It’s been a long time since I sat down to write about what’s been going on. Not since Timmy got sick. Been on a few rock trips-in search of eggs, jasper, agate-the usual stuff. We did find some interesting eggs up in Mill Creek Area. Jerry had a low BP episode there that scared me-he got really hot, dehydrated and his blood sugar crashed. We had only my water as he forgot his?? I had left all the lunch/snacks at the truck which was back up  a steep hill out of the gully/hill we were digging in. I just made him lie down and forced him to rest and drink and it worked. We got back to the truck for food and shade and he felt much better. It was really hot that day. I had on a neck collar and it really helped. I also had been drinking fluids-both coffee/h20. I ended up carrying a lot more tools that I thought I was gonna drop. Note to self: take bars in bag and lots more water. Jerry thinks of the tools but not the little stuff.

Green Bed at FallenTree

This is the site we were digging at. The eggs were about walnut and slightly bigger sized and have shown opal,agate and crystals of calcite with a really interesting green matrix that polishes really well. It has in itself a beautiful pattern. It must be a lot of jasper. The other site we dug here produced larger baseball & bigger sized eggs. I found one that has agate, opal, & moss in it. It has an ugly matrix but it is quite interesting.

main dig for Fallen Tree eggs

Jerry just emptied my collecting bag from this trip in prep for a fossil expedition and out popped a really ugly egg but ended up being quite attractive. We have so many thunder eggs now that they have 2 shelves dedicated to just them.

We are looing into putting in an 8×10ft swim in place pool in the front of the house. Jerry has done all the

work to look into it and we have met with an architect. We have pretty much picked out the pool and are planning on getting it done next spring. I could use it 6 months of the year. I would use it daily which I can’t do now. I have been swimming 2x a week for the past several weeks and must admit I need to be doing more of it. I feel so much better getting the regular exercise and when it is hot it is the best thing to do to stay healthy. I look on it as saving my life or at least adding a few more years. I am most excited at the thought of doing this despite having to spend the $$. Oh well I think we are worth it.

The kids: Timmy & Cleo are fine. They are the team bunny killers. Timmy is fast enough to catch them as they try to escape the yard and Cleo bury’s the evidence to savor for later. I hate seeing the cute little bunnies. Today Cleo corned a mouse in the rock garden by the driveway. She was hell bent on catching that mouse so I put on gloves and caught it to throw outside the fence. A fighting chance you know.

I transferred my medical after so many years in Portland to the Bend Clinic with a nurse practitioner who I really like. The whole clinic is really mellow and nice. Not at all like being in Portland.They use St. Chucky here for lab work so don’t have to wait to take specs to Portland.

Going ammonite hunting tomorrow. Jerry found a bunch of wave points and we have heard there can be some nice specimens so we are out on an adventure. Jerry really needs the exercise as do I even though I walked from the clinic to the auto dealer today-a very healthy walk. I always feel so much better after getting some kind of exercise even though it was 30mins it was good. Such mundane tasks today-DMV visit to renew license, copy newsletter, take car in, actually do shopping (hated it). I used to enjoy shopping but whenever I go in large stores like Bed Bug & Beyond (our new name)- it is overwhelming. Best Buy is the same way-I just want to get what I need, get out and breathe again. a bit of my neurosis showing here.

Bunnies have been out galore. Jackies and cotton tailed both. We have a new lettuce drop for them so we can see them from the dining table. We have a morning & evening show if we are lucky. The dogs, especially Cleo, sense there is something there we are focusing on but all Cleo will do is go out on the front porch and bark. When we get the addition in she’ll want to be out there I bet. Too cold to finish up the swim season here in Prineville. Damn weather. At least I got to swim for 6 weeks this year. Soon if we can swing it we’ll have our own pool to use till we leave.

I am a bit peeved at the moment because my body’s immune system has decided to let the little spore C. Diff come back. Coming home from our fishing trip I started to get sick and by a day later could hardly walk. We were heading to Portland for an already scheduled M.S. checkup so we got ourselves there early, checked into my least favorite place, the emergency dept., and sure enough ended up back on Vancomycin. When I asked why I keep getting this the only reason given was I have a poor immune system that just allows the spores to pop up. I am hitting them hard again with the antibiotics and more probiotics. I read online that a good percentage of people with this illness can keep it at bay with Saccromyeces Bourlardii, Acidophylus and Vancomycin. I am beginning to think I will be on the S.Boulardii for the rest of my life.

As far as immune stimulating factors I already get adequate sleep, exercise, eat well, don’t drink to excess or smoke and am not under a lot of stress. The only factor I can figure might play a part is I do have a tendancy to push myself to the maximum. So I am now being a couch potatoe and playing games on my puter and catching up on this blog, as well as watching funny movies and reading till my eyes cross. I don’t have to worry about the garden anymore as summer has finally come and we might actually get some corn and beans as well as our lettuce and tomatoes. I have a greenhouse tomatoe plant that is bearing nicely and we will have those tomatoes before the garden ones by far. Our little desert rat ,(ground squirrel), is getting his holes plugged with poison as he decided to start knawing on our nice tender lettuce. He has taken down half our peas this year even while they were under covers. We haven’t found any new holes since Jerry plugged his others with nasties. We had an ugly Colorado Potatoe Beetle that we conquered by using a natural Bacillus pesticide. The taters are blooming and looking very healthy. We are just keeping our fingers crossed the corn will get a chance to come on and ripen before our first frost in Sept.

We are doing an interesting CORC field trip with a geologist the 24th of this month to study the caldera that Prineville sits right in. It should be a facinating trip to find out what happened here so many years ago to create such beautiful rock.

I don’t know when I started this post but its high time I finished it! The ER in Portland screwed up royally by loosing my stool specimen (I know TMI) but its important as it really makes a difference in tx. So we have to go on empirical info as the docs keep telling me. I did resort to using the patient advocate to report the incident because it took me over a week of phone calls to find out it was lost, meanwhile I am running out of medicine. I finally got into a VA clinic close to our home (only an hour away instead of 3), and was given a script to take to a local safeway who doesn’t carry Vancomycin, nor does Costco, the other place I could take the voucher to get the VA to pay for it. So back on the phone to the doc to get her to send it via computer to Portland so they can mail it to me. Meanwhile I am using an expired solution that has funny particulate matter floating in it until you really give it a good shake. Makes me want to scream at incompetence especially being from a nursing background. I just keep my fingers crossed that I can hold the sx at bay until I get fresh meds.

