Kubota Family

By Jove! I think I've got it!! Thank you, Linda, for your patience with me. And thank you for Kubota Man Jr. for teaching me how to reduce my pictures so they don't take 16 min. to upload. I reduced them to 20% and they took about 1-2 minutes to upload. Hurray! Now I can post more and more and more.

Although there was no picture, I introduced you to Kubota Man on June 17. The first picture below is Chris, our third granddaughter, who loves to mow and mow and mow when she comes to the farm.

This picture is Kubota Man Jr. and his next-door-neighbor-buddy Carter. Carter loves to mow and mow and mow. They all prefer the Kubota over the smaller lawn tractor.

I probably told you already, the garden is in. There has been no rain, so germination is poor and some of the plants I've planted are struggling badly. I must go water tonight.

I finished one of Bev's secret socks that I was testing. Just enough to give her feedback on the pattern.

I will sew up the BIG man's alpaca tonight, and have started another one--you might say I'm test knitting my own pattern that I wrote several years ago. I generally wrote it well, but having had a long break from it, I can see ambiguities in it that I'll have to correct. It's a nice sweater. I might decide to submit it somewhere--when I find out how to go about that. But I'll have to re-knit it in a commonly available yarn.

My foot is killing me. Another time I'll update you about my automobile accident 2 years ago. I'm lucky to have feet or even a body to be hurting today. Enough said for now.

I'm sure that we will shut the greenhouse down after the weekend. Tomorrow I am starting to clean out the packs of bedding plants; we will keep the good plants till the end of the weekend. Then it'll be a quick cleanup, and we're done that job. The tree nursery is still going to be open till fall. But I will be free to work on MY endeavors--sewing ( 3 bridesmaids dresses for early August) garden, flower beds. OOPs I almost forgot KNITTING and KNITTING.

If we ever get a rainy day or two, I have some painting and ceramic tiling to do in the kitchen. We are ordering a new kitchen floor, and I'd like to be done my part before the installation.

Oh, yes, goody goody--I got my living room cleaned ( I admit I didn't wash the inside of the China cabinet, and didn't take the books out of the bookcase, just swiffered the books), but it is so much better. I even washed the windows inside and the kitchen and dining room windows outside ( I can reach them from the deck) The other windows are too high. I will be riding on a solid pallet on the forks of the KUBOTA to reach these windows. KMan said he will build me a cherry picker for that pallet so I feel safer. Isn't that sweet?

Till next time: The family is one of nature's masterpieces. (George Santayana)

Wordless Wednesday V

Please Bear With Me

I'm having difficulty with slow upload of pictures, and I don't want to bore with just words, so I might take a bit of a hiatus from posting till I have time to deal with the picture upload.

Please keep checking in. I'll get caught up one of these days.

1. Garden finally done.

2. Still no significant rain. Official drought has been declared in many areas around us. Many farmers' crops have not germinated. No hay for the livestock. We haven't prayed hard enough.

3. Went to River City Yarns and bought special sock yarn (see Ravelry) for my 3 girls for Christmas. Can't reveal the special quality since the girls might read my blog.

4. Greenhouse season is almost finished. Now the hard work is cleaning up. Kubota Man is getting tired and grumpy.

5. Frustrated trying to find work boots--doctor prescribed due to 2-year old car accident injuries in my feet. The stress and pain of trying on boots for several hours every trip to the city is worse than the pain in my feet (or so it seems).

6. My deck flower pots are done. That's good, but now I have another job to maintain them.

7. I got the kitchen really cleaned (the visible parts). That feels much better. Can walk through much faster, because I'm not sticking to the floor :D).

8. MUST DO SOME KNITTING--LOTS OF KNITTING THIS WEEK!!!!! My sister's B=day is next week. I'd like to finish her fuzzy sweater, even if it's a bit late.

9. Easy reading only : Chicken Soup--Mothers and Daughters, a Mother's day gift. (Most reading done on the Throne or in the bathtub).

10. The awning is ordered for the Nursing Home.

Take care, keep safe, please drop in once in a while, and leave a bit of a comment to let me know you were here, even if you just say, "Hi".

Till next time:

Earth's crammed with heaven,

And every common bush afire with God,

But only he who sees takes off his shoes,

The rest sit around it and eat blackberries.

(Elizabeth Barrett Browning, quoted in "The Shack")

Many Answered Prayers

Yesterday was a lovely day. The pretty white clouds in an azure sky did not promise any rain. Even in the evening as I cruised down the highway in my Tundra, the sky was clear. Last night at my CWL meeting we prayed for rain--for our farmers, for our gardens, for the earth in this area. At the end of the meeting, as we were socializing when, suddenly, there was thunder and rain.

Two days ago we had a bit of a thunderstorm in the afternoon--just as I had planted half of the tomatoes and had the other half lying out of their pots in the soggy planting holes. I worked till I got too wet and went into the house, and the hail started. Pea-sized , amid lots of rain. I immediately started praying the rosary. (The rosary is said with the help of a patterned string of beads, upon each bead a designated prayer is said. There is no magic or superstition in the beads--they help focus and concentrate on the prayers.) Every time I do this, usually by the second or third decade (set of 10 prayers) the hail stops or the severity is greatly reduced.

