I Love To Go A Gardening
Growing Our Life in Northern Michigan
Plants. And Chickens. And Binoculars.
Yesterday EJ had to have his blood drawn in preparation for a doctor’s appointment tomorrow morning. We had an enjoyable 30 mile (or so) drive to the lab. Afterwards we stopped at the nearby farm-market type store because EJ had had to fast for the blood draw and he was starving. We picked up sliced roast beef (which I always call roast beast), bread, and cheese and had yummy sandwiches when we got home.
After I moved the birdhouses further apart, I saw the sparrow from the blue birdhouse chase away a sparrow sitting on the other birdhouse so I assumed the houses were still too close to each other. Bummer. I went to my computer and googled how close to put birdhouses and learned that they should be about 25 feet apart. Seriously? I can’t believe that all the birds that visit our yard are building their nests 25 feet apart! However, I have seen the sparrows fighting over territory so….I pulled up the middle post with the birdhouse on it and moved it over near my strawberry patch. I had envisioned birdhouses all over our yard. Spacing them 25 feet apart means that I will not be able to have any additional houses. Sigh. Hopefully the houses are now all far enough apart so the birds don’t fight.
Yesterday I weeded the strawberry patch and herb garden while fighting off swarms of mosquitoes. I really need the bug net hat-thing to arrive soon and I really need it to be effective.
Today EJ and I drove to the meat market for some ground beef and a chicken. We haven’t had chicken for a while because the chickens from the grocery stores are’t very appealing. We hear there are all sorts of unappealing stuff done to them. EJ has a co-worker friend who will sell us some of the chickens he has raised, but until we can get them we bought the chicken from the meat market. Their chickens are better than the grocery store ones. We cooked it when we got home, but it wasn’t done before EJ had to leave for work so I made him a roast beast sandwich instead.
One problem JJ and I are having is that food is not appealing to us right now. Everything seems “bleagh.” JJ, especially, says he just can’t eat anything that he ate while having Chemo. Even when I make something that sounds good to him, he doesn’t eat near as much as he did. That makes fixing meals kind of difficult. So I told EJ, “WE NEED CHICKEN!” to give us more recipes to choose from. Even today, though, JJ said the chicken was “meh” to him. I think this lack of appetite is a “side effect” of his cancer battle.
A few days ago, EJ came home from work with a gift catalog in honor of his 15 year anniversary at his company. He can choose any one gift in the catalog. He looked through the catalog and said that he really didn’t want anything in it and I could choose the gift. I told him that I felt as if I was stealing his anniversary gift, but he insisted. I immediately knew what to choose: A couple of weeks ago I was looking at the birds at our feeders through EJ’s small binoculars that he is letting me borrow. I thought, “Too bad I can’t take photographs of what I see through binoculars.” Then my friend told me that there really are camera binoculars. I thought that was amazing. So when I saw one in the gift catalog, I knew that is what I would choose. It’s not going to be a really expensive, high quality one, of course, but it might be good enough to enjoy using around home. And it’s free. I think it will be fun.
This morning I took a couple of pictures of some of the herbs in my herb garden. I also took a picture of a flower that I noticed as I was walking Danny today. I wasn’t sure I was going to be able to walk Danny because it’s supposed to rain today (and tomorrow and the day after). However, when I looked at the radar for our area at the Accuweather website, I see that the rain is breaking up before it gets to us. That happens to us quite often. Sometimes it will look like a storm is going to hit us directly, and then it either dissipates before it gets to us or it splits and half the storm passes just to our north and half just to the south and we slide through the break. It must happen because of the geography of our area or something?
I Love To Go A Gardening 
O I love your garden it is so beautiful and colorful!!! And I can see you walk with birdhouses to give every bird his space 😉 But I think ( again) you are not talking enough to them. Just tell all the sparrows with a firm voice that fighting is not allowed and that you will bring out the most fearful cat is they don’t stop , you’ll see it will settle the case for good………:-)
I’m sorry that eating is a problem on your part and really on JJ’s part. That is what he needs to get his strength back and if it isn’t working that must feel difficult for him. There must be so much for him to think about because all he had to be going through . It will taken al lot of time and rest for him. Give him my love and a big hug()
I’m really waiting for your pictures with the gift of EJ’s work that is going to be a treat for all of us. Love you Teri ❤
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