Improving

I'm now two-plus weeks post surgery and getting better every day.  The compression socks are off so now I can dress myself right down to my socks.  I'm sure M is happy about that!  I am walking really well and getting up and down a lot better.  I can also take stairs like an adult again.  The twinges I was feeling in my hip after surgery from the nerve being so irritated for so long are gone and the feeling is coming back in my foot.  If I could only ditch the stupid, uncomfortable brace and sleep through the night, I'd be great.  The brace serves many purposes though--keeps me from bending or twisting, keeps my belly in and now I have no need for a push-up bra!  Sleeping is a problem because I really only have one comfortable position--on my back--and that isn't comfortable after too many hours.  I am permitted to sleep on my side, which I'd love to do, but it just doesn't feel right and I can't get comfortable although that is getting some better as well.  And, getting in and out of bed is getting to be a cinch.

I've ventured out of the house a few times, but it's a bit icy out and I don't want to fall so I've been doing most of my walking on the treadmill.  We went to a Cat-Griz game party (go CATS!) and went to J's in-laws for Thanksgiving dinner.  I walked to the mailbox one day, and one day I went with M to do chores so I could check out our heifer calves.  I need to spend some time with them so I can make my picks.  Apparently, I picked too well last year because M says that this year we have to negotiate on which ones I get.  I have my eye on a couple as does he.  They are doing well so far and learning the feeding system.  We also have a pen full of the neighbor's calves.  They are a little more flighty so we're hoping we have some success calming them down.  We had a few nice days with temps above freezing, but it's getting cold again so I'm not that excited about going out.  M has been hoping for nice enough weather to get his water project done, but it looks like tomorrow might be it for awhile.  He has still been hauling a few loads of cows and calves here and there but has actually had time to get some things done at home.  I'm feeling bad that I'm no help to him right now and need him to do things for me.  I need a maid.

Laid Up

We left for Billings bright and early on Monday.  I had to see my doctor, check in at the hospital and get fitted for a brace.  We made a quick run to the mall, had an early supper and were in our motel room and ready to crash early.  The busy shipping weekend had caught up to us plus the fact that I hadn't slept well in quite awhile.

My surgery was scheduled for 2:00 pm on Tuesday and I had to be at the hospital by noon.  We spent the morning working on state reports and crop insurance production reports so that we could get the state reports in the mail as soon as we got home.  Yes, there is always work to do--ugh!

Once at the hospital, things moved along fairly rapidly and I was actually taken back to surgery about 1:30.  All I remember is the anesthesiologist saying, "I'm going to put a little something in your IV".  Lights out!  The surgery took about 3 1/2 hours which seems like a long time since he ended up not doing all he had planned.  He was going to take out part of the disc and put in mesh with bone graft to fuse the joint.  He decided not to do that and did posterior fusions instead.  It sounds like it was a lot of work to get to the cyst and get it out.  It was close to 7:00 by the time I was in my room.  I have such a hard time waking up from anesthesia.  M thought I was being rude to the nurses because I'd hardly answer their questions.  He didn't understand that I could hardly even make myself talk!  I could form the words in my head but wasn't sure they'd come out of my mouth.  Apparently being on your face for 3 1/2 hours isn't a good thing and my face was really swollen.  I'm glad I didn't see myself at that point.

The nurses thought I was a rock star since I didn't need any pain meds during the night.  After I had been up a few times the next day I needed some, though.  Just as I thought, I had less pain after surgery than I did before surgery, and they didn't give me pain pills for that!  Since I was doing so well the doctor said I could go home on Thursday to beat the storm that was moving into the state.  We were out of Billings by 10:00 am.  We ran into a little snow in one area but the roads were good all the way.  They were snowy and icy the next day so I'm glad we got home when we did.  M was worried about all his animals and didn't want J to have to deal with problems if the weather got bad.

I've been adjusting pretty well at home.  I have to wear a brace and transitions from sitting to standing, etc. are difficult but getting better.  I'm up pretty early in the mornings because my legs start to ache.  I can dress myself and pretty much take care of myself.  We borrowed a walker, a grabber and an elevated toilet seat from our 80+-year-old neighbors.  Made me feel kind of old!

