Last Week On The Homestead: Sunflowers, Potatoes, & Heartbreak

 

September 4-10, 2023

Well, I'm sure you can imagine why I've put "heartbreak" as part of the title, so I'll get right to that first.

Gosh friends, it's so hard to even write this.  Our sweet little Oliver passed last week.  We knew it was likely coming sooner rather than later, between his age (13 1/2) and his ongoing medical issues.  The good things are: he lived to 13 1/2, he had a pretty good day that last day (he was pretty peppy and was barking at me and carrying on throughout the day), and he had us right beside him at the end.

We had taken him to the emergency vet around 8p.m. on Monday because I believed he may be coming down with pneumonia again.  Because of both his breed and his compromised lungs, he is very susceptible.  The emergency vet believed it was indeed pneumonia and had him in an oxygen tank to help his lungs, because of the fairly newly discovered lung concerns.  We had agreed that she would do an x-ray to confirm there was nothing more going on and then treat him.  Pneumonia was confirmed and she told us that we could either leave him there overnight or she would discharge him, and although she thought it would be best to keep him on oxygen a little while longer, she would be comfortable with either decision.  We opted to leave him overnight for the oxygen.  He was doing well, and we drove home.

The phone rang at 2a.m.  The emergency vet had called to let me know that he suddenly was struggling for oxygen.  Despite the fact that he was still in the oxygen tank, his levels were down to 73% and he was visibly uncomfortable.  She had tried to figure out what was going on but couldn't find anything visible.  We got right in the car and headed down.  After spending time with him and talking with the vet (who was amazing), we had to make that awful decision that you never want to have to make.  He was definitely struggling.  We talked about a breathing tube, but the fact of the matter was, even if he recovered with the breathing tube, because of his lung issues, his age, and all of his other medical diagnoses, we'd be right back in this position again in no time.  It just wouldn't be in his best interest.

So, we elected to say goodbye to the little love of our life and send him off to play with his brother Emerson who passed back in 2019. 

Our house is now very quiet.  It's the strangest feeling ever.  We had such a routine for his medications, potty breaks, naps, and everything else, to now have nothing that absolutely had to be done was incredibly difficult to adjust to.  We miss him every single moment of every single day.  We know the pain will get easier with time, but it's still pretty fresh at the moment.  

It has been tough, I'm not going to lie.  Oliver's first surgery was at the age of three and he has had increasing medical and anxiety issues since then.  We've said to each other from time-to-time that he was lucky to have found us as we were able and willing to do anything and everything he needed.  But we've also told each other how lucky we are because he's brought us so much happiness and unconditional love and taught us so much in the process.  It's all very much been worth it.  When we were able to begin working for ourselves, we were grateful not only for self-employment but also in the fact that we could spend more time with our animals who we've always loved dearly.  I'm grateful that both he and Emerson never had to be alone.  

Jackson has adjusted quite well.  The poor guy has always been jealous of Oliver and frustrated that Ollie was afraid of him and refused to play, so although he's had some moments of seemingly searching for him, he has taken his role of only child quite well.  We will continue to bathe him with attention, and he will absolutely soak all of it in.  Despite being naughty at times, he really is a good boy.

Do you remember my sunflower saga?  I have had absolutely no luck getting them to grow because the chipmunks kept eating them once they'd reach 4-5 inches tall.  I had worked very hard on figuring out how to get a few to grow and I succeeded!  I ended up with 5 sunflowers, 4 small and 1 large.  I was so elated to see them beginning to bloom.  The large one opened up one day during the rain.  This isn't too surprising as we've had a lot of rain this year, but I guess I was expecting it to open when the sun was shining.  The others opened up last week.

We managed to have a good potato crop this year.  I dug them up a few weeks ago (and should have dug them probably a week or two prior to when I did) and was pleasantly surprised at the findings.  I didn't take the time to weigh them, but I did fill a couple of boxes which should last us a few months, so I was happy with that.

The rest of the garden is doing ok.   I replanted green beans, and we should begin harvesting from that planting in the next week or two.  I believe I have a dozen or so new plants.  The pepper plants continue to produce, and we might just get eggplant!  I started the seeds very late and then promptly forgot about them until they were spindly seedlings that were too tall for the contraption I had them in.  I ended up salvaging 6 plants (I lost 2) and they are producing!

We relocated this guy.  We found him up near the house and put him at the back of the property where he quickly disappeared into our stone wall.  We believe it's an Eastern Milksnake, but if you know it to be something else, please leave a comment letting me know.  If so, they do eat chipmunks and our "pet" chipmunk who I've named Ruby resides in many little cubbies right around our house.  I wanted to try and protect her, so the snake will hopefully behave.  Now, mind you, I have no idea if the chipmunk is male or female, so, like feral cat Felix, I am guessing.  She does respond to a clicking noise I make (same one that's used to tell the chickens I have treats) when I am giving her goodies, and she has a favorite hole to receive them in.  When I make the noise and call out for Ruby or Rubes, she makes this squeal and comes running to our deck and dives into the hole she made underneath it and then comes back up and looks at me excitedly.  She's pretty funny.

So, it was a quiet and sad week around here last week.  We, of course, have wonderful memories, but it will take some time for the pain to not hurt quite so deep.  Wishing you all a wonderful week ahead.