Good News!

Elaine and I took a drive into Edmonton to have my 8 week post surgery interview with the doctor. So far there has been very little pain and I have been able to increase my walking up to 5 km without any adverse effects other than being a little tired after having very little exercise over the last 4 months.

The good news is that he did not have to do a blood transfusion. He also had some Xrays taken to see how things were progressing. This was the first time I had seen what was done inside.  I was astonished to see that two vertebrae were essentially missing  and that they were replaced by two titanium rods and 4 large screws that held the rods to L3 and L6 , with L4 and L5 being the ones missing.

He was surprised to hear that I had only taken 5 pills for pain since I left the hospital, and that I was doing a few things that were on the  not -to-do- list.

There have been a whole bunch of people praying for my speedy recovery in the church and I am positive that that had a major influence. I also had a very strong belief that the Lord would assist me through this. Never underestimate the power of prayer!

The Doc seemed very satisfied and gave me a prescription for physiotherapy to get my back muscles tuned up. I am still under the directive of no heavy lifting and no twisting.

All in all, a very good day!

This is kind of what it looks like, but not the same.

Excitement on the Acreage!

Lots of flashing lights and a blocked road! In this normally quiet neighbourhood this is unusual and worth a look-see.

 Bits and pieces everywhere, and Boots had to inspect each piece and go to all the police for skritches.

 Two people were sent to hospital, but the witnesses (or first on the scene) did not think injuries were too bad. A baby was not hurt.

 Darn dog has to sneak into every picture it seems.

 The wheel ended up way down in the ditch. It was kind of funny afterward, as I went looking for our neighbour because I thought it was her car and her daughter in the van, and she thought it was my truck!

 With the excitement over, it was time to mosey on  back up the trail.

Hope your day was better than theirs!

Quite a Week!

For me, Wednesday and Thursday are a bit of a blur.

I decided about noon on Wednesday to go for a horse ride. I took Alpine out because she was next in line for a ride. she was very compliant in the paddock, so I started to ride her around the Acreage. No problems. The second time up the driveway at a fast trot, she ducked her head and bucked! I had no time to get my weight back, so departed the horse on the second buck. Normally, I can ride through this, but not this time. I went over the handle bars about 8 feet up, and landed flat on my back.

The Cause

The next thing I remember  is Brooklyn licking my face and head butting me to get up. I looked for Alpine and saw her up near the house walking back to the corral.

The Heroine

I managed to get to my knees just in time to see Elaine leaving the house to catch Alpine.

This was the first time that I didn't want to get back up on the horse, or should I say, couldn't?

I managed to get up the hill, un saddle her and get her back into the yard with Biz. I put the tack away then went in to lay down for a bit. My back was pretty badly bruised and I had a few cuts on the inside of my arm. I was dizzy and Elaine decided that I was going to the hospital.

They took X-rays which showed nothing broken as far as they could see. However I was in a lot of pain so they shipped me over to Hinton for a CAT scan, thinking that I may have damaged liver, kidneys or?  It turns out every thing was OK except for a partially deflated lung, which they said would recover by itself.

The new resident at the hospital gave me a real going over for not wearing a helmet. She was not too receptive to the fact that I did not hit my head, but managed to tuck it.

They gave me a couple of pills, anti inflammatory and pain which made things bearable.

Thursday after noon they released me to go home.

Now, Elaine has been suffering from the onset of Parkinson's disease which has severely limited her mobility and ability to eat or drink. The medicines that they have prescribed so far have given minimal relief so far. Friday morning they stuck her in the hospital to try and get to the bottom of things. This was not quite an overlap, but close.

The ex patient (me) is now the one doing the visiting.

All in all, quite a week!

The Project

This project was one of necessity. Our place is built up about 6 feet above the driveway. To meet the criteria for an access ramp, it meant 72 feet of ramp had to be built, with landings for resting every so many feet.

 After much mental thinking, I was able to utilize the existing landings and only had to build 2 additional ones to meet code.You can see the existing steps in the fore ground, and see the construction needed to make the "U" and tie into the landing at the bottom of the 3 steps.

 That landing continued onto another 16 foot ramp, to another landing and then another 16 foot ramp down to the lower landing.

 I still have to install hand rails and toe boards to prevent a walker from coming off the ramps.

While finishing up for today, I noticed Biz feeding away from her herd mates and joining up with a deer.