On a good note it’s been beautiful, warm and nice with occassional thunderstorms-the garden is growing like it should have a month ago and we just might get a squash or two before long. Lots of cherry tomatoes and Roma’s are forming too. Beans, beets, corn, radishes, lettuce, onions, carrots, and more on the way. We keep our fingers crossed that no early frost in Sept. will hit us.

Our sick boy Timmy

Should I come in where it’s cooler or stay out in this heat? What a quandary Timmy was in this day-a very hot Sunday just 4 days ago. He stuck his head in and stood this way for oh so long. We laughed and thought he looked so cute-little did we know our guy was getting very very sick! He’s a Low-Chen/ lion dog- who loves to cruise the property and munch on all kinds of things; he also has a preponderance for rolling in icky, smelly things which he had done earlier this day; requiring a back porch bath. That evening we noticed he wasn’t eating and seemed kind of lethargic. He had vomited earlier from what we thought was just something irritating his stomach. The next day, Monday, Jerry & I went to town for swimming & errands leaving Timmy & Cleo at home as usual. We returned home and Cleo greeted us as usual with her incessant barking-ragging at us for leaving her; but no Timmy, which is very unusual. He was in the house very lethargic and sleepy but not much of anything else. As we sat down on the couch he joined us as usual and he felt like a heater on high. I checked his mouth to see if he was dehydrated (learned that trick from a vet), and he had sticky gums, very hot & dry nose. I thought I better check his temp-maybe he was getting heat stroke even though he hadn’t been in the high heat that day, but had the day before. His temp was well past 105 and I immediately called our vet who said, of course, bring him in right away.

By the time we got to Redmond, which is a good 24plus miles from home his temp had gone even higher. His eyes were incredibly bloodshot and he was very dehydrated. The vet immediately put him on IV fluids and drew blood work as well as giving him antibiotics and anti febrile meds. He let us take him home but we had to return with him the next morning to be rechecked. The following morning (Tues), his temp was still over 105 and he remained very lethargic and very ill. His blood work showed he had almost non existent white blood cells as well as abnormal magnesium,thyroid and abnormal cells on the blood count differential. We were dealing with a real crisis that our vet had to figure out! Did he have sudden leukemia? Did he have bone marrow disease or did he have sepsis from an overwhelming infection. Our vet Jim Bousveld, who is great, consulted on Timmys blood work, gave him a liter of more fluids, more injectable antibiotics, antipyretics and sent us home to watch him until he could research his blood results. We returned to the clinic a few hours later with a still very sick dog. By this time Dr Jim had consulted about his blood work and found out he most likely had sepsis from an infection somewhere. He had no wounds, no ingestion of toxins, but did have a tender, firm abdomen. So under the x-ray machine he goes. We find out he has a strange looking mass in his abdomen with lots of air in his gut so now its time for an ultrasound to make sure he doesn’t have a tumor. Coincidentally we do find out he has some scarring in his chest from the Valley Fever he’d had yrs before, and  a slipped disc in his lower spine. Jerry and I watched and helped keep him still for the ultrasound which is inconclusive because he has so much gas in his intestinal tract that the doc couldn’t determine if the mass is an abscess or not. So more fluids, meds and back home we go for observation to return again this morning (by now Wed). By this time he has had so many shots of antibiotics, a lot of IV sticks for fluids subcutaneously, and been  the perfect patient. Dr Jim checks him for Parvo and Tick disease. The Parvo comes out neg (whew), but the tick disease tests take 3 days. But Timmy is starting to rally and wagging his tail, he wants to drink in the morning and can’t figure out why we won’t let him but let Cleo! His temp is still on the high normal side but his eyes are better, he eats some bits of soft food they give him and recheck his white blood cell count. He is making more white blood cells again and the quandary remains-what made him so sick? Dr Jim puts him on 3 antibiotics orally and lets us go home again to watch him; giving him only very small bits of soft food and sips of water.

$1200.00 later we have a healing Timmy! We will keep him on antiobiotics for 10 days and watch him very carefully-get to monitor his temp and poop-what fun. His blood cells will be double checked by the pathologist again and we’ll see if he continues to improve.

This is a scary story because we don’t know what really made him loose the ability to have white blood cells; although an overwhelming infection can do that, its more likely he would have had a very high white blood cell count. Very strange and it could possibly be a tick borne disease or parasitic disease that has done this to him. Time will tell but we are so very fortunate to have the $$ to afford to have spent it on him. So many people can’t afford to help their animals when they get this sick. I read on line that if you have an animal you should be able to afford a vet and I thought what a cruel statement. Yes you should be able to care for them but when a severe health crisis occurs some elderly/fixed income folks just can’t afford such extensive care/investigation. Our vet is willing to take payments for treatment which I think is grand.

One thing we have learned out of this is how to watch for signs of a fever/infection and not to wait too long before getting treatment. If we hadn’t taken him in when we did he could have died. So what I am telling any of you who read this is check the mouth for stickiness,(dehydration will make the gums really sticky,not slick),  look at the eyes for clearness(shouldn’t be bloodshot), and if their temp is higher than 103 take them in right away.

Give your dog,cat,bird,ferret,or whatever pet you have a bit of extra love for you never know what can happen to them and all of us with pets love them and want to keep them healthy!

Jerry and I got a bug up our ear to go over to Maupin for some fly fishing on the Deschutes while the weather was nice & warm. We met up with some good friends and found a lovely site at Oak Springs just as all the weekend rafters were packing up & heading back home. A great view of the river awaited Rhett & Nancy as they pulled in with a superb place for their tent, tucked back in the elm trees for shade. Rhett had just returned from a salmon fishing trip to Alaska so they provided our first dinner meal of bright red coho salmon. A wonderful tasting fish! It was in the low 90’s on the river that day with a fairly stiff breeze blowing but the guys went out fishing after dinner. The breeze proved to be a real challenge for casting a fly rod and both came back to camp empty handed:(.

Rocky tucked into the elms gave us nice shade from the heat

We had a lovely site for shade with a view of the river so Nancy & I could sit & visit while the guys were out fishing. The bugs were not bad at all-I came home with only 3 mosquito bites all on my head and probably attracted because my hair was clean & smelled good. You can notice Rocky’s stairs are a bit high-those are about to get fixed as it was a hazard for all of us to negotiate. The first evening it was so warm we slept with only a sheet & light quilt. The next night it got very cool; we had stripped Rocky of all heavier bedclothes so we resorted to using the heater. It actually got into the 30’s we found out later.

