We were at Orscheln 's Monday morning and I happened past the chicks for sale . Not that I was in the market for any chickens , mind you , I just happened to be in that vicinity . There was a notice stating that there would be no more chicks this year . The chicks in the various cages were a motley assortment of leftovers . One cage was inhabited by a single chick , a tiny Americauna pullet . That 's one of the breeds that lays blue or green eggs . " I wouldn 't mind having one of those , " I thought . " Besides , the poor little thing is all alone . " Cliff didn 't even protest when I told him I was taking that chick home . He knows by now it 's no use . The chick peeped loudly from the confines of her cardboard jail , all the way home . On our trip home , I began to question the wisdom of bringing home a single chick : Where would I keep her ? You can 't just throw a baby chick in with half - grown chickens . . . they would chase her down in unison and peck her to death . Not to mention that new chicks need a certain amount of warmth . I hunted up a cardboard box , got a feeder and a waterer from the garage , and set her up . I just now took this picture . Yes , that 's poop all over the newspaper , and I just changed the newspapers twenty - four hours ago . Again , I ask myself , what was I thinking ? Chickie sometimes protests loudly with an irritating " CHEEP ! CHEEP ! CHEEP ! " that will go on for a half - hour if you ignore it . However , if I stand over the box where she can see me , she settles into a contented , barely audible peeping . A couple of evenings ago I was watching TV and decided to hold her , just to shut her up . As you can see , I was prepared with a paper towel in case she pooped . She didn 't , though . In case you 're wondering what that thing is that 's attached to my nightgown , it 's my Fitbit , the device that lets me know how many miles I have walked . Because I often put my nightgown on at 5 PM , and then go out and pull weeds , and do not want to miss credit for a single step I take ! Of course , Hyperblogal ( David ) saw this shot on Facebook and grabbed his " Donna should have listened to Clifford . The whole " Mother 's Day Out " idea is a load of hooey . . . " Anyhow , I 'm stuck with a chicken who doesn 't know she 's a chicken . Cliff suggested we get her a friend , but then I would have twice as much poop to clean up . If I could even find a chick , now that chick season is over . It 's a dilemma , for sure . Posted by The Mid - Mo tractor club meets monthly . There are about four men present for every woman that shows up , but since Cliff likes me to go along , I do . A few ladies bring delicious , fattening , home - made cakes and snacks for members to eat when the meeting is over . Cliff loves that little extra ; I take my Ipad and read a book while he talks to the other guys and eats ; you surely know by now that I am not that social a person . It 's just as well , because when I try to make small talk with people I don 't know , I usually end up saying the wrong thing and insulting them , although it isn 't intentional , and I never realize what I 've said wrong until later . Things discussed at meetings include : which of various local events the members want to attend with their tractors to put them on display ; setting dates for tractor drives and shows ; and deciding when next to meet at Catfish Charlie 's and pig out . Right after we joined the club , they had a date to go to Catfish Charlie 's , which we declined . It 's so expensive to eat out , and we get all the catfish we want from our neighbor across the road . All I have to do is cook it . As it turns out , we were glad we stayed home , because an elderly lady had a heart attack and died instantly while they were there . I don 't need that kind of excitement . Because the majority of our club members are senior citizens , it was decided that perhaps we should be prepared in case something like that happened again , and fund - raisers were held to get enough money together to buy some sort of portable machine that would shock a dead heart back to life . It is now brought to all meetings , events , and get - togethers , just in case someone has a myocardial infarction . One club member is a nurse . She is the one who secured this machine for us , and she has given lessons in how to use it . It 's simpler than you might think . At our last meeting , she had been invited to give a brief lesson in CPR so that we could add that to our arsenal of preparedness . She told us she had tried in vain to get a dummy to use , but , as Yeah , we have a full - service tractor club . Don 't try dying on OUR watch . That 's our club president standing beside the nurse . Cliff is a little stronger each day . Some foods still taste " off " to him , and his sense of smell is all messed up , but he has enough of an appetite that we are back to our regular " healthy " eating , for the most part . Monday we will go bright and early for