Feed me, feed me.

Two of the feeders are nearly empty this morning. Jon needs to take care of the babies soon.

The volunteer sunflower in my tomato plant pot has taken over.  I'm going to name it Seymour since I like that name better than Audrey. 

 It's a short post today since I need to get out there and pick blueberries and cut broccoli before the temperature gets too hot.  

Happy Thursday!

Counting days, months, years…

First off- I had some technical difficulties with this post today, but I think everything has finally been fixed.

 It seems that most days there's a lot going on or maybe I should say there's a lot to be done on our "to do" list.  How does that happen?  We're supposed to be retired.  What the heck does that mean?

We made another trip up Lightning Creek looking for mushrooms, but no luck.  I spent one day sorting through my dried mushroom supply and it does need replenishing. 

I guess it also means there's a lot to attend to around this place.  The gardens are finally thriving, but seem to need constant attention.  I have been tieing up my tomato plants and trying to get my green beans to climb up the poles in the garden.  There's been a bit of harvesting as some of the broccoli is ready. 

I have replanted cucumbers, carrots, lettuce and beets and most of the seeds have sprouted during all this heat.  Speaking of that heat, today I need to get some shade on my lettuce plants since they don't like all of this hot sunshine.  That's one of today's projects.

Today is what I call one of my "music days".  My friends, Larry, Tim, Mark and Bruce will be here later this afternoon to play some music for a couple of hours.  It's always a good time.  We get a chance to catch up about what everyone is doing and play some songs in-between.

On Thursdays my friend Kristine is here and we play our guitars and I actually sing on some of the songs.  Kristine has a beautiful voice and she sings one of my favortie songs, I Want to be a Cowboy's Sweetheart.  I love it because she can yodel and it's part of that song.  What a treat.  She likes harmony and doesn't mind me trying to find my vocal part on some of the tunes.  I do my best.  

Grandson Collin just had a birthday, July 25th, and is now 24 years old.  It doesn't seem possible.  I clearly remember the day he was born in Moscow.   We stayed at the Holiday Inn there.  The sign on one side of the motel said 102 degrees.  The sign on the other side of the motel said it was 104 degrees .  Let's just say it was so hot!  That night the motel air conditioning really didn't cool the room at all.  We opened the window to our room and during the night the sprinkler head on their system next to our room broke.  It sprayed water against the building all night long.  It wasn't a good night's sleep.

There was no air conditioning in the apartment building JP and Melissa lived in and the next day they brought home tiny little Collin and they didn't mind.  They were just very happy, estatic (and tired) new parents.  Happy Birthday to Collin who is no longer tiny, but is very tall and skinny, just like his dad. 

JP's raised bed with potatoes looks good.  He has a green thumb.

Son David was here with grandson Ben for the weekend as it was David's 30th class reunion.  We enjoyed hearing all the news about his classmates.  Boy does it make one feel old to realize that our youngest son is at his 30th class reunion.  Hmm. 

I'm posting some of his photo from the drive over and back. It's a beautiful drive from Missoula to Hope.

Speaking of tall and skinny, Ben is on his way.

Photos of the Class of 1992 Reunion:

Our grandson, Dylan is in the middle of his stemcell transplant procedure.  He and his mom, Julie, have been in Seattle at the cancer care institute since the middle of June.  He has been through the procedure to harvest his stem cells and last Saturday he received his chemo dose, which will erase his entire immune system.  They are now re-introducing his stem cells and the next ten days will be the most difficult since he will have absolutely no immune system and have all the bad chemo symptoms we've all heard about.  After about ten days, his stem cells will begin to start multiplying and he will very slowly begin to feel better.  We are counting the days with him.

He's smelling an orange while they infuse the stem cells.  It helps with the nausea.

We also have several friends who are also going through other types of cancer treatments.  The whole process is amazing and all I can say is, thank you science and thank you to the doctors and nurses who get cancer patients through this.  If everything goes according to plan, Dylan and Julie will be able to return home at the end of August.  That will be a major day to celebrate!

