Summer Plans

Last year (and the year before), for our wedding anniversary, we took a trip to Zion National Park.  We had a wonderful time.

This year, we've decided that we're going to hike up to King's Peak, which is the highest peak in Utah. It measures in at 13,528 feet (4,123 m) above sea level. We plan to go with some other friends, most of whom are experienced backpackers. Both of us have done backpacking trips in the past, but not since we were married. The trip will be a leisurely one, taking place over 3 days and going around 29 miles total.

I can't believe how much things have changed in the past 18 years. The last backpacking trip I went on, I borrowed a pack from a friend who was about 5'10. He probably had a size medium pack. I learned recently that I'm a size XS in backpacks (woohoo!). I'm sure that's why you could see the outline of my hip and shoulder straps in bruising after that last trip. Everything is so small and lightweight.

J is like a little kid waiting for Christmas with this trip. He's purchased both of our backpacks, really nice sleeping bags for both of us, a camp stove, a water filtration system, tent, and groundcloth.

Today, I get a text from J.  It read, "Don't set up the tent without me". 


Ummm, ok?  We have a foot of snow on the ground, and I'm crazy busy. He really thinks I want to set up the tent the moment it arrived? The tent arrived via UPS around 3:15.  I have to admit that a devil perched on my shoulder, and if I hadn't been so incredibly pressed for time, I would've set up the tent in the driveway (the only clear spot in the yard) just to tease him.

This is what our couch looks like:




In case you're wondering, our packs weigh in at 10 and 20 lbs. They don't have our clothing, food, water or cosmetics.





Just a few minutes ago, J called me to come down to the basement and see something. This is what I saw.



Now from the sound of all this, I'm betting you're thinking that we're leaving on the trip this weekend, which would be insane, considering there's hundreds of inches of snow up there right now. Does it make it seem any less insane when I say the trip is planned for August?


I haven't seen him this excited about anything in a very, very long time. It's really cute.

Bloat in a pregnant cow

So today, I was relaxing at home when I got a knock on the door about 2:15pm.  A guy was standing there and told me that one of my cows was hung up on the fence, and he was worried it was hanging itself, and in really bad shape. Uh oh. He lives in the property behind mine and actually hopped in his car to come knock on my door because he thought it would be quicker.  I thanked the guy for telling me, pulled on my boots and ran back there.

As I went, I called KC, telling him what had been reported. If I could free it myself I would, but odds are I'd need him to come over. I would call him right back.

When I got back there, I could immediately see that it was not hanging itself on fencing. It was a cow (as in, female cow), and she looked like she'd had the bloating that had killed a steer a couple months ago. She was laying on her side, moaning. From the look of the feces around her, I bet she'd been that way several hours. KC had mentioned in conversation that most of his adult cows were pregnant, so I figured this one was pregnant too. So, it either had bloat, or it had some pregnancy related complication.  KC had better get over here.  I was quite proud of myself that 1- I recognized it was a cow (as opposed to steer) and 2- that it probably had bloat. My knowledge of cows was increasing!

As usual, he was here within 5 minutes, and he agreed that it was bloat. Because she was in fact pregnant, he was afraid to cut into her upper abdomen (kind of by the spine) to relieve the bloat as he normally would. He called the vet. His favorite vet was unavailable, so the back up vet promised to come right over, but their office was about 20 minutes away.  Several times he actually picked up the knife. The cow was obviously suffering, and he felt like he could relieve her pain quickly, but was afraid of complicating things.  Usually the vet will stick a tube down their throat and get the gas out that way, which is obviously the more hygienic way to do things. We tried to move her legs and massage her belly, hoping to get her to burp or fart. She did burp a few times, but her stomach was getting bigger, and it felt like a drum to the touch.

While we waited for the vet, he flipped the cow over a few times with my help. Flipped a very bloated, pregnant, 1200 lb animal is not easy. Not very clean either- she was in a pool of feces. So gross!

