Retirement

I have some serious catching up to do. I retired September 1st. I'm 66 and eligible for SocSec but more importantly, I'm worn out. My joints are worn, I've got a hernia to get patched and I'm not getting my farm work done. The job was mostly physical when there was a job at all. I'd sit in the shop in the winter and not see another person for weeks . I started to think of it as my trip to Mars. The last year, I kept a pepper plant by my bench so I would have something to talk to. That was a significant improvement over the year before when I not only talked to myself but was arguing with myself and loosing.Definitely time to go. In October, I had a retirement party to celebrate. If you didn't get invited, I'm sorry but the guest list got out of hand. True, not as many people showed up as were invited but it was a hell of a party. It was Toussaint style with everyone bringing there favorite firearms. I put up a backstop in the back and Jacob Waino brought his portable shooting range. We had shotgun lanes for skeet shooting and rifle and handgun shooting. At the end, we had a couple of Mad Minutes on a dead flat screen tv. The Mad Minute comes from the military. Basically, you fire everything you have until you've used most of your ammo and try to sneak away in the confusion. At the end, there were about 35 people smiling from ear to ear. I haven't felt that good in a long time. There's considerable encouragement from the attendees to do this again. If we do, the attendees will be bringing the food. I checked back in the blog and realized I didn't cover the radiation treatment. The cancer wasn't quite dead so I had to get zapped. In addition, the doc shot me up with a drug that was to destroy my testosterone. That's supposed to make the cancer more fragile and easier to kill. I was able to keep working while doing it but wasn't worth much after work. We didn't get chickens or ducks because of it and limited the sheep numbers as well. I think I'm pretty well recovered now. I've had to negative PSA tests since so we're hopeful. I hope to get some farming done in the coming year. I have a new to me tractor, a Ford 4000 with Select O Speed transmission. The Transmission is universally reviled by every farmer I've met. I think it's the best setup I've ever seen. There's no clutch. The pedal that would be a clutch is a hydraulic bypass valve. Other than that, there's a lever. Want to go faster? Move the lever. More power? Move the lever. You change speeds on the fly without having to stop. This differs from hydro-static drives in that the transmission is hydraulically shifted to individual gears instead of being continuously variable. I'm sure modern tractors have something similar but I've never had one. I acquired a 3 bottom semi mounted plow for it and have fixed up an old disk to go with it. This won't make me any better farmer but it gives me a chance. I've got to stop now. The sun is starting to wash out the screen. Next time, our trip to Europe.

Cleveland isn't bad.

I finally got Stacey going and made it to Cleveland. The first challenge was finding a place to park. We ended up in the parking garage of the Stafford(?) Hotel. It was getting late so we ate in the little cafe in the hotel. It turned out to be delicious. I thought my BLT was better than Stacey's Reuben but she enjoyed it. We left from there and did a walking tour of the area. There's a lot of good architecture downtown and few drunks. We went through a couple of arcades where Stacey scared me by looking at expensive jewelry. We bought some excellent chocolates and some good macaroons, finishing up with a coffee for Stacey and hot chocolate for me. Back to the car and we drove around for a while. I finally got a look at one church I've been seeing from the road when I drive through to Perry. It turns out there are two identical churches only a few blocks apart. That must have been a good church salesman. We went over the 25th Street bridge which I wanted to show Stacey and found ourselves by the West Side Market. It was too late to go there but we went to the Penzy's Spice store and spent way too much money. I hope that will hold us for a while. All in all, a pleasant day. Last weekend, my cousin Matt and I started clearing part of a field that is infested with locust thorn. Those of you who have never met a locust thorn are fortunate. Every part of the tree is covered with thorn except the leaves. The trunk of a mature locust thorn will have thorns growing from the trunk with thorns growing at a right angle from that and yet more thorns growing off those thorns and so on. The tips of the thorns break off under your skin and fester. We were cutting them off with the magic sword ( Sthil FS 90) and dragging them to a trailer with a hook but Matt is now using a pitch fork to allow him to stay farther away. He and his daughter Samantha worked on that this Saturday while I worked around the house. I'll have to see how they did. I moved the sheep and steers into the south pasture. It grew much faster than I planned to keep for the winter feeding. The north pasture isn't to bad so I decided to top it with the bush hog. That way, it will grow more evenly and maybe have more tender tips that the animals like. I hope to reseed some of it too. I got it done but my ass is killing me. I've got to get better seat cushions on these tractors. I'm not back to my regular physical capabilities. I doubt I could manage more than four hours real work per day. This is making it easier to accept the idea of retirement. I need to get down to one job. Stacey spent the last few days with her sister at the casino in Windsor and at a wedding shower. She didn't loose much. I ate the refrigerator clean so she can cook again. It's raining today so we may go see a movie. Take care all.

