Update...

The main snow event is over. We did not get the additional six inches. We probably have an additional inch this morning. Our road was plowed late yesterday. Our driveway is a different story. We will bust down it this afternoon. We have a little more snow moving in this evening. Nothing major. 

The depth is just below my knees. The drifts are a different story. We did not get the high winds that were forecasted. We will venture out to the end of the driveway, the barn and the chicken coop later today. I am still recovering, so we won't be doing much snow removal. We will only deal with the most pressing issues.

Mrs. Smith

I dug out the generator.

We will have to deal with the snow against the house soon.

The heavy snow is sliding off the roof. Bang! Bang! I just heard it again. It is loud.

Health Update: Shingles

A few posts ago I mentioned that I had sciatic nerve pain, well it turned out that four days later I had developed a rash that turned out to be shingles. Let me tell you this, this is the most excruciating pain that I have ever felt especially since it affected my sciatic nerve. 

It has been 18 days, and I am finally starting to get some relief. Praise God! When you have a non-stop pain level of 10, it wears you down fast. I was able to sleep through the night for the first-time last night. I did get up at 5 am, but I slept a solid 6 hours. I have been sleeping only a couple hours at a time before having to get up due to the pain. 

I am grateful to be ever so slowly sliding towards 0 on the pain scale. I am amazed at what the human body can go through.

Shalom and good health,

Mrs. Smith

Update: Rough Night!

 

I had a rough first night. The side effects of the medicine along with the pain left me sick at my stomach and sleepless. Ugh! I feel better today. I haven't had to take as much medicine. Hopefully, I will get some sleep tonight. 

Mrs. Smith

Faith - The Rescued Buffalo Calf - Video

 Here is a video of Faith, the recued buffalo calf, at her new home with her human mom...

Faith Buffalo Calf

Coyotes And Golden Eagles

The weather is changing and that has all the critters out trying to fatten up before the cold months of winter appear. For the last week we have seen an increase of predators. We have an enormous coyote who has the strangest hours and as of yesterday there have been three golden eagles that have moved their hunting grounds over my chickens.

Since my chickens are well behaved pets they come when I call, so putting them back in their yard is easy as long as I have my blue sand bucket with the promise of a treat inside. They hate to be locked up during the day. I think that they know something is not quite right. They have been clinging to the porch as close as I will let them anyway. They are still not potty trained ya know!

I had a rare break this past week. Number One headed off without me, so I caught up on housework and cooking. Yesterday, I baked homemade oat bread in my new pans, cooked spaghetti, beef enchiladas and meatloaf (two). I had almost five pounds of hamburger to spread out as far as I could. I also made two hamburger patties for Number One. He loves hamburgers. I left the camera in the vehicle, so I had no way to take pictures. Sorry!

Number One made it home last night. Although I enjoyed my time alone I sure missed him. I accomplish a lot when I am by myself. Go figure. The puppies miss him too. They don't like to go to bed without him. They wait on top of the covers until they are convinced he's not coming home. It's so sad. They are nervous and bark at any little noise they think they hear. Makes for an interesting night.

The heat has been coming on at least twice at night and once in the morning. We have had some heavy frosts the past week or so. It's a cool 34* right now. The chickens are enjoying some pineapple scraps from last night and some scratch. I try not to let them out too early for fear of the coyotes that are heading back to their den from their long night of hunting.

The balloons will not be landing in our yard anymore. We have asked them in the past not to drive on our property, but they continued to do it. So Number One did some investigating to figure out our rights as property owners and contacted the balloon company. He had enough of their antics and laid it all out for them. Tickets for everyone on board etc. This seemed to detour their lack of respect for our rights. Go Number One! I'm his biggest fan. He has also contacted the other property owners about the hunters who insist on hunting on private property endangering the lives of those who live out here.

Our friends who just had a well drilled are allowing us to use it. The are right down the road. Praise God! It saves us wear and tear on our vehicle, fuel, time and money. We are helping them by watering their trees that they just planted and we keep a watchful eye on their place. Love thy neighbor!

Full Steam Ahead...

Where do the days go? It has been a very busy time in our lives lately. Everyone that I have talked to has felt the same way. I started a new bible study this morning with the ladies from church and they all have been experiencing the same busyness.

We had our first snow on the peaks today. We turned on the heater for a while this morning. The aspens have begun to turn gold. I have had to break ice on the chicken's water at least twice in the last two weeks. A welcome sign of fall. The heat of the summer has fled away fast this year.

I'm sorry for the delays in posting. I may have writer's block or life just got in the way. Either way I apologize. The chickens have grown and I am hoping for our first egg soon. The seven( yes seven) roosters have become less meal like and more pet like to me. Anybody need a rooster? I lost one of my keepers. He just died. He grew really fast and maybe his heart couldn't keep up the pace. He had the body of a turkey. I don't know, these things just happen.

