Cheaters

Three cowboys were riding in the pickup, all three sitting in the front seat.

Which one is the real cowboy?

The one in the middle.

Because he doesn't have to drive, and he doesn't have to open the gate.

Somehow, I'm never the "real" cowboy, cause I always have to open the gate.

Barbed wire gates are sometimes difficult to open. If it's a new gate, and it's nice and tight, it's almost impossible to open.

Here's how you open a barbed wire gate...

If it's a tight gate, you lean against the fence post.

Wrap your arm around the other side of the post and grab the gate post and pull it towards you. This lessens the tension on the loop allowing you to lift the loop off the gate post and open the gate. And sometimes, you just don't have enough lead in your britches to pull that gate. At times like that, your Dad, brother, or husband come to the rescue. But they whine and pout about having to help you out--especially if they were sitting in the middle.

I much prefer using a cheater to open gates, like this one...This is a nice way to open a new gate. All I had to do was lift on the handle (on the right side) and it pulled the gate post in and I just pop the cheater off the post and open the gate. Of course you can just drop the gate, but usually, you have to drag it inside, while the guy driving comes in the pasture. Then, they wait until you close the gate.

This is one of the nicer cheaters I've used. Sometimes, a cheater is simply a stick of wood chained to the fence post. You wrap it around the gate post, and lean on it for that extra leverage to move the gate post.

In this case, everyone loves a cheater! Especially me.

Jinx

I should have kept my "mouth" shut yesterday.

Last night, Ifound the chick's body--minus it's head.

Stupid cats.

Stupid me. I jinxed it.

I did suggest to Kev that maybe he should build me a brood house for "next" time. He gave me the look and just suggested that "next" time, I seperate the chick(s) from the hen and raise them like we do store bought chicks.

I'm gonna work on my plan, and work towards a brood house--or brood tractor. Maybe then...I can raise a chick.

New baby

We have a new baby at our house.

Or, at least we had it when we left the house this morning.

One of my hens hatched a chick. I found the chick on Saturday, but I think it probably hatched sometime on Friday because by the time I found it on Saturday morning, it was dry and fluffy and very cute. Mama was still sitting on 3 more eggs Saturday morning and Chick was spending most of it's time under her, but made a lot of noise.

So, I got out one of my chick feeders and filled it with all purpose chicken feed, wheat and black oil sunflower seeds. Then I found a waterer and filled it up and set it near Mother and child.

So far, so good!

But they did give me a scare Sunday night.

I went out to shut everyone in for the night, and no Mama or chick. I just knew one of the stupid cats had decided to have chick for supper. But, I counted my birds and I was one short. So, I went outside and there on the ground was Mama. I could hear the baby--under Mom. So, I picked up Mom and baby and put them back inside the chicken house. They meandered over to "their" corner and the chick nabbed a bite to eat and got a drink before Mom told it to come to bed.

I've enjoyed watching them. Last night, I tossed some food scraps out--to the chickens. I could hear the chick, but wasn't spotting it. Finally, I found it, right beside it's Mama's head. If Mama pecked something, so did the baby. They really liked the tomatoes, and the biscuits best.


Come dark, it was the same as Sunday night...all the other chickens went inside, but my little family. I watched as Mama settled herself down on the ground and the chick ran right over and nestled under her feathers and a top her feet. It was too cute.

But, I know it's not safe to be outside with 40-leven cats roaming in the dark. So, again, I picked the two up and put them back inside the safety of the Chicken house.

So far, so good! Maybe I'll finally raise a home-born chick...

I have another hen who's broody. However, she started sitting before this Mama did. So far, nothin. So, I'm going to give her till this weekend. If she isn't successful--and I don't think she will be--then I'm going to brave her beak and toss her eggs.

In the meantime, I'll watch my little family and hope that chick has a long and happy life.

Normal...well, not really

All my test results came back normal. YEAH!

Now we're concentrating on getting my iron levels back to normal.

And the Dr gave me some progesterone pills to keep me from having a period for 3 months. He doesn't wanting me losing that much blood--or any blood--for that amount of time. We'll see what happens from there.

My Ob-Gyn is a Chinese Dr. His English is pretty good, but not perfect. He did tell me "Your uterus not normal."

And then he went on to draw me a picture. On the outside, my uterus is normal--pear shaped. But on the inside, it's heart shaped. Which is NOT normal. It's not bicournal (sp?), or split in 2 with each side being horn like; but it's not quite normal.

I didn't ask, because it doesn't matter any more, but...some women with this condition can't carry babies. So, I won't dwell on what might have been, and just be thankful for the two healthy kids I do have.

The Dr does think this abnormality might have played a role in my "Dysfunctional Uterine Bleeding". But hormones did play a big part.

Will it happen again? He won't give any predictions on that. I hope not...we got the preliminary hospital bill...whoo boy. It's higher than what it was to have a baby 14 years ago. But, remember, I'm not complaining...

Let's all hope that this is the last post about this. Cause I really want to focus on something else for a change...

By the way, did I mention that I had 2 moles removed from my neck? And that one was basal cell carcinoma? Have to admit, I was a little surprised, but on the other hand...not really. I have fair skin...I'm as white as white can get. I grew up in the 70's when our goal was to smear our bodies with baby oil and get brown...except I never got brown. Basal cell tends to be pretty common in my family...which means I wasn't adopted, and I'm not the mailman's kid. (So Dad, this pretty much means I'm yours!)

Have a great weekend everyone. I am as normal as I'm ever going to be and we will return this blog to the mundane, to the chickens...or to Miss Kat, or maybe even hunting...stay tuned!

update

The D&C went very well. I feel better and I think it was necessary. The bleeding has stopped. The before and after bleeding was night and day. Once I got home, I realized just how badly I'd been bleeding. We women are so used to dealing with blood, that I'd just adapted my behavior and coped. I knew it was getting bad, but I didn't realize how bad it was until after the surgery.

The hardest thing for me right now is not taking a bath again until I go back to the Dr this Thursday. I can shower, but I really hate taking showers. Hopefully, on Thursday, I'll have my pathology reports and we'll know where to go from here.

Yesterday, the first bills arrived.

I hate medical bills.

I promised my family that I wouldn't whine or complain or gripe about the medical bills. That this time, I'll just pay them and move on.

It's going to be hard. Cause I have a $3000 deductible and cause what they charge is ridiculous. Why charge $250 for a sonogram if you are just going to write 1/2 of it off? Makes no sense to me.

So, I'm going to try real hard and not gripe...and that last paragraph is NOT griping.

Let's hope that I start getting some energy back and I start stitching again and reading again and having some energy left at the end of the day. I'm taking extra iron, so I hope I get back to "normal" soon!