The Odes of Spring

Well like rights of passage, to everything there is a season.  How cliche...

R and I worked in the yard today and cleaned the slimey pond water....it consists of draining the 120 gallons that were in it and then pressure washing the slim off the rocks the vacuuming the sludge off the bottom and finally refilling the pond, R puts in his concoction to supposedly keep the water from going slimey (needs to work on that) and then we turn the pump on and voila...the waterfall starts and the birds are happy. While we were working there though we heard our little toad begin croaking.  Honestly we only started  hearing the frogs croaking a couple of days ago here down on the sloughs. 

This little guys lives in my courtyard, he eats the slugs and beetles and stuff in my flower beds. Serenades us at night, well, really all day long as long as no one disturbs him.  I think he is calling for a mate...but so far we have only ever seen the one...poor guy. He croaks and croaks all night long. Our yellow dog sits by the pond and turns his head from side to side trying to figure out what is making that noise...ahahahha it is funny .
We have a cat hanging around the house lately, which is unusual for us, since R feeds the cats at the barn to keep them from soiling the gardens, but the barn cats fight with this one and she is a lovely kitty, light grey and white spots, she has kittens somewhere but we don't know where, but she spends most of the day near the house following me around and wants to be friendly, she rubs on our legs and purrs.. but can't quite make herself let us pet her ...still a bit scared...I give her the odd treat but have come to realize why I prefer the cats to stay by the barn...she stalks my birds, shits in my greenhouse soil and won't shut up....So I have convinced R to set up a feeding station just for her in the wood shed...there are sparrows in there she can kill to her hearts content...and the other cats and ravens cant get at her food. I hope.

Tomorrow the guy with the big sprayer is coming to spray our stubble fields where last years crop grew...to kill the quack grass and thistle...

Then next week we have arranged for a fellow with an air seeder to come and put the crop in. normally we do it ourselves but R is worried about conserving soil moisture this year since the ground is like powder.



So we will pay this guy to till, seed and pack the field all in one pass.

I have a sore gum today, from a french frie poking into the hole where my tooth used to be...damn...I knew it was a bad idea to eat those...

and R has a head cold...so we are just a bundle of joy around here today...both crabby and tired.
I killed my first mosquito today, good god, you would think the least mother nature could do if it has to be so bloody dry is make the mosquito's not hatch...honestly we can't figure out where there was enough water laying around for them to hatch at all.

Suzie Homemaker Day

I had a very busy day....some friends of ours may or maynot be using our house for a birthday party for an elderly aunt, expecting 50 guests...I hope the floor can hold that many up... so I was cleaning just incase they decide to use it...I didn't want to have to massive a job cleaning it on short notice...it needed a good going over anyway, so I did it...flushed all the silt out of the toilet tanks even...from when our well was drawing silt ....even though we have the problem fixed the silt in the tanks would still get stirred up and end up in the toilet bowl....see how thurough I am... I had to hose down R's bathroom, honestly...there was blue sticky mouthwash everywhere and coffee stains on the floor, yes I am sure it was coffee, he's not that disgusting....hahahahaha  I did laundry and cooked R a steak for dinner....shit  I am a regular Martha Stewart....ahahahah although I am  sore as hell tonight...and intend to soak in the tub for a while...

Tomorrow I have booked R's afternoon, he is going to help me drain my pond and clean it, and tear out the tree with blacknot....and move a few big planter boxes around...then we have to clean last years debris off the row of asparagus...It is probably coming up already.I hope to coerce him into tilling the garden....

We are eating fresh tender little lettuce leaves from the pots I planted in the greenhouse...mmmmmmm it is so tastey....even I like it and I don't like lettuce.

I woke up this morning looking like I had the mumps... my jaws were swollen a bit and it felt like something died in my mouth...yuk,I hate that. Luckily I had put a towel over my pillow because it was smeared with blood from my mouth.... ....I had a bit of a rash on my lower face, probably from the latex gloves... had to swirl warm salty water half a dozen times to day as per the dentist instructions but still only allowed soft food, no straws or chewing... and of course I am craving a burger and toast.

