well

it would seem that either I, or Blogger, has decided to clean up my work space. My followers link is gone, every single thing on the page is gone, except what i posted today. i tried rebooting I tried using the system restore. Nothing. I cannot format properly, and even when i do it leaves out words that needed to be there. I'm done, Blogger. You win. I'll leave this up as it is, and if anyone knows what happened, let me know. It would be nice to see the sidebars again, though. It's a kind of reality check. The funny thing is, this is how I got from one end of blogger to the other. Without those links, i've nowhere to go. Anyone wants to email me, feel free. Please.

unspoken

she thinks of the times spent
in quiet easy conversation
two people relaxing on a step
or leaning, the way country people do,
against the side of a pickup,
staring down at nothing
as they discuss everything

sometimes they were so easy
together people mistook them
for more than they were to each other

they were each other's cheering section
on the good days
and on the bad as well

she thinks of the way it felt
when they hugged hello
and then goodbye
some things need
no explanation or reason
or boundaries

and what it is
is just enough on both sides
my stone wall will never become
but never out loud 

Oh, the joy, the thrill of discovery the excitement... We discovered a porcupine in the shed last night and have spent all day closing up exits and entrances, in the hopes that he was out and away. Not to be.
I have no objection to porcupines, having had a summer fling with one years ago, but this one went into hiding and by sealing all the entraces and exits that meant that he could be accidentally trapped in, and not out.
sure enough I went out to get some wood not long ago and he was in my husband's half of the shed, pacing back and forth. Unhappy little fella. Luckily I had some apples in the house and cut one into several porcupine sized bites, and placed them artfully so that the trail leads to the door, and hopefully, out.
Now, we wait. If we're lucky, he'll be gone.
if not, he will have called all his neighbors for the apple festival.

Go, Joe (Rambling out loud)

Oh, and while I'm still able to form full sentences, you may have noticed: we has a new President.
Trouble is, the way things are running (running as in oozing) in Washington these days, we may have the novelty of one President nailed or glued to the Oval Office chair, and the other President being sworn in at the same time.
The Chinese have a curse: "may you live in interesting times". I don't think I can take much more of this 'interesting times' stuff, it seems that we have earned a recess from it.
Boring sounds pretty good at this point. Government is for the politicians to deal with. The rest of us have lives and jobs and families, and politics should be something that we watch on the news, or talk about at a party.
It shouldn't be 24/7. it's nice to know we had the sense to vote the way we did, and that it still matters who actually gets elected. These next two months are going to be entirely too long for my taste,and probably everyone else's too.
In a way, it's like being partnered with a totally abusive, dysfunctional mate: you get used to it, and it becomes your normal. You forget what normal to most people is. Frankly? A bit of boredom from the White House would be welcome, at this point. i'm hoping Mr. Trump behaves the way he should.
A girl can dream, can't she...

Revenge of the bovine kind

Revenge can be sweet
When my husband's cousin sold the family farm (down below us) to a (insert sound of disgust of your choice) developer, the nice man across the road from them had a terribly picturesque horse farm. He raised them, he had mules, and the ubiquitous Canada Geese. Someone decided that it would be SUCH a good idea to have six homes on the other side, and Im sure one of the selling points was how 'rustic" it was, look, you even get to look at horses and mules and donkeys...just like a Currier and Ives painting. And as it's a development, no unsightly clotheslines, trimmed lawns, 'ambience' no big bushy shrubs, on and on and on.
Then the nice man sold off his horses, and mules, (nothing you can do with Canada Geese except wear a hat) and retired. Now, it gets interesting.
The new owners are running a cattle farm. They have large barky dogs and small yappy ones. The dogs bark at everything that moos, and the heifers moo at the dogs. They built an impressively long cattle barn, and every so often the cattle (not cows) are herded into trucks and taken to market. It's that kind of farm. They make an hellacious racket over it.
One of the other selling points was how peaceful it is up here.
And I sit up here, listening to the hysterical dogs and the annoyed beef animals, and the rumbly ChemLawn trucks and garbage pickup vans down there, and smile, and smile...oh, did I mention, when the wind is from the south, they really have to keep those windows closed.

Not only cars...

When you have an old car, after awhile you realize you're driving a hope and a prayer and not much else. It shudders when you start it up, it wheezes around corners, and you replace the fuel lines and the battery, but it still wobbles a bit. Then the brakes start to go, and you can no longer trust it on the highway, so for the most part it just sits in the yard. And one day you realize it's time.

