Bolt

And yes, he still has a fish hook piercing. Our little trendy dog :)

Bolt

We are looking into a kennel for the big guy. The shock collar is proving to work well in keeping him off the chickens. I still won't let him off unless we are out with him if the chickens are out, but he is such a sweet dog, my guess is we'll be okay. More than anything he just likes to play, which is totally normal for a puppy.

Ice Storm

We learned today just how well our house holds heat. We lost power at 8 this morning and didn't regain it until 3. It was torture for Pony Gal because I didn't want to open any doors to let her (or Mr Deeds for that matter) outside, and let the cold in. I ended up just sitting with Superboy most the day, rocking him. When the electric did come on, I had accomplished only one thing-a scarf for my husband's grandmother, and realized I didn't feel like cooking. So, I called Dad to have him pick up dinner from the local bar and let Pony Gal out the door. This kid loves winter. She played with the ice for so long. When she came in her little hands and face were so red. It was so cute to walk in on her all wrapped up in a blanket lying in front of our fireplace.
So, what if our power had not come back on? Well, that is one of my big reasons for wanting to be "off the grid" as far as energy is concerned. But for this go around, we had plans to go to my mom's for as long as it took. She has a furnace (and still had her power) but keeps her wood stove in working order, so we would have been nice and cozy. She also is only 10 minutes away, so it would have been no prob. And, it seems, the roads weren't too bad about the time we would have taken off. For whatever reason our county thinks it is unnecessary to clear our roads, or to even keep an adequate amount of gravel on them, so traction stunk. Luckily we are only 8/10's of a mile from pavement.
Oh, and the chickens hate this weather. They hate it more than usual because Papa H failed to tell me he HAD NOT been checking on their food and water levels regularly. In freezing weather. So, I look outside to see there are no footprints to the coop. (He is all of 50 feet from the coop, while I have small, needy children, and am more like 200 feet from the coop). Anyway, I managed to get Superboy asleep long enough to go rescue the poor ladies. They had no food left and their water was frozen. And he had been feeding and watering them outside, which is just torture when there is snow on the ground. Who wants to walk on that with no shoes? So, it seems I am now in charge of this-not a big deal, but one that I would have loved to have heard about rather than found this way. It had been at least four days since the snow, so they had been waiting at least that long. No wonder they have slowed down tremendously in their laying habits. I wouldn't either if I was starving and cold. Yes, very cold. But, yet again, is a situation that did not have to be. It would have taken all of an hour for our friend/electrician to run electric in the already dug trench to the coop so we could hook up the heating lamps so it wasn't so frickin' freezing in there. We have the trench dug, but didn't know about it until it was filled with snow and ice and impossible to access until spring. So, now, hopefully my husband will be able to help me this weekend as we try to amend the mess Papa H has made by running an extension cord from the garage to the coop. This could have all been avoided had we just purchased the solar lighting/electric system (cheaper) from Harbor Freight I wanted months ago. But, no. Lets be difficult. Right. For those of you who don't know, I have lived on a farm, with chickens since I was about 5. That's well, 20 years, with a couple years lost in town. So, ya think I know what's going on?  I just felt so bad for those birds. It's cruel. And all it would have taken was a legitimate phone call (as so many I get from Papa H are not). Anyway, that's our ice storm story. Nothing too fancy.

I hate bedrest....

