Enter the Surgeon

It’s been a minute. I really haven’t been all that much besides seeking medical care.

Back in March there was an issue with my leg that I figured would require surgery. Many months and five hospitals later I found someone willing to do the surgery. Next month I’m going under the knife. Frankly, it’s going to feel like a Christmas gift. Instead of slowly getting worse I’ll be getting better.

A complete recovery is expected.

Part of the long wait was probably due to me living in a remote area. That medical talent pool isn’t deep enough for what I needed done. Apparently big city hospitals do this sort of operation all the time -not so much in rural areas.

-Sixbears

The Coming Winter

 

Fall is officially here. Winter isn’t far behind. I just ordered a couple pallets of pressed sawdust blocks. Normally I’d have a fair bit of firewood laid up. With my current health issue that wasn’t going to happen. Fortunately, my budget is in pretty good shape right now so I’ve been able to buy my way into winter preparation. One nice thing about those fiber blocks is that they burn very hot and clean.

For some reason I feel the need to prep as if we are going to have extended power outages. Short outages are pretty normal but I have a feeling this might be a record winter.

Don’t forget a way to actually light that woodstove. Do I have a bunch of lighters and matches? Sure. In addition I keep some ferro rods handy. They are great as you can pluck them out of a bucket of water and still get them to spark. While that’s nice turning that spark into an actual fire requires some skill. I’ve practiced. Have you?

-Sixbears

Still Alive

Yes, I’m still around. Unfortunately I’m still dealing with my leg issues. The longer this goes on the more mobility I lose. It’s annoying to say the least. I’ve a meeting with a surgeon in Boston so wish me luck with that.

Life is full of lessons. One of the lessons is that I’ve had to work with other people to get things done. One of my projects was to reopen a small water well located next to the house. It was retired decades ago back when my dad owned the place. At the time my dad had his friend and his family camping on our land. The friend had a big family. The little well could not handle 11 people, especially during a drought. We ended up digging another well much further from the house. It works but requires a submersible pump. The long supply line is also more suspect able to freezing.

Rather that reopen the old well by hand I hired a buddy with a mini-excavator. It did the job. Now I have a second source of water that can be pumped with a hand pump located in the house. I also have a cheap shallow well pump that can supply the whole house if necessary.

Live goes on.

-Sixbears

Like a Good Neighbor

 

I don’t have a lot of neighbors. The joke around here is that if you live within 4 – 5 miles you are neighbors. Population density is pretty low. Most of my neighbors are seasonal so there is that. There is a full timer living across the street and I’m glad we get alone.

We aren’t “come over and have coffee” neighbors but that’s fine. We are neighbors who’ll pet your dogs and check in on each other during storms. Frankly, that’s a pretty good level to be at. My neighbor just offered parking space for my boat and trailer. That way it’ll be out of the way when my buddy shows up with his excavator.

Normally I get along pretty good with the neighbors. There was that one guy who was tweaked out on meth and got into huge yelling matches with his wife. I knew he wasn’t right in the head but we still got along well enough. The thing with meth heads is that you can’t trust them. Meth takes over. Well, the cops hauled him away and it’s been pretty quiet ever since. Meth has done some serious damage to rural America.

Funny thing. When the meth head was yelling his chickens would break out of the shoddy coup he built and all come over to my place. Chickens aren’t smart but they are smart enough to know when to get out of Dodge.

As much as I like my solitude it’s good to get along with folk. One winter my car slid off my driveway and into a ditch. The guy who lived down the road stopped when he saw I was in trouble. He apologized for not being able to stay and help as he had to make a doctor’s appointment. Instead he told me to go into his house and get the keys to his big 4X4 truck so I could pull myself out. That’s what I did. It’s nice to get the help and even nicer to be trusted.

-Sixbears

If you want to practice medicine

-work for an insurance company.

I finally let my doctors convince me to try a certain medication. I’d been resisting due to possible side effects. However, after months of other unsuccessful treatments it made sense to try the medication.

The only problem is that the insurance company refused to fill the prescription.

Am I surprised? Not at all. It’s par for the course.

So now I’m about to go with plan “E.” Plans A, B, C, and D failed.

