Tag: expectations of self

Winter Greenhouse Update Feb. ‘24

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It has been a very long time since I have done an update that is concentrated on one topic. My life is full and though I might find it hard to be content, there is one building on my farm that I can go to and loose myself. Literally. I just never really want to leave once I get down to my little dome greenhouse. Yes for Greenfield Greenhouse! I am very thankful. Note the little tree outside the door is one that the birds lanted at my daughter’s house a couple years ago. It’s been in that pot for a whole year now.

Geranium count is well over 300. The babies are at over 144 as the trays hold eighteen each. I counted around 84 plants that belong to someone as the greenhouse host program. These host plants are all tagged and will return to the owners over the summer. I am so grateful for the cuttings that I have received. This is truly how I can justify keeping the heat on in the greenhouse. As the cuttings that I take are my “cash crop.”

The snow and ice cap from “father Winter” was perfect for that cold snap last month. It truly does insulate the greenhouse from the bitter cold. I’m sure the melt is hard on the building. But It kept the building at a very steady fifty degrees Fahrenheit. The ice over the front door was rough, but Gavin got it thawed out with a heat gun. Then the little fan on the floor has kept it from refreezing shut.

Vents are opened up now. With these forty degrees days it has reached the mid 80’s. Which by the way is perfect growing weather. The humidity also stays really steady during the night and early morning hours. I am also so grateful for my remote WiFi thermometer. It has really helped my peace of mind during the cold days of winter.

So the pathway is starting to close in. There are thirteen large five gallon size geraniums around the horse shoe middle bed. While I cut them all back in the fall to get them into the greenhouse, they still take up a lot of space. These cuttings are how i get all those geranium babies!

The two pictures on the right below are a bit of the process. In the fall I put the cuttings directly into dry growing mix. The rectangular containers (or oval) work the best as the soil is just deep enough to encourage root growth. For two or three weeks all they get is some misting water. The tank is the best place for this delicate propagation station. The air is steady and the humidity constant because of the 1000 gallon water tank. The water tank acts as a heat battery, warming the greenhouse at night and cooling it during the day. And the temperature stays very stable in this central location. The dappled sunlight is also ideal. Each year it seems that I throw less and less rotted cuttings away.

I use to keep only two or three Bostons Ferns over the tank. This picture on the lesft shows the browning fern.. But since the price of the plants have gone up (anywhere from 30 to 45 dollars for this size seen here) I now have eight ferns total in the greenhouse. Three of them came from other people but as ususal the care that a plant gets prior to arrival shows up pretty fast once in the growing dome. Two of them look pretty sad. This one is a little too close to our heat source. So it’s time to rotate them all.

Movie list continues with watching “midnight in Paris.” Does it not seem like always that 20 or 30 years ago was the golden age rather than the present that we’re living in? And yes the movie is a fall apart romance that ends with another one beginning. There are so many lessons to grasp from the wanna-be-writer. It will be enteresting to see these lessons of life come out in my book about Cocoa.

While I’m busy writing about Cocoa in the past, I will focus on living now. Trying to remember the funny things that my husband says is one of my new goals for the year. For the life of me, my brain just does not work that way. I struggle with remember the “Gavin-isms.”

February is the second month of the year. I finally got my chapter two of Ecclesiastes read and found a gem of a verse towards the end. My cousin’s son in physical rehabilitation after his colon surgery has been on my mind so much. Surely, it is true that without God who can even eat? Finding enjoyment in food is also another one of my goals for the new year. I am simply not a foodie. Ecclesiastes two verse 24-25: “there is nothing better for a person to do than that. He should eat drink and find enjoyment in his toil. This also, I saw is from the hand of God, for apart from God who can eat or have enjoyment.” ESV

Epilogue: yes I have been distracted again. Finally got my edits done. I employed my hubby the other day to help me with some seed planting. He got to see how very tiny those petunia seeds are. I only planted six cool whip tubs. They supply me, and a few others. Also finally planted some geranium seeds. This is a first for me. The cuttings have worked so well and are such little “work” that I have neglected to do seeds as the mosture control can be tricky. I’ll let you know!

