SOME LIKE IT HOT . . . SOME NOT

Today is not a record breaking day, but "just" another hot days in the nineties.  This is to continue well into next week. Oh happy day!  People are not the only ones suffering from the heat.  Livestock is another category in itself.

When I had Llamas and my Alpaca, the heat was our terrible enemy.  We ran fans in the barn....a LOT of fans!  Our electric bill for the barn was higher than the air conditioning bill for our home!

We would go outside every two hours and spray the abdomen, the inside of their legs, the butts of each llama.  There usually was one ''pig" who wanted all the cold water to her/himself.  Then Rowdy our Alpaca would just butt in and lie down in the puddle to cool himself.  We also had plastic kiddie pools for the "kids" to either stand or lie in with the refreshing water around their tummies.

Then, guess what they would do.... They would walk out into the pasture and lie in the hot sun until it became too hot for them and they would make a return trip to the barn for a repeat "shower".

Regardless, I miss my llamas!  I miss the barn and it's llama smell.  I spent the morning looking at web sites of friends who still raise them.  It is okay to miss them.  But I would not go back to the sticks and bricks, the pastures to mow, the hay to stack, the shearing, the worry of one developing heat stress.  Now, it is a wonderful  memory.

Today, John got the official notice that he does have sleep apnea. He will be getting a CPAP machine.  He will then be able to wake up rested!  This is the first time I have seen ANYONE full of joy because they had a medical condition!
Well, really it is not the condition that gives the joy, but the knowledge that he will get many good nights sleep in the future.

The steroids and medications that John was given while in the Intensive Care created diabetes and it has not gone away.  We are attending classes conducted by a diabetes nurse and a dietitian.  With this news, that brings you up to date on John.

Last week, we had a very important visitor here at Brown County State Park.

The day that John went into respiratory failure and I entered the Emergency Department of Methodist Hospital, a very formidable greeter was there.  


Meet Bones!  He is one of the two patrol dogs at the hospital.  He is one sweet boy, but does not want anyone to know!  


While John was in Intensive care, Bones and his handler, Officer Pat came to walk the halls.  It made me wonder just who was also up there.  


If I understand correctly, Bones was a bomb sniffing dog with our troops.  He even has his identification tattoo in his ear!  This dog is a true hero.  


It was a pleasure to see Bones.  He was the first thing I saw in the hospital and then he is the first caregiver that I have seen since John has been out of the hospital.  To me he signified strength and power.  He still gives me peace.  I love that dog!  I am so pleased that John got to meet and shake hands/paws with him.  


I'd post another picture, but I cannot remember how I got Bones on here.  His picture is way to big, but I cannot size yet either.  A computer nerd I am not!  


I am going to stop here.  I want to try to learn: 1. how to use Live Writer 2: how to get my photos into a folder in Picasa and 3. how to post a picture into the  blog.  Who knows when I will be back!  Change and I sometimes just do not get along.

God bless all!  Stay cool!

THE ELEPHANT WAVED HIS EARS (WHAT HAS NOT BEEN EATEN)

He has cooled our temperatures to the high eighties.  That, my friends is so much better than than one hundred four and one hundred eleven.  Believe me!  The lower temperatures and partly cloudy skies have been marvelous.  

In other ways, that darned cat elephant keeps trying to trip up John.  He has had a few tests ordered by our physician and every one of them presents a challenge.

The first test was a bone scan.  John has osteoporosis.  We knew that.  When I married him, he was just under six feet.  Then he was five feet, eight inches!  Then this test determined that he has lost, yet, another inch.  I had a feeling that he had because he seemed closer to me when we would stand and talk.

Then a blood test revealed that he is just at the demarcation line indicating diabetes. grrrrr.  On Monday, we went to his first counseling session regarding diet, testing his blood sugar, and exercise.  

Monday evening, he reported to the lab for a sleep study.  And you guessed it, John has sleep apnea.  Since he has been home from the hospital, I seem to hear every change in his breathing, often just making sure that he is still breathing.  I decided that he did have sleep apnea and told his physician who ordered the test.  

