Not One Of My more Fun Days!!

Oh boy, what a day! I took Ali and Mai Lin to the vet this morning for Ali to be neutered and the tumor checked out, while Mai Lin had a wart removed from under her chin. OK, I know Shih Tzus don't have chins, but you know what I mean!


I came back home, had a quick breakfast, then broke out the yard tools. Scottie took off today and tomorrow so we could work in the yard. He arrived shortly after and we got started. There were about 5003 little trees sprouted around the yard. Now, I'm talking about 3-8 feet tall, not little 6 inch ones. They haven't been cut back since last fall or early spring, so they'd become really tall. Since there has been so much required of my time in the last 3 years to meet my late husband's medical needs and my former job, too, that the yard has been grossly neglected. Many of those trees are the pesky volunteer trees, the weeds of the tree world. We got almost all of those cut down and mulched. then I took the electric hedge clippers to the overgrown masses of vines growing on the fence around the back yard. Geez, there were tons of vines! Scottie mulched those, too.




At the end of this, I was about to drop, and my back was (still is) killing me. Not really sure
why, but it is miserable. However, I climbed on the ladder and took down the castle birdhouse my son wants. It is is bad disrepair, as you can see from these picutres. My husband made it years ago with PVC pipe, funnels for the tops of the towers, then cut numerous tiny blocks of wood to serve as the "stones" around the littlel porches (I know they're not called porches, but what the heck are they?). He cut little triangles for the pennents topping each tower and painted them to look as if representing clans. Then I painted the "stones" on each tower. That took longer than the building process! It had lost many of the small wood features, and most of the wood will need to be replaced, but was, and can be again, a really original birdhouse. It was inhabited every year, so obviously was approved by the FBCA. (That is the Federal Bird's Choice Association, of course.) I'll pack the surviving pieces (mostly the PVC) to take to NM.
I had to go to the grocery store. It was getting hard to fix a meal because I was missing several basic ingredients, like milk & bread. So did that and called the vet's office and found the the kids were ready to come home.


Mai Lin is doing fine! Of course, I imagine that her anesthetic was far less than Ali's. When we got home she was bouncing around, trying to get China to play with her. Ali, however, is another story. He actually seems to be fine, but is more "drugged" in appearance. When I got them out of the car, I gave them the opportunity to potty. he walked around a little bit, started to lift his left, but after about 1/4 inch, decided to semi-squat, instead. Once in the house, he flopped down on one of the dog bed and has been zonked since. Occasionally, he hears me doing something, lifts his head to look at me and then closes his eyes and drops his head again. Poor baby! The vet says that the neutering will stop production of testosterone, the main cause of prostate tumors. He said there was no sign of the tumor spreading, and the hormones had shrunk it a little, so over the next 3 or so weeks, he should have considerable shrinkage and be alright. I told Caroline to be sure that Sophie understands that when they come to the yard to bark at each other, she shouldn't make fun of him if his bark is soprano now instead of tenor. I just hope Sophia respects his ego! And thanks to everyone for the prayers.

I'm very tired. Scottie is coming back tomorrow, and hopefully finish up the yard stuff. I'm going to pack the remainder of my books from the shelves in the rec room. Then I can clear the basement completely and be able to have it cleaned. It is coming along, bit by bit. I can hardly wait to be done here. I'll bet I do nothing for a couple weeks when I get to NM. No, that isn't true, I'll do some things around the house, but nothing heavy, THANK GOODNESS!!

For now, I just hope I can get out of bed in the morning! Grooooaaaaannnnn.