Doc Visit

Well, I took the day off and went to the Doc with Jeff. It went very well! He is continuing to keep him off of work-until Feb. 15th, but he does have another appointment in Jan. He let us know that he wanted Jeff to do anything and everything he felt up to doing-on a day to day basis-even minute to minute. He DOES NOT want him sitting around in the house-wants him to keep as active as he feels like-so his muscles don't atrophy and get weak. And he said the hot tub was a really good place to do his stretches.
I'm sick again-feel like heck-coughing-was scared I'd coughed up a lung last night! I've taken Nyquil and am going to bed real soon. I did get the rest of my Christmas shopping done this afternoon-well-only a few things left to pick up-but I know what I'm getting-so it's just a matter of getting them.
And the sun made a few small appearances today-HEH!! It is supposed to be a really nice weekend-so I can't wait-hopefully it'll dry up a little! I bought bitty feed today-I told Jeff I hope I didn't jump the gun-and now none will hatch! The day after Christmas will tell!

Another Week Goes by!!

Our visit with Granddaddy on Saturday morning-It was Kaytlynn and Jordan's first visit to the Nursing home-they did great! And he was SO glad to see them! Does his 95 year old self good!

We have had WAY TOO MUCH rain, drizzle and fog-I have had enough-thank you!!! I don't even mind the cold as long as the sun is shining. Everything is just saturated around here!

We separated the calves on Sunday-so it was a pretty noisey night here last night! The cows bellered more than the calves-Randy has gone to spend the night at a friends-he said he was about ready to get a gun last night! He said it sounded like they were standing over his bed-hehe! The eggs in the incubator are doing well so far! Less than 2 weeks left-Jeff has been the mother hen this time!! He gets to turn the eggs!

Jeff went to Houston last Friday for the annual Work Comp visit. It went well-it is only an evaluation visit. We have been filling out SO much paper work! His case is now in the hands of the group in Austin-we sent more papers to them today. He goes back to his Doc on Wednesday-I'm taking the day off to go with him this time. We have so many questions to ask!

Jeff's company Christmas Party was Saturday night. They served bbq-it was really good. We had a great time visiting with friends and Jeff actually won a prize this year!

We have decided to go ahead and take the cows to the sale this weekend. We will keep the calves for the freezer-but our hay isn't good and at this point in time-we really cannot afford to keep them. We will be really sad to see them go. We have also been trying to sell the boar and sow-but no takers yet. Our plans are to use some of the money to fix the yard fences and get a few goats-they will be easier for us to handle. Rainbow got in the garden the other night and ate everything and the brocolli was finally starting to make heads!

Well-that's enough for tonight-gotta check on the deer in awhile!

Weekly Update

Randy and Ricky grinding the pork-with their advisory board looking on!

The eggs I won off of ebay-including 2 of my own!

This week would be easiest described on a somewhat daily basis:

Monday-Back to School and work! Jeff set the whole day waiting on a phone call from Social Security that never came!

Tuesday- He finally got the call-they got all his paperwork-but he was denied for SSI because I make too much money-now that's a joke!! Rainbow went over the fence and woke us up at 4:00am. We are getting 100 pictures on average a night of deer! Mostly 2-3 does-but every few nights we get some of different bucks!

Wednesday-Jeff took his Dad to the Doc-they wanted to admit him to the hospital-but he wouldn't have it!. Jeff met me after work and we went to New Waverly and picked up a barrel of corn.

Thursday-Jordan rode with us to Dewey's for feed-he almost managed to get one bag in the back of my truck by himself! Randy's friend Justin shot a sow in his Grandpa's pasture and they brought it here to us. The guys got it all skinned and on ice.

Friday-Jeff went into town for sausage seasoning and casings. At 10:00-it started SNOWING!! It really stuck in Coldspring-it was beautiful!! But-it didn't stick at all at home-so the kids and me-were very diappointed when we got home! So I wasn't able to get any pictures!! Got the pork off the bones-bythat time Jeff was in so much pain-he had to sit down and leave the grinding and packing to Randy and Ricky and the rest of us! He is just so not used to giving up and having someone help him out! And I forgot to count the packs of sausage and we just left it all in pan.

Saturday-I won an ebay auction for eggs early this morning. The seller is in Livingston-so we'll meet her later this afternoon. And boy did we have a freeze this morning! It was totally white this morning-19 degrees on the back porch! We got all the Christmas stuff out and started decorating the livingroom. We went into Livingston and got our tree-what a bummer-we just got it at Wal-Mart this year. We've decided to just get an artificial one at the end of the season to use from now on. We met Helen-the lady with the eggs-so sweet!! I won 12 and she gave me an extra 6. They are a barnyard mix with 1 aracauna and several marans-the really dark ones! So they went into the incubator before bedtime. I really didn't think this one through very well, though-because the eggs won't be ready to hatch until the day after Christmas. So-we'll have to be very careful of them with a houseful of kids!

Sunday-We have a 50% chance of rain today-so I really don't know what's up for today. Our yard looks awful-FULL of leaves. We need to put up the outside lights and I haven't had the chance to check on the garden since all the cold and snow! We haven't even gotten in the hot tub-although we have talked about it! We've just been too tired to do much of anything different!

Have a great week!

