Never thought retirement would be like this

I enjoyed seeing your pictures Nancy. I would have tried pruning the cedars back, myself, but....! You know your old, when you cut down trees that you planted. The boat project sounds like a good fix. I would not start making a 15 year to-do list, however!:) Enjoy the warmer weather!
 

Meanderer said:
.... I would have tried pruning the cedars back, myself, ...:)
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Yes, I thought about pruning. Problem is it would have involved a ladder and saw. Not a good combination for me.

The goats nibbled at the cedar branches. Too much all the sudden might have given them indigestion.

Anyway, the boat is done. Back looks too big probably because I didn't make rounded diagonals (too much trouble). Used marine sealant for around the bolts and it was awfully thin and runny. Don't know if it will make a good seal. If it doesn't work I can always try again (provided I don't drown finding out).

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I love your flower photos Nancy, absolutely beautiful! Looks like you did a great job on the boat too, don't forget to wear your water-wings when checking it out, lol! :)
 

Thanks, SeaBreeze. I can't take credit. The camera on this smartphone is really pretty good. I don't worry about close-ups, just take a picture and crop out the section I want with software. It's amazing what things you can see in a photo that you don't see with your eyes.

My to-do list got bigger. Everyone else probably has things like this happen to them every day, but for some reason it upsets me and I make a big deal out of it. Every situation seems to be a new one. Once I've fixed all the possible things that can go wrong, I'll be dead and all this experience won't help. :(

In town:
Burner went out in the stove. The stove is at least 50 years old, but I don't want to get a new stove just yet because I may decide to remodel the kitchen. Ordered a new burner. It's a miracle to find one, may not work, but only $20 plus shipping is worth the gamble.

Out at the farm:
1. Garage door closer finally went out, for good this time. Ordered a new controller. Another gamble at $15 plus.
2. Found several half-shingles from the roof in the yard after the last wind storm. Does it need a new roof? It's 20 years old.
3. The AC is not moving the temp down to the thermostat setting. Out of refrigerant?

4. And worst of all, goat Mike has a large growth just above his left shoulder. About the size of a softball, kinda hard, but not as hard as bone and unattached. He seems fine otherwise. In light of recent posts about other forums, I would get on the goat health forum, but already know they would all say it's this horrible goat/sheep disease called CL, which I know it's not, but there would be no use trying to tell them any different (been there, done that, twice before), and I would get bashed if I tried to tell them it wasn't. So could be a vet visit in the future? I suspect it's a benign tumor of some sort, perhaps fatty tissue (lipoma?).

And the ornery goat, Rusty, is losing his winter hair. It looks like the stuffing got knocked out of him. He is one of those mixed breeds that inherited this cotton-like winter undercoat. He is such a twerp he won't even let me brush him. The neighbors will think he is falling apart at the seams from neglect.

(Btw, most all goats with pink noses eventually get a lot of freckles. :p)

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On a more pleasant note, I finally did get a picture of the sweetshrub blossoms. Boy do those smell good.

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ps. Note to self: Don't post complaints about TV programs. (This will be tough;)).
 
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Sounds like you have your hands full Nancy, good thing you're smart and handy, saves some money. My dog is getting more and more lumps and tumors everyday it seems, some are soft and some are harder. The vet doesn't seem to be worried as the dog is old and fatty tumors are common, but we may take him in again to make sure, we're worried about cancer, he's had a lot of health issues in his old age. I wonder if goats get the same types of tumors as dogs?
 
Yes, SeaBreeze, I've been reading online about those fatty tumors and it seems most animals and humans can get them, especially when they get old. I think Mike's is either not serious (i.e., just leave it alone) or very serious (malignant), and there isn't really much I would do about it in that case, unless they said it was easy to fix and easy on the goat, which I know most is not the case. So I'm going to wait and see if he shows any signs of discomfort. I didn't notice this growth until he started losing his fluffy winter hair and brushed him, so I don't know how long it's been there. Not before fall.

The replacement stove burner came today. One of 2 ceramic pieces came broken, but I could use one of the old ones. It was a perfect fit. Already boiled water for a cup of tea.

I apologize for posting this silly picture :eek:, but I'm so tickled with this fix. I may order another one---or maybe three.

