Becoming a Hypochondriac

 Little known fact. The excellent advertising by the drug manufacturers has turned me into a hypochondriac. Believe it or not, despite our busy work schedule, I do find time to watch a little TV. Barb, not so much. She is too wired to sit down for more than a few minutes and is usually in the kitchen doing something while I watch TV. This usually occurs in the morning before we get active, again at lunch and something to end the day as we wind down. 

My venue of choice is usually YouTube where I catch up on the news of the day or find out what the latest "have to have" bourbon is. Of course, this means I have to sit through in-video ads. Threequarters of the ads seem to be of some new medication. As I am watching the ad, I will shout, "Barb, can you come here"? When she walks into the room, I will turn to her and say, "I think I have Vitiligo", or "I think I have psoriasis", or whatever the ailment of the day is on YouTube. Other times I will just yell out, "Barb, I need Rinvoq!" Barb, I need Mounjaro!" Sometimes when I am in the deer blind I will randomly text her I think I have (fill in the blank).

Of course, when you become of a certain age (60 I think) you have to add the word "The" in front of the main word you are going to say. So instead of saying, " I think I have eczema", I say, "I think I have THE eczema".  Half the time I don't even know what the ailment or medication is, Barb is just roll her eyes and say something like "No, honey, you do not need The Numlivia". She has agreed with me twice however, once when I told her I needed The Cialis, and again when I said that I think I have cognitive decline. For some reason Barb she agreed with me on both of those! 

The side effects might scare some away, but I am a fan of high blood sugar, weight gain, high cholesterol, comas, strokes, suicidal thoughts, diarrhea, tremors, uncontrolled body movements. sleepiness, vomiting, indigestion, nausea and even death. Sadly, I am not sure if I am pregnant or planning on becoming pregnant, so I better just stay away from some of these medications. 

Such is the life of a hypochondriac. It was actually a pretty slow week on the J-B. After leaving the farm, we stopped in Dickenson and spent the night at Phat Fish Brewery again. 

We stopped outside of Rapid the next day where we met friends and former neighbors, Doug and Lisa for lunch at JR's BBQ in Summerset. Little did we know we would be seeing them in just a few days!

The first 24-hours after getting back from the farm we did not do too much. It was cold and windy with sustained winds at 20+ and temps ranging from 28-48F. No one wants to be outside in that. So instead, we worked in the garage and processing room. I organized and put away my duck hunting stuff, cleaned my shotguns and worked on the generator in the camper. 

If you recall, we bought a new generator a few weeks ago to replace the one that is not working in the camper. What a pain! You have to drop the old one down through the bottom of the camper, disconnecting all the wiring and each of the mounting bolts then dropping it to the ground. "Dropping" it being the key word as this thing weighs over 100lbs. While I did not drop it, it was not a gentle lowering of the generator either. It's still a work in progress as I needed a wire splice kit which went on our list for the next trip to Rapid. 

Meanwhile, Barb worked inside the camper where she tore out the carpet around the toilet. Who puts carpet around a toilet?!?!  She said it was absolutely disgusting. She had to remove the toilet itself as the carpet was actually underneath it. Once that was done, she set about replacing the carpet with vinyl planking as she did the rest of the floor. A little while later, when I went inside, I found her on her knees at the dog wash scrubbing the toilet while making gagging noises. 

As fun as that sounds, the next day it was time for some real fun when we went up to visit our niece Alana up in Spearfish to watch a few football games. One game led to two, which led to three which led to us spending the night before sneaking out at 5am the next morning and heading home. We had kind of planned on it and had packed accordingly. 

What a good time! This was our first football get together in their new home with their new tv room. Talk about a big screen TV! To give you an idea on just how big the TV is, we had Alana stand next to it for perspective. 

It was actually dizzying at first until your brain adjusted to it. But what a great place to watch The Sports Ball! We spent the day watching the Vikings lose, Denver win and the 49'er win the night game. Alana and Ryan actually had a bet riding on the 9'ers game and since they won, Alana now has to wear 49'ers gear every day they play through the rest of the season. 

The dogs played and played and played. Well, Zoey, Sophie and Loki. Dakota just laid on her bed and watched. 

When they were not playing, Zoey was tormenting their cat, Ollie. She was just obsessed with it! I am not sure if she wanted to play with it or kill it. 

They have a pet door built into their slider (to the right of Zoey in the picture above). Each of the pets, would come and go through that door throughout the day, except Zoey, she just could not figure that thing out. So anytime Ollie wanted to get away from Zoey he would just run out that door, all Zoey could do was stare through the window. 

The dogs eventually settled down and just chilled on the bed, blankets and couch. 

Of course, the floors were lava to Dakota so the only way to get her into the bedroom was to use two dog beds and have her play leapfrog on alternating beds until she was finally in the bedroom. Same thing on the way out in the morning, she just would not walk across those floors!

Tuesday it was back to work. This time for Kevin who was pouring concrete for a new project. He was pouring the slab for Doug and Lisa's son, Sam just north of Rapid City! 

4 hours and 4 trucks later, we had it all laid out. Barb picked me up and we headed home while Kevin spent the next 5 hours doing the finishing work. 

On the deer front I have been out hunting a few times, one night having 5 different bucks in front of me, but I have my eye on one guy who has yet to make an appearance in person. Here are a few shots I got this week with either my trail camera or handheld. 

It's almost like these guys posed for the trail camera!

Then there was this one who looks like she is standing up looking for someone.

These are three of the 5 bucks I saw while out the other day....

I took these with my Lumix

A few more trail cam pictures.

A bluejay dive-bombing the water tank

Playing follow the leader

A squirrel greeting a fawn!

