Quick and Painless Paper Shredding

I have OsteoArthritis in my hands and Carpal Tunnel Syndrome in my wrists so I have limitations to what and how much intricate work I can do with my hands.  Cutting with scissors is one of the things that I especially have to limit or I will be in pain for days afterwards.  This makes my job as a dog groomer difficult.  It also makes shredding papers for my compost extremely difficult without risking causing so much pain in my hands & wrists that I can't work the next day.

So I came up with this hack to help me make great use of those super long rolls of paper that get stuffed into my mail order packages.  This one was at least 50 feet long.

If I were to take my scissors to this length of paper or attempt to hand shred it I would not be able to function for at least a few days afterwards.  So I used this old paper cutter that I bought at a yard sale for about $2 and I flattened out the paper strip, worked it through the cutter and quickly had it sliced up into nice narrow strips in approximately 17 minutes!

The finished product is a huge box (about 3' x 2.5') half filled with paper strips ready for my compost bin.  My worms will love some of this as well.  It makes great covering for the top of the worm bin that will get eaten up by the worms as they work away at the kitchen waste.

Even if you don't have OA or Carpal Tunnel this hack will make quick work of that LONG roll of brown paper that you receive with your next mail order package.

Thanks for stopping by, I hope this post is helpful to you!

The Strangest Doctor Visit Ever, Or an Alien Abduction, I'm Not Sure Which

I went to the dermatologist today to have him/her look at the brown spots on my hands and arms.  They started developing about six years ago and recently have been doing some weird changing, so I wanted to get it checked out.  I haven't been to a dermatologist before, therefore I have nothing to compare it to, so perhaps my visit was quite normal.  But to me, it was the strangest experience I've ever had in a doctors office.  Let me tell you about it...

My doctor turned out to be a female doctor, I wasn't sure because they were squeezing me in to see who ever was available.  It begins quite normally with a short Q & A with the assistant, then she has me change into a gown that is open in the back, and she tells me the doc will be with me momentarily.  The doctor walks in the room a few moments later with a headband style magnifier on her head, which makes her look like she has giant eyeballs. 

She looked like this mannequin, but her eyes were even more magnified.  (And of course she had hair.)

Image from Amazon. You can click here if you want to buy a pair, LOL.  You know, I could use a set of these things to check my chickens for mites...or maybe I can just bring them in for her to examine.

So she walks right up to me, well inside my personal bubble, and introduces herself to me, speaking so fast I almost couldn't understand her.  She asks me what brought me in today...that part I understood.  She is so close to me and those giant eyeballs are darting around looking at every centimeter of my face.  It was a little disconcerting.  I moved my head backwards in a subconscious reaction that just happens without thinking, because your brain sends the signal that someone or something is invading your personal space.  

I begin to explain that I have these brown spots that I guess are normal for folks my age, and I tell her that mine seem to be changing so it concerned me. I point out a few in different stages on my arms and the back of my hands. All the while she is examining me very closely with those magnified eyeballs.  Not just examining my arms and the back of my hands, she is looking at every part of my face, and my neck.  She is like 8 inches from my body! 

She tells me those spots are quite normal, not to worry about them. Then she starts going through my hair.  I feel like a kid in kindergarten getting checked for lice.  She opens the back of the gown and starts examining my back. She touches here or there as she closely makes her way over my entire back. The whole time she is talking about how "husbands never notice things like strange moles on our back so we should learn to use a mirror to get to know what our backs look like..." She goes on talking as she works her way around my body, examining my neck and chest.  She even reaches inside the front of my bra and examines between my breast, and underneath too!   I felt so invaded, kind of like what I imagine it would be like if I were abducted by aliens to be studied.

Image by holohololand at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Finally she is done inspecting me from this 8" distance with those freaky looking magnifying glasses she is wearing.  She says there is a mole on my back that she would like a biopsy of...today!  I consented to the biopsy and she leaves the room while her assistant numbs up the area.  The doc comes back in the room as abruptly as the first time and goes behind me and cuts off the mole in like 3 seconds and places it in a bottle to be sent in for biopsy. She quickly tells me she wants me to do monthly exams and see her in a year for the brown spots and she will contact me in 10-14 days with the results of the biopsy and we will go from there with that one.  She is still wearing the headband magnifier, looking at me with those large cartoon eyes, yet talking seriously to me about her concern.  Then she quickly exits the room.  It was so surreal.

The assistant stops the bleeding, applies an ointment and a bandage and leaves the room for me to dress in my clothes again.  She meets me at the door a moment later and escorts me to the from desk while going over my post-biopsy instructions. 

