I Love To Go A Gardening
Growing Our Life in Northern Michigan
Some Enchanted Evening
We were going to travel to our old house this weekend to continue readying it to sell and maybe meet with realtors, but we didn’t. We had reasons. Like EJ originally thought he’d have to work this Friday. By the time I understood that he had it off, it was mid-day on Friday and I was no longer mentally prepared for a long trip south. Also, EJ had told me he was really exhausted. Our weariness has been long in the making and goes deep. So I had thought, “Hey, we don’t really have to go down this weekend.” It’s just as well that we didn’t because southern Michigan had terrible storms and severe heat. It would have been miserable trying to work under such conditions. Mostly, though, we are having trouble leaving our new house. We really love it up here.
But, we tell ourselves, next weekend we have to go to the old house.
Saturday we rested. We even took naps.
Later I started to go outside and saw a black cat in the yard. We haven’t seen any other pets in our yard except our own since we moved here so I was sure it was Little Bear. I yelled frantically, “EJ! Little Bear escaped!” and walked toward the cat, but it ran off into the forest. I looked at the doors and windows to make sure they were all shut, and they were, so EJ and I did a head count. We found all the cats except Little Bear–but then I saw him on the window ledge in the entrance hallway. Whew!
In the wee hours the night before, Timmy jumped off the headboard of our bed and jumped on my stomach. Ooomphf! The cats are silly.
Saturday evening, not long before JJ returned home from work, I walked outside and stood on our small deck. It was so beautiful and quiet outside that I called EJ to join me. We sat outside as the sky got darker and dark and darker. The Forest is a bit spooky at night because it’s so very, very black.
Photo from Pinterest.
As the night darkened, the stars began appearing. First a few, and then more, and then the sky was filled with stars. We turned off all the lights inside and outside the house and gazed upward in awe. With us being on a hill, it feels as if we are tilted and that if the earth shrugged even a bit, we’d fall into the sea of stars.
We got out our binoculars to look at the stars, and then EJ brought out the telescope, but he couldn’t find all the pieces, which apparently were separated in the move to the new house. I’m sure they are around here somewhere. Since we aren’t expert astronomers or anything, JJ let me borrow his Tablet, which has a really cool astronomy app on it. When I pointed the Tablet in any direction, it showed me the names of the planets, stars, and constellations that I was aiming at.
I was totally excited when I saw a meteorite streak across the sky. It was so big and bright that it had a tail. We saw several meteorites after that as well as many satellites. It was awesome.
EJ and I were reluctant to end our Enchanted evening and didn’t come inside until 2 a.m. Morning came very early, beginning with JJ complaining of no hot water to shower in. It was simple for EJ to relight the pilot light on the water heater, which had gone out, but JJ had only a lukewarm shower before work. EJ and I were both really tired today, but our evening was worth it.
Despite my exhaustion, I was quite productive today. I washed all the dirty clothes, hung them on the clothesline, took them down, folded them, and put them away. I made a yummy meal of chicken breasts and potato salad, and EJ helped me pull our bed away from the wall so I could paint behind it. Now, finally, the master bedroom is completely painted. I just have to paint the master bathroom and the kitchen and then the painting will be all done.
Shanghaied
Excuse my language….but cancer really sucks.
I almost, ALMOST, think that recovering from cancer is more difficult than the treatment. Almost. Watching a hairless child half dozing in the chemo chair as toxic chemicals are pumped into his body is the stuff of nightmares. However, child and parent get through it moment by moment, and friends are there to support the battle. Afterwards, however, there is a different sort of battle–a slow rebuilding of life–and it’s not easy.
Yesterday an article from a cancer page appeared on my Facebook Newsfeed with the title “Survivors of Teenage Cancer Struggle with Jobs, Emotions Later in Life.“ The article said that
Survivors of teenage cancer also faced higher rates of depression and anxiety, as well as issues with memory and task efficiency, compared to their siblings who did not have cancer…Teen cancer survivors may also struggle later in life because their treatment came at a time of such rapid social and emotional development, Prasad added. “Cancer treatment at this time interferes with development of relationships, academic achievement, participation in social activities and the development of autonomy from parents,” she said. Conklin said teenagers’ increased expectations for independence and autonomy from parents can make the already challenging process of treatment even more difficult.
JJ does struggle at times with some of these things. We give him the best support and advice we can, but there’s only so much we can do and most of the time I feel pretty helpless when he struggles. Yesterday was one of JJ’s down days, and he poured out his frustration and discouragement to me, and my heart broke, and I ended up crying for him, and I prayed for him almost all night because I couldn’t sleep with an aching heart. I pleaded, “God, he’s been through so much. You’ve really got to help him!”
JJ had to work today; EJ didn’t. As EJ and I went about our day–including a trip to the library–I prayed and deeply thought, and decided that although I can’t make friends for JJ, and I can’t decide for him what he ought to do in his life, I can shanghai him, dragging him out to have some fun. After the years of struggles that we’ve had, we all really need to have some fun. Fun is not always frivolous. Sometimes it’s an absolute necessity for mental health. As they say, “Laughter is the best medicine.”
Besides the fact that we’ve been busy settling into our new house, EJ and JJ don’t often have the same days off so it’s not easy to find a time when we can do fun stuff. But I thought that if we don’t start fitting in fun activities, we will never get around to doing them. For goodness’ sake, we live in an area where people from all over the country and world come for vacations. There are TONS of things to do. So I got on the Internet and searched for “Things To Do.” We have tons of lakes surrounding us so with EJ’s encouragement I ordered an inflatable boat from Amazon. It’s Coast Guard approved but not much money. It’s big enough that we can all enjoy it together, but it’s something JJ and I can fit in his car and handle even if EJ can’t join us. JJ was shocked when I told him that I had bought a boat from Amazon. “You bought a BOAT? Are you CRAZY???” he exclaimed. I laughed.
I also decided that soon we are going to schedule an evening cruise on a tall ship. I love tall ships, which are old sailing-type ships like pirates used to sail, and I have always wanted to go on one. The price is reasonable. I read that the crew lets passengers help put up the sails and, if possible, to take turns steering the ship. How cool is that? When I told JJ about our sailing plans, he said, “If we go on a tall ship, you better not start talking ‘Pirate’ or I’m going to jump overboard and swim to shore.” “Aye, matey!” I replied. He groaned. Then I said that I really need to find a pirate hat. “What era pirate hat are you going to get?” JJ asked. I said, “Uhm. I’m going to look like Jack Sparrow. I’m going to wear beads in my hair and put black make-up around my eyes.” “Jack Sparrow isn’t exactly a good role model,” JJ protested.
Argh.
EJ and I discussed what we could do–today–when JJ got out of work. Some places we’d love to take him to were too far for an evening drive. We considered taking him to a cute theater, but we didn’t like the movie showing on its one screen. So we decided to shanghai JJ and take him out to eat in Storybrooke. I googled a restaurant with good reviews, and as soon as JJ was ready, we took off on the drive through the beautiful countryside to Storybrooke. We parked the car and walked to the restaurant…only to find that it had closed at 2 p.m. Who closes a restaurant at 2 p.m.??? We walked down the very cute street and considered various restaurants. A few other restaurants were also closed, one restaurant was very small and warm, a few hadn’t had great reviews, and another one was appealing but the meals were expensive–like $40 each. No can do.
