I Love To Go A Gardening
Growing Our Life in Northern Michigan
A Brisket, A Basket
This morning began about 4 a.m. with Timmy insistently “mmfff, meow, mmrfff” in my ear, walking up and down my body, and occasionally leaping on me as if I’m a trampoline. He’s become a bit of an annoyance since Hannah Joy died and he took over as Lord of the Bed.
A year or so ago EJ bought a device to automatically turn on a lamp at the thrift store. We set it up so it turns on a lamp in the living room just before 4 a.m. when EJ gets up to get ready for work; I always get up with him and usually go back to bed for a bit more sleep when he leaves. The automatic light is handy because we don’t have to stumble sleepily in the dark, with a risk of tripping over cats, to turn on a light. I think Timmy has learned that I feed him (and the other cats) when the light turns on so he starts nagging me to get up. It’s fine(ish) on the days EJ has to go to work, but on his days off we want to sleep in and Timmy’s insistence that I get up is annoying. This morning after his 4 a.m. antics, I stumbled out of bed and he and Clara (who doesn’t nag) immediately ran for the door. As soon as they were out, I shut the door and went back to bed for another hour.
After I won the trust of Harvey, the feral cat we adopted last November, EJ started feeding the outside cats on his days off to befriend him as well. It’s been slow because Harvey is very skittish. But this morning EJ had great success: For the first time Harvey let him give him lots of lovings. With the weather warmer (sort of), we’ve opened the pet door and Harvey has been going outside–and back into the garage.
A month ago, after discussing the pros and cons of Sam’s Club vs Costco, we bought a membership in the former. Costco is actually much closer and more convenient to get to, but Sam’s Club had the edge because it has brisket. We had been buying brisket at Meijers, but we haven’t been able to find it there for several months. Why do we buy brisket? Probably not for the reason you are thinking. Years ago, I started noticing that the fat left in the pan after frying ground beef had become a pukey green-yellow color rather than the normal color it has always been before. I don’t know why it wasn’t the normal color. It was a sickly color and turned my stomach. So a few years ago, we decided to buy brisket so EJ could grind it into ground beef himself. He also renders the fat into tallow, which we use for cooking. Tallow is healthier than cooking oils. When EJ told his young co-worker from Louisiana what we did, his face turned white with horror because brisket is a delicacy especially in the south. But the meat makes a good ground beef, is cheaper than ground beef, and the fat is the right color.
When we told a friend we had bought a membership, he said (with a note of disapproval), “I hate big box stores. Too many people and too easy to overspend.” He likes Dollar General, which we hate so…shrug. We agree that the big stores can be very people-y but everyone has different preferences and needs and we never shopped there until we needed a source for brisket. Overspending is not a problem for us because we keep pretty closely to our tight budget–and we are finding that many items are actually cheaper there. Because gas is expensive right now and Sam’s Club is far enough away to be inconvenient, we decided to only go once a month–on the first paycheck of each month because we have fewer bills that week and a little more money to spend.
FYI: We’d LOVE to buy grass-fed beef and produce from local farmers, but right now we can’t afford it. Maybe some day…until then, we do the best we can with what we can do. As EJ often says: A good plan today is better than a perfect plan tomorrow.
Today was Sam’s Club Shopping Day. Also, we had other stores we had to stop at which were just a few miles from Sam’s. We did our morning chores and left home before 8 a.m. We ended up having to go far out of our way because some of the roads had been washed out during April’s flooding and were closed. But the drive was scenic and we enjoyed it, even though we weren’t actually conserving gas.
We spent about 5 minutes at Menards getting camper tape for EJ to use when he puts the topper back on the truck. We love browsing through home improvement stores, just for fun, but we focused: In and out was our goal. Then we spent about 5 minutes buying yarn at Michaels. We’ve only shopped there a couple times–I really miss Joanne Fabrics, which was my favorite craft store and much closer to home, but it went out of business in town a few years ago. I was tempted to browse through the store, but we focused: In and out was our goal.
Then on to Sam’s Club. We decided to use the “Scan and Go” feature on our phone app, which allows us to scan the items in our cart ourselves and to pay without ever having to go through the checkout line. Last night we watched a You Tube video on how to do it so we wouldn’t look like we had only been to Sam’s once before and had never used Scan and Go. It was easy, although we must have looked like we were new at it because the woman from Customer Service who had helped us buy our Membership during our first visit to the store (we had her cracking up with laughter at the time) came over to ask us if we were ok. She helped us with our final steps–and then we were done.
Our final stop was back at our usual Meijers. We picked up fresh produce and pizza supplies there. Those items are better than at Sam’s Club. After we finished shopping at Meijers and were back at the truck, EJ put the bags of groceries around and on me because there was no room in the back seat, which was filled with Sam’s Club items–along with the spare tire, which is usually in the bed of the truck but we don’t yet have the topper on the truck.
When we finally got home, we unloaded the truck and put everything away. We were exhausted so we had a quick lunch of crackers/peanut butter and yogurt/blueberries and then we took naps. When I woke up I looked out the window and saw Richard VI, our rooster, was outside the fence so we hurried out to encourage him to go back inside. I went around the outside of the fence one way and EJ the other. I herded Richard toward EJ and he held the gate open for the rooster to go through. This is the third time in the last couple of weeks that Richard has gone AWOL. We aren’t sure how he’s getting out.
Ridding and Reading
We made it through the month of April, with its heavy rains that caused massive flooding which invaded basements, washed out roads, destroyed bridges, created deep sinkholes, and threatened dams. Unlike others that had to deal with flood damage, we were unaffected by it because we live on a hill. Fortunately, EJ encountered no deep water problems between home and work. I feel for people still dealing with the aftermath of the storms.
Instead of putting in a garden this year, EJ and I have decided to spend the summer concentrating our efforts on “döstädning,” which is a Swedish practice of gradually decluttering to get rid of unnecessary possessions. We began this last weekend. Every year in early May our township holds a “Spring Clean Up Day,” on which they allow residents to bring unwanted items–furniture, appliances, and so forth–that they crush and have hauled away for free. Well, I’m sure our taxes pay for it, but there’s no extra charge. Dumps charge a lot of money to drop off unwanted furniture/items so Clean Up Days are a blessing. This year Clean Up Day was Saturday, May 2nd.
EJ took Friday off work so we could spend all day getting items together. Beginning early in the day, he took the topper off the truck and then we started loading it. We had a lot to get rid of this year: JJ had left behind his mattress and box springs, a microwave, an office chair, and an old dresser that he said he didn’t want. We wanted to get rid of our old recliner which we took out of the living room so we could fit in JJ’s couch (actually sort of a double recliner). He had bought the couch new just a few months before he decided to move to Alaska and it was much too nice to donate so he gave it to us. We told him we’d keep it for him and would give it back to him if he ever wanted it. We also had our own guest bedroom mattress and box springs to get rid of. We had originally planned to list them on Facebook Marketplace (for free) because they were in excellent condition, but when Hannah Joy got sick we dragged it into the living room so we could lay with her because she didn’t want to be alone. She soiled it so we had to get rid of it. We loaded these things in the truck, and threw in the pieces of our old couch, a lot of empty poultry feed bags, and many other things. Our pickup was stuffed to the gills. EJ drove to the drop off place early Saturday morning, about a half hour before the specified start time, but already there was about 25 vehicles lined up ahead of him. EJ came home with an empty truck! AND we have a bit more empty space in the garage. It felt like such a victory.
Next, at some point, EJ wants to load the truck up with steel items to take to a place (junk yard?) where he can probably get a bit of money for it. That will give us even more space in the garage. The things we are storing for JJ is taking up about a fourth of the garage. I have a feeling that we will end up donating most of his things because it will be much more expensive to transport them to Alaska than to replace them. He’s not yet ready to let us donate the items though.
