Since we didn't know when exactly John's surgery was going to be rescheduled, we decided to take a chance and plant the garden and flower pots.  After church on Sunday, we headed to Bemidji for lunch and then took a spin up to Northome for a quick visit with John's sister and her husband.  They had just purchased a new mattress and we wanted ask them about it and look it over.  We found it was exactly what we were looking for and placed an order on line.  The mattress should arrive in a week to ten days.  On our way back to Bagley we stopped at the local green house and bought all the plants for the pots and garden.

Monday morning John played golf and then we spent the remainder of the day getting everything in the garden and pots.  We no sooner got everything done when we were notified that John's surgery will be June 4th.  Guess we didn't have to rush to get everything planted, but now it's finished.  Just have to hope there is no frost.  At least now know for sure John can attend the graduation ceremony and open houses for our grand kids. 

New bed by back door replaces large shrub that was

blown over two years ago 

 

Bird bath just got a new paint job

 

Flower bed we call "Emily's Garden" in

remembrance of our grand daughter

 

Green pots on left replacing all the shrubs

that were crushed this last winter.  Need to put more

stones in there, but that is a project for next summer.

Right now we are planning to head to southern Wisconsin on Friday morning to pick up my golf clubs and other stuff that our friend John B. hauled to his place for us when we sold our home in
Texas.  We thought this might be the best time to go since graduation is the next weekend and there are several track meets and a few appointments scattered about over the next two weeks. 

This week our weather was on the upswing and best of all, the golf course opened.  When I don't play, John plays with several retired teachers, business owner, and mail carrier.  Sunday evening he got a text from one of the guys saying they were golfing the next morning, so bright and early Monday John headed into town to golf.  He said he played fairly well considering having a long layoff.  He made up for it by playing Monday, Tuesday, and Friday mornings.  Thursday the course was closed to the public due to a high school tournament and Wednesday was the appointment for his stress test.

In addition to golfing, John cut more wood.  His pile had gotten pretty big, so this morning he had our grandson, Josh, come over and help with the splitting and stacking in the shed.

This week he also got the garden tilled and today planted the onions.

Last week we purchased a new stove and decided to replace the hardware on all the kitchen cabinets and drawers.  After looking in Home Depot and Menards, we finally found what we both liked on Amazon.  We spent Thursday morning removing the old knobs from the cabinet doors and replacing them with the new--that was the easy part.  We replaced the knobs on the drawers with drawer pulls
and that entailed removing the front panel of each drawer and drilling new holes.  Thank goodness there were on seven to do.  I took advantage of the drawers being apart to clean them out and get rid of what we don't use anymore.

Now for the most important news.  On Wednesday John went for his nuclear stress test.  It took about 3 1/2 hours for the test.  He was injected with something and then had numerous pictures taken and then had to go to the cafeteria to eat, come back for another injection and more pictures.  The cardiologist told us to call in two days for results.  I called Friday morning, but they weren't in yet, so instead of calling and talking to reception, I emailed the doctor in the afternoon.  She got back to us right away, told us the test was normal and that John could proceed with surgery.  Now we are waiting to hear from the surgeon's office as to when that will be.  We are not sure what happened with the EKG at the hospital, but are glad to be moving forward.

It's been over a week since I lasted posted anything, so I guess I better back track on what we have been doing.  Last Thursday we took our annual birthday outing to Grand Forks, ND to do some shopping and dining out.  It just so happened that there was a track meet in East Grand Forks that afternoon, so John and I were able to watch our granddaughter, Jenni, run the half mile--she came in second.  With cold weather and either rain or snow, there haven't been many track meets this year.

Our weather this week has been on the cool side with cloudy days and some rain; however, John has been able to start working on our huge wood pile and has enough cut up that he needs to start splitting and stacking the wood in the shed.  Since his surgery was postponed, we keep working around the house and tackling the little jobs that need to be done in the spring.

On Wednesday afternoon we saw the cardiologist.  First thing, she had another EKG done.  When she stopped back in the room she said she thought she had the wrong EKG as it was nothing like the one John had before surgery, so they took another one.  Now this is where it gets fuzzy for me.  I think she said these last two were fairly similar, but not like the first one from the week before.  The doctor then did a thorough exam, asked many, many questions, and said she couldn't hear anything wrong with John's heart.  But, she needs to find out what happened with that first EKG.  She told us it could be something with the electrical impulses of the heart or a blockage.  He is now scheduled for a nuclear stress test next Wednesday afternoon.  So now we are once again in a wait and see situation.

