We had a warm but windy day. Ruth, mom and I walked to Joan's house. She joined us for a short part then had to head back. Diane called from Gulf Shores, AL. The weather there has been beautiful, one sunny warm day after the next. Day after day of warmth and sunshine. The paper work is all finished now for Isla and Maddalen. Isla is leaving us tomorrow.
It has been a whole week of quarantine for Mark and I and yet it seems like a month. We don't have it as bad as some others, we can both breath although that breath comes with a lot of coughing sometimes. This morning Ruth, Joan, Faith and I joined mom on the walk. Joan and Faith tested negative so they walked with mom. Ruth hung back as her test results weren't back yet and I hung way back as I'm positive. We discussed Hannah's wedding plans in the midst of this pandemic. Later today Rhoda who also tested positive stopped by for some vet wrap. She is getting supplies together for Rosie's pending puppy delivery. Spark, (another positive person) dropped by to drop off some tools. The company transporting Isla called today, they will be picking her up on Friday afternoon. Hoerr vet clinic was called again to get an update on the Coggins and health certificates. Not sure what has been holding them up, Dr. Hoerr came out on Nov 5th to draw blood for the coggins. They are on line but not yet signed so the hold up is at the lab end not our end. Probably everyone is short handed due to Covid. Ruth finally got her test results and she is also negative. She has been holed up in her room for days waiting for the results. Fede is going to have his hip replaced and she needed to make sure she was negative if she wanted to go with him. She hasn't even been petting her dog! Now that is true love.
It was another really cold morning. Evan needed a bale but it was below freezing and I wanted to wait until it was above freezing before starting the tractor so Evan was turn out into the field. His bale feeder was moved then I went inside to warm up by the fire. Both of us are still coughing. Today each time I cough my abdominal muscles yell. When the bale was moved in Evan came galloping up to be put away looking forward to his treat I always leave in his bucket. He has sure become a sweet gentle stallion. Laundry was done today but other than fixing breakfast and lunch no cooking. Rhoda ordered us a meal from Gils and hired Leah to deliver it.
I walked today, about 10 steps behind mom and Joan but enough we could visit for a while. Joan was going to Aldi today and she picked up some groceries for us. I made a big pot of chili for lunch then froze a 3 quarts of that. Isla was given her vaccines and a picture taken of the package and sent to her owner.
We have finished day 3 of our quarantine. The days are dragging along. We are both on the mend but sure missed out today on church and our family get together. Church is down to just 1 service on Sundays which made me feel a little cheated. I'm thankful for AC Central which allows plenty of options for the second service. So far mom had not contracted the virus. We heard that Nancy has come down with it. They are taking care of her and she is doing ok. Joan's test came back negative. Ruth was suppose to hear today but we haven't heard her results yet. We think all of us positive people aught to hold a positive party with all kinds of exotic foods since we can't smell or taste. Karin dropped off a loaf of her fresh baked bread and Amy brought some of her delicious beef vegetable soup. We had both for supper. It was really windy today with sustained 20-30 mph and gusts 40-50 mph. It was cold enough we kept the fire going all day and spend most in the family room by the fire place.
No new bleeding the rest of the day. I skipped taking the baby aspirin today and probably will tomorrow. Rain was predicted to move in by 8:00 am and I didn't want to leave the weanlings outside so Mark helped bring them into stalls and the monitors turned on. Below is the view from one camera. That is Maddalen in that stall, across the aisle toward the back is Irish, Kyro is across the aisle toward the front. Maddalen could see both of them. She could hear the others but not see them and she was content.
