I Love To Go A Gardening
Growing Our Life in Northern Michigan
Waiting Up
My husband works second shift at work, which is nice, because we get to spend the mornings together when he first wakes up and before a long day at work tires him.
When our son was young and throughout our years of homeschooling, I’d get up early and go to bed early. I had to have a clear head to teach school all morning and the energy to care for an energetic little boy. Most of the time I was too tired by night-time to stay up to welcome EJ home. However, now that JJ has graduated from high school, I have been trying to wait up for EJ to get home. We talk a little and then I go to bed.
JJ started his first job at McDonald’s in May. McDonald’s is a good first job, and he’s doing well at it. He’s working hard, cheerfully, and with integrity. I am proud of him. JJ’s hours are constantly changing. Tonight he was supposed to work a four-hour shift and get out at 8 p.m., but he texted me that they asked him to close the store, so he’d be working until at least midnight, although it could be longer. Apparently, closers have to stay until the job is done.
I waited up for EJ to get home. Now I am waiting up to make sure JJ gets home ok. JJ is a good safe driver, but he isn’t really all that experienced, so I want to make sure he gets home safely. It’s ok. I can’t sleep anyway. Besides, with Prednisone or without it, waiting up is a Mom-thing. Many times it’s also a Dad-thing but tonight, EJ fell asleep in his chair with his computer on his lap, so I gently removed the computer and am letting him sleep.
Yay! JJ just came through the door. Now I can sleep. Well, maybe.
Last night I was so tired that I slept more than I have in days–in spite of the sleepless effects of the Prednisone I am taking for the rash on my leg. The rash is diminishing, I am glad to say. I am tired during the days, but I am doing well.
Yesterday I didn’t do all that much. I think I had worked too much the day before, weeding my herb garden and EJ’s veggie garden and digging up bricks from the path through the back yard. My body felt a bit battered. I couldn’t make it pull any more weeds or lift any more bricks.
Today was a beautiful day with periods of rain and sunshine, and even a thunderstorm or two. I like sunny days and I like rainy days and I like thunderstorms. On sunny days I can work outside and enjoy the day. On rainy days I can work inside or cuddle with a cat, a book (or computer), and a cup of coffee or tea. Stormy days are wild and exciting as long as they aren’t destructive. JJ and I like to drive in the car sometimes and pretend we are storm-chasers. These days he drives and I take pictures of dark clouds.
This morning I made homemade pizza. For some reason, the dough didn’t rise well. I don’t know if I missed an ingredient, or the rainy day prohibited the dough rising, or what. Oh, well. I made the pizza anyway. The crust was more like flatbread, but it still tasted pretty well. My husband grew up with six sisters (with a couple of brothers sprinkled in) and he ate plenty of their cooking mistakes so he doesn’t mind a few less- than-perfect results. As an only child, JJ is a bit less brave but, as I said, the flatbread pizza tasted pretty good.
After EJ left for work, I walked my dog Danny, as I usually do. Danny knows that when EJ goes to work it’s time for a walk, so he gets excited. Fortunately, it was during a time of sunshine and not rain so we had a very pleasant walk. It was very humid though.
After JJ left for work, about an hour later, I vacuumed rugs, swept and mopped the downstairs floors, and decided to make potato salad. EJ usually texts me on his breaks to make sure all is well, and I texted him back that I was making potato salad. Only I abbreviated my message and actually wrote that I was making “pot salad.” I figured he’d know that “pot” meant “potato.” Duh. He thought “pot salad” was pretty funny and was still laughing when he got home from work.
A few years ago, I started teaching myself (and then JJ) Hebrew. Then I started to study Hebrew with my friend. She lives several states away, but we study together through video-chat. Then she and I started to teach a few friends. We aren’t experts at Hebrew or anything, but we teach them what we have already learned and we have fun doing it. If we get stuck, we ask friends who know the language better for help. It’s very rewarding to me when one of our “students” is able to read Hebrew. It is the same sort of fulfilling satisfaction I got when I was able to teach my son to read.
For two hours this evening I met with a small group of friends via video-chat to study with a Hebrew scholar/author, who is also a friend.
I love Hebrew because it is unlike any other language. I don’t want to get into a detailed discussion about the language because that is not the purpose of this blog, but Hebrew is very profound and teaches a lot about faith and life. Hebrew started out as a picture language and is very action based. Every word can be reduced to a three-letter root, and every similar three-letter root is connected even though at first glance you can’t imagine such dissimilar words could possibly be connected.
For example, the word for “bread” is connected to the word for fighting and struggling and wrestling. This doesn’t make sense until you think about the way you knead bread dough–pushing it around, pressing it down, and then punching it after it has risen. The process is very much like wrestling and fighting. Making bread is very physical. And, connected to this, when you think of it, life is like making bread: wrestling and struggling to provide “daily bread” for your family, hopes or dreams rising only to be punched down by disappointment or heartbreak, and yet, even though it doesn’t always turn out the way you wanted, it still somehow turns out good. Whenever I make bread dough of any sort, I now think of this concept. I like making bread, even when it doesn’t turn out perfectly.
Anyway, once a month, a small group of women and I study together with a Hebraic scholar/author. Most of us in the group are from around the USA. One is from Australia. We’ve never met in person, but we are connected through our desire to learn Hebrew and Hebraic insights. Our time together is very, very enjoyable and I always learn a lot. I have so much fun. I love the Internet because it opens the world up to me, and I can meet and study with so many interesting people and learn so many interesting things.
EJ told me that he once watched a television series in which the host would randomly choose a person from a telephone book in whatever city he was in and he’d interview that person. The only rule he had was that he had to interview that random person no matter how average or boring he or she first appeared to be. What the host discovered is that even the most average person had an interesting story to tell–some interesting trait or experience that made him unique. Sometimes I think about that. I think that if someone met me–or probably anyone in the group–at the grocery store, he might think I was a boring stay-at-home Mom. He wouldn’t know that I was learning and teaching Hebrew and studying with world-famous scholars. It almost seems like there are superheroes with secret identities out there, everywhere. This thought changes how I view people. Who are they? What stories do they have to tell? What hidden talents do they have?
I really like the Internet because many people are able to write blogs, and most of these are probably people who, if it weren’t for the Internet, wouldn’t write, or couldn’t share what they wrote, so you wouldn’t know they could write, and you wouldn’t know their stories. But because they can write blogs and share them, their stories get told, and the stories are fascinating.
EJ and JJ have been asleep for a very long time. The need for waiting up is long past. I suppose I should go to bed too.
Throwing the Shoe
This morning EJ and I stopped at the bank before heading to the store in a nearby town to pick up a few items. We had a nice chat with the tellers at the bank. The husband of one teller works with my husband, and the husband and son of the other were involved in JJ’s Boy Scout Troop. As we finished our business, EJ commented that every day “We just keep throwing the shoe.” I said to him, “You realize that no one but us knows what ‘throwing the shoe’ means.”
Contrary to what you might think if you read yesterday’s post about the sleep-depriving, emotion-intensifying effects I suffer from Prednisone, “throwing the shoe” does not mean throwing shoes at each other in anger. It is a phrase that came about from an experience in my life.