So we got in the car and continued driving…and driving…and driving. We drove through miles and miles of orchards with trees drooping with red cherries. One cherry orchard was filled with trees so red with cherries that it looked like a forest of maple trees blazing with autumn color. EJ happened to lift his arm just as I snapped a picture of the orchard. Rats!
Neither JJ nor I had eaten much since breakfast so we stopped at a sort of tourist place that sold jellies and jams and petoskey stones, and other Michigan treats. It had a small cafe inside the store. The menu was posted on big boards hung on the wall. The prices were a bit expensive but not terribly so…and we were very hungry. We decided on what to eat and then learned that the store stops serving food at 3 p.m. Bummer. So we drove and drove some more, and finally came to a very cute city nestled on the coast. We tried to find a unique but not fancy restaurant, but there was a festival in the town and it was extremely crowded. We ended up going to the Pizza Hut at the edge of town.
On the drive home, we talked about cancer struggles–among other things. JJ said that he had fun tonight and even if he protested at first, he wanted me to keep shanghaing him and dragging him off on adventures. Yup. I can do that.
Storybrooke
Shortly after I finished writing my previous post, EJ and I decided that the day was so lovely that we would go for a drive. JJ was working, but we took Danny with us.
We went for a long drive, enjoying winding our way along beautiful shoreline, forests, valleys, and acres of cherry orchards. At one point we passed a property surrounded by very tall fencing. EJ said, “I wonder what’s in there?” I exclaimed, “Oh! oh! I know! There’s dinosaurs in there…like in Jurassic Park!” We eyed the fence with apprehensive eyes after that. Oh, so we can’t help it. We are a family of storytellers.
We ended up driving through a town so magically cute that I exclaimed, “This town looks like it belongs in a fairytale!” So I decided to nickname it “Storybrooke” after the name of the town in the ABC series “Once Upon a Time.” (We prefer not to give our actual location on the Internet so we give places descriptive names). I videoed the town as we drove through it, but it was impossible to digitally capture it’s cuteness. I guess you have to be there to experience it.
Storybrooke is located on the coast of a large lake. We parked the Buggy and walked to the beach where Danny had a wonderful time in the water. He made me laugh because he was so very determined to go where he wanted that it was difficult to persuade him to go a different way. Fortunately, we usually wanted to go the same way.
Yesterday afternoon EJ and I went for another drive, but this drive was more purposeful than wandering. We first stopped at the library to return my book. We figured the library would be closed–which it was–but we thought that I could put the book in the bookdrop. I couldn’t because the bookdrop container was apparently locked. Oh, well. The we drove to a few car dealerships because EJ is still looking for an inexpensive four-wheel drive vehicle that will handle winter driving up here in the North.
In the last few days we have had the hottest weather that we’ve experienced since we’ve moved up here, and the car lots were so hot that I could feel the energy leak out of me as I stood there. I only revived later when cooler breezes caressed me as we sat on our deck in the Enchanted Forest. When we told our friends that we were moving, some of them were surprised that we were moving north instead of south. Little do they realize that I am part snowman and melt in hot weather. The good thing about the North is that event the hottest days have an underlying coolness to them–much like a hot day in the autumn. It’s just that car lots radiate heat.
When we returned home from our trip to Storybrooke on Saturday, we were horrified to find that our Internet was out. Our new Internet Service Provider might have 24/7 support, but I don’t know their number if they do, so I had to wait until this morning to call for help. Our ISP said everything looked fine on their end, and they had me change a few settings on our wireless modem. When that didn’t work, they sent a computer wizard to the house to do something mysteriously magical that fixed the problem. Yay! Being without Internet connection is not fun.
Actually, the whole morning was sort of haywire with a lot of small problems. Like…JJ was in a bit of a bad mood. EJ had to return a call to the insurance company downstate, who said that our house insurance (for the old house) hadn’t been paid, but we hadn’t had a bill for it or anything. EJ called the bank who said they don’t pay house insurance or taxes (for our home equity loan) so we were responsible for paying it, which, Sheesh, why didn’t they inform us or the insurance company when they–not us–got the bill? EJ got that all cleared up. Meanwhile, I was making EJ some PB&J sandwiches to take to work and the bread fell so that the peanut-buttered bread stuck to my jeans and I had to peel it off. Yuck. And I drove to the post office to get stamps but it was closed for lunch so I had to drive home and then return an hour later. And EJ tried to call the company that picks up our trash at the old house to cancel it, but was placed on hold so long that he gave up. It was a day like that. Not major problems, just a lot of irritating little ones.
But JJ got to work ok, and EJ got to work ok, and the day quieted down. We had rain this morning which watered the thirsty ground and cooled the hot air a bit. Everything was so peaceful, I washed dishes and then took a nap.
Saruman’s Spies
EJ had some physically difficult days at work this last week, and he was utterly exhausted, so I have encouraged him to rest this weekend.
Yesterday I made challah bread for the first time in a long time, and I fixed a beautiful Shabbat meal for us.
We have discussed finding a Messianic congregation to attend. I have heard that there are some in the area, but finding them is difficult. When I was still in the south, I had bookmarked one to check out but when I clicked on the link it said “page not found.” I could call the number for it, but I’d rather check them out online first–because I’d rather know more or less what they believe before I contact them. So I googled (or rather, “Binged”) “Messianic Congregations” in our area. I emailed one on the results list and asked for more information and got the reply “We are located in Oregon,” which made me feel rather stupid and to laugh at myself. I looked at a map to see where another promising one was located, and it was in Pennsylvania. What I didn’t find was a congregation in my area, which is frustrating because why does the search engine take me around the country when I specify the exact area I want?
This morning I videotaped some crows making a ruckus outside. I rather like the crows that hang around our property. I’ve read that they are extremely intelligent birds, which I find interesting. I think their strong “caws” are a strong counterpoint to the gentle singing of the other birds. Here is the video that I took. I was hoping to capture a group of them flying overhead, but most of them stayed among the trees:
I think that having a vivid imagination is a lot of fun because it makes common things into epic adventures: Whenever the crows fly overhead, I don’t merely see a group of birds making a lot of noise. Instead, I can’t help but imagine the crows are Saruman’s spies from The Lord of the Rings and I always have a very strong desire to hide.
After JJ left for work this afternoon, EJ and I walked down to the mailbox for our mail. Getting the mail was only our excuse. Mostly we were walking to enjoy the beautiful scenery. Usually Danny waits for us at the top of the driveway, but today he followed us all the way down. Our cat Tesla also walked with us. I always feel as if I am in a fairy tale when the animals walk with us through the Enchanted Forest.
Turkeys and Other Stuff
We have decided to stay north again this weekend. The weekend before last–when we drove south in the middle of the night, right after EJ got out of work, so we could be at the old house to let in the guys installing the furnace, and we loaded up the u-haul in the rain–that weekend was so exhausting that we are still trying to recover from it. We aren’t as young as we used to be, and we don’t recover as quickly as we once did.