My Dad gave me some advice when I was a kid. He said something like

" If you have a job to do, read a book on how to do it. The knowledge will be with you forever. If you need a tool, buy it. It will last longer than you. Do it yourself, unless you are making $25 per hour." (going rate for a tradesman at that time

That was sound advice that has served me well over the years.

More

After two more dumps like This ,I have finally gotten things dug out! It may take a while before the training paddock is available!

Yep, it may take a while!

The parking spot is cleared out, and my truck is back at home. The lower ball joint on the front passenger side broke leaving the tire sitting at 90 degrees to what it should have been. Fortunately, we were not on the highway when that happened or it could have been real exciting!

Looking at the picture, I see I forgot to shovel out the bed. Tomorrow is another day, with no snow forecast!

Critter Shots

Warming up at -17C (1.4F)

It's still snowing!

How about some more sweetfeed?

#2 cooking off.

OOPS!

Just when I thought things were going well with the hay run, wouldn't you know it, I had to hook a trailer bumper on the fence posts when backing the rig out of the place! There was no damage to the trailer, in fact, I didn't even notice that I'd hooked the post.

Guess what I did on the day that I had planned to vegetate? You got it! unstring the wires from the broken posts and replace the posts. It took about 3 hours! The cross wiring was good as there was no other damage to the fence.

OK, tomorrow I'm going to vegetate!

First Trail Ride for the Girls

It was a nice, cool, day and we arranged for  a trail ride today. The pictures are from two years ago and the twins have changed a lot, more mature and very lady like. At 16 and going into grade 10 it is still nice to see them want to hang out with "the old guy".

Jamie started out on Tucker, but Tucker being the old wise mare of many riders, would not co-operate at all. So about 1/2 mile out I swapped Tucker out for Alpine. Alpine did awesome. After a few circles Tucker decided to co-operate ( or else). Alpine also did a very good foot stomp on Jamie. I remembered to tell them to wear long pants for the bugs, but didn't mention NOT to wear sandals. Big multi- coloured boo boo in progress.

Jesse did great on Biz, although there were a few moments to be worked through. This was the first time that I let the girls out of the paddock as they only get to ride one or two days a year. It was the first time talking them through a steep incline, up and down. They did awesome!

I took the camera but was a little too busy to take pictures. Hopefully I can get a few from their grandma before the ride.

Oh, yeah, other than the foot stomp, the only casualty was me. A dog was sitting on the edge of his property and spooked Tucker sending me flat on my back. It knocked the wind out of me, but so far, no other damage.  I'm just glad it was me and not one of the girls.

All in all, a very good day!

Is the sky falling?

With all the hype going on about the space junk ( very expensive 30+ years ago), are you ready for the chicken little scenario? The odds are something like one in a trillion of me (or you) being hit as an individual, but one in 3200 of somebody being hit. Quite a discrepancy! 

I guess the old saying and song "What goes up, must come down" rings true. The area is all the way from Texas  to  Edmonton and from the Pacific to Atlantic, and don't forget  about the southern tip of South America. In other words, these rocket scientists don't know squat about where ( or when) it's coming down~! 

How would you like to be on the trip to the moon, or Mars with this science at work?

Me, I'm going to wear a hard hat to bed tonight and tomorrow  just in case 

How about you? Are you prepared to meet your Maker?

A Downer and a Cure

My  truck went and blew a spark plug (again) and is in the shop waiting for repairs. The plug took out the cap and coil causing the truck to sound like a very old tractor or a threshing machine. The last time this happened, my mechanic was able to heli -coil the head. Hopefully, I will get lucky this time also.

When feeling blue, how can I stay that way when I look at this face?

A trip down memory lane also helps. I can't believe the time has gone by that fast!

Then if I go way back in time to my high school days, I think of the fun I had building this boat in the basement during Christmas vacation. Eight feet long, four feet wide and twelve inches deep. For all you metric types, I'll let you do the math. With a 10 horse power motor and racing prop, it did an honest 32 miles/ hour. I had it all over Lake of The Woods for four seasons.  The boat cost about $50.00 to build and  was worth every penny. Believe it or not, two people fit cozily inside. When the big waves came along, powering down got the nose to come up, and it was dry in waves up to four feet high.

There! I feel better already!

