Definitely A Fall Day

Rain and rain along with much cooler temperatures—have had a fire in the fireplace all day and another fire in the wood stove downstairs.  We can see fresh snow on the foothills all around us. 

Michael had a better night and we both got some much needed sleep.  His severe pain is improved but he still hurts and the swelling in both his wrists will just not go away.  We are pondering our next step.  He spent the day dozing and doing sudoku puzzles.  This disease process is starting to wear on both our attitudes as you can imagine.

I spent the day quilting and thoroughly enjoyed myself.  This little quilt called a Lazy Crazy Quilt belongs to Marti and it is quilting up beautifully. 

Late this afternoon Annette and Ed came up to introduce themselves.  They are Arizona friends of our friends Jim and Linda who live in Tombstone.  Last summer and this summer they have rented the cabin belonging to our friends George and Shirley.  We enjoyed coffee, homemade cookies and getting to know them a little. 

Michael and Emmi are out for a short walk, he just needed to get out of the house for a while.  Emmi got a bath and semi haircut today. 

Here is another shot of those beautiful fall leaves and berries taken in the morning light instead of afternoon light: And here is a photo Laurie graciously allowed me to use that was taken while we were enjoying lunch with she and Odel on Friday.

Enough Is Enough

My poor, poor Michael.  He was up and down most of the night in terrible pain, is it ever going to end?  It will be three weeks tomorrow that all this started.  We changed medications yesterday and this particular med has nasty side effects.  Today he has not moved far from between the recliner and the bed.  His constant pain is much relieved today but he still can’t use his arms without pain.  I just want him to be better please God.

I haven’t accomplished much today—I’ve tried to nap too.  Trimmed Emmi’s hair around her eyes so she could see, hauled some firewood from up in the pasture to the house—the good ole weather man is predicting possible snow tomorrow night and cleaned the house a little.  I have been trying to get a quilt on the frame too. 

Noticed these strange clouds over the West Boulder mountains this morning while out walking with Emmi.

What A Treat

For several days we have been following the journey of Laurie and Odel from Minnesota to Montana.  We have traded emails and today they called to tell us they would be traveling through Big Timber just after lunch time.  We arranged a meeting place in a big gas station parking lot and then walked uptown to the Grand for lunch.  What a delightful time—getting to know someone whose blog you have followed is always interesting and Laurie and Odel were just so much fun.  We found out we have many friends in common and found out that Odel has a secret longing to be a cowboy.  After a long lunch we bid our goodbyes for this time and will look forward to meeting up with them in the desert this winter.

I spent lots of time today on the phone with the state of Idaho and the dealership where we purchased the motorhome.  Still no title, Rollie said last night that we had been trying to get a title for a week—more like two weeks we have been calling and calling.  I finally did get the state of ID to agree to issue another title if we haven’t received the original one by Tuesday. 

So, no Canadian trip for us right now—we miss Gina and Rollie terribly—they have been so incredibly helpful to us and it was a joy getting to know them better.  Safe travels guys and enjoy JB and Brenda’s.

Mom and Chuck headed out mid morning back over to the Park—their work will keep them there until the end of September.  Both of them are ready to be done!

Ripening chokecherries and turning leaves—fall is here.

Good Morning

After arriving home at 10pm, I decided the blog could wait till morning.  My quilt guild meeting was a long one last night, lots of discussion about the upcoming October quilt show and the author of a book about Montana historical quilts spoke. 

Rollie and Gina came up yesterday and Rollie worked his magic helping Michael fix the refrigerator door we broke on Sunday while traveling to Billings.  We forgot to lock the door of the refrigerator and as we turned a big curve on the Boulder road the door swung open and fell off!!!  YIKES!!!  What a mess, a beer bottle broke all over the place, we smelled a little boozy going down the road but now we have a fixed door.  They also worked on our awning that had a mind of its own—it would come out then immediately retract.

Gina worked on etching some wine glasses and the glasses turned out very nicely.  She put initials on some and wildlife on others. 

And me, I was on the phone with the motorhome dealership half the day—we still have no title and as a result, we won’t be leaving today with Gina and Rollie to head to JB and Brenda’s.  We are very, very sad and disappointed along with angry.  At this rate we may have to go to Post Falls, ID and retrieve the title!

Mom and Chuck came over yesterday too, they both got haircuts in Big Timber.  I fixed baby back ribs on the grill for lunch and Nat came up, too.  Corn on the cob and roasted potatoes made for a great meal.

Today I want to fuss at the motorhome dealership some more and hopefully quilt—I need some time in that quilt studio. 

My poor garden, our mornings have been so cool, the tomatoes will never get ripe but I did get this squash yesterday, we combined it with some yellow squash from the farmer’s market and fried it—yes, I actually fried something and oh, boy was it good! Fresh snow on the mountains yesterday morning.