JJ had a couple of days off this week. On one of the days he and I took a drive after his Dad went to work. JJ needed to talk about his life direction so he drove and talked. With Viki, our GPS, we don’t worry much about getting lost, so we drove along the coast and saw a tall ship. I love the sailing ships. I think that I would put taking a cruise on a tall ship on my bucket list. Riding in a hot-air balloon is also on my bucket list. Both are quite expensive so I might never get to go on them, but it’s fun to dream of it. Anyway, after a bit, JJ and I stopped for something to eat at a drive in restaurant–the kind where they bring the food out on a tray which they attach to the car window. It was the first time JJ had ever gone to such a restaurant and he thought it was weird and fun.
EJ enjoys his new job, but it’s very challenging mentally–and even more so when he’s tired. He’s had a couple difficult days which worries him because it’s really difficult to be “the new guy.” I’ve noticed that my empathy has increased tremendously since JJ had cancer so that when my guys struggle, I suffer very deeply–almost beyond bearing. In order to endure my guys’ struggles, I pray much and remind myself of all the awesome things that have happened in the last few months.
EJ and I always talk as we drive here and there, whether on short trips or long journeys. A few days ago, I told EJ that I had read in 1 Peter 1:
Rejoice in this, even though for a little while you may have to experience grief in various trials. Even gold is tested for genuineness by fire…And you are receiving what your trust is aiming at, namely, your deliverance.
I told EJ that I had never really prayed to be delivered from problems before. Usually I prayed “Help me to follow You no matter where it leads or what it costs me” because I wanted to be strengthened and to have my faith deepened. But last winter, I felt so overwhelmed by problems that I desperately prayed that God would deliver us from them. Immediately, things began to happen and we found ourselves up here in the north. This makes me think of something Hebrew for Christians shared on their Facebook page:
Spirituality often enough involves a sense of irremediable brokenness, a feeling that you are not whole, that you are a mess, and that your need for God’s healing is constant and relentless… Contrary to the ideals of proud humanism, spirituality is a state of “blessed neediness,” of being “poor in spirit,” that aches with inner desperation for God’s power of healing. Those who humbly cry out to the LORD understand their great need for deliverance. Our Lord Yeshua testified: “The Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost” (Luke 19:10), and therefore He is found in the midst of the leper colonies of the hurting, the forgotten, and the rejected. As the “Man of Sorrows” (i.e., ish makhovot: אִישׁ מַכְאבוֹת), he understands the language of our pain (Isa. 53:3).
In another car conversation, EJ told me of one very “awesome thing” that happened a few months ago when he and JJ were living in the motel and I was still in the south. We had not yet found our new home–we didn’t even know it existed. EJ’s sister and her husband drove up one day to spend some time with him. He drove them around and as they drove down one pretty road, he said, “This is the neighborhood that I would like to live in.” As he told me this story, he said that it was on the very road where we now live. I asked him if he knew exactly where, and he said he did. At the time he made that statement, he was driving by the very property that we would eventually buy. Isn’t that amazing?
Anyway, feeling we need time to rest from stress and long journeys, we have decided to stay at our new house again this weekend and we are still not taking on any major projects. Mostly this week I have just unpacked a few boxes, did laundry, washed dishes, vacuumed floors, cooked meals, and walked down the driveway to get the mail.
This week I have also worked periodically at mowing more of the lawn. EJ had mowed some of it and I just continued what he started. This first mowing is mostly just to knock down two-years’ of growing grass. So much grass flies into the air as I mow that it sets me sneezing and sneezing. I don’t think we will have to mow often this summer because it has been very dry and the grass isn’t re-growing fast.
We are mowing only near the house because we want to keep most of the grass long to provide habitat for the wildlife, which we love to watch. I mowed the hill in front of the house, and the strip near and under the clothesline, and a bit near the house in the back yard. There was some pretty hawkweed in the backyard that was going to seed, so before I mowed that area, I harvested the seed and dumped them in the long grass near the driveway.
This morning I glanced out the window and saw the turkey family walking across the front lawn. One of the babies, obviously a male, displayed his feathers, which I thought was cute. I ran for my camera and was able to video them. They are not so tiny any more; they look like miniature adults.
Later, as I was opening the door to take a basket of laundry out to the clothesline, I saw a Rose-breasted Grosbeak sitting on a post in our front yard. I whispered to my guys to come look, but they didn’t hear me and the bird flew away. The only time I have ever seen a Rose-breasted Grosbeak was at my feeder at the old house during Spring 2014. I had never ever seen them before that time, and only saw them a few times before they moved on. I think they are beautiful birds and I am excited that I saw one up here in the north.
I think it would be fun to eventually get a go-pro or trail cam so I can observe the wildlife. We seem to have a deer crossing toward the bottom of our driveway. Every day when I walk down to get the mail, I see many deer tracks in the sand. I cannot see the crossing from the house. I would set up a cam there.
Usually Danny comes outside with me when I go get the mail, but he waits for me at the top of the driveway. He does not like the steepness of the driveway. Today I was surprised that he came further down the hill to meet me and walk back up with me. When we got near the house, he found some turkey feathers and sort of sneezed when he sniffed at them.
Our cat Kee-Kee has begun enjoying sleeping on my pillow above my head at night. The other night he surprised me when he lay right on my face with his paws dangling off my chin. A couple of times since then he has laid on my face. I push him off because it’s not comfortable to have a cat on my face. He’s a funny cat.
Shoes and Books
Last night when I took Danny outside for the last time before I went to bed, I heard the coyotes yipping. They make the weirdest, spine-chillingest sound.
EJ has been searching on-line for a used 4-wheel drive vehicle. We have to find one before winter because the little HHR that JJ drives to work won’t be able to handle the deep snow. EJ found an Avalanche for not too much money, so we left early to go look at it. It had already sold, but we had a nice chat with the salesman. He told us stories about his younger days when he worked in a factory that made bread, donuts, and cakes. I love to hear stories of different jobs because there is always so much more to them than it first appears. For example, I used to have a friend who became a landscape architect. I always thought landscaped architects merely knew how to artistically plant flowers. Instead, my friend was an architect who had to artistically draw up plans, and figure out parking lot gradients, and all sorts of things. It was interesting.
After we left the car lot, we drove around the countryside. In our travels, we came across a shoe tree. A shoe tree is a tree into which many, many people have thrown their old shoes. There are several shoe trees in Michigan and around the country. No one really knows who starts them or why. They just are. I told EJ that someday I’d like to add an old pair of shoes to the tree. The shoe tree reminded me of the quirky movie, The Big Fish, in which no one wore shoes.
Neither EJ nor I slept well last night. EJ had to go to work, but after he left, I took a nap. I didn’t sleep long or deeply, but I got enough sleep to revive me a bit.
I spent the rest of the day unpacking a few more boxes and putting stuff away. JJ didn’t have to work today so he helped me move 24 boxes of books (I counted them) from the garage into the pantry/storage room. he asked why I didn’t put them in the library, and I explained that the library already has many boxes of books in it and if we put any more boxes there, his Dad won’t have any room to build me book shelves. Until the shelves are built, I wanted to get the boxes out of the way so they’d be safe and so EJ could have room to organize his own stuff in the garage. I have just a few more boxes of household stuff left in the garage–as well as many, many empty boxes.
All day long it has felt storm-ish but so far we haven’t gotten any rain. I think it’s supposed to rain later. We really need it because our grass is getting yellowed with dryness. While I worked today, I glanced outside and saw the turkeys with their little ones at the top of the driveway. By the time I grabbed my camera and called for JJ to come look, most of the turkeys had moved further down the driveway out of sight.