him to get a CT scan , and if that looks all right to the doctor , the tube will be pulled at 10 : 30 A . M . Posted by Cliff , his sister Rena , and I went to Versailles today . Rena drove , figuring Cliff might appreciate having a chauffer ( he did ) . Our plans were to visit their cousin Edna , and later , her brother , Junior . However , the first place we always stop when we arrive in Versailles is at Aunt Gertrude 's . Why ? Because that 's where Cliff said they always went first when he was a kid . I should have taken pictures , since there was a VERY cute baby there , one of the aunt 's great - grandkids . Did I take pictures as he smiled at all of us ? Nope . Just shoot me , because you would have laughed at the pictures I didn 't take . Just picture a happy baby boy , four months old , laughing so hard it seemed he would hurt himself . Aunt Gertrude , who is in her eighties , has asthma . By the time she had visited with us for an hour , she was wheezing badly . She wanted us to stay for dinner ( lunch ) , but we felt like that would be too much for her and went to Subway instead . From there we went to visit the Versailles graveyard and put some cheap plastic flowers on the graves of Cliff 's and Rena 's parents , and a couple of siblings . We know their spirits are not there in the cemetery , but there is something about visiting the graves of loved ones that does the heart good . This is the stone at the head of Cliff 's sister 's grave . He was fourteen years old when she died at Children 's Mercy Hospital . He and Rena talked about what a sweet baby she was . This is the back of the tombstone of Cliff 's mom and dad . We talked about them too . Cliff 's parents live on through their children in ways too numerous to mention . This is the final resting place of Cliff 's and Rena 's brother , Warren . We all have many stories about him . His heart was damaged by a siege of Rheumatic Fever when he was fifteen , and the weakened heart caused his death many years later . We don 't travel to the graves of our loved ones often , but I really felt good about doing this . It reminded me of how my parents and I " decorated " the graves of relatives every year and the things I learned about my aI am so thankful that my cousin , Pauline , is recording memories of my mom 's side of the family . Then we went to Edna 's . Again , there was a cute great - grandson , but I took no pictures . Call me a failure . Next we went to Junior 's and had a nice visit there . After we left his house , we saw emergency vehicles pulling out of a rural volunteer fire house . We dropped Edna off at her house and headed toward home . Unfortunately , we were held up by the accident to which the emergency vehicles were headed . Not good . You can find the accident report HERE . Read the bottom sentence , misc . information , to see what happened . I especially hate this because a motorcycle was involved , and there was blood on the highway that I 'm sure was the biker 's . This is what we saw first . . . And here you see the life - flight helicopter taking the biker away . This was a case where the motorcyclist made a bad decision . I feel better now about the fact that we sold our Gold Wing . Posted by Cliff and I went to see George Jones in concert at Ameristar Casino in 2004 . Of course , I bought a T - shirt . Then I retired and promptly started putting on weight , and the shirt was consigned to a far corner of a seldom - opened drawer . When I decided last year that I was going to be fat forever , I got rid of a lot of the clothes that didn 't fit me . The jeans that were in good shape went into those boxes where you give your clothes to poor people in other countries . Some clothes went in the trash , which would be a good place for most of my clothes once I 'm done with them . There isn 't a lot of demand for used sweat pants that are ripped at the seams . The other day I came upon the George Jones shirt , which still looks good as new even though I bought it nine years ago . Lo and behold , it fit ! It says , " We all have " choices " and that 's the " cold hard truth " . And on the back ( notice Minnie Pearl has the tag of her T - shirt showing ) is a picture of George as a kid . Rest in peace , George . Posted by Many years ago my late father - in - law reported to me that birds were eating the leaves off the tiny tomato plants he had set out in his back yard . I remember telling him that I had never heard of such a thing . Two years ago , I set out the tomato plants I raised in the house from seed and something striped them of leaves , leaving only a miserable little stem . I mentioned on my blog that something was eating the leaves and someone , a Tractor Tales buddy I think , emailed me and said it was probably birds . When I asked him what kind of birds , he said he thought it was robins doing it . Now , I had been gardening for forty years and had never seen this happen , but I took him at his word . Last year I bought