RIP (Really In Pieces)

or
One Hail of a Night

Before this weekend I had heard of microbursts. I think I only remembered the term because it sounded like something a very small firecracker, or maybe a water balloon, did. I suppose it is all a mater of perspective - holding a ladyfinger when it goes off is a bad idea, and getting hit in the back of the head with a water balloon hurts.

Because our lease does not take effect until Thursday and our landlords-to-be are nice people, we have been living in our camper next to the new house for a few weeks - ever since the voyage of Noah’s horse trailer - while they have been moving out. This has not been the roughing it type of ordeal you might think. It is a nice pop up camper with a slide out dinette. The beds are comfortable. There is - or was - a large screen porch. And with lots of effort, thought and ruthless organization, MDW has kept our temporary home very pleasant and livable.

We sit on a hillside in a large field which extend about a quarter mile down to the road, with maybe a half mile of road front to the east and west.

As the sun was going down Friday evening we watched a truly wicked looking storm cell pass by to the north of us. But the skies over us remained fairly clear. We did some farm chores and some camper maintenance, had a nice dinner, and went to bed. As the kids were settling down to sleep, I went out to check on the dogs to make sure they could all get to their shelters on their (temporary) tie outs. There was a soft warm breeze and the sky was lightly overcast, but there was plenty of moonlight to see. One of them, Gabriella’s dog Chubby, was tangled up and I set to getting the very large, very bouncy puppy unwound so she could get inside.

As I bent over, fending her off with one hand while untying the amazingly complex knots with the other I noticed that everything suddenly got very quiet. I looked to the west at the tree line, about a thousand feet a way (I measured it later). I heard a sound like a small jet flying directly toward me - that moment before you can really hear the engines when it is a high frequency rushing sound. And then the trees just disappeared - nothing there but a solid wall of featureless gray. A fast moving wall of featureless gray. Fast moving directly at me! **

I unclipped Chubby’s collar yelled for her to come and sprinted for the trailer. That might not sound like the smartest place to go with a jet airplane sounding, fast moving, featureless gray wall howling down upon one, but everything I hold precious in this world was in that trailer and darned if I was going anyplace else. I got to the screen room, turned around and grabbed Chubby. I pushed her and MDW through the door and the blast of hail and wind hit us.

The screen room parted company with the trailer like it had been hit by a truck. Heavy, marine grade fabric tore from end to end. The aluminum supports bent like flexi straws. At the same time, the wind hit the bunk end so hard the the aluminum tube that forms the top support snapped without hardly bending - not crimped and then broken, just snapped like a dry twig. As I was still pushing the dog through the door it was blown shut against my shoulder (or elbow - I am not sure; I didn’t even feel it) so hard it knocked the lower panel most of the way out. I thought, as I scrambled through the door, that the frame hit the back of my head because it felt raw, though I couldn’t figure out how it had happened.

When I got to my feet, MDW was stuffing the kids, all of them in varying states of hysteria, under the table - an interesting task since there is room under there for two (maybe three) kids and the dog was in there, too. It was like watching somebody trying to push a bunch of wet bars of soap into a small box - she would push one in and another one would squirt out. Thinking it was just wind and rain she asked if we should run for the house. Listening to the hail hit the fiberglass top - and praying that it didn’t get big enough to punch through it - I told her no.

I don’t think it lasted more than a minute, or maybe two. After that it was just normal wind and rain. I went out and pulled the truck up to the trailer; MDW handed the kids to me one at a time and I stuffed their gibbering little selves into the truck and drove them the hundred feet or so to the door of the house. I saw them through the door and went to check on the animals.

Chubby and Java were with us, Aslan and Whitetip were in crates inside. Sir Edmund’s house had been blown away, but he was fine so it must have saved him from the initial blast. As his house headed off toward OZ, it met the gate to the pen where the buck goats and the last two dogs, Bumble Bee and Murphy, were confined. The gate ceased to be a barrier and the house kept going. I found the goats in the barn, looking shocked but unharmed, and Murphy was still in his house. Bumble Bee had come straight to us as we were loading into the truck. The horses were nowhere to be seen - I just hoped they were someplace sheltered (they were fine, as it turns out).