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The medical supplies company left the adjustable over-bed table we rented last month, for trash, just because someone had pushed down on it too hard and stripped out the screws (MDF board). All it needed was to reverse the top and put through carriage bolts instead. Now I have a bed/chair table you can pile *heavy* stuff on. I've always wanted one of those.
 
I'm glad you posted the picture Nancy, cool! Great that you could use the old ceramic piece too. Those bed/chair tables do sound convenient to have around the house. I don't like to do any unnecessary surgeries on my pets, they can do a needle aspiration to check if it's malignant, I wouldn't go further than that personally, unless like you say it becomes so large or heavy that Mike is in pain or discomfort.
 
Well, SeaBreeze, I couldn't stand not knowing any longer, and made a farm call appointment with the vet for Saturday morning to come out and look at that lump on Mike's shoulder. There may be only one chance in a million it's something really simple that can be fixed easily. But if that happened to be the case, then I would feel really bad knowing I could have done something easy and didn't. Not worth the risk to me. I hate regrets more than anything. Call me crazy.
 
Keeping my fingers crossed for Mike Nancy. I have an appointment next Tuesday for my dog's tumors, they're taking over in areas they never were before.
 
SeaBreeze, I was afraid you were going to ask. The vet tried aspirating the tumor, hoping against hope it was an old absess that had just formed a huge thick wall around---no luck. He felt sure it was cancer. He was an older man, the owner of the clinic, and has had lots of experience with goats. A couple of other behavioral signs I noticed in the past few days, and some physical things the vet pointed out to me made me think he wasn't having as good a quality of life as I thought.

So we put him down and sent the body for necropsy. It was my decision. The vet said he would just wait until it got worse. I couldn't see any point. I may elaborate after the report comes back. All this could be wrong, but I don't think so. Mike was the nicest one of the bunch and my mom's favorite. That made it even more difficult. This is turning out to be the year from hell so far.

From what you describe this was nothing like what your dog has. I've still got my fingers crossed for you two.:rose:
 
Thanks SB. I sent you a pm.

What made my decision about putting Mike down so quickly was the vet noticing his left eye was protruding a bit and turned to focus slightly to the side rather than forward. He said he had seen this a couple of times before in cattle, and it had been a cancerous tumor behind the eye. A lot of odd behavior then made sense in light of that. I had been explaining away strange behavior because of his bad foot. The fact that he was eating well also fooled me, because not eating is almost always the first sign of any trouble.

The preliminary report came back today. Not only did Mike have cancer in his shoulder, and behind his eye, but it had also spread to his lungs. The UGA vet that read the preliminary autopsy report said it appeared to be a very fast growing form of cancer, but they would send it to the lab for further testing. My vet said they appear to be somewhat intrigued by the case.

It would have no doubt been an emergency situation if we had waited much longer. r.i.p. Mike
 
Rest peacefully dear Mike, Nancy you made the right decision. It sounds like your veterinarian is very experienced and competent, good to have a doctor that you trust. If you had put it off, Mike would have been the one to suffer. My dog had a couple of tumors aspirated and some blood work, and thankfully he is doing well and is cancer free. Thanks for your well wishes. :sentimental:
 
A lot of little things have been going right lately. I mean *really* little things, but it doesn't take much to make me happy. Besides being able to fix the boat....

Ordered a second stove burner. Both now get hotter and faster than the old ones. I'm surprised at that. My mom's riding lawn mower would die every time I tried to engaged the mower blades. Thanks to Google found out it was a dirty air filter. Got the yard mowed out there. Didn't take as long as I thought it would, maybe half hour. Since I have to check on the goats anyway, might as well mow it myself rather than hire someone. The new case for the smartphone works great. Somehow just opening the cover bypasses the swipe, which was annoying. Installed the control panel on the garage door opener and it solved the problem. One remote now works, too, but it requires a code. A replacement for the other is just $12 plus shipping. My good luck with ordering things sight unseen surely has to run out soon, but I'll give it a try.

Even the teeth implant thing looks promising. Surgeon wants to put in 3 separate teeth rather than two posts with a bridge. I think that is a good idea. Good news is, no major bone graft, just powder stuff in the space where they have to pull a tooth. Not so good news, he will make me wait 2-3 months after that before even setting the post. Then you have to wait 2-3 more months to let the post fuse before getting the tooth. Some do it all at once. Go for tooth extraction on Friday afternoon.
 
