Dreaming of Spring Gardening in the Middle of a Wisconsin winter part 2

[ShrekDawg]

Hello

 

[Callender Girl]

I wasn't feeling judgement, Lisa. I'm a pretty lazy chicken keeper myself and am more than a little peeved that the girls are requiring so much time and energy this year. Oh, and expense -- let's not forget the monetary cost. At this rate, they all need to step up egg production like crazy!!

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

Hello

How are you doing?

 

[ShrekDawg]

How are you doing?

Okay lol you!?

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

Okay lol you!?

My mother in law is going into hospice. That's sad.

 

[ShrekDawg]

My mother in law is going into hospice. That's sad.

Awwwwww I’m so sorry!

 

[Callender Girl]

Lisa, sad news about your mother-in-law. I was going to write something completely different this morning, but now my intended topic seems a bit flippant. Four years ago, my Jim was in a hospice facility.

I don't want to sound (too) weird, but I read a lot about the end of life and NDE's (near-death experiences). Julie McFadden's "Nothing to Fear: Demystifying Death to Live More Fully" is written by a former trauma nurse who switched directions and went into hospice nursing. In hospitals, McFadden wrote, the goal is generally to keep the patient alive, regardless of what measures have to be taken -- often pointless measures that cause extreme pain and prolonged suffering.

McFadden believes hospice is more natural, less intrusive, less traumatic and less painful for patients. Some people, she wrote, go into hospice and recover enough to come out; then may go back in again, but it's a choice made by them or their family, based on what they want and feel is best.

Jim, who had some Winnebago heritage, believed in the Lakota version of an afterlife, where a person can find peace. I have always been intrigued by Native culture. I just finished one of William Kent Krueger's novels. He is one of my favorite authors because he weaves real-life places along the North Shore of Lake Superior into his mystery-crime books as well as a lot of Ojibwe culture and language.

In "Heaven's Keep," an old medicine society member explains to a young mixed blood boy: "Some people think death is like a hungry wolf and they are afraid of it. I think death is just walkin' through a door and we go on livin' on the other side, livin' better. Livin' in the true way, just waitin' for those we love to join us there ... you shouldn't be afraid. We all walk through the door one day."

I wish the best for your mother-in-law and your entire family.

 

[Callender Girl]

Yesterday, I started to think maybe Halloween had come early. My day had more than its share of unwanted creepy things.

Dinah, who likes to bark at, well anything, began furiously yapping at something in the dining room in the darkness of early morning. I was hoping it wasn't a mouse, and it wasn't. Instead, I found a bull snake curled up behind a dog statue. In 17 years, this is the first time I've found a snake in the house, although there was one in the basement several years ago. I relocated my uninvited guest into the outdoors.

When I went out to get a bucket to do my daily coop cleaning, I noticed something gray and disgusting in one of the garage totes. Apparently, a mouse that had climbed into the tote wasn't able to get out and had started decomposing. Which made it all the more creepy when it started to move.

I picked up the tote and tipped it slightly to find a mass of maggots underneath the mouse corpse -- hideous, but better than a zombie rodent, I guess.

Yesterday was Day 3 of deworming, but a live, writhing roundworm was on the floor of one of the coops.

And then, fitting with the Halloween scenario, I had two bats flying overhead while I was putting birds to bed.

Also, there was some blood spilled yesterday -- mine because I was careless. My sister came up, and we were working on one of the many projects I've been putting off. I told her that the table saw scares me more than any other tool and that she should be very careful around it.

Moments later, I had turned off the saw and was picking up the plywood we'd cut without noticing that the blade was still spinning just a tiny bit. Fortunately, the blade was set low to cut 1/4-inch plywood and was nearly done spinning. So, I sustained a small cut above the top knuckle of one finger. I could tell that it wasn't a deep cut, but I think it scared the bejeebers our of her because there was bloodshed. A gauze pad, peroxide and some vet wrap took care of everything.

Today, we will work on projects that do not require power tools!

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

Barb I double checked and yesterday was not the 13th. I would leave my house never to return if I found a snake inside. I'm hoping today is better for you.

My mother in law is currently still in the hospital while they decide where to hospice her. Apparently Medicare doesn't cover the room, but do cover everything else. She doesn't have any assets. There is talk of her doing at her youngest sons apartment where she had been living the past month since falling. I hate to admit but human death freaks me out. makes me real uncomfortable. I do believe there's more after this and have read about how people begin to see deceased relatives at the end.