We've had snow and wind ever since we've been home so I haven't been out of the house.  I need to go check on the heifer calves before M gets the jump on me and picks out all the good ones for himself.  He does give me some credit for how gentle our heifers turned out this year so I need to make an appearance before too long.  I'm hoping that my recovery is quick because I'm already bored!  I bet M is hoping so, too, because he's already gotten the tractor stuck and his bale pickup is on the fritz and he's got no help.

Shipping Day

It's been a busy weekend on the ranch.  R was home with his cousin and two of their friends and M made good use of the help.  We had to move some cows home from Opheim and pregnancy test them and then round up the big group and move them home.

The "city boys" wanted to help, but sometimes they were just in the way and things didn't go quite as smoothly as they could have.  We had to laugh that after working outdoors all day they came to the house to watch the Oregon football game and all fell asleep before supper. The late night the night before may have contributed to that as well.

Today was shipping day and did not go as smoothly as we had hoped.  The cows and calves didn't want to go into the corral and then cutting off the cows was not as easy as it is sometimes.  The day started out icy as we had rain overnight and then it was sunny and pretty nice for awhile, then the fog rolled in and the wind started to blow.  The trucks couldn't make it up the hill to the neighbor's ranch where we were loading out of so had to take a detour and then had trouble negotiating a corner because it was slick, but they finally made it.  After the trucks were loaded we brought some of the neighbor's heifer calves home.  Once there we had some cull cows to cut out and little chores to do before we could come home to catch the end of the Nascar race.

We just sold steers so far so M has 130 heifer calves to feed for awhile, some of ours and some of our neighbor's.  I'm wondering if he's going to think that is a good idea once his help is laid up (his brother is having shoulder surgery on the 14th).  J will have to bear the brunt of it for a few days while we are in Billings.  He's not fond of cows so we will owe him big time!  Hopefully, free beef for the rest of his life will suffice.

Updating

I've been busy since I last blogged.  We had been talking with M's sister about going to Kansas City for the Nascar race off and on for awhile.  She is a credit union manager and had a repossessed pickup in Joplin, MO so thought it would be good to mix business with pleasure.  First she could go, then she couldn't so we thought about flying down, then she decided she could go so we made the reservations for tickets and rooms for M and I and his sister and her husband.  Two days later I have a really restless night with back pain and get up in the morning and literally can't walk for the pain and spasms down my leg.  I don't think I have ever been in that much pain.  I broke into a sweat and thought I was going to pass out and told M he had to take me to the ER because I couldn't handle it.  I finally laid on the floor, and it got better.  Then M says, "are you ready to go help me load hay".  Sure....and I did it.

The problem with my leg progressed to numbness in my foot.  I had less pain when I was up and around and yet it was hard to walk because my foot was numb.  I knew M would have no problem leaving me at home to go to the race so I had to buck up and deal with it.  Then, Pam's husband was unable to go.  What to do with the extra ticket?  R saved the day and decided he'd go.  He (and we) were worried about him missing three days of school, but it turned out to not be a big deal.  To make a long story short, I survived the drive to Kansas and back, and we had a great time.  We've picked out our motel for next year so we can walk to the track.  We loved the area, the track facility is great and the weather was perfect.

M has been busy with his fall cattle hauling run.  His brother was kind enough to take care of the loads he had scheduled while we were gone and not in the best of conditions--strong winds one day and rain snow and mud another day.  I finally succeeded in getting them to sell the old cattle trailer, but another one is on the way home as we speak.  Damn Ebay!  I think M's privileges need to be taken away.  Thank goodness he doesn't know the PayPal password!

My leg problem has not improved so I saw my back doctor this week.  I have another (this is my 3rd) facet cyst causing all the problems so I'll be having a lumbar fusion on Tuesday.  That means at least three days in the hospital, a brace for eight weeks and no strenuous activity for three months or more.  I wonder if M is rethinking his bright idea to feed 100 heifer calves this winter now that he won't have help.  I guess I will still be able to open and close gates and keep an eye on things if I need to.  I'm always telling him that he needs better help than me because I can't do everything he wants me to.  Maybe now he's listening.  They've been swamped in the pharmacy, too, and I feel like I'm letting them down also by being incapacitated indefinitely.

