The Gun Does Not Fire

Mike and his mule, Cosmo, went to the vet yesterday.  An Xray was taken.  With glee, it was discovered Cosmo was suffering from a deep internal bruise in his hoof.  He is not out of danger yet.  The infection and swelling will need to drain and heal, and, as noted, the abscess is deep within his hoof.  But, the gun did not fire yesterday!  The two will be working together daily, soaking the foot, digging in, and trying to get the thing healed.  Here they are.  A man, his mule, and the string they pull along in the mountain wilderness. 

Meanwhile, spring is springing!  We were wakened by the sudden flash of lightning around 5am this morning.  Lots of rain and some warm weather has kicked the plants up a notch!  This is my pretty little pasque flower which blooms faithfully for me every year outside my office door.  I bet you could look back through this blog history and see its pretty flowers show up on an annual basis!!

Mike has promised to get out a very expensive bottle of wine to celebrate Cosmo's life!  I think I'll join him tonight in Freedom!!  Enjoy the weekend!

Weekend Results

I spent the weekend trying not to bend down (dripping blood from my nose would immediately commence if I did), lift heavy objects, and generally follow the rules set forth by my doc so that I might recover as soon as possible.  I broke a rule and planted some broccoli and cabbage just before a big storm blew through.  They got set well with the rain that followed.

I also baked an amazing - if I might say so myself - loaf of bread.  I've bake bread all my life.  I get bread.  I get how to knead it, how to let it rest so the yeast grows, how to shape it, and how to bake it.  But this loaf!  Well, I've hit my bread-baking high with this loaf!  It was inspired from my latest book, Cooked , which has been a wonderful wonderful read on cooking all kinds of things! 

I then set forth to taking the five yards of French fabric, which was scored at a second hand store for a whopping $8 investment, and turning into a table cloth.  This fabric has a cool coating which makes brushing off spills and food easy peasy on your table.  Done and not bad for an amateur!  Love those sunflowers!

Back to work today.  Maybe not for the entire day, but for a bit.  The headache has been my chief complaint - Advil to the rescue.  I spied some blooming daffodils today!!  Woot!  Woot!

30-Plus Procrastination

In my 20s, I had a doctor who smoked.  Although I did not know this when I first start seeing him, I did find it somewhat disturbing, although sincerely human, once I found out.  Anyway, he was the first one to tell me I had polyps in my nose.  And what caused these polyps, asked I.  Allergies, he replied.  We can surgically remove them, but they will just grow back until you manage your allergies.

So, after 3 bouts of bronchitis this year, two visits to the ENT doc and one visit to a pulmonologist, all concurred it was time to take care of the polyps.

The surgery was scheduled for two hours.  I showed up at the hospital yesterday morning at 0800 and began the prepping for this surgery.  A friend and a Jackson Hole Fire/EMS paramedic dropped my tube - which was nice. (I had to be put under for this surgery which requires a breathing tube).

Another friend described the pain I would feel when I awoke to be similar to a bunch of bee stings in my nose.  It wasn’t quite like that for me; more of a headache and raw feeling.  I accepted the Percoset from the nurse and enjoyed a nice afternoon nap after Mike delivered me home.

One no longer gets one’s nose packed in gauze, which I must confess, was one of the reasons for procrastination!  A gauze pad was placed beneath my nostrils to catch the draining liquids.  And drain they are draining

Earlier this spring, when I wrote about my ice hematoma, a dear friend - who will be very interested in this surgical procedure, wondered if I was “attention seeking” with all of my injury writing.  I kind of took this personally.  This blog is a place for me to write.  They say if you want to be a better writer, you should write.  I think my skills have improved.  One writes about the things one knows.  I am just telling my story.  Up close and personal sometimes.  Very human - like the doctor from Illinois.

After my long nap, Mike and I delivered ourselves to our place of refuge in Freedom.  The snow is off the fields!  We watched a pair of sandhill cranes amble across the alfalfa field as we at dinner late last night.  Slowly, ever so slowly, the season is changing.

Mike’s mule Cosmo is lame.  After a long session with Doc Griggs, he will get an X-ray next week to determine his fate.  We are hoping for the best, but it could be bad.  Leg issues are rarely something that can be fixed.  He is our youngest mule.  He is Mike’s mule.  It will be a very big and sad loss to have to say goodbye to Cosmo.  More on this as we learn his issue.

