Anywho, septic tank guy couldn’t find it and couldn’t find a clean-out for it anywhere (I don’t know where that is), so he told me he would come back after I had a plumber come out to locate the septic tank. He says the plumber will have a camera to put down the toilet to locate the septic tank….

So now I have two things to think about…what kind of septic tank guy can’t find a septic tank? Also, what kind of septic tank guy isn’t equipped with a fancy-dancy toilet camera if that is the tool used to find a septic tank? And how do you not find it when someone is literally pointing at the ground telling you it is there? Should I trust this guy to actually know how to pump out the septic tank? I mean…you can go to YouTube to learn how to locate a septic tank! 

Well, I got my dad’s room all clean and organized…that took until almost 4pm because I had to stop and fix the vacuum cleaner.  It’s one of those Sharks for pet hair…the Stratos. It was being so, so hard to push…it was taking every bit of strength I had…and then I accidentally got a little too close to the garbage bag I had in there, and it started sucking it up. And me and the vacuum were fighting over the bag! I finally managed to get the dadgum thing turned off…but I couldn’t pull that bag out. So, I had to flip the vacuum over to wrestle that out.

Now, did I mention that there are six dogs and three cats living here? Yeah…a lot of hair got matted up in a roller brush that is on the front of the bottom of the vacuum, and I had to literally cut it out, bit by bit. The vacuum works like a dream now, and it’s very easy to push around, I’m happy to say!

4pm is doggy supper time around here…and all six of them know it and will give you no peace until it’s done. A couple the cats are absolutely disgusted and horrified at the dog’s everyday supper behavior, but I fed the dogs and it occurred to me that the dang plumber still had not shown up. So, I called his office and talked to a woman who I imagine is a secretary, and she told me that the plumber didn’t come because he couldn’t get a hold of me on the phone, and that him and her had left several voicemails and I never called them back. 

It is true that my phone is set to only put through calls from people on my contact list, and to send all others to voicemail. I check and clear my voicemail every day, and my phone notifies me when a voicemail is left – immediately, so I have the opportunity to call back right away.

There were no voicemails from anybody from the local area code, and the two voicemails that were left (one from Beverly Hills, Ca which sounded like a fax machine and another from New Jersey trying to sell me a vehicle warranty)was proof that my voicemail was working. So, she was either calling the wrong number or that woman straight-up lied to me. 

So, I told her my phone number again and asked her if that was the number she had called. She said yes it was and that I would have to turn off my “blocker” if I wanted them to come out the next day. I told her they should really leave a voicemail, or, since I had the office number saved in my phone, she could just call me and tell me they were coming out. She said she would do that and they would come out the next day…

…and that brings me to Tuesday. As usual, I pulled myself together, tended to my seedlings and critters, and knocked my daily chores around the house out fairly quickly since all I really had to do was make the beds and straighten up a few things…the “real” housework gets done on Mondays, and the rest of the week, other than washing dishes in the evening the only thing to do is make the beds and straighten whatever needs straightening.


I helped my daddy get his bath. Well, that’s what I say to him…that I’m helping him…but in all honestly, I literally have to undress, bathe, and redress him. It takes about an hour, and requires a lot of strength and energy, which I was running low on.

I started doing the spring cleaning in the guest room and I was feeling tired and low on energy. I kept having to take breaks and catch my breath because everything felt like a struggle.

Anyway, I was talking to my sister and both of us agreed that maybe I just needed a day off from all the cleaning, so instead, I worked on our website and a few other “sit-down” things…oh, and I did my nails. Other than just not feeling up to par, it was a fairly easy, uneventful day…and then 4pm came again, and still no plumber.

Because I was tired, I went to bed early, and in the wee hours of the morning, I woke up with those night sweats. Now, if you’ve never had night sweats, you may not understand the extent of it, so let me explain. My hair was soaked, as was my skin and nightgown. I had to completely change clothes and just to keep my wet head warm, I wrapped my hair in a towel. Then, of course, I had to change the sheets because they were also soaked. I went and fetched dry pillows from the laundry room too.


That’s what it means when someone says they get night sweats. It’s not just a small amount of perspiration. If you didn’t know any better, you would have thought 10 toddlers all wet the bed at the same time. The difference is that this moisture is sweet yet musty smelling, while pee smells like…pee.

Daylight on Wednesday morning came way too early, so I reset the alarm for another hour and slept in. When I woke up, before I ever crawled out of bed, I sent a text message to little Miss Secretary at the Plumbers Office. I told her that I no longer wanted their services. She immediately started trying to call….looky there, the phone rang and I could see who was calling. I sent her to voicemail.