While we were gone we had hunters from Minnesota here and they were successful in bagging a couple of mule deer.  They thoroughly enjoyed their stay here.  We're not sure if it was them or some other hunters that left a gate open, and we had cows where they weren't supposed to be this morning.  That meant some rounding up and chasing had to be done.  Once we got them started they knew where they were supposed to be, thank goodness.  I was in the Jeep which was warmer than being on a 4-wheeler like M was, but my clutch leg is my bad one so it makes it a bit of a challenge.

We'll have a busy weekend shipping our calves.  R will be making a quick trip home to help along with our nephew and two friends.  One is from Massachusetts and will be getting his first taste of working cows.  J commented that we wouldn't need him since it sounded like we would have lots of help.  I'm thinking most of that "help" should probably just stay out of the way!

I almost forgot the most exciting thing that has happened....we are going to be grandparents.  J and K are expecting in May.  There is no one in the world more like my dad than J so I think it would be perfect if the baby came on the 14th which is my dad's birthday.  K is a Halloween fanatic so this Halloween "present" was how they told us the news.  Not sure how she managed to get pregnant during harvest when J was never home!  We are pretty excited.  M's words to his brother were "help is on the way!"

I've been thinking a lot about my dad the past few days since we lost him on Halloween eight years ago.  We've had the same gray weather that we had then and it brings it all back.  I still miss him so much.

What Can Go Wrong...Will!

It was a beautiful day in our neighborhood, no race to watch since it was last night, and our football teams weren't on TV so it was a day to round up some cows.  It was a really beautiful day, but things didn't go quite as smoothly as they could have, from a cow that wouldn't cross the highway (she'd get to the yellow line and then turn around) to a gate left open at the wrong time.

We had a small group of 24 pairs and a couple of butcher steers in a pasture near Richland.  We needed to get them home so we could vaccinate the calves and pregnancy test the cows.  We usually trail them home from there (about 8 miles), but this year we had a lot of our older cows down there so we decided to haul them home instead.  We wanted to sort the early calves from the late ones because we were going to put them in different places once we got them home; however, the facilities there have seen better days so it's always an adventure, and we wonder if it's all going to fall apart one of these days. Add to that weeds in the corral up to my armpits making it hard to maneuver.  We made one attempt at trying to cut out some cows but soon decided it would be easier to haul them home and then sort. 

Those old cows are pretty smart and were pretty resistant to being loaded.  I had to tell M that if he didn't calm down I was going to quit working with him.  We finally got them all loaded and home and took a lunch break.  After lunch we sorted the early calves from the late ones and vaccinated them and then sent them out to pasture. 

Tonight, M said he was amazed that just the two of us (and me a bit debilitated this week) accomplished what we had.  I just smiled and said, "you're welcome".

Switching Gears

It was time to forget about farming for awhile and go to cow work.  Last Sunday we moved our heifers closer to home to get ready for pregnancy testing.  We were wondering how that would go because, well, they are heifers and because we had hauled them to pasture instead of trailing them.  We always laugh that when we drive into the pasture on a 4-wheeler they come running to us.  It wasn't much trouble to get them out of the pasture and they seemed to know where they were headed.  The nice thing about heifers is that they move right along, so the move didn't take long.  We wanted to cut the bull out and M thought we'd have to get them all in the corral to do that.  I didn't think it would be hard to get just the bull in so I suggested we try that first.  He hazed him out of the group with the 4-wheeler and he ran right into the corral by himself.  M hates it when I'm right.  I just think it's worth trying something the easy way before you try to do it the hard way.

We also cut a cow out of a pasture to put with the heifers so that we could test her.  The next day M said all the heifers were near the fence, and he didn't think she was with them.  We rode into the pasture she had come from and sure enough, she was back in there and had taken a heifer with her.  We didn't have any luck getting the cow back out, but we did get the heifer out and back with the others, but she did it the hard way and put on more miles than she would have had to.  The cow is a bit of trouble so she may just go to market.

