Siera update.

I put Siera in the pasture in front of the house so I could keep an eye on her.

Siera did 'self - exercising' along the fence line. 

Her reaction was to walk up and down and complain. Below is the view from the porch.

She was a bit better ----> and then this Monday morning with the cold temps a bit worse. 

The issue seems to also be in her leg and shoulder. I guess time will tell. 

Yes, I have someone coming to see her. 

Update on that. 

Best guess is that she is stiff and sore either from some tearing around the pasture, age, or a strained muscle. It isn't like she will tell us anything. Everything is normal with her stats and she is eating and pooping just fine. 

The vet recommended to leave her in the pasture with her buddies. She can lay down when she wants, move when she wants. She is definitely off, but the vet wants her to move and not be confined. He feels that she will self regulate until she feels better. So it is a watch and wait deal.

I will probably then take Sunshine at the end of May to my friend's farm to ride instead of Siera. 

In 2010 Sunshine had a pretty radical injury which involved tendons and her shoulder and knee. We did put her in confinement as she was a 3 legged mule. X-rays didn't show anything, but the vet thought she'd injured her collateral ligament.

The vet didn't think she'd come out of it but we gave her the chance. After she was able to hobble around we put her out with the foals and she started moving and improving, slow but sure. She self regulated and did her own PT with her little 6 month old half sister.

In 6 months after that, she was riding [gently] once more. 

She is sound as ever right now 16 years later.

The mule pictured below is Sunshine who is 29 years old. 

I will be giving them all mule haircuts and riding Sunshine. She is not frail or even achy. When she and her sister decide to chase and buck in the pasture, it is a wonder to see. She is still the quickest and most athletic mule I have.

 

She still has it. This shot is from last year when they all got crazy going to the summer meadow. Sunshine is on the left.

I guess I should say that I'm pretty close to her as I pulled the birth sack off her face when she was born as her mom was exhausted.

Photos of Sunshine:

The little mule that could and always has done a good job.

She is tolerant of almost everything. One of the reasons I love her. Even kids who have no idea of what they are doing.

So the Siera Saga continues and I need to give her time to heal and recover. The progress is slow, just think of how we feel when we pull a muscle and how we recover. Siera is good with kids also, she is gentle and quiet.

Yet one more reason to make sure she gets back to good health with lots of tenderness and care.

It suddenly

seems very weird not to be abiding by a busy schedule of visiting Home Health people and setting up meds for the day. 

Sleeping at night without interruptions was easier to get used to.

It is strange to be able to make a 'coffee' date with a friend without checking out my back up schedule.

However, Charlie is enjoying the morning walks again. There is something about being able to greet the day while walking down a quiet gravel road and looking out onto the ridge.

Monday was the day to go to the funeral home and make the rest of the arrangements final with my step daughter.

One of the more difficult things in life I think is...is to write an obituary. Apparently there are rules to follow for the genealogy folks with a long long list of who is who and who was who.

It is well known that I'm not one to follow the rules. I don't in photography, so why should I do it in other things? 

I did open his obit with the 36 years with Fred the mule and 30 years with his wife line. So many of the his friends from Missouri and Iowa wrote how they knew Fred and Rich and how awesome they were together. [Insert a huge laugh for that!]

The rest will be as Rich wanted it. Simple and very short.

We will be having a 3 hour mingle and visit with some flowers that Steph picked of yellow roses and wheat, barley, and oat sprigs with a nod to the huge influence of equine in her dad's life. Photos of his life will be on a big screen and there will be some 'finger' food. 

Somehow I made it through to this stage and am working on the next stage which is dealing with the VA and finding places for things like new hearing aid batteries, along with medical devices that I can donate to others.

My adjustments will be slow, but I will find my footing again. My grief and sorrow will stay with me forever I hope. I feel him with me every single moment in a good way.

Can't get a break!

 Well, I really did when taking my Ru into the dealer for struts and a ball joint. The price was quoted at nearly $2,800. But buying a new car wasn't something I was considering, since basically nothing was wrong with the one I have.

After all, we don't know what is going to happen with the economy or with things like social security or Medicare. Cheaper to fix the well running car than gamble on the immediate future.

Charlie once more took over the dealership. All the Salesforce and staff stopped to say hello.

I got to meet many customers who had to pet him and tell me about their pets. I saw tons of photos of their favorite animals.

One salesman asked to take Charlie for a little walk around the show floor. He took Charlie into an office and...as soon as I was out of his sight for about a minute, Charlie began to howl!

Nope. He is friendly and adorable, but apparently a Mama's doggy.

When the service manager came to hand me my bill he explained that the extended warranty we bought 6 years ago had covered everything. 

WOW!

Since my visit to the ER last week, I have been tracking my BP. My doctor always complains that its a bit high. She agrees that its white coat syndrome.

So since I have to see her next week, I am using a BP cuff that records the readings. My BP has actually been dropping since last week. 

Yesterday I felt like I was getting a cold. This morning I felt awful. Woserthanawful.

Anyway. Imagine my surprise at having a morning BP of 88/66. Yeah. Me too.

