Every rescue dog comes with its own set of baggage to sort through. Freya loves to chew – probably some from anxiety but more likely from being caged most of her life and now finding a whole new world of tactile sensations.
Even though I pick up the toys most nights, by 9 a.m. she has most of them out of the bin and every one is missing something – an ear, a fin, a flipper. Once she finds a way in, then she goes all in looking for the squeaker so the white toy stuffing goes all over. Our living room right now looks like a stuffy toy abattoir. Even the hard rubber toys are no match for her little shark teeth.
Unfortunately, it’s not just toys. We realized right away that pretty much anything is fair game. It took YA a bit longer to come to terms with this – she’s lost a shoe, a slipper and a pair of shorts. We’ve taken to limiting her smorgasbord a bit right now by putting up gates to keep her in a smaller area and by keeping a very close eye on her.
She is however quite stealthy and if your attention is elsewhere, she can get around you quite nicely. On Saturday I spent some time on the phone with one of my BFFs from Madison. I had been upstairs before the call and when I came down, I neglected to put up the gate at the bottom of the stairs. A few minutes into my call, I looked up and saw Freya chewing what looked like a big chunk of yellow foam. At first I figured she had gutted a stuffy but most toys these days are white fiber fill; I also didn’t see any stuffy carcasses nearby. When I took it from her and headed toward the trash, I noticed more yellow foam on the landing. I had reconfigured the dog bed situation upstairs so I thought that maybe Freya didn’t like my renovation.
When I got off the phone, I went to check it out. No trail of yellow foam to the landing. No cover to whatever the item had been. Both upstairs dog beds were intact. In fact, everything upstairs was intact. I even checked rooms with closed doors. I moved the gate to YA’s room and looked around in there. Bupkiss. I even did a slow-pan video of her room and sent it to her (she’s out of town for work) and she says it looks fine. We haven’t replaced bathroom rug yet. All my pillows are fine. Downstairs everything in order. Piano bench fine, dining room chairs fine, breakfast room dog kennel fine (I checked this twice). Not one bit of yellow foam anywhere else.
At this point I have given up looking for whatever it was in its past life. I’m figuring that in three months or so I’ll be looking for something, won’t be able to find it and a lightbulb will go off. Maybe.
Have you lost anything lately that you think you might find… eventually? Any mysteries in your life this week?
The other night I had a glasses mishap. In getting out of the car at PetSmart, I was completely unorganized, trying to grab the vet records (Freya had to have vaccine proof for her class), dog treats, leash, purse, keys. During this mess I managed to knocked my night driving glasses out of the car without realizing it.
When we got back to the car over an hour later, I noticed something a little shiny on the ground and when I reached down, saw that it was indeed my glasses. They were a little wonky with one arm stuck and not opening. I’m not sure what happened. I’m pretty sure that if I had stepped on them in my kerfuffle getting out of the car, I would have noticed that. On the other hand, if some other car had parked in the spot next to me while we were in class, it would have had to park REALLY close. If I had to bet my own money, I somehow crunched them.
Luckily the lens seemed fine. I was afraid to force the arm myself, so I took myself off to Warby Parker when they opened yesterday morning. I knew they wouldn’t charge me to look at the glasses, but wasn’t sure if they would charge me for fixing them (if they could). I was perfectly prepared to take them back home, force the arm and use duct tape until next summer, when I can get a new pair.
The technician started looking at them and twisting them without quoting me any pricing so I quit worrying. Then he set them down and went to “ask somebody something”… my worry-o-meter clicked on again. But he came back and went back to work. They looked good to me; he still wasn’t satisfied. At that point he went into the backroom and came out with a new frame, just the same as my old frame; I didn’t even know my frame was still being made – it’s been three years. He quickly popped my lens out of my injured frames and squeezed them into the new frame. Heated the bridge to make it fit me, cleaned up both lens and handed them over. No charge. I told him to be sure to send me a survey.
I’m pretty sure I’ve talked about Warby Parker before but their books of haiku are still for sale in the store and still too pricey for me but I thought I’d do quick haiku to great customer service:
Night glasses broken.
Warby Parker hits a run –
Night vision restored!
Any good customer service lately? Or absolutely rotten customer service?
