The fun's not done

Mom is still not living in her apartment; it's hard to make progress when your mental to-do list can only handle one thing at a time. As suspected, this big change has highlighted and exacerbated Mom's struggles; my sister and her family are on the front lines and I feel for them all. On top of that, the sale of Mom's house to the neighbors has hit a major snag. Dad's will (which my sister and I haven't seen, but of which we might be co-executors) was never probated, and even though Texas is a community property state, his interest in their house does not automatically transfer to Mom. Oy. I think my sister and I will be wandering around in this foggy swamp populated with scary unknowns for the foreseeable future.

The backside of a window I made Dad, found in the last room the neighbors cleaned out!

it doesn't look this good after a few days in the country and a sprinkle of rain

As revealed in the comments of my last post, we did indeed come home with a replacement car that night. It's another manual Jetta TDI, three years newer with less than half the miles of the '09, and in beautiful condition. Rick is still practicing out of our old pickup, but is closing in on a replacement for it.

zucchini, eggplant, and cucumbers picked 7/16

don't know why this was on the ground this morning

Garden production, like garden production does, has kicked into overdrive. Summertime, and the eating is . . . frantic! Last night for supper I roasted two pounds of green beans, the best way in this house to ensure a quantity is consumed. Green beans, snowpeas, and eggplant are overdue for another picking, and last night I harvested SIX beautiful Long White Zucchini of Palermo (I promptly shared one with a neighbor who came over to buy eggs). Tomatoes and bell peppers are finally coloring up; I ate two cherry tomatoes last night, along with a few strawberries from our mostly dormant plants. I am scrambling to use and share all of it, as I don't want any fresh produce to go to waste.

I haven't mentioned my knees for awhile because who wants to listen to others go on about their health or physical problems? But since recovery is still progressing in meaningful ways I thought I'd share an update. The heat and swelling have finally dissipated enough that only the scars visibly give away what happened (well that, and the fact that I'm still a little slow to get underway after sitting for awhile). I'm sleeping better because they are more comfortable, and I've been back to walking a brisk two miles for awhile now. However, last Sabbath afternoon was the first time I ventured to take Poppy's leash during a walk, because when I tried that early on, resisting her considerable pulling force was more than my knees could handle. Now? No problem! (I've entered us in an agility match for a month from now. 😁)

Poppy and me and my favorite tree

I'll close with a couple interior views that warm my heart,

Party on the pie safe

the view from my bathroom caught my eye this morning

and one from outside that doesn't:

the view from the garden

That well-drilling rig has been grinding away for several days already, disrupting the peace and quiet of country living and promising even more neighbors. We've suspected this was coming for a number of years now, but still hate to see "rural" giving way to "suburbia."

That's it for now from . . .

The Eagle has landed!

Mom 'landed' in Lincoln a week ago today thanks to my saintly BIL, and has been staying at my sister's house. She had lost the keys to the padlocks on the U-Boxes before she left Texas, but the neighbors found them a couple days later and overnighted them to Lincoln, saving my sister drastic measures. The U-Boxes were moved into place yesterday, and a hired crew unloaded them into Mom's apartment this morning.

So now Mom has 'landed' in her new home, although she has to do some unpacking before she can stay there. When the dust has settled, it will be interesting to see what made it and what didn't; Mom realized she forgot to pack any cookware so was cramming that into her car at the last minute. Her old neighbors (the ones who found the padlock keys) bought/are buying Mom's house, and believe me, they got a huge discount for a reason. You would not believe how much stuff Mom left in every room; the neighbors are sorting through and getting rid of it. (Why my mom is okay with leaving a houseful of stuff for the neighbors to deal with but refused to let her daughters help her sort/pack is beyond me.) They found tons of family photos that Mom didn't take, and will send them to her so that Kristine and I can have them even if she doesn't want them. They texted me a sample: Mom as a child, her parents . . . and my mom, me (probably late teens), and my sister in kitschy old West get-up from a fair photo booth.

Shocked my son with this one, I did!

She did take this photo with her, a precious candid of Daddy that neither my sister nor I had seen before:

So 'him;' oh, how we all miss him!

