Lau Family Farm, LLC grassfed meat available July 25
Lori Anne Lau
LAU FAMILY FARM, LLC
Grass-Fed and Finished * No Antibiotics * No Hormone Implants
We will be attending the Idaho Falls Farmers Market on Saturday, July 25th. Look for us between 9 and 1 pm in the Key Bank Parking lot along the river in Idaho Falls.
John’s dad was in the hospital for several days after a trip to the ER on the 3rd. He is now back in his home and is receiving hospice care. He is dealing with kidney failure, as well as emphysema/COPD and some heart issues. We thought, as did the nurse, that we’d lost him on the 9th but he has rallied and seems to have recovered all his mental faculties and physical capabilities.
We will try to keep to this plan, but things are very unpredictable here. We have recruited some help to check on/be with Grant while we are preparing for and attending the farmers market on Saturday, so unless he takes another turn for the worse we should be able to get out of town.
John is continuing to try to get our hay put up. We have 2-3 times as much as we’ve had in recent years. The price of non-dairy quality hay has dropped tremendously this year, so there won’t be much incentive to sell our excess hay. I’m hoping we can hold on to quite a bit of the surplus for the next dry year when we are lacking hay. He and Tom are working on keeping the various groups of animals in feed, and water. Multiple visits to see his Dad per day, staying with him overnight, and keeping up with the haying and livestock chores has John fairly well maxed out. Sarah stayed for 8 or 9 days, but she’s gone back to “real life” and her job in Twin for at least a few days.
We were able to take Grant out to the farm Saturday afternoon, the 11th. He decided he’d seen taller grass in his 86 years, but the rest of us were suitable impressed. None of us can operate Grant’s camera very well so we ended up with an overexposed picture of generations 4,5 and 6 of the Lau clan. I can’t recall the last time we got one of those taken. Grant has the desire to make homemade rootbeer, like his mother made, so he can enjoy it with his all three of his grandkids during the county fair. I thought he wanted to make it with the grandkids, but he told me tonight he wants to drink it with them…so I’ll be back to prioritizing washing the 50 bottles he’s gathered up and try to get that done ASAP while he’s feeling up to participating.
Meanwhile the bulls have been turned out for breeding season. Summer, the mare, has been taken to Grays Lake to be bred. Tug, the 2 yr old colt, is adjusting to being separated from his mother while getting lots of attention from Tom. Katie, the calf, has developed the habit of butting her bottle, as I learned when she butted it right into my chin the other morning. The bottle lambs are all fully weaned since I’ve gone into Grandpa crisis mode of late. The ewes are not as enthused about the grass we’ve put them out to graze on as we’d hoped but…they always seem to prefer to go back and eat the 2 inch tall regrowth where they were before. Meat steers and mother cows and calves are all mixed up…and all of them aren’t staying put despite feed up to their bellies on both sides of the fence.
July 21st update: John’s dad seems to be holding steady, and is able to fend for himself fairly well again. We thought he was doing well enough that the kids and I could travel to a Farm Bureau meeting in N Idaho. We tossed some clothes in the van, borrowed one of Tom’s buddies, and set off Sunday afternoon. Yesterday we spent a couple of hours on the Univ of Idaho campus and made it to Kellogg about dusk. The headache I’ve been fighting for days turned into a full blown migraine overnight, so this is the first productive thing I’ve done all day. With Tom’s friend we have two teen drivers, so if need be they can get us back home to Soda. The kids say the resort is pretty cool, and I’m extremely thankful to the housekeeping staff that gave me some Tylenol to hold me over until the kids could take me to the store.
Many thanks for your business, and your thoughts and prayers,
Lau Family Farm, LLC
Grass Fed Beef, Lamb & Wool...A Natural Choice
PO Box 337
Soda Springs, ID 83276
208-709-4981 (cell)
Lori Anne Lau
LAU FAMILY FARM, LLC
Grass-Fed and Finished * No Antibiotics * No Hormone Implants
We will be attending the Idaho Falls Farmers Market on Saturday, August 1st. Look for us between 9 and 1 pm in the Key Bank Parking lot along the river in Idaho Falls. We plan to be back in IF on August 22nd and 29th.