It took us all of yesterday to recover from the stress and disappointment of Tuesday.  We were both emotionally ready for the surgery and anxious for it to be over and finally learn what we are facing as far as a cancer or no cancer diagnoses.  Now we are back to square one as far as knowing what we are dealing with with John's heart situation.  We do have an appointment with a cardiologist next Thursday afternoon.

On the bright side, I guess, postponing the surgery has allowed us to do some jobs that we thought would have to be put off for a month or so.  John got out the four wheeler and drag and worked up our driveway getting out the ruts and low spots.  It's now nice and smooth.  As I mentioned in earlier posts, our shrubs took quite a hit with the snow this past winter and were pretty well smashed.  Since the ground is still pretty damp and soft, he hooked up a strap and used our truck to pull them out.  They popped right out.  Now we have to decide what we are going to put back in that space.

Since my birthday is today and John's is on Monday, we have decided to get out of town for the day tomorrow and head over to Grand Forks for some shopping and then watch a track meet.  Our weather has been nice and warm, but next week looks like a return to winter.

It's hard to believe that a week ago we were digging out from another 10 inches of snow and now it's  just about gone, the grass is turning green, and there are buds on the trees. Our Easter weekend has been beautiful with warm, sunny days.  Since John's surgery is this Tuesday, we thought we should take advantage of the nice weather and get a few jobs out of the way.  We started Saturday off by hauling all the screens outside and washing them. John also did some raking in the front yard and hosed off the apron in front of the garage.  The car tires deposit quite a bit of gravel on the apron when we drive into the garage.  John and I did take the time to put the screens in our bedroom windows--it was so nice having the windows open overnight and getting fresh air in the house.  The most important job of Saturday was baking apple pies for our Easter gathering.

Hard to believe the snow was almost to the bottom

of the basketball net

 

Easter Sunday we were off to church and following the service stopped back home to change clothes and then head to Matt and Sara's home.  They hosted Easter dinner for 14 people with everyone bringing a dish or dessert to share.  We had a delicious meal and a fun time visiting with the Minnesota grandkids.

Sunday turned out to be a pretty nice day with warmer temps which meant more melting.  We were off to church in the morning and then watched Tiger Woods win the Masters.  Not much else happened on Sunday.  Yesterday was overcast in the morning and then rain in the afternoon.  Since it was a dull day, we decided to head to Bemidji after lunch and take care of a couple of things.  I got an email from my doctor informing me that I was overdo for a blood test, so we stopped at the clinic to take care of that first thing.  I also needed to get my glasses adjusted and since the eye center is right down the hall from the lab, that was our next stop.  I waited 20 minutes for a one minute fix.  A little grocery shopping followed before heading home.

Today was our first real taste of Spring with sunny skies and temps near 60 degrees.  John spent some time outside cleaning off the portion of our front deck that's not screened and I cleaned the window over the kitchen sink.  It was so dirty from the winter and now it sparkles.  John also charged up the battery for his mower and got that ready.  With his surgery next week followed by four weeks of no lifting, he wanted to get the mower ready so he could mow the cemetery for Memorial Day.

It is unbelievable how much snow has melted over the last 24 hours--between the rain and warm temps, a big dent has been made in the piles around the house. We got our first good look at the shrubs by the walkway and they are definitely toast--we'll have to pull them out when John is recovered. Now we have mud and puddles to contend with around the house, but our driveway and gravel road are in good shape.

Bushes are crushed and broken

 

Now there is a clear path to John's shop

 

 

 

Huge piles are now just about gone

It will take a little longer for this one to melt

Sorry to say, it snowed all night and is still lightly snowing now at 7 p.m. Listening to the radio this morning, we were surprised to learn that schools in the area were starting two hours late.  At that time it was snowing hard and visibility was just about zero.  We thought they were trying not to cancel because of so many missed days this winter.  It wasn't a half hour later and the closings began--everything was pretty much shut down.  All the interstates were closed and didn't open up again until this afternoon. 

As I mentioned yesterday, John had backed the four wheeler into the garage so he could get a running start plowing.  That didn't happen--the snow was way too deep and heavy for the four wheeler; however,  he did get the snow blower going and cleared the apron in front of the garage and paths to the wood stove and his shop.  Thanks goodness so much of the snow melted before this storm hit.  There are big piles again, but nothing like what was here when we first returned home from Texas. 
We feel like we are back to square one and starting all over.  John was close to getting his truck out of the big shop, but that won't happened for a couple more weeks now and the gravel road and driveway will probably be a mess for several days.  As I mentioned before, tomorrow will be sunny and the melting will begin again.

