I Need Iron

The last three days, Phil has worked long hours ... in front of the computer. While designing walls and such might be important, it's not super interesting to write (or read) about.

Phil was startled, though, walking to the motor home yesterday, to see an enormous, bright green caterpillar. Where that tomato horn worm came from, I have no idea, as there are no tomatoes I know of (even volunteers) within about 50 yards. Shadow barked at it and fearfully pawed at it for a very long time.

Our neighbor drove up last night, honking repeatedly. Our wandering calves had finally decided to explore the wider world, and had wandered down the road to his lawn. It was about 8:30pm, and mostly dark, so we piled in to the van with headlamps. I got to drive the van, high beams pointed down the road. Jadon waited at the far side of the driveway to direct the cows where they needed to go. Joe sat behind me and watched, while Phil, Isaiah, and Abraham tried to corral the calves off the lawn and back down the road.

Happily, only one car passed by, and that was at the very beginning, before the calves were even headed to the road.

It was fun to drive slowly behind the calves and guys trotting down the road: Abraham, in exuberance, kept jumping for joy.

We re-corralled the calves this morning. Maybe we'll have the energy to walk them over to the rest of the herd soon.

Speaking of energy, my midwife did a blood test last week to check my iron levels, and she called today to tell the results. I figured I was low, because if I wasn't, she wouldn't call. And, yes, I was low. I think my last midwife wanted me around 12.4, and I was around 9.2. No wonder I have sometimes been getting breathless while just standing and washing dishes! (Which, I must say, is very annoying. It's not like standing and doing dishes is an aerobic activity that would normally require rest!)

So I'm on iron supplements and made myself a large quantity of liver pate from our bull. It's stronger than chicken liver pate. To make sure I have enough vitamin C to help absorb the iron, I drank some lemon water and ate some frozen peaches. I'm looking forward to having more energy one of these days. And more breath.

I checked online to see if I could find other high-iron foods. And I found it interesting that I've wanted to put raisins in everything lately (like tuna salad on bread); that a few weeks ago I asked Phil to pick up an orange melon (which I never do, because no one else really likes cantaloupe, and I am normally not that keen to eat a whole melon in a day; he couldn't figure out which I would like the most, and bought me four, which I ate in four days); that I went to a friend's and thought, "I could eat this entire green salad that is for a large party."

And, yes, raisins, cantaloupe, and leafy greens are all good iron sources.