Miss me?

I'm baack! Never did I intend to be away for such a long time, my intention was to take a break through the holidays. However, life had other plans for me!

On February 18, 2012 my precious new grand baby arrived early...five weeks early! Her name is Bellatriks Coraline and she is just the cutest thing, as you can see in the photo above. There were some problems and I ended up staying with my son, daughter-in-law and new grand baby for three weeks. All is well now and little Coraline is growing at much to rapid a pace. I'm missing her something fierce and am looking forward to seeing her again the end of the month.

My daughter has had some scary health issues and I've been worried sick, but it appears that she is going to be okay. She sees her doctor Tuesday to get finalized results from her last test and they will discuss any further treatment that might be necessary. It is such a relief to know preliminary results were good that I've felt like the weight of the world has been lifted from my shoulders.

Sadly, my dear aunt is losing a long and difficult battle with lung cancer. She's been in the hospital and we are hoping she will be strong enough soon to go home for the remaining days of her life. She is a very sweet person and very dear to our family. It's heartbreaking.

My mom was also in the hospital a few weeks back. She had my sister take her to the ER as she was having heart issues. Her BP was high and would shoot up every time she stood. They kept her overnight for observation and let her go home the next day. We're not sure what is going on, but I'm hoping she will see a cardiologist in the near future.

As for daily life here on the farm we've had some ups and downs...mostly downs this year. Right now we have three dogs and a rooster being treated for injuries. Strayhorn, the rooster, has had it the worst. Two weeks ago the three drakes (my ducks Puddles, Rowan and Mr. Bean) attacked Strayhorn during a storm. I heard the ruckus and headed out in the rain to rescue him. He was lying in the pen wet and limp as a dishrag.

Poor Strayhorn lost an eye and had two big wounds on the back of his neck and under one wing. It has been quite a battle to save him. We even stayed up until 4 a.m. one night tending to him. Strayhorn has been living in the house since then, but should be ready to move outside in the next few days.

We've had water leaking through the ceiling in the den and went without running water for over a week and had a cat (Siobhan) go missing for a week. We spent many hours searching for her over the course of that week and then she just showed up at the front yard gate as if she'd never been gone!

To top things off my kitty, Possum, went into heat the morning we were going to take her to the vet to be spayed! She'll be going tomorrow, but we don't regret waiting so long. She provided us with a lot of much needed laughter last week with her meowing and rolling around on the floor. We were the only ones laughing though...the other cats and dogs were freaked out by her odd behavior!

Remembering Huck...

When Don and I moved here the farm was just a cow pasture. There were no buildings, drive, power, etc. on the place...just ponds, grass and trees. One afternoon in mid December we headed out to meet a man about building our half mile driveway. As we turned onto our road I saw a black speck running down the middle of the road. When we got closer I saw it was a small puppy. In that instant I knew it was our dog Huck. Don tells me that I blurted out, "There's Huck!".

When we got out Don asked the driveway man if it was his dog and he said no, the pup had come from the bridge. I had to wade into the swampy side of the road to grab the little shivering wet puppy, but grab him I did! We stopped for dog food and supplies on the way home and, once there, I spent an hour sitting on the bathroom floor pulling cockle burrs out of Huck's fur. Poor guy even had them embedded in his arm pits (um, guess that would be leg pits).

We took Huck to the vet the next morning and were told he was a Border Collie mix about six weeks old. His intelligence and looks won us over and we have been huge Border Collie fans ever since. He learned things so quickly! Potty training was a breeze. If he went out and did his business I would give him a treat. One day I realized he was going out every few minutes, coming in and running to the counter where I kept his treats. Next time he went out I watched. Smart fellow squeezed out a few drops then dashed in and went straight to the treats. HA...I was onto his game!

On Don's off days we would take Huck out to the farm with us (we were renting a small house in town while our house was built). He would get so excited and run circles around the truck. It got so bad that we had to start spelling certain words...R..I..D..E and F..A..R..M were two of several words Huck soon learned the meaning of and would go bouncing off the walls with excitement again.

The first summer we lived here on the farm Huck was bit by a water moccasin and almost died. He spent a week at the vet's (vet even took Huck home with him over the weekend). The bite on his front leg caused Huck's chest to swell so severely it was compressing his heart and lungs. We were so grateful that he recovered and came home!

Unfortunately our wonderful Huck became ill again the next summer. He was losing weight and couldn't seem to keep his food down. I was in Alabama a lot because my Daddy was losing his battle with colon cancer. It was an extremely difficult time. Six weeks after we lost Daddy in August we lost Huck to stomach cancer. He was just shy of his third birthday. Every year the first of August and the middle of September my heart breaks again.

A couple week's before we lost Huck (I was in Alabama) Don said Huck went out to the edge of the back yard and sat staring into the sunset. When Don called him, Huck just turned to look at him and then gazed into the sunset again. The afternoon we buried him under the persimmon tree there was a gorgeous sunset. We like to think that every beautiful sunset is Huck letting us know he is still here with us on his beloved farm.