More of Life on an Acreage

Our friends showed up with 4 teenage grand children, plus a teenage friend for the annual ride a horse on the acreage day. Busy? Exciting? You betcha! With only 3 horses, they were lined up and waiting for a turn. Each one seemed to prefer a particular horse. Here we have a sort of  horse race down the paddock. Who won? I think they all did! I had help hauling the saddles and tack, but I still didn't mention this activity to the Doctor today. Nor did I mention trimming some feet and running the chain saw!

The trip into Edmonton (twice) went well in spite of some torrential down pours. I took Elaine into the airport Thursday night, then went back into the city Friday morning, all in rain and high winds. She is off to Pennsylvania for 10 days.

The trip to University Hospital was productive. The X-Ray showed the bones to be healing well and I get to go without having the bones pinned. Yahooo! I get to wear the splint for another three weeks around the clock, then I can start taking it off in the daytime for another 3 weeks, with no heavy lifting allowed. I figure for doing the heavy work that needs to be done, I can slip it back on while doing it. After 6 weeks, I go back in for another X-ray  to see how its progressing.

What I learned from this:

1. When you have a possible dislocation, pull harder to reset it so that if any bones are broken they will realign.
2. Don't try out a strange (new) horse bareback the first time
3. Even when frozen, it hurts to have a thumb reset. (refer to #1)
4. Thumbs are useful for all sorts of things we take for granted every day.
5.People always want to shake your hand when it's in  a cast.
6. People look at you funny when you shake hands left handed.
7.If you talk nicely to the Doctor, he will comply with a request that allows you to hold the reins in a cast (splint)
8. It is possible to trim a horse while in  a splint (don't tell the Doc about that)
9.It is very difficult to use a steak knife left handed!
10. I don't bounce as well as I used to!

A Week Without......

Blogging!

I have been a bad blogger! I have been reading lots of blogs, but commenting seldom and posting not.

This is the contraption that they fitted me with. It looks like 4 to 6 weeks will be the time confined with the following caveat: If X-Rays on the 8th show the bones to be misaligned, then they will likely pin the thumb which means another 4 to 6 weeks. Note that the doc met my request and I can still hold the reins.

 What I have here is a BIG quarter horse that we boarded two days. He is 16 + Hands high and around 1400 pounds. I got by the first day, but on the second, I just had to try him out. My western saddle ( designed for a quarter horse) just barely went on him. The back cinch was on the first notch. I had to use the show bridle that came with the horse, as mine would not fit.

 I only rode him for about 20 minutes. You could just feel the power in those hind quarters! He was very well behaved. I had fun, in spite of an unorthodox grip on the reins.

If I had a horse this size, I would need to invest in a bigger step ladder!

Anatomy 101

Ok, after a trip  to Edmonton today, here is the story of the dislocated thumb, at least the part that I'm telling. The specialist said that I did not really dislocate the thumb, rather I broke off the two end bulges on bone #9 which caused the remainder of that bone to end up close to bone #1. What i thought was a dislocation was in fact two breaks on the end of the bone. When I pulled on it, things came back to almost normal, with a slight twist.

The doc talked about me coming in next week to have either of 2 things done.

1. making a small incision under general anesthesia  and pinning the bones back together
2. pinning the bones  without the incision under local freezing.

Either way it would mean a cast on for 6 weeks.

I told him OK as long as he formed the cast so that i could still hold the reins. He thought that was funny.

He also offered to write me a note saying" no cooking, no laundry, and no house work". My kind of Doc!

I was almost home when I got a call from him saying that they had a consultation  back at the hospital and they thought the could position and cast without doing surgery. Again, my kind of Doc!

So, I go back in on Thursday to get option three done.

Life is awkward, but still good on the acreage.

In the meantime, they gave me a splint, read cast, which will make riding even more awkward.
To make it worse, I had to turn down the annual horse driven cattle drive by our neighbour taking the 120+ head up to the summer pasture, right down one of the main highways.  It's always lots of fun!

Tough Times

This is a picture of Boom shortly after we got him on one of our first trail rides up the mountain to a trapper's cabin. He was sold to us as a gentle, calm 16 year old. The first two were accurate and we could not wish for a better horse. However, the vet said he was much older than 16 years.

Currently, Boom is suffering from a suspected stroke, the heaves, and partial loss of control on the hind end, probably as a result of the stroke. His hind feet are dragging, and he is definitely unstable. The vet took a look at him and said that he likely wasn't in any pain.