Oh, by the Way

I forgot to mention in my last posting that I have a link on my blog now where friends and family can go to view my latest paintings. This is mostly for those of you not on facebook. I have a few there now and will be adding more as I get back into painting this summer. So all you have to do is click on the flickr link cuatmygallery and it will take you to my flickr page.

The link is on the right hand side of this page in the yellow zone right after the site metre and the words, MUSIC FEEDS MY SOUL.  and while you are looking there you will see a link to Jen's blog...visit it if you dare....ahahahhahaha.

Owy !!!

Had my teeth pulled...a molar on the upper left, had a filling in it from before but it kept decaying and was just a shell...it was bothering me something fierce...and a wisdom tooth on upper right.  it had come in crooked years ago and was pressing on my molar and making it hard to floss well...and I didn't want to have to pull the molar for decay down the road...so out she came...I was prepared for a gong show...but much to my relief and surprise...it took less than half an hour and boy was he gentle...and very good giving the needles, never felt a thing...I have a bit of an issue with the bleeding...it doesn't want to stop...but is not hurting too bad so far...there is still a bit of numbness though so when that finally wears off, I may need tylenol.... Oh well, it feels good to finally have it taken care of and I am over the moon at having found a very good dentist...He is very kind too.  I made an appointment for having my teeth cleaned and when I went out to the truck...and told R, I must have guilted him into having his done too...because he phoned when we got home and made an appointment too.  He hates going to the dentist...always has...he gets really grumpy...I never even bugged him about going this time...I figured...he's over 50 he can make his own choices....but he drinks such strong coffee...that his teeth are stained...so it will be nice to see him with white teeth again...it has been 7 years for him not seeing a dentist too...seems like If I go regularly he does too...otherwise he wouldn't go...

The nausea from the Fibromyalgia meds is lessening...but the comatose state is still persisting, makes it hard to get anything done...

Yesterday for mothers day...I worked a bit in the greenhouse, transplanting my tomato plants into bigger pots...I filled my big planter out in the yard with new soil...and when I came in I made 2 pans of nanaimo bars and 2 pans of butterscotch confetti....hmmmm our two favorites...but I was good...I never had one piece...I took a paper plate full of each to our friends place where we were invited for supper. They were a huge success and the plates were empty when we left. We had a very nice visit with them and their son and family...they will all be coming to our place for a visit and to pick up some barley for the grandsons chickens...He is a real little entrepreneur and had laying chickens and sells eggs, rabbits for butchering and wants to hatch duck and goose eggs to sell for meat...

My son called late in the afternoon and left a weepy message...he's sick I guess and that's why he didn't make plans for Mothers day...but after all these years we just do our own thing because we have spent too many mothers days, thanks givings, and Christmases waiting for him to show up when he said he would only to end up eating all by ourselves and him never showing up or phoning ....

I am going to have to get out the mower and grass trimmer to pimp up my front lawn...where the snow slid off the roof and the lawn actually got some moisture it is green and 8 inches long already but the rest of the lawn is still pretty brown...I am so disgusted that I have this Schubert choke cherry tree in my front planting bed and we built this nice landscaping around it as a feature tree....the damn thing has black knot on it in several places...which is a disease that all shrubs and trees of the "Prunus" family are susceptible too. It forms big black coloured narly clumps on the limbs and the only thing to do is cut the branch off and burn it...but it will keep coming back and after a while there just aren't any branches left...so it looks like hell....so we will just pull it out with a chain now before the other shrubs in the bed get any bigger and will get damaged by taking this one out...but it means taking the retaining wall apart and moving a couple of junipers that are planted beneath the choke cherry...damn it...Just when you think you are done...you're not done.... we will then have to buy a different type of tree to plant there....I am thinking Siberian crab apple...lovely when in bloom and really tough...zone 2.. R's mom has one in her old yard...and it is beautiful. but R wants to put a purple leafed crab apple there since we have silver upright junipers he thinks the colour while contrast nicely, I am more worried about hardiness.  so we shall see....will boil down to what we can afford I think...

