Christmas Feast

Brenda misses her turkey and all the trimmings, or maybe she just misses cooking for hours and hours. So this year she decided that she was doing it all. We got a fresh turkey, bread crumbs and all the rest and she spent a glorious Christmas Day making all her favourite side dishes. We had a roast turkey that was about 5 times bigger than we could eat, coleslaw, mashed potatoes, mashed carrots and turnips, homemade cranberries, and of course real stuffing right from the bird, all dressed up with her great homemade gravy. And to finish it off we had shortbread cookies, both Pecan and Butter tarts, along with chocolate mints, homemade turtles, and peanut butter balls. And to top it all off we managed to coax Ivan and Hailey in from their usual desert haunts to help us with the feast.

Ivan slipped in on Christmas Eve and we had a great session catching up on all the details of his travels this winter and his firefighting endeavours last summer. Although we both winter in the south and only live a few miles apart on the Northern Ranges we don't actually bump into each other all that frequently. Ivan's blog keeps us reasonably up to date on his activities but with my somewhat infrequent blogging we had lots to share.

While Brenda was working her magic in the kitchen Christmas Day Ivan and I took a whirl in the side by side out to the Petroglyphs along Vekol Wash.

It was a nice day for a ATV ride, not to hot and not to cold, and we wandered up through the Petroglyphs contemplating who and when they were put there. It turned into a sunny warm day and we sat on the side of the hill enjoying the sunshine and having a good chin wag. If anyone has any questions about the state of affairs in the world today or concerns about how they are turning out, you can let your minds rest at ease, I hazard a guess Ivan and I solved most of those issues over the past couple of days. Now if someone only comes to find out the answers.

We did have a couple of locals wandering about while we were there also.

All in all a pleasant day, topped off by a wonderful meal.

Almost Christmas

Just in case anyone was worried I did make it home from the rodeo on schedule. I had a great time with cousin Mike and enjoyed the opportunity to spend some one on one time with him, as well as watching some great rodeo.

Although Mike is a lot younger than me we spent a lot of time together as kids on our Grandpa and his Dad's farms so it just seems easy to fall back on old times together. A lot of history to review and some of it only he and I know so it is good to renew those old ties, at least until the statute of limitations run out.

Once I got back, I had a day or two to settle in then Brenda had an appointment over in Gold Canyon to test drive a new treatment for CRPS. Our first visit was on Friday the 9th. The Doc there was pretty sure that this CALMARE treatment would have a positive effect on her neuropathy pain. He was right, it was amazing watching the pain wash out of her eyes within moments of starting the treatment. Not surprisingly we booked some follow-up treatments and that is what we have been doing since that time.

Now there is a lot more to CRPS than just neuropathy pain, but relieving that makes dealing with the bone crushing feeling and the muscles cramping that she also experiences just a little bit easier to deal with.

As I mentioned in my last post she has joined me at the pool 3 days a week. Swimming eases some of the muscle pain as well.

We have finished up a 10 day course of Calmare treatments and so far so good, now to see what kind of longevity she gets. I tried on numerous days to just wheel that machine out of the clinic, but by the time we were finished they were keeping a pretty close eye on me. I won't try to explain the treatment as there are a lot better explanations on the internet. Try this one from the folks we were dealing with if you are interested. And if you are in the East Valley area, Gold Canyon, or thereabouts the folks at Superstition Chiropractic are a great bunch and great at their jobs as well. Thanks Dr. Wade, and Dr. Cassie and of course the hearts of the outfit, Rachel and Aleisha. Our time there was great, but we are hoping to not see you for this stuff again for a long while.

Now for Christmas, we are expecting a secret visitor here tomorrow, so all that baking and cooking Brenda has been doing will be disappearing even quicker than I can gobble it down.

Merry Christmas to all

Out to the Desert

Since I last wrote I have gotten Brenda out to the desert in the ATV a couple of times. It is much more relaxed riding with her as she is not sure about this machine and we are trying to keep it smooth so that we don't get to shook up. But it is pretty smooth out there so that doesn't slow us down much. We tried to follow the Vekol Wash out one day but it petered out a few hundreds yards from the other trail so we did a little brush popping but didn't make it through. Rather than get to western we headed back to the barn after about 15 miles of ride.

The next time we took another trail that I had been on before by myself with a lot more success. The petroglyphs are up on a hill along the trail and we scrambled up there close enough to get a look at them.

While out on this trip we stumble across some kind of Law Enforcement convention, we passed probably 20 LEO's and about a dozen quads looking like they had just loaded up after a desert run. Rumour has it they were looking for some drug running folks but we saw no sign of any untoward activity while we were roaming around, not even any tracks so who knows where they were.

Today we had a session with the ATV, and Brenda was driving, by the look on her face I might need to get one of my own.

Tomorrow I head for Vegas for a few days at the rodeo while Brenda holds down the fort here at Dogpound South. She will be ably assisted by her two vicious guard dogs so all should be well here.

DPS Sunset