Sudokuaholics Anonymous 11

Life is 10% what happen to you,
and 90% how you react to it!

Charles R Swindoll

I was out in the pasture dragging a cattle panel, when I noticed the tooth was gone. I don't think I swallowed it. I would have noticed something in my mouth, I think.

Mine, I was chewing a piece of steak. I noticed it missing right after I swallowed. It was an 'implant crown'. the screw that was supposed to hold it in place, didn't..

Heidi, how awful that you lost a crown, and especially that you don't know when or where it happened. I'm with CynB, though, on her reaction to how DOrA recovered a lost crown. I must admit that it would be the least expensive alternative.

CynB, we're keeping fingers crossed and positive energy coming for Col! Hubby's cornea specialist told us a full cornea transplant can be as much as a year or two for full recovery, but just a matter of months for a partial transplant recovery. Already hubby started talking about driving somewhere. I told him that won't happen until he's cleared for driving by the surgeon. That may not happen very soon, as he has problems with his other eye that may need to be treated.

Such good news about your granddaughter Hayley, CynB! Good for her for realizing she needed to make a change in living arrangements in order to be successful at University! With that kind of strength and perseverance, she will no doubt do very well!

Great TOPP, CynB! And so true . . .

DOrA, how annoying that the implant screw didn't hold the crown! Hopefully you weren't charged anything for the 'repairs.'

Thinking of all our fellow Sudokuaholics and sending positive thoughts, healing energy, prayers, {{{{{HUGS}}}}}, and for All!

Good Night and stay safe & healthy!

No Julie, I wasn't charged for the repair, but the Doctors staff were more than a little P.O.ed when I walked in and asked for warantee work. The Dr told me that they were 'protective' of him. (as it should be, if he is good.)

This Dentist has done 3 implants, with crowns, for me. He is good...

Just spent the day running errands: getting food for dogs, Buddy, alpacas and cat, getting new filters for the furnace, paying property taxes. Then did feeding and watering. Cool day with a light drizzle all day.
I'll be unloading all the feed tomorrow, then resting my pack on Sunday.
I have a pain management appointment on Monday morning. Maybe I'll try to find a Christmas tree on the way home. I want to get a live balled tree that I can plant after Christmas.

Slept most of the day today, and only got essential feeding chores done. My ear infection is really bad right now.

DOrA, I can imagine the Dentist's staff must have been horrified when you asked for warrantee work. Apparently it was performed to your satisfaction, since you have a total of 3 implants.

Heidi, what a busy day you had and what a lot of errands were accomplished. So sorry your ear infections is so bad and kept you from unloading the feed. It's good that you slept most of the day I'm hoping you'll feel better and be able to have the pain management appointment on Monday. If you feel good enough to look for a live balled Christmas tree, I hope it can be delivered and set in place for you, rather than you needing to do that much work after your appointment.

Thinking of everyone and sending positive thoughts, prayers, healing energy, , and {{{{{HUGS}}}}} for each of you! Take care and stay healthy!

The appointment with Pain Management tomorrow morning isn't for an epidural. So I will be able to do some lifting afterwards. I think I will bring my trailer along, though, to haul a tree with. That will make loading and unloading much easier. There's a garden center on the way there that carries balled pine trees.

Didn't find a tree.... yet. The balled trees I saw today were awful. I'll look elsewhere tomorrow. I'm glad I decided not to bring my trailer today. I remembered how hard it was to find parkng places at the hospital with a trailer and decided that if I found a good tree, I'd pay for it and pick it up the next day.

Heidi, I hope you find a great tree! I'm glad you didn't take your trailer with you to your appointment, especially since the balled trees you saw weren't worth your time or effort! I hope your appointment with Pain Management was beneficial!

Thinking of Everyone! Here's hoping you are all keeping safe and healthy and looking forward to a wonderful holiday season! Take care, Everyone!

I have an early morning appointment tomorrow, so hope to get to bed earlier than usual! Sending healing energy, prayers, positive thoughts, {{{{{HUGS}}}}}, and !

Tomorrow at noon Mike and I will be sorting out 2 of his culls and one of us will be taking them to the sale barn.