I am excited to see Russell Crow in the movie "ROBIN HOOD" next weekend... I hope to make it an early birthday celebration....The Keg, movie and maybe a new top...or sneakers.

Yaaawwwnn

I hate these new pills...20 minutes after I take it I feel nauseas the rest of the day...they make me sooooooooooo tired...I can barely think, and today I am really dizzy too...so I will discuss it with R tonight, whether I will fill the prescription or just use up the sample box the doc gave me and call that good... I should give it the 10 days he asked me to to see if they perform a miracle and take away the pain...

We are going to a fancy dinner party tomorrow at R's cousin's place in the city...she owns a million dollar condo on the Edge of the River Valley, quite near the Shaw Conference centre.  R's other cousin lives in a similar condo across the river...both have wonderful views and both are very fancy... I have put together a book of genealogy for her family and we are delivering them...I made 7 copies,  She wanted to pay me but I don't th ink she was aware of how many hours go into gathering that information...so I just told her she could pay for the copying and binders... I wish I was feeling better so that I could be more coherent and discuss what I found with her tomorrow...as it is I am pretty groggy.

I did force myself to go outside this moring early, and pull a few pails of dandelions from the perenial beds and moved two perenials that were being crowed out by a shrub..and that pretty much did me in. R is hauling truck loads of grain to the English fellow down the road to have it cleaned

...It is augered through a small elevator he has on his property and as the grain passes through the system it is run across several screens and is shaken...the smaller weed seeds and small kernels of grain that are inferior are sifted out and caught in a hopper, those are called "screenings" and R will go back later and haul those home to feed to the cattle...but the good kernels of grain, after they have had all the weed and inferior seeds sifted out of them are augered back into the truck

and he hauls them home and stores them for seeding the crop later this month...taking them to this fellows place is much handier than taking them to town...especially with the road bans on and trucks can only haul...75% of their normal load...he would have to make quite a few more trips.

Over the weekend our farm was the place to be if you were a sandhill crane...we had hundreds of them land on the field by our old slough..I managed to take this picture from the yard which is a long ways away..I could have gotten closer but I didn't want the dogs to follow me and chase the cranes...or start nosing around the slough and wreck the goose and duck eggs..  we haven't heard any frogs yet either... it is late in the spring to not have them croaking.  Even my toad has not dug himself up yet this year. 

well I thought I could tough it through this coma thing but I just can't stay awake so I have to go lay down...

Ho Hum

I know it is spring and I should just be bursting with energy and ideas for improving my yard but I can barely gather enough energy together to bother getting out of bed each morning...this morning being a perfect example...my heart races irratically and it is a very queer feeling...so when I lay down at night to sleep...it races...I fall into a light doze..and then start having the most bizarre dreams and hallicinations..very disturbing, enough so that they wake me up and the cycle begins all over again....it happend once before like this...when my magnesium got too low...so I woke up this moring resigned to have to start taking the serum daily again....sigh...
I suspect it is the chemo drug I am injected with every sunday that is depleting my magnesium...(it mentions something about that in the side affects of the write up) so I have to take a drug to counteract a side affect of another drug...isn't that how you end up being one of those people taking 28 prescription drugs and end up in the hospital where they take you off all your meds and begin again....I have visions of being one of those people...so I am constantly harrassing my pharmacist to check for contraindicators of my list of meds....she thinks I am narotic.. oh well better that than dead from a drug interaction....

Anyway after only about 2 hours of real sleep last night I am tired as hell today and sick to my stomach after starting the new meds for Fibromyalgia yesterday...felt on the verge of vomiting all last evening and now again this morning soon after taking the med.  ugggh..this is what my life has become...sad, very sad..

