Wednesday, December 28, 2022

Turning a corner.

A batch of small miracles today, really. 

I have been sleeping poorly at night between Tim's coughing and my coughing. We are a pair. Last night, I went to bed and I fell asleep, and I was surprised to wake up to hear the clock chiming seven. I had slept all night. I got up and took another dose of mucinex. I was still tired, so I thought I would go back to bed until the rest of the house started waking up. 

When I woke up again, it was to hear the clock chiming ten, and boy, did I feel great!  

Poor Tim did not sleep hardly at all last night. (Being sound asleep, I missed that...) However, he also thinks that he feels like he has turned a corner in this whole thing, which is good news. It does seem as if he coughed much less today, at least while he was around me. 

Just to prove things to himself, he went down to the retirement property. The Amish are out cutting ice for their ice houses today. After the deep freeze, the ice was seven inches thick. It will be cut into huge slabs and pulled into a super insulated building. (Mattie says that the ice house still has ice in it from last winter, unbelievably). 

That really caught Tim's attention. If the ice was that thick, he could walk the little creek that runs along side the property and trim the brush back with a chain saw. He felt that this would be much easier than trying to trim the brush away from the creekside by fighting through the brush to get to the creekside. Never mind the fact that walking along on ice with a running chainsaw sounded a bit tricky to me.

 Brush cutting is awfully important because we have a good sized beaver population which has moved down river and begun to build dams, which was putting a great deal of our property under water. It also backs water up into our brother in laws pasture across the road.  Tim and Dave have been fighting the beaver since they moved in, and it is a tough struggle. You can rip out a beaver dam one night, and return to find it rebuilt the next. Keeping the brush cut away from the creek would make finding material for their building endeavors a bit more inconvenient. 

Once William saw his grandpa test the ice with a couple good thwacks of the pick axe, he got confident enough to give it a try. He had great fun while Tim ruthlessly chopped the brush and willows away from creek banks. William hauled the brush away. 

Being outside in the cold did not trigger Tim's cough. Everyone came back with all their pieces and parts. More good news. 

Houdini came out twice today to nibble on cat food. Taking a cue from (I think Bovey Belle), I've been heating his soft cat food in the microwave (poppity ping) for 10 seconds. He doesn't seem to be able to resist that smell. He has been out feeding a couple of times today. I also had a long feather boa type cat toy that I'd bought to entice him from beneath the hoosier cabinet. He ignored it. I put the handle in the drawer of the cabinet, and let it hang down. William caught him playing with it a couple times this evening. 

Seems like everyone is turning a corner here, and it is very happy news. 

43 comments:

  1. Turning corners, even on ice sounds talented! Linda in Kansas

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  2. This is lovely news! Thank you for cheering us! JanF

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    1. I am awfully relieved about Tim. Really, really relieved.

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  3. That's very interesting about the ice and amazing that it lasts so long. It would not here. I know beavers are a real problem in many places at times causing damage to roads when they block up culverts creating a dam and then water runs across the road. Are you able to have them relocated by professionals with permits?

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    1. It used to be that way. Now they do not do this. There are too many of them. They seem to have expanded from a population upstream and so a bunch of them just move down stream and start a new colony....and so on and so on and so on. Like any animal, a healthy population is not a bad thing, but when it gets out of control it is a nightmare. There is no limit on trapping beavers. Part of the brush clearing is so that they can be easily seen at night.

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  4. Must be the turning of the year. Glad Houdini is out and about and that everyone's coughs are getting better.

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    1. I think that it is. In just two days, we will be turning the calendar to a new year. Houdini is not really out and about, per se, but he does venture out when we are moving about. If we are in the kitchen, he is tucked in his bed in the corner watching us carefully. But...he seems much more at ease. Every time I come into the kitchen, I give him a kind word and a treat, and a pet. Yesterday, when I extended my hand to him, he stretched his head to me to sniff the treat AND he PURRED!

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  5. Thank goodness the chest infection is receding, for both of you.
    I would have chewed my fingernails down to the knuckles waiting for those boys to get back home from the ice!

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    1. The creek is not deep. Perhaps 2-3 feet. Tim does not take chances. William has his grandfather's cautious nature.

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  6. After 100's of years Beavers have been re-introduced to a couple of places in this country - hope they don't cause problems in the long term.
    It sounds as if everyone is going to have a good New Year

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    1. They are fun to watch, really, how they make their little networks, and build their dams (which are not a pile of sticks, btw, they are built with mud and they are quite solid which makes tearing them out quite a chore.) It's just when the population grows too large for the area it is in, that the problems begin. I believe in coexisting, and we do coexist with most of the animals but deer and beaver and wood chucks do tend to get out of hand.

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  7. Glad that they survived the ice. A couple of weeks ago 4 children died after falling through ice on a lake not far from here. They were aged between 6 and 11. 2 brothers and their cousin, and another boy of 10 who went in to try and rescue them. Tragic. It rarely gets cold enough for long enough here to make icy waters safe.

