High and low tides

Sunday was a great day, but I've had a hard time forming a post about it. Concern about our son ebbs and flows, but a king tide is coming in, as we are picking him up from college in three weeks, the end of this quarter – for good. He's dropping out, and God only knows what his future holds. Anyway.

My FitBit recorded an extended low tide of daily step counts while I was on 'stall rest.' This screen shot shows before, during, and after, with Sunday being a king tide of activity!

First thing that morning, Rick went to a friend's to get some help with metal fabrication, giving me time to appreciate my sheep, clean the henhouse, and actually do something with both horses beyond just turning Stella out to stretch her legs.

Spot was vigorously rubbing himself on trees. You can see how tufty his neck looks; I need to see if he can be rooed. It won't be hard to catch him and check; he comes over whenever he sees me to get loved on. 😍

The girls got to go out on pasture for the first time since I started stall rest. You would never be able to guess which three are (hopefully) pregnant; the unbred ones seem to have the biggest bellies! Sarai is another one who comes whenever she sees me now, begging for alfalfa pellets. (She is one of the hopefully bred ones.)

I am not showing you a 'before' photo of the henhouse; it was gross. Now it is nicely bedded with fresh straw.

I rewarded myself for the mucky job by riding Lance. It was good to be astride again! Then I did some groundwork with Stella.

By the time I was done with Stella, Rick was home and putting together our 'new' chipper. A client of his gave it to him; it runs fine but one of the chutes had rusted out, so Rick rebuilt it with the help of a friend. We worked until dark on the mess around the henhouse and arena access, cutting up limbs and chipping all the smaller stuff; I had to take 'after' photos the next morning. The chips provide mud abatement in front of the manure pile and henhouse door; the branches provide more firewood (which still needs to be hauled up to the woodshed area).

Rick rebuilt the left chute

Tonight we worked on the branches that had fallen up by the house, and made more visible progress. We'll keep chipping away it – ha!

That's it for now from . . .

(What was) Fresh on Friday

In planning my menu for Sabbath dinner, I decided to make a pasta salad, knowing there would be vegetables to harvest in the garden. My shopping cart, which doesn't include all available peppers (sweet and jalapeño) or cherry tomatoes:

The resulting pasta salad, which includes the first half-pint of fermented eggplant:

I'm ready to start two more pint jars!

I also made this for dessert, thanks to a friend giving me a bag of must-use-NOW fresh blueberries:

I finished plying my blue singles during outdoor church yesterday, and skeined it today. I think it's destined to be a scarf/small shawl that will go nicely with jeans this fall.

Connected with an old high school/college friend today via video chat. She's a fellow "old mom with a single teenaged offspring" facing challenges, albeit different ones than we are. Good to share, commiserate, and encourage one another!

The next time I post, we'll be (short-term) empty-nesters. New adventures for all – except for Poppy. She's going to miss her sometimes-playmate.

That's it for now from . . .

September morn

True confession: I've long been a Neil Diamond fan, and this song tugs on my heartstrings as I think about my little boy growing up and moving on to college in a few short days. Still, I am looking forward to getting more sleep. Poppy won't ‘whine me awake’ because Brian's alarm is going off, even as he sleeps through it because he was out until all hours (last ‘night’ it was 3:45, ostensibly because he got so tired coming home from work that he pulled off the road and slept in the truck a few hours). Rick can just go to sleep, but moms lay awake and wonder....

Once Poppy is awake I usually just get up and take her out to potty and do chores. Hunting is her passion so we check out the henhouse and tack room in the process; one morning she investigated the gopher holes in the side yard, too.

Once chores are done and the sun is up, Poppy likes to sunbathe on the deck. Chuckie often joins her there; this morning I caught their easygoing interaction in video format.


The weather continues to be hot and dry, although the forecast for the next week or so has been adjusted downward from record-breaking heat to ‘just’ hot. Plants and bushes around the yard look stressed; I'm focused on keeping the pots and garden and animals watered. I've given up on the sugar peas; I need to pull up the plants and feed them to the sheep. But the other fresh veggies provide lots of ingredients for our meals, including this recipe from The Splendid Table which got two thumbs up (Brian was out late and didn't eat with us). Yay for another excellent way to use zucchini, and it utilized one of my jalapeño peppers, too!

My hill of Red Kuri winter squash is taking over the garden with very little to show for it. I didn't think it had set any fruit at all, but the other morning I found two peach-sized squash. I'm not sure what mature Red Kuri look like; Mama Pea?

