Hand Update

Well its been a long 6 months since the accident. There has been; A splint for 6 weeks, Occupational Therapy twice a week for 5 months, Dr. appointments every 3 weeks, a bone scan, x-rays, a mri, a ct, a circulation test, a (my very very very least favorite!!) a nerve conduction study, and a trip to Eugene to the hand/wrist specialist (with another scheduled). Not to mention the things that are either difficult or not able to be done. The result? Well there isn't any nerve damage, my grip is still very weak (10 at last measurement, functional is 30), and I am most likely going to have to have arthroscopic surgery (to look inside and see whats going on). Thats where things get interesting. With luck whatever is going will be fixable. At this point we just don't know and that is the most frustrating thing of all of this. Will let you know how that goes.

Garden Delight!

We enjoyed a romaine, spicy mesculan, easter egg radish, green onion salad. Why am I excited about a relatively mundane salad? All of the ingredients came from our garden!!! They wer the first harvest from our little plots of garden space. I am ridiculously excited as it is the FIRST time we have actually gotten a decent harvest from anything we have planted! In addition the potatoes that I planted are starting to pop up as are the spinache, chard, and corn. The sunflowers, chamomiel, dill, cilantro, are all doing great. They seem to like the weird weather. We now have space to plant more veggies and plan on planting more of the mesculan (its really good having a slightly nutty flavor to it), more radish, a different kind of lettuce and the herbs we haven't planted yet. It should be a great summer of harvesting veggies! Pictures to come.

Potato Baking Bag

A couple of years ago we were invited to dinner at a family members house. It was a spur of the moment thing. One of menu items were baked potato's. Short on time it was decided to microwave them. The family member proceeds to take 2 large bags out of a drawer and puts the potato's in them! Asking why she explained that they were potato bags and that even though the potato was microwaved it would taste like they were oven baked. You simply wash and dry the potato and put them in the bag to cook in the microwave. We were skepitcal, but it turned out that she was right! So here are the directions to making your very own potato bag.

2 pieces of cotton fabric 11″ x 22″ (cotton with no metallic)
1 piece of cotton batting11″ x 22″

Place the fabric right sides together and then put onto the batting.
Stitch across each short end using a 1/4″ seam. Trim seam.

Position the fabric you want to be the inside of the bag on the outside as you sew.
Fold the top edge down about 2-3 inches. fold the bottom up and overlap about 1″. Sew this seam at 1/2″

Sew both sides. Trim to 1/4″. Serge or zig zag these two sides.
Turn the bag right side out.

the and more

Paul and Ian and Max and Ian enjoying a sunny day

Garden Pictures and more

These are our garden areas. The flowers are cyclamen and the other plants sticking up are romaine.

Udate on Garden

It was a very busy weekend for us. We (Paul really) spent a good chunk of Friday rototilling 3 garden plots. He used a Mantis to break the grass and dirt up. We then went shopping for seeds. We ended up with a lot of seeds! Including a red sweet corn, red carrots, red sunflowers and Easter egg radish's. We also got romaine lettuce seedlings. Then on Saturday the work started on getting the plots ready to plant. This involved 2 trailer loads of really really nice soil. It has compost, potting soil and other goodies that plants like. Paul unloaded it and I spread it out in the plots. Then came the dog proofing. We put up a small garden fence around each of the 3 plots. The grass was mowed, grass was planted to fill in the bald spots, really interesting flowers were planted in one of the plots, and sunflowers were planted. Most of Saturday's work was done in rain. I have not been that wet, cold and dirty in a very long time and I loved it! So that brings us to Sunday. Thankfully the rain stayed away. That allowed me to get out there and plant some garden! I planted all of the romaine plants, French Marigolds (the petals are edible!), Nasturtium's (again the petals are edible), Anaheim pepper, spicy mescalin mix, Grand Rapids leave lettuce, Peas, some red corn, pickling cucumbers, dill, chamomile, carrots, walla walla onions, red carrots, Easter egg radish's, more cilantro, sweet basil. There is still come planting to do, bell peppers, chard, spinach, oregano, mint, garlic chives are all on the list. I also left enough space that once this crop pops up we can plant more to ensure a crop summer and fall. I will post some pics soon.

