(1) Patient Advocate for the VA; (2) Greenhouse

We are starting to get our first bills for the emergency room and hospital stay, and we see that instead of the bills being covered by the VA, like they were supposed to, the hospital billed Medicare.  When we were on our way to the emergency room back on March 14, Marshall had called the VA and they agreed to cover all costs.  We reminded every provider along the line (emergency room, hospital, etc.) but still, the bill went to Medicare.  So we went to Pueblo today and Marshall visited with the VA's patient advocate.  She is going to do her best to get this straightened out.  It really doesn't matter as far as what we will end up paying, but it's the principle of the thing.

While we were in Pueblo, we stopped and bought a few tomato plants and when we got home, we planted them in our greenhouse.  We got the greenhouse last year and we couldn't keep anything alive in there last year -- the temperature gets up to 160 degrees.  So, as you can see from the photo, we got creative and took sections of a doggie enclosure and made sort of a "screen door" out of them so that there is more air flow.  We also now have a thermometer in the greenhouse that we can monitor from the house.  So if we open the doors in the morning and close them at night, we are hoping we can control the temp -- there is also a pane in the ceiling that opens automatically based on the temp.

In case you are wondering, we haven't installed any electric fans or thermostats because we use solar power and need to be careful with our power usage.  And we can't simply open the doors without a "screen door" because the deer would gather there for dinner every day.  We learned that with our roses.

We are going to need to really watch what we eat.  According to the oncologist, Marshall's diet will be more important than even exercise.  And the more produce we can grow ourselves, the healthier it will be.  And my hours and hours of research tell me that tomatoes are a wonderful food for the prostate.  So we are starting with tomatoes.

PS:  Marshall wants me to mention that the Beauty Contest he was in for the Viking Lodge was for charity!