On a brighter note... R is getting the grain cleaned today and will be ready to start seeding crop soon...my son is in another crisis but I am forbidden to answer the phone when he calls...16 calls in one day had me stressed right out. so I can see where R is coming from... so I have gladly complied with his restrictions about the phone.. and in his doing that he takes a lot of the guilt away for me. Nice hubby.

Okay, I can feel myself sliding into a coma sitting in front of the computer...that often happens to me...I think it is the radon gas the computer emits....hahahahaha   anyway, I am off to catch some ZZZ's...I hope...later dudes.

It's a Beautiful Day.........Some where!

Some where in the world it is a beautiful day. Not so much here...Christ is it cold...R and I shake our heads and marvel at the snow they had in the city...just an hour away...and they had 10 inches of heavy wet snow...and blizzard conditions...and here it was dry, a bit windy but still above 0.  huh...crazy the whole world has gone crazy. I mean have you ever seen a whole country in such total denial about finances that when the government implements austerity laws they revolt...I'm talking of Greece of course... and what about that crazy guy who had the plot to kill a police officer and then set off a bomb at the funeral...Geez what the hell are people smoking these days...it just goes to show the depth to which society has brought us. I mean in the technology world of today, we don't have to wait for anything, everything is high speed, instant and in the now...what ever happened to patience, saving for what you want, anticipation is half the fun of something happening in our lives, now, you think it, it happens and is over in an instant leaving you feeling unfulfilled. The world is a throw away society and I don't think that is healthy. People live way beyond their means and then whine when they have to pay it off, such a sense of entitlement. I am not sure how we let it happen. Why would we let that happen...

This whole BMO mortgage scandal thing is insane...I find it hard to sympathize with the bank for getting taken in but still...how deep into self gratification and entitlement does someone have to be to come up with a scheme like that. My God...


So my big Doctors appointment went like I planned and yet not.... I did get to ask my questions but he took the wind out of my sail when he read me a letter from my Rheumatologist....in it she tells him she thinks I have Lupus and.......drum roll please....Fibromyalgia.....which happens quite often to Lupus patients...that they develope Fribromyalgia.  Which is not what I needed to hear...I know she did make some comment about it at my last visit based on some testing that she had done...but I guess I blocked it out...talk about denial...ahahahah 

My magnesium levels have dropped so low that my heart flutters and races like crazy at odd times throughout the day...and so, much to my chagrin, I am being forced to take the magnesium serum...which I hate because it is so sickeningly sweet and makes my blood sugar go up...ahahaha (not that the butterscotch confetti squares I eat are any better). But on the serum I have to be so very much more careful....damn...The Doctor also read R the riot act about my being out in the sun so much...something the rheumatologist also complained about in the letter....that and she thinks my work and home situations are severely influencing my stress levels which causes both the lupus and Fibromyalgia to flare up making me feel worse...Christ...like I didn't know that...

R has now forbidden me to take any more calls from my son, whom we have heard from recently and apparently I have been relieved of all farm duties....ahahahah we'll see how long that lasts...that is one thing I don't like about R coming to the docs with me...I can't edit what they say....and only tell him what I want him to know...ahhahaha  not that I would ever do that....wink wink.

Well if one good thing came from all this today it's that I don't have to feel like a hypochondriac anymore. It really wasn't just in my head...ahahahahaha

As a foot note to this spilling of my guts, I would like to add,  I have a dentist appointment on Monday next, I hadn't been to a dentist in several years ever since my last bad experience...and generally I liked going to the dentist because it always felt better afterwards...but it took me a long time to work up the nerve..and when I did, last week I had to find a new dentist.. I did, Dr. Wong....one of the tallest men I have ever seen with my own eyes...must be 7 feet...and thin like a rake handle...he's very quiet and gentle...so he took some x rays...(I knew I had a problem, thus the appointment) and I am slated for two extractions on Monday....yikes... one a molar and one a wisdom tooth that will require dental surgery to remove...so I don't think I will be feeling to shit hot on Monday night...hahahaha  two weeks after that I go back for a filling...