Busy Tuesday...and frosty morning

Yesterday Miss Emily had her next visit with her surgeons up in Memphis. It is a full day trip for us. It's only about 211 miles (round trip) but it's Memphis...terrible traffic and lots of lanes of it all day long. We usually leave hom around 9 am and finally get back here about 6 pm. We are all flat out tired from being in the car all day, and nothing gets done around here. It's a long day.

We were told, though, that Miss Emily is doing great -- she has built up a greater portion of fat than they expected, given her petite size, and we won't have to return to a check-up for a whole year.

A full year of not having to drive all the way to Memphis and spend the entire day!!! Whatever will we do with the time? We have been visiting Memphis and LeBonheur Children's Medical Center for 2 full years now. Emily started when she was but a couple months old, and we have gone, just for her, every 3 months since then. And then there was Jacob's 2 weeks stay there last year after bring burned so badly.

Now both are cleared from visits :o) They expect that when they see Emily next year, she will have regained her fat stores along that shoulder and Lord Willing, the hemangioma will not have redeveloped at all. That is something we will be monitoring for many years to come with her.

But, so far, so good and she is doing wonderful and has absolutely no residual affects from either the hemangioma or her surgery several months back. Woo Hoo and Praise The Lord!!

Today, we are off to a slow start. It's frost-covered outside. Yes, winter white frost on everything in sight down here in north Mississippi. Go figure. The old timers are saying winter will hit hard this year. Let's hope not...I don't have my wood stove hooked up....hint hint dear husband...

Speaking of dear husband, he is looking at an EdenPURE Gen3 heater for this place until we can build and get a woodstove and heater set up. There are more house fires (trailer fires, really) in Mississippi than anywhere else. Trailers just are not ideally suited for using woodheat. These heaters are infrared quartz...safe in all areas and not a flame-hazard. Plus the larger one (which is still very small in size) will heat 1000 sq ft. That covers us well enough -- we are only 1440 sq ft. We'll see what he decides if one shows up here.

We spent Monday preparing the animals pens and barns for the colder nights ahead. Thought everyone was settled in and prepared well enough. Then, coming home yesterday after the long trip, we find I'm down 4 laying hens and the barn middle and surrounding area looks like a snowfall of feathers. Oh...did I mention a neighbor's dog enjoying a fat hen then taking off into the brush? I am talking to one neighbor later to see what kind of dog he has tethered over there, but last night we discovered that the other neighbor over there in the wasteland has a couple of new Pit Bulls.

I don't want to discuss the pro's of pit bulls with anyone. I love dogs, I truly do. They are a nuisance at times, but over all, I am an animal lover of all kinds. Shoot, I put my car in a ditch in the snow one afternoon just to avoid hitting a raccoon....in my defense, he was by far the BIGGEST COON I HAVE EVER SEEN, but still, Dewey was not amused. (man, he was big...big as a german shepherd, easy. And smart...I swear he was laughing at me as I spun myself into the snow bank...).

Either way, animal lover or not, I don't count pit bulls as animals. They are not a breed designed for anything outside of fighting. I don't trust them one inch. That dog comes out here again, and as much as I hate and cringe at shooting any animal, I'll drop that blasted thing dead in its tracks without a second thought, then get irritated at having to drag it off my land. It has a taste for my hens now and I won't put up with that. Who's to say now that s/he has blood in his heart, he won't decided my babies playing outside don't look tempting? It will sadden me to shoot an animal, but I'm sorry, in my opinion, pits are simply an animal from Hell. If our neighbors had a more, shall we say, legal, career choice, they wouldn't have the need for pit bulls skulking about over there.

Well, I think morning chores are finally completed and it's time to get to schooling. We have fellowship at church tonight and I still don't know what I'm making to bring along. Some sort of casserole, I think. Or maybe I'll just make a big pot of Taco Soup to warm the evening.

Grrr