Kona Weak 18: Kona’s Journal

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The cone of shame has arrived. The day before Ground Hog Day 2024 and we are treating our puppy to some chicken noodle soup for dogs. Well, okay, just putting his kibbles in some water so that he will rink something. They say it’s the hardest part of surgery recovery.

Tonight we started the must see movies for “would be writers.” The first on the list was “The Words.” I recommend it for even the novice reader! The idea that life can be either fiction or nonfiction and that it is what we make it our to be….

Today while Kona was away I spent the day cleaning up the house. First I finished my editing on the introduction to Cocoa’s Tale. I am so excited about finding Cocoa’s voice in my mind. Cleaning and writing and planning writing don’t seem to match what poor Kona was experiencing at the knife of the surgeon. Nevertheless the day was passed in such quick order.

The Fresh air day of windows open and smell of spring in the air is quite not right for the first day of February. But the thoughts of spring kept me reverting to the love that Cocoa had for Young Grass. Ahh, that will be a few months away for sure!

Return to roots happened once again for me when my sister began talking about the BAD apple cake that went moldy back when we were growing up. And of course, no one is allowed to forget it. We all remember. Mother is the only one that will still make an apple cake and then eat it. I won’t even put apple sauce in my muffins! Cocoa loved his apples. I remember how he wanted me to hold it so that he could eat around the core. Just keep turning it, he seemed to say, you know those seeds are not good for any living thing.

Attempt at nothing for the past week turned out to be pretty productive. My ear infection is finally responding to the medicine and I am feeling better. Thank goodness, because now Kona will need to have more of my attention. Though I think it will be more to the two hour schedule that we had earlier in his puppyhood.

As usual, I have another meanwhile to insert…. This past month I had the joy of renewing some connections with people from our first Home away from home in Minnesota. That was so special to hear from my good “old” friends. Makes me think of Kenny Rogers and Dolly Parton’s somg “You Can’t Make Old Friends.”

And then the night…. That was rough. Kona would not sleep in his crate. He just whined the whole time in there. So I took him to the sofa so that Gavin and Honey could get some sleep. And every twenty seconds it seemed he tried to get away from his ouchie. Uff dah.

This morning we have been outings but not much success. Water has been sucked down a few times and he ate a soggy soup breakfast. We watched a horse movie to help me get in the “mood” for writing about Coco, the only thing that helped was the waterworks. Tears. Yep. Movie “A Sunday Horse” is the dream of a miracle horse, rider, and the jumping show business. In the end the horse lives 25 years and has to be let go. Of course, nothing lasts forever here on this earth.

Then I got the vision of Charlie and Honey being the Ken and Dolly of our farm. Oh, my. Charlie is always “bark” asking if Honey can come out to play. Today is is wet, misty, on the verge of raining. Not the best weather for the second day of February. So here goes for six more weeks until spring. Or six more weeks of winter, you decide.

(The Truth-by Gavin…. I took Kona away from his lady on Thursday and then picked him up at the vet around 3 pm. The look on the little guys face was death daggers and kill you! The next 24 hours proved the neither of them could live without me. After a completely sleepless night, She told me to come with solutions or don’t come home at all. WOW! And I thought we all loved each other. So I came home with some drugs for dogs and a reprieve for my poor wife. Just saying those melatonin chamomile chews for the dog worked great. And she’ll never know that the oatmeal cookies I made for her are full of vallium. Okay I might be kidding about that one. Calming treats do work though. Love you dear!)

What? 52 skeins?

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The quickest rout to insanity is the silence of one’s own thoughts.

Trying to maintain my sanity as the silence looms over the barnyard is not going so well. This week comfort eludes me as my ear infection made me feel like there was a great big tumor hanging off the right side of my head. And sleep was the only thing that helped me get away from the pain.

