Shop, Garden & Health Update

First off, my partner had her appointment yesterday at the hospital and there is hope in the news!  The surgeon said basically he doesn't know what is going on with her. Although the earlier pet scan glowed big, the ct scan with contrast they just had her do showed NOTHING.  But, they said what sometimes happen is the cancer in the gallbladder does not show up on a ct scan because it "hides" behind the duodenum. He said although he thinks it's cancer because of the intensity of the pet scan "glow" from a couple weeks ago, he can't be positive at this point. Usually, infections or other things that aren't glow at a much lower intensity on the pet scan and cancer has a glow that matches what came up on hers a couple weeks ago. So... they are going to "scope" her duodenum on Monday and look around and if anything looks suspicious, will biopsy it. If all turns out well with the scope , they still want to remove her gallbladder because they said something is definitely going on there and it is very well cancer "hiding" so the ct scan couldn't pick it up. So, if the scope goes well, they have her scheduled for gallbladder removal on the 31st BUT it is not the big invasive one they said they were going to do but the laproscopic!! That right there is huge. She will most likely get to go home that night. When they do the laprascopic and if they see signs of cancer they will have to open her up and do the big surgery to find out what's going on and how extensive, but that is unlikely since they are not seeing signs of it on the ct scan. so, we are hoping that all of this can somehow not even be cancer. So, good news today and we are just taking a day at a time!! Whoo Hoo!! praying and hoping.  Each time they narrow something down and don't find cancer, the odds get better for us.  This was certainly better than the news she had a week ago when they told her she definitely had cancer after the first pet scan.

The shop is slowly but surely coming along!  We have lost a couple of weekends due to rain and it's supposed to rain this weekend, but it'll get done.  We sheeted the roof and now we just have to roof it, put the windows in and all the trim around windows, doors, sides, etc.  Easy!  Can't wait.  We're having a young guy do the sheet rock that is really good and inexpensive.  Hopefully in a month, everything will be inside it and it'll be getting used!

I finished constructing the garden and planted all my seeds yesterday!  It took a long time to build, but I hope it'll be worth it.  Gardening in the desert is soooo difficult!  Critters burrow underneath and Kangaroo Rats can burrow and also get through poultry netting as can small birds.  So, I dug down 2 feet and buried hardware cloth and the whole garden is enclosed by hardware cloth.  There are some clear panels on the South side to protect it from the desert winds but give it sun, and some opaque panels on the North side and a short section of panels on the West side.  When it gets really hot, I will put shade cloth on the top so the plants don't get burned up.  I also sent my soil to a lab to be tested and boy and I glad I did!  They gave me organic recommendations to make the soil optimum for growing vegetables.   If this doesn't work, I'm just gonna scream and kick a while and tear down the center divider and tell the chickens they just got twice as much room in their home!  The garden is 16' x 12'.  Not huge, but plenty big to grow two people some good stuff.  Wish us luck!

Everything planted and watered

Garden with Chicken Coop behind it & Compost Bin in Front