planting time

 I finally got something planted!!!

    I know!!  It is almost June and my seeds are not yet in the ground.

    Hopefully tomorrow.

    We have a graduation party in the afternoon, but I hope to go out in the morning and plant carrots, beans and cucumbers.

    Today I planted 2  tomato plants and a pepper plant.

    I got a late start because I had trouble putting my new hand held cultivator together.  My fingers don't work like they used to.  If I dropped a screw once I dropped it 15 times.

    Frustrating, but I put it together and it works.

    I am almost finished with Innocents Abroad by Mark Twain.

    I was fairly surprised by his opinions of people who were not white or Christian.  I know he wrote it in the 1870s, but some of the things he says are what people are saying today.  I think that is sad.

    I never imagined tourism in those days.  It is not a modern phenomenon and the actions of tourists these days are similar to those 100 years ago.

    People in his group wrote on walls, chipped pieces off of rocks and statues and complained about people not speaking English.  And of course, food was often not to their liking.

    He went on this journey with 40 or so other people, including some women.

    They travelled extensively through Europe and the Mid East.

    He said early in the book that the trip cost him $2,500.  I did an inflation index on that sum and today the trip would be around $45,000, a princely sum in both time periods.

    I enjoyed the book, but I also wondered about some of the places he mentioned.  Are they still there?  

    He mentioned dozens of towns in the Holy Land.....and of course Jerusalem and Bethlehem got a lot of print.

    Strangely, I have never had a desire to go there. 

    But reading his descriptions makes me think it would be a wonderful place to visit.

    That's it!

Peace and Love

        Especially Peace

fini!

 I am done with dirt

    I know!  I said that before.  But tonight I am positive.

    The bags are all emptied, the compost bin has been scooped out, bins are almost full.....and my back and legs are a bit tired.

    Sometimes plans do not materialize.

    For example, today is our cleaning person day.  She comes every 2 weeks,  but was unable to come today.

    Since it is cleaning day, I had to clean.

    My cleaning is a thing to watch.  

    I may be dusting, then vacuuming, then dusting, mopping the floor and none of the room has all three tasks completed.

    I get a little distracted.

    I divide our house into three parts for cleaning purposes.  Today I did the West Wing. Tomorrow I will do the center and I may never do the East Wing.  

    It takes me forever, but I get it done.

    So today:  Caretaker, cleaner, dirt mover, cook, and in a few minutes, dishwasher.

    I also had a chiropractor appointment and he worked on my back.  It does feel better. 

    To celebrate, and to give me the energy to clean, I stopped at Cypress House where I called 3 people the wrong name and confused 2 others with other people.

    On a positive note, I did call 2 people by. their right names.

    For me that's a big deal.

    But not as big as cleaning the West Wing and finishing my dirt moving job.

    And I did wear a belt....so my pants did not fall down .

Peace and Love

        Especially Peace

Liar, liar

 I told a lie yesterday

    Actually, what I said then was the truth.  But it changed today.

    I said I was not going to order any more dirt.  And I meant it.

    But Jackie suggested I go ahead and order more.

    So I went on line and ordered 8 bags of top soil.  And 8 bags of garden soil and 8 bags of cow manure compost.

    Do your math.  

    It is now a little after 8:30 and I am sitting with ice on my back.

    I might have overdone it.

    I had a problem that I was too lazy to solve.

    I put on my outside shorts, but did not put on a belt.

    So it was put a bag into the bin, pull up my pants.

    At any point I could have decided that  all I had to do was go into the house and get a belt.  But I didn't.

    24 pull ups....1 for each bag.

    Then I decided to start getting compost out of my compost bin.  

    I have a system.  I take a section of screening that is 1/4 inch opening size.  Usually I take a garbage pail to put stuff in that I don't want in the garden, like plastic, rocks,  nuclear weapons.

    Tonight I did not.

    I opened the bin, took 2 shovels full of compost, put it on the screen, shook it, dumped the crap in the front of the cart, pulled up my pants and repeated the action several more times until I ran out of gas.  Me, not the tractor.

    Plus the bugs were starting to bug me.

    I drove back up the pad in my drive, unhooked the yard cart, and watched in surprise as the cart obeyed the law of gravity and rolled don the slight hill and halfway across the yard.

    I just watched it.  I figured if I  tried running, my pants would have tripped me.

    Tomorrow I will bring  it back to the garden bins, shovel the compost out and maybe, just maybe, spread the dirt and start to plant.

    And I will be sure to wear a belt.  The neighborhood association requested that of me.

Peace and Love

    Especially Peace

Isn't she a pretty pooch?

If you know where I can buy these, let me know.  We love them!

The cart started on the pad......

no mo

I am not getting any more dirt 

    I have been buying bags of topsoil to put in my new  garden beds.

    I ordered 16 more bags and they were delivered last night.

    So after supper today, I hauled them out to the garden and emptied 16 bags of top soil and 6 bags of mushroom compost into  3  bins.

