As I am writing this blog about all that happened I think of a book that I just finished called The Measure by Nikki Erlick. It’s about little boxes containing strings of different lengths that correlate with the length of life you will live and how people were separated by short stings and long strings. It was interesting how people treated their lives when they knew how long they were going to live. The short stringers made the most of the remaining time they had left and it made me think that if we knew how long we would live would we change? After having headaches for so long I felt like I had put my life on hold but no matter how careful I was not over doing it on a good day, never knowing if I would have a good day or not be able to get out of bed… I realized no matter what I did it didn’t change the outcome and my life was on hold because I was worried about the consequences. I don’t want to live like that, I want to be me… in pain or not.
Being at the farm is great because I can work on projects and organize rooms slowly as needs change but it is also so hard not being home with Chad every day now. When I got back to the farm in April I made a safe space for Roman to play on the porch because he would be outside 24/7 if I let him. But I can tell you that that pool of corn is now scattered in every crevasse of the porch. But he enjoyed making the mess and he learns so much making those messes that we will miss when he is grown.
For my birthday I wanted a new pan to add to my collection of bakeware that I loved already. I love that they are non toxic but I really love that they are non stick. I have tried so many pans over the years and even last year tried a hexclad and was disappointed with everything sticking to it. These new pans are by a company called Our place and they are amazing! I have never had one thing stick to them yet and obviously you know I cook a lot! So if you are also looking for the best pots and pans give them a try.
Roman is growing like a weed and is such a busy boy. He is starting to run now and he wants to climb on everything. I ordered him a “baby leash” so he could walk places and not be stuck only in the stroller. I am hoping to start taking him on walks to add some exercise in our life and to help him wear himself out. I took him out back towards our field to get out some energy and he had a blast!
Cheyenne and I went to work on removing our forest of black locust trees and I don’t think we made much of a dent in them with the clippers and will have to work on getting them cut down using a chainsaw. I am not sure exactly how to get rid of them completely but figured that burning them would be good for now but soon found out that we are in a burn ban…. As much rain as we get here I never would have thought that.
It was fun celebrating Easter with Ro this year. He was not sure about egg hunting and preferred to kick the eggs around. Cheyenne enjoyed looking for hers and we even found a few she missed a couple days later. We had a great time at church and then Cheyenne and I went on a road trip to pick up some front doors that I liked. I have been searching for the right doors since we bought the farm. However nothing I found had the look I wanted and I didn’t like the mostly glass ones that were here when we bought the place. They just didn’t look like a front door to me.
The doors need quite a bit of love but I think they will be perfect! I was using the hand planer on the door and somehow I caught my thumb and ooohhhweeee it hurt. I don’t plan to use it again for quite a while and I’m pretty sure dad isn’t going to trust me with power tools for a while.
Romans personality blooms more and more each day. He makes me laugh and smile every day. He enjoys climbing on everything and playing while in the bath.
I worked on painting the door jams and trimming after my dad installed it. Apparently all doors are not created equal 🤷♀️ and he just tells me what he needs and makes it look great.
Additionally, we took advantage of the cooler spring weather and cleaned up one of the stalls in the barn that we use for storage and it had become a catch all and needed some shelving and organizing. I enjoy organizing things….. and my family tolerates my need for organization.
Later that evening I was trying to get Hunters cat in that was in heat and kept escaping every chance she got. I was using the tracking device we have for her and it was dark and starting to drizzle out. The tracker started beeping because she was close by and I was paying attention to it and not where I was walking and fell down and cut my foot on something and hobbled into the house. I yelled for mom to bring me some paper towels and a bandage because I was bleeding everywhere. I ended up going to the ER and getting 8 stitches. Which put a halt to all my projects I wanted to do. Thankfully Cheyenne helped with dinner and dad brought up my knee scooter so I could get around easier. Roman loved playing with it.
Thankfully mom and dad helped with Roman. Cheyenne and I became Kentucky residents (she said she was now a illegal Kentuckian lol which had to explain to her what the difference was between legal and illegal) she was very excited to get her state ID card.
Dad has been working on building a rock staircase to the chicken coop and it is looking awesome. And Roman has found a new favorite food…. Rice Pilaf. We planted some seeds and a couple rose bushes for the driveway planter.
Now that I can walk on my foot again I followed through on a promise to Cheyenne that we would try to get her some piggies when we got the other stall cleaned out for them. We had a stall with a pig door already installed and had some picket fence to put up for them until they got used to us. Dad and I headed out to go get them without telling anyone else, it was a surprise. Everything went great picking up the 2 pigs. When we got back home we started putting together the picket fence and unloaded them into the pen. That was the easiest part of the day…. Apparently we got escape artist pigs and we spent the remainder of the day getting them back in the pen over and over and over again. It was hot and we were all exhausted, we got the girl pig Pancetta back into the pen but Frankenswine was missing and we had no idea who he was. I posted on a local Facebook group and shortly afterwards someone spotted him going up our neighbors drive in the opposite direction we were looking. I hopped in the car and went looking for him but while I was looking for him he showed back up at the farm and was looking for dinner.
A couple days later Roman and I headed for a visit to Texas. Cheyenne stayed at the farm to take care of her new pigs. We hit a crazy dust storm a couple hours from home and got in late that night. Of course Roman slept while I drove and was ready to go go go early the next morning. I was so thankful that Carla is a morning person and they had a good time seeing the chickens and turkeys, and playing while I slept. While I was there I had an endoscopy and chad made a wonderful cartoon version of me still out from anesthesia.
At the end of April Chad had a EMU (Epilepsy Management Unit Study) at the hospital that lasted 3 days. It is where they take you off your epilepsy medication and do some random things to try to make you have a seizure but it didn’t cause him to have any seizures . We were thinking after that he would be able to stay off the medication but it didn’t work out that way. He was able to lower his dose but the doctor said he had to stay on the medication. We were also hoping to get some information on what caused his seizures back in September but we didn’t know anymore than we did to begin with. I was very very thankful that Carla kept Roman while I was with Chad for the EMU. I enjoyed getting to spent time with Chad with just the 2 of us.
I am thankful for all the time that we got to spend together, and get to relax with him on my birthday. I enjoy our time together so much. Roman and Carla made me an adorable birthday card, and wonderful gifts. I still can’t believe I am this old already.
Well it’s time for me to start my next project 🙂 and my Dad said I am not allowed to buy animals and leave shortly afterwards again lol oops 😬
Pink Squirrel Farmstead 