Sudokuaholics Anonymous 11

''A lie doesn't become truth, wrong doesn't become right, and evil doesn't become good, just because it's accepted by a majority.''

~ Booker T. Washington

The farrier was here. Beauty was VERY well behaved. Kheoni wasn't. It was obvious that she'd been abused before (that's probably why she's blind in the left eye) and she freaked out a bit from fear. The farrier, my friend Anita, got kicked, and she smashed me in the face when we tried to pick up the front foot on her blind side. It was obvious that the behavior was due to fear, not nasty disposition. It'll take some work to teach her to trust us around her feet.

Heidi, I hope both you and Anita the farrier are both okay after Kheoni's reaction to getting her hooves trimmed. Good luck getting her to the point where she is calm and trusting for this.

l need to get to bed, so will say Good Night. Thinking of Everyone and sending , healing energy, positive thoughts, prayers, and {{{{{HUGS}}}}} to All! Stay well!

What a great TOPP, Heidi! Far more people need to be aware of its truth!

Our weather hs become schizophrenic. We still have a couple of inches of snow on the ground in spots, yet the temperature right now is 62˚F/ 16.7˚C, and sunny. Tomorrow it's supposed to rain, then Thursday we're due to have a killer ice storm. I'm working on as many outdoor chores as I can today.

It ended up getting up to 65˚F here today. I had to go into town to make sure I have enough feed for all the animals to last at least a week (they say we could have a power failure from all the ice build-up on Thursday), so I picked up Robert and brought him out to the farm to play with his jeep. He drove it around and had a blast. We also had a snowball fight.... in 65˚F/ 18.3˚C temperatures!

I think I'm ready for the ice storm. All the livestock has plenty of hay. Water tanks are full. Feed is well stocked. The forecast has us on the edge of the heaviest icing. It's still raining right now, and will continue all night. The temperature is due to drop to freezing around 8 AM, and is supposed to hover there or just below until 7 PM, when it's supposed to drop more and turn to snow. I really hope they miscalculated and we'll just get all the water on the ground freezing solid (dangerous for driving) and snow on top without the ice weighing down trees and power lines. Almost anything is better than losing power during an ice storm.

Still raining, and staying at 34˚F / 1.1˚C. It's now not supposed to turn to ice until late afternoon, early evening, so it looks like it won't be as bad as priginally predicted here.

Heidi, I agree with your ''Almost anything is better than losing power during an ice storm'' comment.

In rural locations, it can mean no running water - No power for the well pump. No heat, unless you have a wood stove or fireplace. Even most gas furnaces require some electricity to operate. And a ''battery backup'' required recharging. Having your own ''GenSet'' can be a major expense for something that is seldom needed. Of course, if outages are frequent............

Our for-bearers self sufficiency was, in many ways, better. Times when people relied upon themselves for their survival...

About the only thing I can think of that's worse is a house fire.

Heidi, your weather sure keeps you guessing. I'm glad I don't need to deal with it.

DOrA, I hope you don't know about this from experience.

Thinking of Everyone and sending lots of , {{{{{HUGS}}}}}, healing energy, positive thoughts, and prayers for all!

We ended up with only a bit of icing on everything, and a dusting of snow on top. No power failure here. We hot very lucky.

Julie, 5 days, no power. One inch, plus of ice on everything. Except that everything was white, instead of black, the trees around looked the middle of a combat zone. A broken, twisted mess. It took two days, after the power was restored to get the water pump running again, as the Ice had brought down the power line to the pump.

On the plus side, a two hundred yard walk enabled me to get water as my water system was a spring. The overflow from the cistern, allowed, relatively, easy water collection. I had a wood stove for heat and a propane grill on which I could cook. A small Honda Genset allowed use of the electric coffee maker, TV and VHS Tape player. I was ''set''. Life was good!!!

If I had chained up all 4 wheels on the 4 wheel drive ute, I could, possibly, have driven the half mile out to the county maintained road. The joys of country living. Another plus, fresh air with an occasional whiff of wood smoke, instead of city polluted air...

DOrA, it sounds quite bearable! And it sounds like you enjoyed the experience! Was this recently?

Heidi, I'm glad it wasn't as bad as predicted!

Thinking of Everyone and sending {{{{{HUGS}}}}}, positive thoughts, prayers, , and healing energy for Everyone! Take care! Stay healthy!

It's warming up today. I just removed Kheoni's winter blanket (which she enjoyed during that cold spell). The snow and ice are melting right now.

Julie, I think the winter of 2003-4

So, just a few years ago, DOrA. Your memory seems very clear and complete! What an experience!

Heidi, your weather seems to be having difficulty deciding what it wants to do.

Cold is continuing here, but at least there's no snow predicted this week.

Thinking of everyone and sending positive thoughts, , {{{{{HUGS}}}}}, healing energy, and prayers for all!

I clearly remember the ice storm of 2009. Kentucky and surrounding states were shut down without power for a long time. We were without power for 13 days in bitter cold weather. I lost all my poultry and pigeons, and had to let cattle and horses fend for themselves with the pond and creek for water. I didn't have a generator, so I kept the fireplace going to keep the house from freezing, and did minimal cooking there.