There are very beautiful sand dunes along Michigan’s west coast called “Sleeping Bear Sand Dunes.” They are so beautiful that viewers of the Good Morning America TV program voted it the most beautiful place in America in 2011. Here is a video of the dunes if you’d like to see them:
I have gone to the Sleeping Bear Sand Dunes several times in my life, but this particular experience happened when my family went camping at the dunes when I was 19 years old. At the time, only my younger sister and I were still living at home. My older siblings had moved away. I learned that it was only a three mile walk across the dunes from the campground to Lake Michigan. I suggested to my sister that it would be very fun to walk to the Lake and jump in and swim a while. She thought it sounded fun, so off we went.
The dunes were high mountains of sand, and the sand was hot. We were wearing sandals and for every step we took, we slid back a couple inches. One step forward, half a step back. We kept expecting to see Lake Michigan glimmering from the summit of each dune, but all we saw when we made it to the top was another mountain of sand. And another. And another.
Hot and tired, it wasn’t long before my sister began grumbling and talking about turning back. I kept talking her into climbing another mountain. I didn’t want to quit. I told her that if we turned back, we’d be turning back in defeat, all our effort would have been wasted, and we’d never experience the refreshing joy of jumping into Lake Michigan. I encouraged her that we would probably see the Lake from the top of THIS dune. However, all we saw was yet another dune.
Finally, my sister said, “I am turning back NOW.” I suddenly had an inspiring idea. I asked her to take off one of her sandals and hand it to me. “Why?” she asked. “Just do it,” I said as I took off one of my sandals. She handed me her sandal and I threw her shoe and mine up the dune, just a few feet out of reach. “Why did you do that?!!” she yelled. I replied, “We now have a choice. We can climb up the dune and retrieve our shoes or we can turn back to the campground without them.” We climbed up the short distance to our shoes. “Let’s throw our shoes again and climb up and get them,” I suggested and we did. My sister caught on to the idea. The distance to Lake Michigan had seemed much too far away, but it was not too far to climb up and retrieve our shoes. We kept throwing our shoes and climbing up to retrieve them and throwing them again. We quickly made it to Lake Michigan, jumped in the oh, so, refreshing water, splashed around a bit, and returned to our campground in victory and having had a great time.
When I met EJ, I told him that story, and “throwing the shoe” has become something we quote to remind ourselves that when a goal seems unattainable, if we take it in little steps, it seems more possible and becomes reachable.
I throw the shoe when I have a difficult job to do. For example, yesterday when I was removing the bricks from the garden path in the back yard, I told myself that I would just remove the bricks up to the next post. When I reached it, I told myself I would do a couple more feet. Then I told myself that, well, I’ll just do a bit more. Suddenly, I had finished the whole path. No problem.
Sometimes when life has seemed very difficult, I have told myself that I would just be strong and have faith for today. Or for the next hour. Or for the next five minutes. Or even for the next 60 seconds. Life is just made up of seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks…and if I am strong for this minute…and this minute…and this minute…I will find that I am strong for the hours and days and weeks and years of my life.
Yup. Throwing the shoe works.
I am throwing the shoe with Prednisone. Eight (or is it nine?) days to go before I am finished with it. That’s a long time to not sleep well and to struggle to control emotions, but I can make it through TODAY. No problem. When I am done with the medication, it’s likely that the rash will be completely gone too. THAT will be like a refreshing leap into Lake Michigan.
Gardening on Steroids
I am currently taking a corticosteroid medication called Prednisone, a fact that makes my husband and son cower in fear.
The first time I took Prednisone was three or four years ago. It was, no doubt, for a rash or something. The first prescription didn’t clear the problem up completely, so I was given another prescription for it. A friend told me that to be on Prednisone, then off, then on again causes it’s effects to intensify. Prednisone seems to affect me like PMS, intensifying whatever emotion I am feeling. If I am a little bit anxious or irritated or sad then Prednisone makes me feel REALLY anxious or irritated or sad. I wasn’t prepared for how the medication would affect me that first time, and we were going through a stressful time (trying to buy a car in time to drive to another state for a wedding) so I was….um…easily upset and not pleasant.
Since then I am very reluctant to take Prednisone. The second time I had to take Prednisone, my husband and son began wondering if they should move out to the RV for a couple of weeks (or maybe, they said, I should) or perhaps they should go off on vacation…and leave me home. EJ said that if I celebrated Halloween, I could go as a witch–I wouldn’t even have to get a costume, I could just take Prednisone. Ha, ha, good thing I wasn’t on Prednisone when they said those things. I think they were a bit overly dramatic, but the truth is that I am not my normal self when on Prednisone. EJ says normally I am like Sandra Dee or Doris Day, actresses from the 1950-60s who played wholesome, sweet “girl next door” type of roles, but on Prednisone I am like the Hulk or something.
When I got this current rash on my leg, I tried everything I could think of to clear it up on my own but I have trouble getting rid of rashes so when this one spread…and spread…I finally went to the doctor and she prescribed the dreaded medicine for the third time. Actually, my doctor was busy so I went to her Physician Assistant, and she gave me three days of the drug. I didn’t really think it would be enough, and it wasn’t. It diminished the rash but didn’t have time to totally clear it up so my doctor prescribed another and longer dose. I am on day four of thirteen days. On, off, on again. Not a good scenario. I warned my family, as I always do when I am on Prednisone so they will know that I might be easily irritated or upset. Warning allows them to be extra understanding…or keep out of my way. I am trying to be very careful to remember that any anxiety or irritation is probably magnified. Mostly I am doing very well, although I did yell at poor EJ a little bit yesterday about relatively minor things that suddenly felt major. He was patient and I apologized.
Prednisone also makes me not sleep well so I am very tired. I am operating on three or four hours of poor sleep a night.
I find that working in my garden helps me keep awake and also gives somewhere for me to drain off my extra emotion. I’d rather battle weeds than my family. There is something satisfying about pulling out weeds. I have gotten a lot done.
Yesterday I did laundry, cleaned the house, and weeded most of my herb garden.
This morning I finished weeding my herb garden, and went on to weed all of EJ’s veggie garden. Then I pulled up all the bricks on another segment of path in the back yard. I only have one more path to do–from the house to the garage. I am tempted to also pull up all the bricks in the path running through my garden so I can just quickly mow it rather than painstakingly weed it, but EJ is not sure I should and neither am I so I probably won’t do it…at least, not this year and not without more thought.
After EJ left for work, I did my regular tasks such as dishes and walking the dog. I video-chatted with my friend a bit. Then I made homemade bread–just regular bread, not challah bread. There was something satisfying about kneading and punching the bread. While it was raising, I went outside and weeded some of my garden until I didn’t have any physical strength left.
I sure get a lot done when I’m on Prednisone. Of course, the weather really helps. For the last couple of weeks or so we’ve had very autumn-ish weather. I love it. The cooler temperatures (high of 72 degrees today) make me feel like working.
Whatcha Got Stew
I make beautiful braided challah bread every Friday. It takes all morning to make because it requires several risings, so I begin making it as soon as I wake up in the morning. It did not rise as well this morning as it usually does, but I have discovered that challah bread is almost impossible to mess up. When it doesn’t rise well, it is very delicious. When it rises as it is supposed to, it is beyond delicious.
