Braces, Teeth and General Happenings

I finally got my fancy new knee brace today! I wore it after I got it, while I did normal stuff around here, including cutting the grass and its pretty good! It definitely helps, that I know, even after a short trial. I even tried jogging a bit in it tonight and other than Buddy chasing and biting me (not hard, just his normal "this is a very fun game" biting) there was very little pain! Considering how bad its been for the last while, its quite remarkable.

It will take some getting used to.. to figure out how tight it should be and all that. There's 5 straps on it that are all adjustable... I'll maybe try to take a pic of it tomorrow, if I remember. Even driving with it on is wonderful... since its my right leg, driving can be a real abusive activity on it... but while wearing it, it was so nice :)

Shawn also went to the oral surgeon yesterday about his wisdom teeth... the wisdom teeth he really should've had removed when he was 17-18, according to the surgeon. They will be removing all 5 (yes, he's a freak!), but its a little more complicated procedure than Jessica's will be. The surgeon showed us on the xray how where the 2 wisdom teeth that are together are actually located in his sinus cavity!

This means they will give him general anesthesia and will have to cut into the gum and drill into the sinus cavity to remove them. They are contained in a cyst inside the sinus cavity. The cyst will get biopsied, but they don't expect to find anything scary, like cancer, thank goodness. His recovery will take at least a week and he'll have to be off work for that week... we were warned that this procedure will cause quite a bit of swelling and will be painful.

There is also a small chance that a second procedure may be necessary depending on how the first procedure heals.... but we won't know that until afterwards, obviously. It's a bit disappointing that it will be such a big deal... they can't even do it at the regular oral surgeon's office like Jessica's will be done, he has to go into Ottawa to a surgical centre. Anyhow, it's scheduled for August.... should be an adventure.

We got all the wire and rope up for our 5 strand electric fence. All that is left is 2 gates and hooking up the actual fencer unit. Tonight, Shawn trimmed the grass under the fence so its no longer touching the fence posts or wires.

Jessica and I installed the new roof to the goat ghetto... brand new plywood and all ;) We also put in some cross pieces (kinda like rafters, but for a flat roof) and that helps add some stability and some more ventilation... in spite of all the holes in the ghetto, I was never quite as happy about the ventilation in that shelter as I have been with the others. This should make it as good or better now.

I got most of the grass cut tonight, minus the front yard and the little strip between the house and the driveway. I even got some of the grass cut in the areas where the goats have already grazed... I like to cut it back, I figure whatever they did NOT eat I want cut back to give the other stuff they do like a chance to grow back. I cut it once and then just leave it to grow. We still haven't used any one spot twice, though some of the spots we grazed them early on could really be grazed again, no problem. I really have too much grass for just the two of them. Not a "problem" you hear about often, for sure :)

The dogs and goats are all fine... Oliver is doing well and has been sleeping through the night for the last 3 or 4 nights... from about 11pm to 7am. I'm really pleased about that. I do restrict his water intake though, starting around 9:30pm, otherwise he'd just keep going... he's a bit obsessive about drinking, kinda like Buddy. We'll have to weigh Ollie again, I'm pretty sure he's grown again, his legs look longer to me. He's doing pretty well with housetraining... not perfect, of course, but as long as WE are paying attention we manage to get him outside without many accidents.

The bugs are still awful here. Mosquitoes, horse flies, deer flies... just gross... I have so many bites... some are itchy, some just painful. The bug clothes we got at Lee Valley are pretty good and work well. I should get one more jacket as we only have 2 right now, for 3 of us. I didn't want to buy 3 and then find out they didn't work or fit or something. The jackets have attached hoods that also cover your face... it keeps the nasty little gnats out of your eyes, but does slightly reduce visibility... not horribly though and really having the gnats in your eyes reduces visibility too!

The only other small complaint is that they bug clothes are a bit warmer than we expected... with some of the heat and humidity we've had it was really noticeable. But then again, you're going to be hot and miserable anyhow, being hot and miserable and NOT getting eaten alive by bugs IS an improvement.

That's it for now, its 11:30 pm and time to go feed and check on goats and take the dogs out one last time!
--L