Most things eventually lose their energy, they get a bit over-the-hill, a bit creaky. Sometimes what was there is fine, and a bit of a tinker here and a twitch there works. And just maybe too much tinkering will kill it entirely. The old body just can't handle new gears, new wiring, new anything. It fits what it is, and if you mess with it, you've lost the entire thing. That applies to cars, tractors, people, and blogs. What works, works. Love it for what or who it is, and stop trying to make it keep up with the big guys. If we wanted fancy, we'd have GONE there.

let's try this one

now I know why I dislike this new format I have been trying for a half hour to post a simple poem, and no matter what I do, blogger sees this as a solid block of text. I can't even delete the thing. For the longest time it was in 20 pt type which is more suitable for stop signs and Railraod warnings...Good job, Blogger. You win.

OOps

 sorry, sorry, didn't mean to get your hopes up, but when I came back to view with awe all I got was a static picture with an arrow in it. Sigh.  It;s an older picture from a former camera, and it does work, just not when I want it to.  

we've all been there, and we've come back

 I have just spent the last five hours of my rapidly shortening life recovering my game, my blog, and google, all because of a nasty little virus-y thing that kept showing up and covering the entire screen, making it impossible to function. 

Mama ain't happy. 

My husband found a way to get rid of it, but in doing so he managed to shut down google (which is the engine of choice at this point) and all the nine skillion passwords associated with it. 

In a way it was like killing that tiny spider on the ceiling, but when you did, the ceiling collapsed, and all the surpises above that came down with it.  Including, apparently, every spider that ever lived. 

Im not sure im even in Blogger at this point. We shall see.  

I'm gettin' too old for this stuff.  

Why/and Why Not, eh

Because he spent more time with the cats

   than he did with me
Because the house he grew up in 

    was the one I wanted to live in forever
Because he was kind, and careful
Because he had no idea how to flirt
Because the house had front and back staircases 

     and a piano
Because we both had a lot to learn from each other
Because he never says, 

     "that's men's work" or "that's women's work"

If it was a foot race, sometimes he'd lead and sometimes I would 

      and both of us would win, no matter who got there first
And the only regret is that we won't live forever

Update:  September is here, in case no one noticed, and the days have suddenly become markedly shorter.  It's funny, this has been going on since June, but now it begins to show.

The wood is in, and we are now once again walking sideways to get through the shed.  My mother in law always said, if  she had to stack wood, she'd get a furnace instead.  If I didn't, we'd have to have a shed three times larger than what we have.

The mister has put up a god-awful staging for the winter, to make cleaning off the kitchen roof safer and easier. I suggested Onduline,  but he wouldn't hear of it.  sigh.  Men.

Colder mornings, now. Yesterday it was 40 degrees when I let the cat out, and he wasn't too pleased with it either.  He stood on the porch and meowed in all directions, and then came back in.

Blogger keeps insisting, now, that We Will use the New Blogger. And I keep insisting We Will Not.
I know who's going to win, but I don't go down without a lot of screaming and clawing at the walls, nope.  Now they let you in with the new one with the old one still an option, but the walls are narrowing.

Right now, let's just say Im being a grownup about this:

However...

danger will robinson

I may have once again shot myself in the nether regions

I was just over to Yahoo (I hate Yahoo)  and they were all alarmed that my password had been changed (at their behest, now) and they were trying find out if I was really me.  I checked. I am.

However, they wanted me to change my password. (I now have five passwords and three IDs there), They sent me a magic number to prove that was me doing that.

Then to be sure they wanted my phone number.  So I finally caved, and gave them my regular phone number. This was a mistake. They meant SMART phone.  I don't have one.  They sent it, I waited.
They sent it again,  I waited.
did you get it?  No.  "we are going to send this again, text us when you get it."

oops.  There is no way i can explain to a computer program that I do not have a smart phone and if i try to text this on a regular key pad the world will come unglued.

Since this blog runs on Yahoo, and that runs on Google, I may be taken out and shot at dawn.  If I disappear, my apologies, and it's been a long lovely trip.

For a rainy almost fall day (wood talk)

Shed's almost full. This is the 9th row (if  you squint you can see strange hieroglyphics on the left hand (whitish) wall, that say things like "10 2017" and "9 rows" ) and the front not-quite-finished row is the 9th.  One more row and the shed will be almost as full as we can stand it.  It would be nice to just load it up, but need to leave a walk way to get to the other half of the shed. It gets complicated.

My mother-in-law, who also was part of a wood burning family, always said, if she had to stack wood, she'd buy an oil burner instead, and I can sympathize with that sentiment, but I do like that sense of order and how pretty it looks all stacked up like that.   And if we were to throw instead of stack,  we'd need a shed three times this big to hold it all. 

