You Know You Need Rest When...

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1.  On the way to take your man-child to Man Class, you have pillows in the back seat so you can steal a nap in a parking lot somewhere...

and

2.  The policewoman who pulls you over for speeding over roads on which everyone is going the same MPH, but you happened to be the one passing by when she flipped on her radar, asks you if you are on drugs because you look just, well, awful.  

Ah well, no matter!   I am achieving yet another first adventure.  I am writing a blog post from a McDonald's booth.   I have a wadded up red and white paper bag in which lies an empty French fry holder just to my right, alongside an icy swig of caffeine, and to my left is a lovely bouquet of white daisies.  I just reached out to see if they are real and sure enough!

I did bring along a book in case I feel like reading.  "The Biblical Flood and the Ice Epoch".   A VERY cool read, if I do say so.  But I'm pretty sure this will keep me busy.

I had half prepared a post about our annual winter ballet production.  But I sort of got carried away with the photos.   My long term blogging friends are well aware of this weakness I have for telling a story with images. So now I am trying to decide how to whittle down over a hundred photos to less than a dozen.   Eeny-meeny-miney-mo...

Instead, I will bludgeon you with a few photos of Michael, the man child.   You haven't seen a lot of him lately.  Actually, neither have I.   He's rather busy with adventures of is own.    Well, OK.   It's true I do see a lot of him, but it feels like I don't as I have to frequently share him with all his activities.   

He has taken to making some humorous videos.  Here is a self portrait while explaining 'hats' to the world.



Flipping out in gymnastics with some friends.



All dressed up and ready for both weddings and office cleaning.  What a versatile young man!



A mobile video.   This one on the subject of strange things that happen in parking lots while waiting for your mother.



At a Seder dinner we celebrated last month.



He asked for gift certificates to the local Home Improvement Center to begin his collection of quality tools.  He is very happy to have two nice chests (semi) full of tools with lifetime warranties.  Those are expensive so it didn't go as far as filling them, but he's got a great start.



Wish I could show you his belt ceremony from martial arts earlier this week, but I missed it.   I was sleeping in the car outside....

However, he is doing really well at it.   He is enjoying all sorts of violent things lately.   All that testosterone, you know.

This is not Michael.  It's one of his friends who kindly posed for some portraits for Michael's photography class while they were out and about.  But this is often how Michael looks; blended into the local surroundings, wearing lots of ammo -  and a huge grin.



OK.   I should be getting a text any minute now, giving me an estimated time of departure for going and picking him up.

Grateful for caffeine these days,

~Faith

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Anne Frank and Saturday Ups and Downs

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After a lovely Friday of work, school, and more work, we went to town to try to get in as much office cleaning as we could before heading off to meet friends and see The Diary of Anne Frank, in which several of our friends are performing.

They did a fabulous job!  It was even better than the one we saw a couple of years ago, and had cool audience participation as though we were in a prison camp - with guards all around us.  They nabbed Josh, drug him out and shot him.   However, in his next life, he also became a prison guard for the rest of the play.   Lots of sniffles in the audience.   It is heart wrenching, knowing what evil man does to one another, but I was determined not to run any mascara, and I was thoroughly successful - lots of focus on chewing my delicious, if rubbery, mint chewing gum, during particularly touching moments.

My dashing young man and I went to Taco Bell afterwards, had a great time chowing down on a 12 pack of tacos and talking about the evening. 

Today was a day of ups and downs!

I was all set to break myself into posting pics again, but I actually broke my camera today. Yes, I had a good cry over it, too. Boohoo!

This was the first day Michael and I have stayed home all day in - I have no idea how long. It was strange, but just a bit like Heaven. The weather was wonderful. I baked and glazed a ham that had been oinking at me every time I opened the fridge.

And about the time we got around to doing anything else, I went outside with my board, my borrowed wood burner and a nice glass of iced tea and proceeded to torture the Bible verse plaque I mentioned.

Out on the front porch in a comfy rocking chair with birds singing madly all around.

Opening the kit...

Perusing the selection of tips...

Cool!  It has a soldering tip as well.  That will come in handy later, while working on Michael's Airsoft gun modifications.  I actually decide that the soldering tip will work the best for my lettering as well.

It's been a long time since I did any wood burning.  The reasons it has been a long time came flooding back.  Either I always have low-performance tools, or it takes a maddeningly longer time than I have the patience for.   But I was determined.  One letter, two letters...

And, in my exuberance, I flipped that board around - knocking my camera right off the table. In hind sight, if I'd just never gotten up to go check it, and just pretended it never happened, I'd have been a lot happier.

Michael arrived within moments to see what his mother was sobbing about and did his best to take the lens apart and fix it, but it was pretty munched.

No way around it, if the body of the camera is OK, I've got to get a new lens.  After this point, most of the photos are going to a bit poorer in quality, as my good camera is now merely collecting dust.

Anyhow, we had a great day despite that little tragedy.

