I Miss You, Mom

These are all synonyms for love (personified)  Hermi, Omi, Mutti, Mom, Omi-the-Great, Omi-saurus.  ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

Time to drop the resolutions

I'm dropping the resolutions, because I just keep plugging along, doing what needs to be doing.
Greenhouse:  still cleaning--it's been so hot for weeks that, even with fans on, it's unbearable to work in there, so I'm way behind.  Today was cooler, and the next few days, too, so I hope to finish soon.  I did finish washing over 5000 trays.
Gardens:  the vegetable garden is very productive in spite of no rain (and no watering on my part), some weeding didn't get done till very late, so it may be too late for some of the squashes.  Will have to buy squash this winter in that case.  Flower beds--still a disaster except the shaded ones--did those in the heat.  Berry patch only about 20% cleaned--got too hot, and without rain, the ground was like cement. Important to do these before fall and spread some Casaron in fall to prevent weed germination in spring.  Everything is ripening too fast because of the heat.  We have shared corn, cucumbers and tomatoes with anyone who will take them.
The peas weren't ready one day, the next day, over-ripe, so I'll pull them.  The onions are nicely keeling over on their own--they keep better if they fall over on their own.

Knitting: Working on Master Knitter Level 3--all reports and reviews done, working steadily on swatches.  Hope to finish these by end of Sept.  That will leave the hat and sweater to be designed and knit by April.  Will there be time for any Christmas knitting?  I made these  Teeny Tiny Socks for the new grand-baby that's expected in February.  The parents are not likely going to ask the baby 's gender, and I'm finding "gender neutral" leans towards masculine--that's why one pair got a bit of lilac in it:

Each pair took just under 10g. An Old Shale blanket is in the works and I'm dying to start this car seat/stroller cover:  Sleepy Monkey Blanket.  I have to buy some flannelette to make good quality receiving blankets.

I also made 3 Ruffle Scarves (which I strongly dislike, but OK in Edmonton Eskimo team colors, green and gold) for DD2 and DD3 and an elderly lady in the Nursing home who proudly wears her Edmonton Eskimo cap.  I don't have photos of my scarf, but this stock photo from the yarn company will give you an idea:

Aches and Pains:  My right hip is deteriorating and referring pain to all kinds of places as well as making it hard to tie shoes; according to the MRI it is moderately damaged, but there is a protocol that must be followed before surgery, regardless of the fact that it is very painful, and that I am still actively working in the greenhouse and around the farm.  The sequence used to be something like this:  pain management and exercise; when these don't work any more, cortisone shots directly into the joint, and when these don't work, surgery--if I live that long, and am fit enough to withstand surgery.  The process took at least 7 years with my left hip--highly successful outcome from that surgery.  I've been going to massage therapy to keep the muscles from seizing from the pain (and to un-seize them from the sitting-and-knitting all winter), and started physio this week to learn an appropriate exercise program.  Since,when sitting for extended periods of time, you're supposed to get up and move every 20 to 30 minutes, one of the exercises is easy to do and perfect for limbering things up.  Also I figured out an indoor 2-minute walk is:  **[the length of the living room, dining room, kitchen, down the stairs (backwards is less painful and more secure), the length of the basement, back up the stairs and back to the living room]**, repeat from ** to ** once more.
Fruit Flies:  There are so many fruit flies.  I am trapping them very successfully.  Take a clean yogurt container (about a quart size), put bait in (I found orange peels the best, mango second), stretch saran wrap over and fasten with a rubber band. Punch about 10 small holes with a skewer or round toothpick (they will find their way in but few will get out).  Within 5 minutes the orange peel one was full of flies, by the third day, there were very few flying around.  They will go to any fruit trimmings; I was trying different fruits in 5 different traps.  They all caught some, but orange and mango caught the most.  The orange one was just swarming.

Till next time:  Happiness isn't having what you want, it's wanting what you have.

