Blog

   Prioritizing all of the tasks that accumulate in a household even when you are absent from it requires readjusting to routines.  Getting back on the treadmill hasn’t happened yet, but the other day to day tasks seem to be falling back into place.  I did manage to get the vacuum run on the upstairs and main floor this morning.  The garden is progressing, still need to either get the weedwacker or a garden fork into the aisles as the “straw” I put down was hay and I have an awesome stand of some sort of grass in the pathways and in any bed I mulched with it.

The yard hadn’t been mowed in more than 3 weeks around the house and over a month in the extended lawn area.  When I do a big mow, it is about 6 or 7 acres and it really needed it.  To mow that, even with the tractor takes about 4 or 5 hours.  Part of it was done yesterday and finished this afternoon while hubby and grandson went to the Frog Pond, a local kid friendly pool.

It seems like I have done at least 2 loads of laundry every day since we got home and I did laundry at my daughter’s just before we left.  I don’t know where it is all coming from.

Shadow is adjusting.  She gets into playful tussels involving teeth and claws with the beast.  She  is a smart littl dog, having already mastered, sit, down, and kennel up on verbal command.  She is doing fairly well on leash training, but does stress on car rides.  It is amazing how much drool one little 30 lb pup can generate when stressed or carsick.

We are grateful for a wonderful trip to Florida to visit our daughter and her family for 12 days, including the Disney World excursion.

For our son and our daughter-by-love sharing their son with us for several weeks.  He is our eldest grandson and at 7 is so much fun.  He shared our Florida trip and has become fast friends with the Mastiff pup, who now weighs in at a tiny 102 lbs at 6.5 months.

For our youngest son and his family for making a stop for dinner and visiting last night on their vacation, hope you are enjoying your camping trip.

For our newest family member, the 4 month old German Shepherd pup we picked up in South Carolina as we motored home from Florida.  She is adjusting well to the household and is beginning to hold her own with the beast.  He actually ran from her this morning.

For the rains that are producing the garden bounty, allowing some putting by for the winter months.

For the cool foggy mountain morning, knowing it will be hot and humid later.

 Our vacation travel is over and we arrived home safely to find that the air conditioner did indeed come back on, the refrigerator and freezer both seemed to hold the cold well enough  for the contents not to spoil.

The garden is overgrown with weeds, the potatoes have died back and must be dug as well as the alliums.  We left a timer on to water the garden once the power came back on and it seems to have kept the garden and the deck and porch plants alive and well.

We stopped in northern South Carolina on the return trip to pick up the 16 week old German Shepherd dog pup that we purchased just prior to the trip and met on the way down.  She had never been in a car or a house, having lived her 16 weeks in an outdoor kennel.  It was 105 when we met her and the flies were tormenting her and her two male sibs that were left from the litter.  Though it was cooler, only about 80 when we picked her up, she was still kennelled outdoors.  She is a friendly little pup, but somewhat traumatized by the 5 hour car ride, being indoors, having the 102 lb Mastiff pup that wants to play, rough, and by having a rowdy 7 year old in the house.  As she rode home in my lap, after experiencing a few bouts of carsickness, so she has bonded with me quickly.

She was beginning to adjust to and explore the house, when we had to put her back in the car for a vet visit as the breeder provided no written documentation of immunizations.  She has now been given her initial shots including rabies and Lyme, plus microchipped.  She handled this better than the car ride.  So far, my attentivness and her sticking to me like a small shadow has resulted in no indoor accidents.

Ranger doesn’t seem to understand why he can’t roughhouse with her like he does with the dogs at the dog park.

Hopefully, Gizmo and Ranger will adapt quickly to each other and she will adjust to being a household pet.  She is adjusting to the harness and leash and hopefully, as soon as she will   take treats from me, training can begin.