We planted 3 blueberry bushes that I took with me when we left the farm, as well as some blackberry plants in pots I'd brought along.  Here are some of the first photos of our current digs.   Speaking of digs...  If at all possible, you must enlist help to dig into the red clay.

Here's the sweet little picket gate that is the passageway between the garden area and the yard.  Is this not adorable?   Not sure what that shrub is, but it's going to be some sort of fruit.  And the peonies smell wonderful.

Yes, the man child is hard at work as I bring out supplies and another shovel.  That's a very old apple tree on the other side of the fence, along the road.

I cried "Uncle!" and finally forked over for peat moss.  I think I have a tendency to  expect things from plants they are not ready to give.  "You have dirt, sun, rain, darn it.  I am not going to dump another 5 dollars because you want more than that!"   But after quite a few failed blueberries... I bought the bag.  This was about 10 bucks and will probably do about 5 bushes.  I've heard of people using an entire bag in a really big hole, and even planting bushes directly INTO the bags, but I asked a professional blueberry guy what he did, which was mix about half and half.  So that's what we are doing.

Right there in the hole with our stirrer.

OK, this one was not mixed well enough.  Plant was removed, earth mixed up, and plant replaced.

Then we mulched the three bushes and sat down, imagining sweet, juicy blueberries, which we will probably not get to eat, unless we dig them back up again, as this is not our home.  However, SOMEone SOMEday will have some nice berries.

We put in some tomato plants, Grape, Roma, and a Better Boy or something similar (lost the tag).

The owner, unbeknownst to us, also gave permission to another person to run some cattle on the nine acres and will be just beyond this fence.   He put in some electric fencing to keep them back but, in the interest of tomato safety, we will probably move the wires just a little bit further away from our succulent tomatoes.

I don't want to put much in the ground, as we don't know how long we'll be here, but I had no where else to put them and I can always dig them up again. All our friends are already overflowing with plants we gave away.

We had a great time cleaning out the loft in the barn, getting it ready for a hangout place and workout area for the guys.

Lovely view, lovely day.   Looking toward the mountains on the walk from the house to the barn.

The whole bottom of the barn is about like this.  Difficult to navigate.  Nothing of value, just stuff.  We hope to sort it, stack it neatly, and be able to utilize some space here and there.

Heading up to the old hay loft.

This is to be Michael's indoor hangout area and workout room.  But it needs some CPR first.   First thing is to remove all the poles that are stretching across the rafters, so we can get some head room.  They mostly used this for drying tobacco, many years ago, so they are all over the place.  I have no idea how old this hay is.

Looking down through the maze of rafters and tobacco poles.

I've already been moving some of the bales that could still be grasped.  Michael is putting off going and getting the rake and broom, surveying his domain.  Remember Mikka?  We had to send her away to a friend for a couple of months, but she's back with us.

That side over there is rotted through, as the roof is missing in a few places, but when clear, we'll know exactly where NOT to step.  Plus it will dry out more quickly and rot more slowly.

Boy, I wish I could move like a cat!

Handing tools up through the hay loft door.  Of course he jumps out.  Using the barn stairs and regular door would be so boring.

Coon poo?   It's everywhere.

That's better!

We can use this old hay for mulch when we need it, so we're keeping it near the loft door for now.  When it's gone, he'll have another 100 square feet of space to use.

One rotted area, and one broken rafter over here, means not a lot of use unless we decide to repair it.  there is enough old spare scrap wood laying around that we could do it, but the roof hole remains, so it would only be a temporary fix.  It would last beyond our stay here, however.

At this point my head is stuffy, I'm sneezing... what's going on????

Great Scott, Batman! I think I might be getting allergic to something. I could not believe how badly my sinus passages behaved while we worked in the barn! This is just not right. I don't DO allergies!

After enjoying the sound of a short rain on the metal roof of the barn, we headed back up to the house. Michael tried his hand at wood burning and worked on one of his Airsoft guns, getting ready for his next team outing.

I cut my first bouquet of peonies here, they smell amazing!

Grateful for ports in storms,

~ Faith

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Fun Night

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A couple of nights ago we came home with our minivan packed to the gills. Fourteen lawn and garden trash bags filled with leaves from the town piles.

Yesterday we came home from office cleaning and, while I worked inside to prepare for the party, I set Michael and his friend to work. I wonder if they thought they were going to play video games...

We don't do a lot of video games here, so usually when he has a friend over that's one of the things they like to do. But that was put off in favor of the building of fig cages.

They used old field fencing to create a circle around each of six trees (which look oddly like giant tumbleweeds) and then proceeded to fill them with the bags of leaves in preparation for the soon arrival of 20 degree, fig-killing weather. I was very disappointed to hear that all those leaves only filled up two cages. Now I realize our leaf collecting days have just begun, unless we go back to straw, which there is no money for.

A call to the town to see if they can deliver some leaves here will be happening today, but I don't know that they'll come out this far. Wouldn't it be cool to have a huge truck drive up, aim that giant hose at each cage, and blow them full of leaves!