So I went in for the brown spots on my hands and arms and leave with a biopsy pending for something on my back that I wasn't even aware of before.  So I guess I will wait for those results...and hopefully if there is an issue with the biopsy results requiring me to return her, she will take off those darn magnifiers so I can see her real eyes.

That was the most bizarre medical experience I think I've ever had.  I wish you could have seen her giant eyes probing every inch of me.  I kind of wanted to laugh out loud because it was so strange, but it just didn't seem appropriate at the time.  I've been snickering to myself about it all afternoon.

Keeper of 1 husband, 2 grandkids, 3 dogs,
3 cats, and 17 Chickens!

 

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Big Red, the Silver Lining of my Very Cloudy Day

A few days ago I was on my 4th day of being sick with a very sore throat, fever, and an irritating cough that would not let me get any sleep, and it wasn't getting any better.  Then my ears began to ache and feel like I was wearing ear muffs so I decided it was time to see a doctor.   Of course I didn't reach this decision until late Sunday afternoon.  If I was going to get any relief I need to go to Phoenix to and urgent care clinic because I didn't think I could handle one more night of this illness.  I searched online for and urgent care clinic that was open late on Sunday nights.  I found one that also allowed pre-registering online.  Since I had a 1-1/2 hour drive ahead of me to get to the clinic, pre-registering could help me get in and out quickly and hopefully we could be back home by dinner time.  Besides, I didn't want to spend one minute longer than absolutely necessary sitting in a waiting room with other sick people, passing around our germs to one another.

Good thing I pre-registered because there weren't even enough seats for the hubby and I to sit down when we arrived.  I was called back within 10 minutes of arriving, ahead of people who had been waiting there for over an hour (wishing they had pre-registered I bet).  I know I probably ticked off more than a few people who had been waiting there for awhile.  Once in the back, they gagged me with a giant q-tip to get a culture to test for strep.  (It was negative thank goodness).  Then the doctor examined me and said I had an upper respiratory infection and prescribed antibiotics and some other over the counter stuff that was suppose to to relieve the symptoms.

At approximately 6:30 pm the doctor gave me my walking papers and told me he sent my prescription to a CVS Pharmacy in the valley ('the valley' means one of the many cities within the large metropolitan area known generally as Phoenix) that was a 24 hour store.  It was approximately a 35 minute drive to the pharmacy.  When we arrived, we discovered that the store was in fact a 24 store...but not the pharmacy!  That department had closed before I even left the urgent care clinic.  I was now in a panic!  I needed to get the antibiotics in my system asap so they could start working and maybe I would start feeling better by tomorrow evening, if I was lucky.  I just knew I was not going to be able to wait until tomorrow to come back to the valley to pick up the medication and get one day sicker before starting the antibiotics.

In a panic I called the urgent care clinic and told them what happened.  They said to just give them the name and address of another pharmacy and they would call it in there.  Well I don't live in the valley so I don't know which pharmacy is closest to our location or which ones are open late on Sunday night.   My husband asked the clerk for a list of close CVS Pharmacies that have a pharmacist on duty at that hour.  He didn't know.  Apparently they don't keep a list of 24 hour pharmacy departments in case of this kind of situation.  He guessed about one not too far away but wasn't 100% sure they were open, and he didn't have their number!?   I had to google the store to get the number then called them myself.  They said the pharmacy was in fact open 24 hours.  I called urgent care back and told them of the new location.  They said they would have the doctor send the script there.  We drove 20 minutes away to the second pharmacy.  The time is now shortly after 9:00 pm.

I go inside and head all the way back to the pharmacy department. (Why do they make sick people walk all the way to the back of the big building for their medication?)  They look up my name...nothing!  What?!?  I called the urgent care clinic back and after several minutes on hold, she tells me they had an emergency patient that the doctors are working with, as soon as they are free they will call it in.  Ok, I can understand this, "be patient" I tell myself.   The urgent care said they would call me when the script is called in.   I am sitting in the pharmacy waiting area, 10 minutes pass, then 15, then 20, and finally my phone rings!  It is urgent care, but they said they couldn't call it in because there are more than one CVS Pharmacies on this same street, which one am I at?  "Well the hell if I know!" I wanted to shout, but instead I ask the clerk.   I pass on the street address to the urgent care receptionist.  She locates the appropriate store and tells me the doctors are again with patients, and she will have them call it in as soon as they get out.

It is now about 9:45pm, my throat is hurting like hell, my emotions are just frazzled, and I start crying right there in the waiting area.  When the prescription is finally called in, everyone is already aware of me so they start working on it right away.  Within minutes the wonderful pharmacy staff at the Dobson & Warner CVS Pharmacy call my name.  I pay for the antibiotics and over the counter medicines and head to the car where my husband is patiently waiting with a chicken in the back seat in a plastic tub with holes drilled in it so the chicken doesn't die of heat exhaustion in the nighttime temperature of 100 degrees

...Wait a minute!  A Chicken?!  Where did that come from?! 

