Personal Storms

We volunteer at our church and have done so for years. When the pandemic arrived we made sure to keep open communications available for church service via internet source. I kept a newsletter going to keep everyone up to date as to when and how church would reopen. Church did but with many changes in place namely mandatory wearing a mask and social distancing. And it worked great for about a month. Then an older couple at our church complained to the priest about having to wear a mask in church. This couple, who are older and smokers resented the need to pray and wear a mask. So they complained enough that the mask wearing is strongly encouraged and not mandatory. And do you know what has happened, yep, the virus snuck in thanks to a granddaughter visiting from the city brought the virus with her and when to church without a mask. She is only in college and has the virus. Her family here is in quarantine, she was in the hospital. Her family is older and high risk. And now since mask wearing is optional you can guess what is now happening in the town just 40 minutes away from us. But it is not these people alone that are the problem. It is the lack of caring about your fellow humans. It is so selfish for you to not wear a mask, give dirty looks to those who do wear masks. When we have to go out with people, we mask up. We don't want the virus and we do not want to spread it. But people we thought were our friends gave us cold shoulders and hostile looks. I have not felt this out of place since living in Houston, Texas.
I keep on sewing masks and I keep washing my hands and wearing masks. We stay away from most social events and live off our farm as before the virus began. Just hard to feel so alone in the fight to ward off this virus.

Healing Cats

Last week three of our cats came down with an upper respiratory at the same time our eldest cat died. Turns out the older cat may have had herpes that showed up as she was dying. The rest of my herd picked it up as a virus and started coughs and congestion. Two different vet trips later and now our cat family is healthy again. I gave antibiotics, used hot shower steamy bathroom time and they healed up. It was a guess about the herpes virus and our eldest cat. They could have picked up the virus from a stray. It was a scary event that has never happened in the many years I have raised and fostered cats. Our vets out here do not have the labs to check if it even was a virus or not, only CBC of the blood. I am happy the herd is back to normal. Now back to garden work.

Croc O' Donkey

We have been dealing with our donkey, Shelby (yes the race car) and her bad feet for over 10 years. She came from a farm with white line disease. Basically is it crumbly feet. When we had three weeks of rain from the recent hurricane, her feet went really bad. They crumbled into powder in my hand. She would not walk and was in pain. Facing the reality of putting her down, I dove into research. She needed hoof stability while the new hoof grew in. Local farriers do not do this kind of specialized work herein the Ozarks. So I ordered a hoof resin kit, cut up a pair of kids Crocs and call the vet. Our vet came out and trimmed her feet and I mixed the resin. My first resin experience was crafting two new hooves in fast setting epoxy with window screen mesh. We took turns holding up her hoof till dry set in 15 min each hoof.Then we slipped on the crocs and the epoxy set the crocs onto her hoof. Then I wrapped orange duct tape around the crocs. The vet said she can stay this way until the boots wear off. 

This was my third attempt at securing her padding for her feet. She has super tiny feed only 3 inches wide. I have about 6 pair of children shoes I have cut up and placed on her feet all over the pasture. The secret I discovered was the quick set hoof epoxy and an extra set of hands. They do make sneakers for tiny feet but they are very expensive for something the donkey will tear off and spit out. These crocs were perfect in size and material and cheap used price. Shelby is a lot happier and keeping up with the herd again.

Chinese Strings

We recently upgraded my computer. I have been saving my music collections and had forgotten a few gems. One time on a trip I got to listen to a concert by Ann Yao playing a guzheng, which I also play.

She has a wonderful album Musical Brocade. Her live performance was so unique and relaxing treat for the ears. So peaceful.