This fawn was standing in the empty water tank while we were at the farm

I filled it when we got back

A coyote strolled by one morning

I saw this guy hanging out on our bathroom window!

I gotta go as I think I have a UTI, early on set dementia or maybe early menopause, I need to look it up on The Google to know for sure!

It Could Have Been Worse!

 What could have been worse? The farming? The ducking hunting? The pheasant hunting? Actually, none of the above and all of the above. Farming went great! When I arrived, there were 1,450 acres of chickpeas still in the field. 

I was not out of the truck 15 minutes, and they put me to work. If I remember correctly, we got there about 11am and I still got over 8 hours in that day. Honestly, it is all a blur and being almost two weeks ago that memory has left the building. 

What I do remember is that we got it all done with 3-4 days of harvesting. And guess what? I did not screw up once! I did not hit anything, I did not break anything, I did not spill any grain! So, it could have been a lot worse!

I cannot say the same for everyone however as someone (who will remain nameless) left the trap open on a truck and when I emptied from the cart into the truck, it went straight through onto the ground. Now, some might argue that it is the cart driver's responsibility to make sure the trap is closed. (Usually, the person claiming that is the one who left it open in the first place, however and they hold no credibility whatsoever.)

The chickpeas went from the field straight into a bin. Actually, several different bins. You ever tried to back up a 100' auger so the chute hits a 2' diameter hole on the top of a bin? I know a few of you have, but it takes some practice for sure. Much easier with two people. The tractor driver can line up the left to right, the person on the ground does the front to back.  Although I have done both, I prefer being the ground guy. 

We went well into the night a couple nights. The full moon was amazing; it was so big it looked surreal. We often leave the lights on in the trucks as some of these fields are over a mile wide or long and it is pretty easy to lose track of where the truck is at any given time.  

It took us about a week to get all that done. It was not all harvesting though, there were a couple of rain days in there where we worked in the yard. Barb even got in on the action by helping to clean up the yard, cleaning up the office and mowing. It has been over a dozen years since she has been on a mower! 

But it was not all work, the real reason we came back up was the hunting! Duck season opened first. Not a very good year for ducks actually. Many of the local birds had left and the northern birds have not flown down yet. But, we do not come for the numbers of birds we got; we come for the joy of hunting and the comradery. I am guessing, but I think this is the like 47th season that Bob and I have hunted together (+/- a year). We were also joined this year by Bob's brother Kerry and two of his friends Jack and Vern. I have not hunted with either of them in years!

While it is hard to get out of bed at 5:30 in the morning to face the elements, once you get out in the field it is totally worth it.  Each day brought a different view, a different sunrise and new memories. 

While duck hunting was not great, we got birds every day and I guess it could have been worse. My highlight was shooting my first ever Ross's Goose. One of the prettiest and smallest birds in the goose family. 

Ember was the dog of choice for the duck blind. She is young, energetic and eager to retrieve the birds. 

Poor Dakota has the mindset (when Barb is with), but, at 11, her body is just not holding up. She struggles to walk in the field and swim in the mud. We did get her out three times though. Once for ducks and two times for pheasant and partridge.  When she gets on a bird you can still see that spark of youth in her eyes that makes you smile and cry all at the same time. 

Barb even brought Zoey on one outing, never to be repeated again. That dog is crazed I tell you!

The next time out, it was just Barb, Dakota and me. We went to a local pothole, put out some decoys and waited for a few ducks to come in. You could tell Dakota was in "her happy place" out in the field with Barb (and no Zoey). 

She ended up retrieving 3 ducks and was a happy, muddy mess by the end of the hunt!

Pheasant hunting opened this past Saturday and holy crap were there a lot of birds. The first day we got our 11-man limit of 33 birds with a few Hungarian partridge and Sharpies thrown in for good measure. 

I do not know how accurate Jack's measuring device was, but it said we walked 12 miles one day and a little less the next. Way too much for all of us over 60 somethings!

Back at the ranch (so to speak) Kerry and Bob cooked all the meals, Barb made several (5) pans of apple crisp throughout the week. 

Holly gave Chris a haircut and a boatload of kittens were born in the pontoon boat!

We made it out to supper with Farmer Bob and DeAnne one time (no pictures), Barb and Holly went to a crafting event in Minot another evening, getting home after 11:00. We were a little suspicious that the event went that late. 

So, what was I alluding to earlier when I said it could have been worse? Well, that event took place almost two weeks ago when we were just an hour into our journey. We were cruising through Rapid City when all of a sudden there was a bang behind us and a loud scrapping sound. Our enclosed trailer had come unattached and was dragging behind us on the safety chains! The scrapping noise was the jack dragging along the asphalt. 1luckily we were going under 30mph, not the 60+ we had been going minutes earlier. I pulled over and stopped the truck. The trailer stopped when it slammed into the back of the truck. 

We both got out and surveyed the damage and thought "Now what?". We had to get the trailer back on the ball as we were still in a lane of traffic. We quickly moved everything in the trailer to the backside to distribute the weight to the back. We then lifted the hitch back onto the ball. It was at that point that I noticed we had the wrong ball on. My fault, Barb hooked up the trailer, but I should have made sure we had the right ball on. 

We limped the trailer to Menards where I bought the right sized ball, a huge crescent wrench and a pipe wrench hoping to swap out balls. Do you think I could budge that ball that was on the hitch? Nope! So back into Menards I went to get some penetrating oil and a 4' pipe to use as leverage. That did the trick and an hour later we were back on the road. 

A little worse for wear but had we been going any fast and that trailer got away from us, it could definitely could have been a lot worse!