A $14,000 Nut

Stupid trick of the month: attempt to swallow your daily collection of supplements without noticing that a macadamia nut has fallen into the mix:

Silly me. It was stuck bad. I’ve had pills stuck before in Schatzki rings in my lower esophagus, a fun family trait. But this was different, stuck at the top of my esophagus. After attempting all kinds of lubricants and maneuvers, a sleepless night, and collecting what seemed like gallons of saliva that had no where to go, we booked a visit to a surgeon. This pre-opt grin is me trying not to drool:

They Versed-ed me into a slumber and punched the nut down. He did find some non-Schatzki rings (eosinophilic esophangitis) and stretched them open. Got me to wondering what Macadamian cave men did when they forgot to chew. Nuts don’t dissolve like pills do, so that probably didn’t end well.

In less stressful news, our vegetable seedlings are doing well:

Last year’s garden didn’t do well, I think because of tree shade. So I vetoed 7 smallish trees:

• 

• 

To alleviate my tree killer guilt, I’m attempting to grow some ‘short leaf’ pine trees from seed:

Also attempting to grow some bamboo from cuttings:

This poor guy got stuck in on of our creek fountains:

More fun with electronics:

This was used to enable a voice activated 5 second dog:

Zach is enjoying van life in Montana.

I merged in some photos with the Family Tree that Dad researched, goes back to a John Winter born in Scotland in 1757:

Closing with another backyard critter portrait:

Bruce