I Know You're All Concerned About Chevy The Dog...

Chevy is holding his own. His gums are slightly pinkish and he's moving around. The antibiotics he's on might be working. He's lost weight though. He's gone from a muscular 80 pound intimidating pitbull to a 70 pound weakling, but still looks good.

As for me, I'm OK.   The neurosurgeon would not install springs instead of spacers in my neck, claiming that I would tire of being a bobblehead.  I guess he never heard of the phrase that the customer is always right.

The surgery on the back of my neck was, for some reason, gotten to from the front. My throat is swollen so much so that I have a difficult time swallowing anything but liquids, or very soft food severely masticated and washed down with something liquid. I almost choked on a bagel in the hospital and couldn't eat a hot dog last night. I'm reluctant to eat anything alone in case I choke.  I mean, what if I was eating a bagel and came across  an article about Rick Perry and Sean Hannity patroling the Rio Grande with a machine gun, looking for illegal immigrant children?  I might choke even without the operation side effect.

I think machine gunning children is a bit extreme.  A good spanking and sending them to bed without their supper should do it.

I had to sleep sitting up last night so that I wouldn't accumulate too much spit before swallowing it. Yeah, I know, too much information.  Sleeping sitting up isn't as difficult as you think if you have a neck brace.

The RN got me a prescription for steroids to reduce swelling in my throat. I'm concerned that a possible side effect is that I'll have to work as a WWE wrestler.

You can see that the guy above on the left must have had the same neck operation, because he's gagging on trying to swallow whatever it is he ate.  The guy on the right is probably yelling something about call 911 and eat your vitamins.

Dave News

Hi to all our readers. I know you must be wondering how Dave is doing so I am here to tell y'all that he is doing great!

Surgery took about three hours. I was beginning to get worried, but my best friend was sitting with me and keeping me SANE.  Just as I felt like I was about to not stay sane the doctor came out to give me news, and the news was good. The surgery was to put new spacers between his discs, not replace the discs as we had thought.  He had planned on doing from C4 down to C7. When he opened Dave up, he saw a lot more degeneration than he anticipated and ended up putting spacers in all the way from C2 on down to C7. I bet he regained the couple inches he had lost in height! C7 was also still fractured, or maybe refractured from being yanked by Olivia? Due to the extra work, his doc felt he should keep Dave an extra night. I came home to check on all the critters tonight and will bring our patient home tomorrow. He can fill you in on all the good stuff from there, but I felt I owed you guys an update. Wait till he gives you the tale of his room mate, lol... now there was a funny guy!

good night to all! 

Trees Down

Pam and I spent all day Wednesday running around for medical appointments.  One now needs a slew of tests before surgery.  EKGs, blood tests, MRIs, CTScans, physicals, etc.  We visited friends in Albany and stayed for burgers and slaw and then made our way back to Bleecker.  We could see the ominous clouds in the distance as we drove west.  Would we make it to the Unabomber Cabin and be able to let the dogs out before it hit?  Nope.  About ten miles away, we got hammered with the mother of all storms.  The wind whipped the trees and the heavy rain pelted horizontally.  I slowed to just 30 MPH.  Trees have a tendency to fall here in the mountains, and trust me on this one, I'm sensitive to falling trees.

We were only a hundred yards from our Unabomber driveway when there it was.  A tree was right across the road.  Pam, being a pioneer kind of woman, jumped out of the car and into the rain and cleared away the loose debris, and then bent branches back so I could drive under it.

Today, we took Chevy to the vet's office for a follow-up visit.  In the four miles from the Unabomber Driveway to Benson, there were eight downed trees.   One was right at the head of our driveway to our property.

Thankfully, the town is right on top of this stuff and sent out crews to clear things up.

Interestingly, all the trees that fell, fell from west to east.  Except ours, which fell east to west.

In dog news, Chevy is holding his own.  He's stable.  I was concerned though, because Gertie, our cat, had similar symptoms.  Several vets were consulted, one of which did exploratory surgery, and no definative diagnosis was every made.  She died a skeleton of herself.  Well, Chevy went from an 80 plus pound hunk of a pit bull...

 to 70 pounds, and doesn't look good.  He looks thin, drawn, and he's lethargic.  Could this be something contracted during our cruise down the eastern seaboard?  Eating raw oysters?   I was worried about Ruby and we took her to the vet as well, and her blood work came back normal, which is a huge relief for me.

I'm headed to the hospital on Thursday for surgery on my upper spine.  The neurosurgeon will be replacing my compressed discs with springs so I can be a bobblehead.   No.  Just kidding.  He said he will be using "legos" which are some kind of artificial discs.

I'll be in the hospital for a couple of days, so no blog updates.

You're welcome.

My Guardian Angel...

Gettin' the Tractor Stuck. Again.

We've had a lot of rain here on Bleecker Mountain.  I comes down in buckets sometimes, which washes away parts of our driveways.  Our property's driveway is fairly flat and only a small part of that vanished, but the steep downhill driveway to the Unabomber Cabin was a disaster.  We could navigate it in the all-wheel-drive Kia, but a regular car could not.

On Saturday, I dug up some stone from the pit and fixed our property's driveway.  It took five loads, but it smoothed out nicely.  Then I loaded up the manure bucket with stone and drove a mile to the Unabomber Cabin to patch that up.

It was an uneventful trip.  I parked Bessie the Tractor at the top of the driveway and shoveled stone into the places where it washed out, which is a more efficient use of stone that dumping it and spreading it with the back blade.

I had finished spreading the stone, but there were still big boulders sticking up from frost heaves last winter and spring.   My Irish Grandma's voice spoke to me.  "Be the job big or small, do it well or not at all."

OK.  Let's see if the back blade can pop out these boulders.

