Sunday, December 14, 2014

the old farmhouse

This was a day to take stock of our environment. Here's a key question that I posed to Ed -- it'll give you a sense of the kind of day I'm slated to have:

Early in the morning, I ask him -- do you think you're allergic to me??
He answers -- I don't know...

Ha! It grabbed your attention!
Well, here's the issue: this Fall, something in this farmhouse has been causing his old asthma to act up. Whatever it is, it's not present in the sheep shed, because when he is there (the days I was in France, for example), he is fine. (So Isie boy is not the culprit, as the cat follows him to the sheep shed in my absence.)

There are the usual suspects: we had a strong showing of mice this year. Stronger than ever before and we did not get aggressive about eliminating them until late in the season. (We seems to have caught the last one -- we've been clean for a whole week!) And so today, I did the awful, hideous job of vacuuming up every corner and surface and beam of the basement so that any mouse related matter would be sucked right out of there.

And he has changed the air filters. And I have vacuumed (with a different vacuum cleaner!) the entire farmhouse and all the upholstery. And aired out the place. The farmhouse shows no signs of mold, though of course, that's just a best guess at this point.

But it was early in the morning, before all this flurry of activity, when Ed admitted to the telltale asthmatic symptoms, leading me to ask -- what if it's me???

I can't tell you how hard we worked three and a half years ago, to restore this place to some form of glory. (Well, it probably never had much glory, but now it does! For us at least...) Ed spent days dismantling the old chimney -- chipping away at it, brick by brick. Every electrical outlet is a state of the art masterpiece fitted in by him. The floors were lovingly selected from the cheap options at Home Depot -- hickory here, pine there. Doors, wood trim, window frames -- all stained by me. It is a bit painful to see this place letting him/us down now.

Of course, part of me thinks this is just a rouse to get rid of the couch and bed -- both pieces of furniture he regards as superfluous and I'm sure if he could convince me that they are the source of his troubles, he would. (Though we may have to reconsider the heavenly quilt that keeps us warm -- it's filled with down and that's a possible trigger.)

It may take a while to figure out what causes his flareups. It could be that he'll have to take apart the ducts and wash them well, to get rid of traces of mice and men. In the meantime, I feel like our blissful moments at the farmhouse were made vulnerable today. So I post this photo with even sweeter recognition of the preciousness of it all. So sacred today, so vulnerable, too.


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("you want me to take off my jacket, don't you...")



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("oh, alright...")


And the cheepers? Oblivious to all the drama within the farmhouse, happy to be the beggars that they are, right at our front door again, adding color to a foggy, gray day.


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10 comments:

  1. Have you considered the plants? My asthma flares up if I bring outdoor plants into the house to winter. I have no problems with houseplants Spring - Fall when windows are open, but close up the house and without fail my asthma flares up.....and out go my plants. Just an idea -- I hope you find the cause and cure soon.

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  2. Could be ingredients in the food ... Some people have allergies to Chocolate and Strawberries, You use a lot of tomatoes in your cooking, maybe. Could be the Kefir that you serve. A doctor can make a series of tests to help identify the culprits. Food allergies could create symptoms of asthma. I know if I have a certain brand of frozen pizza, my feet get itchy and swollen, requiring an antihistamine. Could be the food itself, sondern, food additives and preservatives.

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  3. Along the lines of Melinda's thoughts, I also wonder whether Ed keeps fresh flowers including the (what appear to be) lilies on the breakfast table if you're not around.

    And, though I'm not 100% on the essential oil bandwagon, we've started diffusing some oils in our house this winter and I like to think that's made a difference with the colds/flu/asthmatic symptoms all being lessened this year (so far at least, knock on wood!).

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  4. I'l just jump in one more time with the mold/plant idea. As a child I was sick each and every Christmas. It was not until college that an allergist figured out I was a Christmas Tree Asthmatic. Live trees decompose and develop a mold most cannot see, but which flare my asthma. I know you do not have a pin tree, but I wonder if shutting up the house with all the plants might be producing some molds. I've googled it, and there are a lot of ideas about treating the soil, maybe with vinegar. Good luck with the mystery, those symptoms are not fun!

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  5. This is not good! Hope you can get to the bottom of it. I know that E and I now both react with allergy-like symptoms every time we change locations and adjust to the new (but long-time) surroundings. It takes us about a week to adjust. I just take a mild antihistamine for a week (which I doubt would be an acceptable solution in this case).

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  6. What an act of love to do the huge "hideous" cleaning chore. But why ask Ed if he's allergic to you? Of course he's not. I once had a boyfriend (an impetuous attractive Greek, see how many parallels we have, Nina) who, in the short months we were seeing each other, had two minor traffic accidents with me in the car. He teased me that I was a jinx, and I really didn't like that, especially his underlying tone of "not entirely kidding", and it was the beginning of the end for us. Great relief for my parents.

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  7. Our forced air heating and cooling system wears me out. It definitely is troublesome. This winter I am leaving the heat way down since we basically live in our rooms and we are using small electrical heaters and that has worked really well. My bird was having trouble as well with the heating system too.

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  8. It's me again. I have allergies to carpeting. I sneeze on the airplanes when the stewardesses march back and forth on the carpet. So maybe a steam cleaning of the carpets. Also, I agree the vents for heating, air conditioning should have a look. And frankly, just plain 'ole stress can cause asthma for some people. Good luck.

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  9. All such good suggestions -- we'll work through them! Thank you!

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  10. You might want to consider all the products that you might be using on yourself — shampoo and so forth.

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