She didn't make it.

Stacey's mom came home from the hospital, got to check on her dogs and died that night. Since I'm still off recovering, I was able to take the time to help Stacey out as best I can. Now, they're sorting through all the accumulated stuff and trying to get the house ready to sell. I'm trying to stay out of the discussions as much as possible. I'm trying to use this week to build up my strength to go back to work on the 24th of August. I'm only able to do about 2 hours of hard farm work a day. That's about 10 times the amount that I do in an average work day. I should be ok. The Traffic.com stuff may get me. Those batteries are a bitch. The animals are fine. The chickens and guineas are patrolling the yard and the mosquitoes and flies are much lower levels. They look good in the yard. The guineas chase the cats around. Frankly, it's better entertainment than summer tv. It's Stacey's birthday and if I can get her dressed and off the phone for a while, we're going to Cleveland to stooge around. It's 10:30 already so I'm not optimistic.

Same old, mostly.

I continue to heal well. My friend Mikey has helped me weed. My cousins have been helping with yard work.It's all good. The fair went as well as could be expected. We did get a sheep to lamb in time. Stacey got Best of Show for her cherry pie She never did that with a cherry pie before. She got some other ribbons as well. I took a Second with my Gluten Free Almond Cookies. Stacey says the cookie class is especially tough so it's a real achievement. Of course, she's my wife so she could be just shining me on. The fair just didn't seem right. The weather was beautiful. Where were the tornadoes, the straight line winds and the massive lightning storms accompanied by flooding? It just wasn't right. The only thing our gardening this year has produced is cucumbers. Stacey keeps trying to come up with new ways to fix them. She keeps telling me how good they are for the joints. I recognize this for what it is. She's trying to get me to eat them up. As our only garden produce, I guess I'll have to. My Mother-In-Law is in the hospital for a heart attack. The docs put in a stent and she should be fine. Right now, she's so doped up that she has no idea of where or what. Her son and granddaughter had to drag her to the hospital, kicking and screaming. She hates hospitals. That's it for now. It's back to the front porch to read and watch the birds. Maybe I'll do an extra set of Kegels to break the monotony. I got to get out of here.

The pill has worn off

Now, where was I? The sheep are doing well but then all they need is grass and water. There's plenty of both. We bred two ewes to come off just before the fair and I may have cut that a little close. They seem adamant about not lambing in time. The babyland exhibit needs them. There's no pigs do to a diarrhea virus and there's no poultry to try and prevent the spread of bird flu. This is rough on a fair. I didn't get the chicken area together in time so we won't be raising chickens this year. That's going to really hurt the bottom line. If you've been to the store, you know what I mean. I guess we'll be eating Chinese chicken like everyone else. For the guys, a normal prostate gland is about as big as a walnut. When the gland is removed, the urethra is hauled up and sewed to the bottom of the bladder. This makes your dingus a bit shorter. Mine appears to have been about 3 inches in diameter, based on the incision. Now if I were Johnny Wadd, the 1970s porn star; this would be a minor problem. Unfortunately, I was of normal length and as such I fear the winter. I'm going to have to put a collar and lead on it to be able to drag it out. Keep that in mind for your future. My days consist of setting on the front porch reading and napping so don't expect any exciting posts for a while. That's just the way it is. Take care.