Ian

I took Ian to Coquille today to get neutered. Yes it is a little early at just barely 3 months old. Normally they are spayed/neutered is 6 months. He was a walking mass of hormones though, so we opted for sooner rather than later. I worried about him all day. I HATE when any of our kids goes under anesthesia. There is always a risk that they won't wake up. I was relieved when I finally saw him wagging his tail at me when we picked him up. Now the second part of the neuter comes into play; keeping him from running around like crazy and licking the sutures. He has already tried licking so we got him an e-collar. He HATES it! It didn't cost a lot to get him fixed, $56 with $50 off for his adoption fee. Not to bad. I am thankful for that program. They also have a program that you can volunteer and get your dog neutered for free. I like that idea as well. Ian is doing pretty good, sleeping peacefully. In two weeks his sutures come out and he returns to his normal puppy activities. He does start obediance on April 4 (10-12 under Coos Bay city hall). That will be good for him, to gain doggy social skills and reinforce his obediance. I have been a bit lax on his training.

Garden

This is the first year that we have been able to a decent sized garden. In fact when we are done planting we will have four! Three are containers. One container is planted with strawberries, this will make the third year for them. Hoping to get some nice ones this year. Another smaller container is planted (today!) with green onions and cilantro. Yummy! The last and biggest container (about the size of a small kitchen table) is freshly planted with yukon gold potatoes and roma tomatoes. Then we have a chunk of ground that will soon be rototilled and supplemented with a bag or two of potting soil and a bag or two of fresh horse poo for fertilzer. On the list to be planted here is: Corn, Peas, Carrots, Lettuce, Onions, Spinache and not sure what else.

Winter, Spring and Gardens!

Well we have made it through another wet, cold winter! Whoo hoo spring is here (well officially tomorrow). This winter brought a lot change in our house and family. We said goodbye to our dearly loved Aunt Joan do to breast cancer. She was the glue that held our little Zyta family together and is much missed at family gatherings. We also bid goodbye to our big black girl, Ishie. She is greatly missed as well, and I think of her often. We also lost our Grumpy boy. Not sure exactly what happend there. Shortly after Ishie he just never came home. We are very sad at our losses this winter, but winter also brought new people and a new family member to us. The winter brought new friends as well. Most of the crew at theater have become more like friends than Paul's coworkers. A few stand out more than others, Brandon, Nathaniel, Chelsea, Mike. Also the new manager, Marty and his wife Jolene. Its nice to have a lot of people around (even if I normally only see them at work) to joke and talk with. Winter also brought our little guy, Ian Marley. He was a suprise really, but has become a welcome member of our family. He is endless entertainment. He started as a beagle (30lbs max) and is now (pretty sure) an English Coonhound (70lbs). He also has a really cute hound bay that hes not afraid to use when he gets excited or is chaseing the cat. I am debating on getting a tracking dog title on him. He does have a heck of a nose for a 3 month old!
So what does spring have in store? Working with and hopefully riding the horses. Spring will also breing a Garden! This year I get to dig up a portion of the yard for the first time. I am so excited!! This will be my first real garden! Corn, Peas, Carrots, lettuce, and Onions are on the list to plant. I also have a container that I can plant in, which is usually where my garden is. In fact I am so excited I think I might go get started on breaking ground it now!

Weight Log

Ok it has been about 3 weeks since I decided to track my exercise and weight loss. I set goals for exercise (15 days for January) and then weigh myself on the first of the month. For January I had 22 days of exercise, started at 223 and am now down to 215. Woohoo! I am super excited about it. I figured that at 8 pounds a month by June I should be at 175 or so. It has been a LONG time since I have been under 200.