all my tomato plants , so they were larger and not so susceptible to being eating down to the stem . This year I raised some plants from seed again and , totally forgetting about my problem year before last , set them out . Once again , I went out one morning to find most of them eaten down to the main stem . So I made a fort for each plant out of milk cartons and decided to see if they would grow new leaves . Indeed , they are making new leaves . They are recovering quite well , actually . I bought a few more plants just in case these didn 't make it . No problems with anything eating their leaves , because they are larger . Then the little birds ( or whatever . . . I 've never seen them with my own eyes ) moved on to the sweet potato vines , and on those , they didn 't even leave a stem ! So I laid this old screening over the row . Even though no stem was left , the tiny plant emerged and began growing leaves . My garden is nothing to brag about this year . Cliff 's sister likes to put up pickled beets for a couple of relatives , and the two rows of beets I planted just for her are doing well . Other things , however , have refused to emerge at all . Given all the events of the past month , I really don 't care much , but it puzzles me why some simple things like carrots refuse to germinate . I have been trying to use up old seed , so maybe that 's the problem . At least the green beans came up , as you can see in the top picture , to the right of the tomato forts . Oh yes , and the potatoes are on the left . So maybe I 'll have green beans and potatoes , if nothing else . Posted by As we expected , the top tube was left in . Actually , the doctor who saw us didn 't even know about the upper one ! His associate , the one we usually see , knew , but he wasn 't there yesterday . The one left in has caused Cliff the most discomfort , but he said it 's nice to have the lower one gone because it was right at his belt line and made it impossible to wear jeans . Another good thing is that although the other one is still uncomfortable , it doesn 't bother him half as much as it did a week ago . He is scheduled to have it removed June 3 . Cliff says food is tasting more like it ought to now , and he is starting to enjoy coffee . He had two cups this morning . He has been going with me on our walks , but only about three - fourths of the way , passing up the steepest inclines . Today he made the whole walk ! It was slow , but he made it . He always tells me to go ahead at my regular pace , but I tell him I would rather walk slowly with him than to walk fast alone . The chilly spring means a late strawberry harvest , but FINALLY there are a couple starting to ripen . My mom 's birthday was May 21 , and most years when she was growing up there were enough ripe berries in my grandma 's garden for Mother to have as a birthday treat . This year she would have been out of luck . We are in the midst of an unseasonably cool spell , no doubt caused by my replacing the flannel sheets with regular ones and switching the heavy winter bedspread with a lightweight one . Or maybe it 's just blackberry winter , since the blackberries are in bloom . Yesterday Cliff and I saw a lovely little blue bird at the finch feeder , so I asked my Facebook friends what it might be . With their help I learned that it was an Indigo Bunting . When I listened to the song of the Indigo Bunting , I realized I had been hearing it yesterday and accidentally captured it on a video of my hummingbirds . I would love to share it here , but I uploaded it straight to Facebook and unless you have Facebook , you probably couldn 't see it . I don 't buy mixed seeds for the birds most of the time because we live right behind the barn where many sparrows live , and they gobble the food up . They can 't do much with a finch feeder , so that 's the only kind of seed I buy year around . I hate English sparrows . I 'll leave you with a picture I took this morning of a butterfly enjoying the lilacs . Cliff is getting a cat scan this morning . Tomorrow he will see one of his surgeon 's associates , and will see about getting his Jackson - Pratt tubes removed . The lower one has almost no output now , so I think they will pull that one . The upper one , the one that tortures him with every movement , isn 't putting out a lot of fluid , but it 's cloudy and dark - colored . I don 't know if that makes a difference . We are cautiously optimistic . When Cliff first got sick , he weighed 232 . He now weighs 211 . Here 's a little story I shared on Facebook today : Cliff has lost a lot of weight during the last month , needless to say . This morning he was at the bathroom sink shaving and I said , " After your cat scan today , I 'm going to run in Walmart and get you some underwear that fits . " " No , " he says , " these are JUST FINE ! " So I got my Ipad and took a picture of his backside and showed it to him . " Seriously ? You are going to walk around like Droopy - Drawers ? " I