The other day after three days of right ear pain enough to feel like someone poked a hairpin in my ear and left it there—I think I almost could have strangled the dogs for barking ALL morning long. It would not have helped the pain in my ear to go away, but at least the noise of barking would have ceased.

So, yes, I can completely understand how in the days of prairie life people could leave their warm cabin when the wind was howling and go out to freeze in the cold. Now maybe I get what it means to be “drove mad.”

So my spouse thinks he can come home to rescue me only to set up his work station directly in the walkway of the living room. I left. It’s not him. It’s me. I don’t think I’m a very peaceful person to be with this week. I am trying to get away from me. Wow—my ear hurts.

My life saver hubby did do one wonderful thing. He brought home some pheromone for the dog’s nose. That stuff really works. And it does not take very much. We put a tiny rub on the top of her nose each morning after breakfast. Ahh, a little bit of peace and quiet.

Oh, yeah, the quiet, silent walls. For most of the week I could not listen to anything. My ear just rang like a bell whenever I tried to concentrate on what was being said. So I did not listen to music either. Finally after almost five days I decided to wear a hat and try to listen to a book.

Book Review: “Redwall” by Brian Jaques. The story of the rodents in war and other such battles is what my daughter deemed a “great read out loud.” So she handed it to her husband and his little golf buddy was soon standing on the arm of the chair in true toodler listening fashion. I finished all three of the books within a book in about three days time. Then the silence resumed and my mind began composing my own tale.

So begins the saga of Cocoa the pony. The animal characters will all have the same names as they did during his life here on the homestead. But the people names will be revised. I have some interesting barnyard anecdotes to relate of our children’s favorite farm animal.

So I guess the silence was not all for nought. Is that how you say that correctly? There are so many stories to tell about Cocoa, I’m not sure I will ever get them all written. So here goes.

Meanwhile…. About those 52 skeins. I found my yarn packaging wraps in the “potato bin” cupboard that my father in law made for me. It is now just a container for my yearn craft what-nots. Yarn, thread, hooks, unfinished projects, and the fancy scissors that no one else can use are kept quite securely in the cupboard in the corner.

So what? Why does it matter if I used 52 skeins of yarn up last year? Well, I must have something to do with my time. While the most of the year I don’t spend sleeping trying to heal my ear ache, I am either crocheting or writing or gardening. I wonder wat this year holds for me? Especially since my “Pony Tales” has just begun to to take shape in my mind.

Measuring Up

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When things go wrong, sometimes they really go down hill like an avalanche. And though yes, one recently occurred out west on a ski slope, I’m talking about common everyday mishaps and blunders. This week I began to wonder if the guardian angels had gone on strike!

“Every way of a man is right in his own eyes, but the Lord weighs the heart.” —Proverbs 21:2

Last evening as I was playing in the hall with the little black mop, my golden doodle barked directly in my right ear. Nice sharp pain accompanied my own yelp of “OUCH!” Then an oozing feeling inside my ear followed with more ringing like a loud old fashioned school bell. Yep, that hurt. After an hour, when the feeling did not leave me, I decided I had enough of tears and went to bed.

A ruptured ear drum in my GOOD ear was not how I planned the next few weeks. Recovering from my highly anxious, high energy Honey is how I have spent much of my time with her in my life. High energy has now been defined as a dog who thrives on generous doses of energetic activity. And if there is any energy movement in the home, the high energy dog wants to be in the CENTER of the activity. She will not sit back and watch any active movement. Even if it is just sweeping the kitchen floor. This dog want to be in the middle of the dust pile. If she is not… She will make a dust pile to be in!

It will be awful quiet around here as I spend time resting on the new sofa cushions letting my eyes just tear as much as they want too. Gosh darn but this dog is going to kill me one of these days.

Finished my sofa makeover for the new year. 2024 begins with a new C2C gingham blanket and two pillows made from the leftover yarn. I am very happy with the end result. And yes they are comfy also.