Nancy and I decided to go on a nice little hike into an old mill site north east of camp and found a beautiful waterfall with the remnants of an old mill of some sort there.

This falls is quite tall and could certainly generate some power for a mill

We had a lovely young couple come along as we first arrived and we exchanged taking each other’s pictures. It’s hard to see our faces behind our floppy sun hats!

Nancy & I with the falls in the background-being incognito behind sun hats!

Rhett & Jerry fished both evening and early morning with bites and one small trout-to small to keep-so we had to cook the steaks we brought just in case we got skunked. The elusive steel-head were not running this part of the river yet so only bottom fish (ugh) and trout were catch ables. Jerry’s little trout was a couple inches short of a keeper so for breakfast we had omelette’s & pancakes.

The river along here is fun to watch as many many rafts put in above Maupin and float down to Shearers Falls. It is so peaceful and relaxing and there are many man made areas along the river for dipping into if you get to warm. For me I wore my gel neck cooler, a floppy hat and limited my sun exposure. I stayed very comfortable. The trip went by to fast but we live so close we intend on returning to try again.

Jerry is perusing his supply of flies to see which might be the lucky one

A small riffle out front of our camp site. Nancy & Rhett's tent was tucked back into the trees to the left

Next time perhaps we’ll get to have trout for breakfast or dinner! A nice 2 day getaway for all four of us!

We have been showing our rocks/jewelry and just finished a 3 day Western Daze show right downtown. We had a front row view of the great Prine-Tucky parade. Now please don’t be offended by my reference there. It is actually a compliment as I really like my small town and love the people despite the overwhelming Republicanism I feel. I have great pictures of our work and the Best in Show of the Parade-the Prineville Disposal Drumming Band.

The jewelry aspect of our Moki Stones

more rocks

You can see the Cholla we used as a hanger for the pendants-not the best photo but we made one for bracelets and one for earrings and they are cool. Got lots of good compliments on them. These photos were taken at the Prineville Art Market 2 weeks before Western Daze so it gave us a chance to see how we wanted to display and we still have a ways to go.

Prineville Disposal Drumming Band-best in show

keep the beat now guys!

We had some excitement around here this week. Jerry found a rather moderate sized rattler in our backyard where it would be dangerous for the dogs as it would not leave the yard. So…it lost its head. We kept the rattlers; there are seven which could make it 2-3 years old since they can molt 2-3x/yr. It was big and scary enough to make me not want it slithering along the back side of the house!

about 24-27" long and 7 rattles-"I am not giving up my spot"

What a week. In a day we will be showing our “rock wares”, jewelry at a local art market. I am excited as its been 3 years since I did any active selling of my stuff. So as you can guess we have quite the inventory. Jerry has made some beautiful cabachons with silver bezel settings that I hope will sell really nice. I have had to re-evaluate my prices after the prices of gold & silver have gone up. We try to keep them moderately priced but as the quality goes up so must the price. It will be interesting to see what the market will buy. We have been working all week on new pieces. It is a good thing we have something to do indoors as the weather has been so sucky…rain and dreary like Portland. I think this spring is very confused. We are expecting better weather for this weekend; nothing like sitting out in the damp cloudy day waiting for people to crawl out of their warm homes!

olive turq,peridot,silver charm "calm"

Desert sun

Coral beauties

Carnelian Delight

This piece above has a gorgeous quartz center and wonderful red color.

mossy

colors in this are very nice…may change it to leather now that I see the silver in a pix.

Well as I am writing this it is a week after my beginning this post. The market was not a market. It was Jerry & I. The owner of the store was off at a shoot, she’s a photographer, in Nev. She hadn’t done any advertising and no one knew about the market being open. The poor lady left to run the store didn’t really know what to do but did go buy balloons and move one sign. So we had to rely on just people stopping. We made a total of $29 which at least paid or fee for sitting in the parking lot. It’s a good thing they had the lot as no one mowed the field it was to be in. We decided this wasn’t for us again. One point of encouragement was that everyone who stopped bought something!

The following day on Sun. we decided to visit the market in Bend. Jerry spoke with a guy who worked there and we  were told there were spaces. So he emailed some pix and an app. but we never heard a word; we weren’t planning on getting in for 2 weeks. So I called and spoke to a woman who sounded like she was the person to win over for a spot as there is a lot of jewelry right now. She wants something different and we have that. more pix sent and another app and we are still waiting to hear. In the meantime we have gotten a 3 day booth at Western Daze here in Prineville. Its right downtown and gets a lot of traffic for here so we should do ok. We need to make over $70 to pay our fee.

We looked into doing the Prine-tuky farmer’s market but with them requiring insurance from every vendor wether you are craft or food is going to dampen the market a bit. My insurance company wouldn’t even do it for the amounts they wanted us to have and the one referred to us by the market was absolutely outrageous in price, non-refundable and for only doing 2/month for the summer it just doesn’t pay. It did cover bazarres and other craft shows but I never had to have insurance at the art fairs in Portland. My friend who does weaving had never heard of that either.

It is a very good thing having the greenhouse this spring. It is going to freeze again tomorrow night so the heat goes back into it. I have 3 good sized tomatoe plants in the garden in “walls of water” and I have to say they appear to keep those little babies nice and warm. They look like  little turquoise teepees sitting in the garden. We have lettuce, radishes, broccoli, tomatos, potatoes, chives and garlic in the garden now. I have 6 more tomatoe plants growing in the greenhouse along with squash, basil, and flowers waiting in the wings. Those little tomatoes went out after the frost, it got cold again and wiped out all but 2 of them:( So I am keeping one in the greenhouse for the summer as a savior for falltime. I did find something interesting in the garden the other day-a peach pit had rooted and a little peach tree is now growing in the greenhouse. It appears very healthy! It came about by Jerry throwing the pits out there after eating them. I believe it is a Kimberly as that is what we buy mostly.

At the moment we have blankets on the taters, around the beans, around the tomatoes and water wells around the peppers & some tomatoes. I have to admit those things keep the plants very warm. Every  morn I am greeted by the quail. They scratched out my last pumpkin seed so it looks like no pumpkin this year unless I can sacrifice one from the ones I threw away down in the field. Oh the field got mowed this week and it is so nice to see again. We saw 3 Jackie’s this am cavorting around the trees and field.