During the test, they woke him up and placed him on a cpap machine.  cpap stands for continuing pressure air pressure.  It is a quiet machine that makes sure the patient breathes properly.  John said that when he awoke, he felt better than he had in "who knows how long."  

So now, we are going to have a cpap machine and the machine to check John's blood thickness since he is also on a blood thinner.

Me?  Wellll, I'm on an anti anxiety medication.  I wonder why? hehehe  To help the stress and since we are finally off a heavily traveled country road, I have started walking again. 

As soon as it cooled down a bit, I purchased a good pair of walking / hiking shoes and Oliver, Olivia and I 

have hit the trails here at Brown County State Park.  

The kids and I took a walk after dinner which was a wee later than normal.  We started out on the park road, went to the nature center and there found a Discovery Interpretive Trail.  It was a short trail, but up and down the hills and ravines.  The walk to the nature center and the trail added up to be a good workout for me.  

On my way back another walker said that a very young fox had just crossed the path and maybe I would see it or at least hear it.  I was unable to do either.  The only wildlife I have seen so far is squirrels and an unidentified bird that I could not get the camera out fast enough to take a picture.  

Not much exciting to report, but life is what it is.  I'm off to fix dinner!

God bless y'all

  

SETTLING IN AND MAKING IT OUR HOME

It is a bit of a mess here right now.  You can see that in the photo!  Being a short one, I use the stool in the upper right, but it is foldable and should have been put in it's  place.

Then there is Noah's litter box.  For a while, it was under our dining table, then we moved it in the space between the "navigator's chair and my seat, but that is where my case with my circular sock machine is now located.  The only place I can think to put the litter box is in the shower.  Any other suggestions?

And ladies and gentlemen, on the right just above and behind Oliver, you see a full trash bag.  That dandy item now hangs on the hand rail.  I REALLY do not like that!

With John's COPD, I thought I had to bring our small room air filter.  Again, there is no good place for it.  Last night, it went to the campground dumpster and I will look for a smaller, less obtrusive filter.

Now, for what we have accomplished.  First is our floors that John installed last summer when he felt much better than he does now.  Then there is the Karastan oriental rug on which  the fur kids love to rest.

Well, maybe not so much to rest all the time.  It is  also used as a wrestling mat for Noah (the cat) and Olivia (the dog).  And guess who always wins....Noah!

 Oliver just stands in the background and asks "when will these two ever grow up and be more dignified, LIKE ME?"

After the rug went down, John removed one of the light fixtures on the wall and hung my cherry Howard Miller wall clock.  It is no longer hanging crooked as you see in the photo.


Next to the clock and waiting to be framed and hung is a pen and ink drawing of Talley's Pub.


John also removed the traditional Winnebago watercolor that comes with every rig.  There, we are going to hang one of my pieces of fiber art work.  This "painting" is composed of hand dyed fibers then blended and laid out to create the picture.  


This "painting" won Grand Champion, Best of Show at the Hoosier Hills Fiberarts Festival. 


The holes left by the watercolor is where this picture will be hung. 

There is another fiber painting to be hung in the bedroom.  A few years ago, this was a Father's Day gift for John.  I entered this "painting" in the fine arts division at our county fair and won a blue ribbon.  What a surprise.

As we travel and John and I take pictures of scenes that we like, I will take the photo and recreate it by painting with the fiber.

I have my dye pot, dyes and all other equipment with me.  I guess we could say that our motorhome is an art studio on wheels.  From our traveling studio, I will be selling the artwork as Merikay and Karen in the Woods will be selling their works.

The final, so far, touch of home we have added is the last quilt John's mom made before her death.  This quilt was even made for John which gives it special meaning to him.

In the lower right corner is a small, portable washing machine.  This baby saves us a lot of money on laundry bills.  It was two hundred dollars and has paid for itself many times over.

As we begin our search for a newer motorhome, a built in washer/dryer is just one of my must haves. What is so funny is that although we have sold our house, we just have not felt a rush to purchase our next motorhome.  For me, that is a good thing.

Enough for today.  If you have any comments or suggestions, feel free to head to the comment box!  Thanks for stopping by.

God bless!