thought he was going to fall in the floor laughing at the picture . When he was finally able to talk , he said , " I think we 'd better get me some shorts . " I 'd love to show my Facebook friends the picture , but I promised him I wouldn 't . Cliff is able to eat more now , although every meal is followed up by his munching on Tums . Most food still doesn 't taste right to him , but they tell me that is to be expected . He has forced himself to get out and walk more each day , in spite of the stabbing pain caused by the tube that runs between two of his ribs , and he has regained some strength . Last week he did some mowing on the riding mower , but he paid dearly for it the next day . Now he 's fretting about the hay that is almost ready to be mowed , and has threatened to simply rotary - mow it like you would mow weeds . That 's fine by me . Hay just doesn 't seem very important right now . I haven 't been in the mood to blog about trivial things lately , and there really wasn 't anything new going on with Cliff , so that 's why I 've been absent from Blog - land . We 'll see what happens tomorrow at the doctor 's office . Posted by I should have taken a picture to go with this story , but it happened yesterday . If you read my last entry , you realize I wasn 't in the best of moods yesterday . After we left the doctor 's office , we went to Subway for a sandwich . I had our drinks in a cooler , so I went in , ordered our sandwich ( a foot - long cold cut combo on Italian - herbs - and - cheese bread with pepperjack cheese and all the veggies and stuff that Subway offers . WITH mayo and honey - mustard . ) We got our drinks from the cooler and sat in the car , eating . We noticed two men and a woman with a dog on a leash walking across the road toward us . The guys had enormous backpacks , and one of them was walking as though he could barely put one foot in front of the other . They passed us by and went to the other end of the strip mall in which Subway is located . We looked at one another and I said , " That 's strange . " Cliff agreed . A couple of minutes later , the lady of the group reappeared , sans dog , coming straight to our car . " We 're going home to Georgia , " she said . " We 're HUNG - ry . We don 't want money , we just want a sandwich . We 're HUNG - ry . " We never give money to people seeking handouts . Cliff said , " Do you have any money ? " " She doesn 't want money , she just wants a sandwich , " I said . " Well , the only sandwich I have is this one , and I don 't want to give it up . " I thought about my loaded " groceries " envelope . I had just added this months money to it , and there was quite a bit left from last month . Who needs groceries if you 're living in a hospital ? For some reason I decided to give her whatever small bills I had in that envelope , which consisted of a ten and four ones . " I 've got fourteen bucks , " I told Cliff . " I 'll give her that . " He checked his billfold and found a one , added it to fourteen , and said to her , " Here you go , that 's fifteen dollars . " She put up her hands and said , " No ! ! ! ! No ! ! ! ! That 's too much ! " What kind of beggar ever says that ? Not only that , but she repeated it more than once . Cliff told her to take it and she did , heading back toward the other end of the strip mall from whence she came , turning and blowing kisses at us a couple of times . " Well , " I said , " I wonder what they 'll really do with that money . " About five minutes later she returned and walked into the subway , smiling and waving to us on the way . Pretty soon she came out with a six - inch sub in a bag , held it up for us to see , said thank you , and blew us more kisses . Now , I 'm glad she got her sandwich . My only thought was that there is a McDonald 's across the road , and they could have gotten a lot more bang for their buck over there . Maybe that was one of those angels unaware the Bible talks about . Cliff saw our family doctor today . There really wasn 't anything the guy could do , but since he is our first line of defense if we need advice or help , we needed to get in touch . I 'm a little depressed over this whole situation , thanks to Google ( don 't tell me not to Google ; you know you 'd be doing it too ) . This whole problem apparently isn 't a thing people always get over rapidly . Biliary leaks don 't have a " one - size - fits - all " solution , from what I 've learned . All the doctors can do is try first one thing and then another and hope for the best . Meanwhile , the patient suffers . When the nurse came in this morning to take Cliff 's blood pressure ( which is running really low , 100 over whatever ) , she said , " How are you ? " " Fine , " he answered . This is a pet peeve of mine . He refuses to be honest with the doctors and nurses . In the hospital , when I could tell his pain level was obviously eight or above , he would tell them it was two ; his excuse was that they would force a pain med on him , and pain meds made him sick . I am sure his pain level is five or so here at home during all his waking hours , because the tube that runs between his ribs causes him great pain . Not to mention that his guts are still in constant turmoil . I know this because he hasn 't gotten on a tractor a single time since he 's been home , and there are tractor chores that he would normally love to be doing that are undoubtedly driving him crazy . Not that he says that , but after living with someone for close to fifty years , you know certain things . He isn 't hiding a thing from me ! So , I 'm a little downhearted . He doesn 't deserve this . Posted by Those three Cornish Cross chickens I bought in March were eight weeks old , and having more trouble walking all the time . I asked Cliff if he thought the two of us could get them butchered , and he said he thought so . We really did not know what we were doing , even though we found wonderful instructions at howtobutcherachicken . com . Maybe if we 'd had the instructions printed out in front of us it would have been easier . Cliff has always done the killing of animals around here , but after he did the first one I said , " Let me try the next one . I 'll kill it like Mother did , by stepping on its head , holding onto its feet , and pulling . " I remember my mother telling me you can only kill young , tender birds that way . Older , tough chickens have to have the head chopped off . My grandma used a hatchet to chop off the heads of all the chickens she killed ; I remember asking Mother why , and she said it was because Grandma was old and didn 't have a lot of strength . Since my grandmother was only ten years older than I am when she died , I have to admit that I had a few doubts about whether I could pull a chicken 's head off using Mother 's method . Imagine my surprise when it worked ! According to what I read , 145 degrees is the perfect temperature for scalding a chicken , which is something you have to do if you are going to pluck the feathers . Hot water from our faucet is 135 , so I didn 't have to heat it up much . By the third chicken , I was tired of plucking and told Cliff to skin it , feathers and all . All three chickens are chilling in cold water in the refrigerator . Tomorrow I 'll freeze them . I feel like a REAL pioneer woman now . He 's been on the couch ever since . I think that was enough activity for today . Cliff is doing a little better every day , but it 's slow going . Today he drove for the first time in three weeks : we went to close out the safety deposit box , since the local branch of our bank is closing , and got a new box in Lexington . I returned a long overdue book to the library , and we went shopping for a few things . OK , I shopped . Cliff napped in the car . Saturday his St . Louis sister and her husband were here . She mowed the yard and her husband did some maintenance on the Mahindra tractor we are babysitting for him , with Cliff overseeing his work . Next - door sister 's son did a lot of weed - eating , so our yard looks terrific . This does wonders for Cliff 's outlook on life . We 've sold the Gold Wing ; this is something we had already decided to do even before Cliff got sick , but that certainly sealed the deal . Yes , it 's hard to see it go , but we 're not getting any younger . This time I truly believe the time has come . We also sold our bull , since none of my animals will be needing the services of a bull before December . We evidently priced him too low , since we got a lot of calls , and sold him to the first person who looked at him . Still , we used him on three cows and got considerably more money than we paid for him . Now , are you ready to look at Cliff 's tubes and scars ? I did my best to keep it decent , although if you look really hard , you can see the top edge of his tighty - whities . Both tubes exit on his right side . That fancy - looking top one comes through a hole between two ribs . They had hoped to be able to go underneath his ribs , but since his liver doesn 't come down as far as it 's supposed to , they had to do it this way . That one causes him considerable discomfort , as you might imagine . The staples were removed from his surgical wound last week . Cliff eats a good - sized breakfast and dinner ( lunch ) , but he usually has a nutritional supplement for supper . For some reason he just isn 't hungry at night . We 've found he likes the Walmart Equate brand much better than Ensure . When we are trying to keep his weight doDonna Wood I 'm sorry I didn 't update sooner today : I find myself sharing on Facebook , and then hours later I remember that many of my readers don 't have Facebook . Cliff is back to eating real food , and plenty of it ( not in excess , though ) . I 'm actually cooking again ! The drains produce less fluid every day . In ten days the surgeon will have a cat scan done , and if it looks like there 's no fluid hanging around where it shouldn 't be , he can say goodbye