Range of Motion and Free Range Chickens...

MaKenzie's appointment yesterday in Cincinnati went very well. The therapist who decides whether the Lokomat therapy is appropriate for her gave us her stamp of approval. So now we move to the next phase, making sure insurance will cover it. If not, $6,000.00 out of pocket is a bit steep...  The Lokomat machine is very cool.  It literally locks her legs into the robotic legs, and moves them for her in a correct pattern.  She can "help" the movement, but it will not allow her to bend her knee inward or rotate her foot incorrectly.  The appointment lasted for about an hour or so, and we were back on the road.

William and Lena went with us yesterday, while Cody, Jonas, Jared and Matthew stayed at Mom and Dad's. John Wesley had an appointment in Lexington at the orthodontist and it just happened that Harold had to be in Lexington to pick up a prospective volunteer from the airport, so he took John Wesley to his appt. John Wesley is a little sore today. It was even hard for him to eat biscuits and gravy this morning, so he must be sore.

Lena, William, MaKenzie and I had a fun time and some very interesting conversations. All of our farm-y happenings such as the puppies being born and being nursed by Anna, talking about milking the goats, and the chickens laying eggs (and whether or not they need a rooster to do that and why), have given us lots of opportunities for "facts of life" type conversations--and that's a good thing, but it sure can be comical sometimes.

Lena asked me why dogs had so many babies and humans and goats only had one or two. The quick, off-the-top-of-my-head answer was that it must have something to do with how many little ones the mommy had the capacity to feed. Goats and people only have 2 "teats" and dogs have like 8, right? I thought that made perfect sense. Lena, having evidently been deep in thought, piped up from the back seat after a couple minutes, "Mommy--do YOU have TEATS???? Where are they?" William and I busted out laughing. I finally regained my composure (without wrecking the car, thankfully) and told her it was a woman's chest. That's why we have nipples, etc. So then William pipes up, "So, Mom, why do MEN have nipples?" Goodness, that one I can't answer. Sorry. Someone more knowledgeable than I will have to answer that one--so that's exactly what I told him. So, Lena goes one step further and asked me HOW the milk gets into the mommy's "teats". I told her you just open them up and pour it in. Just kidding! It really has been a great opportunity to point out how creative and really SMART God is. His designs really are amazingly complex. Intelligent creator, indeed.  How anyone can believe it all "just happened" is simply beyond my comprehension.

In other farm-y news, John Wesley sold his black Japanese chickens (for twice what he paid for them, no less--what an entrepreneur!). We now have a nice little flock of Rhode Island Reds, who hopefully will soon be providing us with fresh brown eggs for our breakfasts. Today we got brave enough to let them out to peck freely around OUTSIDE their coop. We were worried the dogs would bother them, but they just laid there dozing in the autumn sunshine. I think they realize that fresh chicken is a meal that takes far too much work for them. If they just wait and lay around long enough, they'll get their chicken--cooked and deboned--straight from our leftover scrap pile. Why should they break a doggy-sweat chasing chickens when they'll eventually get their dinner handed to them on a chrome-plated platter?

Isn't Jumbo a handsome rooster? I think so.