Happy New Year

Hello everyone, 

Long time no post, sorry about that, just too many irons in the fire simultaneously. It is so cold outside it turned my letters blue for this post.  

Little birds outside need you to take care of them for the winter, remember to put fruit and/or seeds out for them each day and water. They will pay you back by eating lots of bugs around your home in the summer. 

We are doing just fine and I hope this will find each of you doing well.

 

We lost little Ginger Rose in Dec. last year. Her immune system was fighting itself and it took her to skin and bones. She is with Nita and Larry now. 

We also lost "Lucky" a parakeet we had rescued 10 years ago now. He was sitting in his huge food bowl, looked like he was taking a "nap". We placed him under the bushes in our yard where flowers will be each spring and summer. 

We got a couple of days ago, rain, thunder, lightening, and hail all in one day. Two days later it was snowing again, about 1-1/2 inches. Before all that, we were in the high 60s outside, and a couple of weeks before all this, it was so cold, below 0 here where we are located, it has been a wild winter here in W.V. I never have heard the house "pop" so loud, it even scared the dogs. 

Our 5 chickens are being taken care of outside also. They stayed nice and warm during this awful cold. Warm the right way for outside chickens. They had dry hay to stand on in the covered pen area, and a wind break was much needed the way the wind was blowing. Inside their shed, it was warmer and we do have an overhead heater that you don't even know is on unless you take your glove off and put your hand right under and on the heating part, can hardly feel any heat, but is just enough to keep the hens from getting frostbite on their cones. When it gets so cold their feathers turn blue, you can find them in their shed on the roost under the heater. Out of 5 hens, all but one has quit laying this time of the year, but we keep getting a huge brown egg from one hen each day. Oh yes, we have cedar chips for the floor in the shed. Keeps them warm also. 

Love and Prayers, 

 Margo

First Snow

Morning Everyone, 

Well, I have been saying it for many months now. When the first snow comes I am going to organize the kitchen pantry. Well, the day before yesterday it snowed here in W.V. So I got to work and cleaned it out and now it is almost empty compared to what it was before. Extra food stuff went downstairs for storage in cabinets. Before it looked like a rock slide. I could not find what I needed and therefore kept buying food. Oh what a mess, now cleaned up. 

I felt so good yesterday that I scrubbed all the floors in the house. Now nice and shiny and smelling good. Spot cleaning was a thing for a long time, but now it is nice and clean all over for a while. 

Yesterday was dog bath and clip day, also a day to do all the laundry and doggie beds and blankets, they have a bunch of stuff all now nice and clean. I think my diet is now starting to work, I have more energy and am able to do lots more, now today I am looking for things to do, and think I will head back downstairs and work on unpacking some more.  Bird cages are now clean also, everyone is happy but my body needs more exercise. 😅

Hope everyone is having a wonderful day and week.

Love and Prayers,

 Margo

Copper Head

Copper Head Snakes, 

Yes, ya just never know where you will run into one of them. 

Vince was headed out after dark to shut up the chickens, and on the path 

to the shed, there was this snake. If not for the corner porch light that 

come on he would have walked right into the thing. 

 

I have never seen one before, so took a pic and showed the neighbor down the street and he took one look and said "Copper Head", Poison stay away from them. 

     

Night Shot

Daylight

Watch your step even in your own backyard in West Virginia. 

Love and Prayers,

Margo

Cool Morning

Hello everyone, 

Wow! This morning we woke to a cool 53 degrees. I am loving it although had to get my jacket to go outside. 😇 The air feels like the start of "Fall" already. Not too soon for me though. This summer has been so hot and humid and rainy off and on so bad I could not get out and enjoy the summer at all. How I do miss the cool summers of Alaska. Perhaps mid-70s and if it got hot it would hit into the 80s which did not happen that much. 

We have not hit the triple digits this summer, but it seems to have been doing that all over the lower 48 this year. We hit into the high 90s this summer and the humidity is so thick you could cut it with a knife. Hard to breathe in that kind of weather for me with asthma. So mostly I stayed inside this year. I am also bothered pretty bad with swelling of hands and feet, and legs with humidity. So pretty much miserable all summer this year. 

Evey the puppies don't want to be out in the weather either, they want back in right away. So we all just live inside or do what we have to outside and then recover inside. 

Love and Prayers, 

Margo

About Ginger

Little Ginger.

