Posts from the ‘Front Porch Musings’ category

And again with the hot

Good grief!!!

Yikes!!

The 76 inside is a bit deceiving…it is the entry temp. The rest of the house is 69-71F – quite comfy.

Zinnia and Sunflowers for this weeks cut flowers.

Some grape and heirloom tomatoes for this week’s veg.

I was up at 4:30 a.m. this Saturday morning and Bear and I headed to town at 6:45 a.m. We stopped for a walk along the river before hitting the grocery, then a breakfast drive-through, gas for the Jeep …and were at Farmer’s Market at 9:00 a.m. on the dot for the open to get this week’s veg and flowers.

Gorgeous zinnia…

Early sunflowers…

Then home by 10:00 a.m. to put all away.

By noon … again with the HOT.

So much to catch up on

My work is crazy, crazy busy…but good and SO much fun…in between the frustration of learning new stuff and 2 deadlines, etc. Ultimately, though …SO much fun that I didn’t go to town this Saturday and stayed home working…BY CHOICE!

And to add to the tech fun, my almost 2 year old phone was wigging out so I did a factory reset which went VERY well and as all the “data” was saved to the cloud, it restored itself admirably…yes, lots of restarts and catching up on versions, but all in all, it was done in 2 hours with minimal interference from me. While 2 hours might seem a lot, per some reading online, some people were 4-8-12 hours for all to come right so…whatever…at the moment, I am happy!

Fires. Glacier National Park is the biggie, but we have a Type 1 team here and it IS the West and the West knows fire. Media hype is horrible. Meanwhile, weather tomorrow (Sunday) and Monday is poised to help things and hopefully the firefighters will get a handle on things … AND be safe. Because of the media hype and tourism, I have some worries that unusual risks will be taken. I hope to be very wrong.

Back on the home front…

Relaxing on Friday afternoon…

Clear, blue sky…the GNP fire smoke is blowing east I think. Here, it is clear.

The Fuschia continue to flourish. They are so beautiful and every day I am so happy to see them doing so well!

This is the first year in many years that I’ve had porch hanging baskets with gorgeous blooms. They add so much to the front porch and my kitchen window view.

Happy, happy boys…on Beardog Point.

Nothing better than seeing them together!

Saturday…inside light as the weather changes and thunder rumbles and hopefully rain comes as well…

…along the road home.

Peace and Light

It is still cool.

We’ve had bits of rain overnight and in the days.

June was like July and so far July is more like June.

Bear, Auggie and I are enjoying every moment of the current cool, pleasant and sometimes rainy days and nights.

Peace and Light.

Two stories from the chairs

The odd chair arrangement speaks to an event from last week.

I was trotting down my driveway in hopes of speaking to the UPS person as he was delivering a package to my “end of the driveway” box. At one point, I said “OW!” I didn’t twist anything or step wrongly – there was just a sharp pain in my left shin.

Back at home, I thought that since I don’t normally run and I was not in shoes that had much cushioning, it was probably a shin splint. I iced and took some ibuprofen and massaged and stretched.

Through the week, it got worse in both pain and swelling.

By Friday afternoon, I was sporting a “platypus” foot, fat ankle and shin. The pain is on my shin bone but the swelling went from there all the way through to my toes.

Saturday morning, I went to an urgent care orthopedic clinic for an exam and x-ray. The thought is a stress fracture – inconclusive as stress fractures do not show on x-ray until they heal … or actually fracture.

Well, phooey.

The Dr. suggested a cane for the next week to wait for the swelling to subside and then to get fitted for a walking boot to stabilize things and allow healing vs a full break.

I’m using ski poles vs a cane which allows for both support and a more normal stride than a cane. The more normal stride will hopefully keep other joints and muscles from objecting.

Plus I am keeping my leg elevated as much as possible …THAT is what the chairs are saying as I moved them in order to have a leg rest when outside.

And a lot of “icing” … well, a bag of frozen peas was too small…the bag of blueberries is just right and the heavy paper wrapping is much more comfortable than the plastic wrap around vegetables :) !

The second story from the chairs is weather related. We’ve had some rain. Not a lot, but off and on light showers the last two days. Yea!!

The chairs have spoken.

The End.

Dealing with the heat and my 24 hours as a farm and ranch hand

This week was a repeat of last week…took time midweek to head to town and stock up on supplies so we could hunker down over a forecast hot 4th of July weekend:

Full frig and freezer!

Version 2 of the long, long cat … a cat inside to escape the outside heat!

