When we moved out here to Cat Spring,TX the barn was a big open building so we reworked it into a functioning barn. One third of the building is my husband's workshop. The other two thirds is divided into three stalls, an area for hay storage and the tack room. The tack room isn't very large - just 9' by 11' by 8'. It's fully enclosed with a wide heavy metal door and a good lock. It holds all the critical stuff for the animals. There are saddle racks and saddles, halters and bridles, feed for all the animals, supplements and brushes along with a small refrigerator to store medications and gatorade. There is one window that's mostly filled with the...
It took an additional trip to the doctor and more drugs along with the passage of time but I'm finally starting to feel like my old self. This is week three by actual count and that does not make me happy. I don't like being sick and the faster I can get better the happier I am. I have finished the antibiotics and the steroids and now just have to deal with the lingering cough, cough medicine and an inhaler which I have never used before. Taken together the cough medicine and the inhaler seem to be working. This morning I did the first really physical exercise since I started getting sick. I drove the mule up to the top...
Peggy and I had the great joy not to mention the hard work of attending the Little Rock Shetland Weekend March 21st-24th. No surprise based on the name, we were in Little Rock, Arkansas. And we were learning all about Fair Isle knitting from one of the preeminent authorities, Janine Bajus aka the feral knitter. Fair Isle is the southernmost of the 100 or so islands in the Shetlands which sit about 100 miles northeast of the Scottish mainland. This is along the dividing line between the Atlantic Ocean and the North Sea. And these people know all about wool and all about sweaters! Fair Isle has given its name to the wonderful colorful sweaters produced there. They are designed with...
I am just starting to re-enter the world after being sick all this week. Sometime on Monday I started feeling punky. By Tuesday morning it was clear I was sick. Wednesday was worse. Thursday wasn't any worse but it wasn't any better either. By Friday I decided I needed some intervention. I have lived in this body long enough to know how it gets sick. I haven't figured everything out about my body but that's for a different blog. This wasn't the flu because I was carrying on normal conversations, sitting up and still eating. I did double check with my daughter, the nurse, to make sure my self diagnosis was correct and she agreed. But this was clearly not...
Skunks are a normal part of my life out here in Colorado County, Texas. We see them in the spring, like now, looking for mates. Then we see the momma skunks later in the spring and often in the daylight searching for food. This is more disturbing having been trained that any skunk you see in the daylight is sick and mostly sick means rabies. But no. Momma skunks really do hunt in the daylight when they have new babies in the nest. Skunks may be a normal part of my life but having skunks and my dogs closely interact is NOT common. If I open the back door at night and smell a strong whiff of skunk, the dogs...
