Saturday, January 6
Jan. 7th, 2024 01:15 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
gottawonderToday I am grateful for:
That the seamstress called back, and we were able to go to her today with three pairs of pants belonging to my husband, to see if they could be altered. One pair was a very nice pair of dress pants that he had taken in for a family wedding almost four years ago, when he was slimmer than he's ever been (from all the work tearing down the trailer and bringing in the current house). The other two pair just have a lot of volume in the legs, which didn't seem to bother him when we bought them a few years ago, but now he doesn't like.
We could have maybe just given away the baggier pants, but if it doesn't cost too much to have them altered, that would be preferable. Nice pants are not cheap; my husband also is rarely happy bargain shopping at places like Winner's. If he likes these pants more or less, then we're better off trying to make them fit better.
I went outside to do chores, and Hollywood, our very aged mare, was very uncomfortable walking today. VERY uncomfortable. I took water to her, since she probably wasn't going to the waterer.
So, there is a very good chance that this is it now, for her. I am going to try giving her some stronger pain management drugs for a while (not a permanent solution), and see if things improve, but with a horse, not being comfortable walking isn't sustainable.
She's had arthritis for the whole time we've owned her, but it never stopped her from getting around well enough for grazing and drinking, and so on.
I did talk to one of the vets we use about the pain management, and what kind of notice we'd need to have for euthanization as well as taking her body away. They would need very little notice if there was an emergency, and they work with a service that would come for the remains within a day.
So, I guess now we know that.
We did go to town for the fitting with the tailor, and while my husband was doing that I stayed in the car and talked with Sister E, who actually phoned ME this time, which is nice.
She has had to put down two of her horses in the last few years, so she was empathetic to the situation.
As I've said, if the change in medication helps, this may not be an immediate decision, but it is possible that this is where things are at.
We got groceries, enough so that I shouldn't need to go shopping on Monday, in case I don't end up going to town that day.
We stopped in at pottery, and several pieces of mine were back from the kiln and look very nice. I checked on the two tea pots I have drying, and they are doing well, and the handles are not cracking.
We came home, and I checked on the horses, and Hollywood was lying down. Not in itself awful, because she seemed comfortable, and horses DO lie down, but we have to pay attention to how she is when she walks, or if she has trouble getting up.
My husband did do some work in the basement where we are readying an area for a wood stove. He did some electrical wiring for an outlet, and put up some drywall.
I made supper, we did some more laundry, and we watched more of "The Expanse".
In and around all of that, we are still aware of Roxy's leg, and trying to be careful with her.
I learned a bit about the launching of the Titanic, though not really in an organized way. I watched a couple of videos showing the enormous slipway required to allow it to slide into the water, and another source stated that it took about 20 tons of tallow, grease, and soap to lubricate it. I am fascinated by the very idea of the structures around the frame of the boat that were built so that beams and parts could be put into place with cranes, ropes and pulleys. Sheets of steel would be raised into place and riveted to the frame. The workers would climb those frames around the ship itself to access the part they were working on. The huge timbers required just to sit under the ship, and to keep it from tipping while they built it.
It's also amazing that it was this odd level of industrial technology that is modern but "not-modern".
https://youtu.be/zZIGG2ubaKY?si=bhrL0ukpedjLS5hu This is a fairly short documentary.
https://youtu.be/zDkAQ1NzGBc?si=VhWdfpFktbYgDTt9 This is a clip from the film "Titanic", I think, but it captures the mood, the sounds, the size of the ship very well.
That the seamstress called back, and we were able to go to her today with three pairs of pants belonging to my husband, to see if they could be altered. One pair was a very nice pair of dress pants that he had taken in for a family wedding almost four years ago, when he was slimmer than he's ever been (from all the work tearing down the trailer and bringing in the current house). The other two pair just have a lot of volume in the legs, which didn't seem to bother him when we bought them a few years ago, but now he doesn't like.
We could have maybe just given away the baggier pants, but if it doesn't cost too much to have them altered, that would be preferable. Nice pants are not cheap; my husband also is rarely happy bargain shopping at places like Winner's. If he likes these pants more or less, then we're better off trying to make them fit better.
I went outside to do chores, and Hollywood, our very aged mare, was very uncomfortable walking today. VERY uncomfortable. I took water to her, since she probably wasn't going to the waterer.
So, there is a very good chance that this is it now, for her. I am going to try giving her some stronger pain management drugs for a while (not a permanent solution), and see if things improve, but with a horse, not being comfortable walking isn't sustainable.
She's had arthritis for the whole time we've owned her, but it never stopped her from getting around well enough for grazing and drinking, and so on.
I did talk to one of the vets we use about the pain management, and what kind of notice we'd need to have for euthanization as well as taking her body away. They would need very little notice if there was an emergency, and they work with a service that would come for the remains within a day.
So, I guess now we know that.