Good news, bad news: The good news is that all fireworks have been banned this year. The bad news is that the fireworks have been banned because of the severe fire danger from heat and lack of rain. I don’t believe I’m saying this, but I’d rather it was green and moist and I was complaining about fireworks for a week. The fire danger is off the charts. I have the motorhome fueled, filled with water and stocked with food and clothes. We can roll quickly if necessary. Hopefully, it will not be necessary.

Meanwhile, my across the road neighbors, home to the chickens that supply me with THE MOST GORGEOUS EGGS – the neighbors went camping. They had hoped to do a 2 day trip but because of the 4th and fire danger, decided on an overnight. They asked if I could collect eggs, feed the horse and pony, the chickens and the barn cats and water the garden…in addition to eggs, I also get extras from the garden. So, I said: “YES”!

So, for 24 hours, I was Ms. Farm and Ranch Person. This is SO out of character for me. I do not like to be out in the hot and dusty and stinky, etc. BUT, the chickens are not only beautiful and supply the most wonderful eggs but they are a kick to be around. The horse (Bernita) and pony (Lexi) and cats (Oscar and Gerti) are so much fun also…

Lexi and Bernita. Lexi aka “Miss Piggy” LOVES her food. Bernita has restraint. They now love me because in addition to forking (pitch fork!!!) over their hay, I took carrots – YUM!

The cats. So funny – these cats are like Auggie: Norwegian Forest Cats!

Oscar, the gray. Oscar kind of has Mr. Bob’s build… wide body!

Gerti, a calico is a bit slimmer but still fluffier than Auggie and shorter tail.

They are both sociable and followed me around as I did the chore routine.

Some of the “girls”. These are last year’s chicks. For whatever reason, this year’s prefer to stay in the coop per Mel. But they are all together in the coop overnight so it is not a “get along” thing ??? Chickens are funny, I think. I can’t remember the breed names, but I think these are an incredibly beautiful group of hens and it was fun to feed and talk with them.

The “inside girls” … this year’s chicks in the coop. So, the other funny thing is that inside the coop there are nesting boxes for each chicken. BUT, the eggs are almost always in the left side boxes…rarely in the right side per Mel and Jesse.

On my watch, Friday night there were 6 eggs on the left side: 3 in 1 box and 2 in another. Saturday morning there was 1 egg on the right side but above the boxes! Saturday, 11:00 a.m. ish there were 2 eggs in 1 box on the left side.

Hmm.

But, there are 15 chickens so I told them a few of them were slackers!!

They said: “bawwk, bawwk, BAWWKKKK!!!”

The garden – lush and beautiful. Jesse set things up so I only had to turn on 2 faucets and all of the garden got a good drink.

After Saturday morning chores, I headed home and gathered my boys for a walk in the woods while it was still cool…

Mornings – still the best!

The long, long cat and the hot, hot dog.

This week.

Staying home

I work from a home office. Except for groceries, I do most of my shopping online. I do not belong to any organizations.

I am home a LOT! And I love it. My little house is not perfect and there are things I’d like to do inside and out, but it is comfortable and the few things I have, I love.

And I love being here with Bear and Auggie. Bear loves Jeep rides and I am so happy to take him along with me. We have our spots for walks. But, we are both happy to return to the house and to Auggie, who is often waiting and watching from a window spot.

Anyone who has read this blog for any time, knows that I really do NOT like hot weather and hot for me is 80F. Still, I hate “wishing away” days and I don’t like to waste energy being too grumpy … especially about the weather! I’ve tried various tricks through the years to reduce the amount of whining and complaining.

Last week, when the weather folks started talking about the record breaking heat this weekend, I decided to approach this like I’d approach a Winter storm. I made sure the pantry was full and the frig and freezer were stocked with good things to eat. I’m used to being home so the idea of staying inside, which I enjoy during a Winter storm … not a problem.

The main difference is instead of sitting in front of the woodstove, I’m sitting in front of the fan!

Mornings are still beautiful, even if not quite as cool as usual.

We take a long morning walk while the sun is low and there is a lot of shade.

Then some time in the yard together while I run sprinklers, check the motorhome and water the fuschia.

And while fushia might not be typical “cut flowers”, I trimmed the plants to hopefully make it easier on them through the heat and brought the cuttings inside to enjoy during our heat wave hibernation.

As usual, it is often about attitude and perspective: making the best of a situation, looking at the bright side, counting my many blessings – all of that!

I don’t know that I can honestly say I’m enjoying the heat wave. I worry about the animals, both wild and especially livestock like the angus (black) cattle. BUT – I can only take care of me and mine and so I do that. And I enjoy being in my cool and comfortable house … relaxing, reading, doing a bit of work and being excused by weather from even thinking about outside chores :) !!

AND … having homemade peach ice cream for breakfast!

Staying home.