♪ Because I’m Happy ♫
Yesterday we enjoyed a quiet, peaceful, restful Shabbat. It was such an awesome day.
When the sun set, EJ changed all the lightbulbs in the house to energy-efficient LED bulbs, which use almost no electricity and last for years. Then he got out his drill and fastened two screws into the wall so he could hang the heavy picture over the couch. He also installed the brackets for the curtain rods in the living room and master bedroom so I could finally put up my curtains. I asked him to put the brackets up high so that the curtains wouldn’t block much of the beautiful scenery outside. After living so many years in an old house with narrow windows on a shady lot, I’m loving the large windows that let the sun shine and beautiful scenery in. In the living room we just hung the valances. In the winter we will put up the matching insulated panels to keep out the cold.
The curtains really added to the coziness and beauty of the rooms.
JJ came home from work in high spirits. His store had told the employees that they could wear Independence Day shirts to work. JJ didn’t have any, but when he got to the store he saw patriotic hats so he bought one and wore it all day. He said a group of customers asked to have their pictures taken with him. JJ wore his hat again today. I’ve never seen him happier than he is here in the North…and that makes me happy.
This morning EJ and I happily worked at a variety of projects. EJ installed the pet door in the kitchen door so the cats can get to their litter boxes in the pantry/storage room.
Meanwhile, I did laundry and took the clothes outside to dry on the clothesline. I was filled with joy as I hung the clothes and delighted in the beautiful morning. I saw a Pileated Woodpecker start to fly from the forest. Then he saw me and put on his air breaks and returned to the safety of the trees. I caught glimpses of him in the trees before he moved deeper in.
In between taking loads of laundry out to the clothesline, I did various small jobs like vacuuming, washing dishes, and cleaning the bathrooms. I told EJ that I love the house and surroundings so much that I feel like a child playing “house.”
By afternoon EJ and I were both tired, but we really needed to get some groceries. We debated staying home or getting groceries, but finally decided that today was the best day to get them. The large grocery store that we really like is quite a distance–way on the other side of the Emerald City. However, a new one is being built not far away. I can’t wait until it opens in a few months.
On the way to the grocery store, EJ wanted to stop at Goodwill to buy the hat that he really liked but didn’t buy yesterday. The hat was no longer there, but we found a room-sized rug with a matching smaller rug. When new, the rugs would sell for hundreds of dollars but we got it for almost nothing. And it matches our decor wonderfully. We had originally planned to replace all the carpet in the house with wood-like vinyl flooring, but EJ was having second thoughts about getting rid of the carpet. I was willing to keep the carpet in the bedrooms, but didn’t really like it in the living room where it was looking worn. When EJ saw the large rugs (which we bought), he was willing to go right home and start tearing out the living room carpet. I advised him to wait until we can buy–or order–the new flooring. LOL.
With the Buggy filled with rolled up rugs, we continued on to the grocery store. Like the Ant in the story The Grasshopper and the Ant, we are hoping to buy extra items every time we go shopping so that we won’t run out of essentials if we get snowed in this winter. We don’t really know what to expect from our first winter–except that we will get tons of snow.
As we were leaving the Emerald City, I took a video of the beautiful lake. Further up the coast there were crowds of people on the beaches and lots of boats in the lake–including a tall ship or two–but where I took the video, there were fewer boats and one parasail.
When we started up our driveway, we saw a family of turkeys–two adults with lots of little ones. Later I looked outside and saw them further up the driveway. I tried to take pictures, but they were well camouflaged in the long grass.
All day I have been humming Pharrell Williams’ Happy. Because I am happy that EJ is so happy, and I am happy that JJ is so happy, and I am happy because it’s such an awesome gift to live in such a beautiful place. I told EJ that we ought to make our own Happy video, but that’s not likely to happen so I will leave you with this version of Happy that I found on Youtube:
Enchanted 4th
We did not drive the long journey south to the old house this weekend. Not only did we not want to travel on a busy holiday weekend–it’s the USA’s Independence Day–but after all the weekends at the old house, we wanted to experience a quiet weekend at our new house. This is the very first weekend we have spent in the Enchanted Forest.
Unless EJ is asked to work, his normal schedule is to work four ten-hour days and have a three-day weekend. Yesterday (Friday) we enjoyed a leisurely morning. After JJ left for work, EJ and I drove to Home Depot. Whenever we go anywhere–even on just trips to the bank or a home improvement store–we are filled with delight that we live in such an area of incredible natural beauty. “How on earth did we manage to move up here?” we ask each other incredulously. But we already know the answer: It could only be God who gave us this awesome gift.
EJ had forgotten to change out of his old stained t-shirt so we stopped at Goodwill so he could buy a decent T-shirt. I also bought some jeans and pretty cups. We love thrift shops! We continued on to the home improvement store, where we used the gift card our realtor gave us to buy a vacuum cleaner. At our old house, we didn’t have any carpeting so we had only a little vacuum cleaner that didn’t work very well. We have lots of carpeting in the new house, and with all our pets it really was time I had a decent vacuum cleaner! We also bought screws so we could hang pictures and curtain rods. EJ bought a wire rope and a hook, light bulbs, and a few other small things. We were starving so after we left Home Depot, we went out to eat.
Back at home in the Enchanted Forest, we happily puttered around. I used EJ’s post-hole digger to dig a hole and put up the third birdhouse. I was wondering if any bird would be interested in the birdhouses when they have a huge forest of trees to build nests in, but this morning I was overjoyed to see a chickadee exploring the third house.
EJ used the wire rope and hook to pull out the old hot tub that was on our little deck. Besides the fact that we don’t care all that much about hot tubs, one of the guys who helped us move is a hot tub repairman and he said our hot tub was beyond saving. The hot tub blocked some of our view from the living room window and also took up so much space that it prevented us from enjoying our deck. So EJ pulled it out. After it was gone, I happily positioned the patio table and chairs and later EJ and I–and Danny–relaxed there. EJ saw his first mosquito here at our new home…and he killed it.
As we enjoyed the quiet evening, we watched Annie stalking a squirrel or chipmunk in the grass. Annie has had trouble adjusting to the north and has spent much of her time in the garage so it was good to see her out and about. Tesla has been very matter-of-fact about the change in scenery. Rikki-Tikki-Tabby disappeared a week after we moved here. The last time we saw him, he sat on the hot tub outside the window and sang an long unusual song. He was very old so maybe he was singing his goodbye song before he went off into the forest to die. We miss him.
EJ also pulled out an old rotting buckboard that had been used as a lawn ornament. (Click on the link in the previous sentence to see a video of it.)
We ended our evening by JJ setting off his fire crackers and bottle rockets while EJ and I enjoyed some of my sparklers. We could hear fireworks from surrounding areas. Some of them were so loud that they shook our house. We went outside but our tall trees prevented us from seeing any fireworks.
This morning EJ and I took our cups of coffee outside to enjoy the sights and sounds of the beautiful morning. We heard the pileated woodpecker–sometimes far away and sometimes closer–but we never saw him. We read and studied the Bible together. It all felt so right.
I made oven-fried chicken and potato salad for lunch. After we ate, EJ and I took a walk through our woods, searching for stakes that mark the boundaries of our land. We found three of the four stakes. This is the first time we have had an opportunity to walk our land. It was a lot of fun. I love our woods. I took a couple of videos of our walk.
