December 2015

ELLEN
Welcome home! Sounds like you had a good time! I just have a couple more things to shop for, then I will be done. My tree is still in storage, though.

Donnie and I are going to look at a new to us horse trailer tomorrow. I found it on Craigslist. It's about 70 miles from here, above Roanoke. It's an aluminum gooseneck 2 horse trailer with a fiberglass roof. The pix look nice. The owner is a retired endurance rider whose hip replacements have not turned out well.

Keep fingers crossed!!

Well here was my day yesterday, not exactly what I had planned. At 7:05 while I was getting the laundry together the house phone rang and I heard a voice saying "help me help me". What the heck..it was George, he had fallen outside on the ramp and was laying in the yard. I couldn't find him, I thought he had fallen by the garage, but he was in the corner of the house by the propane tank. I was running all around the house searching for him. I called 911 cause he was having chest pains and couldn't move. I had to run down the road because the ambulance was going up the neighbors driveway. The ambulance finally arrived and off to the ER we went. Good thing it wasn't a heart attack, he would have been dead. Nothing broken and not a heart attack just bruised ribs and hurt pride. The only heart attack was mine, when I saw him laying on the ground on his face, shaking like a leaf. I spent the morning on the phone with the kids and friends. Stacy & Amy came to the hospital, Kevin & Laura came to the house after everyone left, I spent the afternoon making the Lady Locks by myself. I think he just didn't want to help with the cookies. They aren't filled but today is another day. We spent a night not sleeping much, he tried sleeping in the bed but that was a no go, so he spent the night in the living room. He is up and moving around this morning, just very slowly. Make plans and God laughs...that seems to be our life lately...

Love & prayers for all...

TRUDY
Oh, dear Lord. I am so glad neither of you had a heart attack. What a terrible scare. Big hugs for you both....



Now sit down for a few minutes....

Trudy, scary happenings, girlfriend! glad he is going to be fine. is my black cloud at ur place? send it on, but no fair sending it back!

Indy, sorry about things going awry in the workplace....

Rick, glad you r officially retired now....sit in ur easy chair and say ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.

Harry is in surgery now.....will take 4 hours......

Later tater tots!

Oh TRUDY........the worst scare!!!
Praising the Lord all is close to fine.....I'm sure George is still sore.
Today will be better.

INDY, I sure hope all goes easy and well in your new job search............
take overs can turn into such a bad deal.

YAY DONNIE on the almost finish up of your doctorate.

RICK, yay for your retirement........re tires is like old tires and tired.
So now you're re re re tired and a new kind of tired!!!

CB, prayers for you & Harry.........this is hard on you, too! Let us hear
a report later today.

Harry is in his room and doing well. doc said surgery went good. it was faster than they anticipated. he is talking and is hungry.....!

Good sign CB................

That's good news, CB. I hope his recovery will be faster than expected too.

Trudy, that must have been really scary to not be able to find him. I hope he recovers quickly too.

Pt had him up walking and to the potty, did exercises and then hooked him up to a machine every 4 hours to bend the knee....made me cringe just wat5ching.....but he is on some good meds!

Got home at 4 and got the crew all fed and watered and petted....and I just got fed.....ahhhhh....will be in bed early tonight. had to get up at 4 this morning....but he was first in, so didn't mind. so far, so good.....

Sweet dreams y'all....

Good news all around!!

George did NOT have a heart attack...
Trudy is okay and busy making her special Christmas cookies...
Harry is on his way to knee joint recovery...
CB has the situation under control at home...
Rose and Robin both have new mares.....
Rick is retired...again....
Ellen had a fun weekend with cousins...
Donna and Jack got their tree up without major blows ....
Indyapp may be starting a new exciting and profitable career....
Graymare is really enjoying her new dog, Rex-Tex-Dex.....
Donnie is getting a lot done on his never-ending dissertation....

AND I JUST GOT A NEW HORSE TRAILER!!!

