Brrrrrrrrr....A frosty update

We aren't anywhere near the -50 wind chills the Dakotas are battling, but it's cold even by this Northerner's standards!  And snow...yes, we have some.  It's falling now, has been most of the night.  Rather sad to think of it snowing most of the night and there's just a white color on the barn roof and bare pathways.  Not exactly snowball worthy...or snow angels, for that matter...but it'll do.  It's closed most of town as it is.  Bet you dollars to doughnuts that ol' Wally World is clean out of TP, milk and bread already this morning :o)  I've learned that anticipated weather brings, shall we say, shortages, in certain grocery aisles.  TP first...then bread...then milk.  A friend in Tennessee once told me to grab all the Oreos I could if any weather was predicted...it makes the down time much nicer to bear.

I'm doing bills today.  LOL...easy enough.  Electric.  There.  Finished.  Dewey has worked only 3 days since December 23rd.  He has been down with a horrible pain in his shoulder.  Went to the doctor finally -- hey, if Dewey voluntarily stays home from work, it's a pretty big deal.  And if he voluntarily agrees to go to the doctor, you're wondering if the life insurance is set up properly.  This man hates doctors.  period.  He simply has little use for them.  Until this shoulder pain laid him out, that is.  We went to the doctor last week and aside from having the bedside manners of a ogre...an idiot ogre, no less...he just said it was "a pain (pun intended by doctor) getting older."  Gee.  There's a newsflash. He was given an anti-inflamatory, told to learn to enjoy Tylenol and Aleve, and adjust to a little discomfort in life. 

Nice. 

And to think we paid for that bit of sparkling wisdom there.  Insane.

Well, here we are, a week later and he's about knocked on his behind several times a day when the paiin simply decides to remind him it's there.  He's in pretty much a constant state of harsh discomfort, with some moments of flat out miserable shooting pain.  We went to the ER yesterday to get an x-ray.  He was popping and grinding all over here moving that arm even a little bit.  The ER was loads of fun.  Did you know, in Mississippi, the average length of visit to a 'metropolitan ER' is 3 hours and 42 minutes?  Yep.  Said so right there on the Magnolia Regional Health Bulletin television that was everywhere you looked.  Magnolia Regional, however, prides itself on a shorter average visit time...they were happily letting you know theirs is a mere 3 hours and 17 minutes.

Go Mississippi. Revoluntionize the medical world.

The x-ray/ultrasound showed some inflamation around his shoulder, and heat.  Heat.  That indicates soreness and pain they said.  Ahhh, another bright bulb of the medical community.  That's why they get paid the big bucks, you know.  They can spot pain. 
At any rate, the general thought here is severe tendonitis...or bursitis, as the old folks call it...and there's not much he's gonna do about it.  He has worked that arm...and the other...his whole life.  He's been hard on his joints, and, well, he isn't a spring rooster anymore.  (I chuckled along and agreed...he wasn't even stew-pot worthy anymore...cracked up the doctor..Dewey wasn't quite as impressed being termed old, and apparently tough, by his loving wife...LOL...don't feel sorry for him.  He has more than once gotten a kick out of my OB terming me as one of 'advanced maternal age.'  You take the paybacks where you can find them)

He was shot in the rump roast with a steroid to help with the swelling, send home with a Z-Pack, some Lortabs and a slip to be off work until next week.  Oh, and as a homeschooling bonus for the kiddies, he has to keep his arm as immobile as he can.  Cool.  Looks like we're forging ahead with Ancient Egypt...and mummies :o)  Where's that ACE wrap????

Seriously, he is in a lot of discomfort and last night, with the Lortab down, he actually slept.  Hasn't done that in several nights.  I'm glad he finally went in, and yes, he's not getting any younger and he has worked out those arms for a lot of years.  It's hard to put limitations on range of movement with your arms and shoulders when you're an electrician who actually works, you know.  Not many of them are skilled enough to be drilling, or setting panels, with their feet. 

Onward...the cookstove...I'll keep playing with the loaf bread.  I'm determined to get it turning out decent loaves.  The neighbor down the mountain told me I could bake at her house.  She remembers her mom and her grandmother using the old cookstove at their place for years.  She didn't recall any tricks to baking, but then again, they grew up using one.  It was a second-nature kind of thing.  Plus, back then, burnt bread was just re-named 'toast' and you were just as proud to have it, money being what it was back then.

I thought about finding something to make a barrier, like you suggested Jackie.  There is one set of runners and I have a man-made rack in there.  I'm going to bake again today, and I'll try giving it a ceiling persay and see what happens.  Otherwise, yes, my next thoughts were simply to go Artisan with my bread in the cookstove.  Like I said, we eat it and it's all good, but it's just not Julia Child or Fanny Farmer photo-spread looking bread :o(  That isn't a big, earth-shattering deal, but I like pretty well turned bread.  Makes me feel all homemaker-y.

We have the pens up in the barn, heat lamps at work, seeing-eye goat separated off...Kendra and Happy New Year go into their perspective pens today, just to be on the safe side.  We'll see how it goes.  Could have babies as early as next week...Lord Willing.

My barn isn't looking ready for a photo op, that's for sure.  Southern Living won't be beating a path to this homestead any time soon!  We have several 8 ft pallets...bulky, blasted heavy ones constructed of 2x4s...and we hauled 3 over to the goat side of the barn to make the pens with.  I was thinking combo panels knocked up in place for a temporary set up, but no, Dewey was thinking move pallets.  With that bum shoulder.  He planned that, you know.  Get an idea, put his foot down as Superintendent of the job as to how construction would go along, then whip out that "limit movement and stress" card on me.  Never let it be said my husband is stupid.  He knows how to work the system of jobsite etiquette when he needs to.  He stepped in as Superintendent and watched most of the work come to fruition. Sneaky.  I suppose it's good to know his mind hasn't gone yet.

And the front of the barn...that perhaps at some point in time had doors?  It's covered in a stylish, yet antique, blue tarp.  A big one.  A well-used, tattered one.  Planning ahead.  Being prepared.  Not exactly what we were doing around here in terms of the barn I can see now.  But, the front is closed from winds, the pens are up, the goats are happy and as warm as they'll be getting.  Life is moving along at a good clip really.

Well, bread is ready to go...