This may sting, a little.

I wanted to tell you something. I thought of it late last night. But this morning. . . I have no clue what it was. I am a little distracted today. About mid back, the muscle tissue is swollen up over my spine. I am not sure how I manage this injury. It's just a tad uncomfortable.

Since I have already mentioned that it seems like I am always hurting, I suppose it would be a good idea to tell you about illness and living on a working homestead.

There are days that I hurt so much, be it from an injury or a migraine, that I think I would like to be able to sleep in all day. Its not like the animals will starve if I don't feed them. They are all grazers, including the birds that eat bugs and grasses. Although my goats are a bunch of spoiled little kids, and they will let everyone know that I am late with their alfalfa pellets. They are also a bad influence on donkey {the sheep} he has gotten into the oh woe is me act with them. {did any one notice on the previous post, the picture with the fridge door shut? If you click on it and look at the fencing behind it, donkey is standing there, staring} But this is about taking responsibility, even if I hurt all over, living things are depending on me to care for them. I must do the at least the minimum work around here.

I have no one to take over for me when I fall ill. Those things must be planned out ahead of time, like when we leave the homestead for a weekend. If things are very bad, I can call on a neighbor to at least feed the animals, but they too have their own work and you never know how long it will take them to get to your place. The best thing is to do it yourself.

We have been lucky thus far. In the six years that we have lived here there have been no major injuries, but we also don't have the major machinery. My husband has been bit, through a pillow sheet, welding glove, then through his thumb nail by a feral cat, some minor cuts and bruises from farm labor, and has been nailed by the rooster a few times. All of his laid up in bed {or he should be in bed} injuries have come from outside of the home, work. I have re torn a tendon in my shoulder, been attacked by the rooster, cut many times by fencing, have fallen I don't know how many times, on ice, mud, or attempting to move things. I have grown use to tetanus shots. Only one child has yet been hurt to the point that and emergency room visit has been necessary, our oldest, and that happened on a friend's ranch.

I have seen injuries get pretty bad out in the fields. At my mother's farm, my grandpa Lucky ran over their dog, Hopeful, with a swather. He survived, minus a leg and his manhood. A 2 year old child was ran over and killed by a swather. A man lost his hand in a turbine, and continued to work the field while his grandson ran back to the house to call for help. A women lost her hand. Another woman was picked up by a tornado as she fed her cattle, and was set down alive in a neighbors field. It can be rather scary when you think of all the things that could happen.

But you can't dwell on the possibilities, or nothing will ever get done. If you are planning on homesteading, and from the feed back I have received thus far, suggests that some of you are, I am not trying to scare you. When you are planning, think about what frequent injuries or illness you do have. Those are your only predictable ones. Make sure you can work through them, or have projects that can wait on you. Homesteading is an adventure, but it is one that ought to have some planning involved. Some of my mistakes have occurred because of little prep time.

And when you get ill, or sustain an injury, sometimes you just have to suck it up and move on. Your homestead depends on you. OK, now that did sound a little preachy, I did not mean for it to sound that way. I just want you to be prepared to hurt, to bleed, to fall on the ground in the middle of a field and weep, it will happen more often then you would like to admit. Though I haven't seen my husband cry, yet. But there are days were I can see the frustration in his face and his manners. We get so tired.