T - PLUS FOUR! RE: THE ELEPHANT, JUST A BIT MORE

And, here I thought I would do a daily countdown to closing and moving day.  That's a big joke!  I thought I was so organized and that moving to the motorhome would be such a breeze.....NOT!   


When we had lunch with Judy on Monday, June 25 that we would probably be out of the house by the following Thursday.   That would have been five days prior to closing / moving day.  It did not happen.  We closed and moved on the designated day, July 2.  The best laid plans............

We made a very long trip to our first destination that is thirty miles south, Brown County State Park in Nashville, Indiana.  

We need to be close to what was home in order for John to remain in physical therapy.  


We use a tank of gas for every two physical therapy sessions.  I think we will look for a physical terrorist closer to our location.  


John said that he would just stop therapy and I say "no way."  He qualifies for the physical therapy as long as he continues to make improvement.  I feel that if he is making improvement, he needs more therapy.  When the improvement stops, he has reached his potential and the elephant is consumed.  


BCSP is a very nice place to camp in the late fall to early spring.  It is not as crowded and there is plenty of space for campers to spread out.  We are fortunate to have an empty site next to us affording us a view from our dining window.  


The heat here is record-setting with temperatures exceeding one hundred degrees for days in a row. This seems to be happening all over the United States.  Hummm, I wonder if Obama is going to blame this on Bush too?  (just a wee bit of humor on the ninety degree morning)  

What amazes me is the weekend or vacation campers who still go out in the hottest part of the day.  They lie in their chairs, they play, they ride bikes.  


We, on the other hand stay inside with the air conditioning.  We drink iced tea and iced coffee and play on the computer or read or take a nap.


Last evening, we encountered problems with one of our air conditioners.  The power would fluctuate slowing down the unit until it would shut down.  Over and over this happened, so we have shut it off and are depending solely on the rear unit.  


Thank goodness it is partly cloudy today and with the temperature at ninety seven now at eleven forty-five.  The prediction is One hundred three, but it seems to me that it is going to go higher.  


Last night, we went into Nashville.  The town is full of art galleries, antique shops, craft stores etc.  The town and county is known as an artist colony.  Some have referred to Nashville and Brown County as the "Little Smokeys."  I put the emphasis on little.  This photo is not very good, I was trying to capture the pink clouds.  The zoom is not powerful enough to do some of the things I ask.  


If you like to shop for anything, this is the place.  I liked it much better when it was centered on arts and crafts.  More and more of the "art" and "crafts" are from China.  


Our trip into town was to have John's prescriptions refilled and to have dinner at the Hobnob.  We have had dinner and lunch there and never have been disappointed.  


The interior dates back to the turn of the century when it was an drug store with a soda fountain and counter.  They are still  still intact.  Built in 1868, the building is the oldest commercial structure in Nashville.  The building was first a dry-goods, sundries and grocery store before being purchased, furnishings intact, and became the Hobnob Corner.


The Hobnob is noted for it's breaded tenderloin.

Since we had had the tenderloin on another visit, we wanted to sample another of the chef's creations.  




I chose an open faced vegetarian delight.  I did ask them to add spinach and red onion to their avocados,  mushrooms, sprouts, etc.  There was a bit too much cheese and I chose to remove about seventy-five percent.  That made it just right for this fussy eater.  

John chose a remake of the Ruben and some really good looking French Fries.  Their Thousand Island dressing is made "in house" and was a delight!  This Ruben was on the Hobnob's own Dill Bread!  John gave it two thumbs up.  


We are looking forward to visiting Bloomington, IN.  Bloomington is the home of Indiana University and has a vast array of restaurants that we would like to try while we are in this area.  Hopefully, there will also be something going on at the University that we can attend.  


I wanted to share a photo I took of the moon.  I was walking Oliver and Olivia and as we were returning to the motorhome at 7:15 a.m, this is what I saw.  Cool picture for daylight.

With the picture of the moon, I leave you.  It is good to be back in blog land and IT IS WONDERFUL TO BE FULL TIMERS!  Man, oh man....we have come a long way since mid March!  God is good.


God bless, drink lots of water, stay out of the sun and enjoy!