APRIL 2024

April 2024






I couldn't resist a pony in a knitted sweater.

I also couldn't resist the photo of the lady's grandhorse that she crocheted a blanket for!  Too cute!!

I'd better get to knitting! Those are two really cute horse blankets. That would take a lot of knitting or crocheting.

Oh my... both of those blankets would take an awful lot of work. A coat of many colors!

Not much to report. My brother is getting much stronger. We did visit the animal shelter and for better or worse picked out a dog to keep him company. The better part is that Jack has helped Dan's mental state tremendously. The bad is Jack is a Jack Russell Terrorist. He is probably about a year old or a little more, house trained, and has 2 speeds. Full out energy, go. go. go. or sound asleep. Jack has destroyed just about every single left over dog toy Dan had in the house from his previous dogs. Must have super sturdy toys to play with, no cheap stuffies for Jack. He does a pretty good job of only chewing on things he is suppose to chew on... Except for the medical call button he swiped off the charger. Jack ended up calling the medical alert company, who when they couldn't reach me right away called the fire department. The firefighters and I arrived at the same time. They laughed when Dan explained what happened as they have come to the house when it wasn't a false alarm. Picture grown man in a wheelchair "chasing" after the dog with the medical call button staying JUST out of reach. Jack thought it was a great game.

HAPPY APRIL SHOWERS EVERYONE.

It's been raining here in PA for 3 days now with more to come. Local rural roads are flooding...Gotta love April Showers...Thanking God it is NOT snow.

Love those colorful horse blankets.

INDY APP: That was too funny about the Jack stealing the medical alert button. I bet your brother keeps a close eye on it from now on.

It's been yet another crazy month for us. Grandma Dolly is in the hospital out in CA. Luckily she gave the wrong phone number to her friend to call my son Stacy so she left the message on someone else phone. He would have freaked out and been on his way to CA had he received that phone call. She is doing OK, she is 93 and lives on her own, has a UTI and the meds they gave her made her freak out. She is enjoying being taken care of. Stubborn old girl, refuses to move back here with us.

Monday night a piece of my tooth broke off. I freaked out...called my dentist friend and got in to see her yesterday morning. Turns out it was a piece of a filling and not my tooth. Got that tooth filled and the tooth that I just had a root canal done on last Thursday. Plus they cleaned my teeth while I was there so I don't have to go back next week. Next dentist appointment crown for the root canal tooth.
I HATE my teeth...but I am NOT getting false teeth. I refuse to misplace my teeth in the jar like I do my car keys. LOL LOL

April is off to a rip roaring start...

Hang in there everyone. Spring will get here someday.
Love & prayers...

Ohhhh boy! That dog is going to keep everything moving! Jack Russells are definitely on the high energy list.

Trudy, it's been raining here too. The water level is up, just about to float the docks that have been put in. If it keeps coming up, I'll expect to see some pier sections floating by. I wish people would remember to put their names on them.
I hope Grandma Dolly will get over the UTI and be back to herself.

Hello everyone.

The sun is finally shinning here in PA and today is the Eclipse. LOL LOL

Have a blessed day everyone and remember don't look at the Eclipse.

Our local library was handing out the glasses to view the eclipse. It was interesting to see. We are just slightly north of the path of total eclipse, so it never got "dark" here. At least it wasn't cloudy and overcast.

We're back! Donnie and I went to see the eclipse in southern Indiana. We were in the totality area and it was really great! The skies were clear and we found a nice place to watch it in a little town called Vernon. We parked near their courthouse and had lunch on our tailgate while awaiting the big event. There was a bell tower in the courthouse and we listened to a nice little bell concert just before the eclipse went total. They were ready for a much bigger crowd that apparently went to some local parks instead, so there was plenty of space and portopotties for all. Other than one little hold-up getting thru Madison, IN, we didn't have any traffic problems getting back to my sister's house in Northern KY.

We also went to the Cincinnati Zoo the day before the eclipse with my 2 sisters, brother-in-law and 3 of my sister's grandkids. I hadn't been there in at least 40 years and didn't recognize anything in the place. Unfortunately, every other person in the Greater Cincinnati area also went to the zoo that day. Don't go on pretty Sundays during spring break. It was elbow to elbow.

We brought my youngest sister home with us for a nearly 3 week visit, getting home at 6 pm today (Tuesday). The traffic in West Virginia was terrible and it took over an hour extra to get home than it usually would. There was an accident up ahead that caused about an 8 mile back up. We got home too late to pick up our dog at the kennel, but the rest of our animals all survived without us for three days.