Vet finally got there about 3:20 or so, and with one look, she felt like cutting into the cow was the best route because of the emergent nature of the situation. The cow's breathing was getting more labored, and she seemed really in distress. So, she shaved a section of the cow, towards the top near the spine, about the midpoint of the left flank. She then sterilized the area as best she could, and then did what I guess is called an emergency rumenotomy. She then put a valve sort of thing on it. It looked an awful lot like a giant red corkscrew. She even screwed it in. As soon as it was screwed in, a sound like air escaping a tire sounded.  We could actually watch her belly go down. She still seemed a bit swollen, but a lot better.

The vet then gave her some antibiotics, and then a shot of something else that I guess gives them energy and makes them feel better.  The vet expected the cow to jump right up, but she didn't. She continued to lay on her side and moan. She wished us the best of luck and then left.  Honestly, I expected her to stick around until the cow was standing up again, but this was the first time I've ever actually seen a vet around a large animal, so what did I know? KC later confirmed he would've liked that better too.

After an hour of turning her occasionally, massaging her belly, and generally harassing her, trying to get her to stand up, or at least lay on her stomach instead of her side, we FINALLY got her standing. Her front legs were very very wobbly, but she was up!!

She only stayed up about 2 minutes and then laid back down, but at least she was laying in proper, healthy cow position. She was breathing much better, much more quietly. She also looked very angry and irritated. I'd been petting her and comforting her the whole time, and she seemed to like it. But now she really didn't want us touching her.

Finally, about 5:15 or so, two of KC's friends showed, really cowboys who definitely knew their way around cows. So, I left the cow and KC in their capable hands and went inside to shower because OH MY GOSH I stunk!!!!

She is 7 or so months along, and the vet did check on the baby while she was there. Baby was doing well, amazingly enough. I told KC that I'd love to watch her calve when the time came.

Further proof that I am not really a grownup

I have to admit that I was beginning to feel pretty smug. I was all the way into January, and I hadn't gotten sick. I was pleased that I was taking my vitamins, being healthy, washing my hands enough, blah blah blah.  To make it worse, J had been fighting off a cold for weeks.  Well, Karma can be a real *itch, and she smacked me down but good.

So, last Monday, I was feeling the tiniest bit of a sore throat, but didn't think it was any big deal- I blamed it on the smog/inversion in the air.  Then I woke up Tuesday. UGH.  So sick with a cold. Absolutely miserable.

Wednesday was even worse- by day's end my right ear was starting to hurt, and my voice was starting to go.

Thursday, I had no voice and my ear hurt even worse.

Friday, I managed to drag myself to a closing, even though I couldn't talk at all, and I was completely distracted by the pain in my ear.  I finally went to an instacare Friday night, hoping they could "fix" what I was sure was an ear infection.  The doctor didn't seem terribly impressed, but did say it was infected and gave me some antibiotics.  I mentioned that I'd started to notice a little bit of fluid coming out of my ear, and he asked if I'd been using ear drops. I said I had, but that there was more coming out than I'd ever put in. He noted that it was unusual for an adult to get an ear infection, and even less common for their eardrum to burst.

Saturday morning I woke up with all kinds of scary creepy goo coming out of my ear, and almost completely deaf on that side. Greeeeat! To make it even funner, my balance was completely gone, and I had a pretty good case of vertigo.

The weekend passed much the same way.

On Monday, I had a friend take me to an ear/nose/throat specialist, who confirmed that yes, my eardrum had burst, and yes, it probably had been really painful. He gave me stronger antibiotics (he very diplomatically said that he disagreed with the course I'd been given) and antibiotic ear drops.

I'm finally feeling comfortable driving- vertigo is pretty much gone unless I turn my head too quickly. Loud noises still bother me a lot, and I'm still mostly deaf and in some pain. But, I am starting to think I'll recover.  The doctor feels that my deafness is temporary.

