Festering

I couldn't resit posting this picture, which I found when I googled fester.  And then it made me wonder, what does happen to un-released farts?  Do they just dissipate and get absorbed?  Or are they like wounds that can fester and get bigger and worse?

A problem, like a wound (and maybe like a fart), if allowed to fester, only gets bigger with time.   

Don't ignore a negative feeling or a problem, because it may become worse or more intense and start to gnaw away at you.  Address the things that cause you angst.  Take care of what you can, but let go of the things which cannot be changed.  I don't really have any major problems troubling me, but I will let little things get under my skin, fester, and then they become problematic.  I don't like to let this happen, but when I realize it has, I try to re-adjust my mindset so the issue no longer festers.  Usually, what may appear as a festering problem, is just me ruminating on an idea or looking for solutions to, or improvements on different things I want to "fix."  But ruminative thoughts can keep me up late at night (or pre-dawn) when I start over-analyzing the situation, idea, project, etc.  I find I am happiest when I forget my concerns and take time to play, laugh, and be joyful. 

Maggie has her own list of "problems" to worry about.  She is doing well with not barking and seems to just enjoy watching the wildlife, dog walkers, golf course workers and golfers. 

Saturday I worked quite awhile here at my computer to get last week's blog done and posted.  I managed to multi-task with messaging Britney, doing laundry, and taking a few short dog walks.  It was an uneventful day, although the numerous chigger bites I have, continued to fester and drive me crazy with their itching.

Joe left for Courtney's in Nashville when he got home from work and I went to work at the CC.  I was having some digestive issues for some reason, and was trying to think what I had eaten (was festering down there) to upset my gut.  I took a dinner break to come home and walk Maggie and also took a gas relief pill, which eventually worked.

Joe got home from Nashville while I was at Church Sunday, and later reported really enjoying the Styx concert Courtney took him too.

I had an hour of time to work in the yard so planned to plant flowers and the tree I had purchased.  I started with the weeping willow.  When I dug the hole down by the pond, it immediately filled with water (seen right).





I ended up hauling twelve (5 gal) buckets of dirt to raise up the ground level so this little tree would not be swamped.  They love water, but it said the top inch of dirt should be dried out before re-watering.  Because of all the dirt moving, I did not have time to do any more planting, and headed to work (for a 2-8:30 shift).

I was at the barn at 7:30 Monday morning.  Amiga got new shoes and Tom trimmed Zorro's back hooves.  He checked Zorro's front hoof to make sure the thrush is not festering.  It was no worse, and I put thrush treatment on it when we were done.



Usually blog titles just pop into my head, but sometimes I fester on ideas, or have a title that I pursue, and end up using a lot of time looking up and thinking about.  This occurred with this week's blog title when I got home from the barn at 9:30 Monday.  I was festering about festering.


Finally, I did get outside and got some flowers planted.  But not all of them, because I had to do A LOT of weeding first.  I actually spent five hours weeding this bed and only got it half done.  Seen lower left, the section I still need to weed.  Seen lower right, the part I did get weeded.  

This panoramic photo shows the left side of the front bed (weeded) and the right side, with the weeds out of control.  I'd also plan to add mulch between all the flowers, shrubs and trees once I get all the weeds pulled.

Lisa dropped by, because Joe had been trying to call me, and asked if I wanted to join them for a beer.  My back and knees were hurting, and even though I had a lot more to do, I dropped everything, and made a quick change while Lisa walked Maggie.  I jumped into the car with Lisa, and off to Stonehenge we went.

The guys had just gotten done with their nine holes of golf and Nolan brought two pitchers of beer to the table.  It was a perfect evening to sit out on the patio.  This is not a great photo of Lisa and Nolan, but look at our view.

We were enjoying ourselves so much, we decided to linger (not fester) and ordered dinner.  On the way home, Joe and I went to the CC to swim and sit in the hot tub.  It felt great on my sore joints.  Once home, Joe messed with his new computer and I watched a Fixer-Upper on HGTV before calling it a day.


I have been festering about Goldie.  Britney had messaged me right away, after reading that we were going to trash her beloved chair.  She convinced me to hang on to it a little longer, but where to put it is the problem.  Britney's bedroom and the bunk room are both quite full.  Well, here's (seen left) an idea.


Tuesday morning I was up and at-em outside fairly early.  Joe mowed the lawn and then left for Kentucky, to play in a poker tournament.  Seen right, Maggie waiting patiently while I took photos of the front flower bed.

Basically I worked all day on the drainage ditch project.  I am getting tired of the back breaking, knee battering work and really want to be done with this.  But have a ways to go to complete it.

I am enjoying the design aspect of the work and can't wait to get the flowering shrubs planted among these trees and then mulch this whole area, and later get grass growing along the ditch walls.

I sat out on the back porch eating salad for dinner when I heard a couple down by the pond feeding the fish and turtles.  Then I heard a big splash, thrashing in the water and panicked voices.  I yelled down, did not get a response, so ran into the garage, grabbing the kayak paddle and ran down to the pond with it.  By the time I got there, the man was sitting on the large rock trying to help his wife get out of the pond.  They were both drenched.  She was having troubles getting out because the rock was so slippery.

After helping the husband get her onto dry land, I got the scoop... she had gotten bitten by the snapping turtle, causing her to fall in, and the man went in after her because she was not a good swimmer.  At the rocky ledge where she fell in, the pond is quite deep.  He said he never touched bottom.  Anyway, her finger had a big, deep slice in it and she was missing one of her sandals.  The next morning, I saw it floating in the middle of the pond, and took this photo of it.  In the upper right of the photo, is the grass at the edge of the pond.  The reflection of the trees in the water makes this photo seem upside down.