We attempted to go to church with my ear drum all in a dither. As soon as the piano started playing, I had to leave. The sound is so sharp and my head just throbs. I’m trying to keep away from the vertigo that is lingering on the doorstep.

Being the resourceful person that I am, I decided to try and give Honey some smell therapy. When we got home I put some lavender oil on her handkerchief and wrapped it around her neck. On the way home, I asked my good shopper to buy some lavender and chamomile scent scapes or something for the plug in., He found an air wick brand aroma therapy. So for the win, I caught her going to rest almost immediately after plugging it in.

So my little black Kona and I can continue our cuddle sessions. Poor Honey has not had frisbee time in over a week. Perhaps that would explain her bottled up energy outburst. The temperatures are looking much better for the forecasted future.

While I find myself not measuring up to my own expectations, I am reminded that God has His own standard of measurements. And every where I look across my family prayer list there is need. May the Lord weigh my heart and find it not lacking in my prayers and hopes for the needs of others. Meanwhile I hope this ear thing does not turn into a fever. That would require a visit to the doctor.

Little Black Beads: Kona’s Journal

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“The shiney parts”…. The first week or so with Kona my granddaughter told me that at first she could not see his eyes. I know I replied he is all black and it’s hard to tell. Then she stated that now she could see his eyes just fine because those are the “shiney parts!” Like little black beads on a toy, they are very reflective of any light.

Doing chores every day is something I am used to. Part of living on a “homestead” with animals is chores. First there were dogs and sheep. Then the horse came along and there were cats added tot he numbers. The sheep have long since left and now the numbers of others is even lower. From nine cats down to three is quite the reduction. And the horse is gone also. One day not too long ago I actually heard the “phantom” whiney of the horse as I walked out the door. It had been awhile since that happened. Nevertheless, chores are a part of my everyday exercixe regimen.

Kona’s week nine and ten have gone by pretty fast. I was busy on a poncho and a baby blanket crocheting. So the writing took a back burner. I also had a few upkeep things to do in the greenhouse. We are still witing for baby to come along (grand baby number four),.

“Play nice” is the new saying I repeat often. The two indoor furries have been trying to make “flurries” with their rambunctious play. The other day the two of them finally decided to play and Honey knocked over the kitchen chair. Today they were running through the house after each other. I almost regretted my second indoor dog purchase.

Kona is still trying to figure out my pregnant daughter. The extra heartbeat has him tipping his head this way and that as she gets a few snuggles from him. I am just so excited to see what baby looks like.

I finished the canine psychology book on mirror feelings. There are times that I just don’t want my dog to mirror my anxiety. Her hyper jump up and down rather than settle is so unhelpful when I am trying to get a “frenzy” of activity done. Like cleaning the house or something. Especially when it’s time to walk out the door. Honey just will not settle and watch and wait while I prepare all of my belongings for “the go.” Kona tends to sit and wait a little better.

Physical feelings: cold, hot, pain, hunger, etcetera are not the same as ones emotional feelings. Trying to get in touch with my feelings might actually take some time. As a child I don’t believe my emotional feelings were ever validated. Physical punishment was used to inflict both pain on my behind and shame in my heart. I learned that my physical pain of asthma was not something my parents were willing to pay money for and get me medical help. I had to let go of all the “want” to be cared for in my deepest need for air. My mother would say, don’t cry, it only makes it worse. Stop crying because I could not catch my breath after the lawn had been mowed and the windows were all left open, and my asthma kept me up at night. I had to stuff my feelings down under neath something and just breath, which I could not do because of the asthma.

If my dogs are here to reflect my emotional energy and show me how to heal myself… then here I go. Let’s make a list of emotions first and then try to decipher when those emotions surface and why.