While the bread was rising, EJ and I went to a nearby town to pick up a few groceries. EJ found some steak on sale, so we put that in the shopping cart along with the other things.
After we left the store, we stopped at the Farmer’s Market, which is set up every Friday in the hospital parking lot. We arrived as the vendors were setting up. Since we just started visiting this Farmer’s Market, we are not sure what time they are set up and ready business. We arrived just before 10:30 a.m., so maybe they are open at 10:30? or 11? We came for some eggs, which we can get at half the price we can get at the grocery store. We bought two dozen and then left for home. I had to braid the challah bread and get it rising again.
EJ insisted on cooking the steak, so I worked on the other parts of our meal: potatoes, peas, and cucumber slices. I put the cucumber slices in vinegar water with onion slices, something my Mom used to make when I was a kid, and which both EJ and I really like.
I love that EJ likes to cook. When I am sick or tired or get in a rut with cooking, it’s nice to have a husband who can cook. EJ says I am a good cook, but I see myself as merely adequate. EJ is actually a better cook than I am. I see food as necessary fuel to live. He sees it as an art form. I follow recipes, he invents them. If I were rich, I’d have a chef so I could do what I most love to do: study and learn, walk my dog, look at the stars, work in my garden. If he were rich, EJ would garden, invent things, and cook. He says he can totally relate to this scene from the movie Ratatouille. He says that is how he sees food:
One thing EJ really enjoys making is “Whatcha Got Stew.” He pulls all the leftovers out of the fridge–no matter what it is–and combines them in a stew. If I tried it, it would be an awful mess, but EJ has a sort of magical touch and his stews usually turn out to be surprisingly delicious.
I will never forget EJ’s most delicious “Whatcha Got Stew.” I like to brag about it because I like to watch people’s funny reactions. When I describe what EJ put into it, people always say, “Oh, YUCK!” I, myself, thought it would be a horrid mess as EJ was making it. I cannot convince anyone to believe how really wonderful, terrific, unbelievably delicious it really was. Are you curious about it yet?
That day, EJ put leftover spaghetti and leftover stir-fry in a pot. He added a piece of strawberry shortcake. STRAWBERRY SHORTCAKE???? You’ve got to be kidding! As he pulled leftovers out of the fridge, I started getting silly. I said, “Here’s a half a Burger King Whopper. Are you going to use that?” Into the pot went the Whopper. “How about this piece of mincemeat pie….” That went in too. Yuck! But using his incredible cooking magic, EJ made the most wonderful stew I have ever eaten. Go back and watch the Ratatouille video above. THAT is how that “Whatcha Got Stew” tasted. Hmmmm.
Because of that stew, I will always try anything EJ makes, no matter how weird the ingredients. Always.
Hummingbird Moth
Last Sunday was raining, so EJ and I worked in the kitchen. We continued our project for several more days. EJ painted the trim, while I reorganized all the kitchen cupboards. The kitchen is looking nicer and nicer.
It feels so much like fall that I felt like doing fall things.
This morning JJ drove us to the community college he will be attending this fall. We drove to the college for two reasons: 1. To get his school books. 2. To help him learn the way there. After we got his books, we walked around the campus for a bit. It looks pretty nice.
This afternoon I worked in the garden. I weeded and also cut down a few small trees that were springing up out of nowhere. It seems to me sometimes that mostly gardening involves ripping out, cutting down, and fighting plants and insects that are threatening to take over. I have too much to do!
(Photo from The Greene Tomato)
As I worked in my garden, I was very, very thrilled to see a Hummingbird Moth sipping from my flowers. I think Hummingbird Moths are cool. At first glance, Hummingbird Moths can be mistaken for Hummingbirds because they are the same size and many of the characteristics of a Hummingbirds. I haven’t seen one for a long time.
I wasn’t able to take a picture of the moth so I found one on the Internet.
I have Hummingbirds in my garden too. They are fun to watch.
The One With the Vision…
I was looking forward to working outside, maybe doing some weeding in both my garden and EJ’s garden. When I opened the door to go outside this morning, however, I was very surprised to see that it was raining. It was not a heavy raining that makes a musical drumbeat on the roof. Instead, it was a silent misty downpour. No working outside today.
Even though it is only July, the weather feels very much like autumn. It’s hard to believe it’s not September or early October. The temperature reached only a cool 63 and it rained off and on with scattered showers all day. The dark clouds were dramatic with occasional blue sky poking through. EJ and I absolutely loved it. The coolness made me feel like working. However, since I couldn’t work outside, I had to find something to do inside. There was clutter because EJ had taken down the shelves last Monday in order to paint the kitchen. I thought a good project would be to paint. Since I knew that EJ’s back and shoulder were really hurting him (he suffers greatly from a bad back), I offered to finish the job for him. He said he really wanted to do it himself.
I love the way EJ and I work on our house. I don’t know of any couple who decorates as we do: We always allow the one who has a vision for the way a room could look to have creative control of that room. The other one might give advice and help with the project, but the one with the vision makes the final decisions of color and style. This requires trust. We aren’t always sure of the other’s decorating choices at first and it’s always a risk to let the other have control. However, we’ve learned it’s also kind of fun to say, “It’s your decision….” and then see what the other does.
I had creative control of the master bedroom and downstairs bathroom when we worked on them a few years ago. I love the Tuscany style and was going for that sort of feel. EJ wasn’t sure he liked the gold, maroon, and touch of green in the master bedroom at first. As he saw the room take shape, he changed his mind and soon really liked the room. He kept asking “Are you sure?” when I chose to paint the downstairs bathroom a sort of mustardy brownish color, but now he agrees it’s very nice and the perfect color.
EJ wanted creative control of the kitchen. He’s done a lot of work on it over the last few years, completely changing the feel of the room. I almost shuddered when I saw him open the can of school bus yellow paint and begin painting the kitchen door a couple of years ago–but he has creative control of the room so I said nothing. After the initial shock, I quickly grew to love the yellow door. It is, after all, my favorite color, and I think it adds a note of brightness and warm cheerfulness to the room, which is very welcome on a gloomy day. We always say in response to the other’s uncertainty: “I have the vision for this room, trust me, this is going to look GREAT!” We always end up loving how a room turns out.
So this is why EJ wanted to paint the kitchen himself. It’s his project. He painted the whole kitchen today, hung the shelves, and did a variety of little jobs. He still has to paint the trim, but that is a job for another day.
While EJ worked, I kept him company and helped him as needed. I also did several small jobs, like grind our whole bean coffee, washed the cabinets, and so forth. As we worked, we enjoyed chatting. We love to spend time with each other.
A Philosophy of Used Things
Last night when EJ got home from work, he brought in a box of dishes that he had bought at a thrift shop on his way to work.
Wait, before I go further, let me pause to explain our Philosophy of Used Things.
I know some people want only expensive new things, but I do not like new things. I mean, I can appreciate the beauty and workmanship of expensive new things and sometimes I drool over them. I love beautiful homes (drool) or handmade furniture (drool), although I will never understand the appeal of clothes causing hundreds or thousands of dollars. And don’t buy me jewelry. I’d rather have books.
