Pioneer Woman at Heart

Sometime during my illness, a swift wind or storm came through our area.  More of the "big barn" came tumbling down, including a large beam.  Just sharing today's biggest news discovery, ha ha!  We still plan to get inside the other half and cut beams into firewood.  We haven't found anyone to tear it down that has not wanted a hefty fee, so it's our life-long project.

There is indeed a kitten in one of our barns.  A long haired, female, calico of sorts.  Not good.  Leo, is not "fixed" and so we'll need to be making a move soon.  Fix Leo, find a home for the feral or somewhat feral kitten.  Hm.  No more rooms at the Inn, and I do not want kittens.  Who does? Made some headway with getting better - laundry, cleaned the wood stove, picked up some some clutter, making the coffee every morning, washed the bedding, etc. Don't ever try to write a blog post when your 17 year-old daughter is up making you breakfast - chatter, chatter, chatter, chatter..... ....she's still talking, ha ha! Hubby has been asked to work so much overtime.  I think there is a lack of knowledgeable workers for the parts that need fixed, and he's plum tired every night.  I told him he was a grouch last night, and he slowly warmed up to being home and in peace.  Not on "work" schedule. Bought this book from a used book stor...

Pre- Thanksgiving (while still s ick) , I used King Flour's recipe for soft white dinner rolls, I substituted home grown potatoes for the instant potato flakes (thanks to some advice from an avid bread baker). I let the mashed potatoes cool, while the butter came down to room temperature, and took to filing away my last "file" pile. Using the directions on King Flour's blogpost, I divided them into 16 rolls, and froze them.   How did they turn out? Well, I forgot to take a photo, but they did n ot ri se enough.  I'm wonde ring if I should have t ha wed them in t he fri dge the night before vs. the same day we ba ked them.  Anyone have t ips on this.  I used my dehydrator to help them rise too. 

Courtesy of my 20 year-old "Vet-Tech" in training daughter - happy photos of the goats.  She dressed up all of her animals and took fun photos of them playing (including her rabbit!).  This brought smiles to my face, as I am unable to walk to the barn yet.  Gosh I just love these guys.  They are sporting their Christmas collars and bells, ha ha!  Of course they were not left on, but they seemed to enjoy playing around with them.

I finally got my hot bath, using tea tree oil, eucalyptus oil, and bath salts.  Boy it felt great, especially on my belly.  It's slow going for sure, just to get my walking balance back.  The slow intro of food is the most frustrating.   I'm starving, but I know I have to introduce slowly, and meats are far down on the list sadly.  I could devour a homemade bacon/potato omelet this morning, ha ha!  Coffee is back in action, followed by afternoons of tea and water and rest.   Jesse and I took a short nap together.  He pretty much was on top of me, making sure I didn't over due it, ha ha! First goal, wash a load of laundry, and put it on drying racks.  In a day or two anyway.  Second goal?  Mix up a frittata for Hubby to take to work (easier than standing to mix up a scramble).  That may take a few more days longer.  Bills are an entirely different big job.  I had it all under control, but with being gone so...

I just got home from the hospital yesterday.  I'm a bit loopy yet, off kilter, running on a blip of a cylinder, but I'm home.  It was a long 30-some days of illness.  In reality, it was an illness gone wrong by antibiotics my body could not handle. I have not been sick for years, and well, the Z-pack as they call it tore me up literally, after getting over the pneumonia.  I tried telling the ER people that the first trip.  They sent us home with more pills, even stronger than the last (blooting my innards to a point of non-function). Second trip to ER - more xrays, more everything, they put in an NG tube (a tube they insert into your nose and down into your stomach to "deflate" it, and you must be awake and participate to get it in correctly) and ambulanced me to another hospital.  There, they continued the higher, more potent drug, and added yet another.