All critters accounted for, I went into the house to help MDW as she continued to try and calm the kids. My clothes were soaked and my scalp still felt raw. Taking off my shirt I asked if my scalp was bleeding. Everyone looked at me; there was a brief pause… and the weeping redoubled. My right (westerly) side and back looked like I had been shot with BBs. Hundreds of welts from the hail stones which had been between raisin and grape sized. Yes, they stung.

Sadly, my camera was on a table in the screen room. As best I can tell, it only takes about 3 hailstones to permanently deactivate a Canon S3. But, aside from that, we got off very lightly…

4 kids - scared, but unhurt
7 dogs - bewildered and wet, but unhurt
2 horses - escaped from downed fence, but sensible enough not to run off
1 gate gone - quickly rehung
1 dog hut MIA - soon relocated
1 door - repaired
1 ridge pole - replaced, $50
1 awning - replaceable, $300
1 skin - welts fading to strange purplish spots

God is good, and His angels’ wings are a mighty shelter… even from hail storms!

**By my best guess, based on the distance to the trees and how long it took to reach me, I calculated that it was moving between 70 and 90 mph!

I Actually Played!***

The words for the Weekly Words Challenge (which remains semi-permanently guest hosted by Tink) were Fire and Three.

My subject for both of the words is Gabriella.

Fire

Need I explain?

Three

Yesterday she had one Boer goat. Now she has Three.

See? My camera does still work!

Proof… and you can click for more!

A Dog and His Boy

Honeysuckle

***A few hours late, maybe. But I played!

Woot and Squeeeeeee

We signed. They signed. The notary signed.

We take possession on the 15th of May!

Wooohooo! I see a light at the end of the tunnel.

Less Than You Want To Know

Well, everything looks like a go on the house. But I won’t say it is a done deal until the ink is dry - hopefully Thursday evening.

MDW and the kids moved the camper down here ten days ago. I felt like Noah on the trip because I was towing a trailer with two horses, five dogs, and twenty five goats. In the truck with me were two more dogs and three kids (of the human variety). The trip normally takes less than eight hours - this one took over fifteen. Lets just say that if I believed in the concept of purgatory I’d think I had a green light on the Pearly Gates.

So we are living the RV life, albeit parked in the drive of the house, and getting the critters settled - and  they take allot of settling - until the lease is signed and we take possession.

Later this week the plan is for the zoo to leave me here and head back North to tie up some loose ends and have a birthday party whilst I stay here and keep the beasties alive. And keep working to fund the whole operation.

So there you have it - the odd situation in a nutshell… unless you are allergic to nuts, in which case you can have it on the half shell… unless you are also allergic to shellfish, in which case you can have it in an egg shell… unless you are — oh, never mind.

So Close I Can Taste It!

Could it be? Could it? Could this be the place God has set aside for us?

It looks promising. We should know by the beginning of the week.

Please, God, let us be nearly done with this ordeal. Amen!

An Unexpected Fascination

I hate watching boxing. It strikes me (no pun intended) as a silly, over-formalized, steroid driven endurance contest with an obnoxious attitude  problem.

And don’t even get me started on “professional” “wrestling” (which is neither, in my view). I don’t have sufficient words to describe the inanity of that occupation (refusing, here, to demean the word “sport”).

So, how in the world did I get hooked on UFC (the professional mixed martial arts league)?

I suppose the reasons are…

1. there are very few rules - and those are common sense (no biting, no eye gouging, etc.)
2. the competitors are usually good friends and are gracious in victory as well as defeat.
3. there are no pulled punches
4. there is no script, no ongoing story line
5. they don’t use “the STEEL chair”
6. there are no theatrics - extra characters in the ring, makeup, gaudy costumes, prolonged posturing speeches, etc…

It is a blend of all the most “practical” of the martial arts - largely Brazilian jujitsu and Muay Thai, with a smattering of kickboxing, judo, shoot wrestling, and, yes, boxing. A win is by knockout, submission, or decision.