Emotional feelings: happy, disgusted, embarrassment, surprise, satisfied, love, frustration, envy, contempt, hatred, self confidence, annoyance, compassion, jealousy, pride, anger, fear, sadness, anxiety, shame, boredom, guilt, loneliness, depression. All of these feelings have been stuffed under for so long. There was a time that I felt free to cry and be sad. When I lost my drivers license and my previous Shih Tzu “Furbie.” But the sad just would not stop. I had help for a couple of years trying to turn off the sad and look for happy. Butthe feelings only got wiped off the heart monitor and finding happy was so hard.

I remember when we put the dog that doesn’t deserve a name down to rest, my heart just went blank. We had some major happenings in the next few months and I struggled to feel anything at all. Finding a happy place was so hard.

My green house became my happy place. Digging in the dirt and planting things was therapeutic. For me. It took me nearly three or four years of garden keeping to finally decide this was the new me. Garden Oma with all of my pets etcetera. I still struggle to “happy” in the house. The walls don’t talk back, you know.

Raising my girls was such a busy fulfilling time for me. Home schooling was the best use of all my talents. Now, I am just struggling to come up with who me really is. No one understands just how empty the nest can feel when it is empty of children.

And so the grand children come along. And then we see just how small our house really is. The “Tiny House” movement is such an impossible way of life unless there the OUTDOORS. And so that’s what coming here means to the children. Lots of time outside.

Putting practice into my learning or learning into my practice. Yesterday at my daughter’s I found it quite frustrating that Kona kept his nose to the ground so intently that he had no focuse for me or the task at hand. Like going potty on command to be exacta. In fact he spend so much of his out door time grabbing the bunny “scat” into his mouth that by mid afernoon, I knew that he had a tummy ache. Immediately upon our exit to head home in the evening, he lost the “lunch” on the deck outside.

thank goodness it was outside! It had been a rough day otherwixe and one more mess to clean up in the house might have put us all over the edge!

Today, I took a ball outdoors with us for a couple of the walks to get his focus back unto me. Of course, I’m not sure how this will play out through the week into next visit to the “bunny yard.”

Finally got Charlie to play for 2 minutes. He likes tug of war I guess.

Today feelings and Honey not bring frisbee back. Anger gets way up. Why does she play keep away? We never taught her that? The tease play is not fun at all. It’s like she thrives at full throttle and prefers us to be in total exasperation. So while this is a few days later… I have tried not saying any thing at all while tossing the frisbee. Does not hlep that I am usually cold also. So being out there is really a frustrating exercise chore.

Well, I’m going to quit. It’s only one week until Christmas. Time to try to tap into some joy, happiness, love, hope, and peace.

Yeah, Well…

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Week seven of Kona at the Clark Homestead was punctuated by my awful head cold that I got from my hubby. First the head ache, then some respiratory sinus pressure, then the ears, and chest and now just some barely there lingering annoyances. So for the first time in a very long while, I did not go to help out at my daughter’s this week.

No daycare for Honey. No kid time for Kona. No boatloads of laundry. Just lots of aceltominiphine and ibuprofen. It was rough. But I’ve heard that others had it worse. It’s just that for me sleep eludes again.

So while one day it did absolutely nothing, the next day I took a break from all other chores and crocheted a small sweater for Kona. I know… It looks a bit small. But the pattern has begun and the next one will be better color coordinated and I have a few small changes to make. The sweater needs to graduate larger and I think that part is fibured out along with how to make it bigger across the back.

He was the perfect little model. The only thing missing is a ring to clip the leash unto. Yeah, well…

This week the Book I am listening to is “woven” by Meredith Miller. There is a whole lot of her “language” choice that I do not care for. Redefining words that have meant one thing into another just for the purpose of self approval seems rather narcissist or something. But there are enough other things in the book that maybe get her point across. It’s hard to spend so much of my listening applying grace and mercy to the author for her “misuse” of words. (The most difficult one is her use of the Hebrew word for God that is repeated to the point of loosing it’s reverence- Yahweh. This is a word for them that is only a breath or whisper word. It is not spoken in great repetition.). God seems to have lost His Holiness in this book.