This was our little trip to celebrate our upcoming anniversary on this Saturday. It was a nice celebration.


INDYAPP:
Congrats on your brother's new dog.....I think.... ..Glad he is feeling stronger!

TRUDY:
Ouch. I am soooo sorry about your tooth breaking!! I hope it can be fixed quickly and painlessly.

ELLEN:
Southern Indiana is very interesting. Cute little towns, hills flattening out to level areas pretty fast. We had a good time.

Good morning everyone.

ARK: Your trip sounded like a fun time. Getting to visit with family is always a treat. We didn't see much of the eclipse here in out end of PA. The sky went dark for a short time but that was it. I did see a lot of photos from people who went west to ward Erie & Ohio. Another of God's miracles to see.

My teeth are fixed...next step a crown and hopefully I'll be finished visiting my dentist friend for awhile.

Things have quieted down here. Thank God. I need a break. My son is doing great after his heart surgery. So great that he bought a Harley. One of the old guys bikes complete with saddle bags and a windshield and luggage carrier. It looks like a little car..LOL At first I was angry at him but then I thought...hey he survived a near death experience only 65 days ago so if he has something that gives him some joy so be it, who am I to judge him. He always has been into Harley & dirt bikes.

The weather has finally started to warm up and spring is finally arriving. YAY I can start walking outside.
Have a wonderful week.

Ark, there are some really beautiful areas in southern Indiana. The Hoosier National Forest is a great place to ride, as is Brown County State Park. I'm glad you enjoyed it.

Trudy, your son isn't likely to do too much risky riding with a big Harley. They aren't built for that. But, I'm here to tell you, riding along in the wind is REALLY FUN! I don't have my scooter anymore, but I sure loved it when I did.

I went for my first rehab visit on Monday. It was just a testing and "get to know you" trip. Today will be Day 2.

Jack is settling in well. Other than the medical alert button, he has been very good to chew mostly on dog toys. There has been a couple of action figure casualities, but mostly just stuffies and water bottles. This dog has a thing for plastic. He and Dan get to playing rough, but he has figured out that Evil Aunt Deb will have none of that. He's getting pretty good at "Leave IT!" when I say it, but not so much when Dan does.

We were just outside of the Total Eclipse, I think ours was 93%. Close enough. Our library handed out the glasses too. One of my co-workers brought in a pair and handed them around so all 4 of us in the office as well as a couple of people from the office upstairs used them. It was different. It didn't get as dark as I thought it would. I was more surprised at how much the temperature dropped and how quickly it dropped. It then came right back up.

MANYGATES I can relate to your tooth dilema. Part of the enamel broke off of my oldest crown a couple of weeks ago. The dentist was able to see me right away to check it out and he explained the crown itself hasn't "yet" broken away. He ground down some of the sharp points and I have an appointment on Monday for step one of replacing the entire crown. A few more tiny pieces have broken since I last saw the dentist so I now have the sharp edges again. But at least I know what it is I'm feeling.

Happy Monday, everybody! It's spring. The grass is green (and growing). The tulips are blooming. The trees are sprouting. It's warm.
It's a good day.

Been busy, busy.  It was so nice out yesterday (Monday), 80 degrees and sunny with a light breeze.  It was too nice to not ride Ivan in the late afternoon.  He was good.   We stripped winter hair off the incredibly hairy Trinket and Daisy, making a wheelbarrow full of hair.  Annie did Trinket,  Donnie and I did Daisy.   Donnie mowed the yard for the second or third time this  year, it is growing like mad.   Our apple tree has put out lots of blossoms and looks very pretty.  Hopefully we won't get a cold snap or a flock of cedar waxwing birds to strip the tree of blossoms before the apples are set like we have in the past couple of years.  It would be nice to have apples this year.  I made a mini-Thanksgiving dinner for us from turkey breast thick slices, and got caught up on laundry and dishes.   Like I said....busy, busy!





Happy Spring!!

Good morning everyone. Spring has arrived here in PA. George has already been mowing and get out the yard work tools. The boring bees are back too. UUGHHHHH Hate those little buggers. I saw a red headed woodpecker yesterday and the turkeys are back in the old pasture field. Gotta love the return of the turkeys strutting their stuff. Getting an estimate on having the front porch and front windows painted. Just can't bring myself to climb up on the roof anymore to paint the window trim and it really needs painted. April showers are here again today and tomorrow. The farmers have been busy working in the fields. It's fun to watch someone else working. LOL LOL

Off to the dentist this morning to get fitted for another crown, I hate doing that but it has to be done to protect the root canal tooth.

