As I slowly regain my mobility (well, it seems slow to me), I have discovered how far behind I have been on everything. I expected to have muddy pigs and chickens because I was unable to move them to new paddocks, but I was surprised to learn that I did more sleeping than work on the computer. Apparently, I needed the sleep as part of my healing. As I’ve continued to heal, I’m sleeping less and getting more done, on all levels, and I’m grateful.
Thursday February 1 was a gorgeous day with temperatures in the mid sixties. Pretty nice for February in Oklahoma! But it was windy. Surprise, surprise. What did surprise me was discovering that Roger rabbit’s cage had been blown off its stand and the cage was on the ground, empty. That saddened me. After the turkey losses in the extreme cold, I am now discovering that my tame rabbit may have gotten into the wild, only to be eaten because he didn’t know to run. I did find him a couple of hours later, relaxing outside the turkey pen, keeping the lone hen company. I was correct about the tame part though. After I had secured his pen better, I had no problem picking him up and returning him to a secure location.
Physical therapy went well. I am now okayed to wean myself off the medical boot. I still have to wear one to do chores because of the rough terrain, but I can wear regular shoes until the foot gets tires. Nice!
I got both the unedited and edited version of the Wesleyan Christian game posted to Kinzie Lackey Sports. I also posted “How’d I Do in 2023?” It can be seen here.
The next evening, we felt the earthquake that hit in central Oklahoma. I thought the washer was going out of balance before I realized that it wasn’t running, It wasn’t a bad earthquake. I had certainly felt worse when I lived in Alaska and most certainly when I lived in southern California when the Northridge earthquake hit. We were a couple of hundred miles away from that quake and it absolutely brought us up out of bed. We felt several of the aftershocks for a few days afterwards. I find it interesting that we are known for tornadoes here in Oklahoma and now we feel earthquakes, too. Rain was in the forecast so I set up a shower curtain over Roger’s cage. He has a roof, but it is not adequate to keep him dry in blowing rain.
On February 5, I posted the the basketball games of Copan and last years’ game against Chelsea. I should explain. Kinzie has expressed a desire to go to college on a softball scholarship. Our school is not good about posting games on the HUDL platform, one designed for scouts to find athletes. I started the YouTube channel so that scouts can find her, hopefully. I have been posting the basketball games as practice for the upcoming softball season. I want to do whatever I can to provide the tools Kinzie needs to obtain whatever she wants.
The mud is pretty bad on my pigs and I still can’t get into the pen nor move their huts so I threw straw down for them to give them a little reprieve from the mud. I also dug out my seeds and started sorting them in preparation for indoor starts. We still had another wall panel to put up outside the bathroom and I decided that I was not gong to be intimidated and actually was able to measure, cut and install the wall panel by myself. I felt pretty good about that. I also posted the video “My Goals for 2024.” It can be seen here.
On Thursday the 8th, after a difficult physical therapy session that wore me out, I discovered that the wind was stronger than I had thought. Poor Roger was on the ground again. This time, the cage stayed closed but he was in a severely tilted angle and was probably happy to be put level again. When I went down to the mobile egg unit, I discovered that one of the chicken tractors had slid across the pasture and had halfway into their paddock. As tired and sore as I was from the physical therapy session, I managed to pull the chicken tractor back out of the paddock and reset the fence. I was proud of myself for being able to do that…and not hurt myself in the process. I was also glad to see every bird accounted for unhurt.
Saturday, Tom cleaned out the mobile egg unit and collected cuttings for grafting the pecan trees on the property. I focused on getting things done in the house, including video work so that we could drive to Summit Christian in Broken Arrow for the second of two days of the district tournament. The girls had won their game Friday against Drumright but lost Saturday against Summit Christian. Still, the win against Drumright earned them a place in the losing bracket of the regional tournament. Very cool.
Monday morning of the 12th, we woke up to snow on the ground and more snow falling. It was beautiful and, since it was just above freezing, it was not dangerous to walk or drive on. The snow, about three inches was gone by noon. In my opinion, I was just fine with that. That video can be seen here:
On Wednesday, I drove to Tulsa to see the surgeon about being released from his care. Two minutes after walking into the examination room, I was released. It was kind of surreal to be back in the car literally fifteen minutes after parking, but I was. I was also released. No more appointments with the surgeon. No more physical therapy appointments. I will continue my physical therapy sessions at home. Cool. The surgeon did say it will probably be a year before I’m 100 percent with my Achilles and bone spur surgery. He had not mentioned that in the past. Regardless, I will continue my therapy at home and get on with my life. Nice.
Yesterday, Tom took the day off and we drove to Gore for the regional basketball tournament. The girls were a little off of their game and that’s too bad because they lost a game they were fully capable of winning. The season is over and Kinzie is already gearing up for the spring softball season with a competitive league. There’s always something going on.
The trees are starting to show signs of life and I am seeing patches of green grass in places too. It is supposed to get below freezing the next two nights and the wind is howling outside right now, but that’s perfectly normal. It is nice to see signs of spring emerging anyway.
That’s all I’ve got for you for now. See you next time.