Monday, June 05, 2006, 19:34
Blood, Sweat and Tears
If I thought the craft sale at the Centennial Celebration in Fall Creek last weekend was bad -- Thorp Dairy Days on Saturday was even worse! At Fall Creek, I sold 2 books. At Thorp, after a round trip of 126 miles, I sold. . .no books. Not one. Zip. Nada.
It was really strange, too, I thought. The Thorp Dairy Days celebration is an established event that starts on Thursday and goes through Sunday. The event includes food stands (both local stands and food stands set up with the carnival), carnival rides, and other activities (softball games going on all day long Saturday; kids' pedal tractor pull and so forth.
Hardly anybody was at the park for the event.
In the afternoon, a tractor pull drew about 20 spectators. Twenty. At a tractor pull. And I think most of the people watching the tractor pull were friends and relatives of the people driving the tractors.
I mean, really. A tractor pull! Those kinds of events in this state (and in other states, too, I know) draw hundreds of spectators. Hundreds. And yet, only 20 spectators on Saturday.
As for the vendors at the flea market/craft sale, only 7 of us showed up (and one of the vendors was the lady who coordinates the craft sale/flea market). We were put in this little space, almost like a cul-de-sac behind the midway and away from the main flow of foot traffic. What little foot traffic there was. The rides on the midway were idle for most of the day. They didn't even start any of them until 1 p.m. After that, four or five people would show up for a ride. The ride would run for 5 or 10 minutes. Then it would stand idle for another 30 minutes.
I packed up and left at 3 p.m. From 9 a.m. until 3 p.m., three people had stopped at my table. There was a truck pull scheduled for Saturday evening, but I didn't figure the truck pull crowd would exactly be a book buying crowd.
Perhaps I had better just stick to juried shows after this.
On Saturday, I had already decided I was not driving 126 miles again to go back to Thorp Dairy Days on Sunday. And good thing I did not.
The bad luck from Saturday apparently spilled over into Sunday. In the morning, before we left for church (five minutes away; the same church that appears in several stories in my books), we tied Charlie by the house. After church, Randy went with a friend to a car show in town, and I came home.
Unfortunately, Charlie's leash was just long enough for him to crawl under the porch.
In the first place, with his sutures, he is not supposed to lie in the dirt.
In the second place, it's awfully cramped under the porch.
So how was I going to get him out?
I coaxed and called. And eventually, he managed to turn himself around and crawl out from underneath the porch.
And in the process of crawling out from the porch, Charlie hurt himself. He has stitches on the right side from his rib cage extending down to his back leg. I could see that he was bleeding, but I wasn't sure exactly what was bleeding and where.
In the meantime, while I was trying to figure out what was going on with Charlie's stitches, Randy came home. While he kept an eye on Charlie, I called the vet. Actually, I called the answering service. The vet called me back. He said we should clean it up with a diluted iodine solution, and that if the skin was gaping I should bring him into the clinic on Monday so he could sew up Charlie again.
Guess what?
No iodine in the house. Randy had to make a special trip to buy iodine.
After we cleaned up Charlie's wound, I could see that it looked as if he had popped out only one stitch. Bad enough, though, because it basically bled all afternoon. And in the evening when I took Charlie out before I went to bed, it was still dripping a little blood.
This morning when I let Charlie out of his kennel and put him on the leash to take him for a little walk so he could do all of his potties, the wound was still dripping blood. By the time we got back to the house, Charlie had blood all over his legs.
So I called the vet clinic again. And was told to bring him in immediately.
The good news, as it turns out, is that Charlie did not lose any stitches. It's just that the skin fold at the edge of the stitches has opened up.
The vet suggested, of all things, putting a t-shirt on him BACKWARDS. To keep Charlie from licking the stitches and opening the wound up even more.
Randy and I had thought of shorts. But neither of us thought of a BACKWARDS t-shirt. As soon as I got home, I rummaged around until I found a fairly light-weight gray t-shirt. And I put it on Charlie. BACKWARDS.
