Homestead Longings
Busy day
The weather is getting colder and they are saying a chance of snow this week so son and I went out and did a few things in preparation. We pulled the rest of the garden and got it in the compost piles, which I then turned with the bucket of the tractor and then added more dirt on top. We also mulched the strawberries with shredded paper and compost, so hopefully they'll survive the winter. We cleaned up all the garden tools and got them moved from the partially enclosed area between the garage and garden to the garage and then got the tractor moved in there so it's mostly out of the weather for the winter.Then we pulled down some of my Papa's wood work from the attic in the garage that I'm going to try to sell at the school's Fall Festival in a few weeks. I'm going to take pictures of each piece and make a photo album to take with me of what I have so that I only need to take a few things as I'll also have my dress towels and my newest projects.....teacup and saucer pincushions. Plus I'll be sharing the tables with my friend who's candle business I help with.
We were going to try to do a few other things today like work on filling in some cracks in the garage with foam insulation, but it's really windy and unfortunately what I did do this morning has made my pain worse, so we are now in the house doing some baking and resting. Tomorrow we have to go to town for a dentist appt as son's teeth are still bothering him from when he got a few fillings and sealants....it's been a month and a half....they shouldn't be bothering him anymore! Then son has school T-F and I'll be working on stuff inside in preparation for the festival and for my surgery. Next weekend is supposed to be back up around 70 so we should be able to finish any outside projects that are left. At least the ones we can do while hubby is gone.
I'll leave you with a picture of my Papa's stuff, a dress towel and a pincushion. Have a wonderful evening and God Bless!
Tricia
The good and the bad...health update
This morning I woke up feeling like somebody had used my tummy for a punching bag
Yesterday was my biopsy and it was a lot more painful than I had anticipated! My uterus is twisted because of the fibroids and to get to the areas that needed biopsied, my OB had to twist it the other way! I am glad it's done and over with though and that I let my son talk me into pulling him from school so he could drive me home after (My honey is gone for three weeks or else he would have been with me). I was going to go ahead and go by myself, figuring it would be about the same as when I had my cervical biopsy, which was just mildly irritating. Oh boy was I wrong!! I'm glad my son reminded me that if I hurt bad during my ultrasound, this would probably be worse. Smart boy! Anyway, first the good news....The cyst on my right ovary is gone! Both ovaries now are completely normal and healthy so I won't have to have them taken out. This was what I was worrying about the most, having go through menopause now instead of when my body was naturally ready. So I am very pleased about that!
Okay so now for the bad news......There are no longer just two fibroids in my uterus....they are mulitplying and getting much larger. I have no idea how many there are now, but enough that the Dr couldn't easily count them.
I still have three more weeks until my surgery and am a bit worried as to how much bigger they may get! The bigger they are, the more likely I'll have to have the surgery done through my belly instead of ....well you know where. Which means a longer recovery time and more chance of infection because I'll have have to heal on the outside too. So one worry gone, but another in it's place.Especially about infection as I'm allergic to almost every antibiotic there is!! I know I should worry less and have more faith, and I'm trying, but it's hard!
As far as the biopsy results.....it could be a few days to a few weeks to get back the results and at this point my OB will only call IF it's not good news. We don't anticipate anything bad, but she wants to make sure she is being thorough and doesn't want any surprises when she starts the surgery.
So that's the news for now. Hopefully I can get a few posts out soon that AREN'T health related! LOL But at this point everything is revolving around my health so.......
Thanks for listening and thanks to all of you who have been praying for me!!!
God Bless,
Tricia
What's been going on
Hello to all! It is cold here in Colorado. Woke up at 6:30 to a chilly 32 degrees outside!! The weather said yesterday that we could get down to about 35 and possibly have frost, so I decided that it would be best to go ahead and pick all the cherry tomatoes left on the plants and the last two crookneck....just in case. It did get down to freezing but there wasn't much moisture in the air so we didn't actually have any frost. I figured that if I grabbed all the tomatoes I could and did freeze, so be it, if it didn't....there are still lots of green ones wanting to ripen. So I'll go take a look at them in a bit and see how they faired.