When YA and I started our search for a dog, the #1 trait that I was worried about was “does this dog have a strong chase instinct”? For eleven years, Guinevere chased Nimue. It was just her instinct to chase, especially when startled. Any time the cat surprised her (like jumping off the bed when Guinevere was snoozing nearby), the dog would lunge out of her sleep. As soon as she lunged, the cat would run. The minute the cat ran, Guinevere would chase; she couldn’t help herself. Unfortunately this ended with the cat getting injured a couple of times early on. After that YA and I set up a couple of serious gates that allowed escape routes for the cat in the two places where the trouble was happening. That solved their problem – it was a pain for YA and me. We did not want to have this problem repeated with a new dog.
While Freya does chase squirrels and rabbits in the yard, she’s not shown any interest in chasing the cat. In fact, she is afraid of the cat. If Nimue is on the back porch when I open the door to let the dog in, Freya freezes on the back steps until I shoo the kitty back into the kitchen. If the cat is on the steps to go upstairs, Freya will stay at the bottom of the steps until Nimue has gone all the way up. And the only way I’ve been able to get Freya on the bed when Nimue is already in residence is with a bunch of treats; as soon as the treats are gone, the dog is gone.
Nimue is loving this. After all those years, she is definitely enjoying having the upper paw. She will turn and give the dog the stink eye. There has been some hissing and I’ve even caught her chasing Freya a couple of times.
It’s been three months and I’m starting to see the very first signs of an eventual détente. Freya is a little braver about coming in or up when she sees the cat. The cat is ignoring more. And a few times it seems clear that Freya would like to play with Nimue. She follows behind, doing some sniffing and then plopping into that classic “Wanna play?” pose with the butt in the air. Then yesterday morning, when Freya came into the kitchen, Nimue was sitting on top of the kennel. Fraya approached slowly, nose stretched out. Nimue didn’t exactly stretch to meet, but she didn’t back off and for a few moments they were nose to nose. Then Nimue moved back a bit to lay on the blanket, out of Freya’s reach.
I didn’t realize how much I was longing for this until I saw it. All my other dogs and cats have gotten along well until Guinevere came along to rock the boat. I do miss her but I don’t miss the chaos. Now I’m eager to see how long it takes for Nimue and Freya to settle into, if not friendship, or even companionship, but détente.
Tell me about someone you’ve had to learn to deal with.
The soybeans are turning yellow and dropping their leaves. Another week will make a huge difference.
We spent a week outside of Charleston SC visiting my niece and her husband and their two cute little girls, age five and two. Boy, that two year old: She never stops moving! Better them than us. And a wonderful dog, Maggie. A female Doberman. I’ve not had anything to do with Dobermans before, but she was a sweetheart.
These people love their hot weather. I was hot for the whole week we were there. They made a fire one night in their fire pit. IT WAS 80 DEGREES! I kept moving my chair back. But, it was a lovely night and It was a great, much needed vacation.
Our first night and I got to take the five year old to bed. I was pooped out.
Who doesn’t love chasing seagulls?
Daughter loved the beach.
While we were gone, our house sitters, G & E, did a fabulous job keeping our dogs occupied. They left the house cleaner than it was when we left. E does a lot of cooking, which was evident by the washed cookie sheets and bread loaf pan on the counter. We need to get them to leave some left overs. And G works at a local nursery and we always come home to fresh cut flowers and even some new plants on the front step. Great people. We’re not sure the dogs were glad to have us come back or not.
Plus our other neighbor, B, collecting eggs and taking care of the chickens. She said she loved her the dogs protected her from the raccoons.
The tree branch that fell down on the deck just before we left got cut up and hauled away. We are so lucky it missed the gutters and missed the lights hanging off the gutters. It broke a leg off one plastic deck chair, and bent one tiki torch. Driving around the farm, there are trees down all over. Lots of trees in fields, which will make harvest difficult. It’s hard to clean them up without damaging more crops. Our neighbors took their cattle out as there was so many trees down on the fence it was easier to take them out than to fix the fences. At least for now. They’ll be fixed before next spring.
And we’ve had a bunch of weird electronic issues since the power was out with that storm. Course the router needed to be rebooted a few times, and the extenders, and the security cameras… got most of them back, but it’s been a process.