But, then again, who has ever said they loved it? I love the fact that it is keeping me pregnant until I start labor naturally, giving me a chance at a "normal" birth, but that is about it. This hypertension is crazy. I am laying down, my bp is 100/60-all the time. I sit up for more than 2 minutes, it jumps back up to 140/90 or more. I have been good thus far. I do cheat a little. Part of the reason I hate bedrest is that so much of my life is in the hands of others right now. The meals part not a big deal. I am easy going, and if someone else wants to feed me, that's fine. But the house maintenance part, errrr. I am VERY picky about my laundry. I labeled the way they should be separated in the laundry room. I am not a lights/darks person. I am a down-to-the-color-group separator. I am also very picky about how Pony Gal's diapers and wipes are washed. This has lead to my potty breaks being potty/laundry breaks. I figure an extra 2 minutes to move things about won't kill me. I also have a fairly large kitchen, which seems to confuse people. Rather than look around and see, "ah, yes, this goes here as there are other items here exactly like it" they guess. And then I am left doing a speed rearrange in the morning while I get my giant glass of water and tea for the couch. And I don't use nasty cleaners. I have one multipurpose I use for everything. This throws everyone off as they look for 409, or bleach or whatever else. I direct them to what is to be used and they look at me like I'm crazy. We haven't died of any filth related disease yet, so I must know what I am doing to some extent. Rather than have to rearrange the closests once this is all through (and have my husband ask me twice a day where his underwear is...) all our clothes are simply getting sorted into laundry baskets on the floor of the bedroom-something I can do laying down. It is also frustrating to have EVERY person who walks through the door ask me what my blood pressure is. It's fine. I am following the rules. I feel like I have freakin' bruises on my hips from laying around like a bum. I hate watching people work around me. I enjoy maintaining my home. But health is important and so long as I need to lie down in order to keep me and baby healthy, I will. It just sucks in the meantime. Oh and Pony Gal is going nuts. She has been so whiny. I did not realize how much we actually do until we couldn't do it. She is going to turn into a little tv addict if this baby doesn't come soon. She asked me the other day if the baby "broked" me. I had to reassure her that he did not, but that mommy just has trouble sometimes. That's what I need. Pony Gal to already dislike her brother because he broke her mom. She is also upset because our dog, Mr. Deeds, is staying at my in-laws until the baby comes so he does not go stir crazy as well. I think letting him out for potty time several times a day would have been against my bedrest rules. But she is not sure he is coming home, so we have to keep reminding her he is just getting a haircut at Grandma's (which he is, conveniently, that just wasn't the reason for his temporary move). It is also frustrating for people to think I am totally helpless. I can still walk. I can still lift. By golly, I can even feed myself and go to the bathroom by myself. I just need to lay down most the day. I can also drive to my dr.s appointsments, all by myself. This seems crazy to my father in law who freaks out everytime I leave and don't check in or ask him to take me. His driving is more dangerous than if I was driving asleep. Like h*ll I am going to put my life, my daughter's life and my unborn son's life in his hands. Um, no. Until the doc says I can't drive, I will drive myself. And if he restricts me, then I will make appointments on Tuesdays and Thursdays when my sister can drive me. I am very picky about who drives me places. I drive a certain way. I am very careful with the lives of those in the car with me, and I am afraid most others I have ridden with are not so. It's only 30 minutes. I sit in the office waiting to see a doc longer than that, though they do make me lay down as soon as I get into the examining room. So that's my rant on bedrest...may this baby come soon!

Random Stuff

First and foremost, I hate being sick. I have dealt with allergies that I have not had for the last three years, which have been trying as I can do NOTHING about them. I refuse to medicate my baby. I do drink some tea that helps, but definitely does not fully alleviate the problem. Now, I also have a nasty cold on top of it. I think it is due to catering my brother in law's wedding this weekend, which totally wore me out. I am, after all, eight months pregnant. I woke up-no got up because I did not really sleep at all-about an hour and half before I usually do and ran a hot bath (as hot as it can be because of the baby) and laid in it for about the full hour before my husband got up. My throat had pretty much swollen shut so I wasn't going to be sleeping. I tried to nap yesterday when Pony Gal did, but it was futile. I hate flies also, I might mention. They were the problem then. I still had to get farm deliveries ready and need to get garage sale stuff ready, too. I can't really give myself much time at this point to be miserable, and yet I am.
So, about the garage sale. For those of you who like the city-wides, as I do because then you don't have to drive much, you can walk most of the them, the prison town to the north is having theirs this weekend, Thursday on. My sister lives in town there, so we are selling a lot there. Lots of toys that I have weeded out that I just don't care to have around anymore. Plenty of other stuff, too, of course.
On a third note, Pony Gal is growing up so fast. We woke up this morning and there were lights on in the house that we know we turned off last night before we went to bed. I noticed the kitten had not followed us in to sleep like she usually does, so I left the door cracked. Well, at some point she must have decided she wanted to come in, but needed to be rescued to do so. Pony Gal woke up and was telling me about the kitten crying and how she had gotten her. I didn't think anything of it until the lights issue came up. She managed to get up in the middle of the night, turn on lights, find Callie, and bring her back in to go to sleep with her. She has done pretty well at helping with her care. I am trying to find a bucket to keep the food in so she can keep that topped off and she runs Callie to the litter box when she gets whiny like she needs to potty. She also watches her to make sure she isn't getting into trouble.
I love the weather, though. It is definitely nice. If only I could enjoy it...

Pets

Recently we were given a very large cat. The home she was in was not a good one for her, as she was constantly picked on by the other animals. We thought she would work well here. Well, it isn't that she isn't working out well, it is that we never see her. She is totally nocturnal. Pony Gal was excited to have a cat again, but she is not so tickled with Pink. Pony Gal likes to play with her pets. Pink hides all day, comes out at night, and gets into naughty things. We think she may end up a basement creature, since she lives here, but doesn't really feel like part of the family.
In the meantime, we had promised Pony Gal another "Callie," her cat that was, ahem, eaten by a badger. Yes, a badger. The joy of living in the country. Anyway, neighbors a few houses down had a free kittens sign out, so we stopped and let her pick out another. The relationship was a little tense in the beginning as claws were an issue, but the kitten ended up sleeping with her on the floor last night next to our bed. The kitten is named Callie, just like the last one. Hopefully it works out. Mr. Deeds, the dog, is not too keen on her yet. He could eat her, but he is the one who is afraid. He was around cats at the shelter, so hopefully they get used to each other. We'll see. In the meantime, Momma aka me, who is not that fond of pets, seems to feel slightly outnumbered these days. Daddy and Pony Gal are winning this battle, for sure.