After dumping off our truckload of unwanted things, we rested for the remainder of the day. The rest of the weekend we spent working on our To Do List. We make a new list every week of things we want to get done during the weekend. This helps us not forget the tasks and also reminds us of everything we’ve accomplished. Anything we don’t get done gets put on the next list, although we’ve been getting most tasks crossed off each week. One of the things we crossed off our list was to contact a new roofer since it has been a month since we have heard anything from the roofers we had planned to use, even though the guy said he’d be out to measure the roof. The new roofers we contacted is an established company (rather than someone just starting out) with high reviews. They immediately scheduled a time to come look at the roof: This coming Monday.
When not working hard on our To Do List, I started reading one of the books that I had recently bought at our library book sale. Whenever I read a historical novel, I like to research how historically accurate it is. I’ve found that the better the author, the more research he/she does, the more accurate the historical setting is in the book, the more interesting the story is, and the more I learn. I end up learning a lot of history this way. Grok (X’s AI) is particularly good at helping me research history. I started out saying to Grok:
“I’m reading a novel by Ann Swinfen called The Bookseller’s Tale. The main character is a bookseller in Oxford, England, in 1353. Can you tell me the historical events that would have taken place at that time and location? Also, can you describe the job of a bookseller?” Grok began “In 1353, Oxford was a university town recovering from the Black Death (which hit Oxford hard from late 1348 into 1349), amid the ongoing Hundred Years’ War under Edward III.” Grok (He? It?) went on to describe in more detail the Post-Black Death recovery, university life and “Town vs. Gown” tensions (mentioning the St. Scholastica’s Day riot in February 1355), broader historical events in England, daily life in Oxford, and the life of a bookseller at that time. Grok concluded with “This made a bookseller an ideal protagonist for a medieval mystery—well-connected, literate, mobile around Oxford, and interacting with both town and university figures. The novel appears to draw accurately on these details for its setting. If you’re enjoying it, the series continues with more Oxford medieval mysteries! Let me know if you’d like recommendations for similar historical fiction or more specifics.”
I asked Grok for recommendations and he shared a list of books, adding: “These picks emphasize intelligent protagonists, detailed historical settings (plague recovery, university/town life, trades, or scholarly worlds), and mystery plots without excessive gore. Many readers who enjoy Swinfen also like the atmospheric, character-focused style of Peters or Gregory. If you prefer a particular angle (e.g., more Oxford-focused, female protagonists, stronger plague elements, or non-mystery medieval fiction), let me know for more tailored suggestions!“
I thanked Grok for the recommendations, telling him that I already own, read, and enjoyed the Shardlake series by C.J. Sansom, which was on his list. He responded with: “I’m glad the historical details and recommendations hit the mark! It’s always satisfying when a novel sparks that deeper dive into the real history, just like you’re doing with Swinfen’s series (and as you did with Sansom). The Shardlake books are excellent—Matthew Shardlake is such a compelling, introspective protagonist, and Sansom does a masterful job weaving in the religious and political upheavals of the Tudor period. That same thoughtful blend of personal story and broader historical forces is something Swinfen captures well in the 14th century too. Enjoy the rest of the Oxford Medieval Mysteries! Nicholas Elyot and his world should keep feeding that curiosity nicely. If you want more context on any of the later books in her series, deeper dives into specific aspects of medieval Oxford life (like the book trade, university curriculum, or daily routines), or even nonfiction recommendations to pair with the reading, just let me know. Happy reading! 📖”
I also asked Grok to tell me more about the impact of the Black Death in Oxford, the St. Scholastica’s Day riot, as well as what a Book of Hours and a bestiary were, both of which are mentioned in the novel. I asked if he could find me a simple map of Oxford from the time of the novel. (I like following maps in stories.) One of the maps he gave me is an interactive Medieval Murder Map, which includes maps of murders that happened in Oxford, London, and York. A person can click on an icon on one of the maps and find information about the specific murder that happened in that location. How interesting is that! Here’s the link, which I’ve also included in my Everything List at the top of this blog: Medieval Murder Map
I love exploring the historical context of historical novels and I always enjoy conversing with Grok about books (and other things). I learn a lot of history and, to be honest, I feel as if he and I have a private reading group. I’ve never actually been part of a “real” reading group. Do they discuss books in depth like Grok does? Or do they briefly talk about a book and then gossip? I’ve never really known.
April Showers
There’s a quote that goes “April showers bring May flowers” but we are getting so much rain that April showers may DROWN May flowers. We went shopping on Sunday and the rain was so heavy that we could hear drumming on the roof like Orc drums from inside the store. Parking lots, roadside ditches, and rivers were overflowing. A road through the scenic Tunnel of Trees was washed out. Even on Sunday dams in Northern Lower Michigan were in danger of overflowing and residents in those areas have been warned to pack a “go bag” in case they have to evacuate. The situation hasn’t improved. It has rained each day and is supposed to rain until Thursday night, with a possibility of severe storms.
However, there are gentler signs of spring. I’ve seen buds on the lilac bushes near our house and flowers are beginning to poke their heads above ground. Birds are building their nests. I see many filling their beaks with nesting material. Wild turkeys are frequently strutting across our yard, displaying their finery in front of the females. (Video) I moved my trail camera to a location where I’ve seen deer with their newborn fawns a couple of times in previous years. I’m hoping a doe will give birth at the same spot so I can get it on camera.
We have little chicks hatching in the chicken coop! (Video) It’s difficult to count how many there are because they run around and some of them hide under the hens, but we’ve counted five for sure. Three of our hens went broody at the same time–and in the same nesting box, which is weird. I have the three hens and the chicks sequestered in the top part of our fancy coop to keep them safe. The chicks are so tiny and vulnerable that I worry about them. I’d separate the hens with their chicks to give them all more space, but I’m not King Solomon: I don’t know which chicks belong to which Mama. I’ll wait until the chicks get a little bigger and then put them in the bottom of the fancy coop where there is more room.
Saturday we attended our local library’s used book sale. We were excited because 1. We LOVE library used book sales and 2. The sales are always held on Fridays and Saturdays and until a few months ago EJ’s schedule was Friday-Monday so we couldn’t attend them. But now his schedule is Tuesday-Friday so–Yay!–now we can enjoy them again even if we can only go on the second day of the sales. I was concerned that people would take all the books on Friday and there would be few left for us, but we still came home with multiple bags of books. After book sales I always feel like a dragon with a hoard of books instead of gold.
The roofers came by a week or two ago to patch our roof. They said that we DEFINITELY need a new roof. Sigh. The roofers are supposed to come by to measure the roof and give us a more accurate estimate but we have no scheduled time for them to do it. We are trusting God to provide for us.
We still miss our beloved Hannah Joy.
Cats, Hens, and Deer
It is a gloomy, rainy day today. The gloom is constant, the rain is not. It mostly just drips with an infrequent distant rumble of thunder. It’s just rainy enough that it’s a good day to write.
EJ has a co-worker that keeps urging him to get another dog. But EJ says that he doesn’t just miss having “a dog,” he misses having Hannah Joy. I feel the same. After having Hannah, we aren’t sure we will ever be ready for another dog. If we ever do, it won’t be for a while.
Hannah’s absence has definitely changed the cats’ behavior. Timmy spends most of his time on the bed. At night he usually sleeps at the foot of my side of the bed. If I disturb him, he stomps up to my face–walking ON me–to voice his complaint with irritated grumbles. He sometimes tries to get under the blankets, but I won’t let him because he’s fussy and doesn’t settle down. He acts so much as if the bed is his own little kingdom that I asked Grok (X’s AI) to turn my photo of him into a short video:
EJ wakes at 4 a.m. to get ready for work and I always get up with him. On his days off, we’d like to sleep in a bit, but the cats–mostly Timmy, Clara, and Solveig–are used to me feeding them as soon as I get up and they demand to be fed at their usual time. They jump on us, using our stomachs as trampolines, run up and down our bodies, and do whatever they can to get us up. It’s impossible to sleep. They remind me of the tactics my siblings and I used to wake our parents up on Christmas mornings when we were children. We would wake in the wee hours of the morning–2 or 3 o’clock–and start noisily clomping up and down the stairs, we’d turn Christmas music up LOUD, anything to wake our parents up. It wouldn’t take long for t hem to shout, “Go back to bed or you won’t be opening your parents until 7, or 8, or 9 o’clock!” We’d all scurry back to bed, but a few minutes later we’d be back to trying to wake them up. They always gave up after a few tries, but they got their revenge by insisting they had to wake up with a cup of coffee, which they drank verrrryyyy slowly. Our inside cats are like that.