Why is it that neither of us thought of a *backwards* t-shirt? I suppose it's because that's not how humans wear t-shirts. I tied the end of the t-shirt to Charlie's collar to hold it up. He looks funny with the legs of the shirt on his back legs and his little stubby tail sticking out the neck of the shirt. But so far, it is working! He can't get at the stitches to lick them and he can't lick the open wound in his skin. And now I don't have to worry about Charlie getting any dirt in the wound. He's got a blanket to sleep on by the house, but sometimes he likes to lay on the grass, instead.
As soon as I got home from the vet clinic Monday morning, I called Randy and told him to look for some large or extra-large light-weight white t-shirts on his way home this evening. When the temperature is in the 80s and 90s, I do not want to put a dark-colored shirt on the poor dog. He will be hot enough as it is. Especially if he is in the sun for even a few minutes. I keep him tied in the shade, but he IS going to end up out in the sun sometimes.
All-in-all, I have to say that it it was a very strange weekend. And certainly not such a great weekend for Charlie. But maybe, now that I know all of his stitches are intact and that it's just the skin fold, and we've figured out putting a t-shirt on Charlie to keep him from licking and opening the wound more, things will be looking up.
I can only hope.
LeAnn R. Ralph
Friday, June 02, 2006, 18:17
Volunteering
I don't know why I bothered to buy tomato plants from the Farmers Union last week. When I started to pull some of the volunteer sunflowers out of the little garden by the basement a few days ago, I discovered quite a few volunteer tomatoes. Some are Roma tomatoes, and some are those little cherry tomatoes.
If all of the plants produce tomatoes, I am going to have lots and lots of tomatoes!
Some of the volunteers are growing in clumps, and other volunteers are just single plants. But between the clumps of volunteers and the single volunteers, there's probably more than a dozen plants in the garden already. Plus the six I bought at the Farmers Union. Plus the six that I planted in peat pots and am waiting for them to grow big enough to set out.
It's a good thing I love to eat fresh tomatoes.
Unfortunately, Randy won't touch a fresh tomato with a 10-foot pole. He will eat spaghetti. He will eat salsa. He will eat catsup. He will eat lasagna. He will eat pizza.
He will not eat fresh tomatoes.
Well, I guess that just means there will be more for me, won't there.
As for the sunflowers, I can't believe how many volunteers have sprouted from the sunflowers in the bird feeder. Sunflowers will grow anywhere they come in contact with the ground -- leading me to believe that sunflowers must be an easy crop to grow.
But I don't want the sunflowers in my little garden by the basement door. I made that mistake last year, of letting some of them grow. They ended up 8 feet tall, with huge leaves that provided too much shade for the other plants. The chickadees enjoyed the sunflower seeds, of course, but my Sugar Baby watermelon didn't care much for the shade, that's for sure.
Isabelle -- When I brushed Isabelle this morning, I discovered that she has welts twice the size of my hand on her neck, flanks and back. The welts are raised maybe a quarter of an inch, so they're not too bad. Which is by way of saying, I don't think it's time to call the vet quite yet.
As I examined the welts, I wondered what had caused them.
Then I remembered that the other night, Randy had stopped to buy horse flyspray on his way home. He could not find any water-based spray, so he got some oil-based spray. I put some of the oil-based spray on Isabelle yesterday.
Our old quarter horse, Red, used to break out in huge welts from oil-based flyspray. I'm hoping that is what has caused Isabelle's welts.
I still had a little bit of the water-based spray left in the bottom of the bottle, so I put some of that on Isabelle for today. If I don't put something on her, the horse flies nearly drive her crazy. (They would drive me crazy, too -- huge flies that are about 10 times the size of a house fly that buzz and sting and bite.)
With any luck at all, Isabelle's welts will be gone by this evening, or if not gone, at least not any bigger.
Another Craft Sale -- I have another craft sale/flea market this weekend. It is in conjunction with Thorp Dairy Days. I don't know the times for this particular event. Just that the set-up time starts at 7 a.m. on Saturday and that the craft sale/flea market opens at 9 a.m. There's no closing time listed anywhere. Well, we shall see what happens.
Charlie -- After his surgery on Tuesday to remove several tumors, Charlie seems to be feeling a little better today. He is still content to sleep on his blanket in the shade by the house, but he is moving around better and seems more interested in what is going on around him. Poor dog.
LeAnn R. Ralph