Injured Johnahues

Recent injuries have plagued the Johnahue household. First, our poor Sox was limping around favoring his back left leg. We took him to the vet, only to discover that he was 12 pounds overweight AND had a partially torn CCL (knee). He was put on a diet and bedrest - walks only to do business and not for fun, and on a short leash. No more trips to the dog park (boo hoo!) for at least 6-8 weeks!

Poor Sox doesn't understand all of this short-leash business and is none too happy about not being able to chase squirrels, rabbits, deer or other woodland creatures in our neighborhood, but the alternative is Surgery! So we stick to the regimen as a money saver.

Just as Sox was on the mend, Momma strained her back in a severe way, with muscle spasms, stiffness and a full-on trip to the ER (her first ambulance ride...as she recalls!). It was a totally random occurance, just twisting and leaning on the couch in an odd way after a long long day of work and class. After a few shots of muscle relaxers and pain meds, we all went home at 3 AM. It was bedrest for me too for the next 4 days until movement was possible without discomfort. Pretty random, and it just reinforced my need to do like Sox and lose 12 pounds (or more!).

All in all, we are both on the mend, and you might never know anything happened if you didn't see or hear from us in that 2 week stretch. So alls well that ends well I guess!

November work

It's been a while since the last post and man has it been busy! We raked and raked and raked all the leaves in our yard. I think we filled 30 bags of leaves! The fun part was we got to use a new toy - the backpack leaf blower. Unfortunately there are no photos of that, because Mike and I used it when the other was working. Probably best not to have evidence.

The floor in the laundry room is all tiles, and photos will be coming soon! We're still painting and re-hanging trim, but that project will soon be finished.

Our big event was the arrival of our new energy-efficient wood pellet stove! Mike installed it himself, building the hearth pad in his own design and venting the hole through the side of the house. I think it turned out great! Already, we're pumping out good heat to the bedrooms upstairs and our only challenge is to figure out how to get it to flow around corners to the kitchen and family room. :)

We've also got enough biofuel to get us through the winter - although this means the loss of our garage! Two tons of pellets takes up a lot of space! The good news is that we've always used the garage as manspace and not for either of our cars...so the loss isn't that big. :)