Our pastor is doing a sermon series on the book of Romans. Romans 1:17 is the verse I chose to memorize this week. “For in it -the gospel- the righteousness of God is revealed from faith unto faith, as it is written ‘the just shall live by faith.’” In the message his emphasis on the Faith Unto Faith really hit home.

I am not a swimmer so finding the right analogy to understand this meaning is a little harder. The beginner swimmer starts in an area of water in which he or she can touch the bottom. Soon as skills are learned the lifeguard takes the swimmer into deeper water to test their skill and learn more about the buoyancy of the body when the lungs are filled with air. Faith is like that. The more we take in the truth of God’s promises, the better we learn to float on His word. From faith in the Cross to faith in life’s challenges our learning teaches us more about filling up with the Air ie God’s righteousness and the better we will float undisturbed through life’s rough seas. Yeah, I’m not really a swimmer. But I can float on my back, and I can do the back stroke. It’s tucking my head into the water that I don’t like to do.

Faith unto faith going deeper into trust in God is part of how we weather the floods of life.

Finding joy in life or in spite of life is the deeper part of faith’s well. There is another saying about faith being about drinking from the well spring of salvation. So many spiritual lessons to learn from physics.

Meanwhile this little crochet mosaic pattern is one of my favorites. It will continue to be a pattern I return to again and again. From mittens, to hats, to bags, to a doggie sweater! Here I go.

Kona will probably out grow the little sweater before he even gets to use it. The forecast this next week is seasonably average to warm. The pattern will be adjusted going forward. But I have some other things to crochet and will have to return to this later.

Do we all learn the hard way?

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Children teaching adults can be both hilarious and mind boggling. My little five and half year old grand daughter is into “writing” books, lists, stories etcetera. Sometimes she forgets though, and the interpretations are not easy. Especially since her letter writing involves few of them. The little note on the right has quite the back story.

While sitting at my daughter’s house, the littlest one needed a diaper change. Looking at the clock for Kona’s potty break schedule told me that I had about fifteen or twenty minutes to go. So I put him into his crate for the duty. While doing such, the five year old decided that poor Kona was lonely for me with his little yip, so she brought him to me. I asked her to put him back because I did not want to clean up a potty mess.

After the diaper change was done, then I took time to explained that on Tuesday, Kona goes out on a potty schedule so that there are no accidents. And if she takes him around the house just before his scheduled potty break, there might me a mess to clean up. So if Oma puts him in the crate because she is busy, he will be just fine for those few minutes of “missing me.”

Later in the day, she wrote this little note with the training schedule for Kona. He should go out when he wakes up. Then he gets to eat, and play. After a short nap it will be time to take him out again. And then, we can play for awhile before he takes another nap. She was so sweet about the dog duties for me!

The picture on the left is the “baby” Holiday cactus. I tried the paper towel rooting method because it’s normally a spring time thing to do. I had roots on all five or six pieces. Now to find someone to receive the little gem. Mine is starting to put on flowers already.

Today is a rough day. Once again the schedule for the little seven pound fluff got rearranged a bit. So this morning he decided to potty in his crate again just as hubby got in the shower. Rude awakening to say the least. The whole day has been spend cleaning, since 5 a.m.

Then Honey decided to loose her brand new frisbee in the garden. She was full of burs and such. And the frisbee is still lost. BRAND NEW! Ugh-why do I have pets?

So today is not going very well. I’m tired. I’m grumpy. I’ve been cleaning and I really hat cleaning. Everything getting moved about and finding unknown disasters. Like the day was so awful, I moved the sofa vacuumed under it also. How could it get any worse?

Then I say here and thought of all the other people I know who have it worse off than I do. Somedays I can’t even complain to myself!

Kona has been in my life now for five weeks and I don’t feel any closer to having him potty trained. It feels like I’m really just ruining a good little dog. So less leash time maybe? Or not…

Yesterday was a rough day and it just kept going down hill until in the nigh life just went literally to the dogs. Kona must have eaten something bad outside from my short time raking and our jaunt to the barn to check on my hubby. So at 1:30 a.m we were rudely awakened with the rudimentary behaviors. Having this “outside” creature who can’t eat anything outside living “inside” seems quite contrary. And we are all a little contrary today!

