I was feeling well enough this morning to venture out onto the farm and see the animals.  It was especially nice to see the pigs again.  They love their hog chow.  They do not care for Victoria sandwiches though.  They don’t even seem to recognize them as food.

The peahen is setting on eggs in the hay loft.  This is the most reasonable place our peahens have ever chosen for this.  Previously every nest turned out to be a disaster with the peahen getting stuck and dying or hatching in the back yard where Steve killed the chick.  So I am hoping we will finally have some peachicks.  But given our experience with peafowl they may still be able to find a way to mess this up.

The chicks are sure growing up.  We lost two since last time I was in the barn but none in 2 days so hopefully they will do well now.  The chicks from the first batch from the hatchery are really developing.  You can see the barring in their wings now.

And the 2711 lilac is starting to bloom as well.  We have had a lot of rain here since last time I was out, 2.4 inches to be exact.  The fields are all really wet.  It is nice to feel a little part of the world again.

I have figured out a pattern to my illness.  It has happened three times now.  I feel just fine and then I get suddenly ill with malaise, weakness, dizziness, fatigue, and nausea.  It starts in the morning.  I will then get muscle aches, skin tingling and chills.  The chills last through the morning.  I cannot stand the sight of food, but I force myself to eat some lunch.  My brain doesn’t work well either and I cannot concentrate.  After lunch I feel better for about 10 minutes then I start feeling ill again.  In the afternoon I have alternating feelings of fever with sweats and chills.  In the evening I feel better and can eat.  At night I struggle with intermittently feeling feverish and sweating which interferes with my sleeping.  This goes on for 4 days.  By the fourth day my left knee starts to swell and ache.  Then I start to feel better and my knee improves in a couple of days and then it starts all over again.  When it starts all over again is the part I haven’t figured out yet.  Between the first and second time it was 4 weeks but between the second and third episodes it was only 3 days.  The high dose prednisone isn’t helping at all, but I have appointments tomorrow to see gastroenterology and infectious disease specialists who may be able to determine if there are other conditions contributing to my reactive arthritis.

But this is why I have not seen my farm in 5 days.  I am in the arthritis phase now with an achy swollen knee and feeling tired but otherwise OK.  I am going to try to be mindful of not overdoing it while I feel better and listen to my body when it tells me to rest.  I am trying to eat nutritious foods and doing things in the house to keep my spirits up.  With this hopefully I can see our farm in the upcoming days.  Please send me more healing thoughts and prayers that I might be able to recover from this and get back to life again.