Annie and Sophie

I love to volunteer at the Nursing Home.  Ten years ago if you had told me that this would be an important part of my life, I would have thought you are nuts.  After all, why would someone want to spend time there if it isn't your job?

Mom lived in the Nursing Home for the last 4 years of her life.  That's how the old people crept into my heart.  Mom opened the door.  We went on trips with the Handi-bus--they are so appreciative of these changes of scenery.

Today we took a group of ladies to Ukrainian Village.  These ladies were pioneers.  They had lived what the costumed interpreters had memorized.  Their take on those pioneer experiences was awe-inspiring, and I wonder what kinds of stories our grandchildren will have to reminisce with their grandchildren (the day the battery went dead on the cell phone?  the day Facebook or Twitter went down?).

Now back to Annie and Sophie. After church one Sunday, I brought Holy Communion to the Lodge.  I always chatted with the seniors after the celebration.   Annie said, "I am almost blind, but I have no pain. God is good".  Sophie answered, "I have lots of pain, but I have my sight. God is good".

I always appreciate God more, and am grateful for all my blessings after spending time with the elderly.

This video tells it all.  I can't find the original version, but in spite of errors of translation, it is still valid.

Till next time:  Hug an elder today

To-Do list: August 4

My to-do list is short, because one of the jobs is BIG.
1.  Pick up and feed to the sheep all the weeds I've picked in the garden and two flower beds (Thank God for our Kubota Tractor with a big bucket).
2.  Finish washing the last of the greenhouse trays (Thank God for pressure washers, and washing mashines and showers, since most of the debris from the trays ends up on me).
3.  If , by chance I finish all that early enough, I will rototill my neighbor's big fallow garden to take down the weeds I didn't get last time I was there (Ditto re: Kubota tractor)
4.  Tidying the kitchen and doing dishes at some point is a given.

Good thing DH is perfectly capable of scavenging for his own meals, and when I'm working outside, I don't get hungry, so I won't want to eat till evening.

I dreamed about swarms of wasps and horseflies--is that prophetic?  I'm not scared of wasps, but I hate horseflies because they love me  (sweet meat?).

Till next time:  A good laugh and a good night's sleep fixes everything (my paraphrase of something I shared on FB this morning).

A Perfect Sunday

I had the perfect Sunday yesterday.  I love going to church, but have such a painful, slow start every morning, taking a long time to limber up and get moving, so, since they changed the time to 8:30 and I have either a 10-mile or a 20-mile drive, it makes it tough sometimes to find the motivation.  So I struck the deal with God that I described in an earlier post:  If it's good for me to be there, wake me up in time, if You let me sleep in, I know that's what You want for me.
Well, yesterday I woke up quite energetic at 6 am.  I saw the sign.  Had a leisurely breakfast (my favorite kind), time to play on the computer a little bit, then off to church, wonderful weather, lovely service, awesome fellowship afterwards.  Hurried home, did a bit of knitting, was very happy because the newlyweds were coming for lunch:

The wedding had been three weeks ago.  So I made a lot of lamb chops and her favorite, fried green tomatoes, and his favorite, rice (not his way of making rice--I made Rice-a-Roni from scratch--he liked it), and had made a blueberry dessert yesterday.  We were chatting and chatting and learning about the Fijian culture, when our "dingaling" went off (infra-red sensor that let us know someone is driving into the yard) and the dogs started barking.  I checked who it was, didn't recognize the car, but the passenger that alighted--couldn't be--is it?--no--yes--it IS Eleanor--and the driver--it's Bob.  WOW!!  They were our new neighbors when we bought our first house in 1967.  Our kids played together--Our kids got into mischief together--our kids had birthday parties together.  We moved away in 1982, but they stayed in the old neighborhood until just recently.  We shared wonderful, happy, sad memories, Eleanor and Bob knew all about other neighbors and were still in touch with some--a wonderful blast from the past, and a resolution to visit more often.  And woo hoo--Eleanor and I are now friends on Facebook.  I'm so impressed that they headed into the countryside, to find us--they did know about the greenhouse, since we had met on a few occasions, while shopping (I still sometimes shop in the old neighborhood, and my last 12 years of teaching were in the old neighborhood) and I had also met Bob and their little grandson while I was supervising the playground at recess.
I hated that we had to cut our visit short, because we had made plans to go off to Vegreville (Kubota Man and I and the newlyweds) since DD3 was having a birthday supper for DGD2, Kayla.  So off we went on that trip.  There we had a wonderful supper, a lovely visit with more family members on that side, and my last-week's prediction at the Kubota dealer came true.

