Kimberwood Farm

Well, at least part of it. My flight to London leaves tonight at 7pm. I'll be visiting Ireland, Scotland, England with a short visit to Wales before ending the trip in Paris. While in Scotland I'll be visiting 2 Shetland flocks and one very large farm (5500 acres) with 2200 Scottish Blackface sheep. I'm sure we won't see very many of them since they are so spread out!



I'll leave you with a pic of this farm:
I'll be back September 17th......

Poor Rabbie had to go to the vet today. This morning I noticed while he was eating that he had a good size tear in his skin. It was pretty deep too. I think he must have had a close encounter with the sharp side of a hog panel. We have lots of them and some that are not currently being used leaning against a fence inside the barn. When Emily and Rabb are "helping" with chores they get pretty intense when the sheep come in the barn. Rabb must have ran right into one.

The vet had to trim the edges of the cut before stapling it together. She told me they do this all the time to gun dogs without sedating them. Since Rabb is only 6 months old now I decided he shouldn't be put through that so he was sedated.
Here you see the staples which of course need to come out after I leave for the UK. The vet was kind enough to loan us a staple remover so Bob can take them out. Poor Rabbie.......

Labels: Rabb

My friend and fellow Shetland breeder Jane suggested I try this folk remedy to alleviate some of the pain from my arthritis. It sounded interesting so I'm giving it a try. Here is the recipe:

The Amazing Gin-Soaked Raisin Remedy
1 lb. golden raisins
1 pint Gin
Glass bowl
Glass jar with Lid
Spread the golden raisins evenly on the bottom of the glass bowl and pour enough gin over the raisins to completely cover them. Let them stay that way until al the gin is absorbed. It takes about 5-7 days.occasionally stir the mixture. As soon as all the gin has been absorbed, put raisins in the jar and keep it closed. do NOT refrigerate. Each day, eat 9 raisins exactly and only 9 a day. Most people eat them in the morning with breakfast.



The raisins are soaking up all the gin! There is only about an inch in the bottom of the bowl. I haven't been brave enough to try them yet.....

BTW Jane, I ordered the book you got this from! I wasn't too sure I'd like gin either but it sure smelled good. I'll let you know how they taste. It did bring back some very old memories when I used to drink gin and tonics (a lot of gin and tonics)! ;-)

Labels: Arthritis

Surgery itself wasn't too bad. The pain wasn't either. What was bad was finding out the arthritis in my knee was worse than they thought. I found out immediately after the surgery that they had found a notch of cartilage worn off of my femur. Their answer to this was to drill holes into the bone to release bone marrow. For two weeks after the surgery I thought it went well and I'd be off the crutches and on my way back to my old self. When I went in for my first post-op check up I found out that I didn't have a torn meniscus after all and that it was my arthritis that was causing the pain in my knee. I was to be on crutches for another two weeks and preferably four more weeks. I could only take them another week. It was doing terrible things to the joints on the other side of my body. The side that had to carry all the weight for the knee I was told to protect. By drilling the holes in my bone and releasing the bone marrow, scar tissue was to form to help take the place of the missing cartilage. I found myself in a difficult spot, do I continue on the crutches to protect my knee even if I'm damaging the hip on my "good" side? Or, do I not use the crutches and continue to take life slower to give my knee more time to heal? I chose to give up the crutches and I think I've made the right decision. Time will tell obviously but for now I'm feeling much better most of the time.

When given the diagnosis of "Arthritis" for me it felt like a part of my youth has passed as in died. This has been life altering for me. I have never before this felt I was ready to move on to the stage of life where you feel you've crossed that bridge and can no longer do anything you want. What hasn't helped the situation is what the medical community I've talked to tell me, that there is nothing I can do about it. My joints will continue to wear away until I have to have some form of joint replacement surgery. Well, fortunately I'm not the kind of person who will sit back and do nothing but let my joints rot. It's made me mad that our medical community thinks this way about arthritis. Mad enough to dig in and research all I can about it and relieved to find that there is hope in "fixing" my problem. There are natural "cures" out there for arthritis and I intend to go down that path once I'm back from my trip to the UK. There wasn't time before the trip for me to dig in deep and I felt it would be best if I started after the trip so that I could be sure to stick to the protocols needed to overcome this devastating life sentence.

I have made some changes though, I am no longer drinking any sort of soda, no longer taking any prescription drugs or over the counter drugs, and I've started eating organic foods as much as I possibly can. There are some dietary supplements I take now but they are all as organic as possible. There will definitely be more to come and as I go through this journey of sorts I'm hoping to have the courage to write more about it here.

For now, I'm looking forward to my vacation in the UK.......I leave in just 3 short weeks!

Labels: Arthritis

On Monday July 30th I flew to Toronto, Ontario to pick up this little darling for my son Scott. She is a full sister to our Emily. Emily turned out to be our "perfect" dog so we couldn't resist adding her sister to our pack.



She and Rabb are really just playing. This little girl can sure hold her own with our tough little stud dog!