The other day Orion, Lithany, Matt and I (and to a slightly lesser extent, Asa) worked on unloading 56 bales of alfalfa hay.  

 

We've had hay days before.  Nothing to worry about. 

 

This time only our little family was available to stack it.  Also, I was called in to care for the baby and put Asa to bed before we got very far.  Also, while I can carry pretty much anything once I get ahold of it, I can't lift very well... so... Matt did all the stacking.  And most of the carrying (since I was inside).  And also alot of the pulling down (though Orion is getting very adept at this).  I come out of it feeling pretty impressed with my family.

 

Matt's been complaining (well, just mentioning, really) the last few days of a sore in his belly button.  Couldn't find anything.  No bug bite.  No pimple.  No anything!  He swabbed it.  Neosporined it.  Lived with it.  This morning he says it still hurts, can't I please look at it again. 

The area around and above the navel is very red.  I still can't find any visible sign of anything wrong, but it looks like an infection of some kind? 

 

Mom, can you come look at my husband's gut for me?  (mothers have to love us for all these random requests, right?)

 

She takes a look and feels around and notices what I had not.  There's a hard ridge above the navel. 

 

He went to the doctor before working a very full day today, came out of the office with instructions to take antibiotic, ibuprofen, use bacitracin, oh and come in again on Friday to have us recheck it.  Oh, and use a hot washcloth on it regularly so that if we have to cut into you, the problem will be on the surface.  Have a nice day at work!!!  He has either an abcess or a hernia.  Probably since hay day. 

 

Poor guy.  Our nicely stacked hay looks so good, though. 

 

Meanwhile, Lithany is raking leaves into a pile and Orion, Asa and I are digging up part of the septic tank.  This lid part.  So it can be pumped.  Because when we had 30 extra people taxing it, we had little swamps in our yard.  And we don't want to have to do it during the winter when the ground is froze. (for those of you who don't know, a septic system basically lets all the waste water drain into a tank at a slow pace so as not to disturb any bacteria or settling of the contents and allows the clear water to drain off the top while allowing all the, er, other stuff to sink.  Generally, bacteria keeps the sediment down and properly built/maintained it should last for an entire lifetime, but this doesn't happen very often.)  So, anyway...

 

We're digging down about two feet of yard to find a metal lid with a handle on it.  That's the goal.  Orion and I are pretending to be treasure hunters (some treasure, right?) I hear my shovel scrape something that does NOT sound like dirt.  Excitement builds.  Then I dig down hard in the middle of the hole to see if we've actually hit a lid or just a random rock.  Up comes a rotten piece of usb/particle board.  In falls alot of our loose dirt into the newly found abyss.  No metal lid for us!!

 

Inside go the children whom mommy does NOT want to have investigate this hole... or fall into it.  That would disturb the sediment, after all. =) 

 

Now mom is waiting for her last little dear to fall asleep so she can go try to uncover the edges of this... um... non-lid (it's obviously not a circle, what shape is it in, how big and how careful will I need to be to avoid losing my balance near the edge?)  She is hoping that this is a shoddy lid on a well-built septic system, but is somewhat concerned that our sewage removal expert is going to find other problems with it that may require lots more than the anticipated  pump fee.  Oh well, worry doesn't get you anywhere, and though we came close upon our return from China four years ago, we've never actually been broke.  Savings are happy things, people.

 

So an abscess in the gut and a abyss in the yard.  Both good words by the way.  Say them out loud.  Don't you feel intelligent spouting such verbage?!?  Now I'm going to play a mindless game to quit obsessing about the abscess, the abyss and the absence of sleep in my second born.