Sat. April 25th… Let’s Dig Holes for Bunnies New House……

It seems like such a nice morning to start the bunny house out at the barn. Perhaps we’ll need to run to GNH and grab a box of framing nails, but we can do that later…… for right now, I’m gonna turn all the animals loose and start digging post holes. Once the posts are set, we can put the top tie boards on square and start putting some siding on. We can finish the side facing the road, because the fence will provide the purlins needed for the board & batten.
Another thing we need to do is lay out our ridge board for the rear deck roof. It needs to have a piece of ¾” plywood between the two plank, then glued and nailed. Once it sets up, (about 2 days) we can start the installation of the porch roof itself.
All these things to keep us busy…… Well, I’d better get with it…
We have a little problem with the commencement of the Hospice Gift Shop cement pad…… It doesn’t appear to be what we want done, so I have to talk to Jeff about re-doing it differently.

Friday April 24th… Well Today Looks Much Better… So Far! ! ! ! !

I awoke this morning at 3:45, with a need to go see mother nature, so upon making my way to the bathroom, I thought to myself; “Gee, my feet and fingers feel much better.” Upon returning to bed, I noticed that my back was better too. (I never know until after the bathroom stop, because my back is sore before that) Then, later in the morning…… like 6:00 AM, when the girls all start to stir; wanting their turn at the bathroom in the back yard, I got up, dressed and headed to the computer room to let the girls out. I made coffee, took my med’s and returned to leave the dogs back in. Then I started reading. I’m so very much better, with very little pain anywhere right now. In fact, when Vicki gets up, we can start to do a little work on the bunny house. Vicki had a rough night with her RLS until she popped a couple pills and they kicked in…… The problem is that once they kick in, then she can’t get awake in the morning. Well, that isn’t odd if you don’t get to sleep until after 4:00 Am, (remember… I was awake then too) so I never wake her… I just allow her to get up when she feels rested and ready… Just as she does for me. If I peter out in the late afternoon and sit down on the sofa and fall asleep, she never gets me awake. When I stir, she comes quickly and asks if I am alright or just sleepy. She then leaves me to rest until I am ready to arise.
I am refrained from turning the critters loose, because we may go to the mountain for dinner with Vick’s family. If so, the critters would be out until we returned and we cannot have that. Not with all the coyotes in the fields out back. In fact, there has been a hawk snatching our chickens, so in the same manner of solving those predator problems as have been executed for hundreds of years… they’re all goners if I catch them here!
If we do go to the family for dinner, it will be around six this evening, so we’ll still work on something. It’s just too bad we cannot release the chickens and ducks to run until we are ready to leave, but a complete army could not get them in before they do so themselves at dusk……. so they must be kept in.
We’ll definitely get the posts I forgot, and I hope some of the 2x4’s from Ed Pooters.

Thurs April 23rd… Recovering as the Day Goes On, Tomorrow???

As the day wore on, the pain subsided… I spent the entire day on the sofa watching TV or napping. The inflammation in my ligaments and tendons, must have finally given in to the Ibuprofen I took the last time. I suppose this is a prelude to future complications, which I can expect to be inflicted with on a more and more frequent schedule. It certainly makes you feel better about getting older…… thinking about all the pleasures of ones golden years. I wonder why they call it the golden years? Could it possibly be because of the expense you incur with medical payments to Doctors????? You know… in terms of gold values………
Tomorrow it is supposed to get warmer and sunny. Today was to be rainy, but not as cold as it felt. Maybe it wasn’t really all that cold, if the wind would have quit blowing so hard. I’m hoping for warm, sunny and calm tomorrow, so we can get back to work on the bunny house. We can dig holes and start to frame out the walls and install siding if we get 2x4’s from Middle Field lumber and the two poles I forgot to get at GNH Lumber the other day. Vicki will have to call The Door Jamb and get the sizes of the openings needed for the windows and the door we are going to get. I could have it about all framed in in a day or so once the post holes are dug and the posts are set in and filled. The bunnies have been bred, so they will be born May 14th, then they must stay with the mother until well into July, we think, but you certainly want to be ready for them when they are due to be picked up. We need to make wall hanging crates, once the building is completed too. The thing to remember is that the Rear deck porch roof needs built and the hospice gift shop will be underway too, so we need to get cracking and keep moving so we can get everything done ASAP, using every bit of time available. I don’t have time to be sick and ailing any longer. It’s time for Vicki and Me to boogie!