So today it's raining, and there's still a fair amount left outside, but covered. When the rain stops I can go out and split the rest of it.  Husband showed me how to start the BobCat (the vehicle, not the cat) this year, so I have a certain amount of control over when and why and how much and how big.  

When I was a kid, there was a house and shed we used to pass on the way to town, and in the fall the front doors to the shed were usually left open to let the wood dry a bit more, and by this time of year the doorway was utterly packed with stacked wood, and it looked a lot like this.  Always impressed me. And now I have my own.  

9 rows, by the way, is about 6 cords. and a  full cord is 8'x4'x4', stacked. In case  you were wondering.  Even if you're not.  =)

This was what I would like to have done with the left over wood, but there won't be enough.  I did this years ago, and this, surprisingly, was in early December, in the days when we were lucky to get snow by Christmas.  It's round, and about 8 feet across, and when it was high enough I threw the left over wood in the center. Sort of a wood cheesecake mold.  =)

From the camera...August (mostly)

 This is a young Baltimore Oriole and it took me two days to find this out. The top of his head is just beginning to darken. For a few hours I was convinced we had a New Species.  sigh.

 Cecropia moth caterpillar. Found this on a neighbor's apple tree, it looks like you should be able to plug it in and have it light up.  =)

                                                                           Painted Lady

 annnd the carpenter bee.   I am very polite to these things, they're really territorial. They don't mind you in the garden, as long as you don't get in their space...

                              Charlie's favorite porch place, on the bottom shelf of the wicker table

                                                                      Siberian Iris

Very short story

Alexa, Tell me a Story

                                                 

One of the longer grey days of November.  Outside a cold steady rain, trickling down the windowpanes, with the occasional  splat when the wind picked up again.  And now, just before sunset, fog adding its base notes to the music. My coffee was nearly gone, and what was left was tepid.  I wanted more, but was too rain-weary to consider the long ten foot walk to the kitchen to make another cup. 

When I get like this, a giddy little angel-with-a-pitchfork wakes up, and perches itself on my shoulder.  "Alexa", I said, quietly, 'Tell me a story. In the good voice."  There was a pause, and then the voice of  Morgan Freeman began to slide across the room.  "What kind of story would you like?"  You could hear the smile. See the crinkly eyes.  

"Oh, I don't know, " I said.   "Maybe Little Red Riding Hood?  The naughty one?" 

wells and cats and trucks, oh my

48 years ago we put in a deep well,  to replace the dug well which could not handle much more than a pail and a rope, and was really not trustworthy enough for modern piping.

And like all good things, the well we dug finally had to be refurbished, as to fittings and such, and we went back to the old well for very very basic water needs.  as soon as I could find my old friend the knotted rope and weighted blue pail. My goodness what a long way down that water was.  We figured, maybe 25 feet, since it's been a dry summer. 

The water is back now, the pump is working, the well is working, and I've retired the blue pail and the knotted rope.  For now. 

Charlie, inspecting the truck, which is 'out of place' on the lawn, and apparently it doesn't belong there. He looks quite confused about it.

From the camera

sigh.  He wanted to wear a mask, like the big people do; but he's got no chin 

hummingbird and hollyhock

african daisies

this is what happens when you on-purpose don't mow the lawn.  Im always reminded of Edna Millay's "Witchwife" 'she leaves the daisies standing, and the Queen Anne's  Lace..."

Love this. It's so delicate, so not quite ready to bloom, and that tiny tiny beetle clinging to it...

Ah, the simple life

It just keeps getting better and better

a month or so ago my husband decided that a long overdue repair should be seen to, in the cellar. The trouble is, it's a coupling that goes through the cement wall and joins the water tank in the cellar to the well outside. 
So. We got the plumbers up to dig part of the trench ( he dug the first part to make it easier and faster for them) and chisel their way into the cellar, replace the coupling and bob's your uncle.

uh huh.
The pump wouldn't prime. whirry whirry whirry slop.

Meanwhile I am searching frantically for my two well pails and knotted rope, because we were down to one five gallon container for water for overnight. Not good. 

Meanwhile I realized that the dug well, which has been unused for quite some time,  had a hearty growth of trees, bushes, and nasty thorny things.  Took me an hour to clear the place enough to stand up straight. 

Meanwhile I realized I could find the pails but not the lovely knotted rope, which had to be 50 feet long for doubling, since the water  is down about 25 feet right now. 

While I am doing all of this, the two plumber's helpers (and I use that word exactly, since between them they might have enough brain power to start a small engine) packed up, talked to their boss, and they said theyd be back tomorrow with a digging crew if necessary, since if it was them that messed it up,  they'd foot the bill for it. 

It's been a long interesting awful day, lol. 