This baby is the reason we cut our winter trip this year short. Our first grand baby was born 5 weeks early on Jan. 9,2010 and she is adorable. Of course we may be just a bit jealous. She was only 5.5# but is now over 13# and over 4 months by birth. She has a Donald Trump comb over type hairdo going on but that’s gradually getting better. She has the bluest eyes and can pitch a fit into turbo land if really pissed. She is actually a very good, happy baby and is taken care of by daddy during the day while mom works as a teacher. She is in a perfect world! We finally got some decent pictures taken to put into this post so have a peak at a beautiful little baby!

Hello I am Ms Chubbers-my nickname

nice profile of mom & babe

she was making sounds and funny faces for us

It’s so nice to see her happy and healthy after such a scary start to life. It will be our pleasure to watch her grow and help her learn but most of all to keep her safe and happy and loved by her family

Glorious weather the past few days has allowed us to work in the garden finally! We have tilled up space for lettuce, carrots,radishes,garlic, and peas. I’m not planting the garlic till I put screen in the ground to keep the dirt rats, as we now call them, from eating them all again. Today we pulled the rest of the weeds for the main garden and will do some more tilling tomorrow. The hardest part is pulling out the gooseberries so we can plant some raspberries. The goosberries never amounted to much except bird food and took up too much space. Raspberries are so much better!

All my tomatoes, basil, daisys, and broccoli are growing well in the greenhouse. It has been so warm that I have to open the door along with the vents to keep everything comfy. I found some Italian Peppers seeds we planted last year so I started a few of them. Hope they grow as they are absolutely wonderful BBQ’d with cream cheese and wrapped in Prosciutto. Yummy!

Timmy & Cleo went nuts today chasing a rather large buck Jackrabbit who has been living along our back yard fence. I don’t know how they know when he is there but they come running from wherever they are and chase him away. Cleo loves to bark at him and he’s almost as big as she is. No more sign of our herd of deer. They must have gone back down to the river. Probably decided its not messing with too little bitchy dogs.

This post was started a mere week ago and since then the weather has gone to crap. We had to travel to Portland on the 19th in a snowstorm and it hailed, rain, blew and generally was like April instead of almost June. We came home yesterday and had to put a little heater in the greenhouse because it got below freezing! How weird is this spring??

We are not living on Earth we are living on planet Hoth! (star wars ice planet).

Every summer when we return from our winter sojurn we make a list of to do projects. Sometimes we are lucky and we get them all done and sometimes we have things on the list that are too expensive/too hard/too wishful and we don’t get them done. This year the list was quite long and had things like putting stairs in the barn loft, make a solar hot water heater for the barn, fix the BBQ, equalize the batts, put in a greenhouse, rearrange the living room & selling old TV & furniture etc. The stairs got done, the BBQ was so silly-we thought the fan motor had died and ordered a new one before we left only to find out the old one was simply stuck and needed nothing but grease. Now we have an extra fan motor! The greenhouse got put in this past weekend and is wonderful.

6x4ft Mt Hood Sunshine Greenhouse on the south side of our house

The vent on the top is really cool. It opens up automatically when the sun heats it up inside. It works by heating up wax inside a tube and lifts the vent. There is a smaller one in the back of the house. The door can be opened half way also. There are already plants inside-Basil, a Passion Vine and various vegetable seedlings that will stay inside until all thought of frost is gone-which may be June/July at the rate we are going.

The top vent open almost all the way

rear vent

Another major project on the list this year is a solar hot water heater for the barn. Currently we have water plumbed to it but it is ice cold without any heat source for it so my dear husband, who is a wizard, is making one. I am amazed at how he can conceive these ideas and then make them work.

beginnings of a solar hot water heater for the barn.

This is the first picture taken of the new to be solar hot water heater for the barn. Jerry found corrugated steel at Lowes, lined it with copper tubing he welded together with an intake/output valve on each end. The copper tubing lays nicely inside the corrugated steel notches!

a closeup of the steel and copper

The next step is to paint it black so the water in the pipe will be heated by the sun.

copper tubing is now black & sitting inside a box

This is almost done! The whole tubing system sits down inside a black painted wooden box made from scrap wood. There is a plexiglass lid that fits over it and the whole mechanism will be mounted on the stable section of the barn. The hardest part is yet to come and that is the plumbing. Jerry found a small 10 gallon hot water tank on Craig’s list that sits up in the loft in the barn and will attach to this baby. Soon we will have HOT WATER instead of frigid, icy, freeze your pinkies off water for working on rocks.

complete & ready for plumbing & mounting on stable

Here it is all done with its cover (wood & plexiglass left over from the greenhouse). Simple looking little mechanism that holds pressure well and should work like a charm. It costs about $200 counting the water tank. Not bad when the cheapest we found online was $1000.

The lower section of the barn-the stable is where the box will be mounted

I am so proud of my husband-the engineer & wizard for being able to create and do these projects for our home. This will keep us off the grid even more and will keep our hands warm.

We had such a beautiful sunny, warm weekend and today it is only 40 degrees and raining. Glad I got some of our gardening done. Now it is off to the studio to try and be creative!

I have had a hard time getting myself back into the studio because of so much other work and procrastination but I finally got myself in there and completed a rather unusual bracelet for a friend.

mahjong bracelet

This is made from authentic Chinese tiles that were drilled for me by an old friend in Portland. I have made several pieces-necklaces and a couple of bracelets out of them and they are so unusual they make very great pieces. This one is mixed with bone, antique glass beads,trade beads, carnelian and even yak bone prayer beads.

We are excited to find out that Pinetukey (as a friend calls PVille), is actually going to have a craft market every Sat. starting the end of the month so we have two choices of where to show our work. Everything at this market must be made by those living in Pinetuckey and must be hand made so we more than qualify. It also means I have to be more disciplined about getting into the studio. I am currently working on a really nice jelly opal silver bracelet. We found the opal, tumbled it and drilled it as it was perfect for bead size and makes up into really nice jewelry. It is so exciting when a piece comes together so nicely. Now to sell some of this and get some of our money back. I’ll post a pix of that once it is done which better be by tomorrow!

Janie loved her mahjong bracelet and it fits her to a tee. There will never be another one like it that’s for sure.