Feeding the cows

I have to admit that I am quite the slacker cow mom. The cow guy has made it very, very easy. He loaded all of the hay he bought into the loft of the barn, bought an enormous tank (like small pool sized) for water, a big heater for it, and a big trough at the edge of the barn. He's got a pretty nice system to feed/water the cows. Because they're a herd, it's impossible to just feed his, or just feed mine. So, he's been feeding/watering all of the cows. He's said that when he runs out of hay, we'll move our hay over to the loft and go from there. We've got it covered pretty good with a tarp, so hopefully it'll be safe from the elements.

Anyway, yesterday, he called and said he was going out of town for the weekend, and would I be willing to feed/water the cows? Sure!  I've been feeling guilty that he's been going there twice a day and doing all the work. I definitely don't feel like he's getting the fair end here- doing all of the work. So, I jumped at the chance to feed them.

The cows were pretty excited to see me arrive to feed them. Bali, the bali steer was standing lengthwise in the trough, which made getting hay into it rather tricky. You can see Casanova on the far right, which Tbone right next to him. Tbone is still a pretty little guy, but he is getting bigger. He looks tiny compared to everyone else because he's several weeks younger.

I started to toss the alfalfa down, and hoped that Bali would get out of the way. Nope. None of the cows were terrible interested in moving, so by the end, Bali looked like a green monster.

Mermaid Costume

My seven year old, S, is obsessed with mermaids. She loves the show "H2O" and watches it frequently. When she swims, she tries to swim like a mermaid. When she bathes, she pretends to be a mermaid. She desperately wants to BE a mermaid.

For Christmas this year, I decided to make her a mermaid costume that I'd seen online.

It was going to be a little tricky, because I wanted it to be a surprise.  I bought a monofin from amazon. I bought 3 yards of swimsuit fabric at the store. I want to make a matching swimming suit to go with it. I borrowed an old one piece pattern from my mom, but I'm thinking I'd like to have it be a tankini. But, I'll admit that 3 yards was definitely overkill on fabric, so I could easily make 4 or 5 swimming suits with the leftover fabric.

Then, I got a large piece of butcher paper, and told S that I was going to trace her body on the paper so she could make a life sized mermaid version of herself to color as a fun activity. She thought it was a great idea, and had a blast making her mermaid.  She made her mermaid, cut it out and decorated it.

When she was distracted with other things, I measured her waist and cut out an elastic waistband from that. She was busy coloring her mermaid tail, so she didn't really even think about what I was measuring her waist for and why.

After she went to bed, I folded the bottom fin up, since I'd just guessed how that would be shaped. Then, I laid the monofin and the mermaid paper on my fabric, and cut it out like the directions. I used a sharpie, and drew about an inch bigger than the paper, and a little bit less on the thinner part of the fin.













Sewing it up was surprisingly fast- I had it sewn within 10 minutes. 

 Christmas morning came, and I was so excited to see her reaction.  She was just as thrilled as I'd hoped she would be. She can't wait to go swimming while wearing the fin. I plan to be right by her side because the mermaid swimming can be kind of tricky, and frankly, I am not sure she'll actually want to do much swimming with it on. For now thought, it's been a lot of fun for her.

Crazy Days

I have been running around so busy that I'm actually a little surprised that I'm sitting down to blog. The odds are excellent that I won't even finish this post before I'm off and running around.

I have three active buyers and one listing right now. One of the buyers will close (hopefully) next week. Another will hopefully close mid-January (though they texted today that they're thinking about backing out of this deal), and my listing hopefully by the end of January. I was hoping for end of December, but feeling less optimistic about that.

I'm also busy volunteering in my kids' classes, sitting on the boy scout committee, being a girl scout leader, and working on Christmas gifts. I was up late last night baking cookies for K to take to school for some school party.

Today is a great example of how things have been.

7:30am: Door knocks. M's carpool is here, but he overslept and isn't ready, so they leave without him.  I rush to get everyone ready, and we run M to school.