The reality is that we are not swimming in money, and we have a son, a dog, and eight cats. If we had expensive new things–depending on what the item was–we’d have to worry about them getting stolen, broken, ripped, stained, spilled on, or the dog shedding on them or the cats barfing on them. I just don’t want the anxiety I’d feel if the cats scratched a new $800 couch or I stained a $60 shirt or something. So we visit yard sales and thrift shops, and if an item gets broke, ripped, stained, spilled or barfed on, we don’t have to worry. We just use the stained 25 cent shirt as a rag and buy another shirt, or find a new lamp to replace the broken one, or buy another old piece of furniture for $20 when the other one becomes too worn. In the end, stuff is just stuff, and even the most expensive thing becomes used the minute you bring it home from the store. I’d rather enjoy my family and pets than worry about keeping expensive things nice or safe.
A great appeal of visiting yard sales and thrift shops is that it is very much like treasure hunting. We never know what we will find. We might find nothing, but we might find something really cool. A few years ago, we bought a really nice couch for $10 at a moving sale. Last year we bought a very nice kitchen table and chairs for $25 at a yard sale. And we bought two lovely wing-backed chairs for $50 at a thrift shop. We get like-new clothes, many times of higher quality than we could afford new. Years ago, EJ found a full-length, fleece-lined, western sheepskin coat for $19 and last month he found an Australian Drover’s Coat for $10 at yard sales. Both were very expensive and had the sales tags still in them. Who can beat that? We even got a cat at a yard sale last year.
Sometimes we end up having great conversations with people operating a yard sale. For example, just a few days ago we stopped at a sale and chatted with the seller for 15 to 20 minutes. We started out by admiring the man’s beautiful dog, and then the conversation veered to other things–work and back pain and such. We could practically have pulled out a chair and visited all day. Once, years ago, the man running a sale actually invited us to stop in for supper sometime. We never did because, well, what were we supposed to do, knock on the door and say, “Hey, we are the strangers who stopped at your sale and you invited us to supper and here we are!” That would have been strange.
Anyway, back to the dishes.
When we got married, we were given a very nice set of dishes as a wedding gift. We have only a few left now because over the years dishes tend to get broken.
We had a complete set of apple dishes–including serving platters and everything– that we bought NEW at the store years ago. However, EJ read that many items from China are made with lead and are not safe, so last December he got rid of all our “Made in China” items, including the dishes. He purged them just before we were expecting a guest, which meant I didn’t have many dishes and had to wash the dishes frequently. Laugh. We have been searching for non-Chinese dishes ever since, laughingly grumbling about our lack of plates and bowls. We have been slowly finding replacement dishes. Most, but not all, of the dish sets come with serving platters and a creamer and sugar bowl (which we don’t use often). I like that we can choose the dish style or color that we like best on any particular day. Often we each use a different style for a meal.
We found a beautiful almost complete set of English Blue Willow dishes for $5 at a yard sale a couple of years ago. I had a nice chat with the woman selling these dishes. I love the pretty, delicate design. I use them on Fridays for our Shabbat meal.
A few weeks ago, we found these dishes at our favorite thrift store. We love the warm mustard yellow color.
The dishes EJ brought home last night are yellow and brown. Except for one bowl and plate, they are a complete set of stoneware made in the USA. They are sturdy. I like that the cups are large and can be used for small bowls if we want to. He bought them all for $15.
This latest set of dishes came with a Quiche dish. EJ said, “You know what you are going to have to do with this QUICHE DISH, don’t you?” (Hint, hint.) I guess I will be learning how to make Quiche. Smile.
Oh, we all have our Favorite Coffee Cups. No one can use another person’s Favorite Coffee Cup on PENALTY OF DEATH. Choosing a Favorite Coffee Cup is almost a sacred rite-of-passage thing. This is mine. I found a set of four at a yard sale so if I break one (gasp), all is not lost. I love the colors and design of this cup.
EJ read this post and said, “Why didn’t you also share my Favorite Coffee Cup?” So here is his. He likes things plain and simple.
I think we now have enough plates, and bowls. At least for a while. If they get broken, oh, well, we will just find some more.
If You Give a Woman a Shovel…
I woke at 8 a.m. and had to immediately begin making challah bread. Challah is a beautifully braided bread used for Shabbat. After preparing the dough, I let it raise for an hour, punch it down and let it raise for another hour, then braid it and let it raise for another hour, and then bake it for 40 minutes. I make it every Friday. If I do not begin preparing it early enough in the morning, EJ cannot enjoy it with us before he goes to work.
While I was making the challah, I finished drying the laundry from yesterday. After a night of only three hours of sleep, I stayed up late again drying clothes. I couldn’t stay awake to finish it all so I went to bed at about 2 a.m.
(Photo from Allrecipes.com)
I also made pancakes for breakfast. I was going to make meatloaf for lunch but discovered at the last minute that I did not have any ground beef thawed, so I quickly made Albondigas instead. It is quick to make. Since I didn’t have any thawed ground beef for the meatballs, I cooked the ground beef in a fry pan and added it to the soup. It is a yummy soup.
After EJ went to work, I took Danny for a walk. JJ left for work a couple of hours later, and I really wanted to take a nap. I am exhausted from my battle with the fleas and a week of little sleep. However, first I decided that I better plant the rest of the ginger root that is growing on the window sill. I planted half of it the other day, but didn’t have another pot in which to plant the rest. Then EJ said I could have the sixth pot we had bought at the thrift store the other day. Planting the ginger would take five minutes, tops, and then I would come in and take a nap.
I got the shovel out of the garage and filled the empty pot with dirt.
While filling the pot, I noticed the lawn needed mowing. JJ didn’t get the lawn mowed yesterday because he was helping me with laundry. He said he’d mow it at the first opportunity but…I particularly noticed the extra long grass in the back part of the yard. I had mowed the lawn for JJ last week, but wasn’t able to get the grass mowed in the back part of the yard because access to it was blocked by logs from the stack EJ was using to make his raised beds and a heavily-laden wheelbarrow that I couldn’t budge (I think there are bricks in the wheelbarrow under the dirt). I decided to move the logs out of the way to the very back edge of the yard so I could mow the extra long grass. Then I thought that I could just mow the WHOLE back yard, and I also mowed the brick path through my garden because I haven’t had time to weed it. I would have mowed the whole yard, but I knew I didn’t have enough gas in the mower and I didn’t have enough money with me to buy more. I didn’t want to have to go to the bank and then walk to the gas station to fill the gas can…I wanted to take a nap. I also didn’t want to get half the front yard mowed and be unable to finish it. JJ can get gas and mow the front yard.
As I was mowing the back yard, I remembered that there are plants I needed to rescue from areas we are converting to other purposes. I got the shovel and transplanted a couple of flowers (I am not sure what they are) which surprisingly appeared among EJ’s raised veggie beds. He said he wouldn’t touch them until I moved them. I also transplanted a pretty iris from an area of the back yard that was part of my garden, but which we hope to turn into a grape arbor. I also noticed a pretty flower growing in Danny’s dog pen. I transplanted all these into a place in my garden where I had yanked out lemon balm this Spring. I had planted wildflowers there, but they didn’t grow. (I also planted wildflowers in another area of the yard, and they are growing well there). I also transplanted a couple other flowers to that area, such as Black-eyed Susan and an Impatient or two. Next year maybe that area will look very nice.