Inside, my littlest orchid is arrayed with breathtaking purple flowers,

and pretty blue yarn is being plyed when I have time.

I'm having trouble keeping my eyes open and still need to finish the church newsletter, so I'll sign off for now.

Just call me Sleepy South of Seattle . . .

Earth and sky

It's cool and quiet and all I want to do is take a nap. The nights have been short; Brian is getting home late and leaving early. Not early enough, mind you; he's been late to work a few times and has threatened to skip his chores because they're going to make him late. I corrected his narrative; it wouldn't be chores that would make him late, it would be sleeping in too late. Personal accountability has become an endangered species; it doesn't help when the person holding the highest office in the land exhibits none, but it will not be allowed to go extinct in THIS house.

Back to the weather (sorry; once a mom, always a mom). Yesterday and today a push of ocean air has given us cloud cover for much of the day and a delicious break from the heat. We lose it tonight; tomorrow will be 'normal' summer weather and then we climb into triple-digit extremes for at least two days. If we had a bigger well, I'd be running hoses 24/7 to give everything a good soaking, but I have to prioritize. The rest of the marionberries will probably burn up. I picked earlier this week and got two more boxes; they were showing the effects of the heat then. Poppy came to see what I was doing – and joined me!

I caught this bumblebee napping on a golden raspberry leaf:

This is one of my cherry tomato plants. It's foliage is affected by herbicide carryover, but it is COVERED with flowers! 

My Red Kuri squash hill is looking good, although there are no blossoms yet.

I am admitting garden envy here. I drive by this house on my way to work; this is the front yard. Two tall beds in the middle, surrounded by lower beds with walk-through gaps. I love the design and construction; so beautiful, so manageable, so productive!

Poppy is in the doldrums again. Her agility class Thursday evening was cancelled (it will start next Thursday), the neighbor boy got 'tutored' this week, and her sister is still in quarantine with her COVID humans (one tested positive, one negative). She needs a good romp! This morning, however, she did get to hunt a mouse in the tack room. She didn't catch it, but it kept her keenly interested for awhile!

How many of you have gotten out to see the comet Neowise? Rick and I drove up the hill to an unobstructed spot last Saturday night to spot it. We had to wait awhile for it to get dark enough, then I used my binoculars to locate it. Once I did that I could spot it with my naked eye. Rick took a ton of photos with his big camera, but I don't know if I'll ever get copies of what he shot. I don't know how Sara captured such a great image with her iPhone; mine sees nothing.

Last night, I decided to see if Neowise was visible here at home. I walked over to the other side of our island bed, found the Big Dipper, looked lower, and there it was, over our woodshed. With the binocs I could see that it had moved; there was a star visible in its 'tail' that wasn't there Saturday night. Fun!

That's it for now from . . .

Homefront hodgepodge

After the cool and wet first half of June, it's gotten hot. The garden seems to be taking it in stride. The photos below start on June 12, where you can see the parsley going to seed on the left edge of the photo and the beets going to seed on the right side of the photo, threatening to take over the sugar peas.

By June 19, I had hacked back the parsley and had Brian yank out those overwintered beats, and it looks much tidier. The black plastic is my experimental sweet potato bed. So far, ten of the eleven slips are hanging in there.

All six of the Red Kuri winter squash seeds that Mama Pea sent me germinated – and are taking off.

I still haven't gotten help getting those water lines hooked up and functioning (various parts need to be replaced). But I did finally get a soaker hose on the bush beans and sugar peas this week – which made both plantings shoot up at least six inches!

I picked up a couple more tomato plants so have a total of nine now. The last two I got are called "Pink Bumble Bee," a new-to-me variety. There are quite a few little green tomatoes on various plants, but there is also something strange going on with five of the first six plants I bought. The top of the plants look 'club-footed' for lack of a better description. (The only reason the sixth plant doesn't have this is because a deer nipped off the top of the plant and it hasn't generated any new growth yet.) It looks nasty, and yet the plants are still producing flowers and fruit. Anyone know what it is, and what I should do about it???

I've picked strawberries five times now (I actually got help from Brian the last time!), and have put 27 pints in the freezer in addition to what we've eaten fresh (including a strawberry rhubarb pie I made for Fathers Day). There will be a few more, but not likely another big picking.