The boys then set to making sticks for the candied apples, since every year that I've shopped for them, I can never find them. Dowel rods were snapped and whittled while they chatted on the front porch. Then came the video games.

I did a few last minute house cleaning chores, then prepped the apples, made Eggplant Parmesan from the last eggplants from the garden, homemade caramel for dipping, beans and rice and tomatoes for homemade burritos, vegetable lasagna, whole wheat bread (which I finally cheated on myself and added 2/3 cup of white flour since I needed a successful loaf to occur today), and thoroughly enjoyed the additional beautiful day while waiting for the rest to show up.

We've all been so busy lately, that I was thinking of not attempting our annual candied apple party, but when Michael was able to arrange an airsoft war for Sunday, I decided to kill two birds with one stone.

So the young people all went up into the hills just before dark, and proceeded to practice killing each other with pellet guns. This is considered fun these days. When I was a child, if I shot my little brother with a BB gun, I would get a spanking. These days I'm assisting my son in doing this to his friends, mentors, and even acquaintances.

It's a strange thing to see a dozen young people on your front porch, all looking like Black Ops in camouflage. But the living room was turned into a weapons base; a 25 foot square room, completely covered knee deep in weapons of war and gear.

So the rest of us did some garden touring, food prep, began the candy apples, watched "Flightplan", chatted, made arrangements to go see a local play "White Christmas", and generally just enjoyed being together.

It was a wonderful night, but this morning it's back to building the ends of the greenhouse. I'm going to take Michael's camera with me and try to post a tutorial for anyone who might be helped by it.

"This is how you might, or might not want to do a greenhouse end."

Another amazingly beautiful day here!
Counting my blessings,

~Faith

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Chewy Caramel!

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I just made a batch. I'd made this recipe last year. I considered it a failed recipe, as it did not set well, but it was soooooo unbeleeeeeeeeeevably delicious that I couldn't wait to make it again. Our annual candied apple party should be happening again soon, so I probably need to made a firmer batch. Until then, this will do nicely.

It's been raining ever since yesterday when we were drenched putting up the two rows of chest high 2x4 purlins on the greenhouse yesterday. We came in absolutely soaked to the skin and rivulets running, but I kept smiling as I looked out the window at the finished frame. I love progress.

Today I've satisfied myself with a more domestic agenda. Namely attacking all these stacks of paperwork on the desk and floor. Mostly this is a variety of things I begin to do and don't finish. My mind works a mile a minute with gobs of ideas. These are the ones that hit me anywhere from 2 am to 6 am, when I can't sleep. I can't resist beginning to flesh them out, then I lay them aside to get busy on what cannot wait to be done around here. Also mixed in are research piles of information on various farm projects, like what blueberries to plant. I've got a stack of blueberry, ribe, and bramble information. Lots of schoolwork folders and papers, records and such.

And the receipts. The ones I never take the time to file away, but just pull out of my purse and drop in one place. Months on end until I can't stand the stack any longer and I'm stuck in the house that day.

So I own my desktop again. I am - Master of the Veneered Particle Board Expanse once again. There is a perfect spot for a cup of tea, just to the left of this screen.

Michael has been doing schoolwork, cleaning his room, and messing with all his airsoft and paintball gear, so he's happy as a clam, with a gun. Hmmmmm....

Working on those idioms...

~Faith

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Little Adventures

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We've had commode repairs.





Nicely done, Michael!





Accidents, just waiting to happen... Yes, those are pockets full of eggs. About 4 in each one. How many of us as children experienced the thrill of running and tripping with pockets full of eggs?





Why did I never think of cutting watermelon this way before? I like it!





More neighborly cows.





And a hastily blockaded fence line until barbed wire can be found.





I baked shortbread cookies for my dad and Michael.





Oh, yes! I'm enjoying this watermelon IMMENSELY, thank you!





Some peas, Swiss chard, and Black Seeded Simpson lettuce to put into the garden.





Those went in this corner.





We attended a Republican meeting at which a gubernatorial candidate was coming to speak.




Does anyone else think that is just a very silly name for someone running for governor?

I attempted a different sort of sun tea.





Dropping a sprig of lemon mint and a sprig of stevia is going to influence this gallon of tea? Such was the premise of several online articles. I was willing to give it a try.





It didn't work. Do people get paid to write articles about things they've never done? Next time I'll do what should have been done in the first place; crush them and let the oils release into the tea as it soaks up that gorgeous sunlight!

About a dozen young adults all had another Airsoft war game. We enjoyed an afternoon and evening of conversation, eating, tours of the gardens, and later, us oldER folks sat around talking politics. Are your tables filled with this conversation more and more lately?

Here are some of our battle hardened troops below.





And here they are later with another creative game they came up with.





And when my head was about to fall on the table, we headed home. I'm looking forward to Michael getting his license so I can sleep while he drives!

~Faith

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