New story:  My DH's alias is Kubota Man--he loves orange equipment. We bought our first Kubota a number of years ago, a 24HP with big mower, rototiller, bucket and pallet jack.  That kept him happy for a couple of years.
Then it became harder and harder to unload the semi-trucks that came with bags of dirt for the greenhouse and trees and shrubs for the nursery.  So we decided he needed a 70HP with a bigger bucket, and pallet forks.  All was good.  Another new toy.  A couple of years later, it got too hard to switch implements (I needed the rototiller on, he wanted the mower on, etc.), so we decided that a 29HP was needed.  this one has a pallet lifter on the front, and generally holds the mower, so the rototiller stays on the original machine for the summer so I can maintain my berry patch and the neighbor's fallow garden.  The summer we bought that one, as we were waiting for it to come in, we couldn't mow, so the dealer lent us a 25HP tractor that was set up just for mowing--a belly mower, with grass catcher and a hydraulic dumping system--perfect for feeding the grass clippings to the sheep.  I was the first to use it, and, since it can almost do 360 degrees around corners and trees, I fell in love.  Kubota Man saw the enchanted look on my face and said, " Call Tim, ask how much, and if it's affordable, buy it--after all, we can't take it (our piggy bank) with us".
So, in this situation, I considered that an order-- it was expensive but affordable, so I bought it.
Last year we bought no new toys, so when I was at the dealership picking up maintenance parts, I bought him a real miniature toy implement instead, the $6.95 size.  That was the 2013 "toy".
Over these years, we had added more toys (attachments that would make our work around this big place easier), an auger head with different size augers for fencing and planting trees, a dozer blade for snow removal, etc.  This spring he ordered a quick attachment so he can put a bigger blade on the front of the 29HP for snow removal, and I insisted he buy a removable cab so he would be out of the wind when pushing snow.

Kubota Man loves mowing rocks in the rougher parts of the farmstead, so the original 55" mower is getting somewhat beat up.  And we have a lot of grass to cut where the land is smooth, no rocks, but it's too far to drive to dump the grass catcher, and mulching is good fertilizer, so he decided it's time...for a 72" finishing mower that would only be used for "good grass", he told me to talk to the dealer.  My conversation with Tim went something like this:  I know you sharpen the pencil for us, but keep it sharp, because (although he hasn't said anything about it yet), now he will need another tractor (I said that with tongue-in-cheek, but for some reason it had a ring of prophecy).

Back to the lovely Sunday--as we're driving home, he says, "talk to Tim about a new small tractor for the new mower", I almost choked laughing, but I was driving, so I had to keep controlled--we have distracted driving laws in Alberta, and I'm sure insane laughing with eyes flooded with tears of laughter would qualify as distracted.  It turns out, the mower brochure offered an optional quick rear attachment (quick on/off), but this invention had more problems than what it was worth, lots of breakdowns and repairs, so the dealer doesn't offer it any more.  So we were back to manually switching implements, so my orders for today are to get another tractor--something in the 24HP range.  We can't take it $$ with us.  I had to agree, because my rototiller would have been on the chopping block since it is not used as regularly as the mowers. So now, with tongue-in-cheek, I wonder when we'll need an addition to the Machine Shed.

C'est la vie in Kubotaland.

