Already off to a bad weekend!!!

Hi Everyone!

I try hard to be positive in my blog, but yesterday started off as a "bad" weekend.

Bud, my dwarf Great Pyrenees was whining and I checked him over and cut off all his fiber from the belly and chest to
see what was going on. I thought maybe a foxtail in his privates, so called the vet, but he doesn't work on Friday,
so I talked with his tech (this is a puppy picture and his two sisters were 5 times this size at eight (8) weeks old--he's 5 now and only about the size as his sisters as eight (8) wk old puppies...nice to have a forever puppy). He cried on and off through the night, but we couldn't do anything until morning. So, at 7 am PST, we were up and got everything ready to shear more of his fiber off (we wound up using a scissor to cut off the fiber). We found a bloody spot on his left hind leg where some foxtails got into his leg and he was trying to chew them out. Although I'm sure it hurts, it's a lot better than having a urinary or kidney infection. So we cut off as much fiber as we could and hand pulled out the foxtails. Poor dog. Now that we got rid of most of our animals (we only have two sheep and 3 alpacas and 1 chicken, plus Bud, our guard/herd dog and Norphan, our barn cat), they aren't enough to keep the pastures down. So, I'll have to be mowing more. Oh well, the life of a shepherdess is rarely, if ever done.

Also, we're not finished yet as Lance had to go into work. I gave Bud a pet tranquilizer to help his relax so we can take the rest of the foxtails out...so Lance will be home shortly. I missed the Farmers Market this morning. But Bud's worth it.

Other than that, I spun up a Ramouillet/Merino fleece and set the fiber. It's drying now, so later today I'll be able to get it ready for next week's market. Last market, I sold 8 skeins of wool so needed to get more out there. I'm now working on a grey alpaca fleece I'd bought at the Oregon Flock and Fiber Festival (affectionately known as OFFF) last year: http://www.flockandfiberfestival.com/. On Sunday mornings from 8 am to Noon, they have a group of people selling the fleeces and fiber they didn't sell during the Black Sheep Gathering aka BSG (http://www.blacksheepgathering.org/) and at OFFF, so you can get really good bargains there. I usually buy 1-4 fleeces for around $30-50. Not too shabby for nice quality fleeces (Imagine nicely sheared, silver gray/white with a few second cuts and some vegetable matter aka vm--I'll post a pic when I can find my husband's digital camera). It's spinning up so easily I can hardly believe it, so maybe I'll have some alpaca skeins next weekend for the next market.

I had surgery on February 9, 2009, and the surgeon inserted a second row of electrodes under the first row. Turns out the first row which was put in 15 months before, dislodged a small fraction of an inch and it stopped working. Imagine having 80% pain relief and reduced meds by 80% as well, then have 100% pain and not enough meds to take care of it like a sock in the face. Ooooh, I was in so much pain. Well, we figured out that the first row had gotten the right place completely by accident under the assumption that it was the right Trigeminal nerve (the 3 branched nerve with the 3rd branch being the one the dentists use to numb your jaw when they drill a cavity, the second under the eye and the 3rd by your eyebrow--with matching branches on each side of your face). So, now that we know it was actually the infra-orbital nerve they needed to have the electrodes by (and remember, I've had seven (7) brain surgeries since 1993 for a benign tumor that wouldn't stop growing until about 2 years ago) to relieve the pain. Once they got that in place, the pain reduced by, more or less, 60%. So although the pain was reduced significatly from 100%, it wasn't as successful as I was hoping it would be, but it's still better than 100% pain. I'm sure you agree. I'm just grateful for more than 50% pain relief...thank the God/Goddess/Whomever. I was also happy I'd had my hair stylist cut off all the hair on the right side 2-3" out from the ear so the surgeon wouldn't cut my hair again. The last time, he did a nasty job, but then he didn't train as a stylist--he's a neurosurgeon--he shouldn't have to cut hair. LOL They had to shave the area as the hair started growing back after 4 days, but still, there was a line he could follow. All in all, he did a damn fine job. And although I still get tired easier, I'm getting stronger each day. I'm doing more than I was doing for the 15 months before. Here I am a little bruised and the worst for wear, but alive. This is right after the surgery after they took all the hoses and lines out. I was having nasty nightmares from one of the two anesthetics they gave me and I told them to make a note of it that I was not to have the second anesthetic again. It took me a lot longer to wake up than it was supposed to, so I think I'm allergic to it. Better to be safe than dead...right? The nurses brought Lance up to recovery hoping I'd calm down, but until I came out of it, they were really worried. We had to drive home that night and got home at 3 am, but I felt better. Knowing all this after the fact rather frightened me, but I'm still here and living la vida loca.

I finished my sister, Karen's, afghan. I crocheted it with Ronaldsay (gray) and Icelandic (black & charcoal) yarn. It turned out very nice and I think she'll love it. I'm working on a custom hugging cat with with white Finnsheep wool dyed turquoise. I'm in the stuffing process and then I'll put on the face and whiskers. It should turn out nicely. I'll post the pictures later.

It's time to check on Bud, so I'll close for now.

Mindful spinning,
Jet