Thanksgiving Week

Well, not much to report here! Jeff & I spent the first of the week just hanging out-not doing much. The doe and 2 yearlings continue to show up almost nightly in the front pasture. They had a birthday party at Curtis,Jr.'s last night-so nothing other than the rabbits on the camera last night. Randy & Ricky got alot of firewood stacked for us while we were at the beach-we left Thursday evening-took the tractor-and went to the beach. It was really wet-so we didn't get much work done. Didn't even fish! :( We came on home yesterday morning. We have all the paperwork in to apply for the disabilty insurance and had a call from the Social Security Office in Conroe-so Jeff will have to call them on Monday.
We have a cold front headed our way that is supposed to drop quite a bit of rain over the next few days-temps might get to 50 here tomorrow-And today we have the doors open and it should reach 76-Good ole Texas weather! Have a great day!

Eventful Week!

Jordan had a busy week! It started with a trip to the ER on Sunday night-A BIG cousin was playing a little too rough with him-as nearly everyone does-he's SO tough-and he ended up hitting his head on the coffee table-no stitches-only super glue. Then yesterday he lost his first tooth! and the one next to it is loose, too! He hasn't been over yet this morning to let us know about the tooth fairy!

I didn't realize that a whole week had passed again! Alot has happened around here this week! Jeff wasn't able to stay at work for more than 4 hours on Monday due to the pain in his back. He came home and called the Doc-who wanted him to come into the office in Houston on Tuesday morning for x-rays. After the x-rays-the Doc has taken him off work intil Dec. 16th and told him to go ahead and start filing for his Social Security Disabilty benefits. He said he wouldn't be able to work anywhere-and no lifting or bending! So---We spent nearly 8 hours filling out all the forms and getting them submitted. He has had to get in touch with finance companies to see what to do about the disabilty insurance that we had purchased on those loans.

Anyway-Jeff has had a time trying to stay away from doing any kind of work! He is not one to just sit around doing nothing. I am now off for Thanksgiving week and will go back to work on the 30th. We plan to go down to the beach on Thursday afternoon and spend the rest of the week down there. We went into Conroe yesterday and nearly got all the Christmas shopping done-YEAH! Just a few more things to pick up-it'll be a slim one around here this year-Jeff will be getting a very small paycheck from now on!

We had rain yesterday-but the sun is shining now! And the hot tub is WONDERFUL now! It was nearly 50 degrees warmer in it than the outside air the other night when we got in. I'm sure it'll be used sometime today as well! What a great way to relax!!

The garden is finally picking up a little-I can find beets, some snow peas and carrots, and lots of lettuce. We haven't put the top on the greenhouse yet-but other than a stray cucumber and some stuggling tomatoes-there's not anything in there.

Well, Jordan just came over with the $5 the tooth fairy left him! Needless to say-he's excited! They're eating pancakes now-a Sunday morning tradition-Grandpa fixes pancakes for breakfast!

Deer!!

These 2 does showed up Wednesday night-and ate ALL the corn!

And this buck showed up around 7:30 Friday night-he didn't stay around as long as the does did! He's not the one we got pics of earlier-this one appears to be a 6 point!

We spent nearly the whole day yesterday looking for the parts for the hot tub! The new pump and heater came in on Thursday-but all the fittings were wrong. We finally found a place in the Woodlands that got us all fixed up! Jeff and Randy got it all set up and going again-the water was 66 degrees! This morning it was up to 84 degrees-so if it's not raining this evening-we might get in it tonight for the first time in over a month!

The garden seems to be picking up ever so slightly! I have 2 squash that finally came up and lots of lettuce-a few of the snow peas are appearing. We only got the 1 litter of bunnies-so I'll have to rebreed the doe who didn't kindle.

Well-only 5 days this week and then we have our week off! I'm looking foward to getting a few things done here in the house the first day or 2. We'll go down to the beach on Thanksgiving afternoon or early Friday morning. We are gonna take the tractor and get some dirt work taken care of and Duane needs to use it some, too.

We have a pretty strong cool front headed our way-it won't get out of the low 60's for the next couple of days-it was 80 yesterday and will be today again. We have leaves all over the ground-I was just looking around last weekend and thinking that they hadn't started falling yet-what a difference a week can make!

I hear a hen cackling-must have an egg! Have a great week!

Bunnies!

One of the does had 7 babies! The other is the larger of the 2 and she did pull hair-but no babies yet! I put the 3rd one back in with the buck yesterday-so another litter is due Dec. 12th. The garden just will not grow-I don't know what's up with it! By this time every year I usually have beautiful brocolli coming on and it looks awful this year! The cabbage has not grown at all since I planted it. The beet seeds have come up and are the only thing that looks like it might do something!
The new pump and heater for the hot tub are due here today! They went out a few weeks ago and Jeff has been trying to get them to work-he had a spare set a guy at work had given him-piecing the 2 sets together. Then the light bill came in -YIKES!! Our usuage had more than doubled!! And everytime we turned it on the light meter just spinned like crazy! So we broke down and ordered a new set. Hopefully this one will get nice and warm-not just tolerable. And not make the bill go up so much!!
Still no word from Jeff's Dr. He actually is at a conference and will not be available until Monday. So he has to wait til then to see what's gonna be done. Jeff said yesterday he would have come home if he could have afforded to-he was hurting that bad! We just don't know what's gonna happen with his back!
I ate Thanksgiving lunch with Hailey at school yesterday. GOOD! We are all waiting for the end of next week-we'll be off the whole week for Thanksgiving! Then back to school for 3 weeks-then off for 2 for the Christmas break. It just doesn't seem like we are that close to Christmas!! I really haven't done any shopping at all! Better get busy!!