to the Jackson - Pratt tubes , both of them . I may not have a coffee - drinking buddy any more , because coffee doesn 't taste good to Cliff at all . I 'm still holding my breath , since we 've had so many bumps in this road , but he does seem to be feeling pretty good today . As I 've said before , this " simple gallbladder surgery " has made the quadruple heart bypass he had seven years ago seem like a walk in the park . I set out sweet potatoes and other plants today , and hoed places that needed it in the garden . I sprayed the fruit trees . It looks as though neither the peaches nor the apples were harmed by the freezes or the late snow - fall . Here 's a picture of Penny eating through her gate . . . and no , she isn 't stuck . I think that 's all I have to report for today , except to tell you that I need a nap ! Two weeks of sitting around in a hospital have gotten me totally out of shape . Posted by I hadn 't read the book of Ecclesiastes for quite a while , or even thought about it , until this morning . I went out to milk Jody and bottle - feed Penny , and that 's when it began : " Vanity , " I heard the voice in my head say , " it 's all vanity . " Just for today , I wish I hadn 't started a garden . I wish I had not bought those stupid chickens . Right now , I could sell every cow on the place and not blink an eye . The other day I fried up a big mess of morel mushrooms and they didn 't even taste good , because Cliff wasn 't enjoying them with me . Two of my apple trees are blooming for the first time this year . I couldn 't care less . Ecclesiastes 2 : 4 - 6 4I made my works great , I built myself houses , and planted myself vineyards . 5 I made myself gardens and orchards , and I planted all kinds of fruit trees in them . 6 I made myself water pools from which to water the growing trees of the grove . . . . . then on to verse 11 : Then I looked on all the works that my hands had done I don 't care what 's growing in the garden . Oh , I go ahead and plant and hoe and till , because to not do so would mean I have no hope of anything getting better than it is right now . And of course , things will get better . Cliff is so tired of hurting . It seems that anywhere I touch him , it hurts . I have never seen him more depressed than he is right now . So today he will go in to have the stent removed that was placed in a bile duct last week , and a longer stent put in . That means he 'll have a very sore throat again , since this procedure involves the doctor going down his throat with some kind of instrument . He could barely talk last weekend as a result of this same operation . On the bright side , he ate two honest - to - goodness meals yesterday and enjoyed them . Forgive me for being such a downer . I usually have so much fun in my life . I love sharing my adventures with my readers . I hesitated to do this entry , but sometimes I just want to " keep it real " . This is what 's been going through my head this morning . 1 The words of the Preacher , the son of David , king in Jerusalem . Cliff 's brother took us to the hospital where we had a one o ' clock appointment for Cliff to have a guided CT scan in radiology . A needle would be inserted between his ribs to draw off a pocket of water below his liver ( the nurses called it an abscess , although the doctor never used that term ) and a tube would be inserted so the drainage could continue . Now he has twin tubes , but he does seem to feel better except for soreness where the needle went through . His poor liver has been through the wringer . When they were done prying his gallbladder away from it the other day , they cauterized it . Now this . He was awake for this procedure , because they had to have him hold his breath at times , but they used the same sort of drug to relax and semi - sedate him that is used during a colonoscopy , as well as a local anesthetic . Because they had the needle so close to his lung , an X - ray was taken after they were done to make sure no damage was done to the lung . When he was brought out of the procedure , his color was better than it 's been in two weeks . He is sore from the needle , and he 's taking Tylenol for that . He has a prescription pain killer , but because it messes with his stomach , he refuses to take it . Let 's hope he continues to improve . I don 't mind our having to deal with the tubes if he can get to feeling better . Somewhere along the line it was mentioned that he might have to have the stent in the bile duct removed and a longer stent put in . I don 't know if that 's a for - sure thing , or just something they were considering . My brain is on overload . Once Cliff was in recovery yesterday we sent his brother home and called the oldest grandson to come and take us home . When we arrived home , the whole yard had been mowed by our son - in - law , which was a load off Cliff 's mind . The grandson and I went down in the woods Monday evening , and he fixed the fence . Now the cows will have