into the house a little after 6 pm. Both of us were hoping she would get to the farm before the weather turned bad, and she did. I was too sweaty to give her a proper hug so we had to defer that until later. I had been out getting the animals fed and watered in the very hot afternoon temperatures. It had been several days since I had given the cows any grain or cubes so I spent some time in the barn getting them taken care of – out of the wind but not out of the heat. Again, thinking that we were due to have storms moving in at any moment I wanted to get that feeding done in order to avoid going over in the rain.

I had also taken the blower and cleared the sidewalks on my way out to feed. I had to get the leaves and dirt blown out of the garage. I had let it go too long and it was bothering me. While I had the blower out I used it to clear all the feathers and accumulated leaved from under the chicken coop and got pretty dirty doing so because the winds were blowing at 30-40 mph; mostly in the direction that I needed for the chore I was doing – but not totally. The dirt and dust I stirred came around the east side of the coop in a cloud and covered me up. Since I was sweaty, it stuck to me really well. Knowing that Mama was on her way and due to arrive before I would have the chance to get cleaned up, I used the hose to rinse my head and face; another reason I was so wet when Mama did get there. At least, I was a “clean” wet…mostly

Many of the predicted severe weather predictions in the past few weeks have turned out to be non-storms. There have been high winds and some lightening but precious little rain. With the dry conditions, our garden has been looking puny – especially the potatoes. I think Mama and I have figured out that the row of potatoes that is not doing well is a different kind of potato than the one that is doing well. They were also planted a couple weeks earlier that the second row. I am hoping to baby them along for another week or two hoping they will give us some larger potatoes than we have right now. If not we will have to can up what we have. Grandpa has always called the small potatoes “new potatoes” – particularly the red ones. I think we still have some from last year’s crop of red potatoes. The biggest problem is that Mama does not really like the canned potatoes. So, they sit until I make a soup or stew with them.

Back to the non-storms. There are a series of storms predicted to move through our area this weekend but I am not holding out much hope for rain. I will need to water tonight if the winds die down enough to let the water fall where I need it. If not, I will have to wait. The plants are screaming for water now so I hope the forecasts are nearer the mark than in the recent past. And, yes. The plants do communicate with me and right now they are unhappy with the care I am providing them. However, on the bright side. Mama and I picked our first blueberries last night. We will have to keep a sharp eye out and pick them as they ripen. All three bushed are loaded but they are small immature bushes so we will only get enough for a couple small jars of jam – if we get all of them as they ripen and save them for the jam. So far, Mama has eaten the entire ripened crop; all four blueberries.

There is not as much going on this weekend as the last three or four weekends which will give Mama and I time to finish a couple clean-up projects. We are not able to do anything big because I am still stiff and in a good deal of pain in my lower back and Mama’s knees continue to limit her involvement in longer projects, but we can do something.

Results, Mama and Brittany

I visited with the chiropractor yesterday and got the low down on my MRI results. All in all, it was not a good report. There seems to be a trifecta of issues I will have to deal with. First, there is a herniation in the disk between L7 and the sacrum vertebrae. In and of itself that would not be an issue. The bulge is listed as 3-5 millimeters. If that were the only problem it would be very easy to deal with. Second, since I am a little older now the disk is somewhat dehydrated – meaning it has shrunk. What used to be a12 mm cushion had now regressed to only 9 mm. Thirdly, and probably the real cause of the impingement is a “significant” arthritic damage. It was measured to be between 7 and 9 mm. Adding those numbers up, I have a nerve squeezing through an opening that is, at best, only slightly smaller than the nerve itself. There are several options but none of them deal with all three of the causal agents simultaneously.

Most significantly, I can change my diet, lose weight and add the herbs to my daily routine that help the body deal with arthritis. Additionally, I can exercise and strengthen my lower back to increase flexibility and limit further damage to the area. On the non-medical treatment side, I can go through spinal decompression to ease the disk injury and open the passage through which the nerve passes. That is probably a given at this point. On the medical side, I can go through pain management and treat the injured area with steroids injected directly into the offended area, via epidural IV. That would ease the swelling and give a temporary relief but is not a real solution unless it significantly reduces the herniation. Last, and least favorable, is to go through surgery to either fuse the vertebrae or clean out the damage I have done to myself over the years. I have an appointment with the medical doctor some time either Friday next week or Monday of the week following. I will get her opinion then. For now, I will take the long road of diet and exercise – which is something I need to do regardless.