Walkabout in the Enchanted Forest – Part 1
Walkabout in the Enchanted Forest – Part 2
JJ won’t get home until late, but EJ and I were planning to go watch some fireworks tonight. We looked on the Internet and discovered that the ones we were hoping to go to were last night–those were the booms we kept hearing. I don’t know why so many areas had their fireworks on July 3rd instead of the 4th. The next closest fireworks are in the Emerald City, and we don’t feel like driving all the way there and fighting the crowds of people. We decided we’d just stay home. We don’t really mind. After months of busyness, we are totally enjoying this very restful 4th in our Enchanted Forest.
Fireworks
Last weekend’s grueling trip south took a lot out of us, so I have not taken on any huge projects this week…like painting rooms. Instead, I’ve limited myself to unpacking a box or two or three a day in addition to regular chores like dishes, and laundry, and walking to get the mail. Now and then, I’ve taken a nap.
Well…I’ve done a few other things as well–but nothing tiring like painting a room.
We were able to bring all but two of the birdhouses to our new house last weekend. I checked carefully and the three I brought north showed no signs of occupancy, while the two I left appeared to have sparrows nesting inside. I will bring those two north in the autumn. Sunday afternoon I happily put up two of the birdhouses. Using EJ’s post hole digger, I dug several holes before I was happy with the locations of the houses. I haven’t decided where I want the third birdhouse yet.
I also brought up my bird feeders, but I can’t put those out until after the bears go to sleep for the winter because I read that they like eating from bird feeders–and they have long memories so that once they find a sources of food, they will keep returning to it. I think I will have to give away my hummingbird feeders because the hummingbirds migrate to this area during the summer when bears are awake. A black bear was spotted in an area not far away from us this last week.
EJ had an eye appointment on Monday morning in the Emerald City. I went with him. The ophthalmologist’s office was the biggest I have ever seen! Once EJ gets his new glasses and all, I will make an appointment to get my eyes checked.
JJ didn’t have to work on Tuesday or Wednesday. Tuesday afternoon he and I drove to our local library to get library cards. I do not have a descriptive name yet for this town. Its library is not as big as the one in the Emerald City, but it is several times bigger than the one in our old Village in the south. It looked small-ish from the outside, but was bigger on the inside. We look forward to getting to know it. As the librarian prepared our library cards, she told us that the first time we can only borrow one book, but after we successfully return it we can borrow an unlimited number of books. I was going to look for a book, but JJ was eager to go to our next destination: The fireworks store in the Emerald City.
We didn’t have any fireworks stores in the south. Instead, we bought our July 4th fireworks from a guy who set up a tent just a few miles outside of our village. He always let JJ have a lot of fireworks for his money–ones that would cost $20 to $30 elsewhere he’d sell to JJ for $5 or so. He quit selling them a couple of years ago. The fireworks store in the Emerald City had such a huge selection–from the “safe” ones sold in local stores to the bigger ones–that JJ wandered around in a trance. Finally, he chose to buy firecrackers and bottle-rockets. Meanwhile, I bought sparklers, snap-pops, and “snakes.” JJ laughed at the differences in our purchases. On the way home, I asked him if he liked living up north. He said, “Duh. They have fireworks stores!”
Since JJ has to work on July 4th, every day we have been going outside periodically to set off our fireworks. I took this video of EJ and JJ having fun. At the end they said, “This is dumb!” but that didn’t stop them from lighting other fireworks–or shooting them into the air with the wrist slingshot.
This week I’ve also worked on setting up on-line accounts so I can pay various bills on-line. I also had to email our new ISP to confess that in the chaos of moving, I had lost the log-on information for our wireless router. JJ said that they wouldn’t have that information, but since they had had to reset the router when they connected us to the Internet, I figured it was worth asking them. Yay! They were able to get me the information.
Last night the temperature dropped into the 40’s. I love the coolness here in the north. Even when it’s “hot” outside, there’s an underlying coolness so many days it’s pleasant wearing jeans and sweatshirts, which I prefer. Our mortgage officer had told me that the Great Lakes act as an air conditioner to keep the area from getting too hot. We also don’t have swarms of mosquitoes. I don’t think I have been bit by even one since I’ve been up here. Down south, I have a friend who has been posting videos of such terrible swarms of mosquitoes in the area that she wears mosquito netting when she walks her dog. I told EJ that it seems to me that the mosquitoes have been particularly bad over the last few years, and he said that it’s because they spray the mosquitoes, which decreases the population of birds and insects that eat them, and when the mosquitoes repopulate, the predators aren’t there to eat them. I gloated a bit to my friend about having no mosquitoes up here, and she said, “But at least we don’t have bears.” True.
This morning EJ wrote notes on the cards I had bought to thank our realtor and the mortgage officer for helping us buy our new house. They were both really awesome people. As you can see, Kee-Kee tried to “help” EJ…NOT! He decided to nap on EJ’s arm.
Later, EJ and I walked down the driveway to put the cards in the mailbox. On the way, we saw some very pretty flowers growing in the field on our property. Some were such a bright flourescent fuscha that it wouldn’t have surprised me if they glowed in the dark. I’m enjoying the many beautiful flowers we are finding on our property.
Last weekend when we were at our old house in the south, I walked down to the post office to ask sweet CM questions about what happens when the mail-forwarding period is complete. I had read on an abuse site that mail is returned to the sender with the new address on it. We do not want the abusive people in our lives to know our new address. CM said she didn’t think returned mail would have our new address unless people specifically paid for the service, but I asked her if she could officially check so that we would know for sure. She called a supervisor and it appears that they won’t get our new address when the mail is returned. Whew! We had already changed our email address, and this week I changed all our phone numbers to our new local numbers. I was able to do it all on-line. So now all ties are cut from my abusive family/friends–they don’t know we have moved, they won’t know our new address, they won’t know our new email, and they won’t have our new phone numbers. I think it’s kind of sad, really, because people–especially family–ought to be loving, not abusive. However, not every family or person is loving. It took me a long, long time to decide to take the step of No Contact with them, and I only did it because my family put us through hell and I saw no indication that it would ever get better.
Now we can focus on healing, and enjoying our beautiful, peaceful Enchanted Forest.
Miles To Go Before We Sleep
The woods are lovely, dark and deep.
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.
~ from Stopping By the Woods on a Snowy Evening by Robert Frost
I can’t decided if this weekend has been extremely long or lightning fast. I think it might have been both.
Thursday afternoon I painted our master bedroom. I originally considered doing the ragging technique to make the walls look like parchment paper. However, I decided that might be too much for the room, so we decided to paint it a sort of off-white color called “vanilla wafer.” When I first began to apply the paint, I thought maybe we had gotten a too-yellow color, but as it dried it faded to a soft golden glow that is really nice. It’s almost the color that was already in the bedroom, but it’s more warm. I got the room all painted except for the wall behind the bed. In our old house, the floors were wood so I could move the bed. In our new house, the floors are carpeted and I can’t even budge the bed. I will need EJ to help me and there hasn’t been time yet.
The furnace guys were scheduled to come Friday morning to install the new furnace so we had to be at the old house by 8 a.m. Because we had to be there so early, we decided to leave as soon as EJ got home from work at 2 a.m. I went to bed early on Thursday night in the hopes that I would get some sleep. I really just sort of dozed, but it was better than nothing. EJ texted me as soon as he got out of work so I had time to take a shower and pack a few things before EJ got home…and then we left for the long drive south.