Matt was just down here to plow out our driveway.  He got it down pretty good, so hopefully we'll see bare ground in another day or so.

Yesterday we were out the door by 7:15 a.m. and heading to Bemidji for my semi-annual appointment with my arthritis doctor.  This is usually just to see how my aches and pains are doing and to renew prescriptions.  Once I was finished at the clinic, we headed off for breakfast at Hardee's.  We received some coupons in the mail, so decided to give their breakfast a try--we both thought it was pretty good.  Then we were off to do some errands.  John needed a new battery for his truck, so that was first on the list.  We also hit the grocery store and Home Depot.  We looked at screening and outdoor carpet--trying to decide what we'll need to redo the porch.  Hopefully that job will get started once Sam in through done with college and John is recovered from surgery.

Today was spent in anticipation of the huge winter storm that has been in the forecast for the last week.  One day we're told we'll only get a dusting, and next they tell us to prepare for a blizzard.  Well, we are in a blizzard.  The snow started about 3p.m. this afternoon and has been falling steadily along with very strong winds.  John charged up the battery for our four wheeler and got it running.
He moved our car way to the front of the garage and backed the four wheeler in facing out.  The plan is to raise the garage door and be ready to start plowing the drive.  The snow blower is also right by the door and ready to go.  The only bright spot is that the temps will be near 50 by the weekend and it will be a fast melt.  Bad side--the sump pump started running in the basement, so the water table is high around the house.  Will continue the snow story tomorrow.

 Today about 5 p.m.

Yesterday

With the weather remaining on the cold side, John and I have continued to do odd jobs about the house.  One task that we both dislike is cleaning out the freezer in the garage.  We thought this was a good time to tackle that project as we could empty out the freezer and not worry about the food items defrosting.  It didn't take very long to defrost the freezer, sort through and organize the food items, and then put everything back again.  We had really gotten the freezer pretty well emptied before we left for Texas last winter and are just starting to restock now.

 

John's also been organizing his wood carving supplies and took a day this weekend to made a nice wooden rack to hold his carving tools.  He also stained the table he made for Sara and only has lacquering left to do. I set up a card table in the den and have kept busy working on a new puzzle.

Though the weather has been quite chilly today, the past several days have been well above freezing and the snow has been melting very fast.  We went to town the other day and could see water running in the ditches.  So far our basement has remained dry, but water is running into the old shop.  Fortunately there is nothing of importance sitting on the floor.  With the snow finally away from the overhead shop door, John was able to get into the shop and check on his pickup.  After such a brutally cold winter, the battery was dead, so a new one is on the shopping list for tomorrow.  He should also be able to get the four wheeler going again.  Once the last of the piles are gone, he'll be able to use the four wheeler to grade the driveway.

Even though everything is brown, it is good to see the grass and driveway again.

The weather forecast is calling for another big storm, but we're hoping it stays south of us.  Our driveway and the gravel road are in excellent shape (much better than we anticipated) and we sure would hate to have to start over again getting the driveway clear of snow.

I haven't posted for a while, so thought it time to catch folks up on what we have been doing, which is nothing much.  Our weather continues on the cold side with daytime highs only reaching into the low 30's. With piles of snow still surrounding the house, we are still stuck inside the majority of the time.  However, the snow is slowly melting which is really a blessing as it helps with the flood situation to the west of us.  Our driveway and road were completely clear and dry but then we had about an inch of new snow yesterday which led to mud.  This afternoon things have pretty much dried up again.

Snow piles are slowly moving back and we can see more

lawn everyday

 

This is the snow pile John was standing on a week

ago and could reach the top of the basketball 

back board.  Now snow is well below the net.

John kept busy last week making a new table for our daughter-in-law, Sara.  She has been busy sprucing up their home for graduation.  This table is to have a glass top for displaying deer antlers .It  is still waiting to be stained.

 

After about a week and a half, I finally shook off my cold and started feeling better.  Since we are stuck inside, John and I decided it would be a good time to clean out and re-organize our storage closet.  That led to doing the basement and garage.  Since John has a heated shop now, we decided to remove the old work bench from the house garage and put in some more shelving.  We still have a little more sorting to do, but hope to have this job done by the end of this week.  

