All Hallows Eve

Its halloween! While it will be in North America in about 18 hours. Its not celebrated that much in Australia. Sometimes a mall will do a promo and kids will dress up, or someone will have a party, or a bar will have a dress up event. Anyway it used to be just a chance for me to grab lots of little chocolate bars that I would hoard and munch on for the coming month. I used to buy way too much and then pretend to be disappointed that not very many kids came to our door. It's a blessing that we don't celebrate it here as I'm on a diet, a liver cleansing diet. Its really just a 'reduce fatty and prepared foods for 8 weeks' diet but it is a good habit to be getting into. Bluey saw a thing on TV about a study that kept people on the monkee diet. they ate what a monkee ate...11 pounds of fresh fruit and veg each day. They all lost weight. the majority lost it around their middle. and they had an average of 25% reduction in cholesterol! We are trying to eat more fruit and veg!

I have been doing a bit more work on the new property, fixing fences etc. Stuff that is not risky but is helpful and is keeping me more active. Queensland in particular but all of Australia is under attack from Equine Influenza. It's slipped in past Quarantine and infected horses in New South Wales and Queensland. It's ruining peoples livelihood because horses can't be moved out of the quarantine zones. Racing has been stopped in all the small races. Even the Melbourne cup "the race that stops a nation" is still in doubt and thats next Tuesday! Anyway Jo and Gene have two outside mares on the property for breeding and we had to put up an extra electric fence to provide an exclusion zone on the property. I 'm not sure it will do anything as the guests are from a green zone anyway and the virus can travel up to 8 kilometers airborne!

health update:
feeling fine, weird curly hair, tired of being at the same immunosuppression level.


okay more detail = there is none! I go to see Doc Schoozenbootz on Friday so may have more info then.

Chilli continues to entertain us.

more later
Chris

Photobucket Album

catch up

Hi gang
I am sorry but life gets in the way sometimes.

Anyway Its Friday the the 19th of October and I'm trying to stop time today. It's not sunny today, infact it's looking like a storm but nothing yet. We could use the rain. And it is a little cool today which is good because the hot summer has been hinted at in the past week and the longer we hang onto the cool weather the better. Steve, a gardner type tradesman is out mowing and piling up dead trees from the last storm. (more on that below).


health: I'm over s6 months since my transplant in fact I'm over 200 days! wow. Time did seem to drag there for a while but it has started moving very fast again. I know we say this all the time but time seemed to stand still when we were kids and now it screams past. I wonder if that is becasue kids can totally focus on the moment and keep it in their brain and really see things and then they reluctantly move to the next moment. We on the other hand have seen so much we just see the bigger picture and it moves faster. Anyway, I'm still immunosupressed. My 6 month results were good and the month before Doc Schoozenbootz didn't like my liver levels, they were too high so he upped my immunosupression. this last visit the replacement doc said the levels had dropped which was especially good becuase they usually plateau for a bit first and it is a very good sign that my are dropping. My skin is reacting a tiny bit to the increased immuno suppression but I'm back to giraffe skin.... yet (see picture on June 20 posting.) My feet are good and I'm getting some excercise.

I have big ankles because the immunosupression drug messes with my fluid retention and I get the fattest ankles in the world. When I where socks with elastic at the top my legs go hourglass shape. I kid you not!

My hair is still curly and getting quite long but we are so in awe of the new curly hair we are letting it grow to see what happens. Soon I'm going to get it cut because I have forelocks and they drive me nuts. see the picture

Bluey and I are on a liver cleansing diet. We start out eaitng fish and chicken and lots and lots of veg for a frotnight then two fortnights with just fish then add back the chicken then back on to read meats. lots of fluid taken as well. it may be helping my liver but it is alos good for the waist line. I'm way to big. I weight in for the 6 month tests and was 95 Kgs thats 10 kgs over the wieght I was going into the hospital nad alsmost 20 over my low weight in the hospital.

I'm looking forward to seeing Doc Schoozenbootz on the 3rd of november as he can really fill us in on to the future.

Generl news:
My sister Melissa got married this past weekeend at a beautiful hotel In the Bow Valley west of lake Louise called Mum Ti Jah. We know the place so sit was nicde to see photos and imagine what it was like. We weren't there because I can't travel yet, (can't get insurance and risk of infection) I hope that will change when we next see the doc and he drops my immunosupression a bit.

Cousin John survided his great motorcycle trek and is back hard at work in his promoted job.

My pal Jim in Kelowna has a new web site and is building his new/old business. he's done the work for years but he's working on his own with his wife and getting a new 'brand' in place.

Jo and Gene get back on Sunday from 5 weeks in Northamerica. Amoung other things they went to Madison Wisconsin to see the World clydesdale show. Over 700 horses!

Ret & Alicia have been house and horse sitting and have been doing a great job with input from Don, Bluey and myself. We had a run last week with Elsie the black russian going into season ahd the dog, striker going through a window but she's been in the kennel and comes home tommorrow int ime to see Jo & Gene. The Stallion got out of his paddock and in with the mares but there weren't to many drama just some hard work fixing fences.

Chilli had got a new clip for summer and you can see her and the puppies at http://s152.photobucket.com/albums/s195/chrisolin/

Last Friday we had a short but very windy storm that dumped an inch of water in aboout a half hour and blew down tons of trees inthe area. we lost power for about 7 hours and I have had to fix some fence on this property and I guess there's more to do on the new property as well. A neighbor over there did his side that we share with him and that's terrific but I think I have to go look at the other sides.

more later
Chris

more later

I've been meaning to blogg for about a week to let all my friends know about the 6 monthly test results but have been doing all sorts of 'farm' urgencies. I'm fine but I'll give you the full rundown this weekend. Sorry but this is really just a placeholder till then.
more later
Chris