Hooray, on the new trailer!
And you're right. There is good news.

Ark, congrats on ur new trailer! do you have a gooseball in ur truck? get one that drops down in case u want to haul anything in ur bed that has to be flat....

Second day and he's had exercises and sat up in chair and walked in the hall using walker. lil more pain today tho.....but its normal. I got the critters all fed, got my tires checked, and. made the house payment....and came to hospital by 930! I did good! for me.


Western channel on and he is snoozin off and on....glad I have my phone to play with.

Ark, you do know we need pictures, don't you? Let's get with it.

CB, I hope Harry continues to make good improvement and will be able to go home soon.

Spose to go home today, he says first things first, he's going to take an uninterru0pted 4 hour nap when he gets home! no rest for the weary in the hospital! we will have to go to wal mart and get his pain pills and some soup. the iv pain meds make him nauseous, but he is using his walker and putting weight on his leg just fine.

Only one of the daughters called to ck on him. I am having a hard bitter time with the other 2. I hope I make it thru this.......how the heck did I raise such selfish lil brats?
Oh well.....I'd like to paddle their butts and hard.....for being so uncaring toward their dad and me too. arghhhhhh!

Some prayers for Tuzee Susan's husband, Mike, would be appreciated. About 6 weeks ago, he fell and was unconscious for a short time. He wound up in the hospital for about a week and a half and was losing blood internally, though they didn't know why. The tests showed anemia, early congestive heart failure, and atrial fibrillation. They thought they had everything going the right way and released him. Susan got him signed up with the VA. In that process, they admitted him for about 5 or 6 days. He was released on Tuesday from the VA. The next morning, he was in distress so she called 911 and he was taken to the local hospital ER. She was there all day, then left to go feed her horses. After checking in with the hospital several times, she finally went to bed to be awakened by a phone call that they had transferred him to another hospital where he would undergo surgery for a damaged spleen that was causing the internal bleeding.
At this point, he is out of surgery and is no longer losing blood.

Well, lash me with a zillion wet noodles for my failure to write here, but know that I'm still keeping up with the reading part -- wincing with the pain and dancing when there's joy!
Ellen, tell Tuzee that I'm sending Mike some big, Maine, heartfelt hugs, along with hope that the problem's now been solved, with only speedy recovery ahead.
And CB, that goes for Harry, too, with cheers to you for holding down the fort at home with such pluck. How is your foot?
Ark, I loved your listing of the good things. And, yes, I, too, want to see that trailer -- with pics of the house renovations, too! Congratulations!
Rick, hooray for retirement-- the real, final, thing! It's good to see you so happy about that.
Lots to respond to, here -- more than I can begin to remember. I'll have to fill in later.
I can offer some small excuse for not writing. Had some serious breathing problems which slowed me down to a crawl through the late summer and fall -- and which I think (I hope, I hope!) have now been addressed -- thanks in part to a new (to me)med, and absenting myself from some irritants, namely, dust from my scroll saw, fumes from my new inflatable kayak, and wood smoke in excess. Then, after I zipped off the hospital by ambulance late one November afternoon with what was afterwards diagnosed as a panic attack, my doctor put me on an antidepressant that backfired. I can't really blame her, because I'd been on it with no problems before, following my bicycle accident, but this time -- good grief. Now I'm glad beyond belief to be back in the land of the living.
And why wouldn't one have a panic attack, given today's news, eh??!! I also think I'm still missing my horse, whom I lost two days before my birthday in April (I always joked that he was what I had instead of a husband, but now I'm convinced that there was a lot more truth in that than I realized). And I'm also missing my teeth, that last of which I lost in mid-July. (I've got a full set of china choppers, but they just ain't the same, sigh....)
Warm here, very abnormally so. Ellen, I think of you, as I think I've said before, when I pass a lake here that's ringed with houses. Temps well above freezing, so all open water with not a trace of ice. Good for the fuel bill but sad for all the ice fishermen. I saw two men fishing from a boat in a thick fog today as I sped by.

