Hello!
I
can hardly believe that a month has passed since I sent out the last
newsletter.
It
has been busy weeks.
The
ground finally got dry enough for me to begin the garden. What joy turning over
the dirt and planting tiny seeds in the earth. My peas, lettuce, spinach, red
beets, and onions are all up and my beans are sprouting. I cleared out around
my grapevines and raspberries that have berries already. Also cleaned out the buckets at the
downspouts.
The
exciting news is that we have three baby duckies! Sassy (my dark brown duck)
faithfully sat on her nest of eggs each day. Unfortunately, her babies decided
to hatch on one of the cold mornings and I discovered three baby lifeless
babies out of the nest. Two were too far gone, but I was able to get one of
them breathing again. Nothing like trying to do CPR on something the size of a
tiny baby bird. The three baby ducks are doing great and growing. None of the
rest of her eggs hatched out though. Poor Princess (my lovely big white duck)
ended up breaking most of her eggs she was sitting on again. So none of them
hatched out for her. Then to my dismay
the drake, Donald, died on me one day.
The baby chicks have all grown enough that I put them in the main
henhouse and are doing well.
Speaking
of babies, I can hear tiny chirps in the Bluebird box next to the back porch.
Their gorgeous father stays busy flying back and forth bringing food to them.
Lots
of other birds have arrived as well. I was thrilled to see the hummingbirds
come back again, although they were later this year. I keep plenty of food out
as we continue to have cold spells. This year most of my wisteria and lilacs
buds froze. The azaleas survived and
were so lovely. Now the iris are blooming.
I
had a scary stressful adventure one morning when my brakes suddenly quit
working while I was driving to town to go and visit Dana at the nursing home.
Thankfully the Lord watched over me and I didn't wreck. Dwight came to my
rescue and traded out the Durango (that he got back to his workshop) for his
pickup that I had never driven before. I had to use both hands to get the
driver's door shut, but at least it had brakes, which made me feel a lot safer.
Dwight had to replace the entire brake line as it had broken. I don't know what
I would do without Dwight.
I
got Dana admitted to our local nursing home for physical therapy as he was
getting so weak and fell on me again. It took a month as they wouldn’t return
any of my calls. I had to make two trips
to the nursing home myself. Turned out all the state insurance needed were more
medical records for coverage. Dana started having seizures again, which I
thought might be from the stress of getting adjusted to being in the nursing
home. After a month as they continued, were getting closer together, and becoming
worse, I was alarmed, made prayer requests, and began making calls. Instead of
getting stronger, Dana was weaker, falling more, and was in a wheelchair.
Finally after Dana had two seizures one morning and then a major one that
evening where he went unconscious, the doctor put his seizure med back up from
where it had been lowered a couple months before. Once the increased med was in
Dana’s system, he immediately quit having seizures and felt like himself
again. Dana quickly gained strength and
even tried to preach at the next nursing home church service totally overdoing
it, ended up with chest pains, and was sent to the ER by ambulance. Needless to
say the nursing home staff and I have been in continual communication with all
of Dana’s happenings these past two months. This Friday I am to bring Dana back
home again. Such a time just for physical therapy! Thankfully Dana is stronger
and doing much better.
Oh
yes, I forgot to mention my battle with a four foot long chicken snake one
morning- before any ducks hatched out- when I heard a commotion at the duck
house. When I went in to investigate this horrible snake was on Sassy’s nest
and had eaten one of her eggs. I was so mad; I grabbed the shovel, got it off
the nest, and tried to pin it down while hollering for Dwight. Dwight was in
his bedroom as he was having a knee bleed, but thankfully it was a warm day and
the windows were open. Tex, who was tied up as he tends to get after the
chickens when we let them loose, immediately began barking furiously as soon as
he heard me yelling. Dwight heard Tex, went out and told him to hush, and then
went back inside. Meanwhile me and Sassy were dancing around dodging the crazy
snake that kept coming at us while every chance I got I jumped to the door to
yell, then would and go at the snake again. Dear Tex started barking again.
Dwight went out, thumped Tex good to hush him up, and thankfully heard me yell.
He came to my rescue and killed the snake. Whew! I was quite worn out by then.
When I got back up to the house, I petted and praised Tex telling him what a
good dog he was.
Well I do need to hush up before anything else happens around here. I hope things have warmed up where you are at.
Until next time~ Dorcas