While walking back and forth, digging up and transplanting flowers, I was amazed to notice what I think is a Butterfly Plant. I had planted a Butterfly plant in that place YEARS ago, when JJ was very little, but after I planted it, it disappeared and I thought it had died. Apparently not.
My garden often surprises me, suddenly growing plants that I thought had died, or which I didn’t plant. Although I don’t like that some plants spread–like trumpet vine or poison ivy, I do like that the flowers are spreading. Because so many of my flowers were given to me by friends who were getting rid of excess plants, I have limited colors in my garden. Mostly I have yellow, orange, and purple. But that’s ok. I love them. I’m hoping that in a couple of years, flowers will fill my garden.
After I transplanted the flowers, I carried the shovel back to the garage. On the way to the garage, I noticed that my Strawberry Garden could use weeding, so I paused and weeded the garden. When I finished weeding the strawberries, I put away the shovel and carried the pot of newly planted ginger to the front porch.
I filled my watering can and watered all the plants I had planted and transplanted. It is supposed to rain later today, but I didn’t want them to die of thirst before it did. Besides, often the rain misses us.
EJ had gone to the store this morning for more flea spray, and he also stopped at the Farmer’s Market and bought eggs. (I would have loved to go with him, but I was too busy.) When I finally got back inside, I sprayed the upstairs again with flea spray, even though I have only found about four fleas on my socks ALL DAY. Although I think I have won this battle, I will not rest until every flea in the house is dead.
My five-minute afternoon task ended up taking me about 2 hours to accomplish. I never did get a nap. However, the heat has broken and the temperature is almost autumn-ish, the fleas are mostly dead, and I enjoyed working out in the garden.
No Fleas on My Socks
This week started out really well. On Monday I did a little garden work and washed the windows. Meanwhile EJ had found a wooden shelf for a dollar or two at a garage sale that matched the other shelves we have in the kitchen. It is just longer than the other two shelves. We are considering putting the one long shelf or the two smaller ones in the corner of the kitchen where a pantry unit used to be until we moved it to another room to use as a coat closet. Because the pantry was there, the corner didn’t get painted when the rest of the kitchen was painted. If we put the shelf/shelves there, the corner will need to be painted first, so EJ decided to paint it on Monday. Of course, painting is sort of like the children’s story “If You Give a Mouse a Cookie” because you can’t merely paint a corner, you have to also repaint the whole kitchen. EJ took down the smaller shelves, putting everything that had been on them on the kitchen table. He got one coat of paint in the corner before he had to leave for work. As soon as he gets time, he will paint again.
EJ probably would have gotten the kitchen painted and put back into order, but he went with me to the doctor on Tuesday. I have been struggling, off and on, with a rash since December. First it was on my hand. It looked like a zombie hand. Now it is on my leg. It doesn’t look like zombie flesh, but it is annoying. The high heat and humidity made the rash worse, so I figured I needed to go to the doctor.
The last two days have been spent in an all out battle with a plague of fleas. We have a dog and eight cats. The dog and two of the cats are allowed outside, so it’s only expected that we’d occasionally get fleas. (The two outside cats are older ones who are not happy remaining inside all the time, as the other cats are.) Usually I put flea medication on our pets’ skin, spray a little flea killer around, and any flea problem disappears.
This time, however, I delayed a tiny bit and bought a new cheaper kind of flea medication because money is more tight and flea medication for eight cats and a dog can be expensive. I am not sure the new flea medication worked as well or quickly as the other. Whatever, we suddenly got an explosion of fleas. I felt bad that if I had acted more quickly, I could have prevented this Flea Apocalypse, but EJ said his co-workers mentioned that they have been battling fleas too, so maybe it’s not my fault. This year has also seen an unusual explosion of mosquitoes and ticks in our area.
Anyway, I HATE and DESPISE fleas, so I have been battling with everything I can think of. My goal is to use “shock and awe” techniques–hitting them fast and hard to get rid of them.
Besides putting medication on the dog and cats, I got the brilliant idea of sprinkling Diatomaceous Earth around the house. Diatomaceous Earth is “an off white talc-like powder that is the fossilized remains of marine phytoplankton. When sprinkled on a bug that has an exoskeleton (such as bed bugs, ants or fleas) it compromises their waxy coating so that their innards turn into teeny tiny bug jerky. But it doesn’t hurt mammals. We can eat it. We do eat it! It’s in lots of grain based foods because lots of grains are stored with Diatomaceous Earth to keep the bugs from eating the grain!” Diatomaceous Earth worked very well on the ants in my herb garden and is a safe pesticide, I thought it would be wonderful to kill those awful fleas.
When JJ saw me sprinkling Diatomaceous Earth around, he said, “What on earth are you doing????” I said matter-of-factly, “Dusting the house. Duh.” I couldn’t help but remember a series of stories from my childhood about a housekeeper named Amelia Bedelia. The woman she worked for gave her a list of instructions and told her to follow it EXACTLY, so Amelia Bedelia followed it EXACTLY even though the instructions didn’t make sense to her. When her list said, “Dress the turkey,” she put clothes on it. When her list said, “Dust the room,” (not “undust the room”) she sprinkled dust all over the house. So I told JJ that I was “dusting the house.”
EJ texted from work that maybe I could research foods or herbs that repelled fleas, so I did. I learned that garlic repels fleas and that it was safe to use on pets. When EJ got home from work that evening, I told him that I had rubbed garlic powder into the pets’ fur. (And also sprinkled garlic on the floor with the Diatomaceous Earth. Remember, this is a “Shock and Awe” campaign.) JJ overhead and exclaimed, “What??? Why on earth did you rub garlic into the cats’ fur????” I replied, “Duh! To protect them from vampires.” I mean, everyone knows that garlic wards off vampires, and if anything was ever a bloodsucking vampire, it’s fleas. And mosquitoes. And ticks. Oh my!
Ok, I can’t help teasing my son a bit. Don’t worry, he teases me back quite skillfully.
Yesterday EJ and I drove to a nearby town to get flea spray, but the store didn’t have what we needed. I use my socks as flea indicators. If I notice fleas hopping onto my socks, then I know we have a problem. By the end of the evening, I had reduced the number of fleas on my socks to one or so every couple of hours downstairs. My “Shock and Awe” campaign was working. The animals aren’t allowed upstairs (although Timmy is skilled at dashing up when we open the door), but when I headed to bed, I had fleas jumping on my socks. Sigh. So I got my Diatomaceous Earth and garlic powder and sprinkled them upstairs. I didn’t want to sleep up there when the fleas were more of a problem, so I decided to sleep on the couch in the living room. Only the cats are used to cuddling me, and they wouldn’t keep away.
