The Front Porch Swing

[LindaB220]

Hey everybody, I've been out of touch since yesterday early evening. Lightening struck an electric pole 100 yds down the road. Storm knocked out 60,000 homes in Bossier Parish. Wretched time. Since I live in all electric. No well for water, no toilet, no A/C, no internet or TV and to top it off I only had another couple of days for my White Plymouth Rocks in the 'bator. 75 degrees for at least 14 hours so I don't have a hope. Electricity came back on at 11 am. I left it on but know its toast. So far, I have 22 SBEL's different ages 3 wks apart, 1 coronation sussex and 1 basque. The other dozen eggs in that batch were scrambled due to PO. Tom from Pa is going to send me more in Sept. The big coop has 13 POL pullets that will not integrate anyone in I'm sure. I've waited for almost a year to get eggs and I may sell these and wait for the little egg laying machines the super blue egg layers. They are really special.

Blooie, girl, are you never out of trouble. It seems to just heap on you. Tell Ken we are rooting for him and know his pain. Literally.
For all the girls on the porch who are in pain right now due to surgery or illness, BIG HUG

Deb, that means you too. Glad you didn't break anything.

 

[dpenning]

Dpenning - congrats on the success! I am thrilled for you. As someone who is struggling with massive weight issues, I lost 25 pounds last year and have gained back 10 of them, I am stoked about your 20 lbs of weight loss. You Go Girl!

Bruce - thanks for the words of encouragement. I am so relieved to have the house under contract, frustrated trying to find someone to do the sewer and well inspection though. Everything is going very well, but the realtor just doesn't communicate at all.

I've done the yoyo for years, always seemed to gain back just a smidge more eventually. I understand the struggle for sure, thanks for the encouragement and congrats on the sale of your house!

Out of the oven hot blueberry muffins with are just picked blueberries

mmmmm

Those look fabulous! .

They were $5 a pound. Were I grew up there were you pick farms everywhere. You pick cherries, peaches, strwberries, blueberries.... everything. We don't have very many you pick places here. It's very sad. It's really not that weird if you think about it. Way weirder to go to the store and buy produce. Wish we had wild blueberries here!

I would love to find a you pick em place here.

Thanks for all the positive feedback everyone.

 

[topdycke]

Might be worth a try. But mainly I think it's all the light messing with them. They do know how to go to bed, on cloudy nights when it gets dark enough, they go to bed by themselves.

How does the light affect the wild birds? Here they are a steady stream on the bird feeders until the sun hits the horizon and then poof they are gone to bed. I like the longer daylight in the summer but at midnight that would be just too weird.

 

[bruceha2000]

Gastric Sleeve Post Op Update

Yesterday was 2 weeks post op. Met with the Dr. everything is going fine. Down to 194.4. Weight dropped off the first week, second week has been slower. I think my body is in starvation mode as I am still only getting 350-400 calories/day. I've been doing extra walking going from 3000 steps/day to 6000 on my fitbit so doc said since I"m getting my protein, even walking is enough to be creating muscle instead of fat so to not get discouraged with the slower loss. I have not re-measured but some clothes do seem to be fitting better.

I have 6 days left on a liquid protein diet. I never thought I'd be so excited for scrambled eggs or cottage cheese! I get to start soft foods on the 30th for 3 weeks. At that point I expect the weight loss to continue as my body will start getting calories in addition to protein. Still feel tired some days but not all.

It doesn't sound like much but I'm down 20lbs total since the beginning of this journey. 10 pre op and 10 post op. This is the first time I've been able to break the 200 mark in YEARS.

Next Dr. appt is at 6 weeks and I think they do blood work at that time. At 5 weeks post op I'll see the nutritionist again and she will be able to help me add the right kind of calories in the soft food stage.

If y'all are interested I will continue to post updates.

dawn

Keep working at it. The problem with our modern bodies is they are still really stone age inside. When your body detects a lack of food, it goes into "starvation" mode and burns fewer calories so it doesn't go below the "set point". The trigger is "less than I had yesterday and the day before" as opposed to "still have reserves, I know I will have enough, no worries". So you plateau until it figures out that weight is the "target", not the weight you had 2 months ago.

Bruce - thanks for the words of encouragement. I am so relieved to have the house under contract, frustrated trying to find someone to do the sewer and well inspection though. Everything is going very well, but the realtor just doesn't communicate at all.

Sadly another black mark on your realtor. A good realtor would know who to contact and either already given you names or set it up. But the opening at the end of the tunnel is getting brighter!

 

[lazy gardener]

WyoDreamer: Sorry you are having such a hard time with your realtor. You can bet that he/she will be in good communication when it's time to collect that fat commission.

 

[vehve]

 
Might be worth a try. But mainly I think it's all the light messing with them. They do know how to go to bed, on cloudy nights when it gets dark enough, they go to bed by themselves.

How does the light affect the wild birds?  Here they are a steady stream on the bird feeders until the sun hits the horizon and then poof they are gone to bed.  I like the longer daylight in the summer but at midnight that would be just too weird.