Today it is supposed to hit 30 degrees C and my goal (after talking to Tim) is to see how many greenhouse trays I can get washed (outside, since the greenhouses will be like ovens) before I pass out from heat exhaustion.  I'm hoping to get about half done, thanks to my new blue toy--a pressure washer.

Life is good.
Keep an eye on this post, because when I find the camera, there will be some photos of orange things edited in.

Kubota talk is about as inspirational as I can muster this morning, so have a great day, everyone, stay healthy, be safe, and most of all, enjoy life!!  You can't take it with you!!

What kind of blog post do you like best?

I looked at the blog and was aghast again at how much time has passed.  I don't have much time to look at blogs either, but realize that there are different kinds of blogs.

--One kind posts everyday things, every day and there are not always pictures.  
e.g.Today it's raining so I am  going to knit (no picture), or a wee post with maybe a picture  (today it rained so I knit this sleeve).  This kind of blog makes me think it's a journal for that blogger, not so much for others.

--Then there are the blog gurus who post regularly, with pictures, and their blogs always have something new and fresh and usually interesting to say--it almost seems like they structure  their lives in a way to have an exciting, vibrant blog.

--then there is I--I do what I do, forget to take pictures; my life, while busy seems very ordinary, and every few weeks or months, the guilt sets in and a super-entry is put together with pictures, commentaries, etc. Maybe it's the notion that ordinary activities when seen like a marathon, somehow become more interesting or inspiring.  That's what I do.  This kind of blogging makes people say "How do you do all that?" (reading it like a marathon lets the reader forget that this is over a time frame of many weeks or months).

My judgement of different blogs is totally an opinion.  When I have time, I read all types of blogs, mainly because I have gotten to know some of the bloggers virtually (and in real life) over the years, so am personally interested in how they are doing.  But I must say that some are more inspirational than others as a model for "interesting" blogs.

What kind of blog do you like best? I'm wondering if I should post "ordinary stuff" with or without a photo more often, or keep doing it the way I have been:  marathon blogging less frequently.

Life goes On and On and On, and that is Good

Must update so everyone knows I'm alive. Still so busy with chores and stuff, so no photos and nothing inspirational.  My apologies.  My resolutions list--won't even go there.
--Mandala:  no progress.
--Master Knitter Level 3--no knitting progress, only writing.
--Tech editing:  been editing some patterns for some designers/friends.  I like tech editing better than I like test knitting--must be that I like Math and I like pattern writing.
--hardly any knitting at all.
--Mascot costume for our Public Library:  they had a contest in the school for a logo/mascot--the one that won was an apple with a worm in it.  So I sewed the costume--just finishing the hat tonight.  That process is worth its own blog entry when I get some photos.  Because the worm has to be animated, I can't take a picture--will ask for some photos when the costume appears in the country parades this summer.
--Greenhouse has kept us busy of course.
--The garden finally got finished a couple of days ago.
--The hospital complex grounds and flower pots have all been planted.
--my weeds and flower beds as well as my own flower pots are not yet done.

Great news!! Our youngest daughter is getting married on July 5--she wants very simple since she and her fiancé have been together for a long time--her philosophy is that it's about the marriage, not about an expensive show.  They bought a home in February, and they want to go visit his family in Fiji, so she is being very careful about the $$$$$.  So in the next week or so I will be altering her wedding dress--a very casual lacey, beach-y kind of style.  I got DH a black leather vest, since he never wears a sports jacket--and his eyes lit up when I brought it home.  He will get a lot of wear out of that piece.  I've become too plump for a nice dress--hate trying them on--will likely wear the nice little shift I got for our granddaughter's grad.  It's comfortable, and in that style I look a bit trimmer.
--need to finish the hat for the apple costume so I can deliver it tomorrow.  I might even be able to plant flower pots on the deck tomorrow, since I broke my record of last-last-minute, and will actually finish one day earlier than the deadline.

Till next time:  keep safe and healthy, and God bless!!