Well, Christmas is coming and there's a lot to do and people to see.
The country is finally open. State borders are open and families are being reunited. Although I am so happy for everyone, I look on it with some trepidation. I must admit that restrictions made me feel safer and less likely to get Covid. I wonder if we will ever be able to feel carefree again?
That said, Christmas parties are in full swing. Met up with some friends for a Christmas lunch/get-together on Monday, my Art Group has it's Christmas party lunch today and we have another party on Sunday.
I have to try to find time to fit my siblings and their partners into the mix. We're all over 70 now and some are not in good health, my brother's wife in particular. Seeing them all seems more important these days.
My Grandie Hayley came shopping with me yesterday and helped me finish off most of my Christmas shopping. That's a relief.
Heidi, my Christmas tree went up last week but it's just a store bought fake tree. Because of our climate up here, we don't have access to the lovely real Christmas trees. I did find a farm that specialises in growing and selling Christmas trees, but their prices started at $170. They are balled so can be replanted but I doubt a tree would survive in our hot steamy weather. Sadly not a realistic proposition. I would love to get a real one.

I fed the calves early today, so had them all caught in the holding pen. I set upall the gates to funnel them into the barn, so when the Mike the Vet drove up with his trailer, the cow and steer were ready to load (they belong to him. I'm just taking care of them). His other cull cow surprised us. She has a massive abcess (the size of a basketball) on her hind leg. As we walked past her to load up the other 2, her abcess ruptured. Exploded, really. Talk about a stinking mess! She's ancient, has no teeth left, and can barely get around, so he knows he has to euthanize her. He just is so attached to that cow that he hasn't been able to bring himself to do it. So we have her in a small-ish pen with the weaned calves where all the water, grain and hay she wants is in front of her for now. She calms the calves down. Life on a farm is never boring.

$170 is the price range I've been seeing for live balled trees here, too. I'm thinking of it more as an addition to my landscaping than as a Christmas tree. I have a spot where I really want a pine tree.

After we load up Mike's bull tomorrow (it's going to another farm for breeding for Fall calves), I'll be continuing my search for a nice balled tree.

CynB, you're right; Christmas is coming! Yikes! Only 2 1/2 weeks away. I can understand your concern about opening borders and suddenly being free to be with everyone else! It's so important to be able to see and be with family members! It's a bonus to be able to party and be with other friends & associates this time of year.

There is no way we will be able to be with family this year. My older brother (age 74) lives in Wisconsin; two other brothers live in Illinois; one sister is in Illinois, and the other in Iowa. These are all states with high Covid counts and varying degrees of quarantine requirements. Hubby's cousin's husband died the end of last week in a nursing home in Ohio. Her only sister lives in Oregon (west coast of U.S.) There won't be any gathering with any of them or with our children and grandchildren. We did a group FaceTime with children & grandchildren on Thanksgiving, so I'm sure we'll do the same on Christmas. I was able to talk to all but one brother on Thanksgiving, but couldn't reach the other, so sent an email. Hubby has no siblings and only one living uncle (late 90's). Both sets of parents and all of my aunts & uncles have passed. Maybe it's better that way, so they and we don't need to worry about any of them having to deal with Covid.

Heidi, it sounds like you were well prepared for sorting & transporting the cow to be sold. Unfortunately, things don't always go as planned. I guess the old cow will have more time and earn her keep by keeping the calves calm for now. Doesn't seem like things will be quiet and easy or boring for a while, though.

Wow! I've never priced a balled Christmas tree. They sure aren't a bargain, but if you are able to plant it after the holidays have passed, I can certainly see the advantage. We have two artificial trees, but I doubt that either of them will be set up and decorated this year. We're both 'running on empty' after what we've been dealing with the past couple of months. I'll be glad to get some Christmas cards addressed and sent!

Thinking of Everyone and sending healing energy, , positive thoughts, prayers, and {{{{{HUGS}}}}}! for all of you! Happy Hanukkah to all who celebrate (on Friday, I think).

Balled Christmas trees aren't an immediate bargain, but if you consider that you can use them in future years to decorate outdoors with lights, and that they help the environment for (hopefully) decades to come, they are worth the cost. Once we load up Mike's bull today, I'll be heading out to a garden center in Elizabethtown that I think will have good trees. Monday I went to Bardstown. If I can't find what I want in Elizabethtown, I'll ask those Garden Center people where I can find one. I WILL take my trailer along today.

