Well, now I'm just venting. "Break" in the subject title is the operative word. He was doing great after the laminectomy - until he went down like a ton of bricks a few weeks later and fractured his right femur. Took me 1.5 hours to get him out of the house, down the landing & into my truck (God forbid we should call 911). Copious amounts of morphine in the ER, followed by numerous CT scans, which also revealed a distal abdominal aneurysm (not related to the fall). Blessing in disguise? Now we know & can keep an eye on it. 6-8 more weeks back on the walker, one step forward, 2 giant steps back. Pain pills!!! But no steroids because they would hinder the femur bones knitting back together. Except they didn't, and the fracture is now a full blown break. Next step: orthopedic surgeon. Best case scenario, all he'll need is a couple pins. Worst case would be a full hip replacement. I'm holding out for the pins.
And yet . . . . the ranch is running smoothly, I've mastered the track loader, brush hogged anything I can, weaning is just around the corner and the calves are all fat & happy (well, except for the one I lost that was struck by lightning - damn the luck).