Our cat Annie often doesn’t have a strong need for attention, but when she wants attention she won’t take “no” for an answer. She insisted on cuddling with me, and I could feel flea eggs on her. I kept putting her on the floor, and she kept jumping up next to me. So I got up and found the little cat flea comb, and tried to comb out the fleas from her fur. And then I decided to comb the other cats. The cats were funny. Luke purred as I combed out his fur. Timmy rolled over on his back, obviously loving it–as long as I didn’t pull. The other cats ranged from calmly tolerating my combing, to not impressed with it, to Yafah’s “After medicating me and rubbing garlic into my fur there isn’t any way you are getting near me!” I was combing cats until 4 a.m.
First thing this morning, EJ and I went to the store in a town a little further away to buy the flea spray we needed. When we got home, EJ volunteered to cook lunch while I began to sweep, vacuum, mop the downstairs. After EJ left for work, JJ and I herded the pets into the kitchen and closed the door. (NOT an easy task, but a very humorous one. Yafah wasn’t feeling the love and trust by then.) Then we gathered our laundry and bedding, and loaded everything into the car to take to the laundromat. Before I left, I sprayed the living/dining room and bathroom with the flea spray.
I talked to my friend on the phone while waiting for the clothes to finish washing. I told her that I can’t wait for autumn, I feel like we have endured plagues all summer: first mosquitoes, then high heat and humidity, then a rash, and now fleas. JJ spoke up, “Let’s move before we reach the last plague, ok?” He was referring to the Biblical account of the ten plagues that fell on ancient Egypt until Pharaoh agreed to let the enslaved Israelites go free. The last of the plagues was the death of all the First Born, and JJ is my first–and only–born. So you can maybe understand his concern.
JJ and I lugged the laundry home, and I began the task of drying baskets of washed clothes (using the dryer, not the clothesline)–a task I will probably be doing into the night. While the clothes dried, I went upstairs and swept, and vacuumed, and mopped and sprayed. Then I herded the pets from the kitchen and did the same there, as well as in the back porch. I also took all the rugs onto the front porch, shook the dirt, Diatomaceous Earth and garlic powder from them, and sprayed them with flea spray.
I took a shower because I was exhausted and hot and wanted to feel clean. I got dressed and put on a clean pair of socks and then walked around the house. The only fleas I found was when I sat in my spot on the couch. The cats often cuddle with me there. I sprayed that spot again. I am keeping a close watch on my socks and will re-spray any spot where fleas jump on my socks. I walk around the house with my eyes on my socks. Every little itch and tickle or dot is viewed with immediate suspicion.
I hope our flea measures work SOON. The pets are still scratching a bit. (You’d think no flea could have survived my efforts.) There often is a new outbreak as larva mature into adults. We will return for another can of flea spray tomorrow morning so we will be ready.
What a week. What a summer. I can’t wait for autumn. On a better note, today as we drove home from the store, we saw a doe with her two fawns. That is always a precious sight.
Outside Work
Once again I took Danny for a morning walk rather than our usual afternoon walk so that we could try to beat the heat. I took along a cup of coffee made with our own coffee machine. It’s nice to be able to make coffee again.
First thing this morning we registered for JJ’s college classes. JJ was able to get all the classes and times that he wanted. Yay! He is nervous about starting college because it’s all so new and unfamiliar, but I think he will do well.
Both EJ and JJ had to work today. After they left, I went out to mow the lawn. EJ had recommended that I wait until Sunday when it is supposed to get a bit cooler, but I really wanted to get it done today. There was a strong breeze, which helped, but I still got overheated and drenched with sweat. As soon as I finished, I staggered into the cool air-conditioned house, poured me a glass of iced tea, and sat in front of the fan, and then video-chatted with my friend for a bit.
Later, when I had cooled down, I went outside and dug up more bricks from the path I am eliminating in EJ’s backyard garden. The brick paths at one time defined areas of EJ’s garden beds, but since he removed the shed last Spring and reconfigured his garden, I think the paths are not needed. They are difficult to keep weeded and hard to mow. You can see in the picture that the path was grassy. I give more attention to weeding the paths in my garden. I worked until I was again overheated and drenched with sweat. I delayed long enough to quickly weed my strawberry garden and then I retreated back to the cool house, iced tea, and the fan. I didn’t even take the time to stack the bricks with the others.
I went outside into the heat one more time to take pictures of the brick bath and some flowers in my yard that are beginning to bloom.
Oh, I should say that I finally remembered that I had some Diatomaceous Earth in the garage. Diatomaceous earth is a fine, white, crystalline powder made up of the fossilized shells of diatoms, which are tiny, single-celled algae found in plankton. Diatomaceous Earth has many, many uses, including as a pesticide. I spread some on the red ant hill in my herb garden about a week ago, and when I went out to the garden yesterday, the ants were gone. I found another ant hill a few feet away, so I spread Diatomaceous Earth there too. Yay! Those ants always swarmed and bit me when I tried to work in that area so I am glad they are gone.
The Front Porch Garden
We were still without a coffee machine this morning. Or, rather, we were without the pot that broke the other day. Tuesday my husband made coffee by placing a glass measuring cup in the machine and holding open the doohicky that stops the flow of coffee when the pot is pulled out. Only a four cup measuring cup fits in the machine. That is not enough. Yesterday we walked to the local gas station and bought cups of coffee. At first EJ was only going to buy one cup of coffee. When I asked him why he was just getting one, he said he’d just take a sip of mine. Uh…I think we can afford for us to have our own cups of coffee, and I really wanted a whole cup of my own. EJ wisely decided to buy a cup for each of us. Anyway…this morning EJ asked, “Do you want me to make the coffee with the measuring cup or buy coffee at the store?” I said I didn’t care how we got coffee but I wanted COFFEE. We laughed.
We decided the priority for today was to buy a coffee machine.
But first I took Danny for a walk. We usually go for a walk after EJ leaves for work in the afternoon because my mornings are too busy. However, there have been heat advisories this week so it’s been too hot to walk Danny. Poor thing, he loves his walks. So while EJ got dressed, I took Danny out this morning. When he noticed that I was going to take him for a walk, Danny sneezed. I think dogs sneeze when they are emphatic about something. Usually Danny sneezes once when he knows we are going for a walk. Today he sneezed three or four times for extra emphasis. It was about time we went for a walk and he was READY. It was hot outside, but there was a slight coolness in the air. I poured some coffee into a travel cup and drank my coffee as I walked my dog. It was very pleasant. I love mornings, and would walk every morning but I am usually too busy. I mean, I like to wake up slowly with a cup of coffee and my computer, and then everyone wakes up and the day gets busy. The coolness was gone by the time Danny and I got home.
After Danny and I got home, EJ and I left for the local Hospice thrift shop in a nearby town. The thrift shop raises money for the organization. We found one coffee machine for three dollars. We also found a few other things. My greatest find (other than the coffee machine) was large plant pots that were two for a dollar. We took six. I chose five plastic terracotta pots and EJ chose a large white pot. I wish I had gotten more because I think I could use them eventually. Oh, well.
We went to the Hospice’s other store across town as well. This store has large items like furniture and exercise equipment. We always enjoy browsing through this store because…well, we never know what we might find. We also stopped at the grocery store on our way home for a few groceries. They have a coffee station with free cups of hot coffee. Ahhhh!