Ian Marley Zyta

We have had Ian for a week now and we added to his name he is now officially Ian Marley. Thats because he is a Marley! From the chewing of things that shouldn't be chewed to the sweet and very loving parts. Ian is helping to heal my (and even Paul's) heart from Ishie. It has been just over a week since we hae had him. In that time he has: chewed a computer power cord, peed on our bed (he was slleeping with us), chewed a sock, and dragged Zev across the room. He has me up every 2 -2.5 hours. (uually potty, not such a bad thing!) The good stuff: He went nose to nose with Spirit and actually played with him through the fence, won Beauty over to the idea that a dog will not eat the herd, played with Trent (new managers 1 yr old) very gently, Lots and lots of cuddles. He is also a total clown, often tripping over his paws or ears. I have to say he is growing on me, wasn't sure if I really wanted him at first but I am glad we did!

Puppy!

As you know from a previous post as well as other means we no longer have Ishie and Zara. Add to that our big male cat Grumpy. He has been missing a week now. Despite several trips to the shelter and search of the neighborhood he seems to be gone. I still have hope that he will show up...Anyway on one of the trips looking for the cat I saw puppies. They were 7 week old beagle mixes. I fell in love with one, asked Paul (who said no) and moved on. Then this afternoon Paul asked me what kind of pup he was. I told him and we went to look. My pup wasn't there but his brother was. We ended up bringing him home. He is a very cute little guy, brown and white with a white tipped tail. The white parts have brown ticking on them. We named him Ian, in honor of our beloved Ishie. So far he is doing great! He loves Jade and Zev. Jade is indifferent to him and Zev thinks he is a playtoy. We may regret bringing him home becuase of puppy frustration and I am sure that there will at least one post on the horrors of having a puppy in the house, but in the end it will be worth it.

Ishie

This is Ishie our wonderfully loving, sweet and tolerant 4 year old German shepherd. This was taken on her first and only boat trip, with my cell phone (not bad clarity huh?). It was an incredible day for her and I. We got to go to some friends lake property. Ishie got to play in the lake and run and run on the property. She took on a steep set of slippery steps without blinking an eye. She went up them and came down the mountain side. I got to watch as she conquered her fear of the jet motor rumbling behind her as she set on the bench seat in the boat. This was followed by going to the barn to clean and feed the horses. This was a special treat as dogs are not normally all lowed. She was very good and didn't bark at them. She played in the feed room, eating carrots while I made beat pulp. Then while I delivered she hung out in Lil' Chiefs stall. I was very proud of her, as I am sure none of it was easy for her. A very very good memory. There are a lot more. I don't have the heart to write them here, perhaps some day. You see we had to let our Ishie girl go to heaven. She was incredible with people and especially loved kids allowing them to dress her and pretty much do whatever they wanted with her, but couldn't get along with other dogs. We did everything we could but in the end we had to keep her and other dogs safe. She went very peacefully in her sleep. We are mourning her loss and likely will for a long time yet. We buried her at the barn where she is close to us. I am sure she knows how much we love her and how hard it was/is for us tolet her go.

Fat Rant Video

http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=yUTJQIBI1oA
This is a pretty sensitive subject for many of us. Speaking for myself being fat is something I have struggled with for years. It affects the way I see myself (frumpy and lacking confifence) and to some extent how I interact with others. This video puts all into perspective and gives a boost. I would like to view my self with the same attitude the video has, perhaps it would help to do something about it. Having said that I also want to add that I am down to 220 from 230 a month or so ago. I am walking daily and getting exercise at the barn daily. My goal (please remind me throughout the next few months) is 180 by June. I think I can do it, as long as I keep up my exercise and continue to drink plenty of water. Dieting doesn't really work for me because I LOVE food and I get frustrated. But I have found that drinking a ton of water and regular (at least an hour a day) exercise and reducing the amount of food I eat by a little does. Will post monthly updates on how its going.