Hi Beech! I've been thinking about you, wondering if you were okay. I'm sorry to hear that you've had a hard time this summer and fall, and hope that you'll start feeling a lot better soon.
We've had a mild December so far. Today was nearly 60. It will be in the 40s and 50s until next Friday, then normal December will hit. Neighbor Travis finally got his pier out this evening and took one last boat ride in his little outboard motorboat before pulling it up and turning it upside down for the winter.
I want it to get cold enough for the lake to freeze solid for January since we want to drop some trees on the ice to make clean up a little easier, and make moving the firewood easier too.

Tuzee's Mike is now minus one spleen and resting sedated for a couple of days. He has a drain in the incision that will remain until at least Saturday.

I managed to get all the storage tubs out of the garage attic today, then put them in a little room between the house and garage. When I opened the door to the little room, there was a little brown bat clinging to the wall. I thought he was dead, but when I lightly touched him with a broom, he moved. He was moving so slowly, I wasn't afraid of him, but didn't really want to keep him for pet either. I called the DNR to see if they wanted to come get him and relocate him. The nice guy I talked to told me to just leave the door open and he would leave. It took about an hour for him to decide this was not a good place to hibernate and he was gone.

Tomorrow will see the beginning of the tree installation.

CB:
 Good to hear progress on Harry's knee!  He will be out riding his horse again soon.   I am watching carefully, I want it to go easily, painlessly, and heal quickly and be a good role model for Donnie in the future when he finally gets enough of pain in his knee.

ELLEN:
 Please pass along my best wishes to TUZEE and her husband.  Scary stuff.

BEECH, BEECH, BEECH!!  
 Welcome back, stranger!  It is great seeing you!  I am sorry for your health problems, I hope you have it all under control now.  Maybe you should get a pony to take care of.....I think if and when I can't keep horses, I will try to have a pony to hug.  Your weather sounds much better than normal.  We are going to be close to 70 degrees on Saturday!!   I should be worried about global warming, but am basking in the wonderful December weather.   Don't be away so long, you are really missed!


The trailer:  




It is a gently used 2001 Hawk trailer,  aluminum skinned, steel frame, 2 horse straight load with ramp and gooseneck.  They are going to bring it here on Saturday since our truck isn't set up for a gooseneck yet.   Donnie went over it with his engineer's eyes and didn't find too much wrong with it.  We will have to replace the tires soon, but the floor and everything seems in good shape.   I think we will enjoy it.

I had a nice ride on Areion and Ivan today when Lori came for lessons.  Areion tested Lori's patience by minorly bucking a little when she was asked to go into a canter on that lead she hates.....twice.  Lori stopped her and gave her a loud lecture...twice.  Then Areion got with the program and went right into that lead with no issues.  I rode her  at a walk and trot after that and Areion didn't give me any problems at all.   Ivan was very nice.  We are still working on leg aids and he has issues with bending to the left, so we worked on that.  After we were done, I used Lori's very itchy horsehair neck rope to ride Ivan without reins or bridle.  We did better than Lori expected!  It was fun.

Ark, tell donnie its been good so far. he's getting around with a walker pretty good! he is taking some pain meds, but he is enjoying a nap now. I have to wake him every 2 hours tho so he can change positions for next few days.until he gets on to pt 4 times a week next week....

The critters r surviving just fine....things going smoothly....knock on wood.

Beech its good to see you here! hope u feel better.

Ellen, guess winter will get here, but right now we r having indian summer and not fall.

I'm ready for a long winters nap myself.

