Well Done Thou Good And Faithful Servant.

We lost our beloved Faust this morning. No one's exactly sure what happened, but he fell gravely ill yesterday and was definitely in Septic Shock. We suspect he may have been suffering from ulcers, but the only way to know for sure, we'd have to do surgery and quite honestly, it was already too late. When we got to the animal hospital this morning, he'd given up and was no longer responding to anyone. So we made that tough decision and had him put down and he'll be cremated along with his "baby" (a stuffed dog that looked just like him that his Grammy gave him. He loved it and he loved her.) As I'm writing this, there are tears just pouring down my face. There was no one that ever met that dog that didn't think he was the most wonderful dog in the world. Even my grandma, who lived her 90 years around dogs, thought he was the most special dog she'd ever met.

Part of the reason, I think, that I fell in love with my husband originally was because he was the type of man who would adopt a dog because the shelter was about to put him down. And he loved that dog. In fact, on our first date he showed me the picture of Faust he keeps in his wallet. Faust was also in our engagement pictures.

There will never be another dog like Faust. And a light's gone out in this world.

Things that REALLY Bug Me.

Maybe it's just because parenthood is looming on the horizon or something, but I've pretty much had it with Burger King. I don't eat fast food that often, but I do enjoy the Burger King sandwiches and I love me some Mocha Joe. However, here's the thing- their marketing director should be drawn and quartered for the sake of society's children. (I'm not actually advocating physically harming the person.)

First came the incredibly inappropriate SpongeBob Squarepants commercial which parodied the 80's song, "Baby got back" which prominently featured young "ladies" with what appeared to be phonebooks in their skin tight pants shaking it for all their worth. Way to promote a kid's meal guys.

I promptly decided to boycott Burger King until the ad was removed. This morning, on the way back from my MRI, I had to grab something to eat quick so I could take my medicine. I hadn't seen the ad in a while, so I declared the boycott over and stopped at Burger King. Lo and behold, they are no longer featuring SpongeBob, they are now giving away Star Trek toys. Now on the surface I don't have a problem with that- I watched Star Trek as a kid- but then I started thinking. Generally speaking, the Kid's Meals are eaten by kid's about 10 and under. Star Trek was rated PG-13. Do we see the problem there?

In fact Common Sense Media ran an article on it.

But my question is this, are they marketing to young, or are they taking things they know kids'll enjoy and making them to sexual and/or violent so they get the higher ratings? And do parents ignore the ratings and let their kids watch? Or are the marketing campaigns not working on the kids?

Just curious.

Saturday Morning Cartoon.

Whatever happened to cartoons like this and Tom and Jerry and Woody the Woodpecker and all the classics? You could watch a normal TV station, without cable, on Saturday mornings with your parents and neither one of you would be bored. And your parents didn't have to worry about what you were watching.

Paid Programming killed the cartoon star.

Today is a bad day.

Oh it's 8AM and I want to crawl back into bed and pull the covers over my head. Yesterday I managed to get into the ortho's in the city and found out I most likely tore the cartilage in my knee. I have an MRI scheduled for Monday and then it's probably surgery time. I asked about a brace and crutches and the doctor told me that I should just stay in bed until then. Yeah, like that's gonna happen.

Then there's my poor husband. Since I can barely hobble he's had to cook, clean, do the laundry, fix the tractors, do the grocery shopping, fetch me things, get the ground ready for planting, take care of the dogs and the chickens, shuttle me to the doctor's, deal with a drugged up wife, and all sorts of other things I forgot to mention. Plus go to work everyday. And he's done it without complaining.

Until this morning when he got up to find our new coop had flipped over in the night and is lying on its roof about 50 ft from where it's supposed to be. It's supposed to storm all day and he had no choice but to throw up some temporary fencing and go to work, hoping for the best.

Now there's no way I can just sit in the house knowing that the animals in our care are in danger. For those of you who don't know- a wet chicken is a dead chicken. I foolishly tried to flip the coop back over or push it closer or something. It didn't work. (Are you surprised?) I tried to coax them to the old coop. That didn't work. Meanwhile there's a nice big hawk circling overhead. The only thing I could thing of to do was walk down to the road and grab the garbage can (thank God it was garbage night) and drag the big garbage can up the hill into the back pasture. I put it down on the ground and threw some food in. Hopefully, the stupid chickens will think to get into the garbage when the storms hit. It's not really big enough but it's the best I can do.

It's survival of the fittest at our farm today.

Ugh!

So this is the story of my knee.

We think we know what happened. We think I dislocated it when I was walking last Saturday, but it didn't hurt at all right then. But it might have hurt before that, I can't remember. Basically I didn't think much of it at the time because well- I'm used to knees hurting and stuff. I wasn't concerned until my knee felt like it wasn't going to support me anymore. So I called the doctor.

