Oh my…

Is it just me, or are there fewer hours in every day? Who said life in the country was boring? I don’t have time to get bored. By the end of the day I’m so exhausted I can’t wait to crawl into bed. Ergo I haven’t kept up to date on life on the ranch. I’m filthy dirty, how’s that for an update? Not quite what you expected? Ok here goes.

There really hasn’t been much to talk about, my father’s doing great, my mother not so much. The new medication the neurologist put mother on had side effects that were too severe, and after several phone calls (which were never returned), I just took her off them. I finally got her to Doc Si, and he too agreed that she has Parkinson’s. He put her back on one of the meds only on a much lower dose. Tomorrow I will start another med, which should take care of the uncontrollable tremors allowing me to get her in a wheel chair again. Unfortunately the med that was getting her to talk again, and helping to restore at the very least fragmented memories, was the one with the worst of the side effects. Poor thing was terrified that she was falling when she was in bed. Because the uncontrollable tremors are not localized to one side of her body, Doc Si believes the cause is in the spinal column. If this new med doesn’t do anything then he has to re-think his diagnosis. Her pain is actually subsiding some, and he’s not concerned with the amount of Tylenol I’m giving her, so I’ll keep doing what I’m doing.

My father had the cataract removed from his other eye on Friday, and has to see a laser surgeon about removing some film remaining on his first eye. He had some chest pains evidently Saturday night most likely because he was off his blood thinners because of the surgery. His PT/INR is, as expected low, but we are to keep him on a 5/2 day regime, and we will check it again in a week. Other than that he’s doing great. The scary part is that once his vision is back to normal he has every intention of starting to drive again. His driving scared me as a kid, he’s now 87 (almost 88), he has some form of dementia, and he wants to drive? We may have to have some discussions on that. Hopefully one of his doctors will discourage him, as I probably won’t have anything to say about it. Thank God we live in a very small town. Maybe they won’t give him a NM driver’s license, hum, I wonder who I can bribe!

The only down side in this entire mother, father invasion stuff is that I’ve put on half of the weight I had lost. My answer to temptation is to remove it from the premises. If it’s not there you can’t eat it. Now there’s ice cream, brownies, cookies, and all sorts of things in the house. On top of which because I’m spending so much time taking care of them I don’t have time to spend outside doing that wonderful manual labor that has kept my weight in check. I was not pleased to see that scale go up, and up. The last two days, I have spent much time trying to convince a round of hay that it really does want to move. That helped a bit. Then yesterday I put up mothers bird feeder, and a week ago or so (no idea when) I did finish my chicken run. I also lost two babies, one of each. I thought they were big enough so they couldn’t skinny through the fencing, but I guess not. First I lost one, and then a couple of days later I came home to half a dozen chicks where they’re not supposed to be. As I scurried them through the gate, I saw one find a hole that was just big enough for her to squirm through. Luckily the dogs are so used to the chickens, that they totally ignored the fact that they were out of the hen house. The two I lost I am assuming wandered too far, and ended up as hawk bait. They have to eat too you know. One of my hens also died. The babies were just too much for her. The other one has gotten over her fear of the babies, and now has no problem pecking at them to get her way. That’s why I wanted the big run. I have some chicken wire left over from doing the dogs yard, and tomorrow or the next day (who knows when) I’ll put it up around the fencing. Maybe that will work a couple more pounds off. I’m desperate here.

The horses have been sorely neglected during all this. I have brushed them a bit, but they need it again. I also need to worm everyone. The ones that get goodies are easy, the rest of them are sure to be a pain. No matter what flavor you get they know it’s wormer, and they insist that it is horrible stuff that is sure to kill them. Almost everyone needs their feet done, manes combed, and just plain attention. I had to rearrange the barn again to allow for the round bales (photos coming soon), giving me room to store more hay if, and when the price goes down. We finally got some rain, and wouldn’t you know a big nasty storm hit after the first cutting, and before a lot of farmers could get it all baled. Needless to say hay is still at a premium. What a mess we’re in. One good thing it looks like I might actually start working soon. It means time away from mother, and the horses, but it also means I might be able to start paying some bills again. I don’t mind not having money to spend, I hate having bills I can’t pay. This is the first time in my life that I have been in this situation, and I don’t like it one bit. As St. Therese always said, “this too will pass”. I just wish it would hurry up so we can get on with our life.

That’s about it except for all the pretties, I have been buying, and planting for mother. I bought more chocolate mint too. I have three plants sitting on the porch to plant. I thought possibly our neighbors were back or someone was turning the pump on for them so their dirt tank could fill. Sadly when I put the dogs to bed tonight, I found the carpet wet all around the water softener that hasn’t been used in years. Tomorrow I guess I get to crawl under the house to try, and figure out where exactly the leak is, and how I can possibly fix it. Anyway there hasn’t been enough water to plant anything. I did plant the rhubarb plant I bought for father. He loves rhubarb pie, doesn’t everybody? See what I mean, how can I possibly keep my weight in check??? It will take two years for it to mature, but it is well worth the wait. I know it can take the cold, and where I planted it there is lots of runoff from the roof. The daylilies I have there are always big and green even when we haven’t had much rain. My house is ever so slowly getting rearranged to accommodate added furniture. Today I will called Dish to set up an appointment to get cable run to both mother, and father’s rooms. Father insisted that they didn’t need TV’s in their rooms (I knew better), and now he keeps asking when I’m going to call, and get their TV’s set up. He really is too cute. The older they get the more I love my parents. In so many ways I’m so very thankful that I will have them with me in their last days. Not everyone is so blessed, I am grateful that I am.