First thing on the schedule for today was to get a plumber to repair the leaking pipe. I had gone outside for a minute, and didn’t hear the phone ring. There was a message from my mother. I was going to get to it after we got the plumbing situation taken care of. Because of the extreme temperatures, half of Ruidoso, and Capitan have burst pipes. Rudy found a plumber in Capitan, but no go. He couldn’t get out here for a while he was so backed up. Meanwhile, I was looking for a business card from a gentleman we sold our tractor to last summer. He does remodeling, and I figured he would know of a good plumber. As it turns out it was a good thing that the plumber Rudy called was too busy because Steve said he had used him, and was not pleased. He gave Rudy the name of a plumber in Ruidoso who was good, and fair. Unfortunately, he was booked solid until Friday. Finally Rudy called Collin. He did our new leach field, and Rudy found out (Yellow pages) that he has expanded into plumbing as well. He too was extremely busy, in some cases having to re-plumb whole houses, but he knows us, and knows we have livestock so he said he would try to get someone out here today. Yes!
I started answering a few emails when Mother called again. She was very upset. During the night Dad woke her and told her to call 911 because he was having chest pains. My Father will be 87 in July. In 1975 he had double bypass surgery. He has had a few episodes since then, but it generally was due to the fact that he forgot to take his medicine. Other than that surprisingly, he hasn’t had any problems through all these years. My Mother is on Oxygen, and has severe Fibromyalgia. She has to use a cane at times or a walker, and is very frail. She will be 83 in June. The EMT’s told her that they were going to take him to St. Joseph’s Hospital, and that the hospital would call her. She had to stay at home because she can’t drive. Well she hadn’t heard anything, and was frantic by this time. I told her not to worry I would find my Father.
They live in Tucson, AZ in an Independent Care facility. They just moved there this past fall. Mother didn’t want to move, but she had fallen, and had another concussion, and the doctors said the next time she might not survive. This was her third concussion, one of which was so bad they had to do brain surgery, and pick out the solidified fluids in her brain. She was knocked unconscious, and therefore didn’t know she had fallen. It was two weeks later that she started having problems, and was rushed to University Medical Center. Of three surgeries her surgeon had that day, all with the same problem, she was the only one to survive. Anyway I finally convinced her to give up the home they had been living in for over thirty years, and move to an independent care facility.
Getting back to Father, I called St Joseph’s, and they had no record of him being admitted. Rudy told me to call the fire department, but I couldn’t find that number, so I continued calling hospitals. I also had to email my brother, and let him know what was going on. Mother tried calling him, but he didn’t answer. Rudy found the number for the fire department, explained the situation, and then turned the phone over to me. He’s not immediate family so they really didn’t want to give him any information. Also they were asking question he didn’t know the answers to. I talked to a wonderful person named Norma and gave her all the information I knew. She said she would find out where my Father was, and have the hospital call me.
Norma was fantastic. Rudy left for Alamogordo, and shortly after that, I started getting calls. Father was at St Joseph’s, and had been admitted for observation about half an hour earlier. I spoke to his nurse, but she couldn’t really tell me anything except that he was doing fine. The doctor hadn’t written anything on his chart yet, but she would call me in about an hour (yeah right, that never happened). I still had to feed. Then I got a message from a person named Ed Marsh. He gave me a number to call only it was the wrong number. Why am I not surprised? I finally tracked him down, and he told me that they believed it wasn’t a heart attack, but a gastro problem. With his history, and his age they weren’t going to take any chances, so they were keeping him for observation overnight, and tests. Ed felt that Father would probably be released the next day.
I tried calling Mother but there was no answer, so I emailed Robert (my brother) and gave him an update. Mind you we still have all these problems at the ranch to take care of, and the horses still haven’t been fed. Off I go to feed the horses, and give them some snow to eat till we get the plumbing fixed. Some still had a lot of snow, but others had no more left in their stalls. They may have been thirsty, but food was top priority.
I got them all fed, went to the house to feed the rest of the animals, and then sat down to try to reach Mother. This time she answered. She was still frazzled, as she hadn’t heard anything from the hospital. I told her I found Dad and gave her all the information including his room number so she could call him. Needless to say she was greatly relieved. One of the first things she said was “you need to be here” With her deteriorating health, and memory, she can’t do the things she used to. While we were talking, Rudy called, and said Collin called and would have someone out today. I talked with Mother a little while longer, and by the time we were finished, she felt much better, and quite relieved.
Next I had to get hold of my brother. While all this was going on we lost our Internet line. In fact the only phone that worked was our main phone. All the extensions couldn’t connect. I had two numbers on my cell for Robert so I called the first. Well that was a Baptist Church, so I knew that number was no good. They had moved a couple years ago, and I figured it wasn’t a good number anymore, but I tried anyway. I called the second number, which turned out to be his cell so I got him up to speed. I also asked him to call Mother as this had really scared her, and she needed to talk to him. I also gave him Fathers number so he could call Father.
