Yes, we're still here.

Things are moving slowly on the mountain but they are still moving.  Luckily for us, we have friends and relatives to stop by and help out.  They also bring wonderful treats such as the mushrooms in the photos below.

Last summer's fires in Montana were a real boost for the spring morel hunt.  Cousin Adam stopped by with a basket of these for us.  Retired Mountain Man dried five trays of them.

Remember the guy with the Q-tip and the pocket knife.  He's back!  One of the burners on my stove has not been working for a long time.  We ordered the part, but just never got around to repairing it.   Yesterday was the day.  The "guy-guy" showed up and proceeded to fix my stove.  It required splicing, wire nuts, heating shrink wrap to seal the splice, etc.

Next, he went to work on the light in my range vent.  The bulb had broken off in the socket.

Let there be light.  It's pretty amazing that the vent fan and light still work considering it's 36 years old.  It has a night light feature that I have used all of those years.  When it wasn't working, I really missed it.

And finally, I have one question to ask you.  Do you think that Retired Mountain Man has enough firewood for next year?

We have a friend who is working on sawing all of this up.  Can you see RMM at the end of the wood stack?

Yes, it still needs to be split.

Here's a little bit more.

And more....

Yes, and there's some here....

See that log?

This is from last year.

Retired Mountain Man split these two stacks this Spring.

As for me, I am six weeks into my hip replacement recovery.  I can walk down the driveway and all the way up to Curtis and Chris's driveway without a cane.  It's really not much of a walk yet.  It's kind of a stroll, but Maggie doesn't care.  She will go for a walk with me anywhere and at any speed.

Did you notice that there's no longer a fence along the driveway?

Why did it take so many years to figure out this simple thing.......?

Well. at least for me it did.  I'm a slow learner.

“Do every act of your life as if it were your last.” ~Marcus Aurelius

The photos were all taken on a hike to Green's Falls.  I have posted the link to the article below.

  BY LEO BABAUTA

 There’s something so powerfully simple, profoundly beautiful, about the Dalai Lama’s quote: “My religion is very simple. My religion is kindness.”

 It’s a philosophy I’ve been exploring for awhile, and though I don’t claim to have even come close to mastering it, it turns out this is a single word that can become the central tenet of your life, if you let it: “kindness”. Kindness can guide every interaction you have with others, can guide your life’s work, can give meaning to your life, can even guide your eating, parenting, marriage, and more. All else will melt away, if you let go of it, and leave only kindness.

 Doing to others IS doing to yourself The Golden Rule goes something along the lines of, “Treat others as you’d want to be treated (in their place)”, but in another conception, how you treat others is how your treat yourself. Consider: when you react to others with anger or meanness, you are putting yourself in an angry mindset, a bad mood. You’ll likely feel pretty crappy for at least an hour, if not all day. When you are uncaring or indifferent to others, you also create an empty, blank feeling in yourself, a void that cannot be filled with gadgets, social networking, shopping, food, or possessions. When instead you are kind, you build a good feeling within yourself, you make yourself happy. In effect, you are being kind to yourself.

 Other outward-facing actions have a similar inward effect: if you want to learn, teach. If you need inspiration, inspire others. If you’re sad, cheer someone up. mindfulness + kindfulness It is near impossible, in my experience, to transition towards kindness without being mindful.

Thoughtlessness leads to unkindnesses. You must be mindful of every interaction with another human being. Approach each person mindfully, with your full attention, smiling, seeking to understand them, trying to interact with gentleness, warmth, compassion. When someone comes to talk to you, when your kid tugs on your pant leg for attention, when your spouse or best friend starts speaking, turn to them without distraction, putting everything else away, and give your full attention.

Listen.

 Here’s something beautiful: by treating others with kindness, you will create a happy feeling within yourself, effectively creating a positive feedback loop for your mindfulness. This will encourage you to be more mindful throughout your day, which will help you to treat others with yet more kindness, and so on. Mindfulness and kindfulness feed on each other in a wonderful cycle.

 This all, of course, takes careful practice, and the more you practice, the better you’ll get at it. There’s an evolution in kindness, a process in which I’m still only near the middle (more likely in the beginning and just don’t know it), where kindness can slowly infuse your life, transform everything you do.

Conclusions It isn’t easy to be kind on every possible human transaction, on every interaction we have throughout the day. It’s far easier to be thoughtless. It can feel better to get back at someone when they are unkind to you (at least, it feels better at first). It takes less effort to not care. But when we touch another person’s life, our lives are being touched as well.

