Christmas was good.

We invited Bob over for Christmas. It turned out well. We all had a nice time. We had a delicious Christmas dinner: standing rib roast, fresh green beans, mashed potatoes and gravy. It was very yummy. The dogs quickly figured out the whole present opening thing and the fact that it usually resulted in something fun. We had a really good day. The weather was beautiful. Then we all went to see the movie "Bedtime Stories" in the afternoon. It was good.

Destress in Myrtle Beach before Christmas

Marianne and I out on the beach at sunrise....it was fun....and cold.

A basket full of happy shells we saw at one of the tourist shops. Marianne relaxing and watching none other than The Grinch!

When we came home my Christmas Cactus was blooming....yeah!

Marianne and I took off for two nights in Myrtle Beach with Korolla and April. We left Sunday after church and came back Tuesday afternoon. Barry took care of the homestead and animals for us. The cheapie package deal that we got included the hotel, with breakfast buffet, and tickets to the Dixie Stampede. Although it was a bit chilly on the beach, we had a fabulous and relaxing time. Marianne and April even braved the cold weather to go swimming in the hotel's heated pool....It wasn't too cold until you had to get out and make your way back to the hotel room...brrr. We had a great time and it truly was a de-stresser before Christmas.

They told the real Christmas story with camels, sheep, goats,...the whole nine yards!
Lots of excitement and good food. I'm glad we got to go.

Christmas is Coming

Barry is finally out ot the Army and at home. He helped with the decorations and even put up some lights outside for us to enjoy. I guess we are as ready for Christmas as we are going to be.

Lazy Day Sunday

Sunday was another beautiful day. It was nice and cool in the morning and then didn't get so hot in the afternoon. Kinda like Saturday...made to order. Church was really good. We didn't really do very much. Unfortunately I had some work that I had to get finished before Monday, so I spent most of the afternoon working. Marianne had to entertain herself. The dogs were enjoying the cooler weather too. Kellie and Charlie had some fun together. Gracie was getting in on too, but keeping a safe distance. We moved the horses to the back pasture with our resident deer. Both front pastures are down to bare nubs. Jake doesn't seem to be getting any better. In fact, he seems worse these last two days. The last two day have been record highs. I don't know if that is what has caused the swelling to get worse or not. But either way, it is not good

Fall for Greenville

On Saturday we went to the fall festival in Greenville. There were tons on food vendors so you could try all sorts of different kinds of foods. Downtown Greenville is so pretty. They had a really good turn out as you can see. The festival also hosted several different concerts too. So we got to hear Laura Story and Mark Harris in concert. The concerts were excellent and the weather was made to order. We had a great day.

At the festival, you had to use tickets to purchase foods and such. We came across one of the food booths that was selling shots of cupcake frosting and had to take a picture of that for those that could appreciate being able to buy a shot of frosting.

To The Vet's Office, Again

I skipped out from work early, just as soon as my last class was walking out the door. Then I raced home, changed, and got Jake to the Vet's office. The vet was upset because Jake had gotten worse. So we took x-rays this time, just to rule out any bone chips, fragments, and lameness due to something else that I can't remember. Anyway, it seems when the neighbor's pit bull chewed up his leg last month, one of the dog's canine's punctured Jake's tendon sleeve. This will cause the tendon distress because it will not be able to slide back and forth through the sleeve the way it is supposed to. I did actually learn a lot today, but it didn't make Jake feel any better. Maybe I just should have become a vet anyway. Jake's body is essentially trying to wall off the problem spot, hence the swelling. We are now treating the injury aggressively, but not invasively. The vet was afraid that making an incision for a drain would do more harm than good at this point. So he is on antibiotics twice a day for 7 days, bute twice a day for 7 days, and then once a day for 21 days, and I am using a Furason-DMSO combination to sweat his leg. Then his leg has to be wrapped...with BLUE vet wrap, of course. You sweat it for 12 hours then wash the leg down with cold water, leave the wrap off for 12 hours then do it over, for 3 days. The Vet thinks it will be at least 3 or 4 months healing, more likely a full year. We're hoping to avoid surgery. Worse case scenario, he will never recover from being lame.

Finished Mowing

Church is the best!! Sunday's services are always good, or even fantastic. Wednesday night services have been even better than Sundays. So going to church is the best part of my week.

Well, I finally finished mowing. It was turning into a project. Plus it cost a small fortune with the gas prices the way they are. I have spent $200 on gas in the last 10 days. The pastures are looking good again, but we are back to no rain in the 10 day forcast.

Jake's leg doesn't seem to be getting any better. He tries not to put any weight on it. I am taking him back to the vet again tomorrow after work. The prognosis so far has not been real good. We'll see what happens tomorrow at the vet's office. I keep praying for him and loving on him.









Some deer were in the back pasture this morning enjoying the grass. Sometimes there is a whole bunch of them out here. They're peaceful animals, unless they leap out in front of your vehicle. It's best just to see them in the pasture.
Charlie was smelling funky, so he had to get another bath today, not that he minds that. Isn't he beautiful! He is so sweet and such a handsome Clumber Spaniel. He smells good now and he soooo soft!! I have figured out that Charlie must be allergic to grass. But that is a whole other story.
Kellie had a birthday. She is seven now. Her face is quite gray now, but she is pretty active otherwise, for an old St. Bernard anyway.

Jake

Jake's leg, which appeared to be about all healed up, has now taken a turn for the worse. All of the wounds are closed up and all of the swelling had gone down and now in the last day or two his leg has swelled up again. He is barely putting any weight at all on it tonight. Obviously, there is some infection in there that we thought was gone and now there is no way for it to drain since all the wounds have closed up. I will be calling the vet tomorrow. I gave his some bute tonight to help with the pain and inflammation. That is all I can do until I get him to the vet.

Hay Day

Well, its that time of the year again. Marianne and I put up 25 bails of hay today. I will still need another load, but couldn't do it today. Even I had time, it was too hot and I was too tired. So I will get some more next weekend. The hay is going for the bargain price of $8 a bail. Yikes!














Of course I went to get the hay after I finished doing the weed eating along the tree line. The good news is....there are still trees living on the tree line!! But it was way too hot today. I should have come in much sooner and not loaded all that hay either.


















Home Depot finally marked there grills down for the end of the season. So we have a grill now. Yeah, food is much better on the grill.



For those of you that know your directions...I thought you would appreciate these signs that I saw, coming back from Ashley's where we picked up the Guinea Pig she gave to Marianne. I don't know about everyone else, but I didn't learn North, South, East, West this way.