Posts from the ‘Front Porch Musings’ category

End of the week

Tax day cometh and with it so much to do in addition to the usual, so it was a FULL week.

BUT, the weather…the WEATHER!! – it was beautiful and in defiance of the forecast it was mostly sunny and warm.

Friday afternoon with a forecast of a stormy weekend, I stopped work early and enjoyed the outdoors with Bear and Auggie. I am fortunate to have flexibility in my work schedule and decided I’d rather enjoy the sun and work over the weekend in the rain/snow if the weekend forecast was to be believed.

In addition to tax day etc., I saw my local herbalist this week and came away with a regimen that included 7 nights of hot baths.

My little house has a LARGE walk in shower, but no bathtub.

Huh.

The herbalist folks suggested a kiddie pool. That led me to my local “home and ranch supply” place and lo and behold that place had a SALE on a 100 gallon stock tank (Rubbermaid) … as in a watering trough for stock: horses, cows, etc.

I bought one.

Ya… Montana hot tub…I can hear neighbors Mike and Nancy laughing!! (THEY have a REAL hot tub :)! )

But, it worked and it was wonderful and I wish I’d thought of it sooner. My instructions were to soak for 30 minutes in as hot of water as I could stand.

So I did.

On the front porch.

And it felt SO good! Afterward, I took a quick rinse off shower, went to bed and slept wonderfully.

I can’t wait until tonight, to repeat.

This afternoon – Saturday – it is blustery and cool and feels more like Fall, than Spring. The gusts are causing the pine trees to rain pine cones which sent Bear and Auggie inside…

… to nap.

End of the week.

In the spirit of the season: New life

A little over 2 weeks ago, I set the Greek Oregano seeds in the “orange” jar…

Weekend before last, I set the remaining jars: Parsley (yellow), Basil (blue) and Cilantro (red-pink).

So.

Honestly…I didn’t have much hope that the few seeds in the packet would ever do anything… the limited sun, the low temperatures…

BUT! – I monitored and spritzed water and spoke lovingly to the seedlings….

And THEN….AND THEN!!!

A SPROUT in the Greek Oregano!

New Life!

In the spirit of the Easter season…NEW Life!

Afterward

The day after the good news dawned clear…

…and beautiful!

It looked to be sunny!

Although we had a good night, I was in that “afterward” state of exhaustion. The weather said rain and I had driven down in the rain. Although all went well, it was more tiring than driving in clear weather.

I had a late morning meeting.

I decided to stay a second day and relax over breakfast, coffee… a slow start.

And then it snowed.

It REALLY snowed!

So, I felt I made a VERY good call to stay :) !!

Yesterday afternoon, as Bear and I were headed back to Auggie and Wild Thing…after the good news and after being too warm (Bear and I), and not having enough water through the day (me) and not having had a whole lot to eat either (me) and despite having good food on board, I decided that I really wanted a freezer pizza that I could just stick in the oven while I drank a gallon of water and maybe a glass of wine…

This is what happens when I go to the grocery store hungry…after an intense day.

And don’t forget the ice cream!

I did add some roast broccoli from home to today’s junk food lunch!

I haven’t bought this kind of “food” in a long, long time. I enjoyed it. I don’t need to do it again for awhile, but it really hit the spot!

I did manage to work half a day today and I think we all feel better. The Jeep is hooked up and we will head for home tomorrow morning pending clear roads – hopefully mid-morning to get home by noon or shortly after.

And the capper…a beautiful waxing crescent in a clear night sky.

Ready to roll

Just to clarify…Bear is not seeming to be ill. I did have the feeling that he did not seem 100% comfortable and so when we went for his 6 month Senior Wellness exam, I asked for a full blood test even though all other parts of the exam indicated healthy dog. The one number is VERY high and has been increasing over the last 8 months and it indicates something… Still, as of today, Bear is Mr. Happy Boy: eating well, maintaining weight, playing, etc. … mostly normal…just that niggling feeling on my part that he is not 100%. Based on some other history I made the decision to jump directly to a specialist.

But, today we enjoyed a very springlike day – that is Bear digging on Beardog Hill.

So much fun!

Meanwhile, after considerable dithering, I de-winterized Wild Thing. She is full of water which allows us to live with “normal plumbing”, i.e. shower, hot water – all running water enjoyment! This is versus kind of camping in her using bottled water and the rv park showers. I am unclear why I was on the fence about this because it does not take all that much time to winterize OR de-winterize, but at this point, I am VERY glad that I decided to de-winterize and we roll tomorrow with a normal rolling house!

And I am calm about all. I have little control over any of it so it is 1 step/1 thing at a time and I am focusing on just enjoying each day whatever it brings. Worrying is not going to change a thing and although it has taken a significant part of my almost 60 years to get to this point, I am grateful to be here.

Auggie was in and out of Wild Thing as I did the de-winterizing and a bit of loading.

I think, like me…and like Bear…He is Ready to Roll!

Sunday Morning

As I was making coffee this morning, I looked out and saw the rising sun reflected in Wild Thing’s windshield. It just looked like such a happy promise for a beautiful day…

And it was!

The rising sun hit not only the windshield, but a few clouds …

… and the vapor trail from a morning jet.

After breakfast, Bear and I took a ride in the Jeep – East on our road to Echo Lake.

The lake is still frozen and the scene was far more wintry than the valley. The sun was warm, the sky was clear and blue and we had a nice walk along the northern shoreline.

Sunday Morning.