Sunday, July 14

[gottawonder]

Today I am grateful for:

Getting the Ikea clothes racks put together in the new house (old houses didn't have closets), and getting a good start at transferring clothes over. It's a little scary to be confronted with all my stuff this way again. The last time we moved, eleven years ago (when we came to our current location), I had to go through the same thing. I'll be using a small bedroom for a walk in closet, and it will likely be quite full when I'm done pulling every item of clothing out of the closets in this house, then there are sweaters in boxes, and all the stuff in dressers. I'm kind of excited about having a space to actually see everything; maybe it'll help me wear more of it instead of always wearing the same things. I'm also hoping it'll help me to part with some of it. It's so easy to ignore things you don't wear when they sit in the back of a closet in a spare room you don't use much.

I guess I am grateful that one of our remaining turtles (red eared slider) is still alive, though I'm not sure what is going on with it. I had a turtle die a couple of years ago, and it did the same thing this one did. Basically, I had this turtle outside in a big, deep pool that I have for them (the one that died was in a big outside tank too), and when I went to check on them, it wasn't moving. I pulled it out, and it was limp, and barely alive. I noticed that water came out of it's mouth, and treated it as if it might be drowning. I tipped it, moved it's legs to pump the lungs, and even carefully swung it to help clear any water. It finally took a few big breaths, though it was limp for a long time. I put it in shallow water in the bathroom sink, and it's breathing and moving around, and doesn't seem to be limp anymore. The turtle that died like this a couple of years ago didn't seem to recover any strength, and died after a few weeks. I don't know what to expect with this turtle. Yes, turtles CAN drown, but only if they get trapped underneath something and can't get to the surface. This turtle WAS coming up for air, and had a surface to climb out of the water if it wanted to. I have no idea what's going on, as it seemed perfectly healthy (as did the one that died a few years ago). These turtles aren't terribly long-lived as turtles go; their life expectancy in captivity according to Wikipedia is 20-30 years, and I have likely had this one for well over 15 years, and it was a few years old when I got it. Is this what happens when turtles get old? I've had all of these water turtles a long, long time, and I've had two of them (still have two, for now) die in the last couple of years. Vets don't seem to know much about them, and the internet says that water turtles have no reason to drown unless they get trapped under something, so this is just freaky.

That my sweetie is so capable. He's been working on getting the farm house ready for us to live in while it is up on blocks (it will be moved onto a basement later), and today he was working on getting a water pressure tank connected so we'll have water in the house, and trying to get the house connected to the temporary septic tank. It's going to be tough, because it's ancient pipe, and nothing fits modern plastic fittings, so things might have to be replaced.

For having some time just to sit with the ponies and goats as they grazed, and look around at the lovely grass and trees, and the field of yellow canola flowers that's right next to us.

For good books. I'm really enjoying my current one by Becky Chambers.

Kitty snuggles. I'm always honored that these beautiful creatures are so affectionate.