Archives for 2019

Yet another day with a doctor’s appointment, this time for Hubby’s back problem. Last time we saw this doctor he managed to fix one side of his back, but not the other, so we’re hoping he can do a better job this time. We did some quick shopping first, saw the doctor, who unfortunately was running a bit late, which meant by the time we got back we got a late start on dialysis, but it was thankfully an uneventful session that allowed me to do some prep work for our travel day tomorrow. Once again, my horses were brilliant and came to me when I called, quietly working their way around the pack in order to prevent a stampede, and then running right up to me at the gate once they were clear. They are SO GOOD!! Managed to finish dialysis at just about 7:00, which gave us a bit of time in the evening to relax. Haven’t started packing yet, but our flight isn’t until early afternoon, so I figure we have time. Heading off to bed to make sure we’re bright and ready in the morning!

Hubby had to get up a couple of times during the night, which meant neither one of us got the best night’s sleep, unfortunately. I had planned to go up to the house because I had someone coming to look at some furniture, but that was canceled, so I opted to do a little house cleaning and then take the rest of the day off. It’s going to be a busy week, and I need to get a little rest before it starts, so we spent most of the day watching old movies and just doing the laundry. When it was time to bring the horses in from the pasture for the night, I was gratified that my two guys came straight to me when I called, circling the entire herd of about 20 other horses all standing around eating out of a large round bale of hay, and breaking into a trot and canter to arrive at the gate, eager to come in! None of the other horses moved, and I was so proud of my guys! I hope they are as cooperative when it’s time for our hostess Rosie to call them in. I’m hoping to try that out tomorrow if she gets back from work on time. Meanwhile, off to bed!

Both of us slept long hours, but Hubby was still feeling not so great when he got up this morning, and that only worsened during our dialysis session, unfortunately. I let the horses out in the pasture this morning, since it finally quit raining after a long night of rain, and they needed to stretch their legs. The dialysis session ran long because we had a lot of problems, finishing up shortly before dark. It started to rain again during the afternoon, but stopped just before dinnertime, and the horses were waiting by the gate for me at the right time. I don’t know if they heard my voice or if they’re just getting into a routine, but I was glad they were there. Rosie helped me get them into their stalls, and we settled down for the evening. Hubby went to bed early again, still not feeling too well, and I was ready to follow shortly thereafter.

Decided I needed to check on the house, so I gathered some cleaning, kissed Hubby good-bye and headed up the mountain. Was happy to see that it hadn’t collected too much dust, but there was some mildew on some of the furniture and the refrigerator, so I cleaned that up with some nice smelling Pine Sol Lavender, which left a nice smell throughout the house. Had the collected mail delivered, so I had a stack of that to go through when I got back, stopped for fuel on the way back, but otherwise an uneventful day. Hoping to sell a few items in the next few days, but I can’t seem to pin my buyers down very well, looks like another trip up here on Sunday. Rained all day, supposed to rain again all day tomorrow, so I never bothered to let the horses out, they stayed nice and comfy in their big dry stalls. I managed to get most of the downloading done on the iPad, a necessity having changed clinics, and I got it all done except the PIN number, which I’m hoping my nurse can provide me with, even though she went on vacation today. It’s all new to everyone, this being able to wipe out the iPad remotely, so it’s a work in progress. Hubby felt really tired really early tonight, headed off the bed by 8:00. Hoping it’s just that he didn’t sleep well last night, he’s been feeling really good the last few days. We’ll know in the morning!

Once again we headed out to the clinic in Tullahoma after I did my chores and let the horses out in the pasture, grabbing some breakfast at Burger King on the way. Spent the required hour plus talking with the doctor, the nurse, the dietician and the social worker, all of whom confessed that we were an inspiring story to them, that most of their patients don’t have anywhere near the determination to keep living life to the fullest after a diagnosis of “end stage renal disease.” We told them half the problem was the name of the dang thing, it sounds so final! Hubby explained that he just views dialysis as a few hours spend with an artifical kidney that does the job his real kidneys used to do, and that it’s no big deal. Again, the staff were rather astonished at his positive outlook. Anyway, after that, we did a little bit of shopping, then headed back to camp where we did a dialysis session and chilled for the day. Glad to say the horses are starting to get used to this routine, coming when I called them from the pasture, and no trouble getting them into their appointed stall. After all, dinner was waiting for them in there! Settled down for a quiet evening.

A slightly later start to the morning, as we only had to be in Tullahoma to sign some paperwork to transfer clinics at 10:30, which gave me plenty of time to get the horses back out in the pasture and make a pot of coffee. Arrived early, spent about an hour, then we ran into Waffle House for breakfast (far superior than the one we had in McMinnville yesterday!), then stops at Tractor Supply and Walmart before arriving back at the farm right on schedule to await a delivery window of 1:00-5:00. Of course, instead of being the first delivery of the day, which I typically seem to be, we were the last, so the driver didn’t arrive until almost 5:00. Spent the afternoon relaxing in a couple of lounge chairs in the sun, though, while Hubby read and I worked on finally getting my diary caught up!!! This has been such an exercise, since my computer crashed a few weeks ago and I’ve been having to retrieve everything ever since, not to mention not being able to write new entries while it was down. Finally caught up though! Had to get the horses out of the very large pasture just as they were discovering an open gate to a new section, but thankfully, they came to me after a bit and I was able to catch them and get them into the barn for dinner. I think they’ll be more willing once they understand the routine, so it should be easier in the future. They were happily munching away when I left. Finally got to relax during the evening, and I was glad of that, as it promises to be a busy week!

Set the alarm for an early start, and it was still pretty dark out when I got up, what with overcast skies and being on the western edge of the eastern time zone. Made good time finishing the packing, and managed to pull away from the campsite and subsequently the RV dump before 9:00. We had an uneventful drive with just one stop at a truck stop for fuel, and had almost decided to stop for lunch since we were early, when we were hit with a downpour of rain (so much for the forecast, again!) and decided the best course of action was to get there as soon as possible, since we didn’t know what kind of condition the area we were parking would be in, and we didn’t want to have to worry about getting stuck in mud. As it was, we arrived right around noon, were welcome by our hostess Rosie, who showed us around and helped us get moved in. We managed to park before the rain hit, but it burst down on us just as we were ready to get the horses out. We paused for a few minutes to let it pass, then got the horses out and put them in the pasture and got settled in. Then we ran out for a meal at a Mexican restaurant in Shelbyville (TN), the nearest large town (and home to the Tennessee Walking Horse Celebration), before coming back, doing chores and settling down for the evening. It rained most of the afternoon and evening, but it was still pretty warm, so I didn’t bother blanketing the horses, something I’ve been doing as needed for the past week, because I’m trying to prevent the horses from growing too much winter coat. They won’t need all that hair once we get to Florida! It looks like it may get colder tomorrow, so blankets, or bringing them into the barn will become necessary. We’ll see how it goes!

With plans to leave tomorrow, I spent most of the day putting stuff away, in between dialyzing Hubby, as we want to get an early start tomorrow. There’s some rain coming in, and even though I don’t have a load of hay in the back, I’d rather limit the amount of time in the rain as much as possible, and it seems an early start and arrival will help with that. According to the forecast (yeah, right), it’s not supposed to start raining in Wartrace, TN (our destination) until 4:00, and not supposed to start raining until about 10:00 here, so fingers crossed, we’ll be able to stay ahead of it. Kept a nice steady pace so as not to wear myself out, and managed to get everything done by the time we finished dialysis, and settled down for the evening.