One Tough Cookie

It ain't braggin' if it's true, is it? Well, my 5 year old, middle Granddaughter is just plain tough in more ways than one. First, she was born with a holey heart, an atrial septal defect. She didn't feel good and was a very grumpy baby. When she was 15 months old she had to have a device implanted in her heart to fill in the largest hole. It is called an AMPLATZER® Septal Occluder, a wire disc shaped device made from an alloy of nickel and titanium. She came through the procedure like the trooper she is.

Next came the dog attack at two and a half years old. She had several puncture wounds on cheek, jaw and around her left eye. Her bottom eye lid had a chunk missing and was split open. She was cool, calm and sang Christmas songs on the long trip to the Hospital. She remained composed for all of the stitches, she was sedated but didn't like being held down. She was very brave for the removal of the stitches as well.

Then there are the splinters that you naturally get on a farm. I have removed two splinters from her fingers so far. She doesn't squirm, whine or cry when I poke, prod and squeeze, she even watches.

So that brings me up to Saturday. Somehow she managed to cut the tip of her little toe nearly off on Thursday. The entire top skin of the tip of her toe was cut loose and was only being held on by a small piece that was still intact. It looked bad and painful.

She had complained about it only after she noticed the blood, her Mom asked what happened and she said that she couldn't remember. I guess it didn't make much of an impression on her. Sometime later the toe started throbbing and she did do some crying.

Friday night the girls spent the night with us and we soaked her foot in Epsom Salts a couple of time. I was afraid that it might get infected because she was running around my house barefooted and we couldn't get a band-aid on it. After one soak on Saturday afternoon my DH looked closely at it and declared that the excess skin needed to be removed. Her Mother had talked about doing this herself. So I called her Mom for approval after our Granddaughter gave her approval.

I stuck a Banana Popsicle in her mouth, read her a funny story holding the book so that it blocked her view of what Papaw was doing and he did surgery. She never flinched, jerked or made a sound accept for laughing at the story.

My DH held out his open palm with the thick cap of skin in it and she said: "I didn't even feel it!". She did have a hard time putting it back in the Epsom Salt water because it burned but after about five attempts she finally got the nerve and stuck it in without pulling it back out.

Now bandaging it was another story, she griped, moaned and argued about having to wear a stupid band-aid on it. My DH applied ointment and wrapped it with gauze and tape, she was not happy about this but her arguments and non-stop griping was so funny that we just kept chuckling. She can be quite dramatic. She didn't want a big old ugly bandage on it and thought she could talk her way out of it.

She is tough in other ways too, like arguing. It is hard to win an argument with her and she can be pretty tough in protecting her sisters and brother. She is also quite the scrapper, her Dad has taught her to fight and she plays a little too rough sometimes.

She is the comedian of the family, is outgoing, friendly and never shuts up. Even when she is trying to be tough and serious she cracks us all up. She can also make you very nervous because you never know what she might say to strangers or even to friends and family.

Farm-Style Manicure

You should see my lovely fingernails, they are brittle and broken, split and jagged. They usually have unidentified dark substances under them as well. I try to keep them out of my mouth most of the time for that reason.

Dipping crushed oyster shell straight from the bag with your bare hands to feed to your chickens is rough on your nails. Bracing yourself with your hands in the mud and manure to look under the goat/chicken house for a lost hen is not good hygiene. Getting into a slight scuffle with a Billy Goat can and will break an already brittle nail and also bruise one's knuckle.

I don't know what has gotten into Cooter, well maybe it's because it's Spring but I didn't know that he had a calendar and knew the exact day that Spring arrived. He is getting hard to deal with, he usually just nibbles at my fingers and clothes, sometimes puts his head against me and applies slight pressure but today he was just being mean and trying to knock me down. He did the same thing to my DH while he was shoveling out the shed, he took the shovel to him and that made him worse.

He likes being kicked and hit because he likes to play rough, so I avoid getting rough with him, even if he makes me mad. If he pushes on me, I grab his ear, give it a twist and hold him still in one place for an extended period of time. When I let go he usually doesn't want to play anymore. But this type of training does take time and patience.

After the slap with the shovel, he thought we were on his energy level and were thinking like he thinks. I know from experience that it is hard to win in a hand or foot to hard head battle with a buck. If you kick them, it will hurt you worse that it hurts them and hitting them with your hand is just stupid and I have the bruise on my hand to prove it.

Billy goats are made of tough stuff and I should have known better than to have made such a pet out of Cooter but he was so sweet and cute, I couldn't help it. My last buck was not pampered and he avoided human contact, so he was much better behaved.

I am afraid at this point that I am going to have to resort to drastic measures and purchase a cattle prod because I don't want my Grandkids not being able to go into the goat lot because of a mean billy goat, plus the fact that I am just getting tired of his annoying behavior.