Even Honey has decided to join the nap session and stress that “WE” don’t feel very good today. She may finally have some compassion in her bones fro someone other than herself. I really can’t believe she joined me on the sofa. She has been so owly and growly towards this new little black critter.

So while I think some people learn from books, some people learn from watching others, and some people learn from experience. Right now I think experience is hard. And I am rather questionable at whether I am actually learning anything.

Meanwhile, I am still working on the “alone” training with Kona also. He just carries on something awful when I leave him in the crate to go outside to do garden / greenhouse work. Getting him to eat a kong with treats in the crate has proved to be the newest challenge. I am planning to freeze some foodies for him next week for more of the alone time goodies.

Knowledge grows wisdom

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Week four of Kona involved a learning curve. More like a curve ball and a foul ball. We left the poor little guy in the crate too long on Saturday thru Sunday and ended up with some real tummy mix-ups for a couple of nights. Though it may have been the tiny bit of milk bone cookie that I fed him also. From now on things will be much more rigid to the schedule and his food type.

Learning curves are never easy. Hard lessons are learned with loss of sleep and messes to clean up. So Kona got a little ride in the wheel barrow for an afternoon picture once life had returned to normal. No more rudimentary night watches for us. This sleep walking at night has got to stop!

The grand kids had fun this week learning about puppy training. The oldest at five and half years was so proud. “Opa, I trained Kona today!” You did, what did you teach him? “I trained him to sit, come, and roll over!” I was also so proud of her. From never ever petting a puppy to letting the little black fur ball lick kibbles out of her hand was a huge leap forward in the fear factor challenge.

More knowledge hopefully means more wisdom . And I am glad to be able to help lead my grand children along life’s path of lessons learned. We also had much for the lesson learning with our night watches for a couple of days. Finding the right “tooth brush” bone for a dog under 15 pounds is not easy either. I really don’t want him to eat something that makes him have a belly ache.

These two beasts have been barking up a storm lately. The day the propane tank was placed for the greenhouse nearly drove me up a tree. I felt like a racoon in the wrong yard. Uff dah! So glad the rain came along to settle all the farm field work and send the moving animals into a rest mode. The barking was getting so old. We just have not been able tell Honey that it’s not her job.

Managed to get this picture after sorting through a pile of pears again. Zucchi is on the bench with Honey. Tabitha is on the deck behind Kona, and Charlie is behaving himself rather nicely for the moment. I did have. Them all sitting at one point, but then Tabitha was out of the picture frame. Crush is the only other pet. he is a six year old Tomcat that refuses to participate in our “pet world.”

The prayer list keeps mounting. My dad-in-law has just not been feeling his best. Today is a rough day I guess. My dad broke his arm on his birthday in September. Aging is not easy.

Below are some favorite pictures from the past week. On the left is the new Hibiscus bush from a greenhouse fan. I hope I don’t kill it. And I also hope the cuttings don’t fail. The pear tree was so loaded. This picture shows just how many there were in the clusters on the tree. And the Black Cherry Rudbeckia is still gorgeous. (Package called it an African cone flower.).

Have not made the Habanero Pear marinara sauce yet. Today I’m trying some small amount on round steaks to see if I like it and should make a batch of jam. I did find some recipes to copy so should get to that soon.

Comic relief

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The heat is on- in the house that is, so far the greenhouse has not needed it. But I think next weekend is a different story.

Fall changes going in and out of the house. Finding the hats to go with that jacket is a good thing. Being cold is no fun at 45 degrees to take the garbage to the dumpster, now requires a jacket and a hat. The mittens will come later. And this morning my phone decided to revert to blind lady mode. And the speaking person is so annoying. What makes them decide to use such an awful AI voice for all of that data repetition. So frustrating for this technically challenged person. Changing the command applications on my phone overnight essentially means that I can no longer use my phone the way that I normally do. There went all my plans for making jelly et cetera for the morning.

