Mother’s Day Drive – part 1

Sunday after church and lunch, I decided to go for a drive.  I took oodles of pictures and decided that one blog would be way too much to load with pictures so I decided to do it in segments.  This segment contains animals and wildlife along my route.  One of the first places I drove to was the cemetery and wouldn’t you know that the first thing I would see would be a magpie – these birds are everywhere!  Even though they are such a pest, I still think they are such a pretty bird.

Continuing on my way, I headed for the mine hill.  Just off to the left-hand side of the road, a doe was calmly eating.  I made some noise to get her attention so she would look up for a picture but she could care less that I was there.  Very content and relaxed, I’d say.

When I saw this next scene, I had to laugh.  Never before have I seen a couple of duck butts.  It was a couple of mallard ducks eating away under the water.  They would both duck (no pun intended) under the water and a few seconds later they would surface.  I watched them do this over and over again.  Some days there are just certain things that entertain me….as you can see, I’m easily amused.

Driving on further up the mine hill, I went as far as the old compressor building before turning around. On my way back down, I spotted this little guy sitting on a rock.  I’m not sure what he had in his mouth but from the looks of it, his mouth was totally stuffed.

After leaving the mine hill, I was headed toward home then decided to take a turn and head out around Houston Rd.  I noticed a car coming up pretty fast behind me so I pulled over to let them pass.  As I was coming to a corner, I noticed a few cows in the road.

As I started to proceed slowly towards the cows, all of a sudden I hear a horn blasting and lots of cows running my way.  I came to a crawl and was moving very slowly to get through the cows when I kept hearing the horn blasting and pretty soon with all the running cows, the same car that had past me earlier came around the corner, still blasting away on the horn.  ???????

This is as far as I go with the animal part of my Mother’s Day tour but as you can see, I had a nice, enjoyable drive.

Spring Cleanup

From Spring to Spring, this pile continues to get bigger and bigger.  Each spring, after a good rain storm or before everything dries out, and making sure there is no wind, we burn the pile and then start again, gathering old stumps, branches, weeds, etc. to add to the pile for the next burn.  In the past, we have on occasion made hobo tin foil dinners and put them in the hot coals.  There’s just something about hobo dinners that tastes super good.  I usually add hamburger, onions, potatoes, and veggies to our foil packets.  Mmmm…..looking forward to the burn.

I don’t know how we accumulated so-o-o-o-o-o many weeds in our yard this year but I think the weeds thought our place was the gathering place.  All bridal wreath bushes, lilac bushes, any cubby corner, and all our fence lines were loaded with weeds…..big tumble like weeds.  You may look at the picture and think…………hmmmm, that’s not too many weeds.  But, what you are not seeing is how they looked before they were all mashed down for the pile.  I put them in the corner of a corral so they wouldn’t blow all over again before we burn.  Since taking this picture, I’ve added a lot more weeds and pine cones to the pile.  I love spring but it’s a lot of work.  But then again, I don’t mind the work cause I love being outside in the cooler spring air.

Sister Charcot Foot

Last October, my sisters foot looked really swollen and she just thought it was due to her diabetes because at one other time her shin had a sore on it and her leg was all swollen.  After going on antibiotics, it healed.  Well, this time, her foot wasn’t healing.  She went to her regular doctor and he put her on medications to take the swelling down but this time it did not take the swelling down.

My daughter went to my sisters home and was sitting in a chair across from her.  My sister didn’t have her shoes on and my daughter noticed a big sore on the bottom of her foot.

She went back to her regular doctor and he didn’t know what the problem was so he sent her to a foot specialist.  By the time she got in to see the specialist, her foot had progressed quickly to a very ugly, mangled looking foot.

This was taken January 2nd after it started healing.

The specialist knew right away that it was a severe case of Charcot foot.  He stated that it was one of the worst cases he had seen and after consulting with other doctors, they did not know how to treat it .  He stated that most all the bones in her foot were broken and that the sores were caused from the bones trying to protrude out of the bottom of her foot..  she would need to go see a specialist in Salt Lake at the University of Utah.   My brother and other sister took her to Salt Lake where this specialist  said it would be risky for her to have surgery so he put her in a boot for 2 months.  While in the boot, she was to use her foot very little so mostly using pressure to get up and down, she rode a knee scooter all around the house.  She had one from a medical place but we thought it was costing too much so I got on the Wal-Mart website and purchased her a new one.  It was much lighter to maneuver around and she liked it better.

By the end of March, her foot still was not doing well so the Salt Lake specialist opted to do the surgery.  He cut in the side of her foot and took out some bone and filed down other bones.  This is a picture of my Sis, right after surgery………...surgery went well.

After the surgery, I traveled to Utah and stayed with my sister for two weeks to help her since she was to be a non-weight bearing patient at this point.  By trial and error, we learned a lot about getting up and down.  During this time, I also downloaded the game “Ultimate Jewel” on her Kindle and totally got her hooked.  You’ll have to trust me on this one……..if you don’t want to spend a lot of time on your Kindle, DO NOT download this game.  I myself am an Ultimate Jewel “hooked” person!  Love the game.

After two weeks from her surgery, this is how her foot looked.  The blisters by this time had shrunk and didn’t look too bad but before thinking to take the following picture, all her toes had huge, dark reddish purple blisters.

On April 17th, she went back to the doctor.  My other sister snapped this photo while waiting for the doctor to come in and take out the stitches.

The doctor informed them that the stitches weren’t ready to come out yet so he bandaged it back up and gave her an ankle boot/shoe to wear until her next appointment.  She could now use the boot/shoe to assist herself in getting up and down but was not to walk on it.

It has been a long 6-months but Sis is now able, with the assistance of her boot/shoe to walk (limited) again.  When she goes back to the doctor, the plan is to have her wear some special orthotic shoes.  Keeping our fingers double crossed…..which means lots of prayers going heavenward. 

This is how her foot looked on May 1st.

Black Bean Brownie Cake

I found a recipe on this blog for Black Bean Blender Brownies…. (Gluten Free).  I thought they sounded so good and she claimed that you could not tell they were made with black beans so I gave them a try.  I did not use gluten flour but regular flour and they turned out great.  And she was right…..not even a hint of bean flavor comes out in these.  I doubled the batch and used a cake pan and mine did not turn out like brownies, but more like a cake texture.  Who knows, where doubling the recipe I could have put in a little bit more of this or a little bit less of that.  Whatever the reason, it was delicious!

 

Topped of with a glass of milk and MMMMMMmmmmmmmm!