Catching Up: January 11-15, 2009

01/15/2009 Thursday: Overcast and not very warm out.

I sent Susie H another check for Brie and Pixie. I need only send three more checks and I'm done paying for these two critters. Then I can concentrate on getting a Hereford bull. I also sent her an email, part of which is included here.

Sherry came to clean today. We left early before she was done. She always locks up for us when we're not around.

I figured out why I've been so lethargic/exhausted for the past 6 weeks or so. I went to the orthodontist yesterday to have my braces checked and mentioned to them that one of the rings around a crown was rubbing against my gum and causing me all sorts of grief (bad taste and smell in mouth). The person doing the checkup said the ring had come loose, was rubbing and trapping food against the gum and that I did have an infection. The orthodontist fixed the band and replaced it. By 6pm last night I was starting to feel better and even had a little energy.

Today, although I'm tired from a doctor's visit (wellness visit with all sorts of poking and prodding and scraping and lastly, pricking of the feet to make sure I still have feeling there) I finally have some energy. Boy, I should have figured out that falling asleep right after breakfast (after chores) and then again right after lunch for hours at a time was not normal behavior. Who me? Slow? nah! Anyhow, my doctor warned me not to let anything in my mouth get infected again because infections in the mouth may lead to major heart and blood problems (sepsis??). This is especially true for folks with diabetes. Dumb me, I knew that.

Anyhow I'm hoping that I'll feel well enough now to take on the chores I need to do instead of sleeping the day away.

I'm still trying to decide where that dang corral should go, the one with the squeeze chute and head lock. I want to take the large field (the road pasture that is my sacrifice pasture) and divide up that pasture into two smaller pastures - divide it into a small pasture and a large pasture so that I can rest half of the pasture while the cows graze the other side and to give me more flexibility in managing the herd.

The smaller side (the east side) might funnel into my corral (which I'n thinking of moved from the area beside the barn (north side) to the area where the old corral used to be and where the current loading chute is so I don't have to move the head gate so far.I have to build a new squeeze chute but it would be handy to have a loading dock by the main gate into that pasture.

Of course after I put in the corral I want to set up a small pen over close to where the manure pile is. Not sure what I'll do with the manure pile but I will get it organized the way I want it to look.

I've got to put this all on a map so that I can see what it's going to look like. So many decisions to make.

Chas had leftover chili for dinner. I had a bowl of cereal. While we were in Lacey we stopped for lunch at the Main Chinese Buffet and really porked out. We were not hungry when dinner time came.

Dena will be stopping by tomorrow around 10:30 so that I can show her how to do the cast on for a sweater. We'll also talk about frugal living.

01/14/2009 Wednesday: Lordy, lordy, the sun is shining. I haven't really seen meaningful sun for over a month. Wish I felt well enough to really enjoy it.

Chas went into town to his chiropractor and picked up some library books. He forgot to take the ones we'd already read in to the library. Since we have to go to Olympia tomorrow to my doctor's appointment, we'll likely take them in then.

This afternoon I go to my orthodontist to have them mess with my teeth again. I'll need to tell them about the problems I'm having with my upper right quadrant: bad taste and smell in mouth and a ring that's irritating my gum. Likely I'll have to go back in to have that fixed at a later time. My appointment is at 1:20pm. We'll have lunch at home and then I'll drive in. I may do some shopping as well.

I feel so much better. The orthodontist's assistant removed the band that was digging into my gum and trapping food. It was definitely infected. When I had the wires and the bands removed and went to brush my teeth, that section bled like a son-of-a-gun for quite a while. They replaced the band, put at a better angle around the middle of that crown. By dinner time I was actually starting to feel better. I felt like I had more energy but we'll have to wait till tomorrow to find out.

To celebrate getting my teeth worked on I went to Safeway and bought a half-gallon of milk and a single tall latte. Rare treats for me. I went home afterwards not stopping to get feed or anything.

I cooked spaghetti for dinner. It was particularly good. I added hamburger, dried celery, onions and garlic as well as some spaghetti spices. The sauce tasted better than usual. I cooked it in the large pot so that it had time to evaporate the extra water and cooked the spaghetti in a smaller pot.

01/13/2009 Tuesday: Overcast but no rain. Just another gloomy Northwest day.

I was feeling off my feed today. Not sure why. I even got to bed at a pretty decent time. I sort of moped around all day. I even got to sleep before 11pm last night.

Wally came by about 1:00pm and dropped off 20 round bales. One of the bales was ripped open. We put it into the barn last and on its side. All my bales are dirty from getting dumped in the mud that Chas opened up yesterday. I guess it won't do too much damage to the hay in the middle but the outside sure looks awful.

Dinner was a steak which we split and noodles and mixed Chinese vegetables.

01/12/2009 Monday: Overcast but no rain. That's progress.

Chas and I moved two bales of hay into the Hereford's feeder and one into the Dexter's feeder in the afternoon.

Charles thought he would help with the mud situation in front of the barn and so dragged it. Unfortunately it just scraped away the grass and left even more mud.

Susie H wrote to tell me that she and her herd are ok but that her mom died of liver cancer last week. Bummer, that.

Dinner was leftover chili and corn bread.

01/11/2009 Sunday: Overcast and a driving mist. Not a fun day to be outside doing chores.

We did the laundry today, each of taking turns washing a load, drying it and folding the dried clothes.

I ordered the National Cattlemen's Beef Association 2009 IRM Redbooks and downloaded the early version of the Excel Spreadsheet. I also ordered the Cow/Calf Desk Record Book and the Natural Resource Desk Record. In addition I purchased a beef cattle management program from Lion Edge Technologies called Ranch Manager: Cattle Edition. The Ranch Manager: Cattle Edition was $99.00. I thought about purchasing the handheld version and then decided that the IRM Redbook would probably work just as well.

I cooked a chuck roast with potatoes and cut up onions. Along with one of the packages of squash that we put up earlier this year, dinner was complete.