Bzzz, bzzz, bzzzz.
Our ears are still humming to the sound of honey bees. What a grand day. Bonnie and I got to spend the day at George Hansen's Foothills Honey, Colton, OR for the Bill Ruhl Memorial Bee Day event.
The Portland-Metro Beekeepers Association (PMBA) sponsors this gathering of multiple local bee clubs. The day started our with a twenty minute talk about equipment and a second presentation by Dr. Ramesh Sagili spoke on the life of the honey bee and current day developments and problems.
Then outside we went to five stations for live instruction varying from bee diseases, queen identification, three stages of bee development, what makes a strong hive, creating a new hive from nukes purchased or taking frames from a strong hive and inserting a new queen, and of course managing diseases.
Some individuals were interested in pollination, while others were desiring to collect honey for their use.
An event you should not miss next year if you have any interest in bee keeping.
Saturday, April 24, 2010
Sunday, April 11, 2010
Letting go is hard to do….
Every dog that has entered my life is special, but every once in a while there is one that tugs just a bit more at my heart, makes me smile a bit more when I see them wag their tails, comforts me when life seems overwhelming and they seem to know just when you need a bit more love.
Lacey was all that and more for me. When she was just a baby, Lacey (via my Mom) bought me a double chair for the dog shows so that she could sit on one side and me on the other. She was the only Saluki that I have ever shown that acted like a bucking bronco and insisted that I learn how to show her the way she wanted, rather than me training her to show the way I wanted. It took six months for me to be trained, but once that happened, we were a TEAM in the ring. She never let down, always moved beautifully around the ring and had beautiful flowing ears. At home she was the princess and let everyone know it. Lacey knew that I didn't like doggy kisses so we developed the air technique, she would lick both of my cheeks without actually kissing me, she would talk back to me with her mouth opening and closing but not a sound came out. Sounds wasn’t needed anyway as I knew what she was saying.
When we finally decided who to breed her to, she wasn't too thrilled with the process and when the puppies were do, she did everything she could to not go into labor, resulting in a c-section and a rough week for all involved, but when the two little girls were big enough, she loved to rough house and play with them.
Lacey and her two daughters became the three musketeers. There was only a time or two when Lacey had to stay home by herself and she was so sad that we didn't do that anymore, so they went everywhere together.
Lacey was all that and more for me. When she was just a baby, Lacey (via my Mom) bought me a double chair for the dog shows so that she could sit on one side and me on the other. She was the only Saluki that I have ever shown that acted like a bucking bronco and insisted that I learn how to show her the way she wanted, rather than me training her to show the way I wanted. It took six months for me to be trained, but once that happened, we were a TEAM in the ring. She never let down, always moved beautifully around the ring and had beautiful flowing ears. At home she was the princess and let everyone know it. Lacey knew that I didn't like doggy kisses so we developed the air technique, she would lick both of my cheeks without actually kissing me, she would talk back to me with her mouth opening and closing but not a sound came out. Sounds wasn’t needed anyway as I knew what she was saying.
When we finally decided who to breed her to, she wasn't too thrilled with the process and when the puppies were do, she did everything she could to not go into labor, resulting in a c-section and a rough week for all involved, but when the two little girls were big enough, she loved to rough house and play with them.
Lacey and her two daughters became the three musketeers. There was only a time or two when Lacey had to stay home by herself and she was so sad that we didn't do that anymore, so they went everywhere together.
Two years ago, she wasn't feeling very well. I just knew something was wrong as she had never missed a bit of food in her life. Our vet was closed so we went to a 24 hour clinic and something just didn't feel right about it so we ended up going to an emergency clinic that I had lots of faith in.
That weekend changed a lot of things for the next two years. Lacey had heart problems that we didn't know existed and needed a pacemaker immediately. The clinic kept her over the weekend and bundled us up and sent us down to the
It was quite an education learning all that we did about heart problems and pacemakers. Lacey was examined on a Monday, scheduled for surgery on Wednesday and came home on Thursday wrapped in blue vet wrap with a pink heart on it. We were told that was the traditional wrap for a heart patient. Her pink heart is still on the fridge.
30 days after her surgery she was given the OK to go back to her regular life. Lacey was a special gift that I received a second time in life. The air kisses were just a bit sweeter, the tail wags tugged a bit more at my heart and life was a bit more precious.
