What’s Happening on the Ranch?

J. David at work writing the blog. Photograph taken by Lois Sturm.

The Gallery is one of my favorite places in the house. I like to read and write there as it gives me a panoramic view of the ranch. It’s a good thinking spot. A gallery definition is a room that opens into every room in the house. Ours has sliding glass windows on three sides and is 90 foot long. Guests are usually there because of “The Code of the West”. What’s that you may ask? Well, if you’re visiting on a ranch at meal time, you’ll share a meal with us. We have very few meals alone!

Margaret began writing this blog in January of 2008. It was like a prescription she wrote to extend her life by keeping her connected to the ranch. Thanks to her planning “What’s Happening at the Ranch” gets me off the hook in writing this week’s blog.

My excuse is that I am very much under the weather with a deluxe case of shingles (Herpes Zoster). I’ve had one trip to the emergency room at Fredericksburg Memorial Hospital, more pain than I can handle. I’d exchange it gladly for water boarding – and enough pain killer prescriptions to keep me stoned through the day! Shingles are very serious. It is the chicken pox virus, we had as children, that attacks the nervous system later. The older we get the more vulnerable we are. Other things that may bring it on are physical or emotional stress or anything that weakens the immune system. There is a vaccine available now. My advice: GET THE VACCINE!! – I have never in my life had anything so painful and with the poor prospect of a long recovery.

Please check in next week. I have on my list of blog topics: ants, exclosures, fungi and lichens, greenhouse and chipper. There is much more too! By the way, shingles is only contagious to those who have never had chickenpox, so check our website for our tour and workshop schedules and come see us.