The Soil and Water (SWCD) people, and contractor Clint built the new structure to stop erosion.
The front side with a tile inlet.
The back side. The tile drains down in the tree’s to the left.
Clint also built a ‘low water crossing’ at one of our waterways. It tends to be wet in the spring, (that’s why it’s a ‘water way’). He excavated down, placed geo-textile fabric, large rock placed underneath, smaller rock on top, and that way the water can still pass through but the equipment has a place to cross without creating ruts in the soft spring soil.
Bailey approved
I am very proud of the work we’ve done the last few year making the farm a better place for the future.
Including pouring concrete.
Last week Kelly and I were compacting gravel for this pad. This concrete is in the main part of the shed, right inside the main door, and is where just about everything gets parked. I’m as excited about this concrete as I have been about all the rest.
A pack of wire ties.
Wrap the wire around the rebar, hook the loops, and spin it five times to make it tight. Six twists will break the wire.
Rebar wired together and propped up with rocks, tin cans, empty bottles; Anything I found in the garbage that I thought would be useful. You can buy 2” plastic rebar chairs, but why would I wanna do that?
We had some good help leveling out the concrete. Our son came down with a couple of his buddies. I spent a little more money and ordered a conveyor truck to get the concrete in the shed, that way I could be in there helping and not in the tractor hauling concrete 1/2 a yard at a time in the loader bucket. I am supposedly, the ‘Brains’ of the outfit. I use the term loosely. Jokes on them!
I ordered 5000 psi concrete “garage mix” with fiber and air entrainment. See, sounds like I know what I’m talking about.
You want a bunch of help getting the cement truck dumped out and the concrete spread out. Then there’s a little more time to get it level and time for it to begin to harden before the finishing work begins. And that can be a one person job on a pad this small. It just takes several good people right at the start.
On top of the compacted gravel we get the rebar laid out and tied together using a homemade wire twister. I use fiberglass rebar. I buy wire ties with a loop on each end, then use a paint roller I’ve modified to twist them.
By the time we finished I was pooped out. Man, I am not 30 years old anymore.
The conveyor truck getting set up. We were all working so I didn’t get any pictures of it happening.
Kelly was in charge of the measuring stick and the laser level to get it level. 
Looks pretty good for some amateurs. Better than our first round last year.
Humphrey walk through it first. But I’m OK with that. I left his footprints.
HOW OFTEN DID YOU FALL ASLEEP YOURSELF TAKING THE KIDS TO BED?
On Sunday evening Husband took our terriers for their third walk of the day. They have rather elaborate hair styles, with skirts, beards, long brows, short hair on back and tail, and longer, curly hair on their chests and legs. They have short legs with long bodies that are pretty close to the ground.
Husband is usually careful to only walk them on paved paths and not let them stray into long grass. They both got into some longer grass Sunday night though, as Husband gave some other walkers wide berth as they passed one another. He doesn’t want the dogs to jump on other people. The grass was full of tiny burrs the size of BB’s that stuck to the dogs’ coats in every place imaginable. It was impossible to brush them out as they stuck so securely.
Boommate is a former vet tech and also worked for a groomer for a while. She came to the rescue with a small electric clipper. Husband and I held the dogs securely while she patiently cut the burrs out of their fur. The dogs were very unhappy being manhandled and restrained. She said she had encountered these burrs before, and they can cause severe problems if animals ingest them or get them stuck in their mouth or throat.
After about an hour of clipping and brushing, the dogs were burr free. In the event this happens again I ordered a portable dog grooming table for easier management. The dogs go to their regular groomer next week so they can get their coats all evened out and trimmed.
Who has come to your rescue? Any incidents of burrs or stickers on you or your pets?
I’m pretty sure that if you asked YA if she would want anything about me changed, the top of the list would be “stop talking to strangers”.
I admit to this freely. No big, long conversations; most of my talks to strangers are one-off comments, usually having to do with whatever situation I find myself in with strangers. Lots of “beautiful dog” or “cute dog” or “does your dog like to say hi” or “does your dog like to be petted”. YA was mortified about a month ago when I rolled down the car window to call out to someone that their Irish Setter was gorgeous. I have a friend in Wisconsin who can start a friendship with anybody she meets; I’ve been with her when she got name/phone/address with a stranger we met at the zoo. I’ve told YA she should be lucky she’s got me. This has never mollified her.