I go to the doctor and without even looking at my knee the doctor came in and said, "Well you need to lose weight." I said, "Yeah I know- you told me that last time and I'm working on it." I tried to explain that for 5 days we'd been eating out and not excersizing cause, well, I can't stand long enough to cook and there's to much that needs to be done outside for FarmerGeek to be taking the time. Then we spend time discussing my weight and what I'm doing. We puts me on a diet pill, which turned out to be an amphetamine- but not an amphetamine. Finally he starts asking about my knee. Basically I spent money to go in to have my weight checked and referred to an orthopedic surgeon. He couldn't prescribe Ibuprofen because it interacts with the medicne I'm on for the insulin resistance. So he prescribes prednisone. Now in case you don't know that's a steroid. So now I'm on a steroid and amphetamines. Yeah. Think that through. Not to mention the three pages of drug interactions the pharmacist gave me- after I asked of course.

So I call the ortho and guess what? They can't get me in until the 27th. Are we in Canada? Seriously, not one appointment until then? Not only that but they want me to call the GP and have him order X-rays to be sent to the ortho. Fine whatever.

Now Saturday comes around. My butt has not moved out of the chair for a couple days. My knee is killing me, I'm in tears, and my baby toe is all pins and needles. I figure the least that will happen is they will give me an MRI, brace it, give me crutches, and tell me to call the ortho. Yeah no.

I walk into the hospital to be greeted with a "Swine Flu Alert" they suspect there was a case of the swine flu there. (Unfortunately, it was a 4-month-old little boy who passed away.) OK it's not like I care about swine flu. I come in, give my name and problem, and go sit down. The triage nurse called for me and watches me limp on my cane and FarmerGeek's arm all the way from the waiting room to triage before going, "Oh did you want a wheelchair?" Uh DUH?!?! So this is the upside of what happened. I got an X-ray which didn't show anything, aced bandaged completely wrong that made my leg hurt so much worse I'm just bawling, and a prescription for Ultram which "works like a narcotic- but is not a narcotic." And sent home. Not even a "call the Ortho and see if they can take you."

So I left in more pain than I showed up in.

Now, for those of you who are keeping score- I'm on an amphetamine that's not an amphetamine, a steroid, my regular insulin medicne, and a narcotic that's not a narcotic. Supposedly the amphetamine and the narcotic like drugs are supposed to do the same thing as the actual amphetamines and narcotic but are non-addictive. My only thought here is, isn't part of the reason why those are addictive is because they work? I mean, I took the Ultram (narcotic) and was out of pain and loopy and feeling happy and silly. Isn't that part of the problem? And if weight starts pouring off of me after all these years of trying, do you think I'm going to want to stop taking the medicne? (Well actually yes I would, but I'm terrifed to take it in the first place.)

I have a whole point here, but my brain's a little foggy. Did I mention I'm on drugs?

The Return of Saturday Morning Cartooms

I was just talking about them this week on Facebook.

People, People....

So basically, even though I have an organic farm, belong to the Arbor Day foundation, am finding alternative fuel sources for my home, and raise chickens, because I don't agree with your version of global warming, I'm destroying the environment?

Ok fine, now get in your H3 and drive away....

In other news... my favorite band is going to have a song called Yarmouth Town on Ugly Betty tonight. Check them out at www.greatbigsea.com

Back from Blog-cation!

Hey all, sorry my blog-cation took so long, but there's been so many things going on that I haven't had time. Of course, none of these things were earth-shattering, or really that interesting, so I didn't think to post them anyways...

Since I blew out my knee, I have plenty of time sitting here with it elevated until my doctor's appointment. So here's a synopsis of what's going on.

1) We are in the waiting period of the homestudy. Everything's completed, our worker just needs to write it up and have it approved.

2) Our duck's gone broody. Two of our homesteading buddies were nice enough to donate nearly a dozen eggs, since Muscovies are supposed to be able to sit on 15 or so. Well, we looked under her and there was only two left? We can't figure out exactly what's going on. Anyways, that'll lead to number three...

3) We put up a new chicken coop/shed. We bought a metal shed kit and moved them over for now. The only bird in the old one is Duckster and her eggs. Does anyone know if we put chicks under her, will she think they hatched?

4) We sold our pick up to buy a mini-van. I drive a mini-van. Sigh.

5) You have no idea how filthy a country home can get in the spring. Even if you clean it twice a week.

Anyways, I'm back- I've missed you all. Are you still out there? Leave me a comment so I know. (And you shouldn't need a blogger account to do that.)