Annnnd the wood guy is coming later this week with the second load of wood. 

I think I'll have a nap now.

playing with the new camera

What is really neat about this camera, all of these pictures  (with the exception of the butterfly) were taken from 60 to 100 feet or more away. The butterfly was about 20. I may get over this. =)

catbird with worm

Charlie guarding the field, the house, the porch...he takes his role very seriously

6 point buck, and while I was taking this two more appeared:  I suspect they are triplets, usually you don't see bucks like this together and they all seem to be of the same size and age, so...

Mother and fawn, still in it's spotty stage and yes it's in the same spot the bucks were in the previous day

this is what a really good zooooom lens can do. This is a tiny butterfly called, GreenishBlue (how imaginative), and its no bigger than my little fingernail

Seeing Things

Seeing Things

you wake up in the middle of the night
not sure what--or who--
but never dare to turn the light on
just in case it wasn't just a dream
or just in case
it was





https://poetsandstorytellersunited.blogspot.com/2020/07/weekly-scribblings-28-seeing-things.html

Things were different then

Things were different then:
Longer, shorter, slower
We learned patience
waiting for the snow
waiting for Santa
waiting in lines
waiting for the phone to ring
or the right song on the radio
waiting to grow up
and find out what "wait till you grow up"
really meant


https://poetsandstorytellersunited.blogspot.com/2020/07/weekly-scribblings-27-things-were.html

early to rise addendum

This was about 9 years ago, Toby on the bottom left, Albert on the right, and Sammy having just had a long morning swurrrp was off to catch rodents.  It was always tastier after the truck had run through the water, and I think it may have contributed to Albert's long life, he was nearly 19 when he died.  all them vitamins, you see. Yum.

Early to Rise really screws things up

For no particular reason,  I seem to be waking up at 4:00 or 4:30 and on a few less than memorable occasions 3:30:  I have no idea when this started but I still go to bed at about the same time (give or take an  hour), but wake up means get up.

Mornings are lovely at that hour: the birds are starting to stir,  and there's more going on in the cool predawn than later, when they all retire to their nests to nap.

The problem comes later, when I think, golly, it must be nearly lunch time, and it turns out that six hours later it's often barely 10 AM.  wow.   I do give in to the Nap, which I have always hated, but it's that or sleep upright at the computer and risk breaking my nose as I lurch forward onto the keyboard.  Not good.

Right now it's just gone 9:30 PM  AM and I've been up nearly 18 hours.  If I was working, I could put in for a full days pay, plus overtime,  if I got paid.  If I was here, I'd be home now.  =)

With the new camera.  This is Toby drinking, yes, from a 5 gallon pail by the bathroom door. He prefers it. If it gets too low in the bucket he actually climbs up on it and blanaces like a spider monkey to swurp swurp swurp until he's satisfied.  If you look at the top of the bucket you can just make out his ears.  It isn't as if we don't have water elsewhere, I have bowls in nearly every room, but this is the one he Wants.
And this is why we have one strict rule.  Always put the toilet seat DOWN. 

This is Toby for his official portrait. Not sure he likes the camera, but at least he let me take the picture...

Cats and kings and other things

we'll come out of this eventually;  diminished in some ways,  uplifted in others.  There will be less of us, and perhaps the loudest deniers will have gone the way of most skeptics.  One can only hope.  Some people seem to thrive on denial of anything they can't see or touch or smell, and yet those are the very ones who try to connect with the god of their choosing.   

It doesnt have to make sense, it just is.

And a cat picture. Of course.  He likes it up there on the kitchen roof, the view is better,  he said. 

Keep safe, wear the damn mask.  We're all we've got.

New Camera

The zoom on this thing is amazing:  the phoebe was a good 40 feet away on a branch  I may get over this, but not anytime soon, I suspect

                                                        

                                                                 Phoebe  (telephoto)

small as yet unidentified moth

the road not taken =)

the ledges (which are now more tree than ledge)

Addendum to phone phobia

Addendum:  years ago, quite by accident, I discovered a way to get directly to the place you want to be when calling a big company.  Usually you're put on hold and they play ugly music at you, for an interminable length of time.  You press 1 for billing, 2 for customer service, 3 to speak to a rep (never do this one), 4 because your house is on fire,   on and on and on...  

One day I got annoyed by the wait for "customer service", so I hit 'billing'.  Immediately the phone was picked up by a real person!   I mean, that makes sense. who calls billing?   "can I help you?" she asked. "Oh, Im so sorry I must have hit the wrong key, I was looking for customer service..."  "no problem, let me patch you through..." 

and there I was.  

I suggested this to a friend who was fussing about the same thing, she finally tried it, and said, this works like a charm...