Once again, I’m back to figuring my health issues on my own. That’s certainly not the first time that’s happened and won’t be the last.

-Sixbears

The Finest Chinesium

 

I’ve stocked up on items from China that will probably become pricey or even unavailable in the near future. There are a number of homestead improvements in process. It would be a shame to get halfway done and find materials unavailable.

There’s stuff that’s just no longer made in the US due to decades of off-shoring. That’s not reversed in a few months or even a few years. Frankly, China was willing to throw health and safety issues out the door to get business. Would you like a lead battery recycling center next door to where you live?

The roll out of tariffs has been nothing if not confusing. It’s like presidential policy is conducted by the whims of a spoiled petulant toddler who lashes out at perceived or imagined insults. It’s hard enough for the average Joe to plan. Imagine how hard it is for a large business to function in this environment. Just wait until the tariffs really kick in.

-Sixbears

Not as Expected

A buddy will be coming over with a small excavator within a week or so. With that in mind it seemed like a good idea to get my utility trailer out of the way. It’s been a few years since it was registered but it was used to move a load of pallets from the neighbor’s last year.

With the pallets unloaded the trailer could be moved by hand. A friend happen to stop in for coffee so he was enlisted to help me flip the trailer over on its side. That would leave plenty of room for the excavator to pass by.

The condition of the underside was a shock. The trailer looked good when upright on its wheels but the underside had serious corrosion issues. The drawbar was held on by one tiny strip of rusty metal. The frame was not so much steel but instead was made of rust and regret. It’s a shame too as the wheel bearings and tires had less than 100 miles on them.

The drawbar, wheels and axle were all that I was able save. The rest is either going to the burn pile or the scrap heap. Such is the way of all material things. The trailer served me well. It did everything from move dozens of cords of firewood, thousands of gallons of waste veggie oil and also hauled a small boat across half the country. Not bad for a trailer that cost me $50 and a mason jar of moonshine.

-Sixbears

Parts is parts

Interesting times. I’m still dealing with a leg issue. Turns out this will take a while to sort out. There is no quick surgical fix. The good news is that the large suspicious lump is not cancerous. Treatments have produced mixed results. One two week treatment put me in a lot of pain and I ended up in a wheelchair for a bit.

I’ve pretty much recovered from that and I can walk on my own -maybe not as far as I’d like but I can fake it enough to get some shopping done. So far I’ve seen a whole bunch of doctors and went to three different hospitals.

It’s been my experience that doctors are pretty much useless 80% of the time. They provide useful treatments and information about 20% of the time. However, I need that 20% as it concerns things I can’t do on my own. The trick is sorting out the essential 20%. Your results may vary.

Back in early spring the thought was that I’d get healthy enough to tackle my long list of projects. Right. So much for that idea. While I can now do some small projects the big projects require hired help. Actually, I’m pretty happy to give up the hand shovel work and replace it with a friend operating an excavator. Probably won’t miss the top of the ladder carpentry work either.

Life goes on.

-Sixbears

Back in Business

 

The replacement inverter for the one fried in the thunderstorm came in. I’m always super cautions when working around the solar electric system. Everything is planned out. My tools have non-conductive handles to keep from shorting out across battery terminals. You really don’t want that to happen as there will be sparks, heat plus a good possibility of fire and an explosion.

The new inverter is working perfectly and the job went really smoothly. Of course it helped that I visualized every move necessary to do the job properly.

Today I hooked up the original water line and disconnected the temporary line. The water is flowing the way it should. It was also a good time to change the water filters.

The huge lump on my leg is hindering just about every physical activity. Nobody wants to operate on it. I’ve two more doctor’s appointments scheduled. Hopefully they can get their act together with a plan that works -I have my doubts. On the bright side, herbal medicines seem to helping. A few weeks ago I was in serious constant pain. Walkers and wheelchairs were necessary to get around. The pain is greatly diminished and I can walk enough to do some yard work and run errands.

It’s not the first time in my life that doctors did not know what to do with me. When I suffered my firefighter lung injuries at age 35 I almost died. After the initial crisis a doctor actually told me I’d be dead before age 45. Once the doctors gave up I was able to figure out ways to get better. When push comes to shove everyone is responsible for their own healthcare. Don’t believe everything doctors say. During my current health journey doctors have already totally contradicted each other.

