Last night after 10:30 while I was still reading and enjoying all the comments, Telly came in from outdoors without Hazel. I didn’t pay much attention but I heard her go out the dog door shortly afterwards. About 15 minutes later Telly came in again and sought me out – no Hazel. I finally realized that Telly was telling me to come with her to wherever Hazel was. I grabbed the flashlight and followed Telly out to the west side of the grove – through brush like this in the pitch dark except for my flashlight. I couldn’t even hear Hazel barking! That’s when I got alarmed.

We finally came to a large fallen tree which was hollow at the base.

You know where this story is going, don’t you?

Yup, I heard Hazel barking about 10-12 feet into the tree!

I knew she had something cornered and trapped in the fallen tree because I could hear growling and hissing. I kept calling her name and she finally backed up close enough for me to grab a back leg. When I had her in a death grip I shone the light into the hollow tree – a terrified BIG raccoon was staring back at me!

We hurried back to the house where I could see her fur was full of those wood chips and she had a small cut by her eye and her nose. Into the kitchen sink she went at 11:30 pm.

This is Hazel this evening – I hope she doesn’t “come to life” about 11:00 pm!

Honestly, do we have to have a “close encounter” almost every single day? After her bath I still had to dress Rick’s leg. And on that subject I want to thank you all for your love and encouragement! I know I’ve got support behind me!

Today these windows got washed on the inside – moving and caring for all the plants as I went. I don’t know if I’ve ever had clean windows in January! Tomorrow it’s the plants in the basement that I’ll work on.

And now I have some news about an upcoming “event”. Get ready to sew a fun project next week. Connie has been planning this since last month and it’s almost ready to go. She will even be offering fabrics! She’s fine tuning all the details now – remember I told you she’s moving this spring and she has more fabric than she wants to move. YOU can help her out through mail order.

My last thought is this:

EVERYBODY HAS A STORY! Everybody!

Don’t ever think your life is too boring to tell us – I am sincerely interested in your lives and have just loved getting all your feedback!

THANK YOU!

I have never been so overwhelmed with comments in all the years I’ve been writing. I am ashamed that I ever said you didn’t care – or I didn’t THINK you cared. I was wrong, so wrong. I spent the entire day at Mayo reading the wonderful comments left on the blog from so many of you readers. I feel just terrible that you thought I wasn’t interested in your lives! And I also feel bad that you “didn’t want to bother me”!

I have so enjoyed hearing about your families, your jobs, where you live and what you love! So many readers have requested that I ask you to leave your location – like our friend Jo in Wyoming. We all know where Jo lives and that’s because she signs in that way. I, too, would love to know where you’re writing from.

The next question concerned red and white quilts. The secret here is to buy solid red fabric only from Moda! I have made many red and white quilts and I do prewash even my Moda red fabric but I have never had any problems.

One reader doesn’t receive any photos – can anyone help her?

Another reader wanted to know more about each quilt. Now that is an impossible task. It would mean not only uploading the photo but highlighting the text which would need to match up to the correct quilt photo and getting it saved and moved into the WordPress location. Now really – do you think I have time for that or know how to do it? If a reader wants more info on a quilt, she will have to ask in the comment section. Which means everyone should read the comments and if there’s a question about YOUR quilt, please answer it there. I can’t even get you to put your name on the photo! How can I convince you to help answer the questions about your quilt? It is your responsibility to answer these questions – don’t forget to read through the comments if I’ve recently shown your quilt.

And now over the next day or so I will go back and read through all the comments again and post my answers . You guys have to know that I consider you real friends, don’t you? You’re going to be my only view of reality in the next few months – I wouldn’t dare get Covid – who would take care of Rick, the pets, the barn animals, the farm in general? And I can’t have him getting sick either. What would I do??

So today – it hit 50 degrees here and I cleaned the garage.

I also washed the sewing room windows and all the glass doors because my window cleaners were also coming! Oh, what a wonderful feeling! Sparkling windows! And there are so many of them!

So tomorrow when it starts raining and snowing, I can sit and look out of my clean windows – maybe I’ll even get to sew!

The chickens were like those proverbial 3rd graders who race to get to recess! They couldn’t wait to get outside today. And the goats laid out in the pasture soaking up the sun. I forgot to tell you that Hazel got a rat in the barn last week – we watched and listened to that rat in the wall for several days until it got brave enough to came out and she pounced! Yesterday was her 5th birthday and tomorrow I will try to take her birthday picture for her photo album.

Let me end with an apology to all of you that I yelled at for not leaving a comment – I LOVE your comments just like you evidently love reading the blog.

Carry on.

I will write two posts tonight – one just about Rick and Mayo Clinic and another general blog post.

We left home Tuesday in the dark about 4:45 am and were easily in time for Rick’s first appointment. Parking attendants meet your car with a wheelchair and will then take your car to valet parking or you can drop your patient off and park in the ramp across the street. We have been using valet parking because it’s so convenient.

We had one appointment after another the whole day except for an afternoon break that we spent at the pharmacy and the Mayo Clinic Store where they loaded us up with dressing supplies. I had bags and bags of stuff to carry which I was able to hang off the handles of the wheelchair but since our car was in valet parking, I couldn’t take it to the car!

Rick’s wound will not heal until he has surgery to correct his bad circulation. I have the material in front of me – he has PAD, peripheral arterial disease and will have an Interventional Radiology Vascular Procedure on February 25 at Saint Mary’s Hospital in Rochester. That’s a Friday and he will come home the same day. He/we will return Monday February 28 for an ultrasound. On February 22 he will have labs drawn and a Covid test at the Albert Lea, MN Mayo Annex.

Dr. Takahashi will put stents in the right leg – both arteries and veins are involved. I purchased a product called Juven which is a protein powder specifically formulated to heal wounds. It’s a dry powder mixed with a liquid twice a day – and it’s spendy unless you look at the big picture. You can take this to the bank – if he won’t take this stuff, I’m done with being a driver and a nurse. Now back to more about Mayo.

For some reason I can’t load this short video –

We had not eaten one bite all day – I couldn’t leave Rick in the wheelchair and scoot down to the lobby – there simply wasn’t time so we ate at McDonalds on the way home. A Big Mac never tasted so good!

So that’s the update about Rick – for now.