It may not work these days, since so many things are now voice automated, but it's surely worth a try...

phone-phobia

It's one of those things that makes no sense. I LOVE getting phone calls, but I hate making them. Especially the ones that need to be exact, as in, "press 1 for business, 2 for accounting, 3 for armed guards..." well, you get the picture. 

Our bank cards  came due this month, and we had to renew them. Easy, right?  It has taken me three weeks to gather the cards, the info, and my courage, just to sit down and use a phone.  I'm always afraid at some point the Nice-Lady Recording at the other end will say, "we're sorry, we have no record concerning the card number you gave us. Please hang up and try again." click.

later. much later.

yay. I got it right.  It's ridiculous to be that edgy, but  when it comes to phones and debit cards and press this for that and it's all  a recording, well, just shoot me now.  I told my husband when he got home, and he said he had the same concerns when he did his.   We gettin' old.  All this newfangled computer stuff, it ain't natural. 

How is everyone holding up with the Covid thing?  I've been home for three months, Im just afraid i'll have to learn how to drive all over again.   

Sometimes...

Went downstairs a little while ago, and I could hear this flapflapflapflap buzzy noise, very faintly in the corner of one kitchen window.   And there was a pretty little pure white moth, fuzzy and new, little wings just buzzing away, trying to fly.

So.
I picked it up, and it spent two or three minutes propelling itself up the back of my hand and down, and every minute  you could see it getting stronger. It even flang itself into the air and landed on the porch floor,  flapflapflapflap,  and I'd pick it up again.  Did that three or four times and finally gave a hop and took off into the sky.

Oh, the joy of flight.  Happy happy moth. flapflapflapflap...

And a sparrow came along, swooped down, and that was the end of that. 

Sigh.

stimulus checks

Stimulus Checks--what a strange world it is

ours arrived yesterday, and my little private account (what I consider my 'slush fund') is about to be graced with what to me is a vast amount of money.  Im not even sure why we have one, but I am not going to turn it down, no indeed.

Oh, the places you can go. the plans you can make, the trips you can take and never spend a cent.

Happy Birthday, Toby

This was Toby when we first got him,  9 years ago last month.  He was about 2, and he's much leaner than he was--at that time he had spent most of his days  huddled in a shelter,  not moving, terrified. As they told me then, without details, 'he'd been brought back" which I think is careful Shelter Speak for two former homes, and they obviously didn't hold out much hope for him, OR his bonded friend Sammy.  I took them both.  They spent a LOT of time huddled together, protecting each other from the dreaded humans. 

Sammy, I think, like a lot of foster kids, ran away from the good (but unfamiliar) home to find  to the one he knew. He came back after three days,  wet and hungry and slightly chastened...but a few months later he disappeared for good. 

But now Toby is lean and fast, he gallops everywhere and has learned to get our attention by sitting just like this, but staring hard at us.  I get that look in the morning and reach for the catfood.  My husband gets that look at 10 PM every night, and he realizes it's time for bed, and Toby Wants His Chair.   And finally he's beginning to let me pat him.  Having a new buddy helps.  He and Charlie are now best buds, Charlie grooms him, and in return Toby lets him.

He also has a finely honed skill as mouser.  Two winters ago he managed to track down and finish off at least 2 dozen mice, no mean feat, but this was his forte. 

This was his first mouse, 9 years ago.  He ran out, caught a mouse, and that was that.  No fuss, no bother.  We haven't had even a glimmer of mouse in here for two winters. In an old house, that's pretty good.  And like a good cat, what he doesn't eat he leaves on my husband's side of the bed.  Goood kitty.

It's always nice to have a friend to share quiet time...

Ruminations

We are, like the rest of the country, self- quarantining;  I have no problem with that, I've always been perfectly content to stay home, putter, read, nap, work through whatever 'thing' it is I'm doing at the moment.  I do wish the Mr. were more into cards, board games, whatever; I grew up in a family of game players, and thank god for the internet or I'd be going mad right now.

We haven't officially closed off venturing out, he goes out once or twice a week to fill in the gaps in the food department, but I see that dropping fairly soon, since NH is now beginning to see the dubious return of the spring break kids, and the even scarier return of spring skiing people and all those older people who have second homes in Florida.

This too, will pass.  I think we'll have lost some friends, some companions and families,  and  definitely more than a few jobs.  In a way, in a terrible way,  this is like being washed on an old fashioned scrub board.   I doubt if we will ever again take for granted the freedom of walking to the grocery store, or spending time in a park, or talking to your best friend over a chess game.