For those of you ignorant about tractors, the majority have a three point hitch on the stern where you can attach all kinds of implements.  I have a tow bar, a post hole digger, and a back blade.  The back blade is like a snow plow, but you have to angle it manually, and  your only control is to raise and  lower it.

So I attacked the big rocks at the bottom of the driveway, and popped them out one by one.  I either picked them up and tossed them aside, or if too big rolled them.  I  did this to the worst of it, and then I got to the top.  I snagged onto a huge boulder, about the size of a woodstove, and pulled it out.  It was almost perfectly round, but try as I might, I couldn't budge it.  So I drove Bessie up the driveway, turned her around, and attacked the boulder from above.

I dropped the bucket to just above ground level, and pushed the boulder in front of me.  I couldn't see the boulder because the tractor's bow was in the way.  But I slowly nudged it towards the starboard side of the driveway right to the edge where it dropped off.  Then I heard a KLANG behind me.  I looked, and there was the boulder between Bessie and the back blade.  I must have hit a bump and the bucket bounced over the boulder.  I looked ahead, and I was on the edge of the drop off.

I put Bessie in reverse and her big, cast iron weighted tires with chains just spun.   I put Bessie in forward, but could only move about a foot before I had to stop so I didn't drop off the edge.  I went back and forth a half dozen times, trying to work Bessie's bow downhill, and then it happened.  Bessie's right front tire dropped off the edge, down about two feet into a hole.  I was stuck.

Do you remember Brian?  He's the guy who came last January to tow the Kia, which was stuck in our driveway last January.  He got the Kia out when a tow truck driver said it wasn't possible.  Well, while I was hooking up Judi's small ATV to Bessie's stern to try to tow it, along comes Brian on his ATV.

"You ain't gonna tow that tractor out with an ATV.  I'll fetch my truck."

Ten minutes later, Brian and his friend Rich were there.  They couldn't tow it out, even with the big Ford 4x4.  Not only was the right tire in a ditch, but it was flat.  I couldn't start Bessie because the gravity feed gas tank was at such an angle that it wouldn't feed gas.  To top it all off, the front bucket was hooked over a boulder the size of a Volkswagen.

Brian managed to back up the tractor just enough that I could start it.  I immediately raised the front bucket and back blade as high as they would go.  Brian then got in front of Bessie and pulled it sideways.  After some tugging, Bessie was free.  I drove it down the driveway and parked it.  Sunday would be a day for fixing the flat and finishing the driveway.

In true Drift Away fashion, we all retired to the Unabomber Cabin for victory beers all around.  We then drove the half mile to Brian's hunting camp for another victory beer, and then another half a mile to our property for a final victory beer.

Poor Bessie.  For a 1952 Ferguson TO-30, she can sure take a pounding.  You would think that at 62 years old, she'd want to be turned out to pasture.  Nope.  Not Bessie.  She's not about to be shown up by an imbecile like me.

A Trip To the Emergency Dog Hospital

Out of our three dogs, Chevy has been bullet proof.  He's healthy, happy, and fit as a fiddle.  So it was with some alarm when he was lethargic when we got up this morning.  We opened the door for the dogs to go out and Chevy didn't go with Ruby and Olivia.  He didn't eat.  He just laid there.  Pam, the vet tech, looked him over and checked his gums and ears.  White.  Chevy was extremely anemic.  She called Matt Long, our vet, who had the 4th of July weekend off.  His answering service picked up.  Within minutes, Matt was on the phone.  Pam described the symptoms, and Matt said to get him to an emergency hospital, either South Glens Falls or Latham.  We chose South Glens Falls.

I won't bore you with the details, but these are the highlights.

• We arrived at 10:30 AM and were there until an astounding 4 PM
• They ran a myriad of tests, but not the most basic one they should have.  A stool test for parasites.
• Chevy's red cell counts were low (20) and his white cell count was high
• They tried to rack up the bill with unnecessary tests.
• The veterinarian was young and just out of school and had no "bedside manner".
• The vet wanted to keep Chevy in the hospital and give him blood transfusions.
• Pam called Matt, whose bullshit meter was pegged, and said to get him out of there.
• The bill was $767, and the vet had no idea what was going on with Chevy.

So Chevy has perked up a bit.  We'll watch him closely.  If he goes downhill over the weekend, we'll take him to Matt's home for treatment.  Otherwise, we'll take him to Matt's office on Monday to be checked out.

It was a long, long day, and expensive.  But Chevy is family, and  as such deserves proper care.  He had a tough life until we got him.  We suspect he was a bait dog in a dog fighting ring.  He seems to appreciate being with a loving family.  He loves us to death.  The least we can do is love him back.

Horse Camping In Lake Luzerne, In Photos

Pam and I, along with our dogs Olivia, Ruby, and Chevy, and Jeremiah the horse, spent five days camping at the state campground in Lake Luzerne.  The first day (Wednesday) started raining right after we got there and set up.  Perfect timing.

Olivia was bored though.

Our solar panel charging the RV batteries.

Sandals to cowgirl boots.  That's my gal.

Kim and  her horse.

Pam getting on Jeremiah, who is raring to go.

There is fungus among us.

Campground stalls.

Kim and Otter.

It was really cold in the morning.  Down in the 50s!  I think I could see my breath.

Chevy.

Fly mask.

Jeremiah.

Left to right- Pam, Kim, Renee', Steve.

Steve is a farrier.

Judi and Bill came to visit and brought Timmy the Nose Licking Dog.

Bill and Timmy.

Tyler, one of the Allen boys, with his horse, which he bought with his own money.  All the Allen boys are hard working kids.

Yes, Artie's wrists are crossed.

We had a great five days.  Camping is pretty much like how we live anyway, except without internet.