I thought I would have studio time today but instead we put up our little greenhouse and am glad we did. It was a gorgeous day and perfect for gettting the little guy up and running. All the seedlings are out there and no  longer taking up space on the dining room table. There is lots of room for seedlings and when they get big enough to end up in bigger pots before ending up in the garden there is room for that also. The temp is nice in there and the auto vents work really well. I must admit it was well worth the $$ it cost.

I worked in the garden also today and did enough diggging for lettuce, carrots, broccoli, chives, and  cilantro. I planted some chives I found amongst the god awful piles of cheat grass. The strawberries are looking good and I dug up the horrible gooseberry bushes I can’t stand. Instead we are planting raspberries where they were. Much more worthy plants!

I’ll try to get a good picture of the new greenhouse tommorrow and post it.

Oh we had a huge herd of deer finally come through and visit us yesterday morning. Quite a site since they were such a large herd. All looked like females but hard to tell when its so early in the season. The first large herd we have seen this year. Hope they don’t have ideas of visiting the rest of our yard like our garden!

a large herd of deer in our pasture

This one just stared at us & was quite large

Time for another rocking road trip so off to Saddle Mtn. WA we go. We are in search of petrified wood with some limb casts and hopefully opalized wood.

It was quite breezy when we left OR and as we got closer to WA. it got even worse. By the time we pulled into the campground near the dig site it was howling like crazy. Sunny and warmer but blowing like crazy. I wondered what it was gonna be like trying to dig in this kind of wind.

We were about 250 miles from home here in WA. It was a really nice day for digging but I learned next time to wear goggles over my glasses to keep the dirt from flying back into my face. Just about half of every shovel full I pulled out of my hole ended up in my eyes!

view from Saddle Mtn. Columbia River in pix

It was gorgeous from up here-we were up quite high with many wild flowers in bloom. There were lots of dig sites where other folks had dug for wood. Our friend who took us here comes quite often and has pulled some very nice wood out of the digs.

Jerry down about 5ft in search of the illusive limb

some of the pretty wildflowers we saw-looked a lot like yellow asters

Here is Al from his hole-he kept digging in this hole until he found some nice limbs and opalized wood. He & Jerry ultimately dug towards each other and met.

Al isn't a short man so he was well over 5ft down into his hole

On our way home Al & Sue told us about a nice museum and rock shop to visit so we stopped at the Ginko museum. It is a wonderful museum with lots of great specimens of different types of petrified wood as well as artifacts. There is a very nice wall outside of the museum of petroglyphs that were saved from the surrounding cliff walls.

Petroglyph wall saved from the river cliffs

Most of these petroglyphs are very well preserved and show awesome detail.

not sure what this means but awfully impressive for primitive art that tells a story

a family portrait??

The title of this post is taken directly from the HBO movie staring Al Pacino who plays the part of Jack Kavorkian, also known as the doctor of death! Al’s portrayal is phenomenal; he looks like Jack and his mannerisms are right on. It is an amazing story especially since so many people didn’t understand what Dr. Kavorkian was trying to accomplish. He wasn’t trying to kill people for no reason; he was trying to alleviate suffering for some of the very worst illnesses in the world such as ALS, severe Parkinson, and quadriplegia with no hope for a meaningful life. The most important thing from this movie is that the people he chose to work with made the decisions themselves! He never ever tried to influence a patient into dying at a premature time; in fact he even persuaded a few to wait just a bit longer.

How many doctors have the guts to even ponder what Dr. Kavorkian did? Not many! Yes they will give us all the speeches on death with dignity and advance directives but when it comes right down to the time we are in agony and do not want to suffer anymore they withdraw our fluids, stop our nutrition and make us starve to death-a horrendous way to die. That isn’t dignity-that is painful. Yes many do offer medication to alleviate the pain but that usually wipes us out so we can’t have any quality of existence, nor can we say our goodbyes to our families/loved ones.

So what do we learn from such a show? Don’t we learn that it is our inalienable right to die with dignity and the way we choose?

Do we learn how to kill ourselves without the help from a doctor who has cared for us for maybe the greater part of our lives? Only if we have read “Final Exit” by Derek Humphry because most doctors won’t advise us on how to do ourselves in.  I would recommend anyone interested in this topic take a look at another book: Life and Death by Peter Singer. It will make you think about modern medical ethics and will cause some debate among people.

I hope we learn to understand that death is not to be feared; that it is just a transition from this space to perhaps a better space, or if you don’t believe in life after death, that perhaps our spiritual being just goes away. Maybe to be part of a new existence/being/animal/plant/or just to wander the wonderful cosmos we live in.

How odd this weather is but I guess that means it must be Spring! Last weekend we had gorgeous weather, in the 70’s and outside working weather. Yesterday we woke to the ground covered in about 1-1/2″ of snow! It was quite pretty but enough is enough. It is the 21st of April and we should be getting some nice gentle rain instead of snow.

Bunch grass laden with snow in April 2010

These are a couple of pix of what it looked like in April with snow!

The one nice thing about this time of year with snow is that it is usually gone by early afternoon. You can see that our type of landscaping is bunch grass-much easier to care for and makes beautiful dried grass arrangements. We occassionally have to cut it a bit but no such thing as a lawn mower at our home!

On a worrisome note I had a call yesterday that kind of surprised me. I have no history of breast cancer in my family and had a mammogram 2 weeks ago as routine. Well, they found some suspicous calcifications in my right breast and told me I have to return for more pictures & possibly an ultrasound or biopsy. I, being the nurse that I am, googled calcifications and found out most of them are benign (whew) but they do put women at risk for breast cancer more than not. So now I will worry till May when I return for the repeat tests. Oh well I always hope for the best and will try not to worry so much about it-after all what can I do now?

Yesterday was a very traumatic day for our two little dog buddies! Both had to go have their teeth cleaned and if that wasn’t enough both had to have fairly good sized lumps removed. Timmie came out worse for the ware-he had a baseball sized lipoma on his side, one on his chest and one on his right rear foot.Poor baby when we went to pick him up he was still very much under the influence of the anesthetic. He was hardly moving and had that god awful glassy eyed stare in his eyes. He laid in my lap all the way home not moving at all. I had to check him to be sure he was breathing! We got them home and made them comfy; Cleo was moving and moaning but at least alert; she had one removed under her armpit and one on her abdomen. When it became bedtime we had to move Timmy and by this time he was starting to get more alert-alert enough to know that he hurt like Hell despite the pain meds we had given him. He is a very gentle mouthed dog but not today. He bit me and he bit Jerry as we gently tried to lift him to move him to the bed we made in the bedroom. He left a very good tooth mark in Jerry’s hand and Jerry doesn’t do blood very well. I thought I was gonna have another patient! We got Timmie settled and he  just collapsed into a deep sleeep.