We have a couple of medications that are supposed to improve the breathing and promote healing. The vet says that we should know in about 4 days what situation will be like. The vet also commented on a previous visit in the fall for teeth floating that Boom was likely around 34 years old, which is old for a horse.

It could be the suspected stroke, shakiness, and tough breathing is simply a matter of old age. The last few days did not have me feeling much like blogging.

This is likely going to be a long 4 days on the Acreage!

After the Snow Came Down

The fun starts!

For Brooklynn, all this snow was fun to play in, although sticks are hard to find. You have to dig deep!

But, she is a retriever, and neither snow nor sleet nor hail will deter her mission. Or, is that the Post Office?






The back yard need some more digging out. I have already done it twice, just to be able to get to the chicken coop.










Then there is my ride. I hooked a wheel and down into the ditch it went. The close up of the bumper is not pretty so I won't show it. To extricate the truck I had to sacrifice one fence pole, via chainsaw. The bumper was very tightly caught and tensioned.









The neighbour also didn't fare well as he went in while getting me out. This one took three trucks, I tractor and 4 guys to get it out.

Boom is Boom! He seemed to not mind the storm at all! The extra rations helped.











Biz and Tucker still went walk about, mainly to see what their crazy food supplier was doing. The two horse pictures were taken early in the storm. By the end, the snow was knee deep on the horses.

Life was good, though.. I managed to read 5 old issues of Harrow smith, watch some TV and a DVD , and make some Zeds

The County was around Sunday morning with the plow, so we were able to get out for church. Saturday nothing moved. When we got home, our neighbour had plowed an 8 foot wide track up our driveway. Sunday afternoon I widened it out with the snow scoop. I figure on about 3 days to get stuff cleared up.
 Life is still good on the acreage!

A Close Call!

It was about 10:30 on New Years eve, when our neighbour up the cul-de-sac decided to light off his fireworks. I had just gone to bed when it sounded like a machine gun had opened up, accompanied by mult-flashes.

My first though was "How are the horses taking this?" I could just make out the three of them frantically racing around their winter field.

My next thought was " Hope they don't try to run through the fence". I had visions of BIG vet bills.

At this point I decided to go out and try to calm them down. When they saw me coming, they sort of relaxed. Biz came up to me for a head scritch and was the calmest of the three. The other two were in full alarm mode. I talked to them, and when they calmed down enough (the fireworks had stopped), I went into the field.

I calmed Boom down and went cautiously up to Tucker's shoulder talking calmly to her when flash, bang, the neighbour started up again. Tucker swung and ran. Fortunately I was at her shoulder on the noisy side, but for some reason, she turned into me on the way down to the far fence. I was flattened something like a Mac truck running over me. I was close enough that it was more of a push rather than a hit. So, nothing broken, nothing strained, but rather shook up.

The neighbour has been around livestock, and professed to know horses, yet chose to light off the fireworks almost overhead. This happened about two years ago in the summer when he chose to do the same thing. That time, I was run over! I talked to him, but apparently with no effect.

I could hear the other neighbour's horses responding the same way, but chose not to go see because I did not know their horses that well. They appeared OK this morning.

Anyway, I guess I will have another talk with him this week.

Happy New Year!

As Promised

 So far, the healing up has been good. For those of you that are mechanically challenged, be careful with the angle grinder. When it grabbed, the torque was instantaneous, and basically not controllable. Yes, I had  one hand on the switch, and the other hand on the grinder body. It basically tore the grinder out of my holding hand and flipped it down on my arm.

Again, fortunately, no nerves, tendons or arteries were cut. I would of got a picture before stitching except it would have been to difficult to focus the camera and hold the paper towel .

For all you sewing types, not a bad stich job!

Be careful out there!

On the Acreage, things have been pretty quiet. The chicks are growing and flying like crazy. They are starting to perch side by side in the evenings, and so far we have only lost one. He was the runt, and just did not grow. he drank, but wouldn't eat.

There has been lots of rain, and we have the best grazing since we got the place. The hay is just starting to head out and some of it is 3 feet high. Hopefully bale prices will be reasonable this year.

Elaine and I have got a few short rides in, and hope to get some more once the rain quits.

Don't retire. It seems that I had more free (play) time when I was working! I guess that one of these days I will look for some handyman jobs again, but not until fall. I am enjoying being busy with no deadlines.

I will get the camera clicking again soon.

Keep the horse between you and the ground!