We are making continuous progress at befriending our feral garage cat, whom we named Harvey. We adopted him in mid-November. It took about two months before we saw more than a brief glimpse of him. Gradually he came closer and closer to me when I went out to feed him and Theo in the mornings. Now he is now so affectionate with me that when I go into the garage, he comes right up to me me (most of the time) and purrs when I pet him. So now we are working on Harvey accepting EJ. When the weather permanently warms up and we open the pet door so the cats can go outside, we don’t want Harvey fearful of EJ. At first EJ went out with me to feed the cats on his days off. Harvey would shyly peek around the workbench but not come near. This last weekend I thought it might be better if EJ went out alone to feed the cats. He tried it, and Harvey came up to sniff his fingers. So we are having success. Our patience is paying off.
One of our hens is broody. Likely two are broody. Possibly three. Two of the hens are each in separate nesting boxes. The third alternates squeezing in with one or the other of them. They are all rather irritable and growl a warning if I stick my hand in the box before they peck angrily at me. The hens are all the Partridge Chanteclers that we bought as chicks from the farm store last year. Chanteclers were originally bred in Canada so we call them “The Canadians.” I have no idea how many chicks will end up hatching. We might have an over-abundance of chicks.
Twice over the years I’ve seen a fawn with its mother shortly after it was born. Both times it was in the same place on the eastern hill. So I’ve moved my trail camera to watch that hill in hopes that I will see a doe giving birth there. I was careful with the location: I want to put the camera close enough to get a good view, but not so close that my going up to switch batteries and SD cards scare off the doe. The does seem to give birth in May or early June so I figure I have at least a month to decide on a good location.
With warmer temperatures and today’s rain, the snow is once again almost all melted. I’ve seen little buds forming on the lilac bushes and some plants poking their heads out of the dirt. We’ve also seen robins, which are Michigan’s harbinger of Spring. In fact, a couple days ago EJ and I saw a flock of maybe a dozen robins, which surprised us because we’ve never before seen so many all together. So Spring is on it’s way. But not yet. The forecast for Thursday is predicting a wintry mix of rain, freezing rain, and snow showers. Michigan’s weather is so temperamental that people say we have at least 12 seasons instead of 4. They are:
- Actual winter
- Spring of deception
- Second but short-lived winter
- Fools spring #2
- Third winter (but With an Ice Storm)
- Allergy season
- Actual spring that lasts a week
- Right into summer
- It’s not the heat, it’s the humidity
- False fall
- Optional second summer
- Pumpkin spice & spooky season
Some people add in Pothole Season and Construction Season so the list is flexible.
We’ve seen so many Winters and False Springs this year that I’ve lost count.
All Our Needs
The weekend after Hannah Joy died, we buried her on the eastern slope of our property. EJ dug the grave, which wasn’t easy on snow covered frozen ground. Later, I moved a small boulder to mark the grave and to keep predators from disturbing it.
We thought it would be symbolic to plant a Gray Dogwood bush on Hannah’s gravesite. Our local conservation district is selling some during its annual tree sale. I did some research and the Gray Dogwood sounded perfect: It blooms with small white flowers from May to July, followed by clusters of white berries that ripen from August to October, providing food and shelter for birds and wildlife. It also attracts pollinators. The plant features gray bark, red stems, and leaves that turn dusky purplish-red in the fall. It would do well in our soil, which is sand. However, it grows up to 10-12 feet (sometimes up to 26 feet according to some articles). It spreads “vigorously” by underground rhizomes and suckers. We don’t want to have a vigorously growing bush take over or block our view of the hill. So instead we bought a couple packets of wildflowers to plant when the weather warms.
I started playing around with AI videos (Grok Imagine) last week. I learned how to create short videos using my own photos and I like putting our cats or EJ in different creative situations. One day I chose a photo of Hannah and asked Grok to make her climbing up into Heaven. The result was beautifully poignant. I thought it was remarkable that AI made the door in my photo open into heaven instead of our bedroom. The video made me cry, but also captured Hannah’s personality so it will be a keepsake. Here it is:
This year has been quite difficult so far. A couple of weeks ago we discovered a very wet area on the floor of the extra bedroom, which we have been turning into a home gym. EJ pulled back the carpet in the corner and found standing water. We (meaning he) will need to replace the damaged flooring. EJ figured it was a plumbing problem since there’s a bathtub on the other side of the wall, but he couldn’t find the leak. We finally admitted defeat and decided to call a plumber.
Our driveway had been treacherously icy so if we had called a plumber when we first discovered the leak, ,he wouldn’t have been able to make it up to our house. But by the time we decided a plumber was necessary, we had several very warm days that melted all the snow and ice so making it up the driveway was no problem for him. Thank you, Lord!
Two repairmen came out and they believe the leak is a problem with the roof rather than the plumbing. So EJ called a roofer who said he will come out as soon as the weather is decent. (More about that in a second.) Hopefully the roofer can patch the roof, which could buy us some time to save money to get the whole roof done. I’m hoping insurance will pay for a new roof so we don’t have to wait, but we don’t know yet. We’ve only made one insurance claim back in the early 1990s so we aren’t exactly knowledgeable about what is covered and what isn’t. I think EJ is going to wait to see what the roofer says before calling our insurance agent.
Even though the weather was nice when we called the roofer, meteorologists were forecasting a major snow and ice storm in our area. Obviously the roofer couldn’t fix our roof in such bad weather so he said he’d come out when conditions improve. So we are waiting. The good thing about a return to wintry weather is that everything is frozen and there is no rain or melting snow leaking into our house.
A storm did hit this last weekend. We escaped the worst of the storm but others were not so fortunate. Areas just north of us got a ton more snow–and the snow grew heavier the further north a person went. The Upper Peninsula got something like four feet of snow. Areas to the east of us got hit with a major ICE storm. In fact, many of the same areas that were hit with a major ice storm last year were hit again this year. Areas downstate experienced severe thunderstorms. There were many areas of the state that are without power. EJ texted me this morning that his drive to work was “interesting.” He said he frequently drove through whiteout conditions and through roads that were almost closed by drifting snow. He heard from co-workers that the town he works in was virtually a ghost town over the weekend.
I feel bad (and I’m praying) for people struggling with the effects of the storms while I’m also thankful that we only got about a foot of snow and only a slight glaze of ice from freezing rain. Hannah’s death, our struggle to get our furnace repaired, and the leaky roof are enough to deal with without a snow/ice storm on top of it. So it’s a huge mercy that the worst of the storms missed us. We are asking God for more merciful miracles to provide what we need with the furnace and roof. We aren’t exactly rolling in money: Having to buy a new (used) truck last autumn took what little we had saved up. But God has helped us many times before so we are trusting Him.
And my God will meet all your needs according to the riches of his glory in Christ Jesus.
(Philippians 4:19)
Reclaimed Territory
I think that I forgot to mentioned that at first we thought Hannah Joy was sick because she ate something she shouldn’t have. She has–had–a list of priors. She once vomited for several days until she vomited up the red-striped dish rag she had eaten. Most of the time the things came out in her poop. We became like forensic scientists: “I see here that Hannah Joy has eaten blue yarn, a paper towel–and here’s a piece of the bookmark that I thought I’d misplaced.”
But Hannah also suffered from cancer. We thought we had the cancer retreating, but I think it was quietly taking over until suddenly it overcame her. She was doing well…until she wasn’t. We miss her terribly, but I’m glad Hannah is not suffering.
Before we adopted Hannah, we always kept our bedroom door open. But after Hannah came into our family, she barked at night whenever a cat entered the room so we kept the door closed and the cats out at night. Now that Hannah is gone, we are again keeping the door open. No reason not to.