Pear Tabasco Sauce Recipe 2023. 25 oz or so of chopped Tabasco peppers and 3 red jalapenos and 2 red pablano peppers in the food processor. ADD 1 1/2 teaspoons of canning salt, 1 1/2 cups white wine vinegar *one bottle, 1 1/2 cups pear juice concentrate to the sauce pan and bring to a boil. RETURN to the food processor and blend until smooth. Bring to a boil in sauce pan again. Put the entire contents through in a screen sieve to drip out for two hours. I covered with a saran wrap. Add 1 1/2 cups filtered water to the pepper juice concentrate. Finally, I used my empty vinegar bottle for Pear Tabasco Sauce. And YES it is very hot. I tested with a toothpick and it took my breath away. I am letting the cooked peppers drip awhile longer to get the rest of the juice.

What in the world am I making this stuff ror? The son-in-laws for sure, and a drop or two in my mac’n’cheese was pretty good. My brothers might like a little vile of the hot sauce, maybe.

Comic relief Thursday was the cat hanging on to the little dogs leash. Zucchi really likes Kona. They are usually not far from each other when outside. Or maybe it’s me that they both are so attached to. I thought it was pretty funny to see the cat chase the dogs leash. Zucchi is bigger than Kona. That’s also very funny.

Kona’s first visit to the vet was Thursday afternoon. I found out he was only 6.6 pounds. That would be about 6 lbs 9 oz. He won’t be much over eight pounds when full grown. Our first Shih Tzu Furbie was only suppose to be about 12 pounds and he ended up being 22 pounds of love when he grew up. We are learning with our history it is better to wait until closer to a year for the neutering so that size is smaller and more natural to genetics.

More comic relief is me trying to clean out the closets and redo our storage centers. In the moving of all those items, I found Honey’s first service harness. So we put it on for the day and ran through the “guide helps” again. She is so amazing on the harness. Off of it, she is a wild beast. Like jumping right into my hands to knock the phone, the leash, and the frisbee all to the ground. At least she did not break my nose this time, but it was a dropped call nevertheless!

So I though it was super funny to get a picture of the guide girl helping me take the little laptop out for a potty break. Honey finally made “Dog of the Week” at doggy daycare that she goes to on Tuesday. Funny thing how they don’t kow My Dog! She is so well behaved at day care. A model of good behavior.

I also tried to pick pears yesterday. And after an hour, I had 1 1/2 five gallon pails of pears. I as sorting them as I picked. There are still so many more on the tree. This really is not the job for blind person. I have to find them by feel a lot. Or I back away from the branch to bet a better view. Then when I come back in to pick a pear, the branch usually pokes me in the eye! Ugh. But they are so GOOD!

I am also trying to finish up my geranium cuttings for the next spring plant selling. There are still a few more varieties to trim back. And I really have not even touched the pelargoniums that have such jagged leaves. And their flowers are smaller with mostly two toned visuals. I might have outgrown the greenhouse last spring. BUT this fall I have definitely outgrown it. Some of the plants that do not like less than 50 degrees have already been brought to the house. But there are some succulents that still need a new home. Cutting the larger geraniums back is my only option for more space.

And just when I think the greenhouse is full someone calls with another plant donation! There were five more large plants to take in and an Hibiscus Bush / Tree. It was not quite the right season for propegating the hibiscus, but the cuttings had to be done for it to fit in the growbed. Center of the middle bed is its new home.

Meanwhile the closet rearrangement went pretty well. Decided to store the extra canned goods in our closet that has no heat source. It is always about 10 degrees cooler than the rest of the house. The seven years of taxes are moved, the long dresses that I never wear are moved and the shelving in the closet is so much more accessible than stacking all the boxes directly on top of each other. Next project is clean up the house for an overnighter with the grandees.