And, yes, they fight in a chain link, octagonal cage - which is actually safer than a boxing “ring”.

But whatever the logical (or illogical) reason, I am hooked. Hmmmm, I wonder if it’s on tonight…

Glimpses of East Tennessee

I miss Flickr (I can’t access it from work), but Picasa Web Albums are a fair surrogate.

Here are a few shots I have taken while looking for a home this month.

Unsettled

Yes, they do have internet in Tennessee.

However, I cannot access much of it. My network in the office is very restrictive and I don’t have a personal computer here (oh, the pain and shame). So…. I will post occasionally and, since I can use a feed reader, I will at least keep reading most of my regular blog reads (at least those with complete feeds). I can’t comment on most though, so I will be in lurk mode most of the time. Sorry.

MDW and the kids are still in Virginia and I get to see them on the weekend every couple of weeks. The house hunting is not going as quickly as I had hoped, although in some ways that is not a very bad thing. The country here in TN makes my heart sing and I am dying to start our new phase of life here. Work is good; my co-workers are very nice; the weather is fine; traffic is absurdly light; my extended stay accommodations are… tolerable.

Life goes on and God is in control. I just need to keep reminding myself of that. Please keep us all in your prayers.

Go West, Young Man!

On February 29 the Odd Farm and Family will begin the migration westward.

That’s right folks, we are pulling up the stakes on our little circus and moving. I will lead the way (I start on the 3rd of March) and find a place to land and we will move our family and the household stuff - and the horses and the goats and the chickens and the dogs and the cats (thank goodness we have no pigs at the moment) in April.

Final destination -  Maryville, Tennessee! (or thar ’bout)

Yay!

Reasons for the move

• a great new job.
• cheap land.
• no more FOUR HOUR COMMUTE!
• lower cost of living.
• surrounded by lakes and mountains.
• no state income tax.
• more relaxed pace of life.
• nice, friendly people.

What’s not to like?

WWC and Backwoods Cookin’

I was out sick yesterday, so I am turning in my homework a day late.

The words for WWC this week were Pattern and Brown. I am cheating (just a little) and using one picture for both…

Me - in brown pattern hunting gear.

Creative, huh?

Fruits of the Hunt

I have noticed many comments in the past that many folks who have tried venison didn’t like it. Venison done wrong is truly gnasty. However, there are tricks to making venison palatable. If you follow them it tastes like good aged beef. And if you don’t like aged beef, well, I guess you are just SOL.

• The “gamey” taste of venison is from the fat. Fortunately, venison has no intramuscular fat, so you can trim nearly all of it away. Be sure to debone, because there is fat in and around the bones, too. The fat should be removed prior to freezing because it WILL go rancid (and taste even worse) in the freezer.

• Be sure to age the meat, either by hanging before cutting (if it is cold enough outside) or by keeping it in the refrigerator for 3 or 4 days before or after freezing. Aging allows the muscle fibers to relax fully and the meat to become more tender and more flavorful. Don’t let it get much above 40 degrees while aging though or it will spoil. I prefer to age before freezing so I don’t have to remember which packages were allowed to hang and which weren’t – I just thaw, cook, and eat. I recently read that venison will age (though much more slowly) in the freezer, but I have not personally seen this to be the case.

• Venison should be cooked rare or medium rare – medium at the very most. Because it is completely lean is gets dry very easily. Cook it well-done and you might as well be eating paper pulp.

• If you are going to make sausage or burgers out of it, add pork fat – just grind in some fatback from the store. The only caution I would add here is fatback is often heavily salted; I wash the salt off in cold water before I grind it.

Venison can be seasoned in many ways. We prefer sweet herb seasonings – basil, thyme, sage, parsley, rosemary, etc – garlic, and onion (particularly caramelized sweet onions).

Recipes:

Loin (backstrap) or tenderloin can be cut into thick cutlets (about an inch) and pan seared in butter and garlic until medium-rare in the middle. Flip every minute or so with tongs to keep from burning and be sure to sear the sides. Let the meat rest while you sauté some sweet onion in the leftover butter. Serve with hearty bread.