Cold!

If the thermometer had
been an inch longer
we'd have frozen to death.
~Mark Twain~

Tomorrow I have an appointment with a cataract specialist. My vision is getting more impaired by the day.

I have cataract surgery in my future and, unfortunately so does Colin. In his good eye of course. That's going to be fun for him, he will be blind overnight until they remove the dressing. Hope they keep him in hospital that night!
Heidi, when you were talking about snow the other day I was remembering when you got snowed and iced in for those days and none of us knew what had happened. I remember we were all relieved when you were able to let us know what happened.
Well, Covid is the gift that keeps on giving. I'm now getting days where I get the sore throat, headache, the cough and the fatigue. I'm not contagious, I spoke to the Covid people. Then I have 2 or 3 days of feeling fine. Today is a 'yuk' day!
Look after yourselves, stay safe and well!

Not sure is anyone likes word games as well as numbers games but this one is sweeping the world and many of us are playing. You get 6 attempts to find the 5-letter word for that day. It's simple, there's only 1 word per day. I'm hooked.
https://www.powerlanguage.co.uk/wordle/

Good one, DOrA! The wisdom of Mark Twain!

I hope your appointment with the cataract specialist goes well, Heidi!

CynB, when the time comes for you and Col to have your cataract surgery, I agree and hope they keep Coll in the hospital overnight. I'm thinking it will be a very frustrating experience for him.

CynB, I've seen people mentioning Wordle a lot, but haven't tried it yet.

Thinking of Everyone and hoping all are well! Sending healing energy, positive thoughts, , {{{{{HUGS}}}}}, and prayers for each of youl! Take care and be well!

I just had an unpleasant surprise. When I'm gone for many hours, I lock up a couple of the dogs in one of the alpaca pens in the barn to prevent the occasional fight. I was just taking them out tinto the barn, and standing in the middle of the barn, in the middle of the day, was a skunk! I had never seen this one before... it was mostly black... and it was NOT a virgin. It had a strong aroma about it. I had to hold the dogs back so they wouldn't challenge it, and wait for it to slowly waddle away. Skunks are nocturnal, so I am concerned that this one is not healthy.

I have cataract surgery on the left eye scheduled for March 3 and on the right eye for March 10th.

Wishing you a ''Pre'' Heidi

Start slow, today, and work up to it for tomorrow...

Today I took Robert to his dermatologist, who biopsied 3 spots of skin cancer. They're certain it's cancer, but not what type. He'll have to go back necxt month for surgery to thoroughly remove them if it's a particularly malignant strain.

Happy Birthday, Heidi! Have a fantastic day!

Sorry to hear about the presence of a probably unhealthy skink, Heidi! Unfortunately, that's not good news.

Wishing you all the best for your cataract surgeries on March 3 and Mar. 10, Heidi!

Robert certainly has his share of misfortune! I hope his 3 spots of cancer are no worse than basal cell carinomai.

Thinking of everyone and sending positive thoughts, prayers, {{{{{HUGS}}}}}, healing energy, and for Everybody!

Heidi

Not sure if I'm late for this or not but -
Happy Birthday Heidi
I hope you had/are having a great day!

Thanks for the birthday wishes. I had a nice quiet day with pleasantly warm and sunny weather. I did the bare minimum today, and relaxed.

Sounds like a lovely day, Heidi! And no skunks!

& {{{{{HUGS}}}}} to all! Good Night/G'Day!

Even though we are still having some freezing overnight temperatures, I have a bunch of daffodils sprouting. Some even showing a forming bud. For me, daffodils are an indicator that spring is springing...

I have a huge skunk in the trap in the barn. This isn't the one I saw a few days ago. This is the one I encountered in the feed room last month, waiting for me to dispense canned cat food. I'm going to have to take this one out behind the barn and shoot it, wait a few days for the smell to dissipate, then reset the trap for the other skunk. Drat. I hope I can avoid getting sprayed, since I have an appointment with Pain Management tomorrow morning. Maybe I'll wait to fool with the skunk until after the appointment.

I decided to wait until tomorrow afternoon to move the skunk. I've gotten pretty good at handling skunks safely, but with my luck, this time I'd make a mistake.

AND, definitely, keep the dogs away, Heidi...

DOrA, your daffodils must be in a somewhat protected area. I really want to believe that spring is on its way! Please keep us posted.

Heidi, I really hope you will be able to deal with the skunk without having to deal with much spray! Good point from DOrA to keep the dogs away!

Happy Valentine's Day to Everyone! Sending lots of , healing energy, prayers, positive thoughts and {{{{{HUGS}}}}} Take care, Everyone! Be healthy!

OK.... that advice didn't last. I got woken up at 3:10 AM by Reeses. He got sprayed in the face by a different skunk. I made up the Skunk Odor Remedy (1/4 cup Baking soda, 1 teaspoon liquid dish soap and 1 quart Hydrogen peroxide) and washed his head and chest with it. It works, but there's still some lingering aroma in the house now.

Of course Reeses had to wake you up and share the story of his misfortune. Ah the joys of dog ownership...

Skunk dispatched without spraying me. Now I get to dump the corpse on ex-IH's property again.