The streets have all blown clean by now.  Wind sweeps through the cities without a soul to slow it.
The air is cleaner, judging by the photos.  It won't last, but it's good to know it's self cleaning...

It snowed here last night, a good two inches.  And again this afternoon. But I notice the lilac bush is budding out, tiny bits of leaves.  Seasons don't wait.

Sounds of Silence

Sorry I haven't been around much, I think I may have run down.  Old batteries, you know.
This seems appropriate on way too many levels,  and it's just stunning.

Sounds of Silence like you've never heard it before.

From last night, Heather Cox Richardson:

Those of you who follow her have seen this:  those of you who haven't, will appreciate it:

Heather Cox Richardson:

This pandemic, and the accompanying economic downturn, are a turning point. Just as Americans have done in other crises in our history, we are rediscovering that our greatest strength is not in how rich and powerful we can make a few, but rather in all of us, working together.

I point this out, because I noticed this a few days ago,  a LOT of voluntary closing of places that could cause problems later on, if not now.  A realization that if we wait for Big Government to do anything, it could be a very long wait indeed.  It occurred to me then that we were doing exactly what should be done, without asking for help that might not come for months.  We may make it, after all. 

Woodcock, starlings, and snow. All the signs of spring.

Opened the door last night after sunset, and I heard the woodcock performing his terrifying mating ritual. First time in several years that I've heard it, that determined nasal "peent peent peent" and then the wings whistling as he goes into a divebomb straight toward the ground, pulling up at the last moment.  All in the hopes of impressing the girls.  (sound familiar?)

https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/American_Woodcock/id

sometimes in summer if I'm walking in the fields one will whir up almost under my feet,  scaring the daylights out of me, and if he had been still, I'd never have known he was there. 

This afternoon I went out to let the cat out, and heard the starlings in the woods behind the house.  In all the time we've been there we've seen migrations away, but never back, so this was a treat. 

Annnd in a day or two, we're supposed to get more snow. Of course we are.

This: for what it's worth...

I had a nasty feeling about this yesterday, and it looks like Im not the only one:  It's a mouth swab with a q-tip.  Nothing more invasive, and listening to this it sounds like they extracted bodily fluids or drew blood.   Notice the way he waves it away.
Which means either a) he never had it, b)he had it and tested positive, or c) the results aren't back yet. my money is on (b.  He's been way too physical with entirely too many people this past week.  (shudder)

Asked what it was like to take the test, Trump says, "Not, not uh - something I want to do everyday...you know, it's a little bit of a -- it's a little bit of -- good doctors in the White House, but it's a test. It's a test. It's a medical test. Nothing pleasant about it."

Live long enough, you learn how to do stuff

This is nothing new, I know, but it's the first time
I've ever brined chicken and baked it.  We had just
about given up on chicken, since his teeth don't work
so good no more,  but he brought home three
wonderful looking chicken breasts (the man is becoming
a shopper. Scary, lol.)  and I thought, the least I can do
is try. 
This time I brined them, and my god were they good.

why doesn't someone TELL me these things...!

He's using cents off coupons, he's reading labels, at least
if something happens to me he can buy stuff if not cook it.
I may introduce him to the magic of hard boiled eggs.

Updates

The magical mystical loom is still there, and I am learning, the hard way, what works and what doesn't.  It's been warped, and been tied up and retied at least a skillion times, one of the harnesses' leather snapped, and now I know how to fix those,  then I had to understand about 'over' and 'under' and in weaving the only 'under' is in 'understand'.  Everything else is threaded, warped, and woven "over".

We learn, but it's painful.

Spring isn't here  yet, but it thinks it is.  I went out on the porch earlier and inhaled several times, listened to the beef animals at the next farm mooing and moaning, and all the local dogs celebrating whatever it is dogs celebrate.  This kind of weather makes me want to rush out with a spading fork and bulbs and dig holes, plant the bulbs, and start a garden again.  That's assuming I can hack through the permafrost first.

No.

The minute I show up with a spading fork the heavens will open up and bury us all in a blizzard. 

Opened the attic door this morning to give the cats a new play place for a few days, and they've been running themselves ragged, down the front stairs, up the back stairs, a quick turn and up the attic stairs, and the loose floor boards up there make it sound like hooved animals are up there tap dancing. Neither of them have been able to figure out the door flap I put in the wall for cats, and they sit there, pawing at it, and whining.  When you open it for them they back away, horrified.

Got a nice call from the people who handled our property easement,  wanting to know if we would still be available for the 20th anniversary dinner.  They even said they would waive the $100 dollar fee for the dinner because we were the first people they conserved.  I swallowed and said, no,  as much as we appreciate the offer, we just don't want to deal with crowds;  the virus, you know.  I suspect they are finding many older people are backing out, too.  Sadly.