to stay home . As always , Titan was right in the middle of things . We intended to hunt for morels when we finished this job , but by the time we scaled tI set out some tomato and pepper plants yesterday morning , and planted a row of green beans . Posted by Cliff 's brother came and took us to Cliff 's appointment with the surgeon . We left the house at 8 : 30 and got home about 2 : 30 , so it was a difficult day for Cliff , although I can see him gaining strength every day . A nurse took the staples out of the incision . The doctor then sent us to St . Mary 's to get an MRI and a blood test . While we were in his office , he was talking about the surgery and said , " When we saw that hole in a bile duct , we thought , " How are we going to fix this ? " Well , they are still working on that . Poor Cliff . The surgeon called a while ago with the results of today 's test : There 's still a little pocket of fluid floating under the liver . They are going to try and schedule a cat scan tomorrow , and possibly remove some of that fluid with a needle . If that doesn 't do the trick , there 's also a possibility they may have to put a larger stent in that bile duct than the one that 's in there , which would mean another procedure where they go down his throat . Cliff is , naturally , pretty depressed . He 's tired of not feeling good , tired of being weak , and tired of having to force food down . I do trust that they are doing everything they can to get him feeling better . I could hear the disappointment in the surgeon 's voice when he called . Cliff is an unusual case , and I think the doctors are having to play it by ear , to a large extent . Posted by A big , rotten tree had fallen on the fence . I have the cows shut in the lot now , and when grandson gets off work at two o ' clock , he 'll come by and fix it for us . It was so dark when I tried to take a photo that the flash went off and you couldn 't see the fence . So I took a video , which didn 't really help matters either . I will include it , though , just so you can hear me talking to my hillbilly self , which I do whether I am recording a video or not . We had a pretty good weekend . We had a lot of company , and Cliff could have used more " down time " , but all in all , he seems to be gaining strength ; he walked to the shop and back twice yesterday . He had some bad hours of discomfort last night from midnight to 3 : 30 A . M . , which was worrisome , but he 's sleeping now . He has an appointment with the surgeon this morning . He is eating real food , and I 've heard him say " I 'm hungry " a couple of times . Meanwhile , I think I may have some fence to mend again , this time between us and the new neighbor to the west . When I went outside yesterday evening , Gracie was grazing happily in the front yard ! No gates had been left open , so unless she sprouted wings , a break in that particular fence - line is the only way she could have gotten from point A to point B . After Cliff settled back into peaceful slumber this morning , all I could do was lay there and worry about the cows getting out , so I am a bit sleep - deprived . If the silly cows are within calling distance when I go out to milk , I 'll lock them in the lot until we return from the doctor . When we get home I 'll walk the fence in hopes of finding the problem , hoping it 's something I can fix . Maybe a tree fell on it , taking it to the ground . It 's mushroom time , so someone might have cut the barbed wire to get onto our place with greater ease . It 's happened before , more than once . Can you believe people take such liberties with the property of others ? I do have another livestock panel I could drag down there and wire over a significant break in the fence . It worked for the other spot . And why is it that all these problems waited to happen until Cliff is sidelined , anyhow ? Saturday I found six morel mushrooms . They would have made a nice snack for me , but I really wanted more . Of course Cliff won 't be having any fried mushrooms at this point , nor does he desire any . Yesterday I went to the woods again , and found thirteen more morels , all in one spot ! So now I can " pig out " , and I will have had my fill for this year . I think I deserve Donna Wood The ground isn 't frozen , and when you walk around outside , it 's slush more than snow . The temperature here is actually above freezing , at 33 degrees . Two of my little apple trees are in bloom for the first time ever . According to Dr . Google , this temperature won 't hurt the crop , and the same goes for my peach trees . We shall see . I was outside because I wanted to see if any of the chickens were on the roost . FAIL ! The two grown hens , who should know better , where nestled snugly in the nest box I made them ! I was very proud that they were actually laying eggs in that box yesterday , but I was NOT proud to find out this morning that they had decided to use it for a bed , pooping in it all night . I placed