A Sign That Things Are Getting Better

The best medicine for someone that’s an avid deer hunter is for deer season to start approaching. There's something about the air that makes a guys neck swell  and I can testify that it has effected BIL James in a way that no doctor nor pill form can do. It wont be long …..yep things are better. It's been nearly five weeks since James had his quadruple bypass heart surgery.

He's come a long ways. He still has to go to therapy and won't officially be released until the third week in September. With fall approaching its time for the guys on the deer lease in West Texas to get things done before the official opening day of deer season.
So, this weekend they travel to the lease. Some of the make ready preparations is to place a new deer stand on the lease as well as do some food plots by planting clover and other forage plants. The Kubota is being used to load, unload and set the deer stand. It also has a tiller and front end bucket for tilling and clearing the land where they plan to put their food plots.

Before they started the loading procedure I asked James was he going to be able to put all this onto the trailer. His reply was it will all fit watch and see. Sure enough they got it all loaded and secured down. This trailer is only 25ft long and as you can see no room to spare. Here are some of the loading photos:

Deer stand loaded:

Deer Stand was next:

Kubota next:

All loaded and ready to travel:

The loading took a little more than four hours. James did no physical activity only supervision. Yes, he took water breaks now and then but for the most part was on the job. Welcome back James hope you continue in your recovery.

Until next time. . . .MtnAire Travlers.

A Little Set Back

James called last night and advised, Bev his wife wanted to drive him to Tyler for the doctor visit to have his staples removed. He asked after they had finished if we wouldn't mind meeting her in Longview where she works and drive him home. 

Sandy left a little earlier than needed as she wanted to do some shopping. About 11am James called very frustrated and said they would probably not be home real soon and for her to go on home. While at the doctors office they found his blood pressure to be high, a Irregular heart beat, a minor infection in his leg and wanted him to go to the ER for further test.

After about five hours of waiting and testing they released him to come home. They gave him a antibiotic shot for the infection he had in his leg where they took veins for his bypass. They said with the type surgery he had  it wasn't that unusual for the irregular heart beat. Also put him on Warfarin to thin his blood.  They say he shouldn't be on this  long. Hope not as I've been on it for over four years now and have to have a IRN blood test every month. I also bruise a lot easier which looks awful on the arms and hands. I've even had people ask me....."What happened to you". Believe it or not they say Warfarin is a form of rat poison. 

We are very thankful that it was no more than this and he didn't have to stay in the hospital. Sandy said when she talked to him he sounded real excited over the phone that he wasn't having to spend the night. There's nothing like your own bed.

On another note I must apologize for not posting those of you that have commented on some of my blog posts. For some reason I was under the impression  they posted automatically. Dumb me......just fat and happy I guess. Speaking of happy Sandy and I have become big Duck Dynasty fans. Really enjoyed their kick off of Season 4 show last Wednesday night.

Till next time. . . .MtnAire Travlers.

Uh Oh Kubota Broke

We went to move the fallen tree that fell across our drive the other day and discovered the Kubota was gone. It was in the shop. Sandy would normally pick up the tree limbs with the fork on front of the Kubota and have the task done in no time.

So, instead we started to use our Jeep Liberty to drag some of the larger limbs off to one side. Before we could get started Sandy's Sister Pam and her husband Mike showed up on there Gold Wing Honda motorcycle. Before you could say let's wait tell the Kubota gets back, they were out rolling the larger limbs off to one side. We hand carried the smaller limbs and laid them on the pile. We will either burn them there or when we get the Kubota back move them to the burn pile.

Friday was our day to drive BIL James around to handle some of his manager duties for the oil lease he's responsible for. We drove over 150 mikes and I'm proud to say he handled it quite well. The Jeep is not the most comfortable ride around but not only did he handled the rough ride he handled Sandy's driving as well (I need to be careful here). The type surgery he had requires him to ride in the back seat and there were times you could tell he was having a difficult time bearing the jostling.

We ate lunch and was back home about 1:30pm. I know he crashed and burned when he got in his big recliner. We probably will take him to Tyler next Tuesday to have the staples removed. After that he'll have about two weeks before he can drive again. I know he is looking forward to that day. Besides with fall approaching his neck is beginning to swell as deer season is not far away.