Both awoke this morning in much better moods with hungry tummies and thirsty mouths. Thank goodness it rained most of today so they laid pretty low and let their incisions heal a bit. Both are feeling needy and clingy and want to be close to Jerry primarily. Cleo really gravitates towards him and Timmy often comes to me! It’s really quite cute. Both go back to the vets tomorrow to check on wounds and to remove Timmie’s rear foot bandage. It will be a few days before they can be out hunting squirrels and bunnies again.

I feel really fortunate that they came through these surgeries healthy and nothing was cancerous. We are hoping they won’t form them again-at least not in our lifetime!

I actually rescued a cattle type dog the other day while driving through downtown. This poor young looking dog was just frantic searching for his master. He was running from car to car looking and came so very close to being hit. I finally pulled my car over and coaxed him into it and took him to our no kill humane shelter where he could be safe for the night and hopefully would be looked for. He did have a collar but was not neutered, not chipped and not tagged! It makes me angry because I see so many dogs of this breed riding in the backs of pickups unrestrained. He was well fed and clean so obviously belonged to someone. I do hope he is claimed or adopted. I would have loved to have kept him but with two dogs already and traveling as much as we do it would have been impossible. Please people get your dogs chipped so if they get lost without tags they can be traced to the owner. It’s not that expensive and if you value your pets life you will do it.

This subject has been on my mind for awhile so I thought I would just express my opinions. Do you find yourself being religous and if so how does that differ from being spiritual?

As a child I was raised as a Lutheran but as an adult I went to a private Episcapalian nursing school. During that time period I resented the fact that we were forced to attend chapel services and were treated as children instead of the young adults we were. This was during a particularly political time period; the Vietnam war was gearing up and many of the women I went to school with were becoming very political. I did not find any solace in the church even though I was being bombarded by death & disease.

After I graduated from school and went into the military as a Navy Nurse I completely quit any church attendance. It felt good not to belong to an organized religous practice-at the time I was to busy working and having fun to even ponder what life meant. Again I was being faced with death & horrible diseases/injuries but somehow I found strength in my own beliefs. I think I was able to just put those horrendous things I was seeing/doing out of my mind. I found escape in my friends and activities we all did.We certainly developed a sick sense of humor to cope with the horrible things we all had to deal with.

Later in my life as I began to have my own physical/medical problems I started to search for answers to some questions. Why me I asked. Why did I have to deal with this awful disease I was being evaluated for? It was then that I realized there is no answer to that question. Life is not fair & at some time or another we all have to deal with things we wish we didn’t. However ,while in the hospital one time, I asked to speak to a priest to see if I could recieve some comfort from him. He happened to be Catholic and I thought perhaps I could find some peace in the rituals of the Catholic church. What he said to me angered & shocked me. I was not to recieve any comfort from him because I had had a child out of wedlock (I lived with my son’s husband as a common law wife-not like I was having this child without his father being in the picture), nor had I been baptized so I was, in his eyes, condemmed to go to Hell. So I decided at that moment it was up to me to find my own way and beliefs.

I began to research other forms of religion such as Buddhism, meditation, and found I could identify with the concepts of those beliefs. I realized church wasn’t necessary for me nor were the rituals of a religion like Catholicism. I could develop my own rituals which I did.

So how do I consider myself? I don’t believe there is a god-no scientific proof exists to believe in one.  I consider myself spiritual in that I feel very connected to the earth and mother nature. I believe that if anything I am here to be a compassionate, loving person to my family, friends, and the world in general. I believe that people are inherently good but that can definately be debated. I feel that we are all here to help one another but I am not a sucker for people.  I will help provide food and clothing to those in need but I will not give beggars money; I know all to well that $$ is often used to buy drugs or booze. Those are not necessarily bad qualities in people but they are certainly weaknesses and we all have our weaknesses. Do I believe in an afterlife? No! I think that when our bodies wear out and we die, that is the end of life as we know it. I have never seen or heard of any proof that life goes on to a higher plane even though Buddhists believe in such. I do like to believe that my loved ones that are deceased are happy where ever they are and that they are together. Kind of a mixed message I know!

I am sure that this post may generate a lot of disbelief and negative comments but I have seen far too much wacko religious beliefs lately. Too much harm has been done to people because of bizarre or outlandish beliefs in the name of God. Jones Town, Wako,Texas, and now we are hearing the Tea Baggers preach ultra right wing conservatism all in the name of God. We have an African American ,(I consider him of mixed race), President with a middle eastern name who some believe to be evil. He is one of the few Presidents we have who bothers to enlighten himself in all religions. He has been condemmed for not belonging to one church but he feels he must get spiritual advice from all types of religion. Is this wrong? No! It shows us that he values people of all faiths and I believe it makes him a better President for he is trying to understand all people. Isn’t that what we should be doing?

It’s been awhile since I mentioned anything about how I am dealing with MS so I suppose I should do it! I have been reading a book that kind of stimulated me into thinking about how I handled it when they told me I was getting worse. Kubler-Ross, a noted authority on death & dying, has said we all go through stages of grief and when you are dealing with a chronic illness like MS it is very true that you pass through some of those stages. First you are in shock that you are diagnosed with it; what does it mean for the future especially since a lot of us are diagnosed at a young age? When I was diagnosed I was very much shocked. I knew something was amiss but I was hoping I was just a hypochondriac ( a little denial here); that I felt I could deal with & move on. When it was confirmed & I had to make changes in my living arrangements I wanted to deny anything was wrong. I could manage my mobility issues just as before-ha-not so likely. I found out as I struggled to get around a 1940’s house from a wheelchair. I remember getting so frustrated at not being able to get into the hallway to get to the bathroom that I just would scream & cry. I would end up on the floor trying to crawl around my house-so fatiguing when you are already so tired you want to just lay down & give up! I realized I would have to change my surroundings in order to begin to cope with this situation. So I got angry & moved into a large loft with no barriers-no walls-wide open space that I could maneuver in. It helped even though I had to give up my home of 14 yrs & all that goes with that. I guess you could say I was passing into the acceptance stage. But things in life are never static. As I continued my life using a wheelchair I continued to go through these stages; shock, denial, anger & acceptance; Kubler-Ross’s death & dying stages are actually seven but for grief these are the important four.