I was at the chiropractor’s office for an hour and a half yesterday evening. Between the time we spent talking about the prognosis, the time I spent on the decompression table and the time I spent with a cold pack and the TINS unit, I got home just in time to get cleaned up and changed for church. I thought I was going to have to feed the animals after church but I met Victoria as I was leaving and she said she would take care of the feeding chores. The animals miss Mama when she is gone.

Mama comes home today. She is not thrilled about the drive in either direction but I like to think it is more enjoyable for her coming towards home – and me. She and Brittany got out of the hospital early yesterday morning. Brittany is doing well and seems to be in good spirits. The twins were doing very well last night as I talked with Mama after I got home from church. They were kicking up a storm in Brittany’s belly. Mama was enjoying that immensely. The two of them, Mama and Britany that is, were out in the back yard trying to repair a wind-damaged fence. They borrowed a screw gun from a neighbor and were repositioning fencing boards that had been blown off in a recent storm. With the weather predictions for today I would have waited to see if that was the only section in need of repair. But the fence separates the house from a busy thoroughfare and Brittany does not like the thought of easy access to the property form a public road; not that I disagree with that apprehension on her part. I would love to have witnessed the remodeling project as the two of them tackled it.

Mama told me that when she was in the house alone – Brittany was in the hospital overnight – the back door blew open in the middle of the night. That was as near terrifying an event as she has been through recently. Mama checked out the house and secured the door with every available lock, deadbolt and latch. Fortunately, Lucy (Brittany’s Chi-weenie) was on high alert so I know Mama would have been protected by fierce canine furor.

Continue to pray for Brittany and the twins. We need as many weeks as the Lord will give us in utero.

Brittany’s call, evening busy-ness

Brittany got the news yesterday morning at her appointment with the gynecologist that she would need to be hospitalized overnight for some prescriptive treatments for the twins because of the doctor’s concerns that the cervix was showing signs that the body could go into labor too early. Since she is there basically alone, she asked Mama to come up and help. So, Mama left yesterday in the early afternoon. I am still unclear as to the urgency of the matter and how the condition of her body at present will affect the overall health of the twins or the length of the pregnancy, but in high risk pregnancies - Brittany would be considered so even with a single child – there is not much discretion other than to follow the doctor’s orders. Steroids were given to help promote lung development and a magnesium supplement via IV was given to reduce the risk of one or another brain development issue. If all goes well she should be discharged today. From here on out it is a waiting game and a matter of constant prayer. The longer the twins wait to introduce themselves, the better.

I had a busy evening yesterday. Of course, I had to get all the feeding and evening chores done at the farm but I also had to get a bale of hay set out for the cows. With my back hurting the way it is it was a bigger challenge than I thought it might be. Most disappointing was the fact that I could not remember the combination to the lock on our neighbor’s gate so that I could get to the hay. I do not have his number so I had to call Mama to see if she could get it for me when she got the chance – which she did. Getting on and off the tractor is a challenge at the moment. The trip to get the hay requires that I get on and off the tractor a total of twelve times because of opening and closing gates. So, the routine is to get on the tractor and drive to the gate, get off and open the gate. Get back on the tractor and drive through the gate. Get off the tractor and close the gate. Get on the tractor and drive to the next gate. Repeat as needed. Setting the bale out takes an additional four mounts and dismounts before heading to the gate to get out of the lot. By the time I parked the tractor I just sat in the seat for a few minutes before I finally got off. But the cows are happy for the moment.

I generally take time Tuesday evening to do the music for the following Sunday and last night was no exception. I try to have it done in advance to avoid any surprises and to allow the musicians time to either practice or alert me to the need to change a selection. It is best to avoid doing it Sunday morning if possible. So far, that has worked out well. I also took time to get some chicken broth made for my evening meals. I actually cooked the chicken Saturday but I had not taken the time to process everything so that it would be ready to eat. By the time I got everything cooked up, packed up and cleaned up, it was time to get ready to go for my appointment with the giant magnet.

I left early on purpose even though I was pretty sure where the facility was located. It was not hard to find and it was not busy. I was the only one in the office as I waited. I got there early enough that the lady manning the desk was worried that I did not know that I was forty-five minutes early. I was hoping to get in before 9 pm so I could get home before 11 pm. Fortunately, it did work out that way. The MRI took about 45 minutes total and I was able to get started a little before 9 pm. I was home at about 10:40. I did not waste any time getting into bed.

I should hear the results this afternoon when I see the chiropractor.