Thurs. April, 23rd… During Attack, it’s Tough to Type…

I fail to blog long today due to the pain of typing. My fingers are as sore as if they are pricked by pins… I’ve had a serious attack of the Psoriasis last evening causing soreness in my wrists and fingers and blistering on the bottom of my feet. I’ll blog as soon as I can stand to type

Wed. April 22nd… Rain, Rain go away… Come Again Later……

All this rain is depressing! I have tons of things to do and the rain is cramping my style… although not as much as my Psoriatic Arthritis, which is totally inflamed a day before this rain, during and usually a day before it quits. I always wondered why my knees ached the day before a rain, but not during the day it rained, unless it rained for an extended period. Now, I know. I have has the Psoriatic part of this disease for over twenty nine years, but the Arthritic part only started, once I retired in 2006. I believe the constant exercise of working kept it hidden, so I have to increase my exercise level again to curb this crap. The Psoriasis had always, since the very late seventies… early 1980, been associated with the stress level in my life. Believe me… with the past life I lived, I should look like a Leper, so I am thankful that I only have what I have now. I have an appointment in May with a specialist to see what more I can do.
In the mean time…… we will remain busy when we can, by working on the bunny house and the hospice gift shop when we can. We will also build the rear porch or deck roof over the little section of the rear deck so we can enjoy it this summer during rain storms.
The second run of eggs in the incubator are still up in the air. I wonder if we aren’t wasting out time, because the one incubator was off in temperature by about five degrees for a few days, until we could get it properly adjusted again. That might have killed the embryo……… who knows. I’m not that good at candling eggs to be able to see the development of the chick inside like they say you can, so we just have to wait and see. I am going to build a special candling box so I can see the egg better, which can save you a lot of time by eliminating bad eggs from the incubator. Obviously, some of our duck eggs are infertile, along with some of our chicken eggs, even though we have several roosters.
Iggy, Luke and Bollero are doing great! They have learned what apple tastes like and they love it. We are going to try them on grapes today…… not as a regular thing, but as a special treat that we will give on occasion, to get close to them. We have a pair of lawn chairs in the feed room and sit in the pasture area every now and then so they can mill around us and sniff at us. We were told this is an excellent thing to do if we like to read, because it is relaxing and the alpacas associate with us and peacefulness as they graze too. I know it’s peaceful and relaxing for me!
This afternoon we are going to have Vicki’s Mom here for her birthday meal, because today is her birthday! Happy Birthday Mom!!!!! Joe and Anita, Rich and Robin and Katie and Kenny, our niece and nephew are all due to arrive this afternoon for the party/dinner. They haven’t seen the alpacas yet either, because at least one of them has been sick since the last time they were here, over three weeks ago. I think everyone is on the mend now.

Tues. April 21st… Vicki’s Almost Allergic to Me… Along with Everything Else!!!!

We went to Vicki’s Allergy appointment yesterday around 1:15 and she underwent a 2½ hour testing session, where they went up and down her forearms with about thirty-five different solutions. They then wait twenty minutes after which, they look for welts, which indicate a positive reaction to that particular item. She is allergic to all kinds of trees (except white pine) and every grass on the planet. After the twenty minute round of testing, they make up syringes of the substances you weren’t showing positive to in the first barrage of tests, and inject them just under the skin, in a mapped gridwork on your upper arms and in a stronger concentration, to see what may be a border line allergen. I pitied her because you have to sit there, without itching the spots they infect you with for that original twenty minutes, after which, they clean it off with alchol and give you ice packs to stop the itch.
She can’t take the shots they give, because of being on a beta blocker… and they said using an epinephrine pen would be dangerous with it also, because it could cause severe tachycardia. You would only use it in a severe case of anaphylaxis anyway.
Well, gee…… ain’t this just a special thing to hear from a physician……… Vicki already knew all this, but I wanted her to go, keep the visit and see if there were any new medicines on the market that she hadn’t already tried. There is only the one that she didn’t already try, but she tried one very similar before. Who knows…… maybe it may help.
After leaving there and getting a bite to eat, we grabbed an oil filter element for our furnace, which had plugged solid and shut the furnace down. I believe it was my fault, because I replaced the nozzle and forgot to open the shutoff valve, which sucked the sludge and crap into the filter when it emptied the canister. It was too late then…… I should have grabbed a filter when I picked up the nozzle, except that I absent mindedly figured on just keeping the nozzle on the shelf in the basement so I had a spare. (should have had a spare filter too… I will next time… all for under $10.00)
Well…… today, we will mark and start to dig our post holes for the bunny house. We need to go to GNH Lumber (possibly) and pick up materials needed for the rear porch roof and the posts for the bunny house. I’ll need to increase our lumber list with Middle Field Lumber as far as 2x4’s go today too, I guess…… We can do all this today, just as soon as the rain subsides.