A year after Lacey's surgery she started to develop more heart issues requiring mediation. Life now revolved around her pill schedule of 5:30 am and 5:30 pm. Everything was adjusted to meet that schedule and it just because a part of life. She knew when pill time was and if I was late, I heard about it. She'd be standing there waiting for me to come around the corner of the house and gave me a "where have you been look". Lacey got extra pets, and every night before going to bed, I'd pet her and ask if she had a good day today. It was our little routine.
We always knew there would come a time in the future when things would change, we just never knew how unexpectedly and quickly it would happen. One Wednesday she was having some problems breathing so we dashed her over to the vet, and the next day she was gone.
Lacey will always be remembered….now with a tear but in the future with a smile.
12/22/1999 – 3/25/2010
Monday, March 8, 2010
How does the garden begin...
Saturday was such a beautiful day that we decided it was time to get busy in the garden, as it was still under all of the fall leaves that had protected it over the winter.
Bill got out the tiller and got it going and did his thing.
In the mean time, I decided the the trellis for the peas would be natural and I had just read an article talking about using apple tree branches for the trellis. We just happened to have an apple tree and a few branches that we cut off last weekend, so off to the burn pile I went. When I was finished, here was my prize:
Without a true plan in mind we began the process of creating "teepee's that we hope will become a trellis for the garden.
the plan is to grow peas on the four legged trellis' and as the peas go away, we are going to try and grow squash on the trellis. The three legged trellis will be used to grow beans.
Who knows if it will work or not, but it will be fun to try. We are even going to try and plant the seeds in stages to spread out the crop. We'll see if any of it will happen, but it will be fun to try.
Happy Gardening!
Bill got out the tiller and got it going and did his thing.
In the mean time, I decided the the trellis for the peas would be natural and I had just read an article talking about using apple tree branches for the trellis. We just happened to have an apple tree and a few branches that we cut off last weekend, so off to the burn pile I went. When I was finished, here was my prize:
Without a true plan in mind we began the process of creating "teepee's that we hope will become a trellis for the garden.
the plan is to grow peas on the four legged trellis' and as the peas go away, we are going to try and grow squash on the trellis. The three legged trellis will be used to grow beans.
Who knows if it will work or not, but it will be fun to try. We are even going to try and plant the seeds in stages to spread out the crop. We'll see if any of it will happen, but it will be fun to try.
Happy Gardening!
Buddy's final radiation treatment
Today Bill & I took Buddy to see Dr. Cyman for his final radiation treatment. Dr. Cyman came out and told us what to watch for as his disease progresses.
While we had the opportunity, Bill asked her a question about the safety of her job and the radiation and the "vault" as she called it. It was quite an education, most of it was over my head, but I can say that the "vault" where the treatment occurs has concrete walls 3 feet thick, and a 10,000 pound lead door. She said that they "over shielded" the "vault" for safety purposes.
It was quite an education that I never wanted.
On Thursday, Buddy starts the vaccine for melanoma. It is a series of 4 shots ever other week. Then a booster at 6 months.
We'll see how that goes, and will be switching back to Dr. Freeman.
Buddy is in good spirits and Mom is spoiling him rotten.
While we had the opportunity, Bill asked her a question about the safety of her job and the radiation and the "vault" as she called it. It was quite an education, most of it was over my head, but I can say that the "vault" where the treatment occurs has concrete walls 3 feet thick, and a 10,000 pound lead door. She said that they "over shielded" the "vault" for safety purposes.
It was quite an education that I never wanted.
On Thursday, Buddy starts the vaccine for melanoma. It is a series of 4 shots ever other week. Then a booster at 6 months.
We'll see how that goes, and will be switching back to Dr. Freeman.
Buddy is in good spirits and Mom is spoiling him rotten.
Saturday, March 6, 2010
And the treatments begin....
Buddy’s schedule of radiation treatments were Friday Feb 19, Monday, Thursday, Monday, Thursday and the final treatment scheduled for Monday March 8.
According to all discussions, dogs do not have the same types of side effects as people do, but they do have side effects. Due to the melanoma being in his mouth, they were treating his mouth, plus the lymph nodes on his neck. The side effects are a tender mouth and throat.
