NOVEMBER 2021

Welcome to November!

TRUDY:
Glad the Halloween party went so well!! I bet it was fun!

ELLEN:
Eeeks, I sure hope they find their dock! Did they paint their name or address on it? How big is the lake?



I have been to the cardiologist in Roanoke today. Back again, no bad news. Took all day and my barn is a smelly mess. Luckily the weather is nice and I can run get that done with just enough time before dark!

Hi all.............happy November. Can that be?

Holy Cow, your church was a riot. I don't know what tricks got played on our pastors as I wasn't there
for trunk or treat..............

Well ARK, I hope you were just in for a check up..............

I'm busy figuring out Christmas.........it's now become just money I think. I hate to go out and
shop...........I could order from Amazon, I guess, or give money............

The horses are happy and the shoer comes tomorrow.......I have them trimmed every 4-5weeks.

Nothing else new here............oh, hey, ELLEN, did your tricksters show up last night?

Everyone have a great evening...........

Ark, that is a great headliner photo. Just beautiful.

I don't know if the swim platform has been found yet or not. It is likely that it followed the current out of this lake and into the next. There are 7 lakes in this chain, with a stream that leads to 3 more. There is a culvert that will stop the swim platform from going on down stream. The owner is not a permanent resident, but he is coming up tomorrow and will probably go find it. If I still had the jet ski in the water, I'd go look for it.
I'm guessing that he neglected to put his name and phone number on it.

The Trick or Treating was Saturday night around here. The three little girls went to another more "lucrative" area and got a boatload of goodies. I had goodies from myself and two other neighbors to take to the girls when I went to stay with them while Mommy and Daddy went to a grown-up party. They were all excited to see what I had in the big bag.
In the midst of all the excitement and I was telling them who gave what, the middle one had the presence of mind to ask me to tell the givers thank you.
Other than the girls no one ever comes here. There just aren't any kids who live around here, just us geezers.

GRAYMARE:
I am okay. They are checking out my aFib. They can never catch it on those recorders and the last one I was hooked to for a month needed a connection to AT&T, which we don't have. That was a waste of time, money and my skin after being glued to it for a month. They are going to implant a new kind of recorder under my skin that will watch for aFib events and tell us what's going on. Technology.... ...They would like for me to get a device called a Watchman, but we all decided we needed more proof of my aFib before going that route. I don't want to take blood thinners because if I get tossed or banged around in the barn, I could bleed to death. So the choices are death one way or death another way..... I have very few aFib events, but they are serious when they happen. I am fine for the shape I am in, LOL.


ELLEN:
Thanks about the photo! That is actually me on Ivan at Pandapas Pond Park a couple of years ago. My riding friend took the photo. I posted it on FaceBook the other day in a new to me forum called "senior equestrians" to introduce myself to the rather large group. I got 520 likes! Wow. I have never gotten more than a few likes on any post I have ever posted anywhere before. I need to print up this photo and frame it!

Ark, that photo is frame worthy.

ELLEN:
Thanks!

Want to see something hilarious? Go to:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ljWk_-gwwiY

I love Owl Kitty!

I wonder how long it took to get all the film footage to edit it into that. LOL

Good grief, the back up of supplies seems endless..............so to avoid losing money on the goods, the price
goes through the roof..............I'm old and have all my needed goods but wonder if
I'll be able to get everyday items..............bread (I can make if I can get flour), peanut butter, jelly,
milk, eggs, meat salad etc.............

It is Election Day here in AZ.............nothing but fighting.

I groomed horses after the shoer was gone.........lazy and relaxing...........they just stand
and ask for more..........LOL

I hope by now the dock floating at will has been found.

No news here............saw the little kids this afternoon running, playing, yelling, etc..........
made me happy.

Graymare, do you have anything resembling an Amish bulk food store? They will have bread flour and other baking necessities. They have better prices too.
I have about 20 pounds of bread flour on hand most of the time. The prices of everything have gone up around here too.

Right now, ELLEN, it's no problem...............just thinking/wondering of long term future.

No news for today, that's enough...............

It's amazing how much is changed by the first hard frost. The trees went from green to yellow and gold overnight, and many of them are shedding leaves like crazy. It made me think of the old Hobie Carmichael song, Autumn Leaves.
Okay. That definitely designates me as a true geezer.

It's beautiful here. and our trees are turning with leaves falling in the breeze...........

I'm sitting here eating leftover Jolly Ranchers from Halloween. I didn't have any Trick or Treaters either. Not even my great niece and nephew. Probably just as well as I wasn't moving very quickly on Sunday.

Last Tuesday I had a lump appear on my groin and it was sore. I called the doctor's office and couldn't get in until Friday. It had grown quite a bit by Friday. I went in to the doctor expecting her to lance it and give me antibiotics. Nope, she took one look at it and sent me to the ER. Didn't plan on that. Blood work, a CAT scan and 4 hours later they had opened it and cleaned the infection out and put in a drain and sent me on my way with antibiotics and instructions to call the surgeon they had consulted on Monday. Monday I went to the surgeon's office for a follow up consult expecting to be told to continue antibiotics, continue changing the dressing and be on my way. Nope. First the Nurse Practitioner poked it and hmmmed. Then the surgeon came in and did the same thing. I don't like it when they go hmmm. Surgeon said still larger and harder than he expected after 3 days. We decided he would make the incision larger, and clean it out again. Good thing we did because discovered that there was a wall in the abscess that prevented the entire abscess from draining. Had to open that wall to remove the rest of the infection. Not Fun. He packed it with this sterile ribbon like material that I have to pull out every night and repack with fresh material. I did it last night without too much trouble or pain. I'll see how it goes tonight. I have no trouble bandaging wounds on a horse, but doing this to myself creeps me out. I'll go back to the doctor on Monday for a follow up. I'll just be walking real slow and careful for a while.