I'm going to start pointing at the side effects of Prolia. [The Prolia flier says that it compromises your immune system and to Avoid people with colds...errrr, um...jeeze. Can I just go sit in a box for the rest of my life???]

Let's add the random severe attacks of pain in different parts of my body that come and go. A big toe one day that felt broken. Then was fine the next day. Ankles that feel sprained for a day. This morning, I had a hard time walking without a limp.  My left knee and calf hurt too much to walk.

A jaw that hurts too badly to eat. Then nothing the next day. 

Fatigue and frustration. It's a Whack a Mole Game with a guess at where pain will show up next. Amazingly enough, the intense pain will last up to a few hours or a few days and then disappear. Bone pain, muscle pain, headache pain. Things I normally do. not. have. 

Yet I am still dragging my body out to do chores and when I can, hike with Charlie for shorter distances.

If this medication keeps me from being active, what quality of life is there?

Oh and the last I can't get a break???

The magnificent head cold put me to bed for most of the day. I'm glad I had prepped things like homemade soup ahead of time. ...and purchased some easy to make meals for times like this.

But we are getting a snowstorm! So at least that is beautiful to watch, and I hope to drag my butt out in the fresh air to enjoy the falling stuff.

I actually feel better, but really enjoy wearing a mask [wink wink]. If I can get outside and get fresh air, I will feel much better.

Sunday night we are to go back into a very deep freeze of -17 F so I have some prep to do before that happens no matter how I feel.

A good day for attempts and failures...

First off, we are pretty cold right now. I mean the weather is always a great subject right? I can't recall any conversation lately that didn't start without the comment, "How 'bout this weather?"

Last Friday it was 42 F  and by Monday...the air temperature is -8 here and the wind chill is -25 F. Why not? It is weather after all. Tonight, we will get to -12 or so. Well, there we go. I've seen -20 F a few times, so I know what to expect. 

I am SO grateful that when we remodeled, we were able to reinsulate and upgrade the windows and heat.

There was a time in our little cottage when our doors were covered with frost on the inside and the windows all had plastic over them. Our hydrant outside that we had for watering our stock froze up. Running a hose from the bathroom wasn't an option. But I did carry lots of water that time.

The weather service has put out an 'Upcoming Extreme Cold Warning'. 

Today is Martin Luther King's Birthday and it is a Federal Holiday. I'm going to celebrate it and not the other thing. I may even watch the Puppy and Kittens! Being featured during that thing.

Or I may just shut everything down and work on something creative to keep my mind occupied since I can't go for a hike.

Yesterday I had the bright idea of building trees out of pipe cleaners for a spooky scene with my minifigures or something else. Being quiet in a small cottage requires me to do quiet things. I built some cool 'trees' and utterly failed at doing a good job of photographing a 'scene'.

Below is just after I 'failed' at getting what I wanted...

Failed again! It looks like she is getting attacked by octopi??

Some toy photographers draw out a scene and plan and plan...on how they are going to execute it. I don't. 

I wing it. Seriously.
I never quite know what I am doing until I arrive at something that makes me happy.

I fail a lot with the light with the scene, and with the ideas.

Then I tried this version and it looked awesome in the camera...

The processing afterwards was horrible. Dark, awful, full of all sorts of artifacts. 

So last night I thought I'd just delete it all and start again.

However...

This morning I decided to try something different. I dropped the file into ON1 and hit the button that I never use. The program then 'reads' the photo and adjusts it. Most of the time the AI adjustment sucks.

Then I scratched my head and added something called LUTS.

And I liked it.

The final:

Now this was what I was going for and by golly I'm going to keep it. Even the goofy Tree Monster turned out okay. Maybe it still looks like the minifig is getting attacked by an Octopus, but if one uses their imagination and it looks a little scary, I did my job.

In other news. 

I'm not going to get into the politics of things. But I will be following the news with the sound off so I can read it. During today's events I will be mostly offline and creating things indoors.

The mules are doing fine since they can get out of the breezes. Yesterday they took naps in an area close to the house. They looked like sleeping dragons.

They have heated water and plenty of hay and very fluffy insulating winter coats.

Little Richard is doing well also. He napped next to the shed yesterday the sun reflects its heat off the wooden siding and he was protected from the wind. 

It looks like another quiet day spent mostly indoors thinking of creative things to do.

Stay warm.

About now...

It seems that everyone is doing this thing where they look back on the past year.

Photographers are flooding FB with their 9 or 10 BEST photos of the year. Flickr asks users to send in their number one photo of the year.

I cannot find a favorite for the life of me.

So, photography aside. My look back on this year?

It was okay and pretty good. We are both still upright each morning. We had no catastrophic incidents and I accomplished some goals as did Rich.

I feel amazing with all the specific workouts I've been doing with Angie, my coach.

All in all?

It was a pleasant year. Rich's daughter visited him three times! Each time it made Rich's world so much brighter for a day.

I don't do New Year's Eve resolutions because I've always broke them in the past. I have goals for the next year. We'll see what happens.

