Happy Farmer Friday “Snowmageddon Part I”
Happy Farmer Friday!!
So buckle in while I catch you up on why I skipped last week. I was horribly sick and could tell I had an infection and thought it was from my biopsy procedure the previous Thursday. And because of Covid - my fever and chills required I prove it wasn’t Covid (twice) or flu (neither fluA or fluB) before I got antibiotics. But before I get ahead of myself: in September I got my annual mammogram (like I always do) but it was the new MRI type. There was a poster in the waiting room that said, “Have you been told you have dense breast tissue? If so, you could benefit from our new mammogram technology. Ask us how.” So since I’m always told “you have REALLY dense tissue,” I asked about the new technology. Since the imaging is in slices - it helps detect anomalies soooo much earlier for women with dense breast tissue. Dense tissue looks “brighter” and can camouflage masses.
It was an easy & quick in-and-out as usual. On the way out I was handed my annual appointment card for next time. One week later I thought “no news is good news!” The next day I got called to come in for an ultrasound of an area on my right breast. There was a small.... anomaly.
Fast forward to the ultrasound. I’m chill, and while looking at the ultrasound (my experience is searching for kidney stones and babies), I say “cool rainbow - what’s that?” [With averted eyes] the tech says, “uhhh, Blood flow.”
A few minutes after she left to have the doctor look at things, I was sitting across from the doctor being told to come back for a recheck in 6 months. Of course this was when Jon was away on that TDY assignment that went from 2 to 6 months.
So... 6 months later, Jon was back and I was remammo-ed, ultrasounded and ready to hear “no changes - nothing to worry about with this ‘complicated cyst’.” Instead I was told that I needed a biopsy. The walls had changed and there was other growth to the “mass.” So a week later I was having a punch biopsy in tandem with ultrasound. Had a marker put in for later reference and a follow up mammogram. I was told any news will be good news because we caught things so early - and there’s a chance it’s nothing.
When I got the call the next week that I was a very lucky woman - told that I had a tubular adenoma and that it’s the rarest of benign breast tumors, I was sick with fever and chills and could hardly celebrate properly! Lol - isn’t that life though? So two negative Covid tests and flu swabs later... I was put on doxycycline and singing all sorts of praises to God just 3 doses in! I’m now almost done with my antibiotics and very pleased to say: get your mammograms ladies!! And if you have ever been told you have dense breast tissue - get the new imaging done! If this had been cancerous, it would have been stage 0 or 1 and a heck of a lot more manageable to tackle because of early detection.
So. Now for a different kind of boob talk: Get ready for cute Barbados Blackbelly hair sheep photo overload! Her Mama never bagged up (milk didn’t come in) so she needed to be bottle fed. I’m grateful for a friend that reached out to me to ask... and for a husband that said yes and “do we need to go right now? I will start the car!” When he posted cute pictures of Astrid the lamb, in diapers... in the house, he had a friend comment that he’s lucky to have such a patient wife. I completely agree!
The goats have all turned into fluffy marshmallows due to the heavy undercoats spurred on by the winter that keeps surprising us with more ice, snow, and even colder days! We are forecast to get 6-15 inches on Sunday, so we have moved some of the portable shelters around and removed some fencing to make all shelter spaces available. Extra straw, for insulation, the addition of hay to snack on (it activates the rumen and keeps the goats warm). They seemed to quite like our team efforts. And of course we had to make it fun (see the video of Bella bragging about her mechanical bull skills! )!
And last week’s (skipped) big announcement was “Mamacita Sheba is back!!!!” And hopefully bred. Bella will pull blood soon. She tried to escape the farm she was at - so I am certain that she is pregnant. It’s kinda the way she nests. (Silly lakeshore goat.) She’s been well fed so we are thinking 2-3 kids this time.
Sheep are super woolly and cozy... our poor Miss Thang is still sporting her 80’s jazzercize outfit while her wool is growing back out. I’m also on the lookout for a little friend for Astrid. She’s going to eventually move out and need a pen-roomie that thinks she’s crazy for believing she is a German shepherd and needs a human couch to nap on.
The chickens are mostly great! New Girl has settled in (and puts herself in the coop like a good girl). But the Texas Twins have been fighting over her. I was shocked to see Dallas looking like Braveheart or a walking dead Roo- all the red. Warning it’s a graphic photo. But Fort Worth was worse. Breya helped me vetricin their wounds. They are both still alive... but I need to take one (or both) to the next swap. The meat birds are growing so much we split a third out into another space, and had to buy more heat lamps... this dang cold!! I had planned to have the meat birds in the (vacant) duck pen but the weather hasn’t permitted it.
Garfunkel has a sixth sense and has been AWOL both eve’s of scheduled surgeries to get fixed... he started to prowl lately and we don’t want him getting run over somewhere because he’s in search of the ladies!
Also in Garfunkel news - he started to fight with something so fiercely that the noises were loud and primal! Just as I had the hair stand up on the back of my neck, the dogs started barking - full hackles. Clearly Hagan was upset that anyone but he should be chasing the cat. As I went outside I started calling for our boy - and was answered by a bobcat in the tree just off our back patio. I yelled and it leapt and ran. Jon came running with his gun... but the nightscope batteries were dead! I was 90% certain that the eyes we were looking at through 30 feet of underbrush and trees was this (chicken and duck thieving) wild cat - but the shot wasn’t taken because we couldn’t confirm. Just in case. We live in the country and too many animals get dumped. Garfunkel was fine - we checked him over thoroughly and were thanked with loud purrs.
Enjoy the pics and videos!!
(Pssst... Bella got her braces off and smiles more! )