Sirloin tip can be oven roasted with rosemary and sage. Cover with foil and roast in 350 degree oven until meat thermometer reads 130 in center. Then remove foil and turn on the broiler to brown the surface. When the thermometer reads rare, remove from oven and re-cover with foil. Let rest ten minutes before carving. Carryover heat should have the center at close to medium-rare, and those finicky about red meat can eat the slices closer to the ends.

Rounds make great pot roasts or they can be cut up for stew or ground. The shoulder, shanks, and neck meat are also good for grinding.

For a great breakfast sausage, grind 2 pounds of meat with a coarse die. Add in:

* 3 Tbsp of flour
* 3 Tbsp Raw Sugar
* 3 tsp kosher salt
* 1/2 tsp rubbed sage
* 1/2 tsp thyme leaves
* 1/2 tsp ground black pepper

Mix well and grind again with a fine die. Spoon it out onto waxed paper, press it into 2 inch diameter rolls, and freeze it.The next day peel off the paper, slice it 1/2 inch thick and cook it in a skillet with little olive oil on medium heat.This is very low fat. If you like your sausage a little juicier you can mix in some pork fatback before the first grinding.

Bon Apatite!

Office Visit

Annelise finally got her turn to come to my office today.

Lunch was the highlight of the day.

She has been looking forward to “Chinese Food” for a long time.

Christmas WWC

The Weekly Words, courtesy of Tink, were Tradition and Pink.

Tradition

The tradition in the extended Odd Clan is that Christmas morning is a relaxed affair. Christmas Eve gets all the formalities. In particular, the fantastical dinner at Grandma’s with the requisite (and traditional) portraits.

After a blinding storm of camera flashes, the kids decided we should have a “silly picture”, so here it is.

Pink

One tradition we were unfortunately unable to continue this year was the visit from Nana and Grandpa. They just couldn’t get out here this year. So we contrived to continue the tradition in virtual reality (with a webcam and a TV).

It was a poor substitute, but better than naught.

Here’s hoping you had a very Merry Christmas!

The Start of Every Journey

is a single step

where will it end?

WWC. No, Really! WWC.

And only a day late, too.

But first, by invitation of Sharkey … Christmas Pups

A few of them anyway. There are nine of these around our house (mostly outside-around) these days.

MDW and Murphy

Gabriella and her pup, Chubby (so named for the geometric reason)… and Aslan… and Whitetip…

Me, looking way more wiped than I felt, with my pup, Bumble-Bee

Now, on to the WWC

to Life

(blood pressure meds)

White

a single white Pansie snuck into the bed of yellows and oranges.

Did you play, too?

Moving Right Along

Factors I dealt with on this morning’s commute:

• One car in shop
• Sick children (viral blech)
• Snow
• Ice
• Late train
• Broken down freight train on tracks leading to…
• Overcrowded subway trains for an hour long trip leading to…
• Broken down subway train ahead of us leading to…
• More overcrowded subway train and delays
• Sick passenger on another train ahead bringing subway system to a stop

What an adventure.

Recent Photos

Injustice to the small

Most productive day at work in a long time

Annelise and her cousin at Thanksgiving

Autumn Blues
photo taken by Caleb

Group Chew
photo taken by Caleb

The Fog Is Clearing

The fog in my head, that is.

I have missed you all and cannot begin to express how much the notes you left while I was gone meant to me. I am just now beginning to peek back into the blog-o-sphere and am amazed at how much catching up I have to do. I mean, geeze, I am gone for a moth and Tink goes and gets engaged!

OK, for those of you who have been wondering and (thankyouthankyouthankyouthankyouthankyou) praying for us…

MDW is a little better. She had a weekly infusion of iron for 4 weeks after her hospital stay. Now we wait a month and get her blood checked again. We pray that her anemia will be under control. If not, it is probably bone marrow biopsy time.

Bissie has a grade 2 urinary tract reflux. In laymans terms that means the flow reverses from her bladder back to her kidneys. The treatment at this point is to keep her on antibiotics until she grows out of it. She will have to be monitored periodically by a nephrologist to make sure there is no kidney damage.