She immediately sent me a text (after leaving a voicemail about the difficulties they have getting in touch with me) informing me that once again, she had to leave a voicemail because my phone goes straight to voicemail. I replied telling her that my phone didn’t send her there, I did, because we’ve spent enough time together in this life, and no further contact was wanted or needed.

She replied again, blaming me more for their inability to write down the correct number to begin with, their inability to leave a voicemail, and their inability to make sense in general. And in that same text told me “he” would be here in 40 minutes to locate the septic tank. I said…”hold on. First, you don’t get to blame me for what amounts to complete and utter customer service failure on YOUR part. Second, I’ve told you like three times now that I do not want your service anymore, so if he shows up out here, he WILL be greeted at the door by my six large dogs, backed by my .38 special.”


She replied once more with “You have a wonderful day ma’am.” With that behind me, I decided the septic tank could wait a few days…or a week.

I pulled myself together with great difficulty, tended my plants as best I could, decided my bed didn’t need to be made again, since I had done that well before daylight, and went ahead and made my daddy’s bed. Then spent the remainder of the day sitting here in this chair, not moving again until Daddy’s lunch and medicine time, and again at his supper time and night medicine time. I got him to bed about 8:30, then went to bed myself…

Which brings me to Thursday, 4:06am, when I woke up violently shivering from what I was sure was the coldest I’d ever been in my life. The only thing that is worse than night sweats is night fevers. This kind of fever is never low-grade. Mine has never been below 103, and this time was no different – 103.9.

I know the thing to do is to cool the body down…shed covers and clothing, take acetaminophen and wait for the fever to come down. But, when your fever is that high, and you are certain you are going to die from the cold you feel, you don’t really do what you know you’re supposed to do. You do the thing that is going to bring you the most immediate relief. Hot bath, warmest clothes you can find, extra blankets on the bed, a heating pad on high…and of course the acetaminophen. Then you just shiver yourself back to sleep…all of which I did.

Thankfully..mercifully, my Jeremy got home Friday morning! My hero had arrived in his big White truck to rescue me!

He took over caring for the house and my Daddy, and I went upstairs to the hobby room to plant more seeds and up-pot some things. Friday was a quiet, peaceful day with my hands in the dirt and nobody needing anything from me…other than my little seedlings. I was able to get a lot of my “plant” work done and just let my mind and my body focus on what I needed for a while.


Jeremy went and picked supper up from Cotton Patch and we went to bed early.

Saturday, I was feeling a little better, but Jeremy still insisted that I take things easy, and I did not argue.


The thing with Lupus is the if you don’t give your body what it needs during a flare, that flare can go on and on. So, I took it easy and rested, and Jeremy made truly awesome Hobo Potatoes with Andouille Sausage foil packets on the grill. So, Sunday, there were leftovers.

I might not have been able to physically do a lot from Wednesday on, but I did do things. I designed the new labels for our salves and tinctures, with the new business name and logo, and I also designed the labels for our new line of sauces and seasonings. Then, I ordered the bottles for our first barbecue sauce, new tincture bottles and new salve containers. So, I could make and package everything, label everything, and I ordered a new thermal printer with thermal printer shipping labels, and of course shipping boxes for everything.

If you read my column from last week, you know that we sold our 12-acre farm in Arkansas to move here to take care of my Daddy. So, we essentially had to start over not just the farm, but our little Etsy business as well, and our website.


We used to be Lowe Valley Farms, and of course now we are Lowe Bridges Farm. But in honesty, I really didn’t see us restarting the business…the farm of course…but not the business. I figured I would be far too busy tending to my daddy, and while that is definitely a full time job, in that I spend every waking hour with my Daddy, there is a lot of downtime when he is napping, watching the Price is Right, doing his jigsaw puzzles or playing his solitaire game, both on his iPad.

(Important Note to Anyone Caring for A Loved One With Dementia: Do NOT get them an iPad…it’s very complicated, and as dementia progresses, it becomes too complicated to the point that they really don’t even want to pick it up…and picking it up and doing things like jigsaw puzzles and various solitaire card games helps them to retain their memory and cognitive skills longer. I wish I had gone with the THIS TABLET instead to begin with, but I am currently saving my nickels and dimes to get this for him.)

But, there is time to work on the website, and with Jeremy’s help on the weekends, there is time to make our products. I found time for Canuary, and my Daddy did not suffer or do without me through that…and I’ve been right here taking care of him through all of Cleanruary as well. There is always time to do the things that are most important to you.


And even though Lupus rears its ugly head from time to time, canning, organizing, working on the website, making our salves, tinctures and sauces…even the cleaning. All of it makes me happy.

Until next week,