Just an update

I'm alive and doing pretty good. The operation was by robotic surgery and was very easy on me. I'm up to the diaper stage right now and and feel 5 years younger. I'm doing my Kegels and I have surprising control already. It's a trap. Let me explain. I feel great so I went up to Toledo to see my one Brother-in-law once more before he goes back to Panama. We had lunch and then went to get pet supplies and groceries. I was tired and worn from the Toledo approximation of streets so I rested a bit and ran up spaghetti sauce with meatballs to feed my Saturday volunteers. Guess what, I'm not as healed as I thought I was. First, my body must have not liked my lunch of the day before.I got the definite impression that I was living off a diet of habaneros and water instead of a waffle with cherries. I had to go back to taking my pain pills which is why it's taking so long to write this. I had to sit on the porch and watch my cousin and his brother-in-law trim trees and haul brush. Normally, I love watching other people work but this was hard on me. It's raining again. We've hardly gotten a days break. The garden is a disaster and I'm forbidden from working in it. My friend Mikey is out of work again and I may be able to talk him into working for me for food and fuel. A day or two would beat the weeds back. Whether the plants will rot in the ground is another matter. I'll try to post again when the pain pill wears down more.

A Slight Change of Plans

The lawn is mowed, some of the sheep are sheared, we probably won't do chickens this year and I've got prostate cancer. I figured I should get that out right off. I'll be getting it out June 30th. This rather knocks out my plans for the year. It looks like I'll be taking most of the summer off. The technology seems to have improved. The doc seems to think that I could get out of diapers in under 6 months and in as little as 6 weeks. Any fantasy I might have been having about a virile old age is out the window now. No wandering the post-apocalyptic wastelands coercing nubile young ladies into wild sex with the offer of an MRE. I'll eat the damn MRE myself now. It's the young ladies loss, not mine. The back fields aren't draining well now, anyway. I've got some ditching to do. I may be able to work up ground for winter wheat and some cover crops by August. I'd like to plant the one field to tillage radishes. They're a variation of the diakon radish but instead of growing big around, they grow long, penetrating the ground as deep as 12 feet. They die off in winter, rot and provide drainage channels through the hardpan. The one field could really use that. Stacey and I went over to Put-In-Bay for a day. I had to service some sirens over there so I took her along. We traveled the island, ate a good meal at Hooligan's and got up the Monument for the first time in years. Since we went on a weekday, there wasn't the press of drunks that you would have on a weekend. It was quite the magical day. The next day, I got the word on my prostate. Damn karmic balance. Our front porch has been getting a workout lately. I've been spending my non-working time reading out there. Stacey and I watch the birds in the bushes. It's been a circus parade lately. Scarlet tanagers, Baltimore orioles and a vast number that we can't identify. The latest is a chubby little bright blue bird with 3 black stripes on his wing. I've decided to call him a Blue Sargent. There's nothing in our bird books anything like him. Just another reason that I gave up formal birdwatching. I just try to appreciate what I see and hear. It's in my nature to try and define the world but it seems to be in Gods nature to prevent that. Ok, one more commercial. You find yourself resting more and not riding your bike or running as much. You just seem to have more trouble going to work and doing anything when you get there. Something just isn't right and you begin to suspect depression. Before you take that Prozac from your doc, make him give you a full check for cancer.If he balks , get another doc. I've had trouble bouncing back from the last two winters. They were hard winters and I figured that I was aging badly. I was beginning to wonder about depression. After talking with some other members of my nonexclusive club, I've found that this lethargy can be an indicator of cancer. Your body is fighting and you're sick but it just doesn't register. Take care of yourselves. I probably won't die soon. I'm going to try to add a video of one of my new favs in music. I'm not really that fond of Celtic music but theirs is different and watching them is like watching puppies play in a basket. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xppqs-QhnUw