EJ and I enjoy the drive through the beautiful countryside, although physically it’s difficult–especially with little or no sleep. We stopped for breakfast along the way and got to the old house before the furnace people did. They worked for much of the day getting the furnace installed. About noon-ish, we left to get the u-haul truck and drive it back to the house.
Later, our friend Cris stopped by to pick up JJ’s port for the Michigan Search & Rescue dogs to train with. She gave us a house-warming gift of some of the wonderful soaps she makes and sells through her business A Touch of Eden. Her soaps are very beautiful! When JJ was going through chemo, she made a special soap in his honor–and did the same for her other friends who were battling cancer. Cris is such an incredible person. She stayed to visit for a while. I always enjoy chatting with her. We could talk for hours and it feels like only minutes.
After the furnace guys and Cris left, EJ and I went to a restaurant to eat. (We hadn’t eaten since breakfast.) We have recently discovered an incredible restaurant in the next town. The food is delicious. We are sorry we discovered it only after we are in the process of moving away. This is the second time we’ve eaten there. The first time we visited it, the owner told us that he grew up in the Emerald City. Small world.
As we pulled into the driveway in our old home, we saw a rabbit feasting in our yard. In all the 20+ years we have lived at that house, we’ve never seen a rabbit in our yard. I don’t know if we just didn’t notice any or if the rabbit is enjoying the long grass. We are trying to find someone to mow our lawn for us, but haven’t hired anyone yet.
EJ had been awake for over 30 hours–and I hadn’t had much sleep either–and we were exhausted. Knowing we had to load the u-haul the next day, we decided to go to bed early. We put our air mattresses in the mostly empty master bedroom and lay down in our sleeping bags. Although I had swept and mopped the floors, the house was dusty, and the spiders were already beginning to move in. We had sleeping bags, but I had forgotten pillows. I was wistfully thinking of hotel rooms, when EJ said, “We could go to a hotel. We deserve to have a good night’s sleep.” I eagerly agreed so we got into the buggy and drove to the nearest decent hotel. It was more expensive than those we usually go to, but we were too tired to go any further. The bed was king-sized and so comfy that it felt as if we were sleeping on a cloud. MUCH better than an pillow-less air mattress in a dusty, spidery, empty house!
Our alarm went off at 6 a.m. this morning. We got dress, had breakfast in the hotel cafeteria, and drove back to the house. It was raining.
The area has had a LOT of rain in the last couple of weeks. All over the area there were lakes in places where there had never been lakes before–like fields and yards. They really didn’t need more rain. And we certainly didn’t need rain on a day when we were trying to load a u-haul.
It rained and rained and rained. Every time we commented that it was raining hard, or that this was NOT a good day to be moving, the rain got worse. We were soaked. We had to slosh through mud and through puddles that kept getting bigger. EJ slipped and fell in the mud twice. Finally, after we had sloshed through the puddles, he got a pallet and put it down as a bridge. The only good thing about the rain is that as long as it was raining hard, the mosquitoes were not bad. When the rain lessened, the mosquitoes swarmed like a Biblical plague. Ugh. At our home in the north, there are almost NO MOSQUITOES. I have not been bitten–NOT EVEN ONCE in the north.
I went to the little party store to get us something to drink and eat. A neighbor works there and she told me that one of EJ’s co-workers at his old job was seriously hurt. Some sort of electrical accident–the guy was blown back about 10 feet and his face and hands were badly burned. The company didn’t want anyone to call an ambulance, but had one of the employees drive the injured man to the hospital where he is now in critical condition. The company is being seriously investigated and many employees high up in the company are quitting. I’m so glad EJ is out of there.
EJ’s sister’s husband and two of their boys offered to help us move. They planned to arrive early, but they were unavoidably delayed. When they were 2 1/2 hours late, I called to make sure they were ok because we were worried about their safety. Finally they arrived. By this time, EJ and I were already exhausted. However, with the extra help, stuff got loaded faster. Also, their family has moved many, many times so they were experts at loading u-hauls, which was a BIG help.
One thing I found interesting is that no one–not the furnace guys, not my friend Cris, and not our brother-in-law and nephews–asked why we have a big rock in the middle of the dining room. There is a story connected to it. Years ago, EJ was at his friend’s uncle’s property in the north when he saw what he thought was a good-sized Petoskey rock in the ground. Petoskey stones are a fossilized coral, the state stone of Michigan, and is commonly found along the shores of Lake Michigan and Lake Huron in the United States. It was formed by the fossilization of ancient coral, hexagonaria. I don’t know how true it is, but I’ve heard they are found nowhere else in the world. People enjoy hunting for them and they are beautiful and unique when polished.
Anyway, EJ went to dig it out the rock at his friend’s uncle’s property, but it was bigger than he thought so he dug a little bit more, and a little bit more, and then he became determined to get this rock out, so he kept digging. When he finally uncovered it, it was huge. He took it back to his parent’s farm, and then when we married, he took it with him to our apartment, and then we took it to our first house, and now it’s a tradition that it goes wherever we go. When we began to pack to move north, we took it out of the garden. EJ was afraid someone would take it so he put it in the house until we could move it. Now it has journeyed to our new house in the Enchanted Forest. That is the story of the rock.
About 4 p.m. we declared that we were finished. We got all of the house packed except for the treadmill and killer exercise machines. We got most of the garage packed, and part of the basement. We will have to make more trips to get the rest of the things. Sigh. But we will stay north next weekend for the July 4th Independence Day celebrations.
We still had room in the u-haul, but we were absolutely exhausted and we still had a long journey north to make. Our brother-in-law had planned to drive his van to the new house filled with books. With the late start, I offered to let him and his boys spend the night, but he had to get back because there is a family gathering about 90 minutes from us, and he had to be back to his home to get the rest of his family and drive back north to the gathering. That would have been hours and hours and hours of traveling, so since there was still space in the truck, we decided to unload the books from his van and put them in the u-haul and save them the trip. He will help us unload the truck after the family gathering tomorrow. I thought that was nice.
EJ drove the u-haul truck while I drove the buggy. Before we left the old house, I changed into yesterday’s shirt and socks–which, though dirty, were at least dry. I had only the wet jeans I was wearing. EJ changed into old coveralls that was still at the house. They were striped and he said they made him feel as if he worked for a circus. Neither of us could do anything about our wet shoes except wear them. Yuck.
Meanwhile, JJ had stayed at the new house because he had to work. Also, he takes care of the animals while we are gone, which is a BIG help. He told me that yesterday evening he was startled to see a deer walk right by his bedroom window, pause to look in, and then continue on. JJ also said that the weather at our new place has been absolutely gorgeous!
I have twice followed EJ north. I have noticed that the first part of the trip I am always very tired and I struggle to stay awake. But once we leave the farmland behind and enter forested land, I am no longer so tired. There is just something about the beautiful forests and clearer air that energizes me. The further north we drove the more blue the skies were, the more beautiful the scenery, the happier I became, and the morning rain, and mud, and mosquito swarms, and exhaustion were almost forgotten.
I love the north.
The woods are lovely, dark and deep.
And there’s no more miles before I sleep,
No miles to go before I sleep.