Three of my four daylily varieties are blooming now. The Stella D'Oros have been going for awhile now:

Then these on the south side of the house started in. This variety didn't bloom at all last year!

The tall lemon yellow ones under our double-flowering cherry have just started blooming; the dark red ones planted in between them alternate with have buds but no flowers yet.

Inside, my cheery 36th anniversary orchid is blooming away – and a wee orchid I bought for myself (last year?) has a new flower stalk!

Poppy's heat cycle grinds on; wearisome for man and beast. Her wardrobe has expanded; she got 'panties' to keep from dripping in the house and I picked up a pink harness for a buck at the local shelter's thift store that she can't slip. When we go for walks she begs to go into the neighbor's lot to play with her friends; twice now there's been a puppy party in progress to which she wasn't invited. 😢 😞

The sharp-eyed among you might notice a third dog in that photo (there were actually two more – then). The last time Poppy got to play with Toby (the 'neighbor boy') and Milo (the springer), Milo's owners mentioned they had been searching for an Aussie and had finally found one. They drove clear to a rescue in Florida(!) for lovely little Freya, a black tri-color no bigger than Poppy and Milo. Um, yeah; that black tri-color Aussie looks considerably bigger, doesn't he? Big enough that Freya is hidden on the other side!

Last Thursday a dear friend messaged me about her travails. Her husband died last year so she recently sold her home in Oregon and moved in with her sister in Washington. Among other problems, Jeannie's dogs weren't working out as guests in her sister's antiques-stuffed abode with three resident canines; she was going to have to rehome them. My heart immediately broke for her and for her dogs, a small, shaggy blond pound puppy and Maui, a big, beautiful Aussie. I would have offered to take them but knew that Rick would not approve, so I went into helper mode. I asked a bunch of questions and started thinking of possible placements. The next evening I rode Lance down to get the mail and met Milo's people, now with Freya in tow. Before I even thought it through I asked, "You wouldn't be interested in a full-sized Aussie, would you?" "YES!" they responded, and I got their contact info to pass on to my friend. The next day, I texted the 'neighbor boy's' owner. They have mentioned getting a second dog; would they be interested in Minnie, Jeannie's other dog? Possibly!

To make a short story shorter, all of Milo's family (three men, two dogs) drove up on Sunday and came back with Maui, and my neighbor made the same drive on Wednesday and came back with Minnie. So although they no longer live in the same home, they do live on the same lane and have frequent meet-ups together, and although my friend is heartbroken, she feels good about their new homes. Poppy has gotten to meet Freya, Maui, and Minnie through the fence, and can't wait to JOIN in the fun! Oh, and Jeannie sent something back for me:

She made this for me for Christmas, but we never managed to get together. I will treasure it; it features sheep, which is how we met and became fast friends.

Back to Poppy. She isn't as interested in playing right now and leaving her outside unsupervised is out of the question, so we've had to wear her out in other ways. I take her to the barn with me for chores, but that's not enough. Enter a surprising turn of events: three times this week Rick has gotten up early and gone for a WALK! I think that's more than he's voluntarily gotten up early or exercised in all of 2020 before this week! I don't know if he is having cardiac symptoms that are worrying him or what, but a long walk first thing in the morning is a sanity-saver for our pup and her people.

Brian started work today, and is ready to quit. 😒 He'd been planning to drive combine again this summer, but we've pointed out that with college to help pay for, he needed gainful employment for more than five weeks this summer. He applied at a few places with no luck, so when I pointed out that Monrovia Nursery, just five miles from home, had "Now Hiring" signs out, he agreed to apply. He was hired, doesn't like the manual labor, and is hounding his old combine crew boss to PLEASE find more work for him so he can switch employers. Bad form (especially with the racially-charged description he gave for the work today) according to the way I was raised, and bad crowd over at the custom farming outfit, but I'm guessing Rick will let him. That means a repeat of last summer; not fun. 😖

The sheepy boys are back in the long strip between the horse paddocks and arena; the grass has grown up again nicely so they are appreciating the forage. All three have gained weight and are looking better; I've been giving them supplemental feed each evening.

As you can see, the neighbor's house looms over us, built on the highest point of their land as it is. At least at the front of our house trees screen most of the view.

Oh, hey, good news; I finally got a haircut after five months! And she cut it so short I won't need a haircut for another five months! So I'll only have to spring for three haircuts in 2020; woohoo!!! (Trying to look at the glass half full here; work with me. 😉)

That's the photo-heavy update from . . .