It doesn't happen often

Snow- 5 inches or so. Schools canceled before the first flake fell.

Blessings

I generally like to not post much about my family, but since some of you are feeling low this Christmas- with some very good reasons- I thought I'd share with you why I am not.

About two weeks ago my mother fell backwards down the basement steps. She is on coumadin (an anticlotting medication) for a heart condition which predisposes her to strokes and other nifty issues. In falling, she cracked open her head in back and started bleeding. As bad luck would have it, my father was away from the house on some errand. A few years back my folks had decided to put a phone in the basement, which is unfinished, just in case an emergency arose, and after she collected herself (she doesn't know if she lost consciousness or was just dazed) she was able to dial 911. My mother always keeps the front door locked when she is in the house by herself but on this day, she left it open. The rescue squad came right quickly, were able to get into the house, found her in the basement, and got her loaded up when they couldn't stabilize her. About that time my dad came home to find her getting in the process of being transported to the hospital, IVs running like mad because her blood pressure was dangerously low and she was bleeding like stink. Scalp wounds always bleed, but when you are not clotting normally, it is a holy mess. In the ER, they were able to staple her scalp and get that under control, but her pressure still wouldn't come up, so they admitted her. Over the next two days her blood count kept falling; she was bleeding into her tissues; her entire back one massive bruise. They did a CAT scan to see if she was bleeding internally and she wasn't. She was transfused which helped her clot besides giving her some red cells and on day three she was able to go home, tired and bruised and in pain, but home.

This has been a year of some really great moments for me, and I have shared some of those with you. There have been times that have been not so grand too, and I generally keep those to myself, not because I mind hearing about your troubles, but I don't reckon you need to hear about mine. But I will tell you, I feel pretty blessed all in all when it comes down to the important stuff, and I am ready to celebrate the birth of my Savior- you may not know him, but I do. Praise God from whom all blessings flow. Have a Happy Christmas.

The Christmas Cactus

This Christmas cactus belonged to my grandmother and was a fixture in her house for as long as I can remember. When she died, my mother took possession of it and eventually handed it on to me. It has been split about four times and many starts have come off it over the years. Two years ago it was looking rather sickly and so my father and I replanted it, a rather large undertaking. It is looking better this year than it has for many years. Regardless of how it has looked, it has bloomed faithfully and abundantly every year that I have had it. It is on a sun porch facing south. I turn it every month or so. I love plants, but I particularly love this one for the connection it has to my grandmother.

Conyers

Well, I've got all my gear together for a triple pig show down in Conyers this weekend. About a seven hour drive for me, I'll leave tomorrow after packing up the pigs. This show I am trotting out some little projects I have going on in the caviary, red eyed oranges, teddies, etc. Not my big guns. Those girls and boys came home and are all in breeding. I don't want to mess them up by traveling with them. It's rainy here, tons of wet leaves in the yard, but as always (or until we get a tropical system) we need the rain. Have a good weekend. See you round the bend.

Trees in my yard

The leaves are pretty much at peak color right in our area now. We have had several days of rain and so a lot are starting to be knocked down. This is my backyard- you can see one of my squirrel boxes in the pine on the right side of the picture.

This is standing in my yard looking down the street.

My favorite tree in the yard, a white oak. The bottom leaves are still green and the top are brown, it is shaded as it goes up. Most of the leaves will fall from it this fall unlike some oaks that seem to need the new leaf budding in the spring to push the old leaf off. Ded probably knows more about that sort of thing than I so. I could throttle my husband, he nailed that bluebird house to the tree because I cut down the damn pine that the house WAS on.

Earl

TM (The Duke of) Earl. On October 2, we had a litter of creams born and one of the little babies had two clubbed feet in front. He could still scramble to get under mom and get his grub, he just walked on the back of his wrists. We tried stretching the tendons to allow him to walk more normally (the more you walk wrong, the more the bones won't develop right and the greater the chances that things will never improve). And it worked pretty well with his left wrist. His right wrist however remained turned under so that he is really walking on top of the outer two toes. But he gets around. He holds it up when not running, that leg is now shorter than the other, and you can feel that the bones aren't right. But that is what we figured would happen. Anyhow, on October 6th a young man came to look at two girl pigs. These girls were a little bigger and hadn't been played with and were nice breeding sows, not pets. And so I said to the fellow, look, if you want a pet, this little crippled baby is your best bet. We are holding him a lot working with him, so he will be very tame. And the fellow said, OK, let me think about it. So he went home, thought about it, decided a free baby pig was just the ticket for him, and he named him Earl. Earl went home with his new dad this weekend. It seems like a good fit. It was hard to get a picture of his clubbed foot, maybe you can see it tucked up close to his body on the right.

TM Take A Gander

The picture on the left is her glam shot for the front of the JACBA (the magazine of the fancy), the one on the right is her posing with her RIS award. Amazingly, most pigs will sit and pose after you have worked with them awhile. Her showing off her assets is what helped her out,, I swear she was posing and flirting with the judges.