I am going to try not to make this into a rant. It's going to be hard, but I am going to try.

I have been self employed the majority of my career. And that whole time, even when I was a twenty something, I paid for health insurance out of pocket. I had my first claim this year. I hurt my back this winter and I went to a physical therapist to recover from it. The therapist really did help me and was glad that I did it. I didn't think my insurance would cover me. And I was right. I have a high deductible traditional insurance plan and an accident only plan to cover some of the gap. I didn't have much faith that the either insurance company would cover me, and they lived up to my expectations. But I figured that going into it and was prepared to pay it out of pocket. I got the bill, I was expecting about $300 an hour, turned out to be $489 an hour after the 20% disconnect for immediate payment. The treatment involved visual assessment and recommendations of therapeutic exercises. No Xrays or other high tech diagnostics. No capitol equipment. I questioned the rate and their response was it's what the state allows them to charge. They are charging me the maximum amount allowed by law. Oh, now I feel better. And as it turned out, my accident insurance denied my claim because it wasn't noted in the diagnosis that the injury was due to an accident.

OK, so I ranted a little. I'll try not to do it again.

The last of the apples

That was the last Honey Crisp apple that we picked last fall at the orchard across the river. Behind it is the heirloom apple tree near the house. Hopefully those blossoms mean we will have a good harvest this year.


My son thinks those Honey Crisp last pretty well. We picked these in September and they are still good today. They have dehydrated some, so the skin is a little wrinkled. But the flesh was still firm and not meally. Still a good eating apple.


Four years ago, we planted a pair of our own honey crisp trees. They might bare this year, but we probably have a year before we get apples from this tree.


This weekend we planted another nine fruit trees, Apples, Pears and cherries. We are hoping to have a variety of fruit here.