them on the roost as I lectured them , and put a couple young pullets alongside them for good measure . I 'm getting ready to go out and milk Jody for the first time in ten days . It feels good to get back to some semblance of my normal routine . I have to say , Jenny the calf was very happy to dive into her stall last night . Obviously she would rather spend a night away from her mother than to be forced to stay outside in the cold , wet slush - flakes . Oh , by the way , I 've had one lonely little hummingbird hanging around the feeder for over a week . I 'll bet he wishes he hadn 't gotten in such a hurry to migrate north ! Cliff 's instructions were to take three five - minute walks daily . He didn 't want to do it because he 's so weak and sore , but he 's done two of his walks already today and admitted that the second one was easier than the first . ( Since I started this entry , he 's taken yet another , longer walk . ) He wanted an egg for breakfast , but after one bite realized he did not want an egg after all . This has happened to everything he 's tasted since surgery , down to and including water . He is forcing down the Ensure a couple of times daily , as much as he hates it . He actually appeared to be enjoying a piece of toast he had for lunch , and is now eating a piece of toast with peanut butter . Progress indeed . We are dealing with the Jackson - Pratt drain pretty well , although the plastic cup the hospital sent home with us for measuring purposes has disappeared , possibly in the depths of Cliff 's brother 's trunk . It 's OK , I have a measuring cup I 'm using . The nurse said I could record the amounts of the fluids in either CCs or ounces , so ounces it is . Cliff admits to some depression , but at present he is Web - surfing and looking pretty chipper . Things are looking up . I awoke this morning to find the cows in the little clover patch I allow them in sometimes . I had not opened the gate , but they discovered a large gap in the fence overnight . I 'm not much of a fence - builder , but I dragged a cattle panel down there and covered the opening in the fence , using rusty baling wire to hold it in place . Posted by I 've been working on getting him to take some nourishment . Per the doctor 's advice , I bought some Ensure . He was able to drink about two - thirds of a container last night , plus a little lower - sodium chicken noodle soup . I 've never heard of anyone who actually liked Ensure , but if he can force it down it will give him a lot of nourishment in a small serving . The ride home was torture , and he had a hard time even getting out of the car once we were home . Still , he is happy to be home , and I 'm happy to have him here . Today 's challenge is to get him to take four five - minute walks inside the house . Our temperatures are going to plunge into the thirties today , so it looks like I had better cover up the two tomato plants and one pepper plant out in the garden one more time . I moved the two hens from their tiny chicken cottage to the chicken house ( my old cabin ) with the young chickens . I 'm sure there were some tussles and power struggles , but it 's much easier to chore after them when they are all together . Yesterday morning I went out before dawn with the flashlight to see which ones were on the roost , and NONE of them were , not even the grown hens . So last night after dark I put the hens up there , and three or four of the youngsters . This morning the hens and the little barred rock were the only ones roosting . Cliff said , " Who cares if they sleep on the floor ? Leave them alone ! " " Nope , " says I . " Chickens are supposed to sleep on their roost , and by george , that 's what they are going to do . " Posted by The procedure yesterday went well , and didn 't cause Cliff any more discomfort that he was already experiencing except for a sore throat . I 'll be heading back to the hospital in a few minutes . I finally realize the doctors don 't quite know what to do with this case ; all they can do is try one thing and then another , and hope something works . They are only human , and they 're doing the best they can . I applaud their efforts . I can sense the word " if " when they explain what they are doing , even though they don 't say it . I have heard them say " We hope . . . " a couple of times . I hope and pray Cliff 's battered body will begin to heal so that he can regain his appetite and once again enjoy life . Yesterday while he was awaiting his latest procedure , he said , " I can tell , when the nurses touch me , which ones really care . " God bless caring nurses . Meanwhile , I have to be careful where I touch him because so many places hurt . I do a lot of updating on Facebook because it 's so easy to make a short statement there . This entry is for my readers who don 't have Facebook . Well , I 'm a pathetic gardener now . I planted a short row of lettuce , and one of spinach , early in the season . I went out to harv . . .