Yesterday was the day I fell face down in pig shit. Other than that, it was a good day.

Ray took the car, as I was planning to stay home all day. I worked on the wedding invitations and other stuff. My Dad came late in the morning and made beef stew for himself (and me). It was tasty, but not ready to eat until about 1:30. In the meantime, we both had leftover ground beef with cabbage and other veggies. He gave me a big hug when he got here and said what would he do without me, he was so lonely. But otherwise, he was quite cheerful. He loves hacking chicken bones with his cleaver and making them into soup stock. I had invited him to come do that because of the accumulation of bones in the freezer. He is really more and more interested in cooking, which I love. He mentioned several times, "when I was living here," meaning when he stayed here over the weekend. He liked it a lot. I will just have to go away again!

While he was making soup stock (I assisted minimally by getting out ingredients and supplies sometimes and giving my opinion), I was making oatmeal-raisin cookies. I asked him before he came if he had any raisins and he did--two boxes of them. There were a very few left in the first box and we decided my Mom had bought them to make cookies. He didn't need them for anything. He never eats oatmeal, for instance. I was also making tamale pie for dinner. It was a little crowded on the stove at times, but I tried to work around him and it was fine. Maybe in my next life, I'll put the oven somewhere not under the stove top. And maybe I'll have more than four burners!

you can see a little bit of green back on the right where I fell (and spilled the food).

He rested some in the afternoon by watching TV while I was on my computer some more. After he strained the stock, it was about 4:30, time for him to go and time for me to feed the pigs. He drove me there and I prepared the three buckets with scraps from our house and the Porterhouse restaurant, as well as the mix of grains we buy for them. Karen was away and her farm sitter, Nessa, was there. So were Shannon and Steve from next door. And my Dad. It was kind of a madhouse. We set down the buckets  as I prepared to climb over the fence and one of the pigs came right through. Steve was trying to make him go back in, while I was concentrating on getting the food into the bins inside the fence. Somehow I lost my balance, bucket in hand, and staggered across the muddy uneven pig pen, trying desperately not to fall. As Steve said, it would have been better just to fall, since I worked up some momentum. It could have been much worse, but I did land face down in the mud and pig shit and there were some rocks. The side of my face is abraded and my left knee is bruised and I am sore in my back and left side. Even my neck hurts, but none of it is very bad. Of course, everyone asked me if I was all right and I said I was. I got all the food poured into the bins and the pig came back through the fence to eat. I'm not really sure how it happened, but it had something to do with too many people and Ray wasn't there to help me! Captain Mudge drove me back home and Ray arrived right behind us. I washed my face with a soapy washcloth and put on hydrogen peroxide. I am sure I will be fine, but it might look bad for a while.

The Captain left, I finished making the caserole and put it in the oven and went to the computer. There were some things I needed to read (and write) before a 7:00 meeting. I took my supper and left in time to get there 5 minutes late. The meeting was long, but interesting, as usual. I still question why I am there and if I want to be "invested" as a lay minister in May.

When I got home, Ray was in bed asleep. I read a chapter and went to sleep myself. This is the first night, I think, that I have worn the sleep mask all night.

Sorry, there are no pictures of me face down in the mud.