12-13-24 Thought I'd add an image of our first snow of the 24-25 Winter season. Snow accumulation did not amount to much, however; with the previous accumulation of hoarfrost, there appears more snow accumulation than we actually received. Still, it's fun to take photos of Mother Nature's tapestry. Our scant snowfall this time did not call for breaking out the new snowblower mounted on the JD X590. Dang it! *smile*
Dec 4th was Sharon's Dr. appointment to get her left wrist looked at. However, that day we receive lots of freezing fog and Sharon flat refused to go being fearful of icy roads which required cancelling her appointment. Later, the weather cleared up some and I called for another appointment. Thankfully, the Dr. office was able to get us in on the 11th where X-Rays revealed a minor fracture. The Dr. said that surgery would not be necessary for her injury and was given a "wrist only" splint which she said was much more comfortable to wear. The splint that the ER put on Sharon did not last three hours before Sharon had it completely torn off. The ER splint went from her wrist, all the way to her elbow. I rewrapped it two times after her tearing it off. The third time she tore it off... I said enough is enough, she went without her ER splint. Anyway, with her new wrist splint, Dr. said to return in a month for a check up.
12-01-24 Hello! How time has slipped away. Here it is December and I do not have much to show for the time between now and my last posting. Well, I do but don't know that there has been much exciting stuff along the way. Wait! Exciting? I try to kid myself as I have surely been busy. Keeping the property mowed and weed eated are a little more challange arranging times between tending to Sharon needs and daily chores. In past years, Sharon has been able to help me mow the property. However, her old Troy-Bilt mower manual controls got too hard for her to manage. I bought her a new John Deere X590 mower that is fully automatic, push button controls and hydrostatic. However, she now is having memory issues concerning what control does what. Not sure how much longer she will be able to continue mowing. It breaks my heart seeing her get confused with controls as she truely loves to mow and gets upset at the thought of not being able to continue mowing.
Getting ready for Winter has had its challanges as well. My gen-set project finally is complete. I purchased a propane Generac 24kw whole house generator set in December of 2022, however; the independant contractor I hired to install it decided he could not install it for me and this decision came AFTER I dug a 117ft trench for conduit and wiring. This was just before Fall of 2023 and I had to fill in the trench because it was too late in the year to complete the install via another contractor and I couldn't leave an open trench all winter with deer and other animals roaming the property. In October of 2024, I found another contractor who was a major electrical contractor that finally installed the gen-set for me. Yes, I had to redig the 117ft trench, but this time the conduit and wire were laid and the gen-set is installed and functioning as expected. It's very comforting not worrying about power outages any more. Note that I installed the generator on railroad ties. During installation I thought about the highwater event that occurred in 2014 and decided it best to raise the gen-set 9 inches higher than ground level. A high water event has never occurred since, however; mother-nature is waiting for the perfect conditions again. *smile*
For those who are interested in Sharon's progress of her Parkinson's, she doing as well as can be expect with a progressive disease. She does fairly well while her medications are on an upswing. Her mobility is gradually decreasing where she stumbles more. If she wears slippers with a smooth sole she does pretty good. Seems any shoe or slipper that has any amount of tread causes her foot to grab the carpeting more. Recently she fell again and this time she cracked her left wrist. She broke her right wrist pretty bad a couple years ago which required surgery. Hopefully, this time her injury will be less severe, but it is still painful. She sees a doctor this Dec 4th to learn how bad this current injury is. Also concerning are her delirium moments where she sees people or multiple pets or events out on the property of people in distress that appear to need immediate help. Sharon tries to get out to help them, sometime taking quite a bit to convience her that the people or event do not exist. We are hanging in there so far and most days are fairly unremarkable. With that, I best get this on the web before the year has totally run out on me. I'll try to be a little more chatty next year. *smile*
06-11-24 A very late "Hello". I certainly hope you were not waiting up. *smile* To say time has become somewhat compressed this year would be an enormas understatement. As you may have noticed, my webpages have fallen behind. My apologies for that, however; I have a valid excuse... my free time has all but disappeared. I am covering far more in house tasks as well as all outside the house tasks. Sharon's failing memory has increased to the point that I've found it best I do most all tasks of living myself. Sharon can still do a few things, but I have to keep a close eye as she forgets simple things. One example, she can still do the dishes fairly well, but doesn't always get all dishes or silverware back in their proper places causing me to hunt for cooking or eating utinsels. I've not allowed Sharon to cook anymore. She will turn on a stove burner then forget to place a pan on it or forget to check food in pan she's cooking to the point of a smoking blacken remains. This happend enough times that it was time to keep her from using those items that have "fire" potential. Yes, that means that I now do all the cooking. Thankfully, I learned to cook at a very early age, a skill that has certainly come in handy. Sharon understandably feels bad that she is not helping more as she feels she should. I try to reassure her that I'm doing ok and that I do ask for her help where she is able to.