I'm looking forward to short term, day by day goals. 

Maybe doing the KVR Trail Challenge again? No one has ever done it back to back. I think I can accomplish that again especially now that I know all of the trails. 

I'll work on my keeping my bones challenged and keep up my new relationships with the new neighbors. Both of those items bring me a lot of joy and social relaxation.

I do have a few favorite photos. But they are regarding moments. Not stunning 'best' photos of the year.

Moments in time that I can look back on and say that in 2022 I did something important for myself.

Here is to continuing to live day by day and looking forward...

Not

Backward.

The Hug that saved the Week

What a week.

I really enjoyed my Mobility Classes this week. Our teacher/coach for this class has 10 children. You read that right. 10.

I have her as my weekly and sometimes twice a week coach for work outs to challenge my 'bones' with recommended workouts for people with severe osteoporosis. 

One of her daughters stayed with us at the gym to do Mobility on Thursday evening. Her name is Gracie. Her mom said she could do the movements with us but had to be in a separate part of the gym as the class was for adults.

I'm a sucker for cute kids that are well behaved. Gracie and I ended up near enough to each other to chat while her mom was busy helping some of the other adults.

I made faces when the stretches were hard and Gracie giggled. Hah! Captive Audience.

At the end of the class, the adults gathered to put on their street shoes and get ready to leave and talk. Gracie sat on the couch next to me. I talked to her while I put on my shoes. She jumped up to show me how she could bend over backwards and walk. 

Ahhh, to be 9 again and as flexible as she was!

I stood up and we were all getting ready to leave while the coach's older son ran around and tidied up the gym and got things ready to close up.

Gracie ran across the small entrance area and wrapped her arms around me in a huge hug. It was a true hug. You know, the kind that takes you by surprise and spreads warmth through your heart and soul.

Friday was a whirlwind day. Hubby had his PT class and hadn't been feeling well for his last one. I told him that he had to go with me either to do his class or to see a doctor. His choice was to just quit and go back to bed for the day. I wouldn't hear of it.

Dyspnea means short of breath-difficulty breathing-air hunger-feeling of suffocation. He described it as feeling not quite right, he figured it was the change in meds doses that did it and insisted that he just stop taking a bunch of medications. 

In short, the PT people decided that he was in enough crisis to warrant putting him in a wheelchair and taking him to the ER. 
After a few hours of testing and treatment for dyspnea caused by a COPD Exacerbation, he was released.

I had to explain to him what the doctor had told him a few times. I think he understood when I was a bit more blunt than the doctor. 

He refuses to do his nebulizer because the meds make him a bit jittery. However two sessions of Nebs in the ER brought him right out of his crisis.

I reminded him that when he chose not to do the Neb, and he had an episode of not getting his breath, that he was killing his heart off in chunks. I demonstrated that by making a stabbing motion and an ugly face.

I didn't explain the lab reports that were concerning but expected with his stage of COPD. My job is to make the rest of his life as comfortable as it can be for him. 

Gracie's hug saved the week. The memory of it still makes me smile and feel good inside.

One day at a time....

Well you don't have to say...I told you so!...

Because yesterday I actually enjoyed myself. I had GG and mom in law .. I was the driver and I had GG and MIL telling me how to get to the cemeteries. One in the back seat, one in the front.

"Turn Right," they'd chime in. "Turn here ... park here!" We visited the relatives 'headstones' and I was caught in a moment where my husband knelt by his father's grave and placed a hand on the earth. He then dug out some chewing tobacco and placed it in the earth. "For you Pa." I heard him say.

I took a photo at that moment. Looking at it later...well, it is a beautiful shot. A keeper for sure.

I took my 'riders' out to lunch and enjoyed the halting conversation between MIL who can't hear worth a hoot and GG who could only get out partial thoughts and words. They have been mom and son for so long that communication was no issue.

I took MIL home then we got home. I went to work on the fence. When GG woke up I asked him for approval and opinion. Our communication was very difficult. He couldn't 'see' what I was asking. So I asked him if he could drive the 4 wheeler to where I needed his opinion. It was an agonizing conversation. But worth it. ~~ I suppose I could have just not asked his opinion and got the job done on my own. But I don't want to keep him from helping in farm decisions, right?

JOB DONE! Whew!

GG and I worked on language skills. His Speech Therapist gives us homework. Yesterday was harder than usual. Writing some words were beyond him. 

I need to get the VA and GLHP organized next. The trauma center wants to follow up with him. The brain surgeon needs to do another surgery.  However ... the VA is not approving more appointments. Now I need to bring in VA neuroscience and get them on board. Or just bite the bullet and hope for the best with Gundersen. 

Today though, I am NOT farming, not fencing, not mowing, not making supper, not...doing anything unless it is chores.

I have a friend checking out some buyers for the equine. I have a call into Equity Livestock for help with culling cattle.

Today.

Today, I take GG fishing. I will pack us a lunch and we will go fishing. Yes. I may need to learn how to clean fish [ick] ... but we will do something that GG adores and doesn't have to work on thinking and conversation.

One day.

At a time