Lets back up a little bit and I will tell you...


Earlier in the day I was reading posts on my favorite online forum, Backyard Chickens, when one of the folks from the Arizona group posted that she had a laying hen she needed to find a home for -Free to a good home, just PM her.  I had been wanting a laying hen so we could start enjoying fresh eggs now, since our chicks are not going to be laying for a few months.  I I sent her a message that I was interested, just visit my blog to learn more about the new home her hen would have and contact me if she approved.  I explained that we lived a few hours north of the valley and made the drive at least once a week so I could come get her on our next time in town.

While I was in urgent care, waiting in my room to see the doctor, she emailed me to say she wanted to find 'Red' (the hens name) a new home as quick as possible so when might I be coming to the valley again.  I said, "I am here right now, waiting in the urgent care to see a doctor.  But I could meet her somewhere after I was done."   So when I was done we arranged to meet near where the pharmacy was.  It would only take a few minutes out of our time to pick up the chicken, get my prescription and be back home in two hours.  But as you know already, it didn't work out that simple.

Big Red in her makeshift Travel Tub

So during this pharmacy fiasco we had a 5 month old hen in plastic box with holes drilled in it to keep her from melting, in the back seat of my car in the 100 degree temperatures.  It was so hot that I had to lift the lid a little on the tub to get enough air in to her.  She was figgity and kept turning around in the tub.  I was afraid she might just jump out of the tub and probably scare the bajeezes out of my husband who has zero experience with chickens.   I worried about this every time I had to go inside the pharmacy(s) and leave them alone.  Thankfully that didn't happen.

We finally arrive back home at just after midnight, both of us dog-tired, me feeling like total crapola from my infection, and feeling horrible about the nasty fast-food that we were forced to eat because we were starving and couldn't leave the hen in the car in this heat. I have not eaten at anything like a 'McDonald's (just for example) in over 20 years, but this was a desperate situation that I hope we never have to repeat.  I took the hen out to the chicken run and moved her from the plastic tub to a dog crate and placed the crate into the coop, put in a fresh water bottle with a chicken nipple, then went to bed.

The next morning I got to see that there was a Silver Lining to this dark cloud of a night...it was "Red", now called "Big Red" because we already have a "Red" in the flock.

I'll tell you about this 'New Chick in the Coop' in tomorrows post...I need a nap now.

Keeper of 1 husband, 2 grandkids, 3 dogs,
3 cats, and 17 Chickens!

 

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Did this post stir something inside of you? If so, Please leave me a comment, I would love to know what you're thinking!!!

Question for the Chicken Pro's: How Real is Salmonella Risk in Handling Your Chickens?

Back when I was a child raising chickens we never gave a second thought to the risks of Human Salmonella infection, and never did I or any member of my family become ill because of it.  However, now that I am reading everything I can get my hands on about raising chickens again, I keep seeing articles telling me how risky handling chickens can be for humans.

I just read an article on TractorSupply.com about Poultry Handling Safety Guidelines and they make it sound like chickens are practically toxic.  The article says that children under the age of 5 should not touch chickens at all.  They also said to not let Chickens inside your home, especially in bathrooms.  Not that I planned on having chickens in my house hanging out like my cats do, but I would have baby chicks inside if it were to be too cold for them outside.

An article on the CDC website seems to be saying that the high risks are related to baby chicks (and ducklings). However is says that these baby chicks can contaminate the coop and the grounds where they roam.  They didn't specifically say adult chickens, however if the babies contaminate everything, wouldn't the adults be able to carry and pass on this infection? 

So one question I would love an answer to from you chicken pro's is how do you clean out the coop and use that material in your garden/compost if everything that comes in contact with the chickens has a potential risk of contaminating you with Salmonella?  

Also, both of these articles say to not snuggle or kiss your birds....well I have fond memories of having my favorite chickens sit in my lap quite often and I have read many of your blog posts sharing stories of your chickens being sociable and sitting in your lap.  So are we expected to wear a HazMat suit when handling our chickens so they don't get Salmonella germs on our clothes???

Is Human Salmonella Infection really so much more of a higher risk these days?   Are chickens more Salmonella-ridden then they were several decades ago or have our immune systems become more susceptible to it?  Or are people just more paranoid about things these days?

Please share what you know about this issue and how you have dealt with it.

Keeper of 1 husband, 2 grandkids, 3 dogs,
3 cats, and 17 Chickens!

 

I would love it if you 'Liked' me on Facebook too!

Did this post stir something inside of you? If so, Please leave me a comment, I would love to know what you're thinking!!!