On the Farm...
If you have followed the blog or our Facebook site at all, you will know that this past spring has been quite a roller coaster for our family...
Just before the "official" start of spring when Denise took Joshua down to Utah on March 18 to go into a residential treatment program. This was heart breaking for us to do. The good news is that he is sounding really good. He has now earned the privilege of making 5 phone calls a week so we are getting to talk with him more. We are planning a trip down to Utah to visit him in the fall. Release date is October 2020 (yes, that is next year and this is only if things keep going well...).
In April, I (Denise) was pretty much sick the entire month. It was very strange. I would get a really intense headache and then I was just completely exhausted most of the time. Then, the coughing. On and on it went for about 3 weeks of absolutely no energy. I coughed so hard that I "hurt" my lung (I think I may have had a viral pneumonia). It's like the lining of my lung got out of place. Kind of hard to explain but it is CRAZY painful. I actually did this twice. The first time, I thought I had literally pulled a muscle in my back from coughing so hard and it hurt but I could manage it. A few days later somehow it "corrected" itself and I was completely pain free again.
In May, I had the worst case of allergies I have ever had. The sneezing and coughing continued and I, again, "hurt" my lung but this time it was completely debilitating and I immediately went to the urgent care. I was given a shot of an anti-inflammatory and some strong pain medication. The doctor explained that it was called pleurisy. It only took about 3-4 days before I was back at full speed.
We enjoyed a nice flush of migrating hummingbirds in May.
Mark went to his Senior Prom!
The transmission went out on our lawn mower so we had to buy a new one. This has helped immensely. I used to have to mow about 1-2 hours a day and I could hardly keep on top of everything. Now, I can pretty much do the entire property in a couple afternoons. I did not opt for the bagger and I LOVED collecting the clippings to put in the compost bin, but it is just so much faster when I don't have to stop and unload constantly. I just make a point to collect a 5 gallon bucket of weeds each day and add it to the compost. No shortage of weeds here on the farm between the sunflower patch, berry patches, food forest and the garden...
Mark graduated from high school!
Mark continues to do well with lowering his blood pressure and weight loss. His last blood pressure reading was 110/80 and the cardiologist said he did not need to see him anymore (I would say at the highest it was around 135/95 when we started). We have been working to lower his blood pressure by losing weight. We have not started any medications. Mark's weight is down to 237. He started at 270 last November. He is probably even lower now. I really cannot take any credit for the weight loss. He just doesn't seem to have much of an appetite lately. In fact, it is actually starting to get to the point that it is concerning me that he is not eating much. We FINALLY have an appointment with a GI doctor in August. This should have happened months ago but hopefully, we will start to make some improvements with his constipation issues at that time.
Henry and I took a date night to Spokane to see the movie, The Biggest Little Farm the end of June. On the way home, we hit a deer with our minivan and this totaled out the vehicle. I had this van for 13 years and it was definitely showing it's wear.
This gave us a good excuse to get that farm truck. It came with a towing package! So, welcome to our new addition to the farm...this is my new ride now.
Mark seems to really like it too. He woke up the other day and the first word out of his mouth was "truck" (usually, it is "pancakes" or "cheeseballs").
Hoping the roller coaster is coming to an end...
~Denise
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