Some of the other interesting items have been that Dr. Freeman had us start giving him fish oil pills as they are very good for cancer patients, and suggested that rather than the chicken and rice that has been added to his dinner, we drop the rice and increase the protein. Dr. Cyman also suggested a high protein low carb diet, and recommended a couple different brands of dry food. We ended up selecting EVO. He is now eating their turkey/chicken kibble and we are also using the same brand of biscuits and alternate between the turkey/chicken and red meat treats.
On March 1st Buddy started showing signs of side effects. The Dr said this was right on schedule. While he appeared to be hungry and thirsty he would only pick at both food and water and he started drooling. His reactions made us think of a severe sore throat. Dr. Cyman started him on some pain medication to help through this period. She also pushed his Thursday appointment out to Friday to give his body a chance to recover a bit more.
During this period either my brother Bob or Bill transported Buddy to his appointment. On Monday, March 8, I will be also going to the appointment so that I can learn about what happens now.
According to all discussions, dogs do not have the same types of side effects as people do, but they do have side effects. Due to the melanoma being in his mouth, they were treating his mouth, plus the lymph nodes on his neck. The side effects are a tender mouth and throat.
Some of the other interesting items have been that Dr. Freeman had us start giving him fish oil pills as they are very good for cancer patients, and suggested that rather than the chicken and rice that has been added to his dinner, we drop the rice and increase the protein. Dr. Cyman also suggested a high protein low carb diet, and recommended a couple different brands of dry food. We ended up selecting EVO. He is now eating their turkey/chicken kibble and we are also using the same brand of biscuits and alternate between the turkey/chicken and red meat treats.
On March 1st Buddy started showing signs of side effects. The Dr said this was right on schedule. While he appeared to be hungry and thirsty he would only pick at both food and water and he started drooling. His reactions made us think of a severe sore throat. Dr. Cyman started him on some pain medication to help through this period. She also pushed his Thursday appointment out to Friday to give his body a chance to recover a bit more.
During this period either my brother Bob or Bill transported Buddy to his appointment. On Monday, March 8, I will be also going to the appointment so that I can learn about what happens now.
Thursday, March 4, 2010
Sometimes when it rains…..
it absolutely pours.
The holidays were hectic, January wasn't much better but we figured that things would begin to quiet down a bit in February.
We were sadly mistaken. On Saturday, January 30th we took Buddy in to see his Dr. for an old dog check-up to make sure all was ok, with the plan of having his teeth cleaned. When his Dr Laborde checked his mouth, she found a tumor growing that we had not noticed, and she thought it could be melanoma. His blood work came back the next day and was a total mess which resulted in another trip to the vet to check his blood pressure and his clotting to make sure that he could have surgery to remove the tumor.
The following Saturday Buddy made another trip to the vet to have the tumor removed. He came through the surgery really well, which was great, but it was only the beginning.
Three days later the biopsy results came back and the tumor was an aggressive form of cancer, and we were given several options to think about....surgery, oncologist, do nothing....
We had a family discussion and I was on the phone with the Oncologist later that day so that we could here all of the available options.
So on Thursday after his Saturday surgery Buddy and I found ourselves at a Cancer Clinic within the Dove Lewis Clinic seeing an Oncologist for a consultation.
Dr Freeman did the exam and gave us a list of options: 1. surgery, 2. chemo, 3. radiation, 4. melanoma vaccine. To start the process of knowing where we were, she did an aspiration of the lymph nodes a chest x-rays and the other problem was that the biopsy did not have a specific cancer diagnosis and we had to send it off to TX to determine exactly what we were dealing with. All of this takes time.
On Friday Dr. Freeman called and said no sign of spreading in the lymph nodes, nor the lungs, so now we wait for the biopsy results
On Wednesday while out for my lunchtime walk, I received a phone call from Dr. Freeman. The diagnosis was oral melanoma and an aggressive form. She recommended that we go to another oncologist over in Beaverton, Dr. Cyman for a consultation for radiation, and that I needed to move immediately because the clinic was scheduled to close in a couple of weeks. Good thing for lunch hours, by time I got back to the office Buddy was scheduled the following day for another consultation with Dr. Cyman. More scrambling and my brother Bob was enlisted in the process, so he drove from Seaside to Sandy, picked up Buddy and drove him to Beaverton and I met them at the clinic.
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