Enjoy the return of springtime and getting out of the house without 2 layers of clothes.
Love & prayers...

Yesterday was a beautiful spring day, so I got out the pressure washer and cleaned the moss off the deck. There is something very satisfying about seeing the clean lines the water makes as you clean. It's about half done, so there will be at least one or two more days.
It was just nice to be outside doing stuff.

Donnie, my sister, Annie, and I went to the Salem Red Sox baseball game today. It was Education Day and there were thousands of elementary and middle school kids there, too. It was a lot of fun, even though the home team lost. Lots of enthusiasm going on! We were sitting behind the netting between home and first base. About half way through the game, a ball was popped up over the netting, bounced on the away team dugout roof, then landed right in Annie's lap!! She was a bit surprised and I put my hand over the ball so it wouldn't jump out of her lap. She picked up the ball out of her lap and saw a 10 or 11 year old boy nearby with a baseball mitt and hungry-for-a-baseball eyes. She asked him if he wanted it and he gave an enthusiastic 'YES'. Annie tossed the ball to the overjoyed kid who thanked her about 5 times. It really made it a fun day!

Ark, what a fun story! Hooray for Annie making a kid really happy.

ELLEN:
 We took Annie to Cracker Barrel after the game to celebrate her great baseball moment.  


DONNA:
 Heard you had a knee replaced recently.  How are you doing?  Hope all is well!


GRAYMARE:
 Sure would like to hear how you are doing....

INDYAPP:
 So how is the new pup doing?  Is your brother happy with it?  How are your horses doing?

TRUDY:
 I hope that crown is in place and you don't have to go back any time soon.  I really dislike teeth problems.  

BEECH:
Is winter over yet?


My plantar faciitis seems to be doing better, although still fairly painful. I found a pair of sandals that I wear constantly unless I am with the horses.  They seem to be working better than anything else I have tried.   I am now a sandals and socks wearing fashionista.

Jack the Terrorist is settling into his new home nicely. He and my brother get along great. Jack hasn't destroyed anything important since the medical call alert button episode.
The horses are all living the life of leisure. They are getting their toes trimmed on Thursday. They are really good, I leave them in their stalls, and when the farrier is done he turns them out for me. I haven't actually seen my farrier in about a year even though he comes every 8 weeks. I'm not sure what I am going to do when he decides to retire.

I've managed to bugger up my knee. I'm not sure what I did to it either. It just kind of hurts when I stand up and start to walk as it gets stiff if I sit for very long. I figure if I ignore the minor pain, the pain will get bored and go bug someone else who will pay attention to it.

I was cutting up some tree limbs and now my chainsaw won't start. I really do hate things with engines. I'll take it to the garden center and have them look it over. It will probably start right up for them.

Indy, my dad was a mechanic. He always said to kill small engines by choking them until they die. That puts fuel in the carburetor for the next time. Of course, a lot of them have a primer on them now, so I don't know if that would work.

Still waiting on spring to arrive here in PA, it's going to 28 Friday morning. BRRRRR That darn Phil was WRONG again. That'll teach us not to rely on a rodent to predict the weather.

Our great granddaughter is getting baptized on Sunday. Gemma is 7. Can hardly wait for Sunday to arrive. This is the little girl that my son was raising a few years ago and then Children & Youth took her away gave her back to the mother (who is now in jail) and now grandson Anthony now has total custody of her. What a mess Children & Youth made of this situation. No wonder Gemma is so confused.

Have a blessed day. Off to vote and then to visit with another sick friend.

Trudy, I was thinking about Gemma a few days ago and wondering what was happening with her. I'm glad your grandson has custody now.
Government agencies always think they are smarter than everybody else and just mess things up.

Spring is here, then it's gone, then it's back, then gone again. The lake level is up. It had started going down, and now it's raining again. Matt and Angie were going to come up on Saturday to put in the dock. I'm not sure this will be a good time to do it. We'll have to weight it down with buckets of water to keep it from floating away.

Jack the Terrorist is becoming very possessive. The last two times I've been there, when I gave Dan a hug when I was leaving Jack began barking at me. The first time I wasn't sure if he just happened to start barking or if it was because I hugged Dan. The second time I told him he's going to have to get over it because I"M TOP DOG not him. I've never had a dog do this. He's been respecting me when it comes to me telling him no, or leave it. I know I have to put an end to this immediately but I'm not exactly sure how to go about it. If he were a horse I know what I would do. I know how to be Boss Mare.

Indy, maybe you could look up Cesar Milan on YouTube and see what he would do with Jack. He seems to be really good.