Painting
Last night I went outside occasionally to see if I could see any Northern Lights. At about 12:30 am or so I gave up and went to bed. EJ told me that he could see them faintly as he drove home, but they weren’t strong enough for him to wake me up. At least I have strong hope that I will be able to see them in the future.
This morning we slept in and enjoyed drinking coffee on the front porch as we soaked in the quiet beauty of our surroundings. Then I walked down the hill to get the mail while EJ worked on mowing the lawn. The previous owners didn’t live in the house for the last two years, so the grass is long and it takes a bit to mow even the little bit we are planning to mow. EJ didn’t have a long time to mow because we had to go to the lumber store and get paint before he left for work.
We got three gallons of paint: “Vanilla Wafer” for the master bedroom, “Pekin” for JJ’s bedroom, and “Crocodile Tears” for the library. I wonder who comes up with the names of these paint colors anyway?
I contemplated painting the library before we bring up the rest of the boxes of books, but I don’t have it prepared for painting yet. I contemplated painting the master bedroom, but didn’t feel like moving all the heavy bedroom furniture today. So instead I painted JJ’s bedroom. The color I chose matches a color in his bedspread. After EJ left for work, I talked to a friend on the phone for a while, and after JJ left for work, I began painting his room. I painted one coat, waited for it to dry, and then applied a second coat, which used up the remainder of the gallon. I finished painting about 9:30 p.m. so the paint was still wet when JJ returned home from work, but it dries fast. I think the room looks really nice. JJ has been sleeping on his mattress because we plan to paint his bed before setting it up. His bed is iron and belonged to EJ’s great grandmother.
As soon as EJ gets out of work at 1:30 a.m. Friday morning, we will drive to the old house. We have to get there by 8 a.m. because the furnace guy will be there to install the new furnace shortly afterwards. We will spend the night at the old house (sleeping on air mattresses).
EJ’s sister’s husband is going to help us move more of our boxes this Saturday, but we have more things in the old house than his brother-in-law can move in his van, so this morning EJ arranged to rent a uhaul truck. Although we love the beautiful scenery, it’s a bit tiring to keeping driving down to the old house every weekend–and it puts a lot of miles on the Buggy. We just wanted to get completely moved so we can spend weekends in our new house, and also so we can contact a realtor to sell the old house.
Ugh. It’s going to be a grueling weekend.
JJ’s Port
Yesterday feels like a long time ago.
Yesterday morning we had to run a few errands. As we started out, we stopped at our mailbox to get the mail. We found a card from the realtor who helped us find our house. He had sent us a $100 gift certificate from Home Depot as a thank you for choosing him as our realtor. I thought that was amazing. He really was a nice guy.
Michigan was expecting severe weather yesterday. I enjoyed watching the interesting clouds come in, but all we got was some heavy rain. However, the Mid-Michigan region had terrible storms. Friends down there had terrible storms, heavy rain, flooding, tornadoes, and power outages. Yikes.
A massive solar storm has been hitting the earth, which means the Northern Lights are very powerful. EJ saw the Northern Lights glimmering and dancing over the lakes as he drove home from work last night at about 1 a.m. or so. He said they were some of the most powerful he had ever seen. He woke us when he got home so we could see them too. We all went outside, but couldn’t see any so EJ drove us to the lake shore where we’d have a more unhindered view. Alas, we didn’t really see any because they had died down by then. Bummer. However, they are supposed to be very powerful again tonight so we are definitely going to watch for them. I have only ever seen the Northern Lights once in my life, and they were relatively weak.
After our night-time adventures, I had trouble getting back to sleep. I finally fell asleep about 5:30 a.m. With so little sleep last night, I was very tired today. Yawn. I’m not sure why the nights are always sleepless just before a busy day.
Today JJ had his port taken out. Because the removal was scheduled for the afternoon, I had to take JJ to the hospital myself, without EJ. I was able to get us to the hospital and back again with the help of Viki, our GPS. I get lost VERY easily, but I feel more confident finding my way in this new region than in the old. Viki helps, of course, but I also like that there are no freeways to navigate. Freeways make me nervous because if I miss an exit or take a wrong one, I could have to drive miles before I can turn around. With no freeways, I can just make a few turns to correct a mistake.
Viki was able to help on the roads, but not in the hospital. I tend to get lost in the maze of hallways inside a hospital. I laughed when we went to the information desk inside the hospital to find out where we were supposed to go. The lady behind the counter printed out a form for JJ to take with him and then immediately called a volunteer to walk us to the correct place. I thought, “It it so obvious that I can get lost anywhere?”
JJ was given the choice of either having twilight anesthesia (which means he’s not totally asleep, but not aware either) or to just have localized anesthesia. The nurse said that most people choose to just have local anesthesia. Seriously? They are awake and aware as the port is removed? Bleagh! JJ felt as I did and chose to have heavier anesthesia but he says he still was quite aware of the procedure. As always, I made him laugh before they wheeled him away. He said he babbled through most of the procedure. He was quite “loopy” when they returned him to his room where I was waiting. He babbled, didn’t make sense, and couldn’t decide on what to eat from the menu they gave him. I had to choose food for him. After an hour, he had recovered enough that they let us go home.
A month or two ago, a friend of ours asked if she could have JJ port when it was taken out. We asked, “Ok….uh, why on earth would you want JJ’s port?”
Our friend, Cris, is a member of Michigan Search and Rescue, which is an all volunteer missing persons response team serving Michigan and the Great Lakes Region. As they describe on their website, their services include those of trailing dogs – usually bloodhounds who trail the scent of a specific person from their last known location. Also included are airscent or wilderness dogs. These dogs range from their handlers and look for any human scent – alive or recently deceased. When they locate such a scent, they return to the handler in order to lead the handler back to what they’ve found. Cris has a human remains detection specialist dog. These teams specialize in locating deceased individuals including buried and drowning victims. I think the work they do is awesome. I actually got to meet several of the MISAR handlers and their dogs a few years ago when they worked at a local cemetery finding “lost” grave sites. It’s really interesting following the adventures of my friend and other MISAR handlers at Facebook as they train and work their dogs in all sorts of settings. Here is a video of one of my friend’s training sessions with her dog, Joe Pete.
When we asked Cris why she wanted JJ’s port, she told me, “Dogs recognize chemotherapy drugs as bad stuff. They have to learn to work through the scent to the human scent. Birds of prey won’t go after bodies that had chemo either. They are doing studies at the FOREST in North Carolina.” MISAR doesn’t often have an opportunity to train the dogs to search for people/remains of those who have had chemotherapy. Therefore, my friend wants JJ’s port as a training tool for the dogs. I would have forgotten to ask the medical staff for JJ’s port, but JJ remembered to ask and they gave him the port after they removed it.
I think it’s really awesome that we can help MISAR a little by donating JJ’s port.
At Home in the Enchanted Forest
I was so exhausted yesterday that I thought I’d sleep all night. However, about 3 or so I had to go to the bathroom. I went to bed, but Danny decided he wanted outside. Sigh. So I grabbed his leash and out we went. There were big spiders by the door–but not as big as Shelob, the hand-sized spider. I stepped over them (shudder) and took Danny out. He wandered about for quite a while before I declared, “Enough! We are going back in!” After that it took me a couple of hours to fall back to sleep. I woke up very tired this morning.