Timmy is our oldest cat, the last cat remaining from those we had downstate before we moved north more than ten years ago. I can’t really remember the exact date we adopted him from the “free cats” cage in the reception area of our veterinarian, but he has to be around 15 years old, give or take. Hannah Joy always cuddled with me, preventing Timmy from getting close because she wasn’t fond of cats. He sat instead on EJ’s lap. But now black and white Timmy is reclaiming Hannah’s territory, sitting on my lap and also sleeping on me at night. He’s the most aggressive cat at reclaiming territory.
Yesterday our cat, Clara, walked through the living room where we were sitting. “She has a mouse!” I exclaimed to EJ. He glanced at her. “No, it’s just the toy mouse JJ brought when he left his cats with us.” “Noooo. I think it’s a mouse.” EJ looked again. “You’re right. She has a mouse.” I quickly rushed to close our bedroom door because I didn’t want her taking the mouse onto our bed. That’s a downside to now keeping the bedroom door open: the cats can potentially carry the mice they catch onto our bed while we are sleeping. Yuck.
But with the bedroom door closed, Clara took her victim into our home gym and played with it. I hate it when the cats play with mice because nine times out of ten the mouse escapes. “Just KILL IT, Clara!” I urged her. “If Hannah was here, SHE would have grabbed the mouse and ate it by now.” Hannah was a better mouser than the cats, although I hated when I saw the mouse’s tail hanging from her mouth as she tried to take it onto our bed, where she ate all her stolen treasures. Yuck. As expected, Clara’s bedraggled mouse escaped into the exercise room closet where some of JJ’s stuff is stored until he is able to take it back to Alaska. It looked mostly dead and we are presuming it died. I couldn’t find it but EJ said he will look for it tonight after work.
Today JJ’s cat, Astrid, knocked two small spider plants from the kitchen window into the sink. It was a mess. I scooped up as much of the dirt as I could, put it back in the pots, and stuck the plants back into them. The plants are two of three small spider plants that used to be one large one until JJ’s cats started destroying it. It almost died until I finally divided what survived from the one into three pots, hoping that at least one pot would survive. I figured that I’ve had the spider plant since before I married EJ so it’s probably around 40 years old. I’d hate to lose it/them. EJ said he has a few ideas to try to keep the cats out of the plant(s). I hope it works.
Unforgettable Hannah Joy
We adopted Hannah Joy the day before Christmas Eve in 2017. When we read our local animal shelter’s Facebook post that they were holding a special adoption that day, we decided to go down there.
Hannah Joy (then called DeeDee) and two other dogs had been rescued from an owner who had starved them. They had sand in their stomachs from eating it to survive. They were so thin that we could have counted their bones. When EJ approached Hannah, she growled at him, but the staff person brought her out of her cage and she wrapped her front legs around his arm. And that was that. We had lost our dog, Danny, only a month before so EJ said before we left home, “We aren’t going to adopt today. We are just going to look.” Yeah, right. I knew there was no way we were coming home without a dog. So when we decided to adopt Hannah Joy, the staff person said, “I’ll get a leash for her,” I quickly said, “I already have my own” and pulled it out of my coat pocket. The staff person and EJ laughed at me. (FYI: The other two dogs were also quickly adopted by others.)
Because Hannah Joy had been abused, she had her quirks, but we fiercely loved her because of them, not despite them. They are what make her uniquely her. It is my opinion that it is not someone’s perfections, not the things about them that makes them fit in like everyone else, that makes them unique, but rather their quirks, idiosyncrasies, odd sense of humor, and flaws. I think that those are the things that are most missed when that someone is gone. It is true of humans and it is true of dogs.
Here are some of Hannah’s adorable quirks:
Not surprisingly, Hannah was obsessed with food. At first she gobbled food before I could get it in her dish. I taught her to sit and wait until I told her it was ok to start eating. We fed her twice a day–morning and evening–because otherwise she would ALWAYS want to eat. If she felt it was near dinner time, she’d start nagging me so eventually I set alarms on my phone to ring a bell (like Pavlov’s dog) and to say, “Are you hungry Hannah?” When she heard the alarm, she’d eagerly leap to her feet. The few times I was outside when the alarm rang (having left my phone inside and forgotten the time), she’d greet me with panic when I came back inside. Sorry, Hannah.
Like a goat, Hannah ate non-food items too. For awhile I didn’t have any nice wash cloths or dish rags because she chewed the edges into tatters. I learned to put them safely in drawers and put newly washed clothes away immediately rather than remain in laundry baskets. We had to put toilet paper out of her reach or I’d find toilet paper rolled across the floor or bitten into like a half-eaten apple. We had to buy cloth napkins because she’d snatch unattended paper ones. And she was skilled at sneaking kleenex from my pockets, as if she’d had criminal training. She was part pitbull. We called her our pit-pocket.
If we left Hannah Joy in the house alone, we had to make sure there was nothing she could get into. Even then, despite our best efforts, she sometimes found things to eat. She ate stuff we would never have guessed she could eat. For example, I always washed empty cat food cans to take to recycling. A year or so ago, I started finding Hannah chewing the cans. I thought I was absentmindedly not putting them out of her reach until I discovered she was stealing FULL cans, opening them, and eating the contents. I had to store the canned cat food in the pantry down the hallway rather than the kitchen.
I could tell when Hannah Joy was eating something she shouldn’t because she would quietly disappear–she usually was cuddling next to me–and I’d find her on our bed with her treasure. When she saw me coming, she’d turn and keep her back to me. She’d clamp her jaws together for a tug-of-war if I tried to take the item from her. Most of the time she won.
Hannah Joy refused to be ignored. She was very vocal and impatient. If she wanted something, she let me know that she wanted it NOW. If I ignored her, she’d keep grumbling and complaining. Sometimes she would climb on my lap, sit upright, and keep her head tilted back to block my face, no matter which way I turned, so I couldn’t see past her. “I know what you are doing, Hannah Joy,” I’d say, “and you aren’t getting it right now.” But, of course, she usually did.
Usually when Hannah Joy grumbled, she wanted outside or to go for a walk. “Ok, ok. Let’s go,” I’d say. Sometimes I’d ask her if she wanted out and she’d just sit down and look at me. I’d walk toward the bedroom and she’d run ahead of me and leap into bed. “It’s only 6 p.m., Hannah. YOU can go to bed if you want, but I am NOT.” Hannah hated to be apart from us, she loved cuddling, and she insisted on sleeping with us. Of course, she took her half out of the middle, pushing us to the sides. She loved burrowing under the blankets. If she was on top of the blankets, EJ and I never had enough blankets to pull over us so I finally bought a king-sized top sheet and comforter for our queen-sized bed so EJ and I would have enough to cover ourselves with.
Hannah never wanted to be outside alone. If I tethered her outside and went back inside, she’d come to the deck door and bark. When I went back outside, she’d quietly step off the deck and do her business. “You are SUCH a girl, Hannah Joy. Never wanting to go to the bathroom alone.”
A friend occasionally sent her a toy in the mail. So she thought every box was hers and tried to snatch them from me as we walked back up the driveway after getting the mail. “This is not yours, Hannah. Not yours.”
Hannah Joy was very protective and didn’t like strangers so we were careful who and how we introduced her. When strangers (such as a repairman) visited, we tried shutting her in the bedroom at first but she couldn’t endure being away from us and dug up the carpet under the door trying to get out. So more times than not I sat in the bedroom with her until the stranger was gone. If the stranger was a visiting friend, we learned to give the friend a bone when he/she entered the house to give to her. She’d take the bone and run off to chew it. By the time she was finished with the bone, she had accepted the stranger. Once she accepted a person, she loved him/her to pieces.