Waiting on line for the State Fair Park `n Ride buses is the exception to my short yakking with strangers. We’re all there for the same reason. We all have stories to tell about various parking/bus situations. It’s always interesting to find out where people are from (we met someone from San Diego this year) and there’s usually good information to be had about foods and entertainment. YA has to admit that even she has taken part in these bus-line conversations.
So I felt completely exonerated yesterday morning while Freya and I were walking along in Tangletown. I woman drove by, slowed down, rolled down her window and called out “beautiful dog” before driving away. I felt like I had met one of my people!
Do you still say “rolled down the window” or “I typed my answer”? Better yet, do you talk to strangers when you’re out and about?
I mean who doesn’t love popcorn, right? (I know there’s a few of you).
Daughter went to a movie the other day. It was Tuesday so we did the Large Value popcorn (we usually have the refillable bucket, but this came up spur of the moment). Shortly after she got home it was already soggy. Dang, we love leftover popcorn. I threw it out to the chickens the next morning. You know, back in the ‘70s, when I was in the hospital for three weeks with my leg injury, my mom would make popcorn, put it in a leftover bread bag, and freeze it. Then she would bring it to me in the hospital. You don’t often hear about people using bread sacks anymore, do you? They worked for boot liners and they worked for leftovers.
See this video of me calling the chickens; they love leftovers, and popcorn all the more.
Finally got the last of the straw baled on Sunday. Saturday, I baled and stacked 110 bales in a wagon for the strawberry farm in the neighborhood. He’ll take them in November just before it gets really cold or snows. He’s got a shredder / blower type machine that he can stack about a dozen bales on, then wife or child feeds them into the chute to chop it up and spray it over the berries while he drives down the rows. Looks pretty slick for that job. On Sunday, Neighbor Craig was over and round baled the rest. Got 18 large round bales, called 5×5’s. Five feet wide and about five feet diameter. At some point I’ll get out with the tractor and loader and bale fork on the front and bale lift on the back and pick them up and put them in a row until neighbor Dave picks them up for use as bedding this winter. As I’ve said before since there’s no under seeding planted with the oats, they can sit there for a bit. If there was something planted underneath, and they were left sitting, the bales would smother whatever was growing. I do want to get these fields dug up and planted to rye, so I need them moved sooner than later.
I called John Deere to come out and check why the big tractor is overheating. I pulled the side panels off.
Hmmm. Maybe this pipe?
And I decided, yeah, let’s call a guy. I don’t have that much time right now anyway being back at college and all. I bought this tractor used. It has 11,000 hours on it, which is equivalent to 50,000 miles on a car. And I put about 100 hours on it per year. It came from a local farm, so my local dealer might have some history on it. I don’t. I can tell the radiator hoses are soft, meaning they should be replaced, and it probably needs a water pump and new thermostat. I’m guessing $3500 parts and labor. Will let you know in a month.
Got new lights installed on a trailer, then went to pick up rebar and a 6″x6″x16′ green treated post for a fence down in the cow yard.
Fancy new lights
We’re also prepping for more concrete in the shed. Padawan and I excavated dirt this week. Got two loads of gravel delivered for the base. Rented a plate compactor for the weekend. Padawan was out for a couple hours, and he and I worked on digging out the dirt and gravel next to the existing concrete. Man, I am so looking forward to having concrete in here! Another one of those things I wish I’d have done 20 / 30 / 40 years ago! But, you know, money. And life. And I’ll appreciate it more now. (Padawan 2 is back at college).
Another project
This looks like work.
I changed the spark plugs in the swather, and then I was tired of looking at it. Remember I said I’d drive it around for an hour so it felt needed? I drove it for 20 minutes and called it good. It worked, it made all the scary noises I’ve come to expect, and I parked it back in the shed for next summer. I’ll try to start it once a month and move it back and forth until winter. I say until winter because usually I have something parked in front of it, so I can still start it, but not be able to move it after that.