My sister's cancer is gone for the moment--our church community prayed over her and her prayer shawl (see earlier post)--even though she, herself is not a believer.

So I'm counting on prayer--yours and mine--to bring fruit to my efforts towards the fundraiser that I mentioned in the last post.

WE PRAY TO THE LORD. Lord, hear our prayer.

Till next time: (from The Shack) God is a verb.

A Field Trip With Mom

Today I went on a field trip. My mom has Alzheimer-type dementia, and lives in a nursing home near where I live. I try to spend as much time as possible with her, and since the quality of our time with her is changing, I value the chance to be with her and make memories. Our greenhouse business has limited my time with her during this season, so when the staff asked me to come along as a volunteer to go to the lake, have a picnic and try some fishing, I was thrilled.

That's my mom right behind the red walker. She preferred to stay in the shade and just enjoy the view. The walk to the dock to fish was too much for her. She enjoyed herself immensely, but since this lake, called "Long Lake" is long and narrow, she thought she was at the river near her childhood home. We saw mallard ducks and a deer, and listened to the haunting loon calls.
These two gentlemen enjoyed trying to fish. It was a treat watching the staff interact with the residents. These folks were treated with great caring and respect--their dignity was of paramount importance. We had a picnic, and everyone was happy and tired.

Rushed home to make supper for DH (henceforth to be known as Kubota Man). Explanation: About 5 years ago, we purchased a 24 HP Kubota Tractor with mower, bucket, blade, and MY rototiller, and he liked it so much that one day as we were discussing its merits, I casually mentioned that we should have got one a bit bigger (I was thinking maybe 27 HP) Next thing I knew we were the proud owners of a 70 HP model. We kept the smaller one, too. No regrets, and it gives me something more creative to call him than DH.

At 19:00 I had a CWL (Catholic Women's League) meeting in the next town.

I've also been busy fundraising. The Dementia patients don't get outside much when the weather is nice because they require 1 on 1 supervision, and the staffing isn't there for that. But, luckily, between 2 wings of the facility there is a lovely triangular, fully-enclosed courtyard with grass, a patio access to the recreational therapy room--BUT NO SHADE. I saw an opportunity, went to the supervisor and asked if this area could safely be used by dementia patients. They asked for a large roll-away awning. So I rallied Mom's family and collected nearly $1000. Then I priced the awnings: $6000. So I decided to involve my community: Churches, service clubs, and local businesses. The last resort will be a matching grant from a government agency--will match what we raise. I haven't raised all the funds yet, but am ordering the awning tomorrow--I have faith that with prayers, my efforts will be fruitful. I ask all my readers of faith to pray with me.

My garden is almost in. We've had a bit of rain--not enough. The greenhouse season is nearly over. I've begun to clean a couple of flower beds when it was too wet for the garden. The sheep enjoyed the weeds served by the Kubota. And the housework waits.

Till Next time: (from THE SHACK) Faith never knows where it is being led, but it knows and loves the One who is leading.

Wordless Wednesday IV

My own picture.

My own picture--begonias on deck rail.

Sex, AIDS and Ladybugs

I'm sure I've mentioned that I'm a retired teacher. The first half of my career was spent teaching First Grade, the second half in 6th Grade. This little anecdote really happened. This is the story as it appeared in my local paper.

Here in Alberta school ends at the end of June, but I notice on other blogs that in some jurisdicions they are finished earlier, so I feel that this is a good time to share this story.

She lowers herself onto the park bench while the little ones scurry off to play. The summer humming fills her ears and the weariness overtakes her--the exhilarating fatigue of a job well done. The end of another school year!

"Mrs. Jones, I just remembered something! You and I don't have to work next week! Can you come to my house and play with my toys? She smiles at dimple-cheeked Adam (there were several new gray hairs from that one).

Kathy and Grace, inseparable buddies, snuggle up on each side of her. Kathy speaks first, "You know, my mom and dad had sex three times."

"Oh?" the teacher asks.

"Yes, my mom told me that you have to have sex to have babies. My mom had two babies before me. Then they had me. So that means they had sex three times!" (She holds up three chubby fingers to prove the point.)

Grace, without missing a beat, adds "And you know--you get AIDS, too!"

"What do you know about AIDS, Grace?" the teacher asks.

"My mom told me you ge AIDS from kissing girls (if you're a boy). but if you always kiss the same girl, it's OK. but if you kiss lots of different girls, you get AIDS." She thinks a bit. "Know what else, Mrs. Jones?"

The teacher is afraid to ask.

"Last night my tooth got loose. Look , Kathy, a ladybug!"

The children fly and the ladybug flies. The teacher sighs with pride, for they've gained so much. And the teacher cries, silently inside, for the bit of innocence they've lost.

A bittersweet tribute to Grade One Teachers and the parents who privilege us by sharing their children with us.