Archives for November 2019

Had an appointment to sell my 3-point log-splitter at 11:00, so I set the alarm to make sure I didn’t oversleep. Managed to get a good night sleep and felt much better when I got up just before 8:00. Then I got a message from the mother of a good friend that Hubby had mentored years ago, she’s been looking for a rental in the area, with no luck, and I told her that my house was for sale, and that I might rent it to the right person (which includes her, of course!) She wanted her husband to see it, but they were pressed for time, and had to meet almost immediately. I hustled Hubby out of bed and we were on our way in less than a half hour, and met up with them at the house, which they loved! She had seen it before, but her hubby hadn’t, and he fell in love with it immediately! We talked for a bit, and came to some tentative terms, then they ran off so he could make a flight back to Florida to pick up a truck and move up to Tennessee. What a turn of events! After months of no action, to suddenly have a friend decide she wants to move back to the area and to have someone in the house will be great! A load off my mind! Not to mention a little income to help with our travel and house expenses! Then I met with the log-splitter buyer and they hauled that off behind a tractor, then Hubby and I went down to Manchester, grabbed some breakfast at the Waffle House, I stopped for fuel and eggs, and got back to the farm mid-afternoon. Rosie was just getting load of firewood in, and there were a bunch of people around, so we all pitched in and got it done in short order. Many hands do make light work! Then I got Rosie and her farmhand to help me load some stuff I had picked up at the house up into the trailer’s “attic,” stuff I wanted in Florida but didn’t want to haul around all summer, so since we’re heading south next week, now was the time to get it! Finally, it was getting dark, I brought the horses in and spent a quiet evening.

Not sure what happened, but for some reason I had a hard time getting to sleep last night. I felt like I was on a sugar rush or an adrenaline high, even though I hadn’t done any particularly active before going to be. It was going to be so cold overnight I decided to leave Lola in the barn in the room with the wood stove, but she somehow managed to escape and came scratching at the door at about 2:30 in the morning. I let her in, and she wouldn’t settled down, she scratched at the bedroom door and scratched at the exterior door until she scratched the screen to pieces. I gave up, got up, put her out in the truck, turned on a propane tank (the one that was on had emptied out during the night so the furnace wasn’t working) and finally got back to bed. It must have been about 4:00 when I finally fell asleep, so I guess I shouldn’t have been surprised that when I woke up it was almost 11:00! Got up and took care of the horses, then got Hubby up, and before we knew it, it was time to start dialyzing. I was so tired I could barely get him hooked up, but fortunately it was an uneventful session, and we just watched old Westerns, which kept us awake just fine. Went to bed before it was too late, hoping tonight I can catch up on some sleep!

Woke up once again to Hubby’s defibrillator alarm going off, decided to keep the horses inside today since it got very cold after the storm front went through. Had a good visit with the doctor, spent some time chatting with the male nurse that we’ve known for years now and who has helped us out many times. The doctor agrees we need to do another cardioversion to get his heart back in rhythm, and we’ve managed to secure an appointment early Monday morning. That works perfectly, as he’s scheduled to get his back fixed on Wednesday, has his monthly clinic on Thursday and the plan is to leave the following Monday, so I’ll have the weekend to pack up, unless we decide to leave early. I put a heavy blanket on Apollo tonight, and left the new lined rainsheet I just bought on Flash, as it’s supposed to get down into the low 20’s tonight, and I’m afraid even in the barn it will get too cold. I put a jacket on Lola and put her in the sitting room in the barn, as it’s too cold to be in the truck, and I’ve been stoking the wood stove all day so it’s pretty warm in there. After a quiet evening, we’re off to bed!

Didn’t get as good a night sleep as we might have, I didn’t put Lola in the truck tonight, and she grew increasingly restless, scratching at the door to get out, as well as scratching at the bedroom door. When she started having a barking fit and wouldn’t quiet down, I finally got up, put my bathrobe on and put her in the truck. I don’t know what we’re going to do next week when the temps drop down in the teens (fingers crossed the forecast is wrong!), but for last night, she went into the truck. She doesn’t seem to mind, she buries herself deep into her luxury bed, but I don’t know if that will be enough when it’s so much colder. Wait and see! Rain came in around 4:00 a.m. and was steady most of the day, but I did manage to slip in between a few breaks to feed the horses and get them out in the pasture. Even though it was raining, the temps were still fairly warm, so I wasn’t worried. Dialyzed Hubby in the afternoon and watched some old westerns, a perfect way to spend a rainy afternoon! When it was time for the horses to come, I had a bit of a scare. When I called Apollo, he answered with his usual whinny and headed my way, but there was no sign of Flash! Usually he’s within a few yards of him, but I couldn’t see him anywhere. Finally, just as Apollo was making his final approach to the gate, Flash popped up over the top of a hill and came running towards us. I had put Flash’s halter down in the barn, so I decided to try something. I put Apollo’s halter on, and just opened the gate, hoping Flash would follow, and he most certainly did! He headed toward the wrong barn, though, but stopped at the door as if to say, “This isn’t right!,” then when Apollo and I got into the right barn, he came trotting over. Apollo went straight into his stall, and as Flash came up the aisle, I just waved him into his stall, though it looked liked he was going in there anyway. Fabulous! They are both such good horses, and I can’t wait until we’re back on the road in a horse camp so we can be riding again! The rain stopped and a cold wind came in, we’re expecting freezing temps by morning. Brrr! Wish we were already in Florida!! Won’t be long now, though, can’t wait! Hubby headed to bed early, not feeling too well, but we have a doctor’s appointment tomorrow, hopefully we can get him fixed up. Off to bed for me now!