We are still in the same house. Our landlord redeemed the foreclosure with less than a minute to spare before the auction was scheduled to start. We suspect we will be moving sometime soon, but don’t know when.

For the month I was gone I don’t think I even looked at a blog - mine or anybody else’s - much less posted or commented. It just seemed like too much work to even think about. I did check email and did read comments on my old blog posts (again thankyouthankyouthankyouthankyouthankyou) and occasionally said “Hi!” on Google talk (”Hi, Kelli!”). But the fog was really, really, really thick.

For the last month or so I also seemed to loose all interest in the camera. I knew I liked photography but had less than zero interest in picking up the camera. I have begun taking a few pictures again. I guess that is a positive thing.

Java had nine puppies last month. This was a planned breeding. We will keep some for livestock guardians (not chain dogs, just family farm dogs that have dog houses near the other critters) and the others are mostly spoken for by friends who know and love the Bean.

Deer season has begun. That means I am taking an hour or so here and there to go sit still and quiet in the woods. That is definitely a good thing for me. And venison is very tasty, too.

So, here I am. Nothing deep today. I suppose a blogging comeback has to start with a single post. We’ll se if this is it.

Tink is getting married!?!?!?!?! Holy cow! What else have I missed?

Medium, Well-done, or….

The drama continues. Amazingly, I am finding that I am (mostly) at peace. I suppose I am slowly learning to trust in my God. Please keep the prayers for a good home and good health coming. I hope the tests in this course don’t get any tougher.

In the mean time… WWC

Rare

You don’t see many of these on Virgina farms.

Common

These, however, are common. But becoming less so around our place.

Fresh free-range chicken… Mmmmmmm!

WWC: Dueling Banjos

Urban
Gabriella went to work in the city with me while her Mommy was in the hospital.

Country
Nothing more country than shooting milk at the barn cat.

That is all

Did You Know?

Did you know that if your landlord sells the house he rents to you then the obligations of the lease pass to the buyer?

Did you know that that obligation passes because it is on the deed?

Did you know that a foreclosure sale actually BREAKS the chain of title? And hence the lease obligation?

Did you know that in less than a month I will probably be trespassing if I am still here?

I didn’t… until last night when my landlord showed me the notice of the auction which is set for a week from Monday.

Crap!

Slightly More Boring

MDW came home from the hospital on Tuesday. She had a Campylobacter infection which seems to be under control. We still don’t know what is causing her anemia, though, and there are some genetic factors that could come into the picture as well. So there was a great blood letting before they let her out, and many tests will be done.

In the mean time she is very weak and tired. But she is home, and that is a good thing.

guyz, i has nuf fun nao. kthxbai

Just when I thought the interestingness was done…

While Bissie continues to do fairly well, our familly state has not seen much improvement. After the test that identified the problem with Bissie’s bladder on Tuesday, we decided to go to IHOP for a family treat. Some treat…

Wednesday MDW started feel queezie. Thursday the kids and I felt ick, too. Thursday night we all felt better… except MDW. She was feverish, nauseous, and in significant pain in her abdomen. Friday morning she called to get an appointment with her doctors, but we were in the Urgent Care by eleven, where they administered 2 liters of fluid for dehydration and sent her off with a script for antibiotics and an antiemetic. By early afternoon she was feeling worse and was running a 104 degree fever - off to the emergency room… again.

Paige and her mom agreed to watch the girls while Caleb and I took her to the hospital. Caleb and I stayed with her until she was admitted later that night. Then we went and got the girls from our (very dear) friends and went home to tend the animals and go to bed.

She is still in there, though feeling somewhat better thanks to many, many liters of IV support. They have ruled out most of the nastier culprits, but she is still not stable enough to come home. She is also about 30% deficient in red blood cells - read significantly anemic - the cause of which remains a mystery as well.

As if we weren’t having enough fun, Annelise seems to have experienced a renewal of her GERD (Gastro Esophogeal Reflux Disease) that was so bad as an infant that she was fed by NG tube for six months. She has been placed back on Zantac so that she does not hurt every time she starts to eat.

