All day, the winds have been blowing.
Thankfully, it’s just been wind.
When my older daughter headed out to feed the outside cats this morning, she found two legs on the canopy tent had been pulled up and were walking away in it. The ties were bundled up at the corners so, after she set them back, she was able to secure the ties to the isolation shelter nearby. No wind is blowing that thing away!
Tomorrow, we’re going to need to do a walkabout to see if we’ve lost anymore trees and branches.
To the north and west of us, they got snow, and in one area, they are expecting 30-40cm/12-15inches of snow over 24 hours. !!!
My brother had come out to do winterizing around their stuff. Being an absolute sweetheart, he used his zero turn mower to oull his smaller trailer over to where the haskaps were planted. He was able to load all those heavy hoses for the drip irrigation system into it, to store in the barn for the winter. He was also able to grab all the empty pots and trays. I don’t know where he put those, but they are meant for the dump. He even repositioned all the trays with seedlings still in them, clustered together under a big crab apple tree, to protect them from the wind.
We didn’t make it to the dump today.
I don’t know what else he did. I am feeling good today but, strangely, both very sleepy and very hungry, too. I woke during the night and couldn’t get back to sleep because I was so hungry, so I made a sandwich and could finally sleep. A few hours later, I woke to take my morning meds and was feeling so hungry, I was light headed. I accomplished very little today.
I’ve been moving with a bit more care as well. Yesterday, I removed some of the dressings. The 5 little incisions had two dressings only them. A small gauze with medical tape, first, which was covered with larger gauze and a waterproof bandage on top. One of the incisions had bled a lot more and saturated the gauze. It was supposed to be replaced, but the nurses decided to just add more gauze – about an inch thick! – to cover it and taped it in place to secure it. Not with waterproof tape. So much for being able to shower with them!
Sponge baths for the win.
I had been told I could remove the top dressings in about a week, but to leave the dressings underneath to fall off on their own, with instructions on how to wash with them there. What I quickly discovered was that the waterproof tape stuck to the medical tape below and did NOT want to let go.
It didn’t want to let go of my skin, either.
One incision is right above my belly button, and that came off entirely, because a gap had formed under both dressing tapes. On another incision site, both dressings came off before I realized the problem. I managed to keep the smaller tape and gauze on another, but the one that got the extra gauze on it was a problem. It had to come off, because there was a big, black, dry, stiffened layer of blood under the tape. I had to get my daughter to get that one off. There was one last one I ended up leaving, mostly because I simply couldn’t get an edge loose from my skin. I managed to get that done this morning, and not pull off the tape and gauze below. So now I have two incisions that are completely uncovered. They are looking fine, but I’m taking extra care with my movements to avoid stressing or straining anything.
Which meant spending most of my day in the cat free zone, working on some double ended crochet, and not moving much.
Aside from the sleepiness, I’m feeling really good, though my left shoulder has been getting worse. I really need a shoulder brace, but no where we’ve looked so far has them in stock. I don’t want to buy one online.
I did manage to get outside for a bit of a walk, while my older daughter did the outside cat feeding. After looking at what my brother had done, I spotted these.
Almost all the leaves have been blown off the trees, but the apples on this one are hanging on! Even with having several frost nights in the past while, the apples are still in excellent condition, with no cold damage – and they are tasty! I ended up shaking a branch and bringing a bunch inside, using several of them to cook up and with a bit of oatmeal as a sort of desert.
Aside from that, my daughter and I got emails from our doctor today.
We’re losing her.
She’s moving to a clinic in the city. We have to find a new doctor.
A new clinic was being built all summer in town. While chatting with my SIL about it today, she told me it was open – and we know the doctor that built it. He’s the same doctor that had treated my mother during several local hospital trips. So we will see if anyone there is open for new patients. I’d be happy with this doctor, but I think my daughter would prefer a female doctor. Personally, I don’t care.
Hopefully, we will find one before our doctor officially leaves on Dec. 1. We’ve gone without a doctor quite a few times since moving out here. Few doctors are willing to stay in rural communities longer than they have to.
I had a more pleasant surprise than losing our doctor today.
I got a call from my mother.
Yes, I said pleasant!
It was a very short call. She didn’t actually have anything to say. She had managed to go for a “walk” today (sitting on her walker and rolling herself with her legs). She asked a little about how things where. The last time I talked to her, she had suddenly become worried about her citizenship papers (from 70 + years ago!), and I was able to confirm that my brother had them. She then said she didn’t have any news. Neither did I, since I’m mostly house bound.
Then, oddly, she started telling me how good my “English” was. By which, it turns out, she meant she liked how clearly I spoke and enunciated my words. She said she liked to hear my voice.
???
Then she cut the call off short, herself, in a good mood.
It was so strange. I’ll take it, though. Good calls from my mother are rare things!
As I finish this, we’re coming up on 7:30pm, and it’s completely dark outside.
I’m ready to crawl back into bed now, and sleep for a week.
The Re-Farmer