Oh INDY.........I'll bet it's sore. (((((((((((((((((((hugs))))))))))))))). Limp like you'e dying so you
get sympathy at work.........

Oh INDY.........I'll bet it's sore.  (((((((((((((((((((hugs))))))))))))))). Limp like you'e dying so you
get sympathy at work.........

Indy, you have my complete sympathy. That has to hurt like heck.

INDYAPP:
Egads, that must hurt. I am so sorry. I hope it heals up quickly....faster than that.


I was going to complain about the Covid test I got today, it being like sandpaper on a stick being shoved in my nose. But now I won't. It was easy peasy compared to your week.


ELLEN:
We got our first hard frost last night, too. Definitely feels like winter coming on. My horses are all wooly. The new neighbors with the two mares have winter blankets on. My horses are out standing in their nakedness. It got up to 45 this afternoon, I suspect her horses were a bit warm. I don't blanket my horses unless the windchill is 15 degrees or less, and even then, Trinket never gets a blanket. She would roast under all that hair. I suspect my neighbor must have had her horses at a barn with lots of folks who blanket their horses before she bought her place here.

Today the neighborhood probably thought we were nuts. I told Donnie to go mow the arena. There isn't any grass in there, just lots of leaves. So he mowed them to tiny bits and blew them outside the arena fence. It looks much nicer in there now! Saved a ton of raking.

INDY APP:  Oh my goodness.  What a awful experience for you.  Praying for healing and the strength to take good care of yourself.  

We had our first frost Tuesday night. Brrrrr down to 31 degrees, the grass was all frost white yesterday morning.  I am not ready for winter...

Yup, our church has great pastors, they are such good sports, we are a multi generational church, even us old girls get into fun things when they church has them.  Getting ready for Thanksgiving dinner give away at our food bank.  Things are slowly returning to normal within the church.  It's been a long 2 years of scaled back community activities.

Speaking of Thanksgiving...did anyone see the price of Butterball turkey breasts?  $27 for a turkey breast.  WHAT????  I don't like turkey that much to spend that kind of cash on it.  Things are getting so crazy.  We have quite a few Amish/Mennonite stores around here to shop at, their prices aren't quite so high but I did notice they have raised some prices also.  I'm sure they will have a turkey sale in the near future.

I'm like you ARK, my guys don't get blanketed either. They've got a pretty good start with their fuzzy jammies and are happy. They come in the barn for breakfast and dinner feed. It gives me a chance to give them the once over to make sure nobody has hurt themselves and then they are right back outside for their hay. The only time they are kept in the barn is if the vet/farrier is coming or if the weather is REALLY bad. If I'm slow letting them into the barn for feeding they bang on the door. If I'm slow letting them out of their stalls they bang on their stalls. If I think they need to go outside and they think they need to stay in, they stand next to their hay racks and give me 'the look'. When they do that, I know we're in for bad weather. and I batten down the hatches. Thankfully they haven't done that in a really long time.

INDY, is your pain any less now that the abscess has been drained? I sure hope so. I hope
the healing is going well.

Yesterday seemed to be a turning point. No more pain to speak of, mostly mild discomfort now. I can live with mild discomfort. Repacking the wound was much easier last night. The process still kind of creeps me out, but I'm getting better at it.

Everyone ready to lose an hour of sleep this weekend? Now I'll be going to work in the dark and coming home in the dark. I don't know about the rest of you but I'll be ready to be in bed by 8:00.

Did anybody watch the first day of the Breeders Cup today? The rest of it will be tomorrow.
There were some nice stories about some who ran and some who won. Bob Baffert's horses were tested and under CONSTANT surveillance for the last two weeks. One of his horses won.
Chef Bobby Flay won with Pizza Bianca.
Tomorrow a friend is coming to watch the races with me. We'll do a lot of gabbing between races. LOL We'll eat junk food and pizza.

Hi.  I didn't have time today, ELLEN, but tomorrow I will...........

I don't know where the time goes but I seem to have appts every day between PT & OT......
Then when I get home I'm whooped.

I'm glad INDY that you're starting to heal well.

I think I'm going to have hot dogs and chips tomorrow during the races........and some chocolate chippies for dessert........MMMMMMMMMMMMM

Everyone have a great evening...........

We started with potato chips and Ranch dip, scoops and sausage dip, celery with Ranch dip, and chocolate chip cookies. Then, we ordered a pizza about 5:00. All in all, it was a good afternoon of watching horse racing, eating, and gabbing.
Nobody or horse got hurt. One reared up in the starting gate and bumped his head a little bit and was scratched from the race, but he wasn't really hurt. He was in trouble from before loading in the gate. They had to put a complete hood on him to get him in the gate. Then when the hood was pulled off, apparently part of his brain was attached to it and he lost his mind.
There were some pretty good races, with some unexpected winners. Less than an inch determined the winners of two different races.
It was a good day.