On Wednesday we rounded up our big herd to vaccinate the calves and pregnancy test.  It was a crisp, cool morning and within the first 10 minutes I couldn't feel my fingers--even with gloves.  It did warm up quickly, thank goodness.  Of course, there were cows about as far away from the gate as possible so it took a little while to get them moved.  We had to cross a stubble field and the dust was horrible.  Made us wonder if we were doing the right thing by vaccinating while it's so dry.  There have been some cases of dust pneumonia in the area.

We sorted and ran the calves through and vaccinated and then had lunch and waited for the vet to pregnancy test the cows.  J thought he'd get out of helping us (not really a cow person) but we needed him to bring the loader tractor up to unload some pipe for the neighbor so he got roped into running the chute.  I always say it's the price they pay for free meat.

The cows tested good, and we were happy with our AI catch in the heifers.  I think J thought I had lost my mind since I had to pet my favorite heifers.  There was some head shaking going on.

The most difficult part of the day was getting the cows and calves to head back out of the corral.  We wanted to take them through the grass so there wasn't so much dust, but they had their own idea so we had to take them through the field again.  The dust cloud was so bad that we couldn't even see them for awhile.

We hauled bulls home along with a fat open cow that will make good hamburger and called it a day--12 hours later.  Then we packed for a much-needed weekend away.

NOW we're done!

J finished cutting yesterday afternoon and parked the combine so our harvest is officially over!!  It was a successful harvest, and we can't complain.  Great weather (we actually wished for a rain delay a few times), good yields (cut A LOT of 40 bushel wheat and some up to 60), no major breakdowns or problems, and we all survived without killing each other.  Actually, everyone remained in pretty good humor throughout even though we were all exhausted.

We had a lot of help, too, which made it a bit easier.  We always say we're equal opportunity and this year had helpers from ages 15 to 84!  We had R for a couple of weeks which was SO nice.  One of J's friends helped one day--he said he was tired of cleaning corrals while waiting for his flax to be ready to cut.  Another friend helped for a few days, and we had Uncle Bud who was just going to come out for a day or two when we had a long way to haul and ended up helping for a few weeks.  He has helped us a lot through the years but had a tough year last year with heart surgery, chemotherapy, radiation and surgery for colon cancer.  He's doing great now.  He came out a little later in the morning, and we let him go home before dark generally.  He can fall asleep in seconds so gets a lot of little naps in, too.  It was nice to have him back.

Some days I get a bit miffed that we don't get much help from the other Thievin wives who are busy with their jobs, but one day it occurred to me that I'm kind of sad for them because they don't get to see the interaction and camaraderie between the guys.  There is generally a lot of good-natured ribbing (and occasionally some not so good-natured-haha).  They are just not going to understand how things really work around here if they're not here to see it.  They are going to get a skewed view if they just listen to their husbands' side of a story.

For example, there is a road sign on a bridge near Richland that the guys can't get around with their headers on.  For a few years someone would go pull it out of the ground until they got by and then put it back.  At some point J had this bright idea to cut the post and put a hinge in it.  That way they could just fold it down when they needed to go by and then flip it back up.  One day we were moving and C had flipped the sign down.  J went through and as M was getting ready to go through C sees a car coming, point to it and flips the sign back up.  M is going 10 mph and can't stop so hits it with his header and messes up the hinge.  When L and I got there C was in a panic trying to fix it and says "I don't think he thinks sometimes."  So I'm thinking M wasn't paying attention and hit it.  Then when I see M, he says "I don't know what he was thinking" because he couldn't stop in time and didn't know why he would flip the sign back up when he did.  Some of us had a good laugh over that one.  (C wasn't laughing.)  I'm just wondering what version of the story C's wife heard that night.

The other day M came home and said he did a bad thing.  Of course, that made me nervous.  He had called the John Deere dealer about a loader tractor.  They have one in the area so they brought it to him last night to try out, and that's where he is right now.  Remember how I said before that most things they try out never go back......yeah, I'm worried.

It's finally a beautiful day after five straight days of gale force winds so I think we'll take in the football game and the local high school.  Jared is a freshman and plays so we'll go see if he gets any playing time....although it would also be a good day for yard work.