Sick

We had to head south to take care of my mom's estate last week, and Mark caught a virus.  A nasty virus that makes your nose run like a babbling brook and makes you cough until you almost pass out from lack of oxygen.  Fun times.  I avoided him like it was the black plague.  (Poor guy, no loving from me.)  Yes, I still got sick.  The only good thing about getting sick was I quit avoiding Mark and absence did make his kisses sweeter.

Mark has been drying apples during his convalescence.  A steady 'whir' from the dehydrator when the sun is shining (being off the grid and mostly solar powered) and our propane oven running at 170 degrees he does about 3 gallons of apples a day from the many apple trees' windfall.  Today he is also drying some on a slow burning fire. We will see how that goes, but so far the oven method has the perk of  filling our home with a delicious apple pie smell.  The production seems slow, but the four of us here graze constantly ;)  Johanna thinks they might be the perfect desert.

12 gallons apples = 2 gallon dried

 Shadow, our little 10 pound mutt, is convalescing too.  While going on a walk, before the sickness, she ran over a little rise and down the other side with our kid's dog, Shasta.  We heard a yelp and she came up the rise with a big flap of skin dangling and raw oozing skin underneath.  She looked dazed like she didn't really know what just happened.  We don't either.  The vet said it wasn't a bite, but looked like she got impaled or sliced on something. It was a very weird and costly accident as it was after hours and required a drive into Eureka an hour and a half away.  And multiple return drives and antibiotics and poor Shadow had to wear the cone of shame for 10 days. 

After she got home from surgery

Today

Since June I have paid the bills, but not kept an account of expenses.  I've just been shoving the receipts in a file.   This file  has been hanging over my head and bouncing around in my thoughts each night as I try to go to sleep.  My sickness time is the perfect time to get a handle on this.  Only thing is that it always makes me grouchy.  Like a bear, grouchy.  So with the coughing comes some growling.  Sounds like fun, huh?

On a good note, the new calves are doing great and,while we are having to feed due to the shortage of grass this year, our cows are holding their weight too.  They live the good life.

definitely got milk

dinner roll out

We live a good life too.

fresh eggs from our hens

lettuce from the garden

sweet corn too

tasty heirloom tomatoes

our home and yard