We used the new pellet stove this morning to take the chill off the house. I only left it running on high for about an hour and that did the trick. Didn't want to leave it on any longer than that because we are supposed to get up into the 70's today and didn't want to overheat the house and make it uncomfortable later on in the day. This coming weekend and the first of next week are supposed to be quite cold so we'll be using it again then. Speaking of stoves, the previous owners left a wood stove out in the room off the garage (this is actually the size of a 1 car wide, 2 car deep garage that we separated into two rooms...a gym and a den) and we just ordered the kit to install the pipe through the wall (they just had it out the window LOL). We'll still need to buy a few long pieces of pipe to finish it completely, but we are hoping to get it done when hubby is home waiting on me hand and foot ummm helping me after my surgery....so sometime in November. We want to be able to go out there, start a fire and stay warm (and cook...oh how I miss that) on the wood stove if we have the need to, due to no electricity and very cold temps.....which is what happened last year! We do have a generator, but if it's that cold...we'd be better off trying to heat a small room (the den) than the bigger rooms in the house. We also want to be able to just go out and spend an evening in front of the fire occasionally and play games or watch a movie even when the power is still on. We both grew up with wood stoves and had one the first 6 years of marriage and miss it. Unfortunately, we are 2 hours from the mountains and buying wood around here is expensive (esp when it's not hard wood!!) which is why we'll only be using it on occasion and have the pellet stove for our main heat source in the house.
There have been many changes (again...I can't keep up!!) in regards to Mommy and Grandson. They, at this point in time, will no longer be moving down here with us. I have many mixed feelings about this, but know that it is in the Lord's hands and is what is supposed to be right now. We just bought a web cam yesterday and Mommy's mom (the Lord is working here too and her and I are becoming very good friends) dug hers out and we will be getting them hooked up hopefully tomorrow so that we can see and hear Grandson and he can see and hear us. It's not the same as getting to hold him, but it will have to do for now. At least he'll be able to recognize his dad's face and voice this way and won't be scared when we get to see him in person again. I also think it will be good for Son since he only had the first month with him and a week last month and hasn't really gotten to bond as much as he needs to. Oh how I wish things were different with this situation, but what is done is done and is in the Lord's hands and I just have to have faith that things will be okay.
My honey left this morning for another short deployment. He'll only be gone three weeks (yes I say ONLY because after being a military wife for as many years as I have....3 weeks is a short time) and will be home four days before my surgery. Then he'll get to stay home for up to 3 weeks to drive me crazy ...I mean take care of me. LOL I am trying to get as many meals cooked and frozen as I can beforehand as well as a bunch of cleaning done, so that he and Son won't be too overwhelmed. Yeah right! They are going to be in for a surprise when they realize all the little things that have to be done on a daily basis that they don't have to deal with! LOL But, I'm going to try to get what I can done now so that it'll be easier on them. Of course hubby threatened to keep me drugged up all day so he didn't have to deal with me! HAHA I'm going to try to be as gentle with them as I can. 
Well, I'd best be going, this morning was crazy, dropping Son off at school, then taking Hubby to post, then coming home to meet a friend who was picking up and dropping off things....then had to run to the airport cause Hubby forgot his cell phone 
. Nothing has gotten done yet and I am in need of a nap until my medication kicks in again. So I'd better go so that I can be somewhat productive this afternoon and evening. I'll be updating tomorrow on my health issues as I have an appointment so until then.....
God Bless,
Tricia
BTW....Jeannie should have internet tomorrow so make sure you go over to her blog (RusticWheelAcres) to say hello.
Update on prayer request.
The final decision has been made regarding my Grandson and although I'm not sure I am happy about the decision, I have faith that the Lord was there today and that I don't always need to understand the why right away. I know He works in His own time and I just have to be patient and learn to wait until He is ready to show me His reasons.Thank you for your prayers even though I've been so vague about everything!
God Bless,
Tricia
Prayers please!