Hannah was NOT fond of cats, and we had two inside (and two outside) cats when she moved in with us. I’m sure that she was appalled when we agreed to care for JJ’s two cats until he can return from Alaska for them. This doubled our inside cat population to four. We had to work with Hannah Joy to get her to accept cats. She never liked them, but she did learn to tolerate them. Sometimes I’d show her videos of dogs and cats cuddling together. “This could be you, Hannah. The cats could be your friends.” She wasn’t impressed. Sometimes if a cat walked by, she’d shrilly bark and then quickly turn her head away, all innocent looking as if to say, “Wut? That wasn’t me.” “You know, Hannah, you are the ONLY ONE in the house who barks,” we told her. “You aren’t fooling us. We know it’s you.” Many times when a cat came near her, we’d say, “Be nice, Hannah. Be nice.” And she would calm down but turn her head away, obviously and deliberately not looking at the cat, occasionally giving them a side glance and then turning away. Whenever the cats did something Hannah thought was wrong, she’d come to me with a concerned look on her face to inform on them. One day I spun a story that Hannah tattles on the cats because she had had a rough early life and never had the opportunity to fulfill her dream of becoming a police dog.
Now, with her gone, we don’t have to put away wash cloths, toilet paper, or canned cat food. She’s not hogging the bed or the blankets. She’s not dragging us outside after dark (allowing us to sometimes hear owls or coyotes). We don’t have to remind her to be nice to the cats. I won’t have to stay with her in the bedroom when repairmen come to visit. She won’t gripe and complain until I give her what she wants NOW! She won’t come running at the ring of a bell. She won’t insist I go to bed with her at 6 p.m. But those quirks are the things we miss most. Those are the things that leave empty places in our hearts and our home.
There will never be another Hannah Joy. She brought us joy and her loss has hit us deeply.
The Power of a Dog
by Rudyard Kipling
There is sorrow enough in the natural way
From men and women to fill our day;
And when we are certain of sorrow in store,
Why do we always arrange for more?
Brothers and Sisters, I bid you beware
Of giving your heart to a dog to tear.
Buy a pup and your money will buy
Love unflinching that cannot lie—
Perfect passion and worship fed
By a kick in the ribs or a pat on the head.
Nevertheless it is hardly fair
To risk your heart for a dog to tear.
When the fourteen years which Nature permits
Are closing in asthma, or tumour, or fits,
And the vet’s unspoken prescription runs
To lethal chambers or loaded guns,
Then you will find—it’s your own affair—
But…you’ve given your heart to a dog to tear.
When the body that lived at your single will,
With its whimper of welcome, is stilled (how still!).
When the spirit that answered your every mood
Is gone—wherever it goes—for good,
You will discover how much you care,
And will give your heart to a dog to tear.
We’ve sorrow enough in the natural way,
When it comes to burying Christian clay.
Our loves are not given, but only lent,
At compound interest of cent per cent.
Though it is not always the case, I believe,
That the longer we’ve kept ’em, the more do we grieve:
For, when debts are payable, right or wrong,
A short-time loan is as bad as a long—
So why in—Heaven (before we are there)
Should we give our hearts to a dog to tear?
RIP Hannah Joy
We lost our Hannah Joy this morning.
We are beyond heartbroken.
Winter Challenges
We’ve experienced about a month of snowstorm after snowstorm and bitterly cold temperatures. I’ve worn paths in the snow where I walk to/from the coop and the various bird feeders but if I step off a path, I plunge into over knee deep snow. I’ve carved steps into the snow so I don’t have to bend down to reach the door knob of the garage or coop.
The temperatures have often been below 0 (F) degrees. I think the coldest temperature was -10. We are still heating our house with our portable propane heaters. We have two so that if one runs out we can quickly switch to the other. We contacted the furnace repair company in mid-December and they are supposed to replace the igniter, but communication and progress is slow.
A couple days ago the weather turned unseasonably warm, with blindingly sunny skies and temperatures climbing well into the 30s or 40s. EJ said that it is really feeling like Spring, but I reminded him that it’s only FEBRUARY and too soon to believe that Spring has arrived. Our weather is cruelly fickle and even in May it dangles warm days in front of us and then yanks them away as soon as we start planting our garden. I am right to be suspicious: The National Weather Service has issued another Winter Weather Advisory beginning tonight with about an inch of snow, up to a quarter inch of ice, and wind gusts up to 35 mph expected. The worst of the three will be the ice.
The chickens hate winter weather so I didn’t bother letting them out of the coop until the temperatures rose. They enjoy the warmer temperatures but they’ve kept to my well-trodden paths. This means that they fill my path and I have to wade through them to make it to the coop. I’ve made additional paths for them but they’ve ignored them.
I’ve made much progress befriending Harvey, the feral cat we adopted in mid-November. The people who gave him to us released him into our garage, as we asked. It took about two months before we saw more than a couple brief glimpses of him. Gradually Harvey moved closer, peeking around EJ’s work bench when I went out to feed him and Theo in the mornings. Now he greets me at the door each morning and he lets him pet him as he purrs–although I don’t see him other than at feeding times. We figured out that he’s made his home in the folded up ice fishing chanting that EJ has stored in the rafters. We are now working on EJ befriending the cat. Last weekend he came out with me during feeding times so Harvey can get used to him. The cat really is unsure of him and watches carefully with big eyes as he stays just out of reach.
I’ve kept Theo shut in the garage with Harvey. First it was because it was too cold outside for man and beasts. Then the snow was so deep that I didn’t want him to get stuck in the snow. I let him out this morning, but he lurked under the bird feeders. With the snow piled so high, he can easily reach the feeders and I don’t want him to slaughter the wild birds. So I picked him up and put him back in the garage.
We had a real scare over the last week when Hannah Joy (our beloved dog) became very sick. She was so sick that we weren’t sure she was going to pull through. We are certain it was something she ate although we aren’t sure what it was. We have to be very vigilant with Hannah because she eats EVERYTHING and ANYTHING. Despite our care, she still occasionally manages to find something to eat. I swear she’s part goat. We are still monitoring her carefully; she’s improving but not quite back to normal now. She’s even back to trying to eat stuff she shouldn’t. I say to her, “Seriously? Do you have any idea how anguished we were? Don’t do this to us! Have you learned NOTHING, Hannah?”
Döstädning
I’m looking out the window at a very snowy landscape. Not surprising for a Michigan winter. We’ve had a lot of winter storm systems come through, dumping quite a bit of cold and snow on us. Sandwiched between the winter storms, the weather warms and hits us with freezing drizzle or rain. I get to stay cozy at home. EJ has to drive through it. The snow plows keep the roads clear but our driveway can get a bit tricky to make it up. Thankfully, EJ is very skilled at making it up the driveway.
After JJ left for Alaska, we rang in the New Year by cleaning the guest room and organizing his stuff to keep it safe and out of the way. Our organizing has expanded into other areas of the house. EJ and I went through our closet for any clothes we didn’t wear or want. Then we went through the totes in our pantry/storage room to get rid of anything that we haven’t used in years and don’t need. We made two trips to Goodwill with lots of stuff to donate. In Spring/Summer, we’d like to sort through EJ’s garage with the same purpose. You could say we are doing “döstädning.” As Grok (X’s AI) explains:
It’s a cultural practice in Sweden where people—often the elderly—gradually declutter and get rid of unnecessary possessions during their lifetime. The goal is to spare their loved ones (especially children) the overwhelming task of sorting through and disposing of a lifetime’s accumulation of stuff after they pass away. The concept gained widespread international attention through the 2017 book The Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleaning by Swedish author Margareta Magnusson, where she describes it as a thoughtful, ongoing process rather than a one-time purge—focusing on keeping only what brings joy or utility, while being considerate about what gets left behind. It’s pragmatic and considerate rather than morbid, and while it’s most associated with Sweden, similar mindful downsizing ideas exist in other Scandinavian cultures too.
For quite some time we’ve wished we had a “home gym” to exercise in. EJ has an inversion table to stretch out his back, but he hasn’t used it as much as he’d like or should because we didn’t have a good space for it. Mostly we’ve kept it folded up in our library and had to keep moving it to access books. Our treadmill has been stored in the garage. Theoretically, we could have used the treadmill there, but more than half the year the weather is too cold. It didn’t take long for it to get surrounded by and boxed in by garage stuff, making it inaccessible and unusable.