Got up when Hubby’s heart alarm went off at 7:45, as has been the habit the last week since it started going off, just in time to receive a phone call from his heart doctor’s office saying they’ve moved up his appointment to this Friday, thank goodness. We have such a busy week next week, I was beginning to doubt we would have time to get everything done (and I’m still not sure about it), but at least we have a starting point. We left the house early, went to Bedford Tack to get a new rain sheet for Flash, as he managed to destroy his in the field the other day, and they were having an incredible sale, where I picked one up for just $5.00, woo-hoo! Then we had a nice lunch at the Midway Diner, Hubby was in the mood for liver for some strange reason, though all they had was deep fried chicken liver rather than his usual beef liver and onions, but he was happy. We missed breakfast by two minutes, so I was forced to eat a burger instead of my usual breakfast, which I had hoped for. Then a quick trip to Walmart for some items, then home for an afternoon of relaxation. The temps reached over 70, so Hubby stayed outside in his gravity chair and napped most of the afternoon, while I did more work on my computer. I’ve volunteered to help the folks that put together the OTL (Ocean to Lake) trail riding event, and started to put together a media list for the purpose of getting wider coverage and attract folks from further away, so that was my focus this afternoon. Sat in on a conference call of their meeting this evening, then settled down for the rest of an uneventful night.

I don’t know if it was the busy week or the travel or what, but Hubby and I still feel bushed from the recent activity. I think it might be worse for him since his heart defibrillator alarm has gone off, and evidently he’s back in A-fib, which always wears him out, and I’ve been calling the doctor’s office but still haven’t gotten an answer about what to do. In any event, other than the usual chores, we relaxed most of the day, with only the routine of dialysis to expend our energy on.

Still feeling a bit tired, but decided to try to finally fix the leaky toilet, only to discover that the parts I bought wouldn’t fit, so I ran out and picked up some more, this time taking the connector with me to insure that it would fit. Unfortunately, once I got back and tried to do the job, it became clear that I needed an entire water valve, that the part I bought wasn’t going to make it work, so I ordered the part online. Then we decided that since we had some time, we would take the truck down to Advance Auto and get the two batteries replaced, considering the incident on Saturday and the knowledge that these batteries are over six years old now and slow to start even on a good day. That took some time, and once we got back, we spent the rest of the day resting, still trying to recover from the weekend.

Quiet day, slept fairly late, spent the morning unpacking, doing laundry and giving Hubby dialysis, though we both felt exhausted from the travel. That was enough energy spent to get us through the day!

Didn’t need to get up quite so early, finished packing, had an uneventful trip to the airport and car rental return, got through security no problem, and didn’t have too long to wait before we boarded. Sorry to say we weren’t thrilled with this flight either. Our flight attendant only offered us water or juice before takeoff (and the people behind us could only get water as I took the last juice and he didn’t bother to get any more) then we waited for more than an hour after takeoff to finally get our first real drink. We had a crying baby in the first row for a while before it finally sent to sleep, and lunch came so late I was having to rush to finish it before we landed in DFW. The only positive things was when I finally did get my drink, he brought two extra bottles, since one in the bottom of this glass looked like nothing and wouldn’t have lasted five minutes with the meal. The rest of the trip went well, but it was quite a shock going from the 70’s in SoCal (supposed to be closer to 90 by the afternoon!),to near freezing when we got off the plane in Nashville. Then, not too surprisingly, when we got out to the truck, it wouldn’t start. I had known the batteries were getting a bit old, and I even brought along our little jump starter, but unfortunately that wasn’t enough to get it started, but thankfully, Nashville posts an emergency phone number on every shuttle stop, and they sent someone out to help, and we were started dup pretty quickly, at no charge! Of course, I gave the guy something for his troubles anyway, we were just thankful we weren’t stuck for long! An uneventful ride home, where I discovered that Lola was quite comfortable laying on the couch in the wood-stove warmed Tack Room, which is a kind of gathering place in the barn, with one of the other dogs on a chair nearby. I left her out there so that we wouldn’t be disturbed in the morning, and headed straight into the trailer. It wasn’t long before the exhaustion caught up with us, despite the time change from California, plus gaining another hour with the end of Daylight Savings Time overnight tonight.

Another early start, another day with our bright group of students made the day pass quickly. Hubby gave it his all during the morning, but then started not feeling well just before lunch, so I took him to the room so he could rest for the afternoon while I completed the workshop on my own. He slept most of the afternoon, getting up just before I returned after the class, and we sat together and had a few snacks and a glass of wine for me while we got caught up on the day. After awhile I took a trip to Walmart to return the tripod (I already have two, and didn’t need another!), but kept the video camera, as my old Canon is really a still camera, and the video feature isn’t that great, and I’d rather keep one dedicated to the job anyway. Did some preliminary packing, but still ended up going to bed nice and early so we would be well-rested for our long travel day tomorrow.