· We should have a full assortment of beef and lamb cuts, and a descent supply of sausages as well. We can probably fill most basic orders but some may have to wait until the 22nd.
It is now nearly 4 weeks since John’s dad went from being nearly completely independent, to seeming to be in the process of passing away, and back to wanting to be independent again. On Friday the 3rd Grant had an appointment at 9 am so I went over hoping to drive him, but at least make sure he was headed out the door close to on time. He didn’t want a ride, so I went ahead and said he’d be along shortly. He did come along shortly but when we arrived his whole body was spasming, and he said he had a bad headache. It quickly became clear that he wasn’t able to participate in his appointment and he wanted me to take him home. I convinced him to go to his doctors office, and when the doctor wasn’t in, we went to the ER next door. The nurses realized his blood pressure was over 200 and he was having hard time keeping enough oxygen in his blood.
The blood tests eventually showed that he had extremely high levels of potassium in his blood. The doctor told him he’d have to stay in the hospital till his blood work was better, and they were sure he wasn’t fighting pneumonia in addition to his COPD/Emphysema. They gave him some medicines to reduce his blood pressure, another to take the extra potassium out of his system, and gave him nebulizer breathing treatments every 4 hrs. Around the 5th of July, he became convinced his was in the hospital in Pocatello, and tried to leave to go home during the night shift. Sarah and her family had come from Twin for the 4th, so we took turns hanging out with him, and trying madly to get the house ready for him to come to, in a less capable state. Each morning the doctor would say “Grant your kidney function levels just aren’t good enough for you to go home yet”. It turns out that the medicines they gave him for his elevated blood pressure pushed his kidneys over the cliff (they were already shoddy) and they just weren’t rebounding as the doctor expected. Finally on the 7th the doctor told us all that his kidney functions were so poor that Grant either needed to start the process to get dialysis (this would involve a prolonged stay in Pocatello’s hospital to get things started) or to go home on Hospice care. He chose Hospice care, which we all supported. When all the “ducks were in a row” and they said we could leave the nurse made the mistake of letting Grant go into the restroom by himself. Quite a while, and many bumps and bangs later she finally realized her mistake (by this point he was no longer responding). All this while I’d been trying to tell myself that the nurse knows what she is doing, and to quite being paranoid, while thinking the nurse is a total dingbat. They finally remembered that the bathroom doors open both ways (since he was behind it) and they called a “code” and start yelling “ Breathe, Grant, Breathe”. Heaven only knows how long we were in the hallway, wondering what had happened, and thinking he was passing away. As it happens he had taken his oxygen off, tried to get dressed, and when he felt dizzy he had lowered himself to the floor (He was very clear that he hadn’t fallen). His blood pressure dropped crazy low, but he did come back to awareness. So then Sarah and I proceeded to take charge, get him dressed and get him the heck out of there before anything else could happen.
Things seemed fairly stable on the 8th and I took a load of meat to SLC, and enjoyed some time alone with my book on tape while I drove. On Thursday the 9th, I decided to wait at Grants for a meeting that would begin at 7, at the high school which is quite close to Grants house. I’ve lost track of some of the sequence of events but somewhere around 5:30 Grant started complaining of a bad headache, his oxygen levels dropped, all while he HAD to get to the restroom for an urgent event. Sarah says his eyes rolled up in his head, but all I know is that I went from giving light support to just about completely holding him up. I remember telling him to bend his legs and sit but I think we did more of a flop on to the couch. He was completely non-responsive, and his oxygen reading gadget was showing no heart rate or oxygen levels at one point. (I now know it may have been cruddy circulation to his hand causing cruddy levels to look even worse and causing Sarah and I to think he was passing. Somewhere along in here a relative showed up with dinner and he was put to work calling Hospice, and John, to come urgently. Also somewhere in here Grant seemed to be having trouble breathing so before long I was propping him up with my body, cradling him in my arms. The hospice nurse arrived, confirmed things looked pretty dang serious, and went to get some waterproof materials and some medications they can give to alleviate pain etc. Grant was totally unresponsive all this time, Sarah and I were saying our goodbyes, as were John and our kids. Grant stayed unresponsive while we rearranged him on the couch, made him presentable etc. I don’t have a good feel for it but while the nurse was still there we started to see conscious movements, little habits he has always had. More relatives came by later that night, and Grant was able to TELL THEM STORIES! I think he should be renamed “Lazzarus”. The two “close calls” pushed me right over the emotional edge and I decided I was not going to try to focus enough to get ready for and go to a farmers market on the 11th.
