Thursday, Jan. 21st... The Start of a Mile High Blue Sky Day with a Big Chill in the Air...

It was about 19° this morning when I arose from my twilight slumber, yearning for some freshly brewed coffee. Once the dogs were out, coffee perking and I had the daily pills divvied out, so I started reading the news. As I sat here reading and sipping wonderful morning coffee, the dogs became inpatient with the frigid temperature outside. They knew a warm, soft bed awaited them, beside sweet Vicki upstairs, as soon as they regained entry to the house again...AND THEY WANTED IT!
When I relented and finally gave up my reading position, I got up from the computer to leave them in the sliding glass door. After the dogs were in, I was about to close the door, when I looked across the twilight haze in the back field...just beyond the boundary of our yard. I was resigned to freeze in awe at the sight before me.
As I gazed across that field to the woods beyond, I was treated to a kaleidoscope of brilliant, searing colors as the sun played a quantum spectrum of flashing hues, varying in intensity, within each and every ice crystal on the infinite palate of the landscape. Everything was covered with frosty ice crystals and I had my very own northern lights...only in a differing degree form those further north which radiate across the night sky. Mine are present at this precise hour only...visible from my vantage point... for a very short period of time...for the very sun that creates such beauty, also makes it cease to exist, as it rapidly warms the stronghold of each ice crystal, making it attack and kill the crystals, reducing them to bleeding water, which then drops to earth, such as blood on a battlefield. I stood there in the brisk chill, watching intently until all signs of radiant glimmer were gone for the day...after which I rapidly departed the freezing temperature, for the warmth of my computer chair and coffee...but richer in the experience I just enjoyed!

Well... (I know that's a deep subject) Yesterday I received my first shot of Synvisc in each knee joint. Not a pleasant experience...not exactly painful, but never the less, not pleasant. I now go back next Wednesday for shot two...then a week later, shot number three. Then, we will wait for a month to see if this will work for me. If so, I can expect a year of painless bliss and will be able to resume life as usual. However... there still remains the possibility of the major problem being Psoriatic Arthritis which is a completely different bugger.......
I do, have degenerative knee joints...but the question is how badly? They very seldom, if ever, wake me from sleep like they once had as we built the barn and abused them all day long, on a ladder or crawling on them. They really don't keep me from doing what I want to do...it's my weakened leg muscles that do.

Not doing certain things due to sore fingers, feet and knees, just compounds the problems of losing muscle tone...making everything worse, but when my legs hurt, my knees do not...even though tendons, ligaments and muscles next to the knees do. What holds a joint together but these very three body tissues? This is why the Psoriatic Arthritis is now in question again. Who knows...Both Vick and I have vowed to stick to a rigid diet of healthy eating...controlled portions...and as much exercise as we can tolerate, hoping that all three will build our bodies back into a dwelling which is more comfortable to live in. If we are successful... (And I know we will be) Then we will be able to fully live and enjoy our lives together here on the farm we have

built.

Here's our new boy.....

And here is our new little girl...

We're talking now about taking a run to an area south of Boston...along the seacoast, to pick up the two bunnies we just bought. It's about a three and a half hour ride, each way, which we can tolerate as a day trip...along with visiting with the breeder. She is a very nice lady who has been in the business for forty years. She breeds and sells angoras, harvests fiber and spins, knits and looms from scratch. We are looking forward to going tomorrow, so we'll be dis-infecting the old cage, making another for the second rabbit and getting everything in order tonight in the barn.

Today...I am going to play it by ear... I suppose I'll make my way to the tractor shed and fill the tractor with fuel, then see if I can plow some snow. I really don't know why I can't do that without knee pain, since I'll be sitting on the tractor. It's almost impossible to bring the huge garbage can in from the road without the tractor bucket or plowing first. I scooped the can up in the bucket Monday evening as it was snowing and took it to the road, because you cannot roll it in six inches of snow. Now I have to get it back in to the house. I have a little feed in the car for the duck and chicken barn, so we'll drive it out and dump it into the cans when we release the birds. We'll move slow and deliberate until we see how sore the knees really are. I can tell you this...It sure ain't Cortisone, which is a pain killer.....that's for sure...