Updates and Latest bird sightings

I haven't posted here in a while.  Not much is happening lately.  Just trying to pay down the debts and keep us afloat and fed.  Today I got the leaky hose bib in the backyard slowed down.  It is a slow drip instead of a steady trickle now.  Saturday, I got the running toilet in the green bathroom fixed, and look to replace the flush valve in the pink bathroom tomorrow.  Maybe we will soon have the water bill under control.

I had a pretty stout case of the flutters in my chest when I walked Davy in to class today.  I was so out of breath my friend, Susan wanted me to call Jeff.  I didn't happen to have my cell phone on me. ( It's just as well I didn't have it; Jeff is working in the field again and today he is working along the center line of Interstate Highway 30.  I don't want to bother him when he is working a dangerous job like that).  It's been that way all day.  I get up to do something and I am out of breath before you know it.  I got winded drying dishes today.  I think this is related to the cold that has been going through the house though.  The boys were out sick with sinus crap and feeling yucky and I think I may have taken a bit of it.  Yesterday I was a total slug.  I got nothing done.  Just slept and tried to keep an eye on the boys while they were up.  

Also Davy had another seizure on the bus on January 12th.  He was rather out of it when they got here but once he got to sit and rest he recovered well and is all back to normal.  I got some leads to some GP doctors that take medicaid so I am going to make some calls and see where I can get him in.

Also I want to put out a pray request for my friend M.T. She is fighting brain and lung cancer and just heard from her insurance that she has reached her prescription cap.  She also just found out the cancer medication she is on costs (gird your loins for this one) $10,700 per bottle. (Ten Thousand Seven Hundred Dollars)  They are trying to work out what to do next.  Please say a prayer that a good answer that heals her presents itself soon and in time.

On a lighter note, I did get to go to the park with Ryan this morning.  I wanted to see the ducks that have flown into our park.  Some new wild ducks have found the pond down at Foster Park.  Upon consulting my "Birds of Texas" by Keith Arnold and Gregory Kennedy, I believe these to be Northern Shovelers. I got some pictures.

Flock of Northern Shovelers and some turtles

Northern Shoveler male

Northern Shoveler males

Northern Shovelers males and females and what I believe to be a male Lesser Scaup or perhaps a Redhead at the center of the photo

Northern Shoveler male

ducks resting in the sunshine

Northern Shovelers, males far left and right, females center

Northern Shoveler pair

View of the whole flock

 

 

The change of seasons has also brought new birds to the bird feeders.  So far in addition to the usual House Sparrows we have also been seeing a few wrens.  I not 100% sure but I think they are Carolina Wrens.  I haven't gotten any pictures of them yet.

I did get a few (not to great) photos of the Cedar Waxwings that showed up one morning.

Cedar Waxwing

Cedar Waxwings

Here you can see why the pictures aren't the greatest.  I was having to shoot through the screen door.

Cedar Waxwing coming in for a landing

 So that's it for a while.  Not much to talk about but I do love to watch the birds.

Peace.

Thank Goodness I Still Have My Old Ones

New Hat

I saw this hat on another site and just had to have one.  I made most of it last night and finished it up this morning during the CBS Sunday Morning show.

I had stuffed my ponytail up into the hat and it decided to fall to one side of the hat and started pulling it off.

I do have to say it does look a little like I have a mushroom perched on my head. Perhaps I should have used the larger hook to make it.

November 17, 2011

Just a little update.  Dottie and the kids came over and we made and canned cranberry sauce.  This was our first attempt at canning and it looks like we succeeded. 

12 sealed 4 ounce jars of homemade cranberry sauce.

 Dottie and I are splitting this batch half and half but, I do believe I will be making more soon to give as gifts.  I just need to find more of the little jars.  I so want to get a pressure canner so that I can can up my homemade chicken broth and turkey broth.  They are so much better than the stuff you get at the store.  I also figure that since Jeff and I like our veggies like Brussels sprouts and broccoli super, super well done then I could can up those and not have to take up freezer space with them.  It won't matter if the processing makes them mushy because we like them that way.  That's something to research.

Also our newest chicken has started laying.  She's an easter egger and lays olive green eggs.  I had been using up the last of the chick feed (it's medicated with antibiotics) so I will have to wait a few days before we can eat her eggs.  I sooooooo need to upgrade my chicken house and pen and get more hens.  That will have to wait until we are debt free and can save up for it.  That---God willing and the creek don't rise---should be in the spring of 2014.  Of course the chicken house comes after we take care of the new fridge, new washer and dryer and new cooktop we need and repairs to the patio roof amongst other things.  At least the washer is actually working but to get the new dryer, we need a washer that doesn't take up the 220v outlet that our current half working combo unit uses.

Well that's it for now.  I have to get to work on the laundry.

Peace

The last few weeks have been a plodding journey through a landscape of malaise.  I don't know as I would call it a depression.  I am not sad or blue about anything; just blah.  A mushy hillock of the "I don't really give a figgy about any of this" 'es.  Nothing is piquing my interest these days.  I feel like I am stuck in the mud and don't know how to get out.  Like the quicksand was thick enough I won't fall over and only about nipple high (of course that measurement is trending closer to the ground than it once was.)  I am just out of it.  I'm just not getting things done.  The laundry is piling up. The dishes are unwashed.  The sleeping bags from Sammy's campout Halloween weekend are still all over the floor in the front room.  I am barely getting dinner on the table these days.  I just can't get myself revved up and organized.  Sleep isn't refreshing and I ache all over.  All I really want to do is eat chocolate, drink milk and nap....and I haven't even gotten that done!

Bleh!

Thank Goodness, These Old Ones are Saggy!

Just a note to have this written down somewhere. Davy had a seizure on the schoolbus on Thursday afternoon. The bus attendant came up to the door and asked for help getting Davy off the bus. He had come to but was still very loopy and wobbly on his feet. I had him sit on the steps while I called for an ambulance and the bus drove off. I have no recollection of him ever having a seizure before so I wanted to get him to the hospital to get checked out and I didn't know if he might have another one on the way there so I thought the ambulance was the best idea.

The boys and I followed in the van and Jeff met us at the hospital. They let us go right on back since Davy is special needs. We got there a little after 4:30 pm. They got an IV port put in him, blood drawn and a chest Xray taken right away and then we waited. I noticed around 6:30 Davy was really coming back to his usual self. Around 10pm they finally got us in for a CT scan and all tests came back OK so we were discharged around 11:30pm with instructions to stop the antibiotics he was on for an infected ingrown toenail. He had a few bumps and bruises and a bitten tongue. It looks like tomorrow we will be headed into the clinic thought because his tongue looks infected and it hurts him a lot.

I have to say the folks at JPS (John Peter Smith Hospital) ER were all really nice and professional. You hear such bad things about going into a metropolitan county ER, but so far JPS has dispelled those stories through the good service at both their ER and their urgent care outpatient clinic these past few days.