After we got home and fixed lunch, I filled five of the new plant pots with dirt. I repotted my cactus plants in two of them. I have had these cactus since they were little nubs. They are now quite big. I have discovered that it is not easy repotting cactus plants. OUCH! In another pot I put the new bay plant that I bought last week at the Farmers’ Market. The lady I bought it from said it will get quite big. She also said that Rosemary is supposed to be brought inside during the winter, so I dug my two Rosemary plants out of the herb garden and put them in the other two pots. I figured I better get them in pots before they got too big.
These plants all join my Front Porch Garden. My Front Porch Garden are potted plants that I take outside every summer and bring inside every winter. The horseradish and ginger plants are part of this garden, as well as a spider plant. I always feel sorry for the spider plant in the winter because for some reason the cats love to sleep on it. So to protect it, I have to put it upstairs in the library/guest room, but I tend to forget it’s there (out of sight, out of mind) and water it infrequently. By the time I take it outside, it’s looking pretty pathetic, but it bounces back and thrives in the summer.
EJ also has some salad greens in window boxes on the front porch railing, but they aren’t doing well because our cat Tesla like to sleep in the window box and she crushes the plants. EJ is going to have to come up with a way to keep her out.
While I was filling my new pots with dirt and potting the plants, we had a severe thunderstorm warning in our area. The sky got black and there were some rumbles of thunder overhead. However, the storm passed just south of us and did not hit us. I do not think we even got any rain. The storm did cool the air off a tiny bit for awhile, but by the time I finished potting all the plants it was hot again and I was drenched in sweat. It felt good to go back into the air-conditioned house and cool off.
Little Things Resolved…
When I began this blog, I was intending to write about my garden, but so far this summer I haven’t been out in the garden much! First there was lots of rain, then swarms of mosquitoes, and now we have high heat advisories. It is so hot and humid outside that EJ said his glasses immediately fogged up when he went outside last night. We have been spending a lot of time inside with the air conditioning.
EJ worked for hours yesterday to install the new water heater after the old one died. About 9 p.m. or so, he said he needed to buy a part at the hardware store. I could see that he was very tired and his back was hurting, so I suggested he quit for the night and finish up today. This morning he drove to the store for his part, and then spent several hours finishing up the water heater. We will have to wait for a while for the water to heat up, but the water heater is installed!
Usually I would have gone to the store with EJ (we enjoy driving and talking and being with each other), but I stayed home in case the repairmen came to fix our modem. After we got the new modem yesterday, our Internet worked for several hours but at 5:30 pm or so, we lost our connection again. After EJ left this morning, I called our telephone/cable company, and the woman said that there were internet problems in our village and the guys were working on it. They had the problem fixed by early afternoon. YAY! It is very difficult to not be able to do research or connect to friends on-line.
I did get outside in the garden for a little bit. A few years ago, I made a brick path through my garden and EJ’s garden. It looks kind of nice, although it’s sort of a bother pulling out the weeds that grow between the bricks. We don’t like to use chemicals so I pull the weeds out by hand. If I had to do it over, I probably would not have put in bricks, but would have just mowed a grass path. I decided to keep the bricks through my garden, which are more public and can be seen by passers-by, but to take out the bricks in EJ’s gardens. His garden has less need for brick paths and it’s a chore trying to keep all the bricks weed-free. Today, I began pulling up the bricks in his garden. I pulled up a about a dozen bricks before I got so hot that I went back inside. But, hey, at least I did something in the garden.
Instead of working in the garden, JJ and I worked to get him pre-registered for his classes at the community college. New Student Registration begins on Friday, but students can figure out and input their classes before then. I think when registration opens, JJ can just click a button and register his preferred classes rather than input them all that day. We struggled to figure out how to input JJ’s preferred classes on the website–this is all very new to us and we don’t really know what we are doing. Finally our frustration grew great enough that JJ called to ask the college how to do it. He said he felt really dumb asking for help, but I said that the college is used to helping students, and it’s better to ask for help then to miss out on classes because we didn’t know how to do it. Once the person at the college explained how to do it, it was very easy. The hardest part after that was choosing classes that wouldn’t conflict with each other. There is no guarantee that JJ will get these classes, but I really hope he can. His classes are not too early in the day and not too late in the day. I would worry about him driving home after dark in the winter.
JJ said he is nervous, but I think he’s also excited about attending college this autumn.
A Lot of Little Things
Yesterday morning I was waiting for the coffee machine to finishing making the coffee, anticipating the first sip of my first cup of coffee for the day…The coffee machine finished, I pulled out the coffee pot to pour the coffee into my cup…and suddenly the pot cracked and a chunk of glass fell off the pot. I have been known to accidentally break coffee pots, but this time it was not my fault. The glass much have just gotten weak or something. Desperate for coffee, EJ made some coffee in the old percolator that he uses sometimes when we go camping. The coffee wasn’t as tasty but was better than nothing. Today he made coffee by putting a glass measuring cup in the machine and then holding open the doohicky that stops the flow when you take the pot out of the machine before it’s finished making. Later, we stopped at the store at our local gas station and bought a cup of coffee.
We would have gone to the to the thrift store yesterday for a used coffee machine, but we didn’t have time because we attended the New Student Orientation at the community college JJ is attending this fall. We haven’t bought a new coffee machine from a store in years. We always buy coffee machines from thrift stores or yard sales for a couple of dollars. We were planning to go to the thrift store this morning, but a lot of little things went wrong and we didn’t have time.
For the last week or so, our Internet has disconnected and reconnected frequently. Usually we just turn off and on the modem and it’s ok. This morning I wasn’t able to get on-line at all. I used the Internet Troubleshooting feature and was told that it was something to do with my modem. So, since it was time to pay our cable bill anyway, I drove the two blocks to our telephone company (it’s too hot to walk) and told them about our Internet problems. Our telephone company is also our Internet provider. We have one of the few privately-owned telephone companies in the country, which I think is interesting. Anyway, I was given a new modem. Yay! We’ve had our old modem for probably about 15 years. When I called the ISP tech support for an Internet problem a couple years ago, the guy didn’t even recognize our type of modem. The new modem at first didn’t seem to work, so I called support, and eventually it began working. Yay! The Internet provides our education, news, entertainment, and, most importantly, our connections to other people, and it’s very difficult to be without.
I went to wash my hair this morning, and the water remained cold. I told EJ and he said he needed to relight the pilot on the water heater. I accompanied him to the basement (a scary place filled with cobwebs and spiders) because he wanted to show me how to do it in case I ever needed to do it. He couldn’t get it re-lit. He said the water heater needed to be replaced. I was envisioning having to spend $$$ on a new water heater and was relieved that he had already bought a new one a while back. I didn’t want to have to spend $$$ because we are working hard to become debt-free. EJ took a vacation day off so he could install the new water heater.
Having the water heater go is kind of an inconvenience (I can’t wash my hair, or wash my hands, or do the dishes…), but it is actually a tremendous blessing. As EJ was unhooking the old water heater, he noticed that there was a hole where the exhaust pipe had rusted through. It could have killed us.
We found out about JJ’s financial aid this morning. It is less than we had hoped. Bummer. Now we are calculating how we can find the extra money we will need above the financial aid money, the money JJ has saved, and the cost of his classes.