Then, I ran over to my listing- it's a vacant house, and the bank never winterized the house. It's been in the teens at night, so I'm worried about the pipes freezing. I have a space heater in there that I'm running occasionally to keep it warmer.

8:45: take the little kids to school.

9:45: eye doctor appointment for me. They dilate my eyes, which I hate.  It also means that I can't read at all.

11:30: get Z from school. Ask him about his day, which sounds uneventful. Run to the grocery store to get stuff for lasagna for dinner.

12:10: Take S to the dentist- her remaining lateral incisor chipped and started bleeding, so we needed to pull the tooth. She was very brave, considering how long that root was.

12:45: Check S back into school. While in the office, the principal stops me and asks how Z is feeling. Ummm, what? Why are you asking that way? He then tells me that two boys got into a little bit of a scuffle today, and Zac ended up getting knocked over, and then they fell on top of him. Well. Ok then. This is very interesting considering he'd told me earlier that the day was uneventful.

1:30 Take Z to my MIL's so that I can go volunteer in S's class.

2:00-3:30: Volunteer in S's class. This is somewhat difficult, given that I still can't read, and I look like a morphine addict with my dilated eyes and sunglasses. Then we pick up Z from Grandma's.

4:10: Go for allergy shots. With the way my day was going, I expected one of us to have a systemic reaction, but all went smoothly.

4:15: Get a phone call from J that he'll be home from work late, and "the civic will be in tow." Uh oh. Turns out the skid plate fell off the car ahead of him, and he didn't have time to swerve to miss it. It sheared through the front bumper, and destroyed the radiator and the fans. Excellent.

4:50: Vision returns to normal. Yay!

5:00: Stop at the store to buy a Christmas gift with two kids acting like crazy people.

6:30: make waffles for dinner. Lasagna plan didn't work out. Maybe Saturday?

7:30: go to a quick birthday party for a friend's daughter.

8:45: wrestle all kids off to bed.

9:45: bake brownies to take to the teachers tomorrow.

10:30: work on quilt that's a birthday gift.


I am ready for Christmas break!

Thanksgiving

Normally, we try to go to both J's family and my family for Thanksgiving. We don't necessarily eat at both houses. But, each year, one side has priority, and we just try to fit the other side in. We've always been able to get it to work out until this year.

This year, both feasts were set to begin at the exact same time, and my inlaws had "custody". My food assignment was all of the pies and the rolls. So, I didn't want to bake all of those pies and then not be around to eat them.  We made the difficult decision to not see my family for Thanksgiving this year, which was really sad. However, I really like my inlaws a lot, and enjoy their company, so it was a very fun day, which was exactly what I expected. My mother in law got out her (actual SILVER SILVER) silverware, which was awesome for me. I now desperately want actual silver silverware. Guess I better get working on being fabulously wealthy, since my SIL and I had a quick battle over who got the silverware when MIL dies (yeah, I'm super polite), and I admitted that the daughter definitely gets precedence.  Oh well.







Pies this year included homemade pumpkin (including pumpking that I had baked and pureed), cherry, apple, and razzleberry. The girls helped cut out the stars for the cherry pie.

Then, I did an old fashioned apple pie (J's favorite).

The kids were really wanting to help, so I made a bit of extra filling, and let S & Z make their own "mini" apple pies.

The kids were nearly out of their minds with excitement, and Z was trying to decide what to wear. I told him that it's a nice idea to try and dress up a little for Thanksgiving. He thinks for a moment, and then declares that he'll wear his Darth Vader costume, because it's his best outfit, in his opinion. I managed to keep a straight face. Sort of.

After dinner was over, we had a little fun with Z's outfit and his light saber, and had him pose like he was going to carve the turkey. He is such a fun kid to have around.










I have to admit that although I was sad not to see my family, it was nice to not be rushing from place to place, stressing over whether we spent enough time with each side of the family.