update

Surgery postponed until Monday.....

Recognize this pillow?

Some hospitals give them to patients who are scheduled for open heart surgery and yes that is indeed my very own therapy  pillow... I go in Friday morning at 6am.

All summer I was so tired and was out of breath going even to the barn and back.  I kept thinking how had I let myself get so out of shape.  I was due for my physical in early October and planned to bring the issue up with my doctor.  I fully expected her to urge me to get an exercise bike or take aerobic classes at the YWCA. 


Instead she set up an appointment with a cardiologist.  First there was a C-scan and then a angiogram performed.  I fully expected to wake from the angiogram with a couple stents and be good to go.  Instead I was referred to a heart surgeon who informed me that I had a major blockage in EVERY artery and a malfunctioning aortic valve so I am having a quad with a new valve...  Sounds like something you would do to a car.  I hadn't had any of the typical symptoms which I now know is quite common for women.

So I have been busy getting the house and everything in order and am as ready as I will ever be.  DH will be my 24 hour caregiver when I get home and insists he is up to the task.. The surgery is scheduled to take 5-7 hours and I have been repeatedly warned how much pain I will have... Hopefully I will not be gone long from the blog also hoping you all keep me in your thoughts Friday morning.

Now the pillow... my first impulse was to take it apart and get out beads, metallic threads and sequins but reality set it so  I only took  it apart, restuffed it properly and added just lace and trim.  I could hardly show up Friday morning with an "unembellished" therapy pillow...

Julia Child and her deconstructed turkey.......

Some years back I saw a rerun of a Julia Child's television show where she demonstrated her "deconstructed turkey" and I thought it was absolute genius....  I have not cooked a whole turkey in the oven since.... You can still google it and see it.

We have turkey often as it is cheap and so versatile  but it is time consuming and messy to cook the whole turkey ( and messing up my oven and kitchen) and then cooking the carcass separately.  The way I do it is not only easy, it is all done at the same time with no messy kitchen and oven.

In fact I took Julia's deconstructed turkey one step further and adapted it to my slow cooker.... A breast, 2 thighs and legs fit perfectly in my largest slow cooker. I add onion and herbs and beer.... Yes beer...actually stout beer. I had watched a turkey roasted on a open spit on a TV show and it was basted with beer mixed with butter and herbs. I have been using beer ever since.  There are numerous similar recipes on the internet.



The back, wings etc. I put in another slow cooker....the "parts" cooker.  Usually I use this  meat bits and broth for soup but I have a good supply of turkey soup still from Thanksgiving.  The meat and broth from this I will pack in smaller amounts and use in turkey salad, turkey crepes, and in place of chicken in my favorite Chinese chicken dumplings.

I made the corn bread stuffing yesterday and it is in a casserole in the frig.  About an hour before dinner I will baste it with broth from the "parts" slow cooker and bake it and then  use the rest of the broth to make the gravy.... Then I will use up most of the turkey left to make freezer dinners for January...  I love frozen turkey dinners with all the trimmings because (believe it or not!!) there are days I don't feel like cooking...

Unchicken-like behavior

I'm sure there is recorded somewhere proper chicken etiquette but one of my hens  has absolutely no respect for tradition.   In 30+ years I have had chickens they have always been  predictable in their habits.  By instinct they sleep on the roost, lay eggs in nesting boxes, and scurry about for food...









But my Maxine has marched to her own drummer since the day she came.  From the first she talked nonstop and wanted to sit on my lap... which was all OK... but she also refused to roost with the other chickens and eventually came to laying her eggs wherever she pleased.  It's bad enough she does this but now that I am down to two hens the other hen Millie has taken to doing whatever Maxine is doing... 

They have been in molt for about a month and it is time to start laying again and once again I'm going to try to get Maxine  laying in the nice clean nesting boxes ... One website that offers advice suggests putting barriers where you do not want a chicken putting her eggs and I'm going to try that.

I've given up on trying to get her to sleep on the roost where it is cleaner and warmer and will settle for laying her eggs in the nesting boxes...As stimulation  I am fluffing and adding fresh bedding material  each day.. They are always curious when I do anything to the boxes and immediately jump up and check it out.  I bury the faux egg (golf ball) and they immediately have to settle and shift it about to their liking.... My hope that in the midst of all this shifting and settling Maxine will lay her egg  there like a proper chicken.

Another talent Maxine has is she is a leaper... from a standing position she can leap straight up about two feet.  When I am holding a bowl of treats she is leaping up and down repeatedly  to see what is in the bowl. She acts like she should have springs instead of legs... I will give Maxine this though.  She does keep my life as a "chicken mama" challenging.

Gift Certificate and my "Tucker"

When I bought my iron bed at a salvage yard years ago it was in terrible shape and I had no intention for using it as a bed.  I mounted the head end on these posts to use as a trellis for a particularly aggressive rose.  I used the foot end as a gate in another part of the garden..  Everyone loved them.  But by the time the garden was closed to the public, the rose had totally engulfed the head end of the bed so I decided to rescue both ends and use it as my bed.   They are still battered, bent and rusty but I love them.

When we travel what I get homesick most for is my funky old bed.. During the summer I love to use all white vintage coverlets and in the winter I use quilts which I change often.  This has become my retreat....  When it comes to sleep habits DH and I are about as incompatible as possible.. so we not only have separate beds but separate bedrooms.. I need 5 pillows and lots of quilts...he wants a small thin pillow and an electric blanket....   I love to read in bed and listen to a soothing music as I fall asleep... He likes it quiet AND dark.. I've always gone to bed early and risen early and prone to wandering in the night. He goes to bed late , and if his sleep is disturbed can't go back to sleep and wakes up a grump!

And the mattress is another whole area of difference .. He likes his extra firm and I like mine pillow soft.  And a few years back I bought an electric mattress pad which I loved as I had the heat beneath me and PILES of quilts on top.  It died this fall..... 8 days after the warranty expired.  I wasn't going to get another one but I received a Amazon gift card and decided I deserve  a toasty warm bed in January.  It will be here next week.

My bedroom gets very little heat and after the electric mattress pad died I could never get all my parts tucked in snugly.  So on nights I go to bed before DH he  comes and tucks me in... After I get all my pillows arranged he does the sheet, a wool blanket, three layers of quilts and a knitted cover. I love this "tucking in" and I think how wonderful it must be for a child. And for some reason it always makes think of my poor Dad who spent several of his last years in a nursing home.  I used to go and feed him as he had Parkinson's but how I wish I could have been there to tuck him in also.  It is such a loving gesture.