Sorry to hear about Mike, Nancy! Since you have never mentioned taking the goats out in the boat. I have found this poem to cheer you up! :) Remember, there are no small victories. Amazon is amazing!


The Goat and the Giant Otter by sylvabak
I sat and drifted in my boat
Accompanied by my friend, the goat!
I kid you not she knew her stuff,
Although her voice could be a little gruff!

She’d sailed the seven seas you know,
Gone where other goats feared to go!
She’d even sailed around Cape Horn,
And done it while she was being shorn!

But today we were drifting on a lake
We’d even brought along some cake!
Why I bought cake I’ve no idea?
The goat she only drank French beer!

Why French beer I’ll never know;
Although small bottles are easy to stow!
She once drank rum and got in a fight,
She lost an ear, the one on the right!

Then suddenly she was acting the goat,
She started trying to rock the boat,
I grabbed her by her hairy chin,
And threatened to throw the old goat in!

She butted me and knocked me down,
If I threw her in she knew she’d drown!
She tried to push me out the boat
I started to hate that bloody goat!

I put the goat in a stranglehold
Then suddenly it went real cold
From the water a giant otter did rise
It truly was a wondrous size!

It spoke to me; as only giant otters can,
Saying “Why do you fight this goat, young man?”
“To stop the goat from sinking the boat,”
I said to the giant trying to be defiant!

“But I only see that your boat is afloat,
And you’re still holding the goat by the throat!”
“Cos if I don’t hold the throat of this lunatic goat,
Neither me, the goat or the boat will be afloat!”

The otter said to the goat in the boat,
“If the young man does let go of your throat,
Will you then please stop rocking his boat?”
What happened next I now will quote!

I released my hold on the throat of the goat
The goat then lunged at me in the boat.
As predicted, and I hope that you took note
Over went me, the goat and the boat!

Lucky for me I wore my life jacket,
But the goat she made a terrible racket.
The giant otter lifted her up
And popped her into a large tea cup!

He said he preferred goats’ milk in tea
I wondered what he would do to me.
But he took my boat and put it afloat
And picked me up by the collar on my coat!

He placed me back inside my boat
And I asked what might become of the goat?
He said the goat would be quite okay,
As long as she supplied him milk each day!

So I sat and drifted in my boat,
Wondering now of the fate of the goat,
If only she hadn’t drank so much beer,
That silly old goat might still have been here!
 
Good luck at the dentist Nancy! Sweet that the new burners work better than the old too! I'm always amazed at all the things you do and how handy you are, must feel great to be so independent! :D
 
Meanderer, every time I see a poem I get nervous because my English lit teachers would always read things into them that I could never see. I always took them at face value.
So I Googled your poem and at the bottom was relieved to find:

Author Notes

Just another nonsense rhyme...
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Reminds me of a dream I might have after eating too much cheese.:)

Coincidently, when the goats were young, I used to think about making a raft to take them across the lake. They were great at keeping the brush down on the property---some places that were covered in briars look like a golf course now. Problem is they never quite got to the other side of the lake. If you take them walking over there they won't stop eating along the way and when you get there they are full and just want to sleep. With only four I could make 4 trips now. Must wear life vest and tie one around the goat.

SeaBreeze, these jobs are easy. I'm working on that ceiling light fixture as we type. Problem is bringing the old one down. It weighs about 40 pounds, but it's above the bed so a crash won't cause too much damage, lol.
 
Well that's good to know Josiah. Thank you. I wouldn't have believed it without seeing it.:cool:

(Update: the old light fixture is down with no damage. Used a rope.)
 
The tooth pull was easy this time because he put in stitches afterward. Much better than having a gaping hole for days.:p The process of putting in the bone "stuff" reminded me of spackling a hole in the wall. Back in two weeks for a check, then the adventure (waiting) begins. :waiting: Finished installing the light fixture Thursday. I really like it. The old one was not bright enough to see anything.
 
Thought of you yesterday, Nancy...when my mower would not start. Thanks for the tip about looking on line, to troubleshoot. Tomorrow I shall see how far I can get with that approach. Congrats on your new light fixture install ! ! !
 
Good luck with the mower. Maybe we can help some. Probably lots of experience with mowers not starting on this forum.
 
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