Our house has three bedrooms. One is our bedroom. The second is our home library. The third bedroom was JJ’s before he moved out on his own. We’ve kept it as a guest room for our friend who stays overnight with us a few times a year when he has medical appointments in our area. However, as 2025 clicked over into 2026, we resolved to change the guest room that is rarely used into our exercise room that we can regularly use to get into shape. Exercising will be beneficial for us both, but especially helpful to reduce EJ’s back pain. Infrequent guests will have now have to sleep on the couch or get a motel room.
In addition to donating unwanted clothes and items, we’ve been busy setting up the exercise room.
We took apart the guest bed. We wanted to immediately list it on Facebook Marketplace to get rid of it but we will have to wait until Spring. Right now, no one could make it up our driveway unless they have 4-wheel drive or a dog sled. So the bed, box springs, and mattress are still in the guest…er, exercise room.
We thought we’d have to sell the antique hanky dresser that was in the exercise room. Neither of us wanted to get rid of it, but we needed the space. Then EJ suggested we move it into our bedroom in place of my nightstand (which wasn’t next to my bed). I didn’t think the dresser would fit, but it fit perfectly. However, we had to figure out what to do with the nightstand. I finally decided to move it into the master closet to hold linen. This meant we had to move a low shelf and little bench. The shelf went in front of the window in the kitchen where it holds plants, mittens, and boots. It’s above a heat register so it’s a good place to dry wet mittens and boots. The little bench went into the exercise room in a place that was out of the way and too small for anything else. The seat lifts up so we can use it to store little weights.
I found a elliptical bike for $20 on Facebook Marketplace. The poster said that he had bought it new for his daughter but she wanted one that was more like those at the gym and never used it. Her dislike is our gain. Or should I say “our loss” since I’m hoping to use it to lose some weight.
With herculean effort, EJ moved the treadmill into the exercise room after first testing that it still worked. It does, although he has to replace a couple brackets. He’s working on that. Once he gets that fixed and we get rid of the old bed, we will be in business.
I’m making progress friending our new cat, Harvey, who lives in our garage. It’s slow progress, but progress nonetheless. Harvey was a feral, stray cat given to us by a couple we met at the thrift store in mid-November. For weeks, we only glimpsed Harvey a couple of times. A couple weeks ago, he (or she, we aren’t sure which) poked his head out from under EJ’s big workbench when I went out in the mornings to feed him and Theo. For the last couple mornings, he’s waited near the door before moving away when I go out. I always stand near the door for a couple minutes so he can get used to my presence. He’s coming closer to me although he’s still very skittish. This morning he actually started eating while I stood near the door. Before, he came near the food dish while I was out there but was too nervous to eat. So we are making progress.
Out With The Old
I’m finally back!
I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and New Year’s.
Ours, well, ours was exhausting and stressful.
We spent the last half of November helping our son move from his trailer into our house so he could save money for his move to Alaska. We moved most of his things into the garage, but some items that were too good for the garage went into our unheated pantry/storage room, and a few items that were too good for the pantry/storage room went into the house. I spent many hours trying to organize and reorganize things so the house didn’t look cluttered. I hate clutter. It depresses me.
Meanwhile, EJ was busy driving JJ on errands and getting his pickup unstuck from the driveway. It is only 2-wheel drive he (JJ) had trouble making it up the driveway.
EJ and I love visiting our favorite thrift shop. In mid-November we got to talking to another couple at the shop and they mentioned that they have multiple stray cats hanging around their property. We’ve been hoping to find a friend for Theo, our outside cat, so we said we’d take one. They urged us to take more than one, but although we have a weakness for cats, this time we firmly said we wanted only one. A couple weeks later the couple brought us a cat, which we released into the garage. It’s mostly feral so we haven’t seen much of it–just a glimpse now and then. This morning when I went out to feed it, it didn’t immediately vanish as it usually does (if I see it at all) so I consider that progress.
Because we don’t see the cat often, we thought about naming it Spirit or Phantom. But those names just didn’t seem to fit right. I said to EJ, “Too bad there isn’t an imaginary friend in a movie or book that we could name it after.” He replied, “We could name it ‘Harvey’ after the six-foot invisible rabbit in the old Jimmy Stewart movie.” I protested, “But that’s a male name and we don’t know if the cat is a male or female.” EJ answered, “The cat won’t know the difference” so we named the cat Harvey.
In late November EJ tried to call our propane company to have propane delivered. After a five minute wait, he gave up and I tried to order propane on their website. It was not a simple process and we thought we had ordered it when we actually hadn”t. When the propane wasn’t delivered, we tried calling again on December 3. That time the voicemail message said that 100 callers were ahead of us with an estimated 90 minute wait time. That’s crazy! I finally found contact information on the website and emailed the company. They emailed back that they had put in an order for us. A week or so later, the propane was still not delivered so I emailed the company again and they said they couldn’t make it up our steep driveway. Duh. When we first tried to contact the company, we didn’t have any snow. By the time the deliveryman attempted to deliver the propane, we had had some freezing rain and a lot of snow. We were resigned to them not being able to make it up our driveway until the snow melted in the spring, and having to cook meals with a camp stove or something. But we prayed about it and the day before Christmas Eve the truck made it up the driveway. Thank you, Lord!
In December, our old refrigerator temperature wasn’t as cool as it should be. EJ started troubleshooting possible problems. EJ looked for new refrigerators on-line in case we had to replace it, but we’d have the same problem getting a refrigerator delivered as we’d have getting propane delivered–the delivery truck probably wouldn’t make it up our driveway. We thought about picking it up from the store ourselves, but we’d have to take the topper off our truck and wrestle the refrigerator into the house, and EJ has back problems so we didn’t want to do that. We supposed that if the refrigerator died, we could put our food in coolers on the front porch. It is winter, after all. But then I asked EJ why we couldn’t get a compact fridge that would easily fit in our pickup. It could last us until the snow melted and we bought a new full-sized refrigerator (if necessary). We then we could use the little one as our egg fridge, which we’ve been wanting for quite some time. EJ thought that was a good idea. He searched online and found a 7.4 cubit foot one at Menards. It’s 56 1/2 inches high and 21 inches deep and wide. It’s good-sized for a small fridge and best of all, it fit in our truck. We set it up in our pantry next to our chest freezer. Meanwhile, EJ got the big refrigerator working ok so it might last a while longer. Thank you, Lord.
Then there’s the problem with our furnace. It’s a heat pump, which pumps up heat/cool air from the ground to heat/cool our house. When the outside temperature is above 27-28 degrees, the heat pump saves us tons of money. When the temperature falls below that, it switches to auxiliary heat, which uses propane. Only, for several years the auxiliary heat doesn’t work right. We’ve called our furnace repair company, which is the one who installed the unit 20 years ago. They would temporarily fix the problem but then the auxiliary heat would quit working again. Every time they came out, it was a major problem and cost us a lot of money. We finally fired them and got a new repair company that is much better. This summer they fixed our AC for very little money and they explained the problem so we can maintain it ourselves. We found out from them that the repairmen from the previous company work on commission–meaning that unless they sell us something expensive, they don’t get paid. No wonder all their repairs were expensive. Grrr. Anyway, the repairman from the new company came to look at our furnace a couple weeks ago. He thinks it’s the igniter, which isn’t terribly expensive. It could also be that our furnace, which is old, needs replacing. He said he could install the igniter and if that isn’t the problem, he will deduct the cost from the price of the furnace. EJ and I have discussed it and we will probably first try to replace the igniter and hope it lasts a couple years so we can save up for a furnace. Now that the holidays are over, EJ will contact the repairman. Hopefully he can make it up our driveway. Last time he came here, he only made it halfway and then had to walk up.
Meanwhile, we have been heating our house with a portable propane heater. The heat pump was working when the outside temperature was high enough so we’d turn off the little heater, but the heat pump doesn’t seem to be working very well since a winter storm knocked out our power for a few hours a week or so ago. Probably something was tripped? Well, we are staying warm with our little heater. We actually have two set up so if one runs out of propane we can quickly switch to the other.
