Middle of the week (sort of)

What a week!  I have been struggling with a health issue, one that I am not ready to share with the world.  In the meantime I am trying to get the day to day things done.  I did take a "sick day" on Tuesday, my first in a long time.  It did feel good to rest, as much as one can rest when you have two small children to take care of, and read a good book.

It didn't help matters when my best helper, Daniel, got a weight from the nutcracker dropped on his toe.  He was the one that was doing my sweeping, vacuuming, and general helping around here.  He could hardly walk Monday night and Tuesday as it was painful when he did. 

That left Leah to take care of us.  She enjoyed being the "servant", for about 15 minutes!  I am feeling some better now and Daniel is, too, so we are able to squeak by.

In fact I finally made a dinner yesterday.  We had been existing on leftovers.  I had some spaghetti left from Sabbath.  Whitney had given me a pan partially filled with chicken lasagna left over from our secret sister dinner on Saturday night.  That kept us for several days.  We were ready for something new.

My friend, Carla, had given us a hot dish one time.  It was one that she had just made up and was so delicious that I over made it last year until we were sick of it.  It was time to make it again and easy to do just that.  Mmmm, so delicious.

Our older daughter, Whitney, has been stopping by here each day since Monday to take care of her horse, Misty, who got cut up from the barbed wire when she went over the fence.  On Sunday I glanced out the picture window and just happened to notice Misty trotting into the yard.  She ran over to her fence.  I could tell she was worked up about something and quickly got my shoes on so I could get her into her pasture.

Since he was still home and working outside I called for Tim.  We calmly went over to the gate.  Misty was trotting back and forth along the fence line.  She is a high energy horse.  I used my calm energy and voice to get her to settle a bit.  Tim opened the gate and she ran in. 

We noticed a deer hunter walking along her east fence line.  He got into a vehicle parked along the road and left before we could get over there to ask him some questions.

After walking the fence line we found where Misty had jumped over.  The top barbed wire was a little saggy with pieces of horse hair on it.  There were hoof prints going to the south into the field. 

Once we found that the fence wasn't broken I walked over to Misty.  She was still pretty worked up but let me look at her.  She had a deep cut in her upper left leg and lower leg.  I called Whitney to take care of her as I didn't think Misty would let me do it.

I made up a batch of herbal bath that has some healing herbs in it as well as sea salt and garlic, two good antiseptics.  Whitney used that to wash the wounds as well as a combination of some plantain salve I had made and a drawing salve which she applied twice a day.

On Monday Misty could hardly walk as she was pretty sore.  Her left knee was swollen as well.  Whitney was diligent about coming twice a day to take care of her wounds.  By Tuesday afternoon I noticed Misty trotting in her fence.  It pleased me that she was getting better.

Wednesday morning Whitney brought the trailer and took Misty home.  Misty can be quite contrary and did not allow Whitney to catch her last night to apply the bath and salve.  I hope she has had it applied enough to where she won't get an infection.

I wonder if the hunter did something to make Misty jump over the fence like that?  I guess we will probably never know though it makes me a bit angry when I think about it.

The last time we were in Fargo I purchased a season of "The Dog Whisperer" at Petco.  The children and I have been watching an episode a night.  I had read the book, How to Be a Pack Leader and have been trying to implement Cesar's methods in training Ellyana.  I see so much improvement in her behavior.  I explained it to the children but seeing it on the show is helping them to be calm assertive with the puppy.

One thing Cesar says over and over is that in order to have a balanced dog one must first provide adequate exercise, then discipline, and finally affection.  It is difficult for me to get out and run Elly when I am ill.  And I won't be able to do it in the winter.  Cesar's solution is to train the dog to run on a treadmill.  So I am going to try to find a used treadmill I can buy.  I have seen dogs use on one his show.  Once they get used to one they love it.

Enough!  I must get busy.  I won't take a "sick day" today.