I couldn’t accept the fact that I would be using a wheelchair for the rest of my life; certainly this denial was beneficial to me because it made me get into a proactive stage to deal with my disease. I wasn’t denying that I had this disease but I was denying the fact that I would never walk again. I used it in a constructive way & began to work with PT/Trainers to teach me new ways of exercising to improve my balance & strength so I could begin to stand & ultimately walk. It took a long time; several months of physical therapy and I learned it was going to be an on going continual process for the rest of my life. When I first stood I felt amazing! I was tall again. No more being at butt level of people or not being heard because I was below hearing level. No longer was I going to have to shout “excuse me” everywhere I went. Standing comes with practice & I practiced every day, several times a day. I started using a wheeled walker so I could sit when I was fatigued & when I had to carry something of weight. I began using leg strengthening machines like a recumbent bike & found I could do it! That helped my acceptance so much. I began to feel less angry about what I was given to deal with. As I got stronger I began swimming to increase my aerobic ability & found I loved the pool more than any other form of exercise. I have been a swimmer ever since. I do it as much as I can. I also invested in a recumbent 3 wheel bike and started riding it everywhere; seldom using my hand controlled van. The more I moved the stronger I got & soon I could park my wheelchairs.Soon I could even switch to a standard 2 wheeled bike!

It has been over 3 years since I used a chair to get around. If I get sick with an infection that wipes me out I just rest & may have to use a cane to get over the humps.  We have made some modifications to our home to deal with some changes but that is wise for both of us as we age.

I have certainly accepted the fact that I have this thing-this MS to deal with. I may not like it but it is with me for life & I intend on making my days count. I accept the fatigue & numbness & spasms that come along with it. I cope the best I can. Yes I occasionally still get angry & complain when tested during an illness like my most recent bout with pneumonia. It has made me be a little less active which zaps my strength but I no longer despair that my strength will not come back. I have learned patience because of it. I have learned to laugh at myself & try to use humor when I am feeling less well. Laughter releases endorphins & that helps the pain of this disease. I also have immersed myself in learning all I can about MS. I investigated the drug I am on before accepting it use. I learned the best way to give it & cope with its side effects. I gather as much knowledge & support from others who are dealing with the same thing.

My doctor is amazed at my ability to cope. I am not-I don’t feel that I have a choice because I love life! I want to be here for many more years to be with my  new husband & the life we are creating for ourselves.

If I were to offer advice to anyone with MS it would be to take it one day at a time; listen to your body & accept that some days are going to be great & others may be rest days. It’s ok to get angry but not to dwell on that emotion; use it to make changes in your environment if needed. Do something everyday to make yourself laugh & be happy. Get rid of toxic relationships or people; life is to short to be surrounded by people who make you miserable. But most of all try to be as active as possible; do something you like. It can be as simple as a small flowerbed or garden or a walk through a park-even if it takes an hour to do it. The important thing is to just move and be Happy!

The weather is finally improving…still snow off & on but not any real accumulation. Just enough to make it miserable in the early mornings! Actually its kind of pretty but I like it better when there is sun. The sun did decide to grace us with its presence yesterday for our first rock club outing for this year. We went about 40 miles outside of Prineville to Salt Creek where we dug for leaf fossils. We managed to find some partials but no whole leafs-lots of them there but it is sit down splitting of shale. Others in our club did find some nice specimens.

Since we kind of bombed out on the fossils we decided to go find Bear Creek which was only a mile farther down the road. Ha! After another 8-10 miles on a nice jeep road we got to what we thought was the site only to find very small pieces of blue agate & very poor quality. While going back out we passed a large outcroping of granite sitting in a field. I just happened to turn my head back as we went past it and saw a dig site. I yelled for Jerry  to stop and lo & behold we found a dig of petrified wood. Jerry got into the hole while I looked around for more sites. Inside that hole was a HUGE piece (about 80#) of the bottom of a tree. We dug it out and I rolled it to the jeep. Once it is cleaned up I will post a picture. It will be a nice addition to our flowerbed in the front of the house! It is the largest piece we have ever found. We aren’t sure of what ind of wood but did pick up some nice smaller pieces that will polish up nicely for sale.

It turned out to be a gorgeous spring day. We saw several small herd of deer-quite young with no fuzz on their heads. Very large ears these guys have! Hawks, great Blue Heron, Magpies, and lots of fishermen were spotted as well. It is a very beautiful drive along the Crooked River winding through the canyon. If we could just get there by going through the Reservoir it would be so much shorter but unfortunately there is no back way. Oh it is so worth the drive though. It is relaxing and makes me appreciate mother nature’s glory.

lg piece of Petrified wood found at Bear Creek,OR

We are off to Portland today for a quick trip to see Chubbers, (grand baby’s nickname now), & her folks as well as to visit my doc. It isn’t really a horrible drive & with Rocky, our truck camper, we can stay just about anywhere & not be spending a fortune. My travel pay covers the gas & lets us have a nice dinner for all. I am oh so glad I am feeling better. Still have to deal with parasthesias but that isn’t anything new-just gets rather irritating. I have to admit I am a bit sore from our dig yesterday-makes me realize I need to get a bit more active.

Here we are holed up watching it snow/hail/blow & be generally yucky outside. I don’t even ponder doing any work in this weather especially after not feeling so well for awhile. I hate being so lazy but we have managed to get some necessary things done to the living room. We actually have a whole new looking room-got the housekeepers in and really cleaned the house after being closed up for the winter. We gave away our old big TV and splurged on a new flat screen model and are adding HD to it. After seeing Avatar and Alice in Wonderland on 3D at theaters we realized we could do better at home. We aren’t really day time TV watchers but we do enjoy movies in the evening-especially if we have to be holed up inside. Once the weather improves we are usually outside until it gets dark. When we snowbird we take a dish and cable box with us so now we will really be spoiled!

Our jeep-Willy has 4 brand new tires and is ready for rocking. It had a small transmission leak when we left last fall so we got that fixed and were lucky it only turned out to be a small seal leak. I was worried it would be something overly spendy. Egor our pulling truck got his tire fixed-we figured we blew out a chunk of rubber when we were on the knarly road around Cadiz-a road meant for off road racing not long distance driving. Or it could have been on the scariest road lately-the one with no turn around and Jerry had to turn it or back several miles down a road with boulders and pretty sharp rock plus a nice steep incline.  He’s my hero for getting us out of that one!

