We had snow!
Not a lot. I measured almost an inch on my snowboard here at our mountain home. It was just enough to cause slippery road conditions and several accidents.
The ground was still too warm for it to hang around.
Raini didn’t mind the snow and still wanted to play catch. I caught her mid-jump.
Twin Ponds, an Amish store about thirty-five miles from us, was having a sale on chicken. Forty pounds of chicken quarters for twenty-five dollars, and if you want the breast it’s fifty-two dollars. Both a good deal. That works out to sixty-three cents a pound for the quarters, and a dollar thirty for the breast meat.
“Is that cheaper than Walmart?” you ask.
Is that cheaper than Walmart!? Yes. Quarters at Walmart are one fifty-seven and breast is two sixty-seven, so it’s a big savings—providing you can freeze that amount of chicken. Lucky for us we have an upright freezer and we can. With the price of beef being so high, we’re going to eat more chicken; besides, it’s healthier for you.
Twin Ponds is out in the country and I took some pictures for you.
Our girls were due for their yearly shots at the vet. I made the appointment for Dr. K to look at Raini and help us with the amount of itching that goes on in this house. It’s been really bad. So bad that I yell at them. “STOP!”
“But it itches,” Mike defends.
“I know. But I let them scratch a little before I yell at them.” It gets aggravating.
Once they start scratching it goes on and on and on and ON if I don’t stop them! I know that scratching causes skin damage and it does. Raini ends up chewing her hair off when she scratches with her teeth and making little wounds that scab over when she uses her claws.
We bought over the counter sprays to help with the itching and I’ve been giving them Benadryl at night so they wouldn’t shake the whole bed scratching in the middle of the night. We might’ve continued with that had it not been that they had to go to the vet for shots anyway.
We left early and it’s a good thing we did. We came upon an accident scene but since they were almost done cleaning it up, we didn’t have to wait long.
I always think of my cute little redheaded sister as we go through the Narrows into Wysox. She studied geology and was all eyes when we took her through.
“Is the rust because of iron?” I asked Mike.
“Yep,” he answered.
Groundwater percolates through cracks and pores in the rock layers, especially shale and limestone, carrying dissolved minerals like iron, manganese, and copper with it. As this water emerges onto the rock face, it reacts with oxygen in the air and the iron oxidizes, forming red and brown stains.
You never know what I’m going to talk about, do you?
A whole herd of turkeys feeding beside the road! Yes, yes, I do know that a herd of turkeys is really called a flock by most people, but it’s really a rafter of turkeys. That term dates back to when turkeys were commonly seen roosting in barn rafters.
“What’s on that roof?” Mike asked.
“It looks like a barrel to me,” I said snapping a photo.
“It seems like the wind would’ve blown it off.”
And he’s right. I don’t know what keeps it from rolling off the roof, but last week we had winds so big it blew whole trees over.
A little barrel didn’t seem like it would give it much trouble.
Speaking of deer...
Look at this handsome guy!
He browsed the lower branches of our Bradford Pear tree and I snapped a picture through the front door.
Then I decided to go out on the front porch and take his picture.
Raini came with me, saw him, and barked her fool head off.
“STOP!” I commanded. It didn’t slow her down much. He’d move and she’d start barking again.
He herd—heard her.
English!
I don’t think he could see us, but even if he did, he wasn’t panicked. He did, however, decide to browse someplace else and moseyed along.
“Peg! What did the vet say?!”
Oh, yeah. I got sidetracked.
Raini is not a good patient and was so very afraid of the “strangers.” Kaitlin had to pick her up and hold her tightly against herself so Dr. K could check her eyes, heart, and lungs. Even then Raini thrashed herself about if Kaitlin gave her a tiny bit of slack.
Dr. K combed Raini and found one flea on her tail.
“Whenever I see the hair chewed from the base of the tail, my mind goes to fleas,” she told us. “Raini’s allergic to flea bites.”
“But don’t the fleas have to bite before the flea meds can kill them?” I asked.
“Yes. That’s mostly true. There are some things you can do to keep the fleas from getting on her in the first place. Spray her with diluted vinegar water or use some natural essential oils to deter them. Vacuum often and wash their bedding.”
Dr. K also said that Zyrtec seems to be more effective for relieving the itch than Benadryl.
“I’m ordering a round of Prednisone for her but she can’t have it at the same time as her other shots.”
“Let’s get their yearly shots done and we’ll wait on the Prednisone,” I said. This itching-scratching has been going on for months! What’s a few more weeks?
“We have a calming mousse that you can apply to help with the itching and I recommend you change her Seresto collar every six months as well as using a topical flea treatment, especially when the Seresto nears the end of its life.”
Our Serestos have only been on the girls for seven months and they’re supposed to last eight and repel fleas.
Dr. K went to write up her report and Kaitlin held Raini tight so another vet tech could draw her blood and administer her shots. Then they did Bondi, too.
Five hundred fifteen dollars later, we walk out of the vet’s office.
“I know it’s expensive,” Miss Rosie said when I told her the damages. “And I understand why people don’t take their pets to the vet more often.”
Mike has finally broken down and bought a set of hearing aids. He doesn’t want to spend thousands going through an audiologist so he got a set of over-the-counter Audien hearing aids. He didn’t buy the cheapest ones he could’ve but spent a couple of hundred dollars for better ones. He seems to like them pretty well.
Then he saw an infomercial where they offered you two sets of the same Audien Mike bought for half the price he paid through Walmart.
“Can we return them?” Mike asked.
“I think so. As long as it’s within the fourteen-day time period for electronics.”
I checked the receipt and it had only been eight days.
“Wanna go tomorrow?” Mike asked.
“Tomorrow” was Saturday and my letter blog day. But I said, “Sure. We can get some Zyrtec for the girls.”
We woke to a beautiful sunrise Saturday morning.
I made breakfast, scrambled eggs and sausage, made travel coffee, and we were out the door by eight fifteen.
An eagle flew over our car. I know it's not a very good picture but I always get excited whenever I see one of these beautiful, majestic birds.
Graffiti.
A bumper sticker. I don’t have a clue what it means.
Birds on a wire. It’s been a while since I’ve shown you one of these.
"Is there anything wrong with them?" she asked.
"No." I answered and didn't elaborate.
She refunded the money for the hearing aids but she wasn't able to refund the extended warranty.
"There isn't usually any problem," she told me. After trying several times and calling for the team leader, they said we'd have to call Walmart and get them to refund it.
When we got home, Mike called.
"And what is the reason for the return?" she asked.
They don't usually ask that. They have only ever asked me if there was anything wrong with them. But Mike answered her honestly. "I found a better deal."
She refunded the money.
Aye-yi-yi!
It didn’t go to waste. I used it for practice.
Let’s call this one done!
Done!
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