Today is the big day that concerns matters with Grandson. If you feel led to, please pray that whatever happens today is the Lord's will and that those making the decisions are led by the Spirit and not worldly laws.Thank you and God Bless,
Tricia
The end of the garden and some future plans
We are starting to get down into the low 40's now in the evenings and it won't be long before it starts getting below freezing. I just picked my last zucchini, the rest of the potatoes, the last handful of beans, jalapenos and my one and only carrot (that pesky prairie dog ate the rest of them). Oh and my pumpkin...yes singular....lol. There are a few more on the vines that I'm trying to baby, but not sure it they'll make it or not...they aren't very far along. My cherry tomatoes are still going nuts so I'll leave them be until it freezes. My garden didn't really produce like I wanted it to this year, but I am realizing now that once again, the Lord was looking out for me for there is no way I could have dealt with all the harvesting and canning right now if it had grown like it should have. I fussed and worried, but He knew. Silly me!This is the first year (and a weird one too as far as weather) that I've grown a garden in a long time (oh about 15 years!) and the first time ever in Colorado. So I've learned a lot about what to do and what not to do! I'm already figuring out what to do for next year's garden. Things that I need to do differently to keep the critters out, how much more of certain things to grow to get enough to put up, etc. We are hoping to be able to set up a water catchment system on the garage (the garden is attached to the back) so that I can use that for my watering next year. We don't have any issues with running low on our well water, but when we get our afternoon thunderstorms in the summer you should see how much water pours off that roof!!! Why waste it? The previous owners didn't put gutters on, which I guess is to our advantage in a way, as we can come up with exactly what we want and not have to work around anything existing.
Well, I guess I'd better get back to my day. I'm still trying to figure out and get done what I need to before the end of Oct. esp the things I need hubby's help with as he'll be gone from the 7th to the 26th. (This is the main reason we had to wait until the 30th for my surgery). Anyway, I'll leave you with a picture of my pumpkin and my carrot (yes it really is purple! It's an heirloom carrot).
Tricia
Update on Jeannie (RusticWheelAcres)
Good morning all, just wanted to let you know I talked to Jeannie at RusticWheelAcres (see my friends list) yesterday and she is finally moved completely out of post housing. Now her and the kids are trying to get their new home unpacked and fixed up. She won't have internet until the 8th of Oct so they'll be no posts from her until then. Stop over and leave her a message on her chat box though, I'm sure she'll love to know that she is missed. OH and say a happy birthday to her little man too....he turned 8 yesterday!!God Bless,
Tricia
Advice anyone?
Good morning ladies, as you know if you've read my post here, I'm going to be having a hysterectomy in about a month. We still don't know if it will be a complete one or if my ovaries get to stay. Hopefully we'll find out by the 8th of Oct.What I was wondering is if any of you that may have had a complete one use prescription hormone replacements or natural? I would like to start looking into the possibility of trying natural ones if I indeed have to have them after surgery. Any advice you could give me would be greatly appreciated!!!
God Bless,
Tricia
New addition to our home
This is one of the things keeping me busy around here lately, not just the installing of, but the pricing and choosing and keeping within the budget. It is a Summer's Heat Pellet stove from Lowe's.
My honey (and son) did all the heavy lifting of course, since I'm not physically able to help with much of that right now. I did the supervising ! HAHA We tried it out yesterday to make sure there were no leaks and to run it through it's first firing. Whew! It about ran us out of the house....actually it did run hubby out to the garage LOL....but I had stuff to do inside so I had to stay. We had to run it on the medium setting for 3 hours to burn off any oils from the factory etc.....with the windows open of course....and since it was already about 70 in here, it sure didn't take long to get it up into the 80's! Now the true test will be when we get one of our cold windy days here in Colorado this winter!
We are hoping that between the stove and the small portable baseboard heaters we'll not have to use the forced air heating, which is propane. In fact I'm going to be switching out my propane dryer for my electric one because at this time it's a lot cheaper for us to use electricity than propane. I did just have our propane tank filled last week while they were still charging the "summer" rate so our hope is that this one tank will last all winter and then some if only the hot water heater and kitchen stove are being run from it. For all of 2007 and the one fill up in April of this year, we paid out 3000.00 for propane!!! Who knows, once we get our solar and wind set up (that will have to wait a while longer) we may just get rid of the propane all together. I really don't see the prices going down much, just like the price of gasoline.
Another thing we would like to do eventually along with going solar, is getting one of the on demand water heaters......anyone have one? And how do you like it?
Well, supper is ready and it's time to gather my guys so that we can eat. Have a wonderful evening!
Blessings,
Tricia
Update
Hello all, just a quick note to say that I am still here. Personal things are pulling me into so many directions that I'm not able to get on here as much as I would like to. I am not closing the blog again, as I do have many things I'd like to share, but at this point, I just don't have the time. Many things need to be done before Mommy and Grandson move down with us and before my surgery, not to mention before winter hits.
So when I have the chance I will get on again, but until then I wish everyone wonderful days filled with the Lord's Blessings.
Tricia
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