    The bins are not full.  Each one is about 3 inches from the full line.  I know, that is an arbitrary line, but I am thinking 3 inches.

    Truthfully, I am tired of dealing with the bags.  Next fall I will find someone who has some topsoil and buy some bulk.   I hope it can be loaded into my yard cart so I don't have to shovel it.

    I still have not planted a thing.

    Tomorrow I hope to get out there and use my new hand cultivator and church up the soil.  If I can, I will go to my compost bin and get what I can from there and put that into the gardens  too.

    At this pint I need to have my head examined and ferret out anymore bright ideas.

    I don't think my body can take another one!

    Tomorrow.......cultivate and plant.

    Maybe.

Peace and Love

    Especially Peace

needles and haystacks

Well, I lost something else 

    I swear, I spend more. time looking for stuff then I do using the stuff I am looking for.

    We have some Cutco knives.  They are made in the USA and are fairly expensive.  We have had them for years.  Recently I sent them away for free sharpening.

    Now they are really sharp.

    When I do dishes, I put them on the ledge behind the faucet so I don't cut myself.

    I wash them, dry them,  and put them away.

    Yesterday I noticed my little paring knife was gone.  I looked in drawers, behind stuff on the counter, in drawers again.  I could not find the knife.

    I knew we had it a couple of days ago.

    I thought maybe I threw it out.

    So I grabbed the 2 garbage bags, some disposable gloves, and sat down in the garage to go through garbage.

    Banana peels, moldy bead, broken glass, lots of yucky stuff I can not even describe.  No knife.

    I was really bummed.

    I went to the computer, I don't know why.  

    I looked at the printer and then at the scanner and there it was!

    That's when I remembered the paper jam last Wednesday and how I attempted to clear it using a tweezers, and a thin knife....the paring knife.

    Mystery solved.

    Sheets got changed today.  When I went to make the bed I took out clean sheets and 4 pillow cases.

    I made the bed and when I went to put on the pillow cases, I only had 3.

    I did not bother to look.  When we go to bed it will show up.  Or not. Time will tell.

    Yesterday I made lemon cookies.  

    They are as hard as a rock.  Did I over bake them?  Too much of something or not enough of another?

    They taste fine.....but I can only eat little pieces at a time. 

    At least I  know where they are.

Peace and Love

    Especially Peace

really!!!

 Sometimes I am amazed at our lives

    Especially how quickly things happen.

    The Beatles broke up in 1970!  It seems like yesterday.  (All may troubles seemed so far away, now it looks as if they're here to stay.  Oh  I believe in yesterday.)

    And it has been 10 years since the drought was broken.  I hope the Cubs can start playing better baseball than they have the last 7 games.  I can't wait another 10 years!!

    In 1973 the first cell phone call was made.  The phone weighed 2.5 pounds and was 10 inches long.   But it was not commercially available.  

    The first commercial cell phone call happened in 1983.  Seems it took a while, eh?

    Those little bits of cell phone trivia were in the Trib's list of Illinois firsts.  

    When Julia went to college we got her a bag phone.  It was heavy and big, but we felt with her driving back and forth to Blackburn College that it would be helpful in an emergency.  If I remember, it plugged into the cigarette lighter.

    I don't think cars today even have cigarette lighters!

    And honestly, I may still have the bag phone tucked in a box somewhere.

    I remember taking a computer class in the days they were being introduced into schools.  It was in the early 1980s.  That was a big deal!  Some of the "older" teachers were a little bit afraid of them.  Now when someone talks about installing apps or downloading stuff I understand their fear.

    Digression.

    Maybe I said this already.

    I was coming home one night.  It was dark.  I spotted what I thought was a cat in the ditch by our house.

    I turned the car toward it and discovered it was one really big raccoon!  We have been here almost 14 years and I had never seen one in the neighborhood until this week.

    Now I make doubly sure to keep garage doors closed.  I don't want one of these masked bandits wreaking havoc in my garage or house.  And I don't want Beth to encounter one either.

    Finally......I have been using a heating pad for the past few days.  Tonight it does not work.  

    I'll just put it in the box with the bag phone when I find it.

Peace and Love

    Especially Peace

blocked

 I sam stumped tonight

    I only have one observation.    We had a big hawk hanging around the house for a while.  We have not seem him lately.

    But along Flagg Road by the cemetery there is a big, dead bird in the ditch.  I hope it wasn't the hawk.

    I was hoping it would control the ground squirrels.

    We had a cardinal at the bird feeder today.  I very seldom see a cardinal in the yard.  Maybe a monsignor, but hardly ever a cardinal.  And never a pope.

    I mowed today.  By. the time I was done I was hot and tired.

    Luckily I did not watch or listen to the Cubs.  

    But tomorrow is another day.

Peace and Love

        Especially Peace

The last word on the bottom line is leaving.

I retired 18 years ago.  The Tilton folks gave me this t shirt.  It has now become a work in the yard shirt because it is light colored.

18 years.  And Jackie had the nerve to suggest I toss it.

Humfff!