Tag Archives: chickens

Thursday stuff

Posted in cancer, cooking, covid-19, Halloween, Multiple myeloma, Myeloma, Political things, prepper pantry, Walking by

Yesterday was my doctor appointment and it went well. I’ll have my 8 week labs around the first week of December, then see him right after Christmas, then start Velcade/Dex in January. He did mention that there is a pill form of Velcade but since that would be a tier 5 drug, I just don’t want to deal with that. So the shot isn’t bad and neither is the drive. ( We got there in 50 minutes yesterday with NO traffic. So it’ll be 3 weeks on one week off. I’ll be ready!!!

I am having lots of anxiety about the election next week, along with the rest of the country.( well, intelligent people who can see Trump for what he is). It’s just a lingering underlying stress as to what’s going to happen. It’s not keeping me awake at night but still, I read the news compulsively for clues. Well, I guess we’ll know soon enough.

We shopped at Trader Joe’s in Roseville after the doctor appt( which was why B came with me). It was pretty packed with people but everyone HAS to wear a mask so it was ok. I loaded up on lots of things. Some prepper stuff like canola spray and tamari, and some just regular food. We were home by 12 noon so not bad at all.

As I mentioned, we adjusted our walk time till 6 so as to try and avoid jerk walker. He’s still there though and just as abrupt but at least walking the other way has made a huge difference. 6 am is nice because by 6:30 it’s predawn and the sky is lightening up. Sunday is daylight savings so I figure we will just walk when we feel ready and see what time that ends up being. I’m guessing the jerk will go by the darkness not the time. One example of him still being a jerk. So the confrontation was about his not using a flashlight, right? So he has been using one. Then this morning I saw him have it on and then as he approached us he turned it off. Uhh…passive aggressive anyone????

Tonight my son is going to make us an Oktoberfest dinner of Bratwurst something( not sure yet exactly what he’s doing) but at least I don’t have to cook.

I have a loaf of rye sourdough baking and it didn’t puff as much as I’d like but it still tastes great.

We are still getting lots of eggs and I’ve been keeping up on using them. I put it out on Nextdoor neighbor but no one answered. I’m guessing with the pandemic when everyone was buying chicks, and now they are all laying eggs. It’s okay, in a few months they will slow down once it gets cold.

I have loved lighting my beeswax candles for dinner time. I have lots of pumpkins on the table and around. We’ve been having a fire every morning too. It’s been about 45 degrees out, so chilly.

Midweek musings

Posted in home stuff, husband, Retirement, Uncategorized by

We lost another chicken yesterday. It was one of our black and white ones. I looked all over for feathers but nada. I’m guessing it was the fox since he’s coming nightly to try and get compost( it’s closed). But foxes do hunt in the day. It always makes me sad to lose one. Now there are only 4. We aren’t planning on getting chickens this year but maybe next. I think we all need a break from the daily chicken routine. But I do love having chickens though and they eat bugs and keep snakes away. Still, the morning and night routines do get old and we have to lock them up as the raccoons would get in their pen.

I’m still checking daily on jury duty but there are 2 more days and last time I did get called on Friday which was weird.

There’s still a lot of uncertainty with things financially and with B finally giving his resignation. We think now that the long term disability we were counting on for the next 5 months won’t happen since he will be retired from UNFI. He’s still medically unable to work but because he will have left UNFI by Feb 1st we think they will say that’s that then.  Has anyone had this happen or been in a similar situation and still was able to get the long term disability? Hartford has tried everything not to pay and succeeded so I’m guessing they will win on this one too.

Some good news is though Merck, the drug company, approved B getting the Tier 5 drug Noxafil for free. That would have been an initial $2000 approx for the first month. I think it was @ 1750 or around that. So that is great news.

With that being resolved we can now drop the Cobra and just do Medicare and supplementals. It’s kinda scary giving up the Cobra but really it’s been a royal PITA. Especially the prescription part.  The one thing I need to check is if we can keep the Cobra for just the dental and vision. Before with the other provider, we could but as of January 1st, the provider changed. Actually, that’s when the issues with the prescription part started happening.

So still lots of things up in the air.

Macular Pucker

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That’s the diagnosis of my right eye. It’s not from the steroids the Dr. said, just happens. ( maybe she meant as we get older?? but was being nice). So, it’s basically a wrinkle on the back of the eye and that’s causing the blurred vision. I can cope with it ok but still.

I did have a horrible drive home as I could barely see and had to keep squinting. But I made it. Then it took most of the day for my eyes to stop bothering me. The dye they injected looked radioactive and so did my urine. Well, at least the good news is, if I can live with the blurred vision in my right eye, surgery isn’t necessary unless it gets worse. So, I’ll keep checking every 6 months and hope for the best.

We had the night of the killer raccoon again.  it was around 3:30 am and I had just gone to the bathroom( my usual 2 a night) and climbed in bed and then all of a sudden squawking and screaming from the chicken coop. B hadn’t closed te back gate. Now, here’s the story. EVERY SINGLE NIGHT I say did you close the chickens in. EXCEPT for last night. So there’s a raccoon climbing over the fence and chickens still squawking.   We see the poor chicken in the bushes with blood on her feathers.  We get her in and hope she makes it thru the night. Well, she did and her comb is bloodied but she’s alive. We’re keeping them in this morning to recuperate and then will let them out later.

So, I never really got back to sleep so I feel kinda worn out. But today is gym day so I’ll go do that and then over to the Koffee klatch and see who shows up.

I’ve been working on a sourdough starter and it doesn’t seem to be activating. I bought it from Amazon from a good company. They have been helping me troubleshoot what could be wrong. This is day 6 and still not a lot of bubbles. I asked Amazon for a refund which they did and then bought another starter from the store.It’s the same brand so I hope it works otherwise I’ll order a totally different one. I’ll start the bread recipe tomorrow regardless and see how it goes.

last night we had a nice lentil curry and naan bread and a salad with greens from the garden. yummy!!

Tonight I’m going to do some chicken kabobs /tofu kabobs with salad.

The Sun!!

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It’s amazing. The sun is out. Of course, it’s still pretty cold out there but at least it’s sunny. It should be sunny for at least a few days.

Today, I’m still not going to the gym. I don’t want to be ‘that’ person everyone is staring at because I sound like I have TB. So I’ll wait another day. I waited this long to join the gym I can be sick and not push myself.

My daughter is off to work and the freeway is clear( I hope). My son starts his spring semester today so he’ll be off soon. I’m taking a huge load to the food bank and then come home and work on some laundry. I need to get coffee but I think I’ll just make a small pot tomorrow as I’m going to Costco. Buying a pound at Starbucks is @ $13 and at Costco, it’s 2 1/2 lbs for $18. So I’ll wait.

I’ve gathered up the tax stuff and it’s pretty straightforward this year. Last year I bought the online version of Turbo tax instead of the physical and I liked it better so I’ll do that again.

We’re lucky we didn’t lose a chicken last night as one was outside the enclosed at night coup. There were feathers all over so I’m guessing something tried to get it but it got away, at least I think I counted 11 chickens. I’ll do another head ( beak count) later. when it’s rainy and dark it’s hard to tell if everyone is in.

Tonight is taco Tuesday.  I was thinking of making some beef enchiladas but I’ll see how ambitious I feel later.