March 19-25, 2023

Weather | 3/19, 13°, 40° | 3/20, 25°, 59° | 3/21, 0.02" rain, 39°, 47° | 3/22, 0.09" rain, 39°, 49° | 3/23, 0.02" rain, 37°, 45° | 3/24, 31°, 49° | 3/25, 0.63" rain/snow, 29°, 54° |

• Sunday, 3/19: Homemade Maple Syrup
  
  • Mary did a load of laundry, some house cleaning, and a little bit of cross stitch.
  • I rearranged my master "To Do" list. It was too cumbersome. I created several categories, then highlighted important items in each category.
    
  • I walked the dogs on the east loop trail. Recent winds have knocked down a number of tree branches and trees. I have firewood collection and clean up to do in the near future.
    
  • In an attempt to eat better food that helps my blood sugar, I made maple syrup to use on waffles instead of honey. From experience making syrup with Splenda when we lived in Circle, MT, maple extract, Splenda, and water never thickens. It's like pouring water on waffles. It also goes bad quickly. Today, I tried a recipe I found online that adds xanthum gum as a thickener. We found xanthum gum in powder form at Walmart on our last shopping trip. I used McCormick maple extract. The recipe called for 1 tablespoon. It wasn't enough. I used 4 tablespoons. Next time, I'll seek out Crescent's Mapleine. It's better maple extract. The recipe called for 1 teaspoon of xanthum gum. Next time, I'll use less. It thickened the syrup substantially (see photo, below). Our nickname for it is rock snot. HERE is a link describing real rock snot. Fortunately, this syrup tastes pretty good. Plus, it's better for diabetic me than honey.

  

  My maple syrup, a.k.a. rock snot (left) & honey (right).

• Monday, 3/20: Heart Failure With Medicine Pricing
  
  • I made waffles for breakfast and tried out the new homemade syrup. It's good and I think I can make it even better in the future.
    
  • I called the Lewistown Clinic and left a message asking to speak to a nurse, who called back within minutes. I gave her my blood sugar numbers for the past week, asking if further adjustments should be made now, instead of waiting another week, due to continuous high figures. She talked to my doctor, who agreed with my assessment and boosted my metformin prescription and added another diabetes drug.
  • I drove to Quincy. The new drug, Jardiance, costs $624.64 for 30 pills and my share of the cost is $505, which equals Humana's Stage 1 deductible on my Part D plan. I had heart failure when I heard that price and told the pharmacist I'm not buying that drug. I called Humana, then called Lewistown Clinic, asking if my doctor could change the medication to something more affordable. I repeated what the Humana person said, which is to ask the doctor to prescribe a Tier 2, instead of a Tier 3 drug. I got a quick call back from the clinic's nurse, who talked to the doctor. He will get back to me tomorrow and said to get the newer metformin, which I did.
    
  • Meanwhile, back on the home front, Mary vacuumed bugs five times. They are horrible, today. She also did three loads of laundry. Sun and high winds worked well for quickly drying clothes outside.
  • I looked up and saved an application form for financial help from the drug company that sells Jardiance.
    
    
• Tuesday, 3/21: New Cheaper Meds
  
  • We watched a male bluebird hunt for bugs on the ground below the sweet cherry tree. The bird's colors were amazing. I heard an eastern phoebe this morning, the first of the season.
  • Katie sent a TikTok video of a race up a mountain that she participated in on Saturday, 3/18. All race participants were walking up a mountain with wind swirling snow about. Mary said it is reminiscent of 1898 Chilkoot Pass gold rush photos.
    
  • Mary and I discussed various options for paying for high-priced medications.
  • A call from the Lewistown Clinic nurse at 11 a.m. solved the medication issue. My doctor came up with a different drug. It's not as good as Jardiance. As soon as I eat through the $505 deductible, he suggests I switch to Jardiance. 
  • I drove to Quincy via Lewistown, since gas is cheapest there right now at $2.99 per gallon. I fueled up the pickup, then drove to Quincy. The newest blood sugar med is Glipizide and it was only $2 for a month's supply.
  • In other eye-rolling news, I tried to get more blood sugar testing strips. My price was to be at full charge, without insurance help, because Sam's Club is in the middle of an audit by the Federal government that's lasted over a year. The pharmacy sends my request for test strips back to the federal government, who, after 7 days (but usually takes more than 7 days), they send my doctor a form that he fills out, then sends back, then they approve or disapprove of my purchase. Another option is for the doctor to send the prescription to a different pharmacy, but it cannot be Walmart, because that pharmacy is under the same audit. I drove home, tired of the entire fiasco!
    
  • Mary vacuumed bugs two times and made flour tortillas. After getting home, I took over vacuuming.
    
  • We enjoyed two pots of loose-leaf tea.
    
    
• Wednesday, 3/22: Leatherwork & Fleas
  
  • Mary practiced drawing this morning.
  • I used the basket weave leatherworking tool and put a pattern on half of a new checkbook cover I'm making for us. It's a Tandy kit I bought in Billings, MT many years ago.
    
  • One of my Antonovka apple seeds that I have in the refrigerator developed a root, so I planted it. I'll use these trees as rootstocks for grafting.
    
  • Mary and I walked the dogs on the north loop trail. At the northeast corner of the trail, Plato barked with hair up on his back at something that we never saw. We're guessing it was a fox or a coyote. On the way back home, Mary saw a deer. We heard cardinals singing everywhere while we walked our property. This evening, I watched a meadowlark sit in a black walnut tree in our east yard and sing loudly.
    
