Stubborn Man

Yes, he is a stubborn man that must be why I married him. My DH loves Tomato and Basil Wheat Thins, it is really more of an addiction than a love affair. I can't even stand the smell of them. He usually eats them everyday but we hadn't been to town and he hadn't bought any for about two weeks.

On Monday we went to town and he bought some. That evening he started eating them and all of the sudden he started itching all over and I am not talking about a little itch, the poor man was going crazy and scratching all over. I tried to get him to sit down and try to calm himself but he said that he couldn't.

Before long, he started wheezing and could hardly breath. I gave him two antihistamine capsules that I keep on hand for bee stings and suggested that we go to the ER but he wouldn't. He broke out with little bumps all over his stomach and he was bloated. I prayed for him and then called my friend who has had three episodes just like this and asked her opinion.

She said to get him to the Hospital, I reminded her who we were talking about and she told me what they did for her, which was nothing that I could do at home. He was mainly focused on his hands that he has so much trouble with anyway. He was rubbing and scratching the skin off of them. He finally started settling down and put his hands in some goat's milk and he started improving.

When the medicine kicked in he started getting sleepy. I checked his stomach and the bumps were gone. He stopped itching and was ready to go to bed. His poor hands were a mess, very swollen.

I woke him up during the night to give him another dose of the antihistamine and he was fine the next morning. His hands were still a little swollen but that was all.

The Wheat Thins are still on the table, I tried to throw them out and he wouldn't let me. I am afraid that he is going to try them again when I am not looking. My friend's allergic reaction was to something that she had eaten lots of times before as well. The Doctors told her that it was probably a preservative that she had a reaction to.

My DH admits that it had to be a severe allergic reaction to the Wheat Thins but he is having a struggle with having to live his life without them.

The Lord just has to take care of people like him, I guess. I asked him during the middle of the crisis, what he would do if it were me, there was a long pause before he said that he would take me to the Hospital, but only if I wanted to go. He covered all of his bases there.

Milk Soak

My DH has had a problem with his hands for quite some time now. He is a part time mailman and handling paper all day is very drying to his hands. They started itching, peeling, cracking and even bleeding. He was having a real hard time sleeping and nothing that he was doing as far as creams and lotions was helping him.

I decided to take the bull by the horn and try to do a few things to help him out. I made him start using used coffee grounds when washing his hands at the end of the day. I started using the coffee grounds with soap to get the billy goat smell off of my hands, it works and after a few times of using it, your hands get soft and smooth.

I told him to avoid washing his hands during the rest of the day. This is hard for him because his hands get so dirty. I found him a bar of Ivory soap and that is all I am letting him use. No more anti-bacterial stuff.

After he washes his hands at night, I make him soak his hands in goat's milk for 10 minutes. I told him to use bag balm on his hands after that but he only did that one night. It made his hands too messy. So far so good, he is really noticing a difference. He thinks that the goat's milk is the key. So chalk up another good use for goat's milk.

99 Bales

We got 99 bales of hay in the loft this evening. We will pick up what's left in the field tomorrow after the dew is off of it. I have a blister from dragging the bales all the way to the back of the loft with my hay hook. It gets easier the more hay that you get in there. The dragging distance shortens with each load.

I also got two rope halters done and ready to be shipped out in the morning. My hands are sore and swollen but hopefully they will recover tonight in time for more hay and more halters tomorrow. I will be so happy when our loft is full, about 800 bales, and our friend's barn is full, about 300 bales. It would be nice if we could also fill the neighbor's barn but if not, we should have plenty of big round bales to see us through.

There doesn't seem to be a hay shortage this year and the prices are coming down. I don't think that the farmers around here are happy about it, but we sure are.

Gripping

Here we are, August 10th and still no hay in the barn. We were suppose to have around 300 bales ready to bale this afternoon but yesterday proved not to be a good day for curing hay. So it isn't even raked yet. Hopefully it will be ready to rake in a few hours and we can get it in the loft this evening.

All I have to do is drive the truck and trailer around in the field, then get in the loft and use a long hay hook to pull the bales out of the elevator's way. The loft floor is nice and slick, so that part is easy. I used to be able to heft, throw and stack bales but not anymore. The hardest part for me now is getting into the loft, I hate ladders.

I am close to finishing a barrel racing website and will be able to start on a local community website soon. When that is done, I plan on completely redoing our website, it gets totally neglected.

I also have 39 horse rope halters to make and ship out as soon as possible. I can only do so many halters per day or my hands and fingers start cramping up on me.
Tying and tightening around fourteen knots per halter tends to make your hands complain a bit.

Between knot tying and goat milking, I have quite a grip. I never have to ask my DH to open a jar for me anymore. When my back Doctor tests my grip by having me squeeze his hands, I can bring tears to his eyes. He doesn't ask me to do that much anymore.