purplequeenvt - Ivy Knoll Farm

We got coyote #6 a couple weeks ago and the traps were taken up right after that. I haven't been seeing too much sign of them since, but we may put traps out again in December.



My sister is getting a LGD pup next month. He is a Spanish Mastiff, Polish Tatra, GP, Maremma cross and should reach 120+ lbs when fully grown. His name is Misha. He's the spotted puppy on the left.



This will bring our LGD count to 3 and I'm thinking about breeding my Pyrs when my female comes into heat next time (sometime in Feb/Mar).

That puppy is just too cute! Coyote #6! That means that there's more out there, they are just smarter. At least you're thinning the pack.

For those of you that haven't read or don't remember any of my family's story (it's somewhere in this journal), there are 6 kids in my family. I am the 2nd oldest and 3 of my siblings (#1 (sister), #4 (brother), and #5 (sister) have a rare kidney disease. This has meant that we've had months of dialysis treats, 5 transplants, 2 kidney donations, lots of other surgeries and procedures, and many, many hospital stays over the last 7 years. My mom has carried most of the weight of this. When someone is in the hospital, she never leaves them. She is the best advocate a patient could ask for.

#1 has had 2 transplants and many complications and hospital stays. #2 (me) - I don't have any health problems. I donated a kidney in 2010. #3 doesn't have kidney disease, but has lots of other stuff. She is married. #4 has had 2 transplants plus lots of other stuff, but is stable now. #5 has had 1 transplant, not as many complications, and is stable. #6 does not have kidney disease, but this story is ultimately about her.

The worst of the drama is over, usually, but there is always something going on. The general rule around here is, if something (medical) can go wrong, it will go wrong. There were several years of people in and out of the hospital. Sometimes with only a few days or hours in between stays.

Siblings #4 and #5 are stable and healthy and #1 is not stable, she's been having a lot of problems lately and has been in and out of the hospital, but she's married so her husband deals with her hospital stays. My parents decided to go on vacation to Aruba. This trip has been in the works for at least a month now.

We all went to southern VT for Thanksgiving. My dad's parents are divorced and both got remarried so we have 2 Thanksgiving dinners every year. Thursday is spent at my grandfather's (dad's dad). His wife is amazing. She cooks a huge dinner and lots of people come and there is always plenty of food. She even makes stuff for people with special diets. One aunt is vegetarian and there is special stuffing and gravy for her. I can't eat gluten so she makes GF stuffing and gravy and cookies for me.

Friday we go to my grandmother's and then we head home in the evening.

This year was a little different. My parents were heading to Boston with my grandmother (mom's side) and aunt on Friday and flying to Miami and then Aruba on Saturday. My brother (#4) and sister (#6) went home Thursday night because #6 had to work on Friday.

#5 and I stayed over to Friday so that we could go to my grandmother's. We left pretty early in the evening (it's 2 1/2 hours to get home) and got home at 8 pm. #6 got home from work at 9:45 pm. She had stayed until the end of her shift, but around 8:30 pm, she had gotten severe abdominal pain that wasn't going away. She's came to my room at 10:30. She was crying and asked me to take her to the ER. When she asks to go to the doctor, it's time to listen because she never asks to go. I called my parents (they were still in Boston) to let them know what was going on.

We are only 20-25 minutes from our hospital. I did get stopped for speeding (first time ever) on the way, but the officer was very kind and let me go without even a warning. We got to the ER at 11 pm and we were there until 7 am when they finally decided to admit her. Her pain had localized to the lower right side of her belly and so they thought it was appendicitis. The ER doctor wasn't confident enough to say that was the problem when he looked at her scans because they weren't blatantly obvious so he admitted her for "observation". Shortly after she got to her room (a private room with a recliner for me!), the surgeon took a look at the scans and came to tell us that she WOULD be having surgery.

The surgery went well and she was able to come home the same day. I kept my parents up to date on everything. My mom would have come home, but I told her she wasn't allowed to. I could manage things, she needed to go on her trip.

#6 and I are both exhausted. I had a long list of projects I wanted to work on while my parents were gone, but I'll be lucky if I get anything finished. Oh well. Story of my life.

Wow - awesome of you to take your mom's place so she could have her vacation. I know she's immensely grateful to you for being there.

Something similar happened to us a couple months ago. We were on what was supposed to be a week long vacation in Canada (we're from Texas). Three days into the trip we got a call that DH's mom had a stroke. We immediately came home to find that she was in pretty good shape - thankfully. Two days later my DH was on his way to visit her in the hospital and was involved in a horrific accident (other driver ran the red) and he had major injuries. Ten weeks later he finally got to see his mom on Thanksgiving day.

Sooo glad your sister is on the road to recovery after her surgery.

Your family must be a group of incredibly awesome folks to go through everything you've gone through. Prayers and blessings for you and yours!

How wonderful of you to step up and make your parents take their vacation. I have read your website and was aware of the family health problems. One thing shone brighter than anything else-love. The love your family has for one another is inspiring. I hope your sister has a good recovery.

"Deck the halls with boughs of holly, fa la la la la la la la BAA!"

Hope your sister is doing well

OMG! That needs to go into the caption contest - except you've already captioned it perfectly!

OneFineAcre said:

Hope your sister is doing well

Click to expand...

She's recovering well. Pushing herself too hard at times perhaps. She thinks I'm being unreasonable, but given the fact that I've had major surgery, I know what I'm talking about when it comes to the amount of time it will take her to recover.

My mom is now incapacitated. She got back from her trip Sunday night and promptly slipped on a path of ice and hurt her ribs. Nothing says "welcome home" like sore ribs.

Gheesh, that is her reward for taking a vacation.....hurt ribs HURT!!! but only when you breathe.....