Finger Update.

So, after 20 days of daily exercise, vitamin E massage, and "buddy taping", this is what my finger looked like.
Because there was part of the scar that just didn't want to heal well, they made a silicone mold of my finger for me to wear twice a day for an hour at a time. ("Don't leave it on for more than an hour or you will damage your skin." and "we don't know why it works.")

On the 28th of January, I saw the doctor again and he thought it was all fine and so I stopped going to physical therapy (which is probably good since I was developing a gambling addiction,) wearing the brace, and buddy taping.
This is what the finger looks like now.

This is how far I can bend the joint on my right (healthy) pinky.

And this is how far I can bend the joint on sicky pinky. This is actually quite a bit further than I could bend it before the surgery. Instead of having sharp, intense pain if I "tweak" the finger, followed by two to four weeks of varying degrees of pain, I now have mild arthritic pain whenever the joint is active, which is an improvement. I could probably get the finger to bend further eventually, but so far I have had trouble making myself stretch it (and hold it) to the so- painful-I-tear-up degree that my physical therapist was able to do.

Sleepover.

Cephas came to spend the night. It was Anna's first sleepover.
They watched Robin Hood and then stayed up late talking (I think I fell asleep around 11:30, and as far as I know, they were still whispering.)

They got up early for more fun.
They ate cereal.
There was a LOT of giggling.

Blade of Glory

One problem with replacing the 4430 with the Puma 180 is that I can't really use the old blade and mower anymore. Enter the new blade.


It took entirely too long to unload and hook up.

NW32 '09 Step 2

This is the first time I have used the disk since April of 2008, when I used it to smooth out the location of an old manure pile over in the Gray Havens. The last time I actually used the disk to work a field in its entirety was April of '07, when I worked up a circle of milo stalks.

So this field has some unique problems due to the fact that the sprinkler has to "windshield wipe" around the farmstead. Because of this, it has worked rather deep ruts in places. Our goal here is to create enough loose dirt around the wheel tracks so that I can smooth these places out and fill in some low areas.And that's that. This was also the first real test of the Puma's power. I wasn't sure what to expect, since it has a PTO horsepower rating of 10 less than the 8100, and I had heard that the new (tier 2 &3) engines performed more poorly in relation to their horsepower rating than the old engines. I didn't really find that to be the case (ha, ha.) I thought the Puma did just fine once I remembered to turn on the front wheel assist.

NW32 '09 Corn Step 1

Anna, reluctantly ready to go.

The machine.


The goal here is to close up the sprinkler tracks.

Anna brought some homework she had previously downloaded.



I like to pack 'em down a little more.


See previous post.


Some tracks need more closing than others.