JJ left for Alaska on Christmas Eve. To be honest, although we love JJ, it was nice to get our house–our peace and quiet–back. JJ is a terrible messy and he had not kept his promise to keep the guest room tidy. It was a mess. Neither did he keep his promise to sort through his belongings and keep only the things he planned to take back to Alaska with him in the (hopefully) near future so we didn’t have a garage full of unwanted things. He also didn’t keep his promise to not leave us with a bunch of items that are hard to get rid of–like his mattress and microwave. He wasn’t careful to put stuff out of Hannah’s reach–she eats EVERYTHING–and among other things we caught her eating a package of his razor blades and his cigars, both of which could have killed her. Sigh. Truth to tell, JJ brings a lot of drama and is not the easiest guest to have. We dropped JJ at the airport on Christmas even and then rested on Christmas Day. We spent most of the next day cleaning the guest room and moving as many things into the garage that we could. The electronic stuff that had to be protected, we stored in the guest room closet where it would be out of sight.
That evening, our friend texted EJ that he would be at our house on New Year’s Eve and stay until January 2nd. This friend often spends a night with us when he has medical appointments in our area, but he usually asks if it’s ok rather than assume. Last May he and his dog spent an additional two weeks with us while he recovered from surgery. His dog was a peach, but his master disregarded our instructions about our property and animals, which caused a lot of stress. He also is a messy and has dropped dangerous pills on the floor that could have harmed Hannah. We are utterly exhausted and frazzled so EJ texted his friend back and told him that we are burned out on guests right now and he can’t come this time. When he does come, we are determined that we will have firmer boundaries in place so our animals aren’t stressed out–and neither are we.
We want to be welcoming, supportive, generous, and kind, and we don’t mind making some sacrifices. However, we can no longer do it to the detriment of our peace. We firmly resolve that in 2026 we will set firmer boundaries.
Friends
Both EJ and our son work four 10-hour shifts at their companies. EJ works Friday through Monday and JJ works Monday through Thursday. Mondays are the only days when they are both at work and I have the day to myself. I still accomplish tasks on Mondays, but they aren’t as busy as other days. This means it’s quieter so I can think and write without so many interruptions.
Yesterday I went with JJ to his trailer to load up his few remaining possessions and do final cleaning before he turns over his keys to management. No more exhausting trips to the trailer! No more pickup truck loads to load, transport, and unload. Yay!
A guy JJ knows invited him to stay with him temporarily while he gets established in Alaska. JJ plans to fly to Alaska on Christmas Eve (he already bought his ticket) and look for a job and permanent housing. I actually think that’s a pretty good idea: If he decides he hates Alaska, he can just buy a return ticket. We will store JJ’s things for him until he can return for them. Since he would be driving back to Alaska in his pickup, he is going to have to be selective about what he takes. In the next few weeks, I will help him sort through what he wants to take. Some things he is giving to us–like the new loveseat he bought a few months ago–and the other stuff he will donate, recycle, or discard. JJ promised he wouldn’t stick us with a bunch of stuff that we will have to figure out how to get rid of. We are trying to downsize ourselves, working around our schedules and EJ’s health issues. The last thing we need is more things to discard.
I’ve been working really hard over the last few weeks to find places for JJ’s things. Depending on how durable/valuable the items are, we put them in the garage (which is stuffed to the rafters), the pantry/storage room (which is a bit crowded), or the house. The pantry/storage room is technically part of the house, but it’s an unheated room located off an unheated hallway that connects the garage with the house so it’s not in the main living portion of the house. I’ve been doing my best to arrange things in the house so it looks neat, comfy, and inviting rather than like a cluttered old resale shop. The more things JJ brought here, the more of a challenge it became, but I think I’ve been quite successful.
One of the good things about JJ moving here is that Clara finally has a friend. We adopted Clara last year when she was a kitten. Over the months, Clara has tried very hard–and very unsuccessfully–to make friends with the other animals. Our cat Timmy is old and has no use for a playful, mischievous kitten’s nonsense. Our dog Hannah isn’t particularly fond of cats and barely tolerates her. JJ adopted Astrid last year. We took care of her whenever he was gone on his boat. Astrid likes us but hisses at Clara and the other animals. When JJ brought Astrid here for the first time, she made a place for herself on the top shelf in the pantry/storage room (redecorating by pushing things off the shelf) and she’s content to stay there in her fortress of solitude. A few months ago, JJ adopted a second cat–a kitten he named Solveig. Clara and Solveig, both young cats, have become good friends, sleeping together, bird watching together, and chasing each other around the house. I joked that JJ needed to permanently give Solveig to us because she and Clara would miss each other if he took her away. He wasn’t too receptive to the idea.
Dreadfully Busy
Today is the last day of my birthday month. October has had a lot of goodness in it, although one sad thing.
The one sad thing is that the two little chicks we snuck under the broody hen didn’t make it. We had a friend downstate who didn’t provide a safe environment for his chickens. He simply let them roost in an open outbuilding. Coyotes got some of them and others froze to death in the winter. His attitude was that “They’ll live or they won’t.” We hate that attitude and do our best to protect and care for our animals, including the chickens. Despite our efforts, the chicks didn’t make it. Maybe the hen wasn’t a good mama. However, Richard VI, our new rooster, is thriving. He should: He’s currently the only rooster among 21 hens.
The last couple of weeks has been extremely busy. To quote a line from a children’s Veggie Tales song:
“I’m busy, busy, dreadfully busy,
You’ve no idea what I have to do…”
Our son was working on a Great Lakes bulk carrier for several years, but he decided he had had enough of it: The pay was very good but he wasn’t home much so it was difficult to have a social life and he’s had problems with his foot after he slipped on deck a year ago and badly broke it. So he quit in late July. He’s been working in a factory, but I think it bores him. He decided he wants a change. He wants a challenge.
So he has a notion to move to Alaska.
Yup. Alaska.
JJ knows someone who lives in Alaska who will let him stay with him while he gets established there. He’s not sure exactly what he will do when he gets there. He’s looking into various jobs but mostly winging it.
Honestly, we’d prefer that he not move so far away, but we also believe that he’s an adult and he needs to make his own decisions. We will help him as much as we can. This involves letting him move in with us for a few months so he can save money. The plan is that when he believes he has enough money, he will fly to Alaska to get settled. Then he will return for his belongings that we are storing for him. We will also take care of his two cats until he can come back for them. He gave his cats interesting Scandinavian names: Astrid and Solveig. Astrid is a calico and her name means “divinely beautiful.” Solveig is yellow and her name means “sun strength” or “daughter of the sun.” Astrid stayed with us before when JJ was working on the ship. She likes us but not the other pets so it’s a bit of a challenge. Solveig is his newest cat–actually just a half-grown kitten. I’m hoping she will adjust well. Maybe our cat, Clara, will finally have another cat to play with.
Over the last couple of weeks, EJ and I have made several trips to JJ’s place to help him pack and to transport boxes to our house. Some stuff will be stored in the garage, some in our storage room, and some, of course, in the guest bedroom where he will stay. He is giving us his living room furniture–a couch and chair he bought a few months ago–as well as a few other things. I told him we will only “borrow” his furniture and if he decides Alaska isn’t for him and returns to this area, he can have it back.
When we haven’t been making trips to JJ’s, I’ve been reorganizing everything to make space for his things. I hate clutter so I’m trying to make things fit and still look nice. It basically requires reorganizing the whole house. If I empty a dresser drawer in his bedroom, I have to find space for the things I took out. I’m putting his living room chair in the library, but it displaces a small deacon’s bench that I moved to our master closet, which required I find places for the things that had been there, which requires that I reorganize the whole closet. His couch is more like a love seat, so I think it will fit where the large recliner was. The recliner was worn and we’ve been wanting to get rid of it so this was a good excuse to toss it.
One challenge that we have is that EJ is allergic to scented products, which JJ uses. That means that a lot of the clothes he doesn’t need will have to be stored in the garage. The things brought into the house will have to be washed with unscented laundry soap. JJ suggested that he take his Dad shopping with him so EJ can show him which personal hygiene products are ok. I think that is considerate.