Everyone I know has been sick or is sick. I think this is the year for really bad flue bugs. I have been under the weather for over 2 weeks and I am tired of it. The mind is willing to do work but the body just can’t get it together yet so I just wander around the yard looking at all the work I will have to do. My daffodils are just now starting to bud and Tulips are soon to follow. We are still supposed to get snow and cold weather at night but next week the forecast is for 69degrees! That’s the weekend of our first rock trip with the club this year so its nice that we might be warm!

I realize this is just free thoughts flowing…nothing of great importance is happening in our world yet so I don’t even have any good photos to post. soon to come so please stand by…

We arrived back home in PVille the 19th to a bright sunny day and the cutest little palm sized bunny waiting in the back yard. We think he got spooked from his pack and got trapped inside the fence. It was getting late and we didn’t want to leave him alone with no others to cuddle with so we again made a nest and put him in the garden (bunny proofed-we thought), so the dogs wouldn’t get him. It got cold that night and I was afraid to go look to see if he was still alive-Jerry bravely checked on him and he was GONE! He had somehow jumped out of the nest (box) we made and made a run for it out the garden. Now I know the garden is not bunny proofed for extra small bunnies but I was glad he hopefully found his family & is on his way to a happy bunny life.

I am so cute-about a month old

This is the second year we have been greeted by bunnies but since we are home about a month early it was a very big surprise to see this fellow.

Our visit to Portland was good but a double edge sword. While we got to spend some time with grand baby Annalise we also got very ill. I was a preemie like Annalise but long before the good treatment days. I was born with immature lungs leading to a life long problem with bronchitis. I have been lucky and not had problems for years until getting this crud we picked up. I developed a case of Community Acquired Pneumonia and ended up spending 2 days in the hospital getting bombarded with antibiotics. I knew I wasn’t feeling well when it became hard for me to breathe while trying to sleep. I slept sitting up with as many pillows as I could for 3 days until Jerry said he was making me go to the hospital. I was actually shocked when they told me I had pneumonia. I knew I felt really bad and I realized it explained why I couldn’t breathe normal. Duh…pay attention here woman. Sometimes I don’t like to admit my vulnerability but I know I didn’t fight spending the time in that hospital bed that got me upright better than my pillows! Jerry got a viscous case of sinusitis and on antibiotics also. We are now both trying to heal. I would caution anyone who is around kids with coughs to beware. Wash your hands compulsively and if you can stay away from crowds. Anyone who is immuno compromised as people with MS are or on chemo if you start getting a fever see your doc. Community Acquired only means you get it from someone else. It can be from a virus, bacteria, or a chemical exposure. It is the number one cause of death in children 5 yrs and under and in those 65yrs and older, or those with a chronic illness such as MS.

It feels really strange to be home so early. We woke to a thick frost this morning but it is nice & pleasent during the day. That is what I love about this part of OR. As I was driving home there is a place in the highway where you come out of the thick forest from Mt. Hood area into the high desert. You usually break through the clouds and fog of the mountain into the clear blue sky of the high central OR desert and it almost brings me to tears. It is such a magnificent change in climate that it shocks me every time. I wasn’t feeling all to well driving that day but when that change came I did tear up & realized I was coming home to my own bed.

Jerry has been busy unpacking the multitude of bags of rocks and fossils we collected this winter. It is like Christmas when we unwrap them; sometimes we forget what we have collected and realize “oh yeah, I remember that trip”. We have some really special Trilobites-a large one that will be beautiful to hang.

The dogs love being home where the collars come off and they are free to come and go through the doggie door again. They have both been into the bunny holes and gotten cheat grass in their hairy bodies. Both are due for hair cuts and doc checks. Cleo is growing an old age fatty tumor under one armpit that will most likely have to be removed and both are due for Rabies. Cleo was driving us crazy while in Portland-she couldn’t stand being cooped up in the RV with 2 sick owners. We wanted to get her home as quickly as possible. Now she is tired and happy.

After leaving Cadiz and fossils we moved onto Ludlow,CA., another rather remote area off Historic Route 66. Out of Ludlow is an old Onyx mine with what is called Strawberry Onyx. In the early days of the mine it was so remote that continuing the mine wasn’t profitable so it shut down. A 2 mile hike into the BLM wildnerness awaited us as we found the spot. It was an easy hike this time up a driveable road just not open to vehicles of any kind. Once we got to the old mine we were amazed at how much beautiful onyx was just scattered on the ground and in the pits. We had to choose carefully as we had to pack this poundage 2 miles out.

Bristol Mtn. Strawberry Onyx-very large piece!

This is a sample of what we collected-nothing nearly the size of this but equally as gorgeous and it should work up rather nicely. We figured we carried about 80# of this rock back down!

On the way down the hike we came across a rather friendly Horny Toad who let Jerry pick him up and posed for pictures. He actually was playing dead I believe hoping we weren’t going to have a bit of lunch!

Horny Toad

This was our last rock adventure for this winter…we were sad to have to say goodbye to the SW:( We will miss the sun, cacti and rock collecting but we have a truck full of work for the summer now.

We are off to Pismo Beach for a few days, then to Santa Cruz where we get to see family we haven’t seen in awhile. After that it’s onto Medford,OR for more relatives then to Portland for our visit with our first grandbaby. We are looking forward to that visit so much but not to the Portland weather. Oh well I get to do some much needed shopping and baby cuddling so it will be good. After 2 weeks in Portland we are headed back home to PVille where it will be cold and still very much likely winter.

All in all it has been a great trip this winter despite the return of my C-Diff that I have under control as long as I keep on my Vancomycin. I swear I am worth my weight in gold by the number of bottles of the stuff I have ingestedI. it is so expensive but if it keeps it at bay I am very happy, as is my husband.

At least returning home a bit early will give me some more time to get some more jewelry made since I can’t begin to start the garden for a month. We are interested in showing our work at our Saturday Markets in PVille this summer and possibly even Portland on first Thursdays. We’ll see if we can get into PVille’s Pow Wow this year but there are still several people on the waiting list ahead of us. It is such a popular show its hard to get a spot. We want to see some return on the work we are doing. Maybe time for our web site to go up!