A catchup post - in the transistion between computers, this link got a little lost in the shuffle - I'm going to try and do better as there is so much to say.
CrazyHorse had a strange last few months, and scary too. He has a tendancy towards pneumonia apparently and does not present with a fever like most people do. This last round was BAD. The first round of antibiotics didn't cut it, they put him in the hospital overnight for Super Antibiotic and breathing treatments - sent us home with a nebulizer and albuterol. I do NOT like albuterol. It made him moody and gave him incredibly vivid nightmares. After a few weeks, it looked like everything was done and we weened him off. Christmas Eve and he starts coughing again - really bad - so I take him back to the doctors the monday after and BAM - he's weezing again and they put him back on the albuterol. We go back in, he sounds *ok* but not perfect and we are given Singulair. Two days. That's all it took for everything to clear up and for him to start acting like himself. After the last few months - I'm so relieved I don't have the right words for it.
Wolverine - he's doing better, sort of, on the scratching. He still does it when he's really mad. But, we found a lotion he can use, we found laundry detergent and fabric softener that don't seem to be too bad, soap, and bubble bath. Now though, now he won't eat. I've tried everything. There's only so much he'll agree to eat to start with and we've had days where it was a fight - a hard battle - to get anything beyond milk past his lips. It's driving me bats. Add to that that we're having a hard time getting him to sleep in his own room, he hates to be out of my site, and forget leaving him for longer than it takes to flip laundry or take the dogs out. I'm really looking forward to the first age of reason where it will be easier to explain why mama doesn't need to be in the same room with him ALL the time.
On the Dream front - fact is, we're no where near being able to live off the grid. We know this. It doesn't mean we don't really wish we could. We've taken to watching Renovation Nation on the green channel. There are methods and materials we can use as we fix up the house we're in and then, down the road, when the time comes to move on and find the Dream, someone else will have our little house with all the neat salvaged stuff and (hopefully) recycled steel roof and various other neat little things we've seen. They get noted for when the time comes to build from the ground up (unless we go the other way and find a ratty old farmhouse to convert). It's nice to dream about but we're no where near making it a reality. Someday, I hope.