Caleb - at my request - was making ramen noodles for her while I did farm chores on Saturday morning and something under the burner caught fire! Gabriella came running outside to tell me there was a fire and I got inside just in time to see my excellent son let fly with the fire extinguisher (exactly what he should have done). Thanks to his fast thinking the worst I had to clean up was a whole bunch of yellow powder and some soot on the back of the stove.

We seem to be packing a year or two of drama into a month. Where is the exit? I am ready to get the family car off of this highway.

Updates…

Bissie 

The latest on Bissie is that the last test identified a Grade 2 Urinary Reflux, which (simplified version) means that when her bladder is full the pressure forces the urine back up into her kidney (Owww!).

This is good news in the sense that we now have a better sense of what is going on, and that there is not an immediate thereat to her long term health.

The not so good news is that kidney backpressure HURTS! it is why kidney stones suck so badly. For you mothers who have never experienced a kidney stone, think labor with no breaks between contractions. Thankfully she doesn’t seem to be hurting all the time. But activity makes it worse, and inactivity is less than inviting to my Bissie.

In the long run, the treatments for these reflux cases can mean anything from “watch and wait” to surgical intervention. I am hoping for a version of the former if it won’t mean constant pain, because the condition ususally resolves on its own with age.

Currently we are scheduling one more test to look for scarring and getting an appointment with a good pediatric nephrologist at DC Children’s.

WWC

For the time being, Tink has agreed to take over as the host of WWC. She made me promise that it was only a temporary gig until I start blogging regularly. So please go over to Pickled Beef and  show her the same kind support you have shown me. But play nice lest you get sporked.

Around…

…and around, and around, and around.

That’s where I am these days . Around.

Busy days abound. Life is full of things I “must do” - too many things that I “must do”. And too many of those “must do” things are self imposed.

Blogging has become a duty instead of a diversion. To some degree, so has photography.  So… I am taking a step or two back to decide what I want to enjoy in my life in addition to the real “have-to”s.
I’m not quitting, just slowing down and pacing myself. I regard many of the readers here as friends. Most of the “regulars” in fact. I hate the idea of people “knocking on my door”, getting no answer, and leaving sad. I hope you will all still come by from time to time and say hi. If I am not here, please leave me a note. I read every comment on any post that you leave. And I appreciate them all - unless  you are trying to sell the rest of my readers some kind of manhood enhancing herbal juju.

I’ll still be around from time to time to comment. I’ll still be haunting Flickr.  And I’ll even post every now and then. Just a couple of nights ago as we sat in the Emergency Room parking lot waiting for Bissie and MDW, Caleb said, “I think you should blog this. I wish you would start blogging again.”

OK, Caleb. Here you go.

About two weeks ago, Bissie was hospitalized for several days with a kidney infection.  She is so stoic that she hadn’t reported any pain from the bladder infection that had to have been there for days or weeks before. When she finally complained of tiredness and pain in her back and side we took her to the doctor. A positive urinalysis and a fever were enough to send her to the ER in an ambulance.

She was released after several days of IV fluids and antibiotics with instructions to continue the antibiotics and drink lots of liquids. She was OK for a few days, but then started to have pain again.

Sunday night, she couldn’t stand up straight, so back to the ER we went.

Temperature - normal
Urinalysis - completely clean
Blood work - clean
White blood cell count - normal
Abdominal Sonogram - normal
Abdominal CT scan - normal

Doctor - conscientious,  thorough… and very, very confused
Patient - still in pain

They released her late Monday morning, well hydrated with instructions to stay in bed and take Advil regularly. She has one more test today and then… Who knows?

This is not good for my stress level or sleep habits.

Please pray for Bissie and her Doctors.

As If…

As if I needed something new to take up my time.

I found this by way of NinjaPoodles and have decided it is the book lovers’ equivalent of mind crack.

Goodreads

Go get high. And remember… I am your friend.

WWC - Off the Wall

Attention in the camp…

The words for this week are Silly and Serious.

That is all…