I am very thankful for the dead water heater. And I’m glad we finally got a new modem. And we are managing (temporarily) without a coffee machine. And I think we can find the money for JJ’s classes. And the two days EJ has taken off this week has kept him out of the factory on these dangerously hot days–a blessing because it’s always 20-30 degrees hotter in the factory than it is outside.
The problems are just a lot of little ones, and all in all life is pretty good.
Orientation
We used to have two box fans, but over the winter I accidentally put one of them too close to the woodstove and it melted. We use a fan in the winter to help distribute the heat of the woodstove through the rest of the house, but it’s not supposed to be placed so close that the fan is melted.
We could have gone to the store and bought another fan, but we like to buy things cheaply at yard sales and thrift shops whenever we can. Who would pay $20 or $30 for a fan when with a little patience he could buy one for a dollar or two? We have been visiting sales and thrift shops, but haven’t found any fans. Then yesterday EJ visited his friend and returned home with an old vintage box fan that his friend had gotten from a yard sale. His friend offered to give it to EJ, but EJ insisted on buying it for a couple of dollars. When he came through the door, EJ said, “Here, take this fan for me,” so I took it and almost dropped it. It is made out of steel and is VERY heavy. I like it. It’s unique. And lugging it around from room to room will have the extra benefit of lifting weights.
Speaking of fans and melting: There are heat advisories for us this week. Going outside is like walking into an oven. Bleagh. I am beginning to long for autumn.
I got ready to go to bed at 11 p.m. last night. I was having trouble staying awake. I was really tired because I hadn’t slept well the night before. Then EJ informed me that there were reports that the Northern Lights were strong and might reach down into our area starting at about midnight. So, of course, I had to make myself stay up for another hour in hopes of seeing them. I have only seen the Northern Lights a couple of times in my life, and they are BEAUTIFUL, so EJ has orders that HE MUST WAKE ME UP if he see Northern Lights or learns that there is a possibility we might see them. We went outside a couple of times near midnight. We didn’t see any though. We live north enough to keep alive the hope that we might see them, but a little too far south to actually see them. And at the rare times when the Northern Light do reach down to us, it’s often too cloudy to see them. But we keep hoping, especially in the last year or so when the solar activity has been very strong. Even though we didn’t see any Northern Lights, it was pleasant to go outside at night and look at the stars with my dear husband.
Our son graduated from school this year (we homeschooled), and now he’s headed off to the community college this autumn in a city that is about 30 miles from us, give or take a few miles. EJ, JJ, and I took off this morning for the New Student Orientation at the school. The Orientation explains to new students what is expected of them at the college and such things as financial aid.
EJ took the day off because we are down to one car right now, and he is the only one who knows the way to the college. I am severely directionally challenged–I can get lost ANYWHERE–and JJ is an inexperienced driver and doesn’t know the area where the school is located. There is no direct way from our house to the community college, but the route involves something like six or seven confusing turns. To help JJ learn the way, we have been making him drive the route with us whenever possible. Hopefully, by the time the semester starts, he will be able to find the school on his own.
At first I thought we were supposed to just drop JJ off at the school, but then I read in the college info that parents were encouraged to attend the New Student Orientation, so we sat in on the session. I’m glad we did. It was actually kind of interesting. After the program, we met with an advisor who answered our questions and helped JJ decide what classes to take. He is getting kind of excited about school. It’s hard to believe our little boy is getting ready to leave the nest!
Laundry Day
Today we did laundry.
When we first moved into our house, the washer and dryer were in the unfinished basement. I had to constantly run down to the basement through our unheated very-cold-in-the-winter back porch to do laundry. So when we redid our downstairs bathroom, we rearranged things and were able to make a space for a stackable washer/dryer. It has been very nice. However, last year the washer part died. Stackable washer/dryers are quite expensive to replace so each week we have been taking clothes to the laundromat, which is about two blocks away.
EJ always comes along to help me. He loads and unloads the baskets of clothes, I load the clothes in the washer, I put the laundry soap in, he puts the coins in, and then we sit down and talk and/or read while we wait for the washers to run through their cycles. Sometimes we walk a couple of buildings down to the local diner and have a cup of coffee or a delicious breakfast.
When the clothes are washed, we return home to dry our clothes. In the winter or on rainy days, we dry the clothes in the dryer, which still works. In the summer, I hang the clothes on the clothesline in the back yard. When we hang the clothes on the clothesline, EJ always takes the baskets of wet clothes right to the back yard, while I take my purse and the detergent into the house, grab the clothespins, and go out to hang the clothes. We have a system and work well together.
Our yard is quite small, so we have to use space wisely. We wanted to hang clothes on a clothesline, but we didn’t want a clothesline to take away valuable garden space. We also didn’t want to have to duck under the clothesline whenever we needed to walk through the yard. So a few years ago, we bought a retractable clothesline. When I need to dry my clothes, I pull out the clothesline. When I am finished, we retract the clothesline. It works great!
It’s very pleasant to hang up clothes, especially in the cooler mornings. We don’t always get to the laundromat early because EJ works second shift and sleeps in later. Today we got to the laundromat later than usual, so it was early afternoon and actually quite hot when I hung up the clothes. I used to love summers, but now I prefer the crisp coolness of autumn. I really don’t know if summers are getting hotter and more humid or if I am just becoming less tolerant to heat, but as I hung the clothes on the clothesline, sweat poured off me. I was almost tempted to say, “Forget this!” and take the clothes into the house to dry, but I courageously persevered until the end.
I let my dog, Danny, join me while I hung clothes out. He is very loyal to me and loves to be with me. He is a funny dog because he believes that if he goes out the back door, he will have to go into his pen. If he wants to go to his pen, he willingly goes through the back door, but if he doesn’t want to go out into the pen, he will refuse to go to the back door. He will just stand there in the middle of the kitchen looking at me and wagging his tail, but not taking another step no matter how much I call him. He never has a problem going through the front door because we go through the front door when I take him for walks, which he loves, or when he joins us outside just for fun. To him, back door equals his pen, and front door equals very enjoyable experiences. I cannot convince him otherwise. Today, when we got home from the laundromat, I brought in the detergent and was going to grab the clothespins on my way through the back door to the back yard. I asked Danny if he wanted to join me. He leaped up eagerly until he saw that I was going to the back door. Then he stopped. Nope, not going through the back door. So I grabbed the clothespins from the back porch, and went to the front door. Danny eagerly accompanied me through the front door and the longer way around to the back yard. Silly dog.
Danny was also very, very hot outside. His fur is thick, but he gets very depressed when his hair is cut, so we don’t do it. Instead, we take care to not take him out when it’s too hot, and we turn on the AC if he looks too hot, and we turn the fan on him if necessary. Out in the yard today, Danny dug a shallow hole to get to the cooler dirt underneath. When he did this a couple of times, I called out to EJ that I thought Danny was too hot and needed to go inside. EJ called to Danny, and Danny stood up, but he refused to go into the house because he wanted to stay with me even if he was very hot. So I ended up calling him into the house and then went back out to finish hanging up the clothes. Then I also went into the house where the AC was cooling the rooms, and poured a glass of ice tea.
I Love To Go A Gardening 