    Today would have been my Mom’s 88th birthday.  She loved celebrating her birth with the birth of the nation and the adopted birthdate of our very elderly Greek immigrant neighbor, whose sons and their families threw a huge neighborhood pool party with spit roasted whole lamb and all the potluck fixings from the large, but rural neighborhood.  I remember these parties vividly, always ending with a few fireworks and a gun salute out over the river.
     Those neighbors and my mother have passed on now.  My husband and I tried most years to participate with our children at a block party or swim club party followed by one of the fireworks displays at the oceanfront or Mt. Trashmore (yep, a park built on one of Virginia Beach’s garbage dumps).  One year about 18 years ago, hubby went to Texas with his parents and sister to visit family, I packed the 3 kids in the mini van and drove to Clearwater, FL and spent the holiday with a friend and her 3 kid where we went to one of the causeways and saw firework displays from several communities.
     This year, hubby and I with our 7 year old grandson are visiting our daughter and her family also in Florida.   The boys have had a great time together, playing with toys and dogs and being taken once to the beach for some wet sandy fun with granddad.  Tonight we will watch the fireworks from the marina after having a cookout at our son in laws parent’s house, then tomorrow, the whole gang of us are going to Disneyworld for a couple days of fun and excitement.  I have never been there and am pretty excited to enjoy the kids, big and little, enjoy the adventure.
     We left our mountain home in 100 degree temps, after the windstorm that devastated the  north east.  We had no power when we left, have heard from a neighbor that it returned about 48 hours later and cooled off to temps about what we are feeling here in Florida, but the humidity here is worse.  We hope that when we return home, the heatwave will have abated.

For the past several days, a beautiful male Cardinal has been protecting his turf around the house from an intruder.  No, the intruder isn’t the two barn cats, nor the Redtail and Cooper Hawks that soar over the fields.

Mr. Cardinal sits atop the shepherd’s crook holding a blooming petunia just off the corner of the front porch and sings at the top of his voice, his repetitive song/warning, then flies to land on either of the two sideview mirrors of hubby’s SUV to repeat the warning.  He will lean over the mirror, flutter to the window frame and attack the intruder again and again, but he just won’t leave his turf.

Cardinals may be beautiful, but not bright.  The intruder is his own image in the mirror.

Seven year old grandson, borrowed for a few weeks with his new friend.

Surprise, the first batch of bush beans are yellow.  Bet they turn green when they steam.

First of the shallot harvest, curing on the back deck in the sun.

  First, we are greatful that the medical scare my stepmom experienced this weekend
that resulted in an 8 hour ER visit is not serious and should resolve itself in the next couple of weeks.

  We have had a delightful weekend visiting with them, in spite of the ER visit, and celebrating one of our granddaughter’s first birthday with a whole flock of 1 to 5 year olds and their Mom’s at the Botanical Garden’s WOW center.

 We are now preparing for another leg of the trip to pick up our 7 year old grandson for a 3 week visit with us.

The travel has allowed me to finish the socks I have been working on for the past few weeks.  The yarn is Trekking, the pattern is Olympian designed by a friend, but modified for an after thought heel as I  am so hard on the toes and heels of my socks.

It has been a delightful, though scorching week and I am looking forward to more time with grandkids in the next few weeks and picking up my new German Shepherd puppy on July 11.

Yesterday actually reached 90 up here in the mountains, not a usual state of affairs, especially this early in the summer.  Our A/C has only been on a handful of days since we moved here and then generally only when we have house guests.

Because the humidity is beginning to buckle the newly laid bamboo floor in the basement, we are running a dehumidifier down there, but also turned on the air last evening when it seemed too hot to sleep.

This morning, it was cooler outside than in,  but like the past few days, we were socked in.

It is beginning to warm up, predicting another scorching day ahead and clearing the morning fog.

Last winter, my love purchased a Flower share from one of our local organic farmer friends as an anniversary gift. At the time, I posted a photo of the dried bouquet that started it off and yesterday, we picked up the first of 10 lovely bouquets of fresh flowers for the summer. Each bouquet to choose from, was prettier than the next and I actually chose a soft pastel one that is not my usual choice of colors, but I know that there will be sunflowers and other bright spots later in the season.

9 lb cat and 90 lb puppy enjoying the front porch shade while I knit socks out of Trekking with a forgotten heel modification of Olympian pattern.

And why I love living here, emerald fields, hazy mountain view, lots of land and look at all the hay!