Friday, July 8, 2016

OMG! Glad we weren't...on the road...

 
What started as an easy night...
 
George made a huge pot of his famous spaghetti sauce.  Going to have dinner with Brandon, Tyler & Cayden, Brent, Ashley & Lyla.
 
All the dogs, Zoe & Emma (Brent & Ashley's Goldens) Tori & Annie (ours) were out in the yard running around, playing & racing about 7 pm.  Brent & Brandon were in the yard watching the dogs play, I was in back of the rig showing Tyler the garage ramp.  He was curious as to how we were going to get the Harley's out.
 
At 7:05 pm this horrible screaming was coming from one of the dogs.  I ran around to the side of the rig.  It was Annie!  She was screaming!  Blood all over the front of her. 
 
When I first saw her it looked like a lot of blood coming from her mouth.  I thought she hit her face on the steps to the rig.  The boys were right there with her trying to pick her up.  All I heard was, "She ran into that thing!"  That thing...I thought it was the side of the steps.  I quickly picked her up.  She was all curled up screaming.   I carried her into the rig & put her in the kitchen sink.  She stopped screaming & was just whimpering.
 
As I was trying to see what happened to her face the boys kept saying, "It's not her face, it's her leg!  Her leg!  It's her leg!" 
 
It took me a few seconds to hear what they were saying.  I tried to look at her leg.  All she would do was cry & pull her leg away.  After about 30 seconds she let me look at it.  So much blood.
 
Brent had grabbed some clean rags from his garage.  We put one on her leg & kept pressure on it to try to stop the bleeding.
 
Brandon said he thought she broke her leg.  He said she was running so fast she ran right into the front leveling jack, the L shaped thing that adjusts the legs up or down.  He said, "Mom, she was racing around with the other dogs.  She was running so fast.  She ran into that thing & just started screaming!"
 
The boys were calling their vets.  One answered & said they were closed but referred us to an Emergency Vet in Kissimmee, Dr. Barnett.  Off we went...racing to the vet, Tori in tow.  She wasn't letting us take Annie anywhere without her. 
 
Tori, Annie, Emma & Zoe
Spent about an hour at the vet.  They were wonderful!  Because the laceration was so bad they had to put her under to do the surgery.  Surgery would take about 90 minutes.  We were allowed to carry her into the operation room & stay with her until the put the IV in.  They had to stitch her nerve, stitch her muscle & then stitch her skin.  It was pretty bad.  They said it might take a couple of months for her to get back to normal and even then, if the nerve doesn't heal right she may have a limp.  Her aspirations for being a Show Dog just went down the drain...LOL!
 
We left Annie and took a drive around town.  We had lived in Kissimmee 20+ years ago so we thought we'd just drive around and see if we recognized anything.  We didn't see a lot that looked familiar anymore.
 
We got back to the vet at 10:15 pm.  Annie started barking as soon as she heard our voices.  Tori wasn't waiting, she had to see her Sis.  We walked back.  There was Annie, standing, barking & growling a little.  She was ready to go home!
 
We headed home.  Both the girls were happy to be together...again!
 
We got home about 11 pm.  Annie jumped out of the car & tried to run around the yard.  Tori stuck with her...she knew things weren't quite right with her Sis.
 
Oh...and as an added bonus, when Brent was trying to pick her up she bit him.  She bit him so hard that one of her baby teeth was stuck in his hand.  He put peroxide on it & will be ok. 
 
And on and on....

 
 
Trying to calm her down & stop the bleeding
At the Emergency Vet
Waiting....




The injury

Tori eating Dairy Queen while waiting for Annie


On the way home









Feels better laying next to Sis...

The culprit...front leveling jack
Had to wear a tshirt so she wouldn't bite her stitches






Next morning...close to Sis
Here we are...parked at Brent & Ashley's


Wednesday, July 6, 2016

Slight Delay....

These are our old brakes on the rig.  We were planning on heading out July 1, however….we had an appointment to have the brakes & bearings checked on Monday June 26….just to make sure all was good BEFORE we started towards Colorado.  Well….we needed all 6 brakes replaced as well as backing plates, magnets & drums.  They are Dexter never-lube (sealed bearings).  So….they had to order them from Indiana.  Since it was coming up on a holiday weekend….you guessed it!
We had an appointment today, Wednesday July 6, to have the new ones put on.  A 4-5 hour job.  We took it in at 8 am.  Picked it up at 1:30 pm.
Oh, then we had to get the refrigerator fixed.  It stopped cooling Thursday June 29.  Again with the holiday!
Anyway, they came at 2 pm today and fixed that….a 2 hour job.
So NOW we are almost 2 hours into our road trip!
First stop is in St. Cloud, FL to see the boys & their families for a few days.  Going to have a couple of the grandkids stay with us one night.

Friday, July 1, 2016

Getting the Harley's Strapped Down...

Well...we must be just plain stupid!  We had strapped our bikes in the garage several times.  Each time George's bike would tilt even though it was tied down tight each time...or so we thought!

As you know, it's possible to find anything & everything on YouTube.  I watched tons of video's on "How to load & tie down a bike".  They were all basically the same and appeared to be the same way we were loading & tying down. 

Then I started watching video's on "How to use ratchet straps".  (George wouldn't watch them.  He said, "you watch them & tell me what they said")  We could get them tight but when it came time to loosen them...that was a whole different story.  We just couldn't!

I found DirtFarmerJay's video, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0r16xOkVJZQ.  He shows how to use ratchet straps & how to loosen them.  Viola!  We did EXACTLY what he said to do.  Those bikes aren't going anywhere!

We put 2 strips of ETrack  down for George's bike.  It weighs about 875 lbs.  This would give us more options to secure his bike.  Mine only weighs about 525 lbs so the D Rings on the floor worked fine.

Live and learn...again!




Alley...watching everything we're doing.
She's ready to go for a ride!

Saturday, June 25, 2016

Oh NO! The Harley's!

The bikes...
We've been in the same place for 7 months.  We're getting ready to head out to Colorado in a few days then on to Pennsylvania to visit our daughter & 2 grandaughters for a few weeks.
We will be gone for 3 months.
Anyway on to the Harley's.
We had the garage ready to put the bikes in.  Ramp was down.  George was on my bike.  The ramp looked like it was on a somewhat steep angle but not too steep.  Boy were we wrong!
George got up the ramp but as soon as he got to the top the bike caught on the ramp floor & stopped dead.  He started to roll back with me chasing him.  I didn't want him to fall over...on MY bike!
When he got to the end of the ramp..over he went!  Bike was racing...on it's left side!  George was on the ground.  Unfortunately for him I was more concerned about my bike at the moment.
He was fine..just a little blood where he ripped his hand open but I knew he would live.
Lesson learned!  We decided we'll have to wait until we pull out & are on level ground before we load the bikes from now on.
The ramp....
The dip...the BIG problem!
             
                     
                 

Wednesday, June 22, 2016

A little kitchen update...

Had an hour to kill so I painted this area, let it dry then put up these tiles. Only took 8 tile sections. I like it. Not sure what to do with the top edge, if anything. Need to get some spackling to fill in the seam. Will touch up then.  Love Benjamin Moore Aura Paint!  Paint & primer in one.  Covers in one coat.  Dries in 20 minutes.   Absolutely no odor.
 




Monday, June 20, 2016

Headed out!

Headed out in a week to 10 days. Headed to Colorado then who knows where!

Friday, April 29, 2016