I don't see much of the wild birds in the evenings, but maybe I just haven't been paying attention. The positive side with lifting them in, is that I can monitor their weight gain, our roo is becoming a big boy, and the maran pullet weighs even more.

 

[vehve]

WyoDreamer: Sorry you are having such a hard time with your realtor. You can bet that he/she will be in good communication when it's time to collect that fat commission.

If the realtor is only doing half his job, shouldn't he get half the pay? If someone is just pretending to do their job, I think it's perfectly fine to only pretend to pay them.

 

[LadyCluck77]

Dawn, many congratulations for your success thus far.  I know you'll continue to make great progress.  And, yes, we all want frequent updates!

Now, a not so critical prayer request for all of you prayer warriors.  Given all of the difficult challenges shared on this thread, my need is trivial, but I know our God even delights in hearing from us on the trivial details, so here goes:  I desperately need to have about an acre of land cleared, starting at the road, making a horseshoe path around my house, and garage, and swinging back to the road.  There are some trees close to the buildings that really need to come down, so we're hoping to get someone in with a skidder, and clear out an acre.  Have had 2 men come and look.  One agreed to do the work, but left for greener pastures and won't be back in the area until spring.  An other promised to bring a friend back last week, and we've not heard a word.  I need to get these trees down so i can build my new coop.  The girls are crowded.  So, my prayer request is that God would send the right person, and that the job would be done by 9/1 so i'll have time to build before cold weather.   Thanks in advance.

Maybe make an ad on uncle Henry's for someone to clear the trees in exchange for the timber they take? A lot of firewood people might do that. Good luck, I hope the right person comes along.

 

[rrrmamma]

Blooie, Prayers for Ken's speedy recovery. How is Little Diane and Linda? What a vacation! At least Ken had room service LOL.

Dawn, congratulations. You chose a very brave path. I don't know if I could do that.

Since Doug passed, I have been trying to find a handyman or farmhand. It is not easy. They promise to come, but never show up. Doug left lots of projects unfinished and we are having the memorial service here so I have to get them done. He started a storm door on the front door and ran into problems so it is still not hung. The building for the coop is sitting without any cages or egg boxes. I don't want the chickens free ranging the day of the service and the old coop is falling apart and not big enough. I am managing from day to day and have the feeding routine down to about 45 minutes in the morning and another 35 in the evening. I have rearranged the feeding stations for the cats and dogs to keep the turkeys out. I swear they hear dog food hitting the bowl and come running. They push the Great Pyrs out of the way. Did a dumb thing yesterday morning. I have to haul water for the cattle. I keep a big square tank on the back of my pickup. There is a municipal water plant close by and Friday my girlfriend and I went and filled it. Should have lasted for two weeks. Yesterday, I threw the hose in the stock tank, turned it on then went on about my feeding. I forgot it was on and emptied the whole tank. It is a two person job to fill it so now I have to find someone to go with me to get water. Hopefully, someone will be around the weekend. I just need to focus on one thing at a time. I am still trying to adjust to being alone. We did everything together. Every day gets a little easier, but I know at some time in the future it will hit me that he is never coming back. I am seeing a counselor and it does help. Thanks for letting me ramble this morning.

 

[LindaB220]

Blooie, Prayers for Ken's speedy recovery. How is Little Diane and Linda? What a vacation! At least Ken had room service LOL.

Dawn, congratulations. You chose a very brave path. I don't know if I could do that.

Since Doug passed, I have been trying to find a handyman or farmhand. It is not easy. They promise to come, but never show up. Doug left lots of projects unfinished and we are having the memorial service here so I have to get them done. He started a storm door on the front door and ran into problems so it is still not hung. The building for the coop is sitting without any cages or egg boxes. I don't want the chickens free ranging the day of the service and the old coop is falling apart and not big enough. I am managing from day to day and have the feeding routine down to about 45 minutes in the morning and another 35 in the evening. I have rearranged the feeding stations for the cats and dogs to keep the turkeys out. I swear they hear dog food hitting the bowl and come running. They push the Great Pyrs out of the way. Did a dumb thing yesterday morning. I have to haul water for the cattle. I keep a big square tank on the back of my pickup. There is a municipal water plant close by and Friday my girlfriend and I went and filled it. Should have lasted for two weeks. Yesterday, I threw the hose in the stock tank, turned it on then went on about my feeding. I forgot it was on and emptied the whole tank. It is a two person job to fill it so now I have to find someone to go with me to get water. Hopefully, someone will be around the weekend. I just need to focus on one thing at a time. I am still trying to adjust to being alone. We did everything together. Every day gets a little easier, but I know at some time in the future it will hit me that he is never coming back. I am seeing a counselor and it does help. Thanks for letting me ramble this morning.

Yes, going from two to one is very disturbing. Mine was a divorce but the pain is there. One of my biggest problems is finding a reliable person to do things that I physically can't do. Like construction. PITA. It may not seem like it at first but counseling does work. Slow and easy. You're in no hurry. Grief lasts a while. We all care about you and hope for the best for your health and eventally happiness.