His condition has fairly steadily improved since the night of the 9th. He is back to his old self, pretty much his pre-3rd of July self. Along the way we discovered that the Cocoa powder Grant had been dosing himself with (1 Tablespoon per day) is extremely high in potassium. Thus Grant was most likely poisoning himself with cocoa powder, which he had read prevents heart disease in some tropical tribe. If you are 86, with chronic blood pressure disease, cruddy kidney function, and COPD etc taking a lot of cocoa powder might be something you want to discuss with your doctor. Grant is well enough now that he wants to take care of himself, and wants us to stop “hovering”. He is not impressed with the fact that we’ve hired people to come in a few times a week and help him with housework, meal prep etc. Nor is he pleased that we are asking him to wear an “I’ve fallen and I can’t get up bracelet”. He keeps saying he doesn’t care if he falls down, he’ll either die or he won’t. We keep saying that WE care if you fall down, are conscious enough to want help, and have to wait A LONG TIME for one of us to wander in. We will feel like WE’VE failed you and it will be very hard on US. He’s still not convinced…Time will tell how much he’ll come to accept some help, and hopefully he’ll come to see that we want him to save his energy for better things that washing dishes. I would guess that his kidneys have recovered to whatever their pre July 3rd levels were (not great, but not dialysis bad). I don’t think he’s convinced its making much of a difference. but he sure complained of a lot fewer headaches while he has on oxygen 24/7. Now that he is going without for periods throughout the day, I believe the headaches are making a comeback. He just won’t accept that he’s “killing brain cells” whenever his blood oxygen levels drop in the low 80’s. So perhaps he really will have more time than the” less than 6 months” the doctor guessed on the 7th. I hope he will have many more days that he will consider “good days”.
We are so glad to get a chance to hear more stories, and enjoy his sense of humor for additional days. The challenge is going to be providing enough help to enhance his quality of life without needlessly making him dependent. The second challenge is never quite knowing when the next “ramp up” of TLC is going to be called for. We are hoping to be able to join my family for a vacation/reunion the week of the 10th. As I discussed with one of Grant’s relatives I’m trying to build a care plan that is flexible enough to gear up to meet his needs if his condition declines somewhat ( but not so far that we clearly should cancel our trip) but that doesn’t totally smother him if he is able to largely care for himself.
Meanwhile the cows and sheep have mostly stayed where they belong, the horse only got out on the highway once, the critters have minimal reasons to complain about their feed and water providers, and a boatload of hay has been made. I’m told the end of the hay moving season is just about in sight-I will be SOO glad when the last bale is in the stack, but I suspect John will be even more pleased. Its amazing that the kids are out of school part of the summer is nearly at en end. Cross country practice and school registrations will soon be upon us.
I spent Wednesday at the county fairgrounds setting up, manning and then tearing down our Farm Bureau booth. Some years I wonder if it’s all worth it for a few hours of interacting with the public, and think we should stay set up longer. Then I remember how nice it is to not have to be at the fairgrounds all day, for 3-4 days, and decide to leave it be. The rest of the crowd, including Grant, are down at the fairgrounds tonight for the food and rodeo. Despite my efforts to delegate the job to another board member I got stuck with the job of attending the livestock auction tomorrow morning, and trying to stay in our county’s budget while bidding on the various 4-H and FFA project animals. Sure hope I don’t get auction fever, and decide to support every kid. But then again maybe I can spend myself out of a job, as county president…
Many thanks for your business, and your thoughts and prayers,