Reminiscing, College Graduation and the garden....

This post starts out with a bit of reminiscing....

Hubby and I on May 24, 1986, this week makes 27 years that I have been married to my best friend! :)

Our oldest daughter Mel and son Jake at Halloween.... I think the "looking through old photos" this morning was because I have been feeling just a tiny bit like "were did the time go"! and I want it back kinda thing. My baby graduated last May from High School and my oldest just graduated from her first college this week. Now (for her) two more colleges to go and my son starts back in the fall, my babies, I finally realized grew up on me!

Both our girls

Melissa does stand out in a crowd always has haha..... (they let her dye her hair pink for graduation, but would not allow combat boots), she says just one more year of play, at her graduation next May she has to grow up, no more being silly with hair etc.....then for the last four years of college, she said will be time to grow up  :(

All three of our babies together on the left and hubby and our daughter on the right, the graduation was very special, kinda sad for me...but very special....now on to other things...

Our grand daughter is so silly...she comes running in the other day and says nanny...Got Milk?

I took a nasty fall a few day before the garden could finally be planted.....my luck.... was wondering what I was going to do because it had to be planted, they were prediction rain the next day (again)  and the ground just was dry enough to plant. I did get it tilled, the way I felt it took me the better part of the day! When I was starting to plant my sister, youngest daughter and her boyfriend came out and planted the whole garden for me! :) I told them I felt loved! The only thing left to plant is the Marigold's around the garden. :)

Einstein came out from hiding for a while today, she has a nest somewhere but I have not been able to find it yet (she is the one on the back right with the top knot). I am hoping the nest is close to home so nothing will get her at night....

 

 

Meniere's Disease

I have some really good news, I know it sounds odd to be happy about being diagnosed with a disease but when you know there is a problem and you don't know how to make it better or understand why its happening, its almost like there is a Dr Jekyll/Mr Hyde waiting inside waiting to rear his ugly head and there is nothing you can do to stop it! Sorry this is rather a long post..... After going to doctor after doctor for the last 25 years I just gave up thinking I would ever find out what was wrong with me! Sure I new the important things I did not have a brain tumor, stroke etc....but no reason why I was having the debilitating vertigo attracts. When they occur they come on strong drop me to my knees I break out in a sweat , room spinning violently, throwing up cannot move have to remain still and they last between 30 minutes to 4 hours. The attacks control my life, since I did not know when\why they would occur I stopped driving in the city, in a store I always know where the exit door is, have lost job after job, I don't like crowds and just prefer to be home (home is my safe zone). The ENTs I went to would have me move my head left to right saw no rapid eye movement send me home with `happens again come back`  then when it happens again I have someone call (I can not move) only to be told they could not see me for 3 weeks! See where I am headed with this.....Dr can't diagnose me unless they see what's happening, when its happening they can't fit me in for weeks and the attacks usually only last one day! It was like a broken record sad to say. Anyway I decided to give it one more try (had been 6 years since last ENT Dr). I found a ENT that is a nurse practitioner, she had me do the usual head movements nothing happened, I was ready with the happens again routine...... But she said let's try an air pressure test, it took about an hour and in that little hour she changed my world! :) she said I have meniere`s disease (this is not something you die from). I am now on a salt restricted diet, no caffeine, no pre-packaged foods and a water pill once a day. This will not stop the attacks but it will make them less severe and that is all I could have wished for. She has also set me up with a Dr that only sees patients with meniere`s in August and when I spoke to him he said he may be able to extend the attacks to years in between instead of every couple months, or I may never have another that is music to my ears! Also the side effects from my diet (good)....I have lost 16 pounds, the pressure feeling in my ears is gone, (felt like swimmers ear) I don't feel foggy headed and I think clearer. The...I won't say bad, but the hard part is I never realized how much salt is in pre-packaged foods and trying to cook without salt and still taste good is even harder. I do make most of our food from scratch, but did indulge sometimes in prepackaged, but no more! I don't mean to sound like I am complaining, if this makes my world better than I will do whatever it takes. :) I wish 25 years ago or even 10 one of the Drs I went to would have just gone that extra step.......I wonder how many patients go to the dr over the years only to also be pushed aside and fall into the cracks? It also makes me wonder/worry about the new health care proposal will Drs get even more over loaded and patent's even more a black and white piece of paper?..... I know better late than never and I thank God I finally got a diagnosis! but when you are scared and what scares you goes on for years being diagnosed earlier would have been so sweet! :)
I thought over and over about posting this and I realized if I can help someone else that does not know what is happening to them and maybe they will decide to try one more time to go to the Dr, even if they have also previously went many times before it would be worth it, then again maybe there is someone out there that can also help me! :)