Willie Report:

Mr. Willie had his first encounter with a skunk about a week ago.  10:30 p.m.  Fortunately, he wasn't sprayed too much, BUT, we had all the house windows open at the time.  We quickly went around and closed all of them.  Whoo!  What a stink!   

Willie has now had two baths and is beginning to lose the stench.  It's amazing that just a whiff of  the smell is too much.  

He is not crazy about having a bath but cooperates once we get started.  He's also pretty patient about being brushed, which was something that Maggie hated.  At the moment he's shedding big time and hopefully he will be done soon. 

We've had a black bear visit our neighbors, but he didn't venture over here which is a good thing for now.  The reality is that there's certain to be a bear encounter at some point.  It's what happens where we live.  Maggie did not like bears and she had what we called her, "bear bark".  

Bear photo courtesy of Neil Wimberley.  Nice shot!

So far, Willie has what we call his, "deer bark".  He also gets pretty animated but at least he no longer takes off and chases them.  A success at this point.  He seems to be finally understanding that his job is to patrol the property and keep the deer away.  

We are working on getting him to stay whenever a vehicle leaves our driveway and he's beginning to understand although the desire to chase after the UPS truck is strong and hard to resist.  We are in the teenage dog years at the moment.  Oh boy.

The hummingbird babies are off the nest and we are back to having three feeders out.  They totally empty at least two of them per day.  I love the sound of all those hummingbird wings fluttering when they are at the feeders.  Also, there's nothing like getting dive-bombed by one or more of them whenever I'm close to the feeders on the deck.  What a buzz!

The hummers love the flowers on my deck.

A storm is coming

I decided to mow my lawn in the evening yesterday because it was so hot that  afternoon.  I had spent some time trimming with my weed trimmer and by the time I was finished with that, I'd had enough sun.  

After I finished mowing I could see that a storm was slowly moving in so I decided to walk around the yard and just take some photos before the rain.

Broccoli, cauliflower and cabbage plants are definitely liking the cool weather.

I decided to pick some of the peonies before the rain hits.  

This Beauty Bush came from a start from Uncle Jack Dunn.  It's on the east side of our house so it doesn't get a lot of sun, but it keeps on growing.  The fragrence is lovely. 

This 4th of July my thoughts turn a lot to what freedom truly means, for all people, the men, the women, the children.  There are those who wish to take my country and my freedom away.  

Time to fight. 

 

Good Day Sunshine!

Good morning!  This beautiful day speaks for itself.  Bright blue sky, 62 degrees, a slight breeze.  Heaven, and it's not Iowa. 

Retired Mountain Man has been busy doing his favorite thing, working in his woods.  He has big trees to cut and split up.  He's been at it every day and making progress. 

Son David and grandson Ben were here for a weekend visit.  We drove up Trestle Creek in search of morels in the burn.  

There was a lot of steep climbing, which I didn't do.  There was also still a LOT of snow.  

Our favorite - Trail 120. 

We spent at least three hours just hiking around a bit and looking.   We were enjoying talking about so many memories of hiking and camping at Lunch Peak Lookout and Lightning Creek.  Good times.  

We didn't find any morels, but David found one very large snow mushroom.  It was perfect for hors d'oeuvres before dinner. 

Grandson Ben and Willie getting to know each other.  Willie, of course, was beside himself.  He really wants to be Ben's best friend.  Ben is open to the idea if Willie ever settles down a bit.  

On the garden front:

One of my favorite herbs is fresh dill.  I have some in the garden, but I also love to have a pot of them growing on my deck.  I like to make my own ranch dressing and fresh dill is required.  I also have some fresh parsley, chives and cilantro growing in pots on the deck.  Plus my cherry tomatoes. 

We've had some sunshine and heat so my garden is recovering from the cold temps and rain.  The broccoli and cauliflower look good and the tomato plants have blossoms. 

There are several volunteers in this pot.  The sunflower appears to be taking over. 

David and I picked some of the rhubarb.  Let's just say that my plants are huge and I can't possibly use it all even if David took home 2/3's of it.  This is my wheelbarrow - full to the brim. 

I did bake a Rhubarb-Peach Cobbler though.

It's peaceful sitting out here on the deck.

Willie thinks so too.