We did go to town for the fitting with the tailor, and while my husband was doing that I stayed in the car and talked with Sister E, who actually phoned ME this time, which is nice.
She has had to put down two of her horses in the last few years, so she was empathetic to the situation.
As I've said, if the change in medication helps, this may not be an immediate decision, but it is possible that this is where things are at.
We got groceries, enough so that I shouldn't need to go shopping on Monday, in case I don't end up going to town that day.
We stopped in at pottery, and several pieces of mine were back from the kiln and look very nice. I checked on the two tea pots I have drying, and they are doing well, and the handles are not cracking.
We came home, and I checked on the horses, and Hollywood was lying down. Not in itself awful, because she seemed comfortable, and horses DO lie down, but we have to pay attention to how she is when she walks, or if she has trouble getting up.
My husband did do some work in the basement where we are readying an area for a wood stove. He did some electrical wiring for an outlet, and put up some drywall.
I made supper, we did some more laundry, and we watched more of "The Expanse".
In and around all of that, we are still aware of Roxy's leg, and trying to be careful with her.
I learned a bit about the launching of the Titanic, though not really in an organized way. I watched a couple of videos showing the enormous slipway required to allow it to slide into the water, and another source stated that it took about 20 tons of tallow, grease, and soap to lubricate it. I am fascinated by the very idea of the structures around the frame of the boat that were built so that beams and parts could be put into place with cranes, ropes and pulleys. Sheets of steel would be raised into place and riveted to the frame. The workers would climb those frames around the ship itself to access the part they were working on. The huge timbers required just to sit under the ship, and to keep it from tipping while they built it.
It's also amazing that it was this odd level of industrial technology that is modern but "not-modern".
https://youtu.be/zZIGG2ubaKY?si=bhrL0ukpedjLS5hu This is a fairly short documentary.
https://youtu.be/zDkAQ1NzGBc?si=VhWdfpFktbYgDTt9 This is a clip from the film "Titanic", I think, but it captures the mood, the sounds, the size of the ship very well.
no subject
Date: 2024-01-07 11:23 pm (UTC)I love how you two work to reuse and repurpose possessions. You're a great model for me. I'm paying much more attention to consumption of resources now than I ever have before. It just makes so much sense.
no subject
Date: 2024-01-08 07:58 am (UTC)I always struggle with putting down an animal. I have had horses die before, but I haven't put one down, and the idea of it is somehow different than a cat or a dog, just because of the MASS of the animal.
Something too, about how with this mare, she is bright and alert and interested in eating and so on, but just a lot of arthritis makes this so hard. I know that in general, she is content, but likely uncomfortable.
She isn't SICK, if that makes sense, she's just sore. It's not like with Fatty, for example, whose organs were failing and left him unable to eat and led quickly to him being lethargic and so on.
Most of the time, she gets around just fine, just slowly and carefully. Yesterday she didn't want to walk much, and you know that for a horse that can't happen.
I gave her some stronger pain medication yesterday, and will do so for a while. I'll have to consult again with this vet for some plan, if there is one (you can't really use this medication long-term).
She is walking around a little better, so it's "let's see how it goes".
I know that everything we do just buys us a little more time, and I know that there are limits to drugs, limits to extra feed and care, and just....limits.
There would be nothing wrong if we made the decision to let her go at any point, she's pretty old, has been treated with love and kindness here, and has had a good life with us.
It's just really tough being the one to make that call, as you know.
As to trying to be responsible about "things", I think it comes from growing up with a mother who grew up in the 1930's, and really never did have material excess. Mom sewed kid's clothes, patched them, handed them down, or eventually passed them to other kids (very rare).
Back then, NO ONE had a closet full of clothes they never wore; they wore things OUT, and then still used the material for quilts or made kid's clothes out of bigger things, etc.
Farmers in general tend to be handy people who fix things, use things in creative ways to solve a problem, re-purpose things over and over again, and the ongoing joke is that when something is truly broken and can't be used for anything else, you stick it out in the yard and plant flowers in it. That's not even a joke, because if you ever visited an old-time farm yard, there were often a dozen old metal pails around with flowers in them, old wringer washers with flowers in them, the bowl from an old cream separator would have flowers in it, and on and on.
Old broken farm machinery often just gets parked decoratively in the yard and gets flowers planted in front of it.
I patch my husband's jeans and often the patch lasts longer than the original jeans did. I have "farm clothes" that I wear until they are pretty much rags, and I do patch them up too. No point in buying new things to wear to do chores at home.
I don't really try THAT hard to fix things once they're ruined, often with the way things are made now, you can't fix them. If a dish breaks, I toss it.
I personally DO have an excess of personal belongings, WAY too many clothes, knick knacks, books, and so on. I don't feel like it's right though, to toss them when I need to pare them down.
I try to donate things, give them to someone who might use them, sell them if I can. If something is clean an usable, it would be an extreme thing for me to just toss it.