Did I tell you all about what has happened to her? IF not will let ya know what we have found out. She is now being treated for over a month with meds. We almost lost her and she acted like nothing was wrong. She was eating and drinking and going to the bathroom just fine as always. We noticed she was covered over most of her body with huge deep bruising. We rushed her to the vet. to see what was going on. They did blood work, and she had NO platelets in her blood. She was bleeding to death slowly. They do not know why this happens, but they have had cases of it and they do not all end in a good way. They took her in the back and did an IV with some radiation meds in her ASAP, then sent me home with two meds to give her. It has been a week-by-week ordeal with her as to if she was going to live or not. Two weeks later, she had platelets back to normal, meanwhile, she was losing wt. like really fast. Ginger was always FAT, Nita and Larry over-fed her and Truffles with way too much "food love", so now with her health, as it is her wt. last time there was 7 lbs. 1 or 2 ozs. She use to be over 12 lbs. She is a walking bag of bones right now as she fights her way back to life. Her body the vet said is attacking itself and we go back again this Thursday to see how she is doing.

One good note to say when we go back, she is now showing some signs of life, barking, and showing interest around the house again. She is such a sweet loving, gentle baby, I so hate to see her like this, but we are hoping that she will show "no wt lost" this time around and perhaps maybe gain a little something. I have been giving her special treatment, feeding 3 times a day just for her, she is so weak, almost all of her muscle has been used up or eaten up, she is so weak, but I feel this time around after over a month a small sign of improvement.

Keep fingers crossed that this time around the vet. will say she is improving. She is also had different meds throughout all this, now on two Liq. meds. They seem to be helping. But the vet. said we will know when all the meds are stopped if she will be able to maintain or start slipping away.

This is a real tough time for us on top of all that has happened around her in our lives. The other two dogs are doing just fine.

 

Ginger Rose

 

UPDATE:  Ginger keeps losing wt. She now is just over 4lbs. She has stopped eating and drinking, nothing we try will she eat. She really looks like she is going to die any time, more vet trips and we decided to let her go, she was so so so sick and she was not going to get any better. She is now at rest and with Nita and Larry. 

Love and Prayers, 

Margo

Needle Out of Finger

 NEEDLES

 

Well, it took a while, but the VA when I saw my Dr. did not want to mess with my finger other than to X-ray it and showed a good long chunk of the needle still in my finger. I nearly wanted to puke. Just the thought of what was going to happen to remove it. The VA did send me to the hospital here in W.V. called W.V.U. hospital. Anyways, they took more x-rays and then stuck long needles in my finger at the knuckle to numb the whole finger. Then another Dr. come in and cut the finger open and prided the meat apart while he hunted for the needle, he did find it and removed it from my finger. No stitches just left it open to drain. It is like the worst deep cut the likes of which I have ever had in my life. It does hurt and the index finger gets bumped or knocked into something all the time. 

But at least 3 to 4 weeks after I stuck it in my finger, it now is out. They did tell me that I did a real good job of sticking the needle in my finger. It was close to the tendon and the bone, so the VA farmed me out to the civilians to get it done. The Doctor even took a picture of the needle, it will be added to my VA medical records. 

It is now better enough for me to get caught up on all the typing I had to do. 

Love and Prayers, 

Margo

Watch what you are sewing!

Hello all, 

Just wanted to share what happened to me the other day. 

Well now, this is no fun.

Was patching my patches on my old pair of shorts for yard work, could never let anyone see me in them. LOL

Then when I was looking at something else, my sewing machine reached out and stuck the darn needle in my finger and I remember thinking, "Ouch" and I jerked my hand back, snapped the needle and I heard it hit the floor. I turned around by now to see what all was going on and saw my DNA all over what I was doing, so now I had to wash the shorts after patching them before I could even put them on and get out in the yard and work.

Now, this is a day to remember stitchers, NEVER look away when sewing as the monster machine is hungry for your fingers.

And mine is plenty sore today, just reminding myself to NEVER AGAIN LOOK AWAY WHILE SEWING!

Ya know in all the many years of sewing I have never done this before. I am gonna blame it on old age and stiff fingers that don't know what they are doing. 🤣

Love and Prayers, 

Margo

Yellow Salamander

Hello everyone, 

Today while I was cleaning out my little pond on the back side of the house. I found a yellow salamander hiding. I grabbed him and placed him in a safe place with water until I got done cleaning the pond, then I placed him back by the pond with all the very wet leaves and moss so it can go back to the pond if it wants. 

I have the little brown ones all over the yard under leaf litter and rocks here and there, just everywhere, but this is the only yellow one I have seen. 

Now two years ago, while removing a plant near the pond I found an orange salamander. Did not take a pic did not even think of it back then. But that thing was beautiful. 

Yellow Salamander

Love and Prayers, 

Margo