Michael Is Much Better

We have a very good friend who is a retired doctor—I called him last night and discussed Michael.  He was coming to Big Timber on business this morning and we arranged to meet for coffee.  Our friend was quite positive Michael had gout saying the blood test that supposedly proves gout is wrong 30% of the time!  He suggested when we went to the clinic that we ask to be treated for gout—if it isn’t gout, the medications weren’t going to harm Michael.  So, that is what we did.  The nurse practitioner we saw was very accommodating and as she was as stumped as all the other professionals have been had no problems with treating Michael as if he had gout.  Well—it worked!  He has had ONE gout medication pill and his arms aren’t hurting for the first time in two and a half weeks—and he has had no narcotics this afternoon.  It is wonderful to see him pain free.

So, Michael has been asleep all afternoon and I have been cooking—I made 10 dozen cookies and a cream cheese pound cake.  I have a quilt guild meeting tomorrow night and it is my turn to help provide goodies. 

Over the last three days we have had two and one half inches of rain—unusual for the end of August, first of September.

If Michael continues to improve and we get the title for the motorhome, we are heading to Canada with Gina and Rollie, hopefully Friday.  It will be nice to try out the motorhome!

Emmi To The Vet

Poor Emmi—today was her first real veterinarian appointment—she had her puppy shots but this was much more traumatic.  She wasn’t impressed, she growled at Kirk, our vet, when he took her temp and yelped when she got her shots.  We also had to draw blood to do the heart worm test before we can start her on heart worm meds.  I discussed the rattlesnake vaccine with Kirk, too.  I wanted to discuss it with Michael before we went that route but I think we will probably give Emmi the vaccine—Kirk said I was right that a rattlesnake bite would probably kill a dog as small as Emmi. 

If my poor Michael is any better it is only by a slim margin.  We are going to the little clinic in Big Timber tomorrow to discuss other options and to get a prescription for more pain meds.

Gina, Rollie and friends of theirs—Dale and Mark came up for dinner—Gina even brought the dinner, taco soup, with her, now what more could I ask for??  We visited for a short while then they all headed off to show Dale and Mark our Natural Bridge State Park. 

This morning before we went into Big Timber I took compost out to the compost pile and noticed that the whole cantaloupe I tossed in last week was no longer whole—most of it was missing.  As I began my walk back to the house a large “pile” caught my eye—YEEKS—bear poop with chokecherry seeds, very close to the house. 

The brown spot in the lower right corner is the bear poop—this is where we park the motorhome behind our house and the fence is an enclosure around our apple trees and garden. 

Calli came and picked up her quilt today, she was very pleased and so was I.

We are hoping for a better day tomorrow.

Home At Last

Saturday night after Gina, Rollie and myself got back from YNP we enjoyed a delicious dinner of Gina’s beef stew and cornbread—the weather was perfect for it, cool and rainy.

During the night Michael was up and down with lots of swelling in his hand and lots of pain.  Sunday bright and early we decided to head home and try to find a doctor to see again.  Gina and Rollie need to pick up a motorcycle lift for Mike and Pat in Livingston so they decided to stay until Monday. 

By the time we got home, Michael was miserable.  I discovered that the walk in clinic at St. Vincent’s Hospital in Billings was open on Sundays so off we went.  Michael decided we should take the motorhome in case there was the chance we would be referred to a specialist on Monday.  We were SO glad we took the motorhome.  St. Vincent’s has electric hookups for patients in one of their parking lots so we even had power.

We walked into the same day care around 4pm and the long process began.  I was a bit disconcerted when someone from the business office came in, asked a bunch of questions and asked for my credit card.  All this before we even saw a doctor—in my past career as a nurse, it was unethical and I think illegal to request money before treatment! 

And we waited some more—after more than an hour we finally saw a nurse practitioner who was totally baffled by Michael’s symptoms.  Next we saw a physician who was also totally baffled but started the ball rolling by moving us to the ER department where things were supposed to happen a little faster, NOT!  Lots of blood work drawn, an IV and IV antibiotics and STILL no diagnosis.  At least they gave Michael something for pain so he was a little more comfortable.  Finally after 10:30PM we are being released to go—the doctor wanted to admit Michael but we vetoed that idea.  Michael really needed some pain medications but refused to wait any longer in the ER for someone to finally get him something.  OK, now it is almost 11pm and we are upstairs waiting at the pharmacy window—the tech comes and tells me they had to call the ER doctor because the dosage for the antibiotics was incorrect.  We wait and wait, Michael is getting more and more uncomfortable—I lost it—I picked up the house phone on the wall, asked to be connected to the ER and told the nurse on the phone, “find that Dr. Parker and light a fire under him—tell him to call the pharmacy NOW.”  Shortly thereafter the phone rang in the pharmacy and we were on our way. 

We were so incredibly glad we had decided to bring the motorhome.  Emmi stayed in it while we were over at the hospital and now we could just crawl into bed.

Mike feels some better today but did not feel able to drive the motorhome back to McLeod so I did!!!  I managed to get us out of the parking lot with Michael’s direction and we headed home.  This motorhome drives so well compared to our other one. 

It is a very cool 45 degrees and raining, we are relaxing in front of the fire in the fireplace and are very glad to be home.