At the college I am taking two classes: Music Fundamentals, and Introduction to Humanities. I don’t usually do two classes. But music only has 11 students and I was afraid it would be cancelled so I registered for Humanities and now they’re both going. I signed up for music because I wanted to learn more about WHY I like the music I like. How is a song created? What makes rock sound like rock and country sound like country? And what do they mean when they say, ‘This is in the key of A’?
And the teacher for Humanities is a great teacher. I’ve taken 3 of her classes before. Both these are online and so far, so good. From what I’m learning so far in chapter 1, I’m pretty good at the Humanities already. I am mostly open minded, and I use a Socratic method of teaching. (Trying to get others to think and answer questions themselves and not simply lecturing).
Anyone familiar with Rhaphidophoridae? Otherwise known as Camel Crickets?
Eww!
We have had them in our house the last few years. They’re creepy. We have an exterminator / bug guy that does bait stations outside to control mice and rats, so we had him spray the basement too.
The ag co-op had me apply for my crop loan for next year. Got that approved. Saved a $250 application fee. Looks like I can farm again next year.
I’m seeing a few soybeans starting to turn yellow. Haven’t seen anyone chopping corn silage yet, but that will be happening soon. I picked a few ears of corn the other day. It is well dented. Counted 14 kernels around, and 38 long. Usually they’re 16 around, a really impressive ear will be 18. They were both filled all the way to the end, meaning the plant had everything it needed and didn’t need to abort any kernels to survive. Now that was just this one place in this one field. I could go to another field with more rocks and it would look worse.
Acorns are falling too. They are good sized this year. Must have been a good year for acorns. And it seems like some of the barn swallows have started to leave. The world just keeps going around.
THINGS YOU USED TO USE FOR LEFTOVERS YOU DONT USE ANYMORE?
*Thanks to JimEd Poole for the phrase and T-shirt suggestion.
The vacation is over. Farming sucked this week.
The highlight of my week was putting a new windshield wiper on my car because it actually clicked into place and stayed there when I turned on the wipers. I’m calling that a win.
To sooth my mood, I listened to the music of Les Paul. Are you familiar with him and his wife, Mary Ford, and their multi track recording of “How High The Moon? It’s really pretty cool.
He’s a pioneer of the solid body electric guitar, and his use of recording techniques such as over dubbing and multi track recording was revolutionary.
Mary Ford was an outstanding musician herself. Reading about her reveals 4 marriages, alcoholism, and sadly, died at age 53, of complications from alcohol abuse, after eight weeks in a diabetic coma. Kind of broke my heart…
One of my favorite recordings is “Chester and Lester”, Les Paul and Chet Atkins. Which leads me to “Neck and Neck”, Chet Atkins and Mark Knopfler. Which takes me to Mark Knopfler and Emmylou Harris and “All The Roadrunning”.
And that’s all the duos’s I can link because I don’t have any other Emmylou Harris.
So the farm.
Last Saturday the neighbors came out to combine oats. They made a round and a half, plugged up the combine with the grass, (remember, I said that was going to be a problem) And then, I think they were hot and dirty and mad and they went home. I’m sure he was as hot and frustrated as I would’ve been. I said that I thought they started on the worst field, and they should try some of the other fields because there was a lot less grass in them. And I don’t know why, but they never came back and they told me I’d have to cut the oats, sort of the traditional way of swathing it and then picking it up from there. That gives the grass a chance to dry out. Well if I’d have known I was going to swath it, I’d have got my swather ready before we went on vacation for a week. I tried Saturday afternoon to get the swather started and it’s always a bugger to get going at first. Sunday I was working on a show all day. And Monday was hot and humid and miserable and it was a Monday all over. I went to three different auto part stores, and I know I’ve talked about this before; the swather has a Chrysler ‘slant 6’ engine in it. These things were bulletproof and there was a million of them around back in the 70s. But the trick now is finding a mechanic old enough to know what a slant 6 is. And that’s been my problem. I’ve gotten a lot of parts that don’t fit and we can’t seem to find ones that do fit. John Deere doesn’t carry parts for the motors anymore. And I was in quite a foul mood most of Monday. By Tuesday I had mellow out a bit and by Wednesday hired a couple of guys to come and swath the oats for me. What’s a couple more hundred bucks to hire them…
Hired guys swathing oats
And now, of course, after a month of no rain, now it’s raining on Friday. Need the rain, just not right now. Because now my oats is laying down. But at least the oats was standing well when it was cut! Yay! I’m afraid it’s dried up to nothing, so maybe some rain will help it rehydrate. And then eventually the swath will dry and then we’ll get it combined and then I’ll get some straw baled. The neighbors have had their Oats and Straw done for two or three weeks. But we’re not talking about that. 