We are going to have some work done on our water line soon to prevent it from freezing this year. The plumber was out this morning to discuss the job. He is a friend of ours and will do a good job. We do not have the equipment to do the job ourselves without doing backbreaking work. The water line is deep in the ground, too deep to do the work with a shovel. Number One will help do some of the work to save money.

I cooked my first pot of homemade soup to celebrate the new season that is upon us for dinner tonight. I had some left over grilled chicken in the freezer, so I made chicken vegetable with homemade peppered egg noodles. The noodles thickened up the broth which made a hearty soup. Number One baked some brownies that were delicious.

I found my bread pans in Utah last week. I'm still in the market for some cast iron ones that are made in the great USA. I found some online at Bass Pro Shop. They are heavy, so shipping is unreasonable. I hope to come across a store to purchase them in during our travels. I may just have to breakdown and pay more for shipping than the cost of the pans. I am a patient person most of the time.

My camera batteries lasted about two weeks. I didn't even use it very much. You'd think for twenty bucks they would have been good batteries. Just a bad batch I guess. Back to Wally World for me I guess. I've been buying chicken feed in Kansas when we travel through there. Wow, get ready for some higher prices. Chicken feed went up $3 to $4 a bag here. What will a box of cereal cost in the future? Diesel was $4.37 to $4.57 a gallon on our last trip. Ouch!

Hold on tight, this could be a bumpy ride. Just remember that there is always someone in need in good or bad times...

Update: Dogs and Chickens

I have been very busy the last few days with the dogs, chickens and trying to get around the fires. We actually had to go a couple hundred miles out of the way to get the dogs to the vet for their check-ups after their operations. Our vet actually had to be evacuated today from her home, so she was not there, but another capable vet gave us the good news that Hi Ho's tumor was benign and took out her stitches. Abby was in good shape too. They both received their shoots for this year. They hate to go to the vet. I don't blame them, nothing good ever happens there.

Everything seems to have been topsy turvy this past week. We have had our mattress on the floor, since Hi Ho tore a stitch first thing after jumping off the bed. It was actually in the living room on the floor. This gave me the opportunity to re-arrange the bedroom and clean every square inch, except the closet, that is on the list for tomorrow. This morning we put the mattress back in the bedroom, since Hi Ho was getting her stitches out.

It has been so hot here. I have never seen it above 80* til this week. We love when it is in the 60's in the house. It has been in the 80's in the house. We can't exactly turn on air that we don't have, nobody has air here. I usually do not wear shorts here in the summer unless I want a little sun, but anything more and I can't stand it. It looks like it will be back in the seventies next week. I hope that this helps with the fires. Please keep everyone in your prayers and pray for windless rain.

I love my chickens. I'm still trying to figure out what's best for them. I have named three of the roosters even though I am only keeping two of them. Ben Walton (Ben) from the Walton's, he is the smallest with a bright red comb. Cliff, he has a strange shaped beak and Cass, (Cassanova) he is in love with me. They are all sweet. I had 22, but one rooster died the second night. Shade, wind and heat have been issues all week. I have spent all week moving temporary shade around, so they would be cool enough. We will start a permanant coop as soon as it cools down.

I will get pictures posted soon. I took my camera with me today with the hope of getting some good fire pictures, but could not bring myself to take pictures of people's lives going up in flames. There are a lot of pictures out there to see what it's like. I do not fault anyone for taking pictures, I was just convicted not to take any. It was very emotional for me to see the distruction. I hope that you understand.

Blessings,
Tina

"Our Poor Babies"

Our little angel dogs, Hi Ho and Abby, both had to have surgery yesterday. We left at 5:50 am yesterday morning to get them to the vet by 7:30 am. We picked them up at 4:30 pm. Hi Ho had to have a growth and nipple removed. They sent it off to determine if it was benign or malignant. Abby had to have a tooth removed. They both had to have their teeth cleaned while the were sedated. Wow, poor little babies.

It was a long hard day and night for us all. They were very sedated even after we got home. Hi Ho tried to jump on the bed and tore a stitch. We had to put our mattress on the floor in the living room until next week. I put her in sort of a sleeve to keep her from licking her stitches. I will take a picture when she's up and about. They had scrambled eggs, milk, dry dog food and bacon for breakfast. As you can imagine they did not have much of an appetite, so I helped them out a little bit.

We picked up most of our supplies for the chicken coop yesterday while we were in town. You are going to be tickled when you see what we came up with. With Number One's building skills and my fun ideas, we are going to be the talk of the chicken community. Due to the sheer cost of building materials, we had to get very creative.

The fire is still burning. It has reached 1,145 acres and it is 23% contained. We had to drive past the command center yesterday and it is impressive. Continue praying for those affected by the fire, many are out of money and are having to find alternatives. The church has firefighters sleeping in the basement. I just received an email canceling the women's night out scheduled for this evening. We do not want to displace them even for a couple of hours. They really need their rest. please pray for their continued safety.

I just tried getting a picture of the dogs when the came out to get a drink of water. They found me to be annoying and refused to pose for me. I will keep trying. Have a blessed day and remember God loves you!