Rain was predicted Wednesday, and it was quite cloudy.  I decided not to do cement work but found other projects to do outside until I would get rained out... or should I say rained in?  But, it never did rain, and there were moments of sunshine throughout the day. 







My main project in the back, was to move some mulch.  Again, I have changed my mind about where to seed and where to mulch.  It seemed odd (and is inconvenient to mow) to have the stretch of grass going down towards the pond (seen above in an April photo), and this mulched area (seen right) felt larger than necessary.

So, to balance things out, I decided to move mulch to the grassy area, and get grass growing where the mulch had been.  The hose (seen above) marks the new border. 










I dug up and moved some of the sod, (seen above) and raked up and moved mulch.  Seems crazy, I know.

I added some top soil in preparation for seed (which I ran out of).  The 4x10 section of mulch (where I had taken the sod from) looks dark like dirt, but is just wet and partly dirty wood chips.









It is hard to distinguish the dirt pile and area that needs to be seeded, from the newly moved mulch.




In the process of moving things around, I also leveled out (moved rock from) a path (seen left) I regularly take when putting corn out each morning.

I ended up digging up two huge rocks that I would use later.  They were too heavy to lift, so I had to roll them out of the way.  I filled in the holes that part of the rocks had made and then added mulch.  I did not have near enough mulch so will be calling for another free delivery from the tree service guys.  There was a bunch of moss I transplanted down by the bench on the rock, and another little path I leveled and need to mulch.

I was running late for my 7 pm dinner time to go out with Shirley to Big Boy's Barbecue, so she offered to pick up carry out and bring it here.  She is a saint.  This enabled me to water all the newly transplanted moss and sod.  Shirley and I thoroughly enjoyed our loaded baked potatoes and chatting out on the porch.

Joe messaged me that he had won the Southern Indiana Horseshoe Poker Classic Seniors tournament (over 2K) and was on his way home, to arrive after midnight.  I didn't wait up for him.


Thursday morning I was at the barn by 8 am.  Jan and I were on the trail before 9:00 and went for a two hour ride going along Daddy's Creek and to the swimming hole.  It had rained a little, before dawn, so the woods were truly like a rain forest.  Tree branches were laden with water, drooping from the weight, so we had to do a lot of ducking to get through some spots.  We both ended up getting fairly wet, but it was refreshing, and a wonderful ride.









I noticed last week that one of Amiga's udders and teat was slightly larger than the other.  (I regularly clean that area of her belly between her back legs because she gets gunk caked in there and the flies start biting.)  She was a little more swollen on Monday and even more so Thursday.  There was no heat or tenderness, but I did get lots of a milk like substance when I squeezed.  She behaved no differently and didn't appear sick.  We gave her a Bute for inflammation and googled her symptoms... getting several possibilities (from gnats, hormonal, fat deposits, sweat glands, estrogen like substances in clover, insulin resistance,  or the onset of cushings, an ovarian cyst/tumor or mastitis). 

I had a little time to hang out here with the cat and dog before going to work from 2-9.  Stevie is so cute.





 











The crazy summer season has started so we were pretty busy for most of the shift.  It helps the time fly by and is enjoyable meeting so many different folks.

I have been festering about this wood totem I found on a walk over a year ago.  It was covered in dirt and the wood was rotten in spots from mold and bug damage.  I cleaned it off, liked the piece, and wanted to put it with my other jungle themed 'art work.'  However, I didn't think it matched well and I was indecisive about what to do to refurbish it.  I took it to the experts who work in the arts and crafts room at the CC and they convinced me it went well with the other things and to leave it as is, not paint it.  They did suggest spraying it with a clear, flat, acrylic spray to preserve its natural beauty.  So, I have been giving it numerous, light coats of the finish.

I was at the barn Friday morning at 8 am to check on Amiga.  Her udders were even more swollen so I gave her another Bute with her morning feed.  Then I went to town shopping, getting some needed food and supplies, but also some more plants.  I can't help myself.








I am so excited about the new bed I am going to put in.  I rolled the two huge rocks up the hill and placed the plants where I envisioned planting them, along with the rocks.

A small chance of rain was predicted for late afternoon, so I decided to do one batch of cement to finish the ditch wall next to the area where I want to plant, and later mulch up to the wall.  I got sprinkled on as I was completing the concrete work at about 1:00 and I started to panic.  But that was all it amounted to, and there was no more the rest of the day.

I cleaned mud from the ditch at the bottom of the hill that feeds water into the creek.  You can see some of the rock on the hill in the left photo.  The right photo shows the ditch as it feeds into the creek.  About two inches of dirt, sand and small rock had washed into this trough, so I moved it back up hill, and put it on the outside of the retaining wall, on Allen's side of the ditch, seen below.














Since I now had more shade varity grass seed, I prepared and seeded the area I had removed mulch from the day before, and sprinkled dirt on top of the seed.


Joe grilled dinner and I ate and ran... back into the yard to do more work.  I started digging up sod and moving it onto the dirt to help hold it in place.  I had a little mulch and put it down where some of the sod had been.  The garden hose shows where I want the border of the bed to go.  Moving sod is more work, but this way I don't have to use Round-up to kill off the grass before I put mulch on top.




I put all the shrub together to water them, the new grass seed, and the sod.  It was well after dark by the time I came inside (which is at 9 pm these days).

I could not keep my tired body up to clean house for tomorrow's company or even work on this blog post.  I didn't even spend any time festering about it and was soon sound asleep.