Rain, Rain

I have been watching the weather (and our ground) all week and Wednesday was the best its looked to get the garden tilled, I almost tilled and planted then I looked at the weather forecast and changed my mind (sooo glad I did) now with the rain.....down in the 30s.....did I say lots of rain and this is the second day.....I would have wasted my time, the garden would have washed away...... We can always use the rain, just wish I had the garden in :( well there is always next week.... Or the next week....better late than never! Although at the rate I am going....soon I may have to mow my garden! :D

The pond close to the house is over its banks, I have went down there three times so far today to throw fish back in. I need to check the water breaks but when I went to check on them the creeks were up and the water was so strong I could only see one water break from my vantage point and its down. I could not do any good now if they were both down, the cows are not going to nose around in this weather anyway. I wish I would have had my camera, where two creeks merge into one the water is a ways up into the lower field and its not supposed to stop raining until sometime tomorrow. My sister called and ask if we were ok, I ask why? She said the creek that crosses the highway we use to get into town is closed because the creek is 3 foot over the road and still raising. Something said for stocking up! I told her there was nothing we needed......and if she could not get here how was she going to help... haha...except maybe after the rains stop I could use her help with the water breaks.......   :) Cant believe so many things have happened since hubby left and he will still not be back until June 1st :(

I met Pam (friend since grade school) for our mile walk Wednesday while Mom was in pulmonary rehabilitation, anyway she gave me her finished manuscript to read before she sends it to her publisher, this is her second book her first was published two years ago (so proud of her). I told her it may take me a while (busy time of year) but looked again at the weather forecast and decided I would have plenty of time! I am a ways now into the book, its been the perfect few days to set down and read! :)

Fun, Spring and kids go so well together

I was rather sad this morning! I have a routine in the mornings of setting down at the computer with a cup of something and read the blogs I follow, its almost like you all are neighbors that I just set and chat with. I am setting up what I want in the garden (when the rain lets me) and I remembered something that I did not write down from hardwork homesteads blog and now its not there, this is not the first time I have done this with her blog, its just this morning it really bothered me :( its almost like I lost a friend. Do any of you feel like this with the blogs you read, or am I just odd.....hope I'm not odd.....  :D I have learned so many things from others and I store it in my memory, then when I need it I usually just pop onto that blog and find it again.....not thinking the blog someday may no longer be there, well that is what I did again this morning......  :( hope everything is going great for her! :)

These cuties were in the pond when I woke up this morning, I loved it they are so pretty....the cows were not to keen on the newcomers invading their territory though and kept yelling at them  :)

Rosie is never going to let her baby grow up, Callie is now over a year old and they are still inseparable and Rosie is constantly cleaning her, its really cute! :)

We ended the day with another trip to the lower creek, the above picture is of my niece, nephew and grand daughter the three of them have already made plans to bring swim suits and they have already put in an order with my sister and I that they want a picnic tomorrow evening also. To be a child again....sigh..... :)

Rain Rain please let me get my garden in :)

I woke up again this morning to rain, this makes the third day straight, not complaining mind you, this time last year we were already needing rain and as the year went on it only got worse. I just wish it would dry up enough so I can get my gardens in, this has been off and on for the last three weeks with next weeks forecast predicting 3-4 days also, at least I did get the grass mowed and if I have to I'll Mud the garden in! :) hopefully with all this rain it will be a good hay season and hay prices will be back to normal, I don't know how we could afford a repeat of last year! I did get the extended garden fenced in and the raised bed built and the tires are now in place waiting for the potatoes......














The hens love the rain! the last three days have been steady but not hard, just enough that the lady's have easy pickings :)

I can't believe I just got the 2 acre yard mowed 5 days ago with the push mower (and its not even self propelled) the riding mower is old and broken :( but now the grass seems to have grown 2 inches over night! Well I did say I needed more exercise and since I am feeling a lot better lately..... :D

With all the rain my Mom and Granddaughter rode around the farm with me checking our water breaks this afternoon......