However, we had a great day.
JJ had to work, but EJ and I stayed home all day. This is the first time we were able to just stay home without running here and there, doing this and that. We puttered around. EJ mowed the front lawn…until he ran out of gas. Our gas can is still down south in the old house. It looks nice. We are not going to mow much of our property. Most of it we are going to keep as habitat for the wildlife. After he finished mowing, he worked at putting his garage in order. He had brought up some of his tools yesterday when we went to the old house. He also cut a hole from the entrance hallway to the pantry so the cats can get in there to use their litter boxes without us leaving the pantry door open.
Meanwhile, I mostly organized the pantry, which is very big. It holds not just food, but also items that we don’t have room for in other closets in the house. EJ’s stuff, of course, he keeps in his garage.
I also cooked a turkey in the roaster, unpacked a few boxes, washed dishes, and reorganized a few of the kitchen cupboards.
Together EJ and I walked to the mailbox and back, admired each other’s work, walked around the yard and discussed plans, relaxed in our chairs on the porch and sipped ice tea while we enjoyed the beautiful scenery, and–finally–ate a meal of turkey, potatoes, and salad.
Towards evening, I took my camera outside and tried to take a picture of our forest, but it was difficult to capture the dark mysteriousness of its depth. The sun was setting and I was able to get a few pictures of it shining through the trees.
We had an awesome day puttering around in the Enchanted Forest.
There and Back Again
After getting home from work last night (or rather, in the wee hours of the morning), EJ slept three hours and then we drove to our old house. We loaded up the Buggy and then drove to the graduation open house. We spent a couple of hours there and then drove back home. Most of our day was spent driving. We drove from the top of Michigan to the bottom of Michigan and back again.
Physically it was a very long and tiring day and we are utterly exhausted. However, we had fun. The day was beautiful and we drove through gorgeous scenery. We had a wonderful time being together and we had great conversations. We really enjoyed seeing EJ’s family. We are very glad we went.
But now we are glad we are home. It’s time for bed.
When I in Awesome Wonder
Morning
When JJ got home from work last night, he said, “Our forest is kind of scary! I saw blue glowing eyes in a tree about halfway up the hill. I think it was probably an owl.” I said, “Maybe it was an orc.” He said, “No. Bilbo Baggin’s sword glowed blue when there were goblins around, but their eyes are not blue.” We are such sci-fi geeks.
Our cat Timmy was restless last night and kept jumping on our headboard and making noises that woke me up. I would tell him to stop it as I pulled him down but he kept doing it. Finally, I got up and went to JJ’s room and opened the door a bit. Timmy never paid much attention to JJ in our old house, but up here both Luke and Timmy has been sleeping on his bed with him while Kee-Kee and Little Bear sleep with us. I figured that Timmy was upset that he couldn’t get into JJ’s room, and I was correct. Timmy was quiet the rest of the night.
EJ gets home from work in the wee hours of the morning and he was still up so I talked to him a bit in the living room before yawning and heading back to bed. I just laid down when Danny told me he needed to go out. Seriously? It was 3 a.m.! But I sighed, got out of bed, put on my shoes and jacket, got Danny’s leash on him, and we went outside. EJ came with us…because you never know what evil lurks in the Enchanted Forest in the dark of night. As soon as we got outside, I said delightedly to EJ, “Look! It’s so cold that I can see my breath! In mid-June! Can you believe it?” And I breathed out a puff of visible air. When I was a child, I used to pretend I was a fire-breathing dragon on cold mornings.
And then I looked up into the sky…and, oh, my goodness! There were billions and billions of stars filling the sky, and I could clearly see the Milky Way! Because we are on a hill, it felt that if the world tilted a bit, we would fall off into a sea of stars.
Photo from Pinterest.
I haven’t seen a night sky like this in years and years and years. At our old house, the light pollution drowned out the stars and I had sometimes complained to EJ, “I am quite sure that there are actually more than two dozen stars in the sky.”
EJ and I watched the sky while Danny wandered around, and I said, “This is why I wanted to live in the north…so I could see deer grazing outside my window, and turkeys wandering through the yard, and pileated woodpeckers in the trees, and the stars in the sky!”
Oh Lord, my God, when I in awesome wonder
Consider all the worlds Thy hands have made
I see the stars, I hear the rolling thunder
Thy power throughout the universe displayed
When through the woods and forest glades I wander
And hear the birds sing sweetly in the trees
When I look down from lofty mountain grandeur
And hear the brook and feel the gentle breeze
Then sings my soul, my Savior God to Thee
How great Thou art, how great Thou art
Then sings my soul, my Savior God to Thee
How great Thou art, how great Thou art
Evening
Usually EJ works ten-hour days Monday through Thursday and gets Fridays off. JJ’s work schedule is more fluid. He had this Friday off, so we were going to do something fun together. However, EJ had to work today so that was that.
Still, we had a quiet morning together. EJ and I walked down to the mailbox and just rejoiced that we live in such a beautiful place. Then we sat on the front porch and read the local newspaper, drank coffee, and enjoyed the scenery.
Later, JJ and I drove to the beautiful library in the Emerald City and got library cards. It really is as awesome as JJ had told me it was. Because we aren’t “in district,” we aren’t able to enjoy all the services the library offers, but we will be able to use it some. I told JJ later that we should take a trip to our local library soon and get library cards. That library isn’t as big or beautiful as the one in the Emerald City, but we will be able to enjoy all it’s services, including its Internet books and movies.
I was tired from Timmy keeping me awake last night, so JJ drove to the Emerald City and back. I was pleased at how much confidence he had gained in driving. Before, he was very hesitant and worried about making mistakes. The north is good for him.
We got an estimate from the guy who was going to do our driveway. I have found that some types of businesses–like driveway people or professional movers–don’t really like to give you a “guess-imate” because the price depends on how much work is needed. Because we have no experience with these types of services, we can’t even guess how much the cost will be. Well, we found out how much the driveway would cost. I realize the guy was wanting to do a very good job to fix the driveway problem permanently, but OUCH. It’s very, very expensive and totally not in the budget. We are going to have to find a MUCH less expensive solution.
EJ and I were going to take a break this weekend and not go south to the old house. Although the long drive there and back again is beautiful and we enjoy being together, the drives are also tiring and not particularly good for EJ’s back. His back has been hurting and spasming lately, and he is very exhausted. We have been under such stress for so long that I really think we are suffering from the effects of chronic stress.
Our restful weekend plans were cancelled when EJ’s sister told him that she wasn’t sure any family was going to make it to her son and daughter’s high school open house, which is tomorrow. We know how it feels to not have family attend important events so we decided we must go. The family lives about an hour more south(ish) than our old house. We will drive down tomorrow, attend the open house for a couple of hours, stop at our old house, load up the buggy with more boxes, and drive back north. It will be nice to see EJ’s sister and her family, but it will be a very, very, very long day. Just the thought of it is exhausting. JJ has to work this weekend so he won’t be going with us.
Next weekend we are having a furnace installed at the old house so we will have to drive down there. Hopefully, the trips south will end soon and we can starting learning how to relax. Sometimes there are so many things that need to get done, and so many times that our relaxing times are cancelled, that we look at each other and say, “We don’t even know what fun is anymore.”
I’m feeling a little overwhelmed about the sudden switch from relaxing to non-relaxing weekend.