We have been out and about a little for doctor appointments--I got an injection for my hip and John had his pre-op physical on Monday.  He also received three immunizations at that time and has been suffering with a very sore arm.  These immunizations are to help bolster his immune system and prepare his body for the removal of his spleen.  We are now pretty much in a holding pattern until his surgery April 23rd.

The weather is suppose to warm up this weekend with the possibility of rain.  Hopefully the snow will go on the west side of the house so we can finally reach our pickup truck and four-wheeler.  With all our cleaning up we need to make a run to the landfill.

Today was the big day for us--meeting with the pancreatic surgeon and setting up a date for surgery.  I must say what he had to say was much different from what we expected to hear.  John and I always had the impression that the tumor was on the outside of the pancreas tail and would simply be removed with little effort through outpatient laparoscopic surgery.  Well, we had the laparoscopic part correct but nothing else.

Dr. Zuberi was in complete agreement that the tumor should be removed.  These tumors secrete things (I don't understand what) that can affect the liver and cause more problems or other illnesses.  He also said to be on the safe side, he would remove the spleen because it is so inter connected to the pancreas. That was a shock to hear.  Because his spleen is going to be removed, John has to have three vaccinations to build up his immune system before surgery.  He also has to have another pre-op physical.  All of this will be taken care of on Monday morning. These injections have to be no less than two weeks prior to surgery. The doctor told us John would be in the hospital 2-3 days for observation following surgery and then restricted to no lifting of anything heavy for 4 weeks. So, that is where everything stands at the moment.  We are both comfortable with what we were told today and have confidence we are headed in a good direction.

Our weather was beautiful today with blue skies and high temps reaching 55 degrees.  The snow piles are going down quickly and we are seeing more and more grass.  Tomorrow is back to Bemidji for me to get an injection at the Center for Pain Management.  Now that we know when John's surgery is scheduled, I need to get my back in shape to take over some of his daily jobs.

Nothing much happening around here except trying to recover from a sinus infection and a cold--sinus for John and cold for me.  It seems like all we have done for the last three days is blow our noses and restock on tissues.  The antibiotic that John got from the doctor last week has helped a little, but he is still suffering from a stuffy head and slight headache.  He was hoping the medicine would clear up his head before seeing the surgeon on Wednesday.  John is still hesitant to do anything until his sinus clears up.

On the bright side, our weather has been sunny with above freezing highs during the day.  Our gravel road is just about completely clear of snow--only one little section of ice due to pine trees shading the road.  Our driveway is clear from the house to the road, but the loop around the house is still clogged with deep drifts.  John still can't get to his truck or four wheeler.  The snow has dropped enough that we can see the outline of the pond on the west side of the big shop.

This afternoon we decided to get out of the house and visited son John and his family.  He is the track coach at the high school and with the track season underway, is pretty busy now.  Their first meet is this Tuesday (indoors at the college) so we hope to go and watch our grand daughter, Jenni, run the mile and half mile.  While at John's, he downloaded some movies on my laptop, so now we have something new to watch in the evenings.  Right now its been wall to wall basketball.  March Madness is John's favorite season of the year.

You can just see one of the bushes beside the walkway

starting to peek out of the drift.  This is one way

we can tell how much the snow has gone down.

 

Driveway is drying up very nicely.  Just a little more

melting and the snow melt will run away from the drive

 

Much easier for John to get to the woodshed and outdoor

furnace.  Seems so strange to see the grass

Yesterday was a big one for us as John had his appointment with the oncologist at the cancer center in Bimidji.  Matt went with us and I must say we entered the office expecting the worse and hoping for the best.  I think we got the best.  Our biggest worry was why John was referred to an oncologist instead of just going back to the doctor who ordered the endoscopic ultrasound test.  Dr. Friedell was very nice and explained everything in an easy to understand manner.  It seems the lesion (tumor) on the tail of the pancreas was so small it was difficult to get a good sample to biopsy.  The doctor said "I could tell you you have cancer, but there is nothing pathologically to back up that statement.  The same can be said for saying your are cancer free."  Dr. Friedell ordered another blood test and a 24 hour urine test in the hopes of learning something more definitive.  He then laid out a couple of options:  we could do nothing right now and followup later with more scans and possibly another biopsy, or just remove the small lesion now and be done with it whether it's cancerous or not.  If it is cancer, which he doubts, we have caught it unbelievably early and we can put this whole episode behind us.  John opted for the surgery and we have an appointment to see the surgeon next Wednesday.  Needless to say, we all feel like a great weight has been lifted.