Didn't get out to look for a tree. We had a slight change of plan with the cattle. After Mike picked up the bull and dropped him at the farm where he's being used for breding, he decided to come back and work the 2 pregnant cows that were in with the bull (they're due to calve in a month) and then treat the old cow with the abcess. He opened up the leg to flush the rest of the abcess out, only to discover that the poor thing had 5 or 6 fist sized chunks of dead flesh in there as well. He had to operate on the leg to clean all of the necrotic tissue and pus out. I assisted. He said he's never seen anything this bad and has no idea how this happened to her. There was no sign of a foreign body in there. She's up and walking around now, and putting some weight on the leg.

How amazing that the cow is up and walking after an operation like that. I hope she recovers well. For a human that would be traumatising.
Yes, I can understand that it would be worth the money to pay for a balled Christmas tree that will grow and last on your farm, Heidi. That's the same reason I won't buy one for here. It would not survive.
My Christmas party was enjoyable yesterday but I ate something that doesn't agree with me and feel awful today.
I'm going back to bed for now.

I think I feel the same as you Julie - not much energy here. We have no. 3 son's birthday on the 16th and daughters on the 23rd - and all here for Christmas lunch or dinner. Nothing too special - just relaxing and hoping it is hot so food can be prepared beforehand. Having a spot of bother with the last lot of stents and not as good as I hoped - also had cortisone injection on Tues in my hip to help with tendonitis. Will be up and about soon - so long as cariologist doesn't want to try and fix up the crooked stent - if so, it will be my third Christmas in hospital. Heidi - I cannot imagine how awful epidurals could be - and those nasty ear infections - hope the ear infection is on the improve. You have so much to do on the farm you cannot afford to be ill.
How lovely to have so many Christmas get-togethers CynB - great to catch up after this last horrible year. I used to have live pines until I ran out of places to plant them. The best was the Norfolk Pine as I was able to have it in a pot for many years. Sorry you will not be able to be with your family this year Julie - hopefully you will be able to see them sometime in the new year. The most important thing is to stay away from Covid.

Another unusual day on the farm, Heidi! Here's hoping you'll find the perfect tree when you get a chance to search for one! I also hope your ear is feeling much better!

That old cow is apparently a real trooper! I can hardly imagine what it must have been like for her with that huge access and the dead tissue. It's a good thing Mike came back and decided to flush out the rest of the access. I don't want to imagine what might have happened if he didn't. If the cow was up and walking after the operation, she certainly deserves some more time and good care!

CynB, I'm so sorry that something you ate at the Christmas party didn't agree with you. I certainly hope going back to bed has helped you to feel much better!

How is Col doing? I'm hoping for a Christmas miracle that will restore most of his vision in the coming months!

Midge, your family has a lot packed into the month of December! I'm so sorry the last group of stents weren't as good as you hoped. Hoping you'll at least be able to be home with family on Christmas! I hope you and your family can celebrate a wonderful Christmas together!

Thinking of all our fellow Sudokuaholics and hoping they're well and will be able to enjoy Christmas with loved ones!

Sending healing energy, positive thoughts, prayers, , and {{{{{HUGS}}}}}} for All!

Drove around today looking for balled pine trees. Nobody had any this year.... at least that couldn't be used as christmas trees. The best I found was a 3 foot tall spruce. I was told that I might be able to find one another 40 miles north (I was already 25 miles north of my farm), but decided it wasn't worth the drive on a possibility. So I bought a smallish cut scotch pine.

Sorry you weren't able to find a balled pine tree, Heidi. Next year you might be able to 'pre-order' one from a reliable nursery. I hope you'll enjoy the Scotch pine you bought!

The alarm is set for 'zero dark thirty' because I have a couple of doctor appointments tomorrow. One will probably take me 1.5 hours each way. Hopefully it doesn't take any longer, as my second appointment is 2 hours after the first and is in the opposite direction. I'm off to bed!

Sending healing energy, prayers, , {{{{{HUGS}}}}}, and positive thoughts to all! Good Night!

Too bad you can't give yourself frequent traveller miles, Julie. That's an insane amount of driving to get to 2 doctors appointments in one day.

I wasn't able to set up my tree yesterday. I took out my old tree stand, only to discover that it's too big for this tree trunk. I'm going to have to go out today and find a small tree stand. This problem doesn't happen with balled trees. I refuse to ever get an artificial tree. They're horrible for the environment.