Finally I could sit down for a minute, when Rudy called, and said a couple of Collin’s guys would be here shortly. So much for that rest period! They showed up about fifteen minutes later. I took them out back where the leak was. It was one of the pipes connected to the water heater. Luckily, it was easy to get to as it was on the edge of the house. We took out one piece of skirting, and the pipe was right there. It was a little more complicated as there was a T joint involved. Still, and all, it only took about twenty minutes and they had it all done. I went down to the pump house to turn the pump back on while they watched for leaks. The pressure was holding and they could see no water or drips. Water at last!
It took a little while for the pipes to fill up so I took the opportunity to have a cup of coffee, and eat a grapefruit for breakfast. Once the pipes filled the first thing on my list was to empty one of the johns. The horses could wait that long. I went down to the barn, and opened the pipe down there. I went round to the automatic waterer’s, and had to chisel out ice. Some of them I had to chop out ice from the floats, as they were frozen solid. I got the water tank, put it in the gator and went up to the house to fill it. Two of the barn horses have buckets and water wasn’t getting to the far side of the barn. I got them first, checked the boys (whose tanks were filling up already), and ran up to the house to put air in one of the back tires. With the weight of the water tank (65 gallons), it was flat as a pancake. By this time Rudy was back with gas for the generator. The pipe in the barn was frozen and I couldn’t even turn on water. He was very frustrated and disgusted. The generator wouldn’t start. I told him it didn’t like me, and it was punishing him for letting me try to start it. He didn’t buy it. I told him not to worry about it, it’s nothing to haul water for the two barn horses. He went back to the house and was supposed to wait for me to fill the tank again and help me with the pasture horses. Well he didn’t quite make it. I found him taking a nap. Doesn’t matter, I’ll figure out something.
I got the water tank down to the pasture horses. They knew exactly what it was and were quite miffed that they were the last to get water. I went inside to look at their tank, and try to break up the ice. Silly girl, there ‘s no way on God’s green earth that I was going to be able to get rid of that ice. The girls were clustered around me, and the tank so I made a break for it. I ran up to the gate, while they stared at me as if to say, “what the hay are you doing?” Quickly I opened the gate, got the gator inside, and the gate closed before they reached me. As usual there was plenty of left over hay in the dump, so that kept them occupied instead of causing trouble for the most part. Lightning as always, wanted to see what else was in the gator to play with.
It takes a while for 65 gallons to empty so I took the opportunity to brush Sadie. I started by skirtching her forehead. She had her ears laid back (she’s so tough), and slowly but surely her head dropped lower and lower with her ears pinned back. She had all these scabbies on her forehead most of which I got out, but it bothered me. I checked her neck (she practically purred with that one), and it was clear but her back was not. Out came the currycomb, and I brushed her down real good. Sadie was in second heaven, still with her ears pinned back. She has to let you know that she’s a real tough cookie, right.
Next Lightning came over to see what she was missing. She is four, and trying to prove that she’s a dominant mare now. She runs away from me, but then her curiosity gets the better of her, and up she comes. I gave her pets and started brushing her. I also measured her, and she is now at 15.2 hands with more growing to do. She just might make it to 16 hands after all.
Whenever I’m in the stalls or the pasture doing something I always make time to groom the horses. It’s a natural thing for animals to groom one another. It strengthens the bonds between them. Humans are the only animals that don’t seem to do this. I love it, and so do the horses. Arabians especially are very connected to their humans. They need the show of affection, and closeness of their humans. They not only love hugs, and skirtches, but also will seek them out much more quickly than some breeds. To them it’s a show of affection, a bond between human and horse that is magical. It’s not a chore, but rather a special time to connect, and become one with your best friend. It is as special for me as it is for them.
Finally I’m done. They’ve had their fill of snacks, and water, and are contentedly standing around. I make a dash for it, and get through he gate before they catch up to me. I’m all puttered out, and the only thing I want by now is a cup of coffee, and a little something to eat. Unfortunately I didn’t look at the time but drank my coffee with tortillas, and cheese. When I finish I look at the time thinking that I might be able to take a small nap. Think again ding-dong, oops it’s 5:24 pm, and way past feeding time. Off I go back to the barn to feed. I get everyone fed including the dogs, and go to wake Rudy from his nap. His head hurt too bad for him to eat which was a good thing since I’m not hungry any more, and I certainly don’t feel like doing anything like fixing dinner. We both sit in our chairs watching TV as we have no energy for anything else. Rudy goes to bed early, and after a while I sit at the computer to write. I still have to clean the house, which is a total disaster, wash clothes (I have nothing left that’s in any way clean), get hay, run to Alamo, pay bills. And do my chores down at the barn. I’m tired just thinking about it. It has been a long stressful day and it’s time for this child to pass out.
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