Hard to believe, but this morning we were right back down to the clinic to see our primary physician.  John has been having horrible post nasal drip--we even went to the Walk In Clinic last week because he was feeling so sick.  He was prescribed an antibiotic which did absolutely nothing for him, so it was back to see his regular doctor today.  John told him there was no way he could undergo surgery until this post nasal thing gets under control.  The doctor prescribed a much stronger med that should work within three days--if this doesn't help, then it's back to the clinic again.

Once we were finished with the doctoring, we headed to Culver's for some lunch and then ran several errands, did some banking, and then a little grocery shopping.  We were trying to kill time before my appointment with the Center for Pain Management.  My back pain has returned, so I now have an appointment for next week to get an injection to be followed up with another procedure in a week or so.  I need to be able to move around without pain so I can take care of John.  Hopefully all this medical stuff can get out of the way and we can concentrate on something other than our health.

Insurance adjuster came yesterday morning and we received a very good settlement for our porch.  Now we just have to wait for the snow piles to melt so we can attack that project. 

We have been a little busy over the last couple of days.  Saturday morning we left home around 10 a.m. and headed up to Northome, MN, which is a little over an hour and half north of us, where we were invited to celebrate our brother-in-law's 70th birthday.  We spent a nice afternoon visiting with some of his family and friends as well as eating a delicious meal.  While we were there, Sara phoned and invited us to come for pizza since the kids would be heading back to college on Sunday.  On the way back to Bagley we made a quick stop at Target and then home to drop off our purchases.  You can't leave anything in the car too long or it will freeze.  John and I had a fun evening with the kids visiting and playing a new card game.

On Sunday Matt stopped down with a huge jack he borrowed from his work and helped John jack up the porch roof.  They ran a beam across the top and braced it with several supports.  Hopefully, this will keep water from running in on the porch as the ice melts or if we should get some rain.  The claims adjuster from the insurance company is coming tomorrow morning to take a look at the damage and let us know what will be covered.

Our temperatures here in northern Minnesota are slowly but surely beginning to moderate during the day.  There is nothing below zero with daytime temps reaching into the 30's.  We are suppose to hit 50 degrees by the weekend.  We can tell our huge snow piles are slowing going down, but we have a couple on the driveway that are still pretty big.

The snow is so compacted that John was able to walk right up to the

roof of his shop and the rim of the basketball backboard.

I ask that you all remember us with prayer as tomorrow John has an appointment with 

oncologist in Bemidji. We are hoping to get a better understanding of what we will be dealing with and are hoping for good news.

With the temps above freezing the past couple of days the huge piles of snow around our house have definitely shrunk a little.  John felt ambitious yesterday afternoon and decided to open a path to the bird feeders hanging from the trees behind the house. We hadn't seen any birds since we've been home, so we thought we might be able to entice some back to our yard.  Sure enough, we had several different birds at the feeders today.

Last night a blizzard moved into the Dakotas and Minnesota; however, the worst of this storm stayed to the west of us, but by this afternoon we still got snow and strong winds. We have a screened in porch on the front of the house and last night the roof collapsed under the weight of about 14 inches of snow and ice. Sam came down this afternoon and helped John brace up the roof and then shoveled the heavy snow off the rest of the structure.  John used the snowblower to open the walkway to the porch and then the guys got it up on the deck and cleared more snow away.  Next on the agenda is figuring a way to put up more bracing and get the roof slanted so water will run away from the front of the house. Right now there is a big hole in the porch ceiling.  I've contacted the insurance company and a claims adjuster should be on the way soon.  Never a dull moment!

John and Sam headed off bright and early Monday morning to pick up our new snowblower.  Once they returned home and got it unloaded, John put chains on the tires and got it ready to go.  Our grandson Josh, who is also on spring break from college, volunteered to wield a snow shovel to break down some of the deep snow while John handled the blower.  They managed to reopen the paths to both shops.

Today the sun was shining with bright blue skies.  We were looking around outside when we heard a wonderful sound--water was rushing through our house's gutters.  THE SNOW WAS MELTING!!!  The driveway apron is clear of snow and we can see some driveway gravel and some green bush peaking through a mound of snow.  Bad news--big storm coming and expected to drop 6-8 inches of snow and possibly starting off as rain.  But at least the piles got a little smaller today.

 

Little bit of shrubbery peaking out.

Hopefully the bushes aren't crushed. 

 

Monday morning after weekend storm looking 

out from front window.  Snow is almost up to sill.

Frosty Monday morning,  There really is

beauty in the snow.