Just had a major disaster. My young bull, Laird, wasn't acting lively last night when I fed the calves. So I went out to check on him around noon today. He was acting sluggish and had breathing problems. I called Mike immediately, thinking he had pneumonia (the temperatures have been going up and down drastically) and he rushed over. We got him up and walked him into the barn... where he collapsed and immediately died. We posted him, expecting pneumonia or heart disease. Both heart and lungs were healthy. So we checked further. He had a major blockage between the omasum (4th stomach) and the small intestine. Food wasn't able to pass out of the rumen (1st stomach), so it pressed against the lungs preventing him from breathing. There was nothing we could have done to save him. I really loved that little bull. He was so sweet and gentle, and stunningly beautiful.

Heidi, I am SO sorry to read about Laird! What an awful sequence of events! You have always spoken so highly of his wonderful personality and how perfect he looked! What a horrible blow! I can't imagine how you must be feeling. Sending positive thoughts and gentle {{{HUGS}}}}

Thinking of all of our Sudoku friends and sending healing energy, prayers, positive thoughts, {{{{{HUGS}}}}}, and Good Night and Stay safe!

I can't seem to stop crying. I really loved that little bull.
During last calving season, when he was just a baby, he would come up to me to be petted every time I went out in the pasture to check the cows. I've never known of any calf to do that. He was so special.

Oh, I am so sorry to hear about Laird, Heidi!
I too remember you speaking so fondly of him ever since his birth. What a horrible thing to happen.
If only animals could tell us they weren't well.

He DID tell me. I rushed Mike the Vet out during his lunch break because he fell sick so quickly. I knew this was a major emergency. Laird told me it was serious. I just didn't know what was wrong.

Heidi, you did what you could for Laird. There was no way for you to guess what was wrong. What a horrible turn of events for him and for you. Luckily you have some wonderful memories of him since he was born that can't be taken from you. He obviously knew he was loved and had a special place in your heart. Some people could live several lifetimes without ever having the opportunity to have such a special animal. Sending more {{{HUGS}}} your way!

Thinking of all of our fellow Sudokuaholics and sending positive thoughts, healing energy, {{{{{HUGS}}}}}, prayers, , and holiday cheer. Take care, Everyone!

“Time is too slow for those who wait, too swift for those who fear, too long for those who grieve, too short for those who rejoice, but for those who love, time is eternity.” ~ Henry Van Dyke

Hi, Everyone! Just popping in quickly, as I need to get to bed for another early appointment tomorrow. This time it's for hubby.

Thinking of everyone and sending , healing energy, prayers, positive thoughts, and {{{{{HUGS}}}}}! Take care, Everyone! Good Night!

So sorry Heidi.

Got the tree decorated today, and started wrapping presents for friends. I've had carols playing on the radio today to get me in the mood.


Mike the Vet refuses to charge me for the emergency visit and posting of Laird.

Heidi, that's what friends are for, and he knows how the special feelings you had for Laird. Also, you stepped up and assisted, which was probably amazing difficult to do. Just say Thanks. I'm sure he knows he can count on you in any difficulty situation.

Heidi, good for you for getting the tree decorated and starting to wrap presents. I still need to buy presents, and I'm doubting that we'll put up a tree. It will just be the 2 of us here for Christmas.

Thinking of Everyone and sending warm and positive thoughts, healing energy, {{{{{HUGS}}}}}, prayers, and ! Stay well!

I'm alone here, but I see putting up a tree, if only for me, as a way of trying to bring normality to life right now. I suspect that if I didn't decorate, I'd spiral down into loneliness. I need to stay in touch with the world.

I hate to see how Covid in the US is making it a lonely Christmas for you all. I agree with you Heidi, putting up the tree, playing Christmas music, watching a happy Christmas movie keeps the spirits up. Connecting with friends and family online, via Zoom or messenger video is a good thing too.
I'm pleased to say that here in Australia, we have things under control and it looks like we'll all have a normal Christmas, but borders are open, even to NZ, it only takes one case between now and Christmas and things could get serious.
I'll be thinking of everyone on here and will try to get here on the day.
Remember the old days of Cyber-parties? It would be nice to muster up a few people to do that.