------
edit:  the easement people (MMRG) has canceled the anniversary dinner. Thank heaven.   It may have been lack of people willing to risk life and limb, or their own fears about a group like that, or a combination of both.  Maybe next year, a 21st anniversary instead.  Sometimes wisdom rears its ugly head.  =)

Turning the corner toward spring

Spring ahead, tonight.  Yay us.  We made it through whatever it was we had all winter...

I now have a living breathing excuse to not go to the family Easter 'do",  the CDC has issued a warning (which is tantamount to a proclamation) that the elderly (which they consider to be 60 and over) need to take special care, since we are fragile and frail and, er, elderly.  We should stay home if possible, avoid gatherings,  crowds, and stores.

My husband, who just turned 76, is a bit annoyed by that designation.  I will be 75 in about 6 months, and Im planning to be a bit annoyed too.  What about those people who work??  They can't pass on maternity leave, maybe their companys will give them Elder Leave...?

spring in 13 words

Maple buds

March

a woodpecker drums

deep in the woods

and the sap

begins to rise

http://newthursday13.blogspot.com/

Color me...

1. out of the blue
2. tie a yellow ribbon
3. green with envy
4. orange julius
5. yellow fever
6. black-eyed susan
7. purple haze
8. white heat
9. brown study
10. seeing red
11. pink eye
12. The Man in Grey
13. Rainbow Connection

http://newthursday13.blogspot.com/

And the light at the end of the tunnel...

isn't necessarily a  way out, but is often a flame thrower.  As Terry Pratchett was fond of reminding us.

I used to think that growing old and reasonably healthy was a prize to be aimed for, and valued.

In the past week, after reading the shenanigans in DC and our apparent future as a new soviet satellite, I begin to wonder what prize that might be.   I do now understand what that smile on
Putin's face means, the one you see it all his publicity-with-the-president photos, and I think it's exultation.   He has found his perfect puppet, one who is too damaged to see the strings, and the puppeteer.

I also wonder at those people who cheer. 

I think all anyone of us can do, at this point, is vote our hearts and our heads,  and hope.


I am also busy re-learning a weaving loom (film at 11, but not yet) and it is both enlightening and disturbing, how much I have utterly forgotten, and how much  memory muscle is involved.  It really does become a meditation, on many things, including the act and art of weaving, and the satisfaction you get from it.

 This house has part of an old ( REALLY old) 12 harness loom, up in the attic, in pieces. i have the 12 harnesses, and some of the remnants of the loom, but the rest is gone. Possibly for firewood, or shoring up a shed long after the original weaver died.  One of the longer pieces, the cloth beam, perhaps, is too long to get out of the attic, and i finally realized this machine was taken down every winter and stored in this attic, and in the spring it was moved into the shed attic, through a very small connecting door at the north end.  It gave her room to card, to spin, to weave, and possibly store her projects over winter.   Judging from the pieces I have here, it was a huge, huge loom.

Oh, yes. Eat first. Have your coffee...

Heather Cox Richardson from Letters from an American

T13 Letter play

1.lounging
2. lunging
3. plunging
4. plugging
5. slugging
6. slogging
7. flogging
8. logging
9. lugging
10. hugging
11. bugging
12. bagging
13. bragging



http://newthursday13.blogspot.com/

Heather Cox Richardson (to cheer you) (not)

heathercoxrichardson.

Must read ( Heather Cox Richardson)

Long, but necessary, I think--started reading this, and suddenly realized I had read the whole thing...


heather cox richardson

The Magic Phrase Part II

Today I got a call from a nearly incoherent Indian man,  to remind me that  my 'delivery' was about to arrive and they hadn't recieved my payment yet.   Then I remembered that a few weeks ago someone who might well have been this same incoherent Indian man had called to let me know that my Clearing House delivery (o boy o boy color me excited) was arriving soon and they wanted to know if I would be home to accept it, and a small fee for the delivery would be in order now.

At that time we got into an argument about such things and I finally hung up. 

This time I may have found the magic words. I suggest that anyone who gets one of these calls, try it, it works a treat.  "I'm sorry, but we're on a do not call list and you shouldn't be calling here"  click.

I used it yesterday when manly-voiced Joe (or Pete or Frank) called on behalf on the State Fire Marshalls, wanting a donation.  click.

They don't argue.  In the case of the incoherent Indian man, he may be just versed in english enough to think HE has been put on a do not call list and who am I to dissuade him...

Year in review, back-country style

What a strange trip this has been

January and March
two ambulance rides,  one kidney stone/kidney removed.  My husband learned just how much to-ing and fro-ing is involved with running three wood stoves in below zero weather.   He got up a LOT, every two hours every night, whilst I idled my way through surgery and recovery armed only with one book, which I read three times.