Monday, April 20th… Have a Door and Six Windows in a Shed…

Yesterday, we took a ride to Woodstock, then on to the Door Jamb in Shokan, where we were purchased the door and six windows for our Hospice Gift Shop. The owner and his wife were more than hospitable, as soon as they found out what we were doing and their workers were very accommodating and helpful with trying to find nice windows, to accent the appearance of the planned building. When we are finished building the gift shop, we will place a bronze plaque saying:
"Windows by Door Jam of Shokan, New York."
We feel that by discounting their product to us…. they have actually helped donate to the Columbia-Greene County Hospice Program too. There will also be a plaque saying: "Concrete work by Jeff Brush Construction of Greenville, New York." As we continue to build and finish up this project, we will add a plaque for anything discounted or donated toward this building, because it really should be a community endeavor, whether we had to initiate it or not. We plan to receive donations of artwork and other new items, to offer for sale in the gift shop, where we will tag every item with the information about the individual donations and who made them. By doing so, we will provide each and every donator with a receipt, to be used at tax time, so they receive the deduction for their donation.
We also decided yesterday, not to wait on anyone to do anything, so we will dive into the bunny section we are adding onto the rear of the barn tomorrow, by marking the post hole location. We will then start digging the holes, add the posts and buy the 2x4’s and what we need to frame out the building. We have enough board and batten under the alpaca porch to completely side it and once we set the rafters, can install metal roofing available quickly from Lowe’s. We can also make sure we get the lumber here for the rear deck roof project. That way, when Herman is ready to help, we can start on that project too. By doing everything in this manner will facilitate completion of all these projects early, so we can enjoy the summer like we said before. We love it when a plan comes together!

Sunday April 19th… We’re on a Rapid Downhill Roll to Summer…

They’re Off……… Just like a horse race…… going at breakneck speed, into the beginning of spring and rounding the corner, heading toward summer………
How I hope we can make all the ends come together here this year. I want so bad, to finish up with the barn (bunny house), the hospice gift shop and the rear deck roof, so we can settle down and enjoy some of our summer this year. Last year Vicki suffered most of the summer and then the remainder was spent on the road daily, with the treatment that, at least gave us a little enjoyment toward fall. Now Vicki has tracked down my ailment on the computer. She is amazing and should have been a Doctor, rather than a nurse. She is very thorough and very intelligent about researching and diagnosing a problem. She looks at it from every angle before coming to a conclusion. In doing so, she has found a kind of Psoriasis’ that causes joint pain, lower back pain, swelling and inflammation of the ligaments and tendons in the hands, fingers, feet and especially the knees. It also causes the little fluid filled blisters on my feet and the raw, open spots that developed on my ankles and toes, which appeared at the beginning of this condition, way back in 1980. Each and every ailment I suffer or have suffered since this first started, so many years ago, are listed with this type of arthritic Psoriasis…… There is nothing listed that I haven’t suffered… and nothing I have ever suffered that isn’t listed. I’m convinced she has found my chronic ailment…… something that a busload of physicians couldn’t find in all these years. Like I said… she is an amazing woman and I’m so proud to be in her life and the one she chose to love. Now… all we need too find is the cure! Vitamin D and walking as exercise, is the beginning, I guess, from what she discovered so far, but I know she will research further and we’ll whip this in the future if it is at all possoble…… Oh, she has also found what the little, pimple type, growth on my forehead is called and that it is harmless and comes from a reduced production of something in the skin which happens with aging… and that I accomplish without any help and I do it quite well.
Like I said, Vicki is a unique young lady, that should have been encouraged to continue on with her college and become a physician. Unfortunately, she wasn’t encouraged to do so and many lives ended prematurely, that she most certainly, would have enriched, prolonged, cured and saved. Such a pity……

Vicki on graduation day... when the world became a little better because of the lives she would save in the future.......
And save lives she did!!