Here we are, finally, more than a year after my last post. There really wasn't much to report last year beyond "We went to the doctor today" and "my arm is still broken." Not much else happened. After falling and breaking my right arm in February, I had surgery and spent 10 months in a cast. I wasn't allowed to use the arm at all during that time so I got very little accomplished. I didn't even manage to accomplish the healing of the arm--my last visit with the orthopedic surgeon was toward the end of October, at which time she said, "Well, the arm still hasn't healed but we're not going to do any more with it. Go ahead and use it normally." I'm not really happy about that and got a second opinion in late December. The orthopedic surgeon I consulted in Eau Claire said, of course, that the one here hadn't done anything right and he wanted to do all manner of alarming things to the bone, including scraping out the interior and inserting some foreign substance or other to stimulate bone growth. I suppose I should have gone with his plan, but I just can't make myself schedule another operation right now. There's so much that needs to be done, and all of it needs the use of two arms. So I'm in limbo right now, using the arm as much as I can; I still have quite a bit of pain if I lift more than a gallon of milk with the arm outstretched, but I can carry near-normal amounts of weight if it's pointed downward. One thing I've learned is that the fracture site never did heal the first time I broke it and the arm had only been held together by the metal plate I got in North Carolina. That plate lasted 7 years, so I am hoping I'll get another 7 out of this one. We'll see...
Mom had a good summer, building 4 more raised beds for the garden all by herself. No small accomplishment! She also planted, harvested and canned all the veggies herself last year. Not bad for a soon-to-be 80-year-old! Here are a few pictures of her handiwork:
She didn't do quite as well during the last quarter of the year, though. In October she was admitted to the hospital in Medford for 5 days with pneumonia, and spend an additional 2 or 3 days there in November with a urinary tract infection. It took her several months to recover from those illnesses, not really feeling herself until February of this year. She's feeling pretty well these days, though, and is enjoying getting out and about in the world again.
We had very little rain last year and were forced to take the Barn People off the pasture early, in late September so they wouldn't destroy what little grass remained. The poor things haven't seen the inside of their pasture since then, due to this extended winter we're having. We had snow again last night and into the day today. I had bought enough hay to last them until April 4th; more than enough, I thought at the time. Who knew we would still have no grass growing on the 19th of the month?! Everyone here is scrambling, trying to find hay this late in the season. Of course, the demand is driving the price skyward; last fall we could buy a big round bale of hay, enough for about 10 days for our crowd, for about $40. The price last week was $100-150!!! Well, it can't last forever, can it? Spring and summer can't hold off much longer, can they?
 |
As April comes to a close, Cheeseheads across Wisconsin prepare for the spring planting season.
Mother Nature, however, has other ideas... |
This first blog after such a long absence has been hard to get going. Now, though, I can finally move on and get back to my weekly writing, sharing our grand adventure with our family and friends. Hope 2013 is a great year for all of us!
