Foal Watch

Our day started with freezing temperatures of below zero and another frozen waterer. Emily has the routine down pat, get out the hair dryer and screw driver, open up the waterer, stuff the hair dryer down the hole while on high and hope for the best.
We had a busy day here and an almost tragic one. Valiant escaped as I was moving Anna and smashed through the electric fence broke down 2 boards while hurling himself in Evan's paddock determined to kill him. It seemed like the fight lasted hours but was probably more like minutes before I was able to separate them. Evan has 3 pretty good size bite marks on his chest and flank. He has just 1 short week to heal before the fair.
Emily picked up 20 bags of grain and the vaccinations for the horses going to the fair. The bill came to almost $500.00. Those vaccines are so expensive but cheaper than vet bills later.
Karin helped unhook the new trailer and hook up the stock trailer, then helped with giving the shots to the horses. Sally's colt Phoenix is going to his new home on Saturday and we needed to wean him. He was brought in a stall while she was taken out to Middle Grove.
The puppies got a treat tonight, Regina arrived bearing gifts. She brought a few stuffed toys for them and they are still playing with them hours later.
Leona sent over a box of disposable blankets made from recycled plastic.  They cannot be washed so the quilters can't use them. I cut one in half, put newspaper over it and it is working well. The blanket is very absorbent.
We are under foal watch tonight, Lily progressed from 150 to 300 in one day. She should deliver tonight. This is what her udder looked like this morning. The white dots is the waxing that is a good indicator of delivery soon.

The side door of the stall barn has been frozen half open so we decided to try to melt the ice in order to close the door. It just wasn't going to happen. The ice is too thick and above the barn floor so as the ice melted the water would come into the barn and freeze. We finally just decided to hang a tarp in the door way to keep the cold out. The propane heater was brought in and turned on. I'll be spending the night at the apartment with the monitor turned on and the camera ready.
We just got an  update from Tim Reinhard. He smashed his thumb in Haiti breaking it badly. They sent him to Miami and from their he rented a car and drove to Jacksonville to see a surgeon there.

Tim writes: I had a good day today over all, with surgery scheduled for 3:30pm tomorrow. It should be an outpatient procedure, and  I should be back at Ronnie Jones’ house for overnight again. It started a bit rough this a.m. when we got to the hospital, they said I did not have an appointment. I checked at another receptionist’s desk, the orthopedic department, and they said the same thing; and then they advised me to wait for the real secretary to show up. Somehow they had two different spellings for my name in the system, and two different case numbers. Instead of having two reserved appointments for “both of me” they said I didn’t have one. Must be a new type of medical math? After a delay of a special task to merge two files, it was a day of success.

 Dr. Peter Murray @ the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, FL  is performing an irrigation and debridement (a clean out) of the thumb wound, and then he will most likely use some fine stainless steel pins to stabilize the broken bone in a good position (right now the thumb fracture is out of position). He would like to have me stay in the area for a return visit next week for a check of the wound, and possibly receive some hand therapy. They are planning on using a “block” type of anesthesia to put the arm asleep, but I will still be awake. After everyone looked at the wound, two nurses in the clinic put me back into a very comfortable plaster splint. Every once in a while, for all of the world it feels like the tip of my thumb is flexing and pushing against the splint, but it is just a form of strange feeling from the nerves in my thumb either being bruised or cut from the initial injury.

Ronnie Jones and Kay Dukes drove me to the Mayo this morning and spent the day with me. Dr. Greg Adamson also came down from South Carolina and spent the day with us. Pastor Gerald Greenlee and Little Gene also stopped by and wished me well today after they had made a Pastoral visit to someone undergoing a knee replacement.

Kay Jones fixed us a wonderful meal tonight of spaghetti, green beans, salad and fruit (and we are having ice cream now). Tomorrow in the early AM I can have some clear liquids, but I cannot eat any more real food after midnight tonight.  Despite being a strange set of circumstances it was a special day, and the tone @ the Mayo was one of encouragement.  Thank you all for your prayers for me in Florida, and for Joan in Haiti taking care of the house and children.

Blessings to All, Tim Reinhard