white

Spring flowers and a photo-bombing chicken.

Polly and Jerry

I am so excited to announce that we have two precious new piglets.  Before you ask, no these are not pets, even though I have named them.  This is our fourth set of pigs to raise for food.  Our stash in the freezer is getting mighty low and these two pigs will be ready to be processed in December.  We got them from a fella in Portland, TN.  I was seriously relieved to find them on a nice farm in very nice conditions quite like our own... or our own dreams.  We don't have cows yet.  We initially wanted two sows but ended up with a boy and a girl so we had a teeny job to do on him before putting him in the pen.  We did not cut their tails which we have done on all our pigs in the past. 

 

I am thankful to not have to throw any scrap of food away in our house for a while.  Granny and I make this a little side hobby since neither of us like to see our hard kitchen work go to waste. 

 

I don't normally name animals that we plan to eat.  These two are just too cute to not have names.  I think I'm toughening up that I can name and eat.

 

 

Meet Pretty Miss Polly Pockets and Jerry.

 

 Miss Polly's curly tail.

 Polly on the right, Jerry on the left.  He has more black than she does and is a tad smaller.

Jerry.

 Jerry likes to wag his tail a lot.



In This Skin

Me and my spotted skin... here we go.  I live with psoriasis.  My psoriasis is called Guttate Psoriasis.  Red spots form on my skin anywhere they want to, without reason or timing or cause from anything I am doing.  The cells in my skin produce at a more rapid rate than they should.  I have been dealing with the red spots for about six years.  Before that I dealt with white spots or areas of my skin turning into white splotches which happened mainly when I would tan and mainly on my torso.  It was like my tan would peel off. This I can remember starting in my late teens to early twenties.  Whether the white spots are related to the red spots I don't know.  Doctor after dermatologist can't make it go away.  Items help and sometimes make it lighter but never go away completely.  I feel that I am in a lucky stage right now because the red spots are mainly on my shins, the white spots remain everywhere. 

 

The sad part to me is that this is the first year that I have actually thought about hiding it from people.  When you go from long pants and jeans, because of warmer weather, to shorts and skirts and the kids at day care ask about my owees and does it hurt.  The truth is that it does hurt at times and it does itch and I do want to hide it.  The good thing is that I do have ways to make it feel better and please believe me that I have tried remedy after remedy over the years.  When you have something like this, that is visible to everyone, you try everything from tar to vitamins to teas to sunlight to lotions to medicines.  One tube of cream from the pharmacy had a retail price of $860.00.  Yeah.. that is what I said... and it doesn't work... for me anyway. 

 

So there is my confession and here is what it looks like and what I use to calm it down and the best lotion that I have found to use.  I wanted to share because I know I am not the only one and you may have it or may know someone who is at their whits end and maybe something I show you that I use may help flare ups or itching.  Or maybe you have a suggestion for me that worked for someone you know. 

 

 

 

And what I use.

 

 

ugh this is as big as the picture gets.  If you can't see something let me know and I will help you find it.  I didn't include links to the products and for that I apologize.  I feel as if I have said enough.  Sometimes I let people in on the blog here before I would ever let anyone in in person.

And by the way, psoriasis is hereditary and supposedly can go into remission.  Here's hoping!