On the bright side we’ve been able to rule out cancer, so that’s good.

-Sixbears

A Flash Then Darkness

 

3:30 in the morning. I was woken up with a flash and thunder that practically levitated me out of the bed. The lightning strike was so powerful and close that I checked the house for damage. Even before then I saw the light go out on my C-pap and most of the power in the house died.

The house inverter was making a high warning tone down in the basement. I went to the basement to see if the house was on fire. There was a strong burnt electrical smell but nothing was actively burning. While down the basement I disconnected the fried inverter from the electrical system.

At that point I decided to try and get some sleep until daylight. Fortunately I keep a backup battery pack for running my c-pap.

The weird thing is that the grid did not go down. Usually the grid goes down and I’m left with my off-grid solar electric system. However, with the grid still up I was able to transfer the solar electric side to grid power.

Once that was done I went on-line and ordered a replacement inverter. It should here in a couple of days. If it was going to be a long delay I could have always reinstalled the old modified sine wave inverter. I’d only replaced it because it doesn’t work well well the new LED lights.

All in all, it could have been worse.

-Sixbears

Independence Day

 Just want everyone to remember we aren't celebrating the 4th of July. It's called Independence Day for a reason. 

 

=Sixbears 

Interesting July Ahead

 

Unless there is a TACO situation again the US is going to put more tariffs into effect. Economic experts believe that will collapse the economy. Could be. I’m not an economist.

My own financial situation is usually disconnected from the greater economy. Back in 2008, when real estate collapsed, my situation was pretty much unchanged. Of course, I wasn’t buying or selling any property back then so that helped.

My niece, who lives with us, asked if we were going to be all right. I pointed out we live in the country with decent off grid power, deep food storage, and have plenty of those loud security devices that propel pellets of discouragement. In short, we are prepped as we always are.

I wish I was in better health right now but we’ll get by. While I can’t do all the summer projects I wanted to do, I can hire out the most important jobs and call it good.

-Sixbears

Long Road Ahead

 

My trip to the Dartmouth Medical Center did not turn out as well as I’d hoped. My meeting with the surgeon was disappointing. I had hoped that a quick surgery could have fixed my issue. As it turns out the surgeon thought I’d be stuck with an open weeping wound that would be prone to infection.

Long story short I’m now waiting for appointments with other experts.

Long story even shorter: this is going to take some time.

Once again I’m in a waiting period for the next steps.

On the bright side, the huge lump is not cancer, so that’s good. Cancer among firefighters is a common issue so I’m counting my blessings.

-Sixbears

Heat Wave

Well it’s hotter than the hinges of hell out there. Half the country is having a heat wave. It would be a bad time for the grid to go down.

My house, here in the Great North Woods of New Hampshire, has never had air conditioning. What it does have is big shady hemlocks and a breeze off the pond.

-and ceiling fans.

Never forget about the ceiling fans. It’s nice to have enough solar power to run the ceiling fans and other basic electrical needs.

Today is the day when my heating oil delivery comes in. It’s weird to buy heating oil in the middle of a heatwave but that’s really the time to buy. We are in volatile times so there’s no predicting what the cost or availability of oil will be by fall.

Currently I have three ways of heating the house: oil, wood, and electricity. There were plans to put in a heat pump but doctor’s visits are eating up disposable income right now. Such is life.

-Sixbears

Still Here

It’s been a minute. I had a lot of distractions to deal with but now find myself with some downtime.

Long story short I’m meeting with a surgeon on Thursday. I’ve a huge lump on my leg (apparently non-cancerous) that’s getting bigger all the time. It’s affecting my ability to walk properly and keeps me in low level pain. A simple operation should sort it all out.

As you can well imagine it derailed my plans to participate in the Scooter Cannonball, which is happening right now. Such is life -the best laid plans of mice, men and all that. I was able to recover some of my Cannonball funds but not all.

The news looks interesting. Let’s cross our fingers and hope for the best outcome.

-Sixbears