Until next time. . . .MtnAire Travlers

it Happens!!!!

First an update on my BIL James stent procedure he had three weeks back. The stent collapsed and he had to have quadruple bypass heart surgery. This coming Friday it will be two weeks ago they performed the surgery. He came home four days after the procedure and is doing fine in the recovery process. We try to walk with him every day. He has his staples taken out next Tuesday. While his wife works, Sandy has been his chauffeur for the past few days and takes him wherever he would like to go. He jokingly said he might want her to drive him to his weekly card games tomorrow night. She said that would be fine with her if he wanted to go. We will see.

Earlier this week it was time to dump our holding tank (black) and the day before I had replaced the 45deg elbow that attaches to the sewer hose. As Mr. Murphy would have it..... I pulled the lever and walked to the other side of the MH and all of a sudden I heard this gushing sound and then came the smell. Yep, my installation of the elbow failed, due to the volume of the water, the hose detached from the elbow and out came the black water in a gusher. Before I could get around to shutting off the drain valve most of the tank had emptied. Fortunately the end of the elbow being below the wet bay floor none of the unpleasantries entered the wet bay. What a mess though......took about an hour to clean and decontaminate the area around the MH.

Yesterday while Sandy was in Longview with her brother, we had quite a storm come up with very high straight line winds (40-50mph category). Then came a pretty nice shower. We haven't had measurable rain for about three weeks and we were so thankful for the rain. The wind not so much as we have a nearly dead sweet gum-ball tree behind the motorhome and unbeknown to me until I went outside about a third of this tree was lying across our driveway about 25 yards from the back of the MH and RV port. As you can see we have quite a mess to cleanup when we get the Kubota back.

Couple of nights ago Sandy went to get some plates out of the pantry of the dry bar and found what appeared to be thousands of ants crawling all over the bottom shelf. We put two Terro Liquid Ant Bait capsules out and finally this morning most of the ants were gone. We hope back to their bed where this stuff is touted to kill the bed.

This afternoon we drove over to the Texas DPS Drivers License Division to renew my drivers license. When I got there both stations were busy with people renewing their license. When it was my turn the lady asked me had I filled out the renewable form. What form I asked she replied that one over there pointing behind me. Not a sign anywhere informing you had to fill out a form or you would think she could have verbally inform me of this while waiting in line. So.....after standing in line all that time I now lose my turn and go fill out the form. After I finished I got back in line (four people now ahead of me) and finally my turn. I did everything she asked without a problem one. Then came the eye test which I failed. She got my money and now I have to visit an eye doctor to get glasses that will improve my distance vision and go back within 90 says for another vision test. Hope I pass as I'm not ready to give up my independence just yet. Even though I don't drive that much anymore it's nice to hop in the Jeep and go to a local cafe or hardware store.

Yes....... we have a lot to be thankful for!

Until next time. . . .MtnAire Travlers.

She’s At it Again!

Been a while since I last posted and probably have lost most of our readers. To be honest just not much happening around here. so, this is to catch up.

Had a cancer growth removed from the old noggin in March; Sandy lost her Mom in May; finally got around to working in the Man Cave (now we have a large TV and refrigerator for cold beverages) ; Sandy's brother James installed a washer and dryer in the Man Cave for her to use when at base; we are still making improvements around the base and finally but not the least James is to have a stent put in one of his arteries this Tuesday July 23rd.

Speaking of improvements we have several what we call trash trees near the MH port where we park the motorhome. These are young Elm, Sweet gum, Pine and Cedar which are about 6-8" in diameter and 20-25' tall. We do not want these to get any bigger so we decided to take them out.

So yesterday Sandy was at it again using James' Kubota to take them down and pile them on the burn pile for future burning. The trees being this small we were able to push them over and with the fork pull roots and all out of the ground.

We now need to clean up our mess but will gradually do this as our days are getting hotter. Early morning seems to be the best time for this project. We've had a very unusual July so far..... cool mornings, highs in the mid to low 90's and the best of all rain for several days just about every week now. We are so thankful as usually July for this part of Northeast Texas is usually hot and dry.

Until next time. . . .MtnAire Travlers.