Some work never ends

There is some work that will never end.  Some of that work is clearing land of downed trees.  We are clearing an area for pasture for the horse and non-milking goats.  We'll be getting field fence next week and start slowly drying up two of the milkers for breeding and fall kidding.  This will keep us two in milk at a time year round.

I allowed a comment through from our Oregon Friend.  She claims genuine curiosity while still feeling like we are making reckless decisions.  Her biggest claim is Husband and I being overweight (ignoring the massive weight loss over the past year or more) and being in poor health.  My health is fine.  (As long as I remember to take my Levothyroxine ahem.)  Husband's health has improved.  We came down here with him being insulin dependent and now he is diet controlled diabetic.  His last A1c was 6.9.  (Or was it 6.8?  It was below 7.0 which is amazing since five years ago he was over 9.0.)

Oregon Friend also seems to be ignoring the children and how they have benefited.  Living in "Rural Suburbia" where we moved here from, you would think one acre surrounded by fields would be wonderful and healthy.  However, that was not the case.  "Rural Suburbia" mixed two wonderful things together - agricultural chemicals and industrial chemicals - and made a toxic soup causing my youngest to turn blue on a regular basis.  Something we have not had to deal with here.  When we go back to Indiana to visit, in a few days, she is back to being blue.  We had gone through all kinds of tests for her checking her heart, lungs, sleep apnea, etc.  We ourselves exposed her to a butt load of radiation with the C-T scans and everything else trying to find out why our youngest was suffering cyanosis.  Yes, she had a hole in her heart.  It healed.  She continued to turn blue.  We move out here and there are few chemicals in the air and she doesn't turn blue.  She runs and plays and has energy she didn't have before.

Our ability to handle or not handle a medical emergency will never be answered to Oregon Friend's satisfaction.  If I were to live between a trauma specialist and a 24 hour ER (yes, there are ERs that are not open 24/7), it would still not be good enough.

I do what I can for my family and I am not going to endanger my child's health (guaranteed) over the possibility that something *might* happen.  If something happens on the roads, I know every single person that would respond.  There are no strangers here.  (There are strange people here, but they are not strangers.  LOL)  If something happens in my home, being an Emergency Medical Responder, I have direct contact through the radio to EMS, paramedics, a doctor, and can get a hold of air-evac faster than my neighbor up the road whose children are all younger than mine.

If something happens with my husband, the response would be the same as if I were in Indiana.  VA ER which (like there) is hours away.  Only here, I would have a team of professionals working along side me as we went.  (I did not have that there.)  I also have someone to watch my children should I have to take him.  (And this person has watched my children overnight during an emergency.)  Plus, the person who would be watching my children is also a fire fighter so he would also know something was up long before I called him.

Yes, a male watches my children in an emergency.  I am sure that is going to go over well with Oregon Friend.  Once again, I am placing my children in danger because *gasp* the person's reproductive organs are on the outside rather than the inside.  We all know that men are evil and incapable of taking care of children.  His only concern when I asked (and he knows I don't ask easily and don't leave my children easily) was if he had to wipe any butts.  He did not want to do that and was relieved that it was a non-issue.  My children can wipe their own butts and tie their own shoes.  (They just don't keep their shoes tied.)

Anyway, all that to say that Oregon Friend's comment has been allowed with more questions answered on the taken at face value of genuine curiosity with the understanding that she will never be satisfied until we have been brought to heel in middle America suburbia with an ER next door.  Although at that point, she would probably find something else to criticize.

We're healthier now that we have been in a long time.  Weight has come off a lot.  The only on going issue that will continue to be an issue regardless of where we are or what we are doing are the seizures.  And, I have found (or I should say a Native American Medicine Man shared with me) something to help with the brain fog that sticks around for a day after a seizure.  It doesn't help with the exhaustion, but the foggy brain issue now only lasts half an hour to an hour.  And, it was something that I had on hand for a few years now, but didn't know this particular application.

Back to pasture.  We've been working this one area and had been waiting for an opportunity to do a brush pile burn.  Rain had been forecast a lot with no rain in sight.  There was a 50% chance today (yeah, right) and we even had black clouds roll in.  YAY!  Rain coming!  Let's burn!  We have our pile, light it, and it gets going.  Then, the wind shifts.  CRAP!  And, the wind picks up.  DOUBLE CRAP!  So, we pull out the rake and backpack sprayer.  We have to put the fire out to prevent it from spreading and getting out of control.  So, no brush burn today.  But, as we've been piling brush to burn, we've also been cutting and stacking wood for winter.  We go through two cords a month during winter.  Sometimes more if it's bitter cold outside.  We went through a cord a week a few times this past winter.  So, we pile now and when winter comes, we can be cozy warm and relax until next spring when we work on clearing out more dead wood and work to prevent forest fires.  (Said with a glance left towards Texas and Arizona.)