I had to go to the store to get a few things and went into the store where that gal wrote the check on my account. if u remember the police got the surveillance tape of her then....welllllllll guess who I ran into at the store today....yup ya guessed it.....called the cops and she was bookin out of the store...they weren't able to catch her but they got some better pics of her at least. now the kicker is, she recognized ME! who the heck is she? our shopping carts hit as I was on the end cap aisle and she came down an aisle and bang! OMG! I was stunned! speechless! and she booked! now how does she know who I am????? I've never seen her before this situation....someone had to point me out or shown her a picture of me.....anyone have any ideas? talk about being shocked into inactivity....man oh man! I hope they catch her....I'd really like to know the how and who and why.....

Wow, Ark, that is some trailer! Thanks for the pic.

Ellen, I liked the bat story. Reminded me of the December afternoon nine years ago, on about the third day of my very first week in this house, when I spent a couple of hours using a long stick to try to persuade a porcupine to exit my basement. He was up on the edge of the foundation, and we went round and round, me poking away and yelling to beat the band, and he (or she) passing by the door and ignoring it time after time. I finally set and baited a have-a-heart trap in the doorway and left the door open. In the morning, the trap and the bait were untouched but Porky was gone. Must've waddled right over it. It was only afterward that I learned that porcupines are nocturnal, so the solution was just to leave the door open and go to bed myself.

Gosh, CB, you have more stories!!! I could never survive them all but I love hearing about them. Glad Harry's mending -- and Tuzee's Mike, too. You are all in my thoughts.

Ark, that is a beautiful trailer. Use it a LOT and have FUN.

This shows a guy who spends his entire life training horses.
http://www.pawmygosh.com/12-horses/

ARK, thanks so much for posting Willow's picture. She is a very pretty girl and sweet natured for the most part! (She has decided she is boss mare in her and Essie's pasture). Tomorrow Robin and I are going to ride them together for the first time, fingers crossed they do well and then Sunday if all goes well we are going to trailer to Lee State Park for a very nice trail ride!!!!! Wahooo, Mother Nature is really smiling on us, 74 and sunny tomorrow, 76 and partly cloudy Sunday! Perfect! Will post more when I get back from feeding the 11 dogs! CB, So glad Harry is showing steady healing and ARK congrats on that beautiful trailer and Donnie's new recliner. BBL

Oh my Trudy, I am so thankful George is only sore and slow today, could have been so much worse, also grateful that Susan's Mike is  safe and not bleeding internally any more, think Susan said he would be facing hip replacement when he recovers.  Beech, Beech, goodness my friend you sure have had a rough year.  Prayers and good wishes for it all to be easier and healthier for you now!  Oh dear Indy, people/owners can be so dumb and seriously affect so many others.  Good luck with finding something much better and more profitable for you.  Syd, I thought Teddy had been with you for a while now, your profile boy right?  He's a gorgeous boy!  Ark, now we both have trailers to support our habits, life is GREAT!  Hope Donnie can complete his doctorate soon, so he can just relax in his new recliner.  Ellen, bet you are anxiously waiting for real winter to come, I'm enjoying the delay of cold! Rick, I notice you didn't repeat what Robin told you about the barriers and your mis-judgement! LOL

Rose, if the rest of the winter stays like this, I would be happy. Not gonna happen. Never does.
I would like a couple of weeks of lake ice so I can get those trees down, then the ice can go away.

Trudy, how is George doing now?

This indian summer has been nice! but its to rain next couple of days...1 to 3 inches....yuck...mud!

Hubby had pt today and his therapist says he is doing great....time and pt will do the trick. me, I am doing chores, grocery shopping, laundry, cooking and driving and cleaning...whew....my legs now hurt! a lil while ago we heard something that sounded like a tree fell or a small explosion....I went and checked on the critters, but didn't see anything....but the doxies were sure barking up a storm.....now they r settled back down. dunno? hate that!

Well dishes r calling my name....and then my bedchair is wanting me to cuddle with it tonight....for a snooze, but I'm awake everytime he gets up...he ain't very quiet!

Rose hope ya have a nice ride! ark, nice trailer...now both you gals can load up and come visit and ride. the trails here.