Kittens and Magnesium

 First came the rain, then came the pain. Yesterday was pretty awful. It rained all night and I woke with every joint screaming. Not much you can do with arthritic pain unless you want to ingest a lot of ibuprofen and acetaminophen. Okay occasionally, but the drugs are not really good for you.

With that in mind I have been experimenting with various natural remedies. Magnesium seems to be the current favorite. I dutifully educated myself and found that ingesting magnesium is not as effective as using it on your skin. Also found that the magnesium in Epsom salts is not the correct kind to alleviate pain. I ordered the magnesium flakes and made the solution to add to cream or lotion. I used cream since I have dry skin.

Not sure how much to slaver myself with, I used up what was left after I filled my small container with the mix. You can also put it in a spray bottle and spray yourself. I smeared it on my leg and knee and on my hand and shoulders. I still had more and I demanded that The Man let me smear it on his knee. I felt remarkably better after about an hour. I have enough flakes to make gallons of the stuff, so I hope it continues to work well.

An added benefit is that it helps me sleep. The temperature dropped and I woke this morning with what I thought was a toothache. Just one problem, I have no teeth where the pain is. It is the location of the bone graft, so maybe that is it. Maybe the colder weather is now making my toothless gum over the bone graft hurt. Oh goody!

My internet has been spotty at best. I have not been able to get online for several days. I know that the electric co-op from which we get our internet is doing some expansion in our area and figure that might be the issue.

But life goes on. We have been working on my shed. It is slow going, but we have finally completed one wall and 4' of the side walls. To accomplish that I had to move everything to one end of the shed. Or that was the idea. There is a lot of stuff in there and I managed to get most of the contents shoved towards the other end, leaving very little room to maneuver the wallboard. I painted the first coat and today I will be adding the last coat of paint and then we will install the surface I will be putting my sewing machines on. That wall is 10' long and the laminated shelving board is 8'. That left 2' that I put some tall shelves in. I have pegboard on the top that covers 8'.

I am anxious to get it done so that I can organize my space. The Man is okay with me taking all the time I need to rearrange everything before we start on the next section. He is a busy man, you know! We are insulating as we go. This will allow me to spend some cold days in my space with the help of a small heater.

The grounds are popping with new growth. Hostas are poking up through the ground in the shadiest areas. My strawberry plants are blooming, and tulips are sharing their glory. I have not planted my vegetables yet. I have some tomato seedlings in my green house and I started a big pot of cucumbers.

The cat dominium is empty. I offended Marble and she took her babies under the shed. I won't see them again until they get big enough to follow Mama out. One kitten is multi-colored like the Mama, then we have a solid black, and an orange striped male that looks like Garfield. Garfield has grown into a magnificent creature. His head is really big and his body is long. He has "presence". Like he is the king of the neighborhood. I have been told that I can't have another kitten. Eddie and I laughed and laughed.

Hey, I am not the one who started feeding the cats! Kevin has been stalking the turtle. We keep a cover on her habitat while we sleep, and he managed to get up there last night and turned the heat lamp on! I was still awake and The Man found Kevin atop the habitat. I don't know which pet I am worried about. I know that Keving could do some damage to Dora's shell, but she will bite him! She is shedding her shell again and is not in a good mood. She gets cranky while shedding. She will hiss at me if I try to pluck a loose piece off. She has never tried to bite me, though. She knows my voice and likes to be held at eye level when have our daily conversation. Life goes on, pain or no pain.