Sunday, November 24, 2013

Farm Family Update



I'm sure that this news has filtered a great deal of the way through the grapevine already...

One of our greatest assets as a local family farm that direct-markets all of our products is you, our customers!  When we say you're a part of our farm family, we really mean family.

As a part of our farm family, I'm sure you all will be shaking your proverbial finger at us for not telling you sooner!  (And rest easy knowing that everyone and everything is now fine!

Last week, HannaMae was run over by one of our trucks carrying half a load of grain.  Nothing punctures squished or broken, just sore muscles and after a week of taking it pretty easy she is pretty much back to normal.  Here is we all give her guardian angel a pat on the back...

Here's the extended version.

HannaMae was escorted across the road and sent to inform Papa that it was lunch time.  After doing that task, she decided not to wait with Papa to go back to the house (since he was still finishing up his task at hand) but to walk back right then.  She walked back through the gardens and waiting at the road for Grandma to come out to escort her back across the road, as per The Rules.  After waiting for a bit she decided to lay down on the field road edge to wait.

About 45 minutes after having sent HannaMae off, Grandma began to get worried.  She hadn't seen HannaMae come back to cross the road and Papa hadn't come back yet.  So Grandma takes the small truck (still loaded with grain) out to check on Jason and look for HannaMae.  Jason and Grandma both get worried since it had been about half an hour wince Jason had seen HannaMae (Who had of course refused any coat heavier than a light sweater for her quick trip).  Jason and Grandma head out in different directions looking for her.

Grandma drives back to the house and turns onto the field road below the gardens by the hoophouses (where The Rules say children must wait to cross the road and where HM had laid down to wait) to look for HannaMae.  HannaMae was in her own world of thoughts and didn't see or hear the truck and with the field road as bumpy as it is, Grandma didn't feel anything unusual in driving on the field road.  Grandma got out of the truck to call for HannaMae and heard her screaming.  Upon finding HannaMae she carried her across the road to the front yard and met with Jason just getting back from his search on the tractor.

Jason carried HannaMae inside and checked her head to toe and found nothing appearing to be broken.  He did, however, find bruises around her hips and lower back.  He called Margaret at work and took HannaMae to the ER.

The nurses and Doctor at the hospital took wonderful care of her, brought her temperature back up since she was outside for about 45 minutes on a cold day with little more than a sweater on, and checked everything over twice.  The doctor used the ultrasound to check her organs and everything was perfect.  They called the radiologist to do x-rays on her legs and pelvis and nothing appeared to have even a hairline fracture of any sort.

We spent the afternoon and part of the evening in the ER.  HannaMae rested and when she showed that she could walk, with lots of help of course, she was allowed to go home.  We spent the next several days resting on the couch, using lots of help to walk around and stretch and by Monday afternoon, she was walking, slowly, without help from even the wall.

Tuesday HannaMae went back to school and by Thursday her muscles and joints were functioning enough to climb even big bus stairs and she rode the bus to and from school the rest of the week.

By now you can hardly even tell she had anything happen at all.  She even almost kept up with Margaret while putting away sheep yesterday.  More or less back to normal.

We have thanked her guardian angel profusely.  I'm sure they are exhausted after that ordeal.

We thank everyone for their thoughts and prayers and understanding.