After last night I'm with Mark on the will thing. We must find and update the will. If we don't make it all of our children have to go live with David and I don't think Stephanie is going to like that very much. We think the last time we did anything with the will David was around 17 years old and he was such a responsible child we thought he could handle the other 4 and we didn't want them split up. We went to bed before 10:00 pm but Mark soon got up to sleep with his head more elevated and ended up on the couch. Around midnight I awoke and realized my arm was cold. I went to pull it under the cover and realized my left arm was cold because it was wet. AT that point I thought Mark must have spilled something and felt my arm to find it all sticky. My brain is telling me this is wrong, enough that I woke up, got up, and turn the lights on. With that action I was horrified. There was blood all over the bed, the pillow, all over my arm and all over my left side dripping on to the floor. Some of the spots on the bed had dripped all the way through the flannel sheets and through the mattress pad and were congealing like black blobs. There was thick drips of blood on the floor also starting to congeal. Believing I must be cut somewhere on my side I made it to the bathroom and started scrubbing my body only to find no cuts at all. Then I started on my arm cleaning off lots of dried and fresh blood. There were two very tiny pinpricks that were welling up blood. One I got stopped the other would not. I sat on the tub holding tissues with pressure to stop the bleeding but each time I let go blood would well up and out again. I finally got a bandaid and put that on tight then tried to clean up the bed and floor at least getting the clots out but ended up throwing a big red towel over the whole area knowing I'll have to soak everything in cold water in the morning. I climbed back into bed but a few minutes later realized that tiny pin prick was again bleeding through, this time seeping out from the skin at the edges of the bandaid and running down my arm. This is such a tiny little pin prick I can't believe the amount of blood welling up. I spent the next half hour sitting with a wad of tissue held against the arm then found some horse wrap and wrapped that around the tissue. That worked. Now I know why the doctor asked if I had any bleeding or bruising. No one told us about this side effect. This virus sure acts like a weapon that wants to kill the host. Hmmm do you think it was created and let loose on the world to reduce the population? All the crazy theories come out of my brain in the middle of the night. Could we be in the last days? Will we have to live through the tribulation, is this one of the seven seals? Nope because the pale horse (death) comes after the White horse (to conquer), the Red Horse (kill one another) and the Black Horse (famine). Hope our Saturday goes a bit better and sure hope we start to clear the virus.
I was sick yesterday, laying on the couch with chills, coughing and a back ache. The fever broke in the middle of the night but by morning Mark who had been coughing for a few days decided we must go in to be tested for Covid 19. He called the doctor office first and just talked to the nurse. She explained the office didn't open until 9:00 am and they may not have any time to take us in for testing so the best thing to do was to drive to the civic center. I got the feeding done and 3 of the 4 stalls cleaned before we left. We arrived there around 9:00 am and the line stretched all the way through the parking lot and down the road. We got in line and the estimate was 3 hours. After about an hour we turned into the parking lot. A man met us then and told us to do this QR code thing on our phone but we are not phone literate and finally found the play store and downloaded it but were still struggling to figure out what was next when the doctor office called to report they could take us if we would come right away. We got out of that line and drove straight to the doctor office. Now Mark says he is not pessimistic but is a realist and was so sure he would test positive that yesterday he gave away a coat and then told me, it might be his last charitable act. He also decided to go to the bank to look for our will, just in case, you know. We must be prepared. When we got to the doctor office we had to wait until everyone was suited up like those pandemic movies. As they don't do a lot of testing there, three of the office workers wanted to be there to help and learn. We were scanned first for a fever. Both of us were a little below normal at 97.6, our blood pressure was just fine and then came the SWAB, Mark was done first and he made terrible face and made them wait to do the next nostril as he was going to sneeze. They took his swab out to run and came at my nose. Now remember I had been cleaning stalls and had not sneezed all morning. EVERYONE that clean stalls knows what comes out of one's nose after that job. I think they were all shocked. They rushed out of the room with that very black looking swab quickly. I thought they were probably afraid of losing their breakfast in my presence. The nurse came in to tell Mark that his test was inconclusive and they would need to do it again on him. Not long after they left the room for the second time Dr. Bevill came in to tell me that I was positive and he would be back in a bit once they knew Mark's results. We waited another 15 minutes but when the nurse came back in they still had no results. They were surprised about Mark's AND my results as they said, "we didn't think the test would work with that much debris." I quickly explained I WAS cleaning stalls this morning. I didn't want them to think I was a bad house keeper. Dr. Bevill checked our lungs which were both good and then told us what to watch for and let us slide out the back door to go home with instructions to quarantine for 10-12 days as long as no fever comes back. Even though Mark did not test positive, he must be quarantined with me as he lives with me. My only regret was not getting a few photos for the blog. I just didn't think to pull out my phone. Rachel sent a text that she was stopping at Kroger after work today and did we need anything, then dropped off our order at the door. I LOVE living out here in this neighborhood.
