Thursday, September 25, 2008

food, food and more food!!

It was raining when I woke up. Imagine that!! Rain in Seattle? So I had my ½ cup of coffee and hoped it would stop. Nope, not at all. So, the girls and I just hung out until my mom and Kimiko showed up.

Yep, happy days!! Mom and Kimiko appeared and I knew they had arrived when the sheep started baaing, the girls went ballistic and barked and ran about in the house and Rigby appeared at the front porch.

Mom and Kimiko barely made it into the house when Tess ran to get a toy and about bowled Mom over. Nan ran in circles around Kimiko and barked like a banshee.

Mom whipped out a bag of dog biscuit she had gotten for the girls. It was fresh chicken fruit and veggies…it looked and seemed delicious and the ingredient list was very healthy. I am not even going to count how many biscuits they got but let’s say their dinner rations got cut in half!!

They didn’t forget about me and made me fresh Tempura (Dover sole, egg plants, assorted veggies) and homemade sushi, teriyaki chicken skewers, and other Japanese goodies, I though I had died and gone to heaven. It was a far better meal than I had the night before of hotdogs and soup. We ate well needless to say. I am so lucky to have my mom and Aunt. The girls also agreed as they got leftovers and more biscuits.

Finally the rain let up and we ventured outside to the barn. I took ½ Vicodin for this journey. It was about noon than my 9:00 dose. I am trying to slowly not take to take ½ Vicodin during the day and then also cut my dose down at night. Last night I only took one Vicodin instead of two and I could feel the chest pain. So tonight I will try 1 ½ pill and see if that dose will work. I hate getting up in the middle of the night with chest pain.

So Mom and Kimiko have the feeding routine down now. They fed the three pastures the proper amount of alfalfa. They whipped out the three bucket of breads and it is a delight to see them feed the animals. The sheep all run up to them and mom has even figured who some of the ewes are such as one old ewe. (#21)

I had gotten three new Muscovy baby ducks about two weeks ago. They lost their baby fuzz and look like white Muscovys. Mom noticed right away that they had grown and were hanging out with the other ducks. She also noticed that I had gotten a new chicken. Nothing escapes her sharp eye.

We wrapped up the feeding chore by tossing the ball for the girls. Or I should say, Mom and Kimiko tossed the ball for the girls. It’s a fine ritual.

We decided to pick the tomatoes before it began to rain. I cut my clippers and cut off stalks of ripe tomatoes. After a while my chest began to hurt from all the bending and we called it good. By this time we had picked six, yes six, plastic bags of tomatoes. Mom and Kimiko washed the tomatoes and we will all be eating tomatoes for a while. Nothing is better than a sun ripened fresh tomato from your garden. Mom and Kimiko went home with four bags of tomatoes and farm fresh eggs. I got a plateful of sushi and tempura. We both feel like we all scored the lotto.

I was going to take a nap but then Chuck came over. We let the dogs out to play and I cleaned the kennels. Then Chuck worked his dogs and also Rainey. I sat and watched in the dry barn while he worked in the rain. That was an easy decision on my part. Beside I was still sore/.hurting some in my chest and was tired. Audrey came over and worked her two dogs, Dan and Kael. Kael is very natural and did some nice outruns and is a joy to watch.

I had to take another ½ Vicodin with dinner. I had pushed myself too hard today and also was tired from the uneasy night sleep that I had. Since I quit taking the Oxycontin, I have been trying to find the right amount of pain meds to ease my chest pain while slowly getting myself off of them. My goal is to be done soon.

Speaking of chest pains, the pain is more localized and a lot less severe. My scar is much thinner and I put ScarGel and Vit E on it. It doesn’t hurt near as much when I touch it. But I try to make sure that I don’t do anything stupid like flipping a bale of alfalfa or lugging a feed bag about. I have to make myself stop and ask someone for help. The jobs tat I would do before like carrying a fill bucket of grain I will break that job down into a couple of trips. Instead of grabbing 6 leaves of Alfalfa I will grab 2 leaves. I do the jobs as before but in smaller portions.

Speaking of portions, I am not going to make my nightly ice cream portion any smaller. Matter of fact, since it is “Cookie Dough” Ice Cream, I think I will double my portion tonight. I hear cold numbs pain and I am going to test that theory.

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