What shape do you want your life to take? That will be completely determined by the effort you take to be mindful, and to be kindful.

 “Wherever there is a human being there is an opportunity for kindness.” ~Seneca

You can read more at the link below.
 POSTED: FRIDAY, MAY 7, 2010PREVIOUS POST: 5

ESSENTIAL ZEN HABITS FOR BALANCED LIVING

California visitor to our yard this afternoon.

We have never seen one of these in our area before, let alone our front yard.

He was headed for the grape arbor when I took the last shot.


JP, Collin and Rylee were here to help with all of the chores this weekend.  They helped Retired Mountain Man plant 44 dahlias, four fruit trees and mowed the lawn.  There were also many other items on the list and they accomplished a lot for the two old folks.

The lawn and garden look so green for May 1st.  El Nino is treating us really nice right now.

It does kind of feel like we are in California.....

From Mushrooms to tomatoes....

here we go.  It's Spring in Hope.  My expert mushroom hunter found these beautiful coral mushrooms yesterday.  I had some of them this morning, sauteed in some butter and olive oil and scrambled with some eggs.  Yes, they were very tasty.

Retired Mountain Man moved all of my plants to the deck today.  It's time for them to see sunshine, but not too much.  They aren't used to all of that bright sunlight and will get sunburn if exposed too long.

Fortunately, for the next 5 or 6 days we will be getting some rain and cloudy weather.  Perfect timing for my plants.

These jewels will be ripe soon.

Push the X-mode button for Space Flight.

Did you know that you could buy a car online and they will deliver it?  I didn't know that until I started looking at a buying a new Forester for Retired Mountain Man and I.  

I specifically wanted a Forester that has a very low All Wheel Drive called X-mode.  It's designed for driving up and down very steep hills.  Hmmm.  Something like "the hill" on West Spring Creek Road.

When I first contacted a dealer at Parker Subaru in CDA, I was working with a sales lady who was doing her best to find me a car that I would like and at the top of my options list was the X-mode.  There were hundreds of options to add on to the car if we wanted and RMM and did choose a few of them.  We were looking at model called "The Limited".

As the negotiations went on she suggested that I look at a different model as they had a lot more choices in color and interior, etc.  She told me that I could have some of my options installed in a model called the Premium.   We made a deal and she said they could deliver it the next day, which they did.  We signed all of the papers with a salesman named Steve.  He showed Retired Mountain Man all of the bells and whistles on the car.  We haven't had a new car for 13 years, so there is a lot to learn.  Since I am pretty much housebound right now, I waited until they were finished to hear about the details from RMM.
(This is a long story)
He bought me the manual for our new car and when I came to the X-mode section and it said that it was "optional".  All of a sudden I had this great dread.  Did this car have X-mode?  I wanted X-mode.  It was at the top of my options list.  I immediately called Steve  - as he was driving back to CDA and asked.  Then the bomb dropped.  "No", he said.  It doesn't.

OMG!  I've just bought the wrong car!  (The salesman probably thought I was a crazy person, #!%#$#, who just changed her mind.)  Fortunately, when he got back to the dealership, he found the saleslady's notes.  Yes indeed, at the top of the list was "X-mode.

He called me to right back and apologized and said that we could make an exchange in the morning.

Whew!  They were good on their word.  We got everything we wanted and more.

Here's the new car.

Let me just say that Steve knew why I wanted X-mode after he drove up here the first time.  The customer service from the dealership was most awesome, even though the X-mode feature fell through the cracks the first time around.   RMM and I love our new car.   He is the driver for the next four to six weeks as I am not allowed to drive or ride in a car for awhile.  I do get to ride in it soon when I have a Dr. appointment.  Yay!

Before I sign off I should explain X-Mode.  It's a very low AWD speed.  When you press the X-mode button on the console, the four tires appear on the NAV screen as you are driving down the road.  You do not touch the brake or the gas pedal.  You just steer as you drive up or down the hill.  If one wheel loses traction, the other one will get a little more power.  It works on all four wheels and is most awesome.  I know this because I have driven Mandolin Ann's car, which also has this feature.  Thank you, Mandolin Ann!

I just bought a car that could take me anywhere.   It has so much new technology that I think it might be able to fly the next mission to Mars..... Maybe if I put it in X-mode?