.....and in the course of checking the water breaks we had to walk down one of the creeks.......

Sidney had to skip a few rocks and get a bit wet :) It takes a while for a 6 year old to find just the right rocks to skip and its not her fault that the perfect ones were in the water.........by the time we were ready to go home she was thoroughly soaked! It made for a fun filled afternoon and to add icing to the cake the water breaks were fine :)

Finally feels like spring!

I love to watch the ducks search for minnows

I love this time of year! :) it seems as though I get up one morning and a light has been turned on inside my head that I did not realize was off (if that makes since). I can breath deeper, the air feels vibrant and everything around me is finally brighter. I suddenly feel as though I am on a time frame pulling out things that were packed away changing the oil and gas in the tiller and lawn mower, removing the hay fork from the tractor and replacing it with the bush hog  etc.....life feels good, actually great! Would be perfect if hubby were home, although he did get this past weekend off (mandatory shut down) they got to much rain ( he is working near Chicago). The job will be over soon and June 1st is just around the corner and I'm hoping the next job site will be closer to home so he can drive daily! Although by the time hubby gets home the gardens will be well (hope) underway.

 We did get a lot accomplished while hubby was home, he got one of the falcons running and moved (it was parked in front of the house) so now its out of the way until he and our son find time to play with it :)

Cedar trees branches burn so quickly

Sparky (my dog unless hubby is around) has missed his buddy, hubby had been gone for 3 and a half weeks and needless to say  the two of them were together all weekend. Hubby helped me finish the extended garden and we got the cedar tree cut, a raised garden built and the rest of the fence put up along with so much more! It always surprises me when hubby is home to help me, what takes me a week to do by myself we get accomplished together in one day. Hope everyone is having a great spring :D

Keeping our babies this year :)

I realize the calendar says Springs..... but I have my doubts they say we may get a little snow this weekend! I am hoping with Spring we will get back to normal, what we call normal :) With the warmer weather (coming soon) I will be able to get Mom out a bit more and maybe get rid of the cough that has not went away since her bout with phenomena in December.
On to the garden :D I am sooo ready to plant! I have been working on the size of the upper garden and am happy to say it will almost double in size from last years. What took the most time with regards to the extended garden was taking apart all the (over 40 years old) rabbit and chicken cages, they were so old some I pulled apart with my hands. My sister and I just finished with the cages yesterday and my nephew, being a good big brother took the scrap metal (his little brother helped so I gave him the scrap) so the next step is putting up the fence. I always use a 6 foot fence because between the goats, cows, chickens etc...I want to cover all the bases! It amazes me how the goats or cows seem to sense when the yard gate is left open even if only for a few minutes!
We decided after the price cow's went up to last year we better just keep our girls from last year and this year or we would never be able to afford to increase our heard!

Snow Flakes little one finally has a name, my grand daughter likes Sugar Plum and like usual if they have a name it means they can stay (even if I were not trying to increase the heard...... :)

We are also keeping Bella's calf on the left and Ellie's calf on the right

Callie (on left) also has a home, her mom Rosie is on the right

Sister is also staying, her and Callie were born spring of last year so we can breed them this summer.

 

Elevens calf we have not decided if we are keeping yet, but I do know one thing for sure as soon as hay is in the first cutting I am stocking up! This winter has been so hard we ran our of hay the last of February and have been scrambling every since. The hay cost double the usual price (by double I mean double of the inflated price of last fall) and I was lucky to get that I also gave more grain than usual since I was not to sure how good the hay was we were getting......goes along with farming.....some good years some bad, but its still worth it and I wouldn't change a thing. The grass (lucky me) has started to come up last week and not to soon since I fed the last round bale to the cows yesterday and cant find anymore.

I also got our three baby goats dis-budded last week, I swore I would never do this again but these are our future milk goats and since I have been horned a few times and cut up many cattle panels getting a goat horn out..........

All three by the next day were back to normal, the two babies on the left I have not named yet and Valentine is on the right.

Its been a while from my last post so I thought I would also include how many teeth my little one has lost since my last post. She has lost four teeth on the top and two on the bottom, now she talks with a lisp its sooo cute. :)