Joline, a combustion engine, brain fuzz, and Jack

The waiting game regrettably continues on with Joline and this reluctant foal of hers. There really doesn’t seem that there could be any room left in her enormous belly for any more growth and that something needs to give here, like a birth. It is just amazing how much bigger she gets daily. I have managed to recoup some of the lost quality sleep in the past few nights, which is a good thing because I was in a mental fog and found some things one shouldn’t do in this condition.

There are good, well founded reasons for the drugs that make you drowsy to have warning stickers about avoiding driving, or operating dangerous equipment. I know that they do fog your brain and make you do silly things and some things that aren’t so silly. Reaction time is muddled, so whatever silly/or not silly thing you get into, can get pretty dicey quickly. So the case was, the day before yesterday when in my muddled fuzz I thought I would use the time to ride the lawnmower around and tidy the yard.

Things began well enough for me riding around getting instant gratification at seeing how nicer the grass looked shorter. I had to cut around the pear trees out front tho, and their fruit is already weighing the limbs way down low, so I had to do some acrobatic driving to get under these obstacles. I began to notice a pronounced smell of gasoline and in my fuzz wondered what it might be but didn’t think to look to see what it was. Another round of the yard and the lawnmower was sputtering a bit. Then I did look back to investigate and nearly dove off the machine.

The plastic tank that sits behind the driver, normally, had been knocked off its holder by a low limb and now was hanging by its fuel line and was spewing gas from obviously having been run over by the mower. I hit the brakes and got off, and then picked up the tank, (bad plan), and the spewing gas then proceeded to cover the very hot, and very much still running engine. The gas hissed and popped as it ran over the fly wheel down into the engine housing. Remembering that this was a combustion engine and finally reacting to the horribly dangerous situation I was in, I thought to put the tank down and turned off the key. And then I took some seriously fast steps backward to see if the thing was going sky high any time soon. My heart was doing some racing at this point at the realization of my slow reactions and lack of decision making ability, and my near demise. After a few hours of tank replacement and repair, I finished the mowing with care and considered myself lucky on that one.

Since then, I did thankfully catch up on some sleep and my brain is running back again fairly normally, relatively speaking. I have had several really good rides on my mares, have worked on a few new paintings, moved a truck load of hay, and have kept a sharp look out for Joline to see any signs of an on coming labor and delivery. So far, nada.

I did have to take Jack to the vet again today. This time it was for a check up only, no gastronomical disasters, but Jack was quite apprehensive when we went in and he never took his eyes off me, giving fair warning not to leave him again at this evil place. The vet asked how things were going for him and I told him of Jack’s transformation into a happy athlete, boldly bounding up stairs that had been unclimbable for him before his near death oil eating. All of the vet's assitants came in to see Jack and give him a pat. It was obvious the boy had charmed them all when he was there for his week of pancreatitis.

Jack had actually lost 5 pounds since then, a 5% loss of total body weight. Do the math on yourself, that’s a huge amount for something this size, or any size. The vet was thrilled to see the boys progress and said to keep it up, if I could, that is the keeping Jack from over eating every thing he sees. As long as I keep Jack inside a lot more, that keeps the potential calorie consumption down and his belly svelte.

Another night and another chance for Jolene to make it happen, I will keep watch on her tonight and hope for relief, for her and for all of us here on the farm. I will herald it loudly when,  and if, it does happen but I have to admit that at this point I have my doubts.