Homestead Journal at Fat Turkey Farm

Affecting Change with Bodywork

One of the projects that I had to do for school was a case study, assessment, muscle grouping, and implimenting a treatment plan on a client.  This was for my Kinesiology class.  My client was my son.  I knew he had some postural issues before I started to work on him, I just never realized how bad they were until I did the inital assessment.  Turns out that he has a 3/4" leg length difference and that to compensate for it, he rolls his left foot to the outside and his right foot to the inside.  This effects everything else all the way up his body.

Here's his feet before I started treating him....You can see the left foot rolling to the outside and the Achillies Tendon bowed out and the right food sorta rolls to the inside. 

I worked on him for five treatments for the project using Deep Tissue massage, passive range of motion, stretching, and a few other things to change his muscles.  The results are amazing...

Can you see the difference?  In addition to straightening his feet out, I gained 1/4" in length in his leg that was shorter.  He still needs to be evaluated by an ortho doc for shoe inserts, but that really is a huge difference in length.  He also says he feels better, and is falling down less.

Bodywork is amazing stuff!

No new chicks

Not one of the eggs I had incubating hatched.  I had a feeling that it got too hot for them on a few occasions when the temp in the house went up.  I'll have to try and think of a new way to get this to work right.

I'm done with the TA'ing and driving to Sedona twice a week.  WOOHOO!  As much fun as I had teaching, the drive was just too much some days.  Its a good thing though, since I really need to concentrate on my studying since the classes are starting to get progressivly harder in content.  I am looking forward to the neuromuscular therapy we are starting next week.  That is going to be right up my alley as far as where I want to take my practice.

Not much else going on around here.  Had some good rain this summer, which is badly needed in our area.  Kids are doing good, and I have not started homeschool up yet for the year.  Bad me!  It might just get put aside for a little while longer.  Isnt that a beautiful thing about homeschooling?? Its so flexable!

Gotta run! Bye Bye!

Playing Catch Up Again

Once again, it's been a long time since I last posted.  I honestly don't recall ever having a summer that has been so busy around here. 

Jes did her 5 day stay at Girl Scout camp a week ago, and had a great time.  She went for the horseback riding program this time.  All her camp mates were very nice, cept for one (of course).  She was glad to get home though.  We did have a fiasco with her dirty laundry.  It was forgotten at pick up and it made a trip down to Phoenix and back before we got it returned.  It really didn't smell too good by then!

On a sadder note, we have lost several chickens lately, mostly to prolapses, but one also to being egg bound.  The kids are taking the losses pretty hard, mostly I think because the 3 were so close together.  Our girls are getting older now, so the fact they are starting to pass away doesn't suprise me.  I do have 11 eggs in the incubator at the moment, but i'm not sure how viable they are.  I hope to find out this week when they are due to hatch.  I have had problems keeping the temp at the right setting so as not to cook or freeze them.  We shall see!

School is going well.  Only 3 more days next week of TA'ing and that is all done!  I will be so glad not to have to make a 100 mile round trip several times a week now!  I just finished reflexology and started Shiatsu yesterday.  Reflexology was really interesting and I look forward to putting that into practice more.  Oh, and I don't recall if I mentioned it, but Pathology is done also. 

No time for knitting or spinning lately.  I am going thru serious withdrawls!  After this week, things will calm down and hopefully I can get something onto the needles and spin more of that soy silk, even though it drives me to drink.

Gotta run, storm moving in!  Bye Bye!

Long time, no write!

Wow, I didn't realize how long it had been since I last posted on here, time flies when your busy!  I'll try to cover everything that has been going on for the past month.

Kids are doing well.  Jes goes to summer camp next week for 5 days of fun in the sun and horseback riding.  It sure will be quiet around here without her smiling face.  The summer has been quiet for them this year.  Michael, I found, has a leg length difference (oh the things you find when your taught to look for them!) that I need to have him evaluated for at Shriners hospital, hopefully I can get an appointment for that in October when they have a clinic in Phoenix.  That will save me from having to travel to Los Angeles. He will most likely need orthotics for his shoe, and to be evaluated to see how large the difference is going to be when he's done growing, and also when they estimate he will be done growing.

School is going well.  I finished Tui Na, which is Chinese massage, very interesting to learn that one, and quite painful also!  Almost done with pathology, I have my final test on Thursday night for that.  Hot stone massage finishes on Saturday when we get to go to a spa and see how they do things like wraps and salt scrubs.  I start Reflexology next week, which I am looking forward to.  The TA'ing anatomy in Sedona is almost done, only another three weeks.  They are letting me TA Kinesilogy also, which runs about the same time as the anatomy.  Seven months down, four to go!

I finished the shawl from hell a week ago.  Finally!  It didn't come out as large as I thought it would, but since I ran out of spinnable fiber for it, I didn't have much choice but to finish it off.  Here's a pic of the center of the shawl, the part that had to be re-written as I knit it, cus the pattern was all wrong.  The pic of the entire shawl didn't come out good.

The weather here has been hot!  Supposidly the monsoons have started, but I haven't seen rain yet.  They are giving the area a higher chance of it today, so maybe I will see something wet falling out of the sky.  The poor birdie girlies sure do hate this heat too.  They are hardly laying any eggs.  I water down their pen in the afternoon to give them something cool to stand, or laydown in.  They sure love their mud puddles!

Please keep my cousin in your thoughts and prayers, he is being shipped to Iraq on Friday.  He is Army Green Beret, and has already been in and out of Afghanistan many times.  Thank you!

Gotta run!  Bye Bye!

Yummy Soy Silk

I stopped in at my local spinning shop today to see what was new.  I haven't been by in about 6 months!  I found this yummy soy silk that I can't wait to start spinning!  No, Trina, I haven't spun or knit anything in weeks, I'm going thru serious withdrawl!

The colorway is called Psychedelic.  I'm thinking of spinning the whole thing without splitting the roving, then doing a navajo ply to keep the colors together.  Then again, I will have to wait and see what it wants to do on its own.  Soy silk is notorious for doing its own thing!

The tattoo is healing up nicely.  I'm so glad I did it!  Thanks for all the lovely comments you guys left me about it!

The class I'm TA'ing for had their first big exam last Thursday, and from what I corrected on the answer sheet, they didn't do very well.  I'm hoping that's not a reflection on my teaching abilities!  I don't think they studied hard enough, or retained what was studied, since I know that 99% of the questions on the test we went over on the Tuesday review, so they HAD the answers!  I know that Jeff, the instructor, will allow them to retake the test as many times as they need to inorder to pass it.  I sure hope they can do better on the muscles section starting next week, or they will be taking anatomy over again.

Gotta run and start dinner!  Bye Bye!