It was a nice gentle all day rain, and we have over an inch. I did bookwork, and other computer stuff, then organized the pencil drawer in the shop, and fixed a crack on the hood of one of the lawn mowers.
That’s better
I did take a couple hours of one afternoon, when I wasn’t doing anything else, and painted our downstairs bathroom that’s almost done being remodeled. It’s done except for the countertop and sink, and toilet. The countertop is coming August 10 and I would expect a plumber a day or two after that. And while I was painting over the pink bathroom I was singing to myself Lou and Peter Berryman’s “Why Am I Painting My Living Room“.
The padawans were out and we started replacing boards around the bottom of the pole barn. It was hot and one of them complains a lot. Eventually I give him a new rule: “No Bitching”. Then he gets moody but I can handle that.
Front boards done; working on the side. And the door needs to be rebuilt.
I had rock delivered for the road. Ten loads of 18 tons each. Spending money hand over fist again. Can’t take it with you.
Never underestimate the value of a good driver who knows how to spread rock.
I also got stung by a bee working with the boys. Cripes. No allergies or anything, just another annoyance.
I cleaned the radiators on the big tractor, (AC, hydraulic oil, and water radiators) and worked up a small field that a friend plants for a deer plot. (His theory is the deer will eat that instead of my crops. It’s a nice thought that doesn’t work). And after the oats and straw is finally done, I’ll be planting cereal rye as a cover crop.
cleaning the radiators.
Chicken mama is down to 3 chicks… but the co-parenting guinea mom still has around maybe 15? She keeps them out of site most of the time and it’s hard to get a good count of them.
Guinea moms and babies
I mowed some more weeds. I finished lighting one show and started another, and this one is a drag show and a lot of fun.
There was a turkey buzzard sitting on a fence post one day. I thought, ‘well if that doesn’t sum up my week.”
I’ll end with this:
WHAT GETS YOU OUT OF A FOWL MOOD?
HOW MANY YO-YO’s DID YOU HAVE AS A KID? COULD YOU DO TRICKS? 
As you know, I have a highly curated library account. My Holds list includes books that are on order still, that I am on the waitlist for and quite a few books that I have “paused”. Every couple of weeks I go through all the paused holds, resume a few of them and then reset the pause date to some time in the future – usually three to four weeks out. This has been my pattern for a couple of decades.
The past month my attention span has been fairly limited to the new dog. Paperwork, initial vet intake, spay, the cone of shame, then the sleeve of shame (she got razor burn from where they inserted her IV and she just could not leave it alone). Now we’re through all that and have started working on preliminary training and walkies every day. Add the early morning potty breaks and the last in the evening journey outside as well and I feel consumed. In a good way.
So it was shocking when I opened up my library account Monday night and saw that I have THIRTY books in transit. THIRTY! I completely forgot to check my Holds, so everything that had been set to July 27 is now on its way to me. How could I do something this dumb?
I called my buddy who’s the manager of my library and he said there is really no way to circumvent this process short of calling the origin library for each book and asking if they can catch it. I’m not doing that. In addition to being a serious pain in the patoot for me, it would be an even bigger pain for the libraries and as my buddy said, probably wouldn’t work anyway. Sigh.
So I guess I’ll have to seriously step up my reading for August. For fun, here are some of the titles that are on the way to me right now!
And to My Nephew Albert I Leave the Island What I Won Off Fatty Hagan in a Poker Game (one of the long-titled books I found earlier in the month)
The Chinese Parrot (a Charlie Chan novel)
The Concord Quartet (Alcott, Emerson, Hawthorne & Thoreau)
Crock of Gold (people, gods, Irish fairies…)
Cursed Cocktails (blood mage tries to retire)
Doc Savage: His Apocalyptic Life (“biography”)
Elizabeth I, CEO (what you think)
Ex-Wife (1925 woman finds herself after divorce)
Illuminations in the Flatwoods (wild turkeys?)