Anyway, back the the 'farm.' Little man Bryan was getting too independent to reliably follow his dam and 'aunties' out to pasture in the morning (although he stays in the pasture once there, a nice change from past years' lambs!), so it was time for haltering. He accepted it surprisingly well, and once he had experienced neck scritches and brisket rubs, I couldn't get far enough away from him to get decent conformation shots! He's a tail-wagger, too. 😁

Garden production is picking up. In addition to burpless cucumbers (found an apple-cucumber salad recipe that's simple and refreshing), I've started getting snow peas, eggplant, and picked a couple bell peppers that got sunburned(?) before turning color. Along with an onion and potato, the harvest below turned into a delicious frittata last week:

I took a mess of snowpeas and a tub of hummus to a picnic yesterday, and will be cooking with the first zucchini (and maybe green beans) this week:

Summertime, and the eatin' is easy! 😋

Still car-crippled but crossing fingers that improves tonight.

That's it for now from . . .

And we have lift-off!

Against the odds, my BIL and Mom are actually in route to Lincoln, NE. The third time (my BIL got a ticket to fly to TX) was not a charm, but thanks to his gentle perseverance, it is on its way to being successful. Whew. My sister and I have been sharing chuckles, because it is better to laugh than cry, right?

The third flight was booked for Saturday night, July 5. When all systems were still "go" by Friday night, we dared to feel confident. Silly us. I felt my phone vibrate while sitting in church, and the following ensued:

But wait; there's more. My BIL's flight was delayed multiple times due to weather, so instead of getting in Saturday night, he arrived at 1:00 a.m. this morning. With an extra day on her hands, Mom was ready and waiting, right? Texts between my sister and BIL this morning:

Honestly, my BIL should be nominated for sainthood. This is going to be an interesting new chapter in all our lives.

At home we are still trying to figure out what to do about two dead vehicles. Rick and Brian spent a lot of time working on the vet truck, fixing one problem only to be faced with a new one. Argh.

I remind myself often of Isaiah 26:3; you can't stay focused the problems!

That's it for now from . . .

Wheel woes

The friend whose vehicle we took to BSG after mine died

So nice to play with color after all the black I've been spinning!

Since I just went to a fiber festival, you might be thinking spinning wheel. While I do have one, it's been years since my Louet S10 has seen any action; my Jenkins Turkish spindles are the yarn producers around here. (And yes, I got another one at Black Sheep Gathering, the one that completed my collection.😉) No, our wheel woes are much more troublesome, and expensive....

Rick's current vet truck has been a lemon – trying, it seems, to live up the Ford acronym taunt "Fix Or Repair Daily." He has been pondering a replacement, but late model pickups big enough to handle his vet box, extra equipment, and mileage are obscenely expensive, so he keeps patching his 2002 Ford F350 back together. Early last week another major problem presented itself, putting it up on blocks, so to speak. Fortunately our old '94 Ford keeps on truckin', so he makes do with that when his vet truck is sidelined once again. At least the shop is finally to a useful/useable stage:

Last Wednesday evening on our way to agility my car dramatically lost power. In order to prevent further damage, I had it towed to the nearest VW dealership, in Salem. The diagnosis was grim; the repair would cost more than the car is worth. So we hauled it home where it sits, awaiting its still undecided fate. I was grounded for a few days, and then my boss generously loaned me her mini-van to get to and from work until Rick's vet truck is fixed or replaced. 

Between the fleeces delivered to buyers at BSG and the two shipping out tomorrow, almost half my clip has been sold. Now to skirt and advertise the last eight.

Yesterday Rick was given four tickets for tonight to the St. Paul Rodeo. We haven't been to it in years, and I can't say I'm looking forward to it, except for the fireworks at the end. The risk to man and beast is real, and I sit in dread of something bad happening, especially to the animals (I figure the human participants go in willingly with eyes wide open; animals don't get a choice.)  This is not a hypothetical fear; Rick and I saw a bucking bronc break its leg in the middle of the run, then get shuffled off to the stock pens to wait until Rick went and demanded humane measures be taken. My parents witnessed Lane Frost get gored to death at the Cheyenne Frontier Days rodeo. Praying there are no accidents of any kind tonight....

To end on a more hopeful note, our garden is still going great guns (but for the beets and carrots). The snowpeas and bush beans have started to bloom. I've harvested three cucumbers so far; soon we will be enjoying tomatoes, sweet peppers and eggplant, too.

Inside, my littlest orchid is budding out (again!) as my African violet blooms fade:

And last night's sunset was a lovely one!

That's it for now from . . .