February, March
it snowed a lot. It snowed a lot more and got colder.   When I came home Charlie was most solicitous of me, and was careful not to sleep on my stitches. I was most impressed by that.

June to November
Had the kitchen chimney lined,  and 6 cords of wood delivered. We cut and split and threw and stacked a bit every day.  I kept hoping I might lose a pound or two. Nooo. Not gonna happen...a neighbor last year had found a felled tree that straddled his property and ours, and he didn't want to deal with that much tree, so he said he'd help my husband buck it up and let him have the wood, as payment for getting it out of the way.  Which he did.  Nice rock maple that had outlived itself, and we're using it now for heat.

July, August, September
Got rid of the piano. it took an engine hoist and a chain saw, but we got it moved outside and dispersed. (to be gentle about it) Moved some furniture upstairs, and some into ever changing patterns, some of them right out into the car to the salvation army and some magically became kindling. You can never have too  much kindling, nossir.

July, August
 He decided we were about to be the dubious parents of an oil burner and a buncha radiators.  My job to move all the furniture into the middle of the rooms, and no I was not happy about that.  And as he said, since we have the walls cleared, why don't we get some wall board and put up decent looking walls. So I got out my plaster removal kit (one butter knife, a spatula, a hammer,  and a flat bladed screwdriver).  He also let me help him pick up  the wallboard at Home Depot, and then unload it when we got home.  I don't need a fitness trainer, I have a husband who Builds Things.

July
He replaced the water tank and pump, which were well overdue to be replaced.  The 30 gallon hot water heater in the bathroom sprang a leak, so that had to be replaced, too.  Damn didn't we get good at hauling things up and down stairs...


August, September
The radiator people came. They wired and soldered and clanged and complained loudly, and at the end of five days we had 8 new radiators hooked up.  I have no idea how to operate them, at this point, but they do work.  We still use the wood, but I no longer feel the towering need to get up every night and stuff the stoves like a mother bird with her babies, open wide, look at what mama has for you...

October to December
I started on new curtains for the bedroom windows (four) and one for the front hall. Amazing how much cold that keeps back.  We brought the small 36" weaving loom down into the parlor, and at some point I'll run out of excuses and dig into remembering how it works.  It's been awhile.

I also did a bit of sorting as to fabric, and was stunned to discover just how much I really have.  Much if it can be repurposed into things like dustcloths (old flannel sheets are perfect for that), or  potholders (former denim jeans, cut in squares,  folded over and stitched work a treat), and I still have one room upstairs to put curtains to, when it gets warmer.

We survived Christmas, and now it's next year, the days are getting longer,  which is strangely comforting.  Some things can be depended upon, no matter what else happens. 

If you've never seen this...

Heather Cox Richardson

https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/january-24-2020?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=cta

The Definite Maybe T13

(13 ways to say no to a four year old)

1. soon

2. not yet

3.  not always

4.  hardly ever

5.  probably

6.  possibly

7.  we'll see

8.  maybe, maybe not

9.  if it doesn't rain

10.  when the tide goes out

11.  not until tomorrow

12.  after the mailman comes

13.  ask your father

http://newthursday13.blogspot.com/

I love old age. I get to be cranky

It would seem that the world of scams and hands-across-the-table has discovered that we're old.  And as they know, older people tend to trust more (except for the ones that don't), and are more easily taken in by scammers.  Except for the ones that don't.  So far this week I've fielded calls from insurance companies (for the car I no longer own) and for the policy I don't want and for the healthcare Im not interested in, plus a LOVELY man with a charming Jamaican accent this morning, who wanted to know why I hadn't responded to their inquiries about the Publishers Clearing house contest I won.  I said no, I never look at that stuff, and I throw it away.  He wanted to argue, so I hung up.

From now on, anyone with an Indian accent, or Jamaican, or any other accent will learn, to their sorrow, that she moved away months ago, or never existed, or died, poor dear, a year ago."Her?  That one?  Honey, she dead, she died MONTHS ago, so you just stop calling here, okayyy..."

We are still getting requests to visit our coastal version of  Shady Pines for the Rich and Elderly, gated community (which always puts me in mind of big clangy white gates that slam shut at dark, and you get to sleep outside in your car if you get home late...) and golf course included...

And the burial insurance. Oh, I love that one.  Or the life insurance for the elderly, no medical exam needed, at this age it's a tossup which of us will be burying the other, anyway.

I told my husband,  if you hear me telling people I'm dead, pay it no mind.  It's just my way.