When I was a new fire inspector, my boss - the then-Fire Marshal - told me I should look into some writing classes.  I took that personally too.  Funny how some things just stab a bit deep.  I enjoy writing and thank you Readers for your time and attention.  Your interest, your kind words, and your critiques.  Often, we are inspired by others, even when it stings a bit.

Now. What to do about the allergies......

Seriously????!!!

I do not believe anyone can jinx themselves. 

But......the day after the article came up, the tones dropped for a confirmed structure fire this morning around 3:30am.  Crap.  Crap, crap, crap, crap, crap!! 

It was an exterior fire.  I investigated and have a cause, but if you want to know the cause, you will need to call me direct.

Here is a picture of the damage.  Did I jinx myself? 

Today's News

This has been a long and often frightening winter.  There have been many many things that could have gone terribly wrong; a crawl space filled with natural gas and firefighters walking around the first floor, a horrific car vs snowmobile touring company van filled with guests crash, etc, etc.  Many of us have really been on guard for the very real potential of a big event with the potential for injury or worse. 

So, I committed that should we make it to spring (which is hard to grasp this morning as the snow capes are muddy open spots into a white blanket covering, once again) without a significant incident, I would write a piece for the paper.  So, last week I did.  After it was written and submitted, there was one very bad crash and one more gas leak; the worry of jinxing myself was intense!!  But, today it is published and still rings true.  We did good, we got lucky this year.  Phew
. 

Thank you Jackson Hole News & Guide.  Thanks for getting the word out! 

Odious Spring

I know this is an across-the-nation complaint.  This has been a long winter and well, a miserable spring.  Some of you enjoyed 70 degree temperatures yesterday and have snow on the ground this morning.  Yuck.

We were wakened by a downpour on our little cabin's metal roof.  A gray and very wet day.  Two pictures; the view looking up from the lower house to our little cabin taken last Thursday and a view looking down from our little cabin taken this morning. 

Lows expected in the 20s for the next couple of nights. 

April 9, 2019

April 4, 2019

Pinterest Worthy

A couple of weeks ago, my staff member Butch, learned of a giant house that was to be torn down.  There were many valuable things left in the house; refrigerators, cabinetry, granite counters, huge solid wood doors.  It was really quite remarkable so many valuable items were left for the ripping ball.  Butch got permission to salvage things before the wrecking ball arrived.  I was lucky to be invited and spent a few Saturday hours salvaging a couple of  rusted iron window planters, garage vacuums, some wooden blinds, and thinking of my need for curtain rods, two pieces of copper pipe.  Butch salvaged pounds and pounds of copper; can't wait to hear how much he gets for his work!

Anyway, thinking about my copper pipe curtain rod made me ponder a curtain rod holder.  Ran across a brand new box of flexible copper tubing at our local Re-Store ($5), did some research on how to coil the stuff and came up with some pretty darn unique curtain rod/hanger assemblies!!  I think this is Pinterest stuff here!!  Just need to figure out how to get something posted on that site!!

The beautiful fabric is another great find!  Two panels of French fabric found at a local second hand store for $4.00 each.  This fabric goes for $58/yard.  I snagged it fast and the five yards of beautiful red print raw fabric.  I turned the edge over, added some grommets and now have the most perfect curtains for the sunflower room!! This fabric even has sunflowers on it!!  Woot!  Woot!!

And the bedroom project is complete!  Master Carpenter Mike is quite happy to be finished and pleased with the result, as am I.  The bedroom is beautiful!!  We just love how the corrugated metal wainscoting turned out!!

Isn't it wonderful?  The picture above the bed is a real find and a great story about a local program called "Art from the Heart".  The local Whole Foods and Re-Store have a program where you can donate your art and they put the money toward local affordable housing.  There were 3 of these pictures by Howard Behens (check this artist out at Info of Artist Behens ) hanging in the grocery store the other day.  I sought out my art adviser, Victoria Trumbower, who coached me to snag them, even if they were not originals!  They are limited edition giclee creations which have the 3-D oils effects he was famous for creating.  You'd never know the difference looking at them.  Troweled-on globs of oil create these beautiful images.  Quite lovely.  I like them, and I got them for a steal!  Thanks for your nudging Victoria.  Mike likes them too!! 

Now we wait for the snow to melt so we can get farming!!  There is still at least 18" of snow.  It did get warm enough for me to flip-flop my bee hive and I was thrilled to see how many bees remain after one of Wyoming's longest and coldest winters!!  There is hope for honey and comb this season!! The big bonus for me is the bees were calm and happy.  It was great to light up the smoker and crawl into the suit again; knowing so much more than I did a couple of weeks ago!!