Thursday, May 8, 2008 - Hello From Catmint Acres

2008 had started out so promising and then it seemed to go right down the tubes.  Despite the troubles I have been trying to stay optimistic.  I go through cycles and as of now I am on an upswing after 6 weeks of turmoil.   I do wish things would just level out.

Spring is having a difficult time making its way to Catmint Acres.  Cold, blowing winds, snow, rain, although much needed after the 4 years of drought is giving us mud that sinks our vehicles in the driveway and sucks the boots right off my feet.  Never mind what my kitchen floor looks like with three men and their man friends tramping through it.  Makes me glad I am not a neat freak or I'd be institutionalized!

The most pressing problem is my father's surgery for colon cancer.  it was detected supposidly early but he still needed part of his colon removed as one of the tumors was flat.  He goes in yearly and has for many years, having the advantage of good insurance, something so many of us, including us, not privy to.  But apparently this one got missed or it grew in within a year.

The other is a foal that isn't progressing as she should.  She is giving me fits with pressure sores and for awhile there not getting up on her own again.  Her first week of life required me to get her up, milk mama and feed her.  At a week she decided she couid nurse on her own and 10 days, get up.  In the meantime thgough she developed pressure sores which I am still trying to heal.  She still has trouble getting up on her own, having to do several attempts sometimes.  I am at my wits end with her.  She is a lovely filly and as long as she is trying I shall also.  So it is a daily emotional upheavel...is she up, clean her sores, shots of penicillin, move her around.  It is slow progress and I wonder if she will ever be right.  She is 6 weeks old now.

Then add to it all that my husband is working 16 hour days.  It is all quite overwhelming.  Our eldest is graduating from highschool this month and I am so behind on everything.  He is going to tech. school in Sept. and the school is on my case for getting paperwork in for financial aid.  I have never been one to work good under pressure and juggle so I am quite overwhelmed with it all.  Sometimes I wish someone else would take over for a time.  No one seems to understand I cannot do it all.