I didn't get to walk today instead as soon as mom got her hair brushed I drove to the Peoria post office to pick up the Berean mail then back to mom's to pick her up. We had a lot of mail at that office today and needed lots of hands to get everything needed done. On the way to the Berean office we stopped at Sam's club to buy coffee cups, coffee and pie. IF you would like to read about our morning there click HERE. The Bibles and studies were loaded into the car. Mom and I went first to the Peoria post office to drop off the non for profit studies of which we had over 260 then to the Bartonville post office to drop off the 60 Bibles. The reason I hit both is the non for profit MUST go to the Peoria post office but that post office doesn't have a good way to drop off the heavy boxes of Bibles. The Bartonville post office has a loading dock and carts to put the boxes on so we go to both. Mom was taken home then I had to drive to Diane's office to do the bank reconciling. We had 2 months waiting and between the two of us got that done. Mike and Diane are leaving early in the morning for Gulf Shores and will be working from there. I drove straight up to the barn and took care of the weanlings as it was almost 3:30 by that time. The weanlings are doing well. The colts were very glad to see me and both wanted attention. Hadassah's filly was glad to see me but Jewel's filly was a little standoffish and didn't want me to pet her. I didn't push that today as a big storm was moving in. By the time I got to the house we were having tornado warnings for Hanna City. The wind was shocking, the rain came down in sheets but we had no hail and no tornado. The temperature dropped from 75 degrees to 47 and is predicted to go even lower. That 47 degrees feels like 30 with the wind. Our Indian summer is officially over and it feels like winter has arrived with a vengeance. I'm glad to weanlings are warm and secure inside the stall barn.
Amy arrived in time to go on the second round of the walk. She offered to help make a video of Kyro IF I would cook her breakfast. That was a great trade. We actually took both Kyro and his half brother Moonlight out to the field and made the video for Kyro's owner and Moonlight's owner. Kyro's dam is our Andalusian mare Madiera and his sire is Evan. Moonlight's dam is Rosaleigh and his sire is Evan. Check out the amazing movement on these two colts. Kyro is the dark bay and Moonlight is the black. I also took a few pictures for the website.
Today we only had one service for church. Covid is again shutting everything down. Our communion service was set quite a while ago for today during the 11:00 am service. Well they cancelled the 9:00 am service but thankfully did not cancel communion. That was a very special service and we were grateful to be there. Amy came as she was in Gulf Shores with us when Tremont had their communion service. After church Isaiah, Magda and Karin were working with the horses. We were thrilled with Isla, She is now getting so comfortable in the round pen all by herself with no other horses around that she actually laid down and then rolled. Isaiah sent these pictures.
Karin tacked up 5 horses and brought them to Middle Grove for a trail ride. She took out the first group then left the horses, truck and trailer and took my car home. The campers then got to head out. Anyone that wanted to ride got the chance.
Mom is doing better each day on our walk. Today she walked all the way to Joan's house and then back almost to the dumpster before needing to stop and get a drink. We are thrilled the shocking of her heart worked and it is now beating correctly. She doesn't get out of breath so easily. Today we talked about our Gulf Shores Christmas trip trying to figure out where everyone that is going will stay. We have a lot of family going again. After the walk the 2003 truck was unhooked from the Exiss 4 horse trailer and hooked up to the Summerdale. That was plugged in and filled with water. It had been winterized before I bought it but wanted to try out the water system. We planned on using it tonight so filled the tanks. Next I drove to Aldi in Pekin for groceries. I thought we were packing for an overnight camping trip and bought supper, breakfast, lunch and Saturday night's meal. Then stopped at Dollar General to pick up some pans that can be used to cook over the fire. Coming back from Aldi the camping plans changed. It gets dark so soon that we are all going out in the morning. Some will be spending Saturday night but we won't. Karin is going to bring the 5 riding horses out and trail rides will be done there tomorrow. When Mark got home we drained the water tanks from the Summerdale then tried to use the tractor to put the Wolf Pup in the barn but that just didn't work. The tractor was unhooked and since the truck was hooked up to the Summerdale that was put away for the season into the barn. I had to move a row of bales with the skid steer to make room so used the skid steer to move those with the last bale taken to to Hadassah's paddock. We hooked the Wolf Pup up to the skid steer and that worked perfect. Both trailers are now stored inside up against the wall and at the back. There is still enough room to put the 2021 trailer in as soon as I pick it up next week. The stalls were cleaned and the aisles swept. We have a family from England staying at the apartment for the next couple days.
The rioters must have visited our neighborhood last night. The wall had been knocked down and a bike thrown on the ground.
Anna got called in to work today. The girls and took the golf cart out to start gleaning the corn fields. We had great success, filling the golf cart, emptying it and filling it again.