In Seven Stages (Elizabeth Bisland side of the Around the World story)
Kipling Sahib (Rudyard Kipling bio)
The Last Moriarty (Sherlock Holmes knock-off)
Lost Believers (novel inspired by true story… we’ll see….)
Margaret Fuller: A New American Life (2013 Pulitzer Prize)
Marie of Romania (queen consort of Ferdinand, King of Romania)
Murder and the First Lady (Eleanor Roosevelt solves the murder)
No Matter How Much You Promise to Cook or Pay the Rent You Blew It Cauze Bill Bailey Ain’t Never Coming Home Again (another long and intriguing title)
A Short Bright Flash (lighthouses!)
Enuf is Enough (a book about English spelling – yeah, I know I lead an exciting life!)
What’s a rookie mistake you’ve made? Any good books on your nightstand?
We’ve been gone for a week. Returned to one last day of nice weather before it gets hot again.
Where were we?
Every restaurant was so loud you couldn’t have a conversation. We postulate the ambient noise level was so loud that everyone else has to get louder.
A cool ceiling at this resturant.
Decor at the same place.
There are many wonderful parks, lots of free green space, art, and statues.
It seems like we had a hard time figuring out the subway ticket system but we got around and managed to make do with the kindness of strangers and only losing money on one ticket system I still haven’t figured out what I bought that didn’t work. Que sera sera
Took a Commuter train to visit a couple attractions. First time for that for us.
Sunday after the World Cup finals, one train was packed, but everyone was very nice. We laughed about how tight we were crammed in there. Kelly and I joked a full train on Sunday is probably different than a full train on Thursday at 5:00 PM. The Wednesday 5 PM train was full, and seemed to skip one stop, and at the next stop, which was the one we wanted, only one door opened and we couldn’t get there before it closed and the train moved on. Daughter was VERY put out. A guy on the train said “I have missed so many stops…”
Traffic lights seem to only be a suggestion to some people.
A few more street signs would be really helpful.
I didn’t pack any shirts with sleeves!
We travelled there as Kelly had a work conference. We all had a few vacation days together before she had to ‘work’ work. Daughter and I made our own fun after that. Saw some movies – in 3D!- and had a good time.
Ice cream coma
My steps the last week average about 8500. Daughter, constantly moving, averages 12,000 a day.
We had lots of help on the farm to keep things in hand.
The chicken from last week still has some chicks left; I haven’t gotten a good count as they’re hiding in the tall grass. But maybe 5 out of her 13. We’ve always said, the real world is a tough place for chicks.
And now we have multiple baby guineas.
At least guineas are good at co-parenting.
We want more guineas, but didn’t want to stick a guest with baby chick care. So we’ll see. The photo was from Tuesday when the Palawan’s saw them. I haven’t found them yet on Friday. Kelly saw them briefly, and then the mom seems to hide them so she can get out and eat. That’s kind of unusual.
Padawan 1 is broke, so I left him a list of projects. Darn if those missing soft skills don’t make it harder than it had to be for both of us as I had to remind him to do a few jobs, and offer help by text when he’d ask questions. And he made a few jobs harder. Which is how we learn, right? P2 came out few times too. I’m not sure how much I’m paying them for work, or how much was goofing around. Well, QSS all over again.
Thanks to Rick and Betty for picking up the mail. Thanks to John and Tamsin for taking care of the chickens, Tamsin, and the dogs, John. Gracie and Evan house sat and watered flowers.
I’m hoping to get the oats harvested Saturday. It’s still standing good, which is great, but the grass in it is getting bad. That only means it will combine a little tougher (because a combine harvester doesn’t like green stuff) and the straw windrow will have to dry out before I can bale it.
The corn got sprayed with fungicide by helicopter. Corn fungus’ have become a big issue the last few years as they move up from the south and the hot weather acerbates the issue.
I’ll post a few more photos after the location has been determined.
EVER HOUSE SAT? OR HAD HOUSE SITTERS? TELL US ABOUT IT