  • Mary mended several clothes.
    
  • I cracked a dozen hazelnuts for tomorrow's oatmeal breakfast. Yesterday, we used the last of the pecans we picked last fall, so we didn't have nuts on this morning's oatmeal. We also put a sliced up Granny Smith apple and several blackberries in our bowls.
  • We saw rain, mist, and fog through the day. Tonight, thunderstorms developed around us.
  • Mary found a flea on Amber's head, so she did a thorough search with a flea comb on both dogs. She found a biting flea on Plato. She put baking soda on the upstairs north bedroom rug, the dog blanket in that room, and on the two chairs the dogs sleep on in the living room. Baking soda desiccates fleas. We used it with success last year.
    
    
• Thursday, 3/23: Basket Weave Leather Stamping Finished
  
  • Rain was falling this morning. Mary said she saw lightning flashes through the bedroom curtains prior to us getting up. The rest of the day was gray and cloudy.
    
  • Mary went through four drawing lessons.
  • I finished the basket weave pattern on the new leather checkbook cover that I'm making (see photo, below). Next will be to stamp the border.
    
  • Mary made a delicious chicken dinner with potatoes and turkey gravy, sweet potatoes, and a side dish of coleslaw. It was amazing.
    
  • She also cooked another Diablo pumpkin and froze four quarts of pumpkin meat.
    
  • The hazel nuts mixed in with our morning oatmeal was good, but a dozen wasn't enough, so I cracked 20 nuts today for tomorrow's breakfast.
    
  • On our walk with the dogs, we went to Wood Duck Pond. Christmas ferns are sprouting next to the creek dumping into the pond. Mary says they are electric green in color.
    
  • I removed the rim from our smallest wheelbarrow and inserted a new valve stem. I tried to mount the new tire, but the outside temperatures were too cool to work a new and stiff tire over the rim. I took the tire inside to warm up overnight. Hopefully, I can get it on the rim tomorrow. Gandalf the Gray (cat) fell in love with the tire. He spent a good 10 minutes rubbing against it.
    
  • I cut two persimmon trees that were about two inches in diameter near the big Bartlett pear tree. I also pulled up old wire out of the tall dead grass, coiled it up, and put it on the salvage pile. I want to put an electric fence around the Bartlett pear trees and the blueberry bushes and cut a path through the persimmons so we can drive the tractor west. The old path going west is filled with blackberry and black raspberry bushes that give us high yields, so we'll abandon the old path and make a new access route.

  

  New leather checkbook cover in the making.

• Friday, 3/24: Shrimp Dinner & Wheelbarrow Tires
  
  • Mary practiced drawing. Today, she drew a cup and saucer, a wine glass, and an apple.
  • I called the company that makes Jardiance, the expensive drug I didn't buy. They have a customer assistance program. I don't qualify, because I own a 401K. When I told Mary that we don't qualify because we're rich, she showed me the holes of the T-shirt she wore today and laughed.
    
  • Mary made a shrimp dinner that was really amazing.
  • Hordes of bugs continue marching into our house. Mary did two rounds and I sucked bugs once.
    
  • I worked on the small wheelbarrow tire pretty much all day. In the morning sun, I attempted to put the tire on the rim for almost an hour, but to no avail. I'm sure the tire is too small for the rim, despite the numbers imprinted on the Chinese-made creation. I put the old tire back on the rim with ease. After trying to inflate the old tire as a tubeless setup and not succeeding, I quit that route. I dug an old shot wheelbarrow once used by Mary's Uncle Herman from under a junk pile at the west end of the machine shed. That tire looked good and it held air when inflated. After cutting spacers out of a plastic pipe, I installed the tire assembly on our small red wheelbarrow. It works great. Mary suggested propping up the old wheelbarrow next to the woodshed and using it as a planter for lettuce this summer.
    
  • My blood sugar numbers are improving. The first week, I had after-meal numbers in the upper 200s. One was 302. Wednesday and Thursday I had before breakfast numbers of 96. Last night, my nighttime after-meal number was 137 and this morning, my pre-meal number was 84.
    
  • The Sargent crabapple tree is in the green stage...showing leaf buds.
  • We enjoyed two pots of loose-leaf tea this evening while reading.
    
    
• Saturday, 3/25: Preparing New Apple Ground
  
  • We woke to falling snow, after going to bed with rain pounding on the roof. Mary was up a half hour prior to the alarm going off and said it was snowing hard at 5:30 a.m. By 9 a.m., all of the wet snow melted and the sun appeared around 10 a.m.
    
  • Mary practiced drawing. Today she did three dead oak leaves and a pair of scissors.
  • I started bug sucking duties with a vacuuming stint throughout the house, then emptied the shop vac near the west woods. That five-gallon vacuum was almost half full of Asian ladybugs. Mary took it up and vacuumed almost continuously for the rest of the day.
  • We enjoyed a venison General Tso midday meal.
  • I cut borders on the leather checkbook cover.
    
  • I sharpened the machete and cut dead grass and weeds away from the three new apple tree planting spots south of the house.
    
  • I collected four buckets of rotten, dead wood from an oak tree that fell in the north woods about four or five years ago. It's added, with other amendments, to where we'll plant new apple trees.
    
  • We watched the 2004 movie, The Day After Tomorrow.