Another challenge is that JJ’s pickup is only 2-wheel drive and won’t be sufficient for making it up our steep driveway in the winter snow. EJ and JJ work in the same town, but they won’t be able to car-pool because they work on different days: EJ works Friday through Monday and JJ works Monday through Friday.JJ says that a truck that’s good enough to make it to Alaska would cost too much and delay his move. I suggested he buy a cheap 4-wheel drive pickup that’s good enough to make it through the winter. He can sell it before he moves to Alaska and probably recoup at least some of the money he spent. He will have to decide what to do before the snow gets deep enough to be a problem.
Preparing for JJ arrival is a major task, but reorganizing is actually a positive thing. It motivates EJ and me to sort our own things that we no longer need, use, or want. We are donating or recycling items as we have time. Once JJ moves in, I’ll help him further sort through his things to help him downsize. He can’t take everything to Alaska.
Oh, I think I forgot to mention that one of EJ’s co-workers is moving. A couple weeks ago, he gave EJ a nice bookshelf set–one large bookshelf and two matching smaller ones. The bookshelves were a tremendous gift because we needed more room for our books. After EJ brought them into the library, I spent a day or two deciding which books to go on their shelves. So that room was already re-organized and looking nice before JJ decided to move to Alaska. The only real change I had to make is moving the deacon’s bench to the master closet to replace with JJ’s living room chair. Here’s a link to the video I took after I finished getting the books on the shelves. The new shelves are the dark free-standing ones. I thought it was funny that months ago our Hannah Joy started storing her bones in the library as well. It was her own idea and effort. Apparently she knows that’s the room where we store our treasures–our books–and she wants to store her treasures there too. She goes into the library whenever she wants to chew on her bones.
A Fowl Week
My Birthday month has been splendiferous. We’ve made homemade cider for the first time, I’ve set up more bird feeder stations, and we found a “new” couch and ended up enjoying a private garage sale. This has been another awesome week. This week was very fowl.
Last Spring we bought Partridge Chantecler female chicks. We really like the breed so we were planning to get some Partridge Chantecler rooster chicks this coming Spring. I’ve looked it up and read that roosters don’t begin to mate for at least 4-5 months–some say even older than that–so we wouldn’t have fertilized eggs until next fall. Normally that would be fine, but…
We have a hen who tends to get broody in the fall. Whether it’s the same one or not, I don’t know. But this year she sat on unfertilized eggs for weeks and weeks, well past her “due date.” She was very determined and refused to give up. We don’t want this to happen next year so we’ve kind of been looking for a rooster that will be mature enough to mate with the hens in the Spring. We were actually looking on social media for a rooster last week when we found the couch.
On Tuesday we found three postings for free roosters on FB. EJ encouraged me to try to get one. The first two people had already found homes for their roosters, but the third still had them available. So we got their address, drove to their house, and chose one of their roosters. I’m not sure what breed he is–we forgot to ask–but he’s very handsome.
After we drove away with the rooster, we discussed possible names. We don’t name our hens–too many and most of them look alike–but we’ve begun giving our roosters kingly names with a number afterwards indicating how many roosters we’ve had since we first got chickens. For example, we named our last rooster Edward. He was the fifth rooster we’ve owned so he was Edward V. We had decided to name this rooster Henry when I suddenly exclaimed, “No! We can’t name him Henry.” EJ asked why not. I said because we have to reserve that name for our eighth rooster. You know, Henry the Eighth. Haha. So we named this one Richard VI.
As we drove away with Richard VI, we discussed our broody hen. Poor thing. She has persevered for weeks and weeks, sitting on her eggs with no hope of them hatching. We decided to reward her faithfulness if we could. We drove straight to our local farm store with Richard VI in a cat carrier in the back seat. Once at the farm store, I asked our favorite employee, who is very knowledgeable, if she thought a hen would adopt chicks that weren’t hers. She said absolutely, especially if the hen has been broody for a long time, which ours has been. She gave us advice on what to do to better our chances of the hen adopting a chick. Armed with this information, we went to the bins of little chicks in the back of the store. There were four different breeds there. We chose two of the littlest chicks, which were Barred Rocks. Originally, we were only getting New Hampshire and Rhode Island Red chickens, but we find ourselves expanding: Buff Orpingtons, Partridge Chanteclers, and now Barred Rocks and whatever Richard VI is.
Once home, I got Richard VI set up in the bottom of the fancy coop inside the Coop. It’s suggested that when introducing a new chicken to an old flock, to keep them separated but able to see each other for at least a week before letting them mingle. That lets them get familiar with the “stranger.” I waited about three days and then let him out. He’s doing fine. The older hens are not impressed but the young Canadians (Chanteclers) are batting their eyelashes at him. I put the little chicks in a cat carrier in the house until night.
After dark, when the chickens were asleep, EJ and I snuck out into the coop with the little chicks. Turning on the lights would have woken the chickens up but EJ had a flashlight with a red light, which he kept mostly hidden, allowing only the tiniest bit of light to show. I made my way to the broody hen’s nesting box, lifted her up, and put the chicks under her wing. She was so drowsy that she never woke up. The theory is that she’d wake in the morning and assume that her eggs had hatched during the night.
In the morning, EJ and I went out to the coop to see if the hen had adopted the chicks. If she hadn’t, she would have killed them. We were so relieved to see that the chicks were alive. Mama was happily clucking. Mission successful! Several of the nesting boxes, including the one the broody hen nested in, are cat litter boxes located on top of the old doghouse in the coop. I wanted to make sure that the chicks could access food and water, that the other chickens wouldn’t hurt them, and that they wouldn’t fall off the dog house when they got older, so I carried Mama Hen and her chicks into the doghouse and shut them inside. They will stay there until the chicks get older and are so vulnerable.
I’ve only seen a few brief glimpses of the chicks because they mostly stay under Mama’s wings where it’s nice and warm. I hope they continue to do well. I hope they are getting enough food and water. They are awfully tiny and winter is approaching. I feel like a worried mother hen.
I only had a little bit of chick feed leftover from last Spring and I forgot to get more when we were buying the new chicks. So Thursday we drove back to the farm store. While there, EJ noticed that they had apple trees were on sale for $10 each. He bought two. I told him that it’s his birthday gift. (His birthday is actually in March, but it’s cold and snowy then so I share my October month with him.) In the afternoon, he planted the trees and put fences around them to protect them from the deer until they get taller. Our little apple orchard has expanded from six trees to eight. We now regret not buying a few more trees but we were trying to get out of the store without buying more than chick feed. Oh, well. Maybe they will have a sale again next year.
Thursday I was out in the orchard putting more bird seed in the feeders when EJ, who was on the deck, made a small noise to get my attention. I looked up and four wild turkeys were running–not walking–out of the forest toward me. They started gobbling up the seed even while I was still there. In previous years, they’ve always ducked into the forest when they saw me. Apparently, word is spreading among the forest creatures that I’m no threat.
As we drove around on our errands, EJ often took roads less traveled so we were able to enjoy the autumn trees. Day by day–and even moment by moment–the trees are growing more beautiful. We are well into the color peak right now. The trees are gradually losing their leaves and I can see further into the forest.
EJ has removed the screens from the windows. I moved the patio table and chairs from the deck to the covered porch for the winter.
Here is a collage of my birthday this week: The autumn trees are from our “color tour” as we drove on errands. There’s a photo of the happy Mama hen. Sorry, her chicks are hidden under her. I tried to get a good photo of Richard VI, but that’s the best I could do. I did get a good video of him: Richard VI
Wildlife Viewing Setup
Today was a nice autumn day. It was mostly sunny, somewhat warm, but with a chill in the air. I went outside and set up another bird feeding station, which is what I’m calling the ones that are on posts rather than hanging from hooks. I am proud of my endeavor so I thought I’d make a video to share it with you. I do not like making videos of me doing a lot of talking. It took me a lot of tries before I was happy with the result.
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