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    1. Pat wrote about that and I went off to read about it. Heartbreaking. This little creek is shallow. Even had they fallen through, they'd bave gotten wet to the waist...no more than that. The beaver constructs insure that there is no strong current to pull them under

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  8. Do you use the brushwood to start the fire? Those beavers sound like they are very industrious.

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    1. The brush is hauled away from the creek. Those beavers are quite a bother. Imagine having 1/3 of your property under water. Tim has cleared, and cleaned and reclaimed that land, but it is an ongoing battle.

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  9. The Amish our way don't use ice at all. I guess it is out of necessity as ice doesn't always get that thick here. Most use propane powered refrigerators/freezers to keep things cold.

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    1. Tim is very interested to see their ice house, but has not been invited. He's got a plan for when we move to the retirement property.

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    2. Not sure if the Amish there allow pictures but I would love to see their ice house too. I'm curious as to how it is insulated so well.

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  10. I think it was warmed sardines which were meant to be irrestible but if a popty ping warming (I'm teaching you Welsh terms now!!) of his food helps, all well and good, and love it that he is playing too.

    Glad you slept well and Tim has turned acorner, AND beaten the Beavers for a little while. They have been reintroduced here!

    As for walking on ice with a chainsaw - pass. 4 little lads fell in an icy lake before Christmas and drowned. Pour little souls and their families.

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  11. Sorry, Frances had already said about those little boys.

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  12. Tim feels he has turned a corner and that is the important thing.
    We wish him a good night's sleep again.
    Coughing can be the lungs attempting to heal themselves.
    It is the nonstop coughing that is so worrying.
    Seventh inch ice is staggering at least to us in Scotland.
    Prevailing against beavers is like fighting a force of nature.

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    1. There was one memorable night when his lungs were clear themselves so efficiently, I thought that he was vomiting in the toilet. It was scary and I really, really do think that he had pneumonia. This all began just before Thanksgiving, which fell on November 24th, which is about five weeks ago. Since he is hardly ever ill, this was a bit of a shocker. He missed most of hunting season. He went to the doctor twice. He did two rounds of antibiotic. I had a cold, but his seemed to have turned into something far worse than that. So I do have my hunch on things. He says he remembers getting sick like this when he was a small child, and that it happened nearly every winter. We have been together for 25 years now, and I've never witnessed this. I hope that I never do again.

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  13. Just east of here is referred to as Beaver Hills, lots of beavers.

    We have a chainsaw as well which is endlessly fascinating to the little guy, and me. I like using the chainsaw too, what can I say?

    Hopefully Tim is feeling better and can get some sleep and I'm glad you got to have such a good sleep. It's amazing what a good night's sleep can do.

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    1. You can buy chainsaws for kids. They have a little chain and make noise and everything. I've got a picture of toddler William standing next to his grandpa, both of them holding their chainsaws!

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  14. You northern people are so hardy! We would die if presented with ice we had to walk on to chain saw brush.
    I so hope that Tim is better, so glad that you are better. And perhaps Houdini will learn to be a cat who feels safe.

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    1. I can see him warming to us. May the weather follow suit!

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  15. I think people here in Florida would trade you wild boars for beavers, they don't multiply as fast.

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    1. If we had wild boars, I'd have a husband out trying to bag one. He's read that they are a good meat.

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  16. Beavers? They work harder than us and are smarter.

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    1. Seems like if they are so smart, they would have figured out that flooding our property does not end well.

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  17. I'm glad things are looking up! For everyone except the beavers, anyway. :)

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    1. Much better. Steve, I just found some book marks that were supposed to be sent out much earlier. It was one of those things that "I know I have more of these someplace..." and I set it aside and never quite got back to it.

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  18. A positive post! Fortunately I'm late to the game today since I'm sure my comment would be offensive to most of your readers, but.... live trapping and releasing many critters is detrimental to them in the long run. Often they're territorial and don't fare well where they're released. We've seen beavers and otters recently. The beavers have been busy, but there are now two less of them wreaking havoc. And unfortunately, we have beavers AND wild boars. I've heard the boar is good mixed in with the venison. But being a vegan, I can't attest to that first hand. 😉

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    1. P.S. My heart dropped into my stomach a bit when I read about walking on ice and running a chainsaw at the same time!

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    2. Part of the importance of keeping a clear creek bank is to get a clear shot. Tim has a green lensed spot light. They don't seem to even notice. I don't think people can understand if they are not dealing with the problem.

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  19. Wow! I'm so glad you're both feeling better. And all that sleep sounds so awesome to me.
    Beavers? I think I've seen beavers in the wild only a handful (one handful) in my life. I didn't realize they could cause such a problem. But stepping on ice sounds really spooky.

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    1. They can be quite a nuisance.It is never really an issue until such a time as the numbers get out of hand. Then, there is a problem.

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  20. Keep microwaving the food and he will appear every time you use it!

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    1. He's come out today while people are watching from the other room.

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