THE START OF FALL….and yard duty

THE START OF FALL….and yard duty 

The weather has lighten up. It is still warm, but not hot.  I know if I don’t get outside, I will keep putting off things.

September is put always yard art month.  But before I can do that.. I have to clean out the she shed. The she shed is a collection of all things I throw in there over the summer. And the King has a habit of putting stuff there too. 

I clean this shed out twice a year. Once in the spring and once in the fall.  The spring is bring out yard art, throwing piece away that last fall I thought I should keep.. not..   and the same thing happens in the fall as I go to put the yard art back in.  It is kind of like clean out your closet in the house. You know where you end up keeping things you never wear. Yet can’t let them go yet? 

Any way, Saturday I got the shed clean out, place stuff in other sheds.. which means it is the yearly shuffle. Thank goodness for multi-sheds.   Like George Carlin said, we have to have places to put our STUFF. 

Next week or weekend, I will start putting yard art away. And hopefully I can put some of them in the trash can. The ones with one broke off leg, that someone gave me. The spinner that doesn’t spin anymore, but it is colorful. And some of the ones the wind of summer has trashed.

Try to keep in mind.. the less that goes in, the less that I have to take out next Spring.

 

 

ROUND 2….

ROUND 2….

 

Our sister in law gave us her bread making machine. Remember those?  We had some in the past. Last one we had was the King’s mother… it vibrated off the counter and crashed to the floor, to never be used again. We didn’t know if we should laugh or cry.  That was about 20 some odd years ago.  The King likes making bread.  I use to make a great potato bread 60 years ago. Don’t remember why I quit. Did cinnamon rolls too. I know why I quit that. Took 3 hours for rolls that my kids devoured in 12 minutes flat.

 

So here we are 2021… reading the instructions.. (which is rare for him, as he thinks he knows) …   we gave it a shot Saturday night… read and read the instructions.. read the recipe we decided on. Cinnamon Raisin.. Put the ingredients in the pot.. turn it on… hit menu.. forgot to hit the loaf button, that tells the size… says auto for medium brown. Well, it went to dark.. and also it made a funny sound.. but that passed soon.. 3 FLAMING HOURS later… I popped open the lid (the King gave up an hour before and went to bed) and SURPISE!!...  surprise is an understatement.  I saw why the clanging in the beginning.. the pot had turn side ways..  And I had a dark brown cooked …. Bread?   I got the loaf to drop out.. and on the bottom is still dry flour…It is 11pm. And I am not doing this… So clean up the total mess..  and went to bed.

 

On Sunday morning at 5:30am..it is bugging me.  I think about how the pot did not click in to the lock (which was a bitch to do) and that was my problem..  As I laid there, I thought .. if I get up and try again…. Maybe it will be better.  So I got up, the King had already left to go to his boys club at the Hoot Owl..   For those who don’t live here, it is the  mom and pop type  restaurant down the road from us.   And at early 0 hour.. (5am) the retired guys gather for breakfast or coffee and take care of the worldy problems.

 

So this time, I got the ingredient in the correct order…. (after directions, I see wet comes before dry with yeast not touching wet.).  I figured out the menu part .. so have it on 1 pound loaf, I have it on medium and the right number for the type of recipe. That should help right? 

 

And 2 and half hours later I got……..

Ah August .

Ah, August, you’re slipping thru our fingers.

With 7 days left, then it is SEPTEMBER and even while there are some hot days left…I think….. who knows after this summer weather. 

But we all know September means fall, comes cooler weather,  But not me, I hang on at this time of the year, with my fingers dug in, not letting summer go quite yet.

I love summer, but not the prep for hell type, like this year gave us.. in fact it seems like maybe the last 3 years  we have been practicing for hell…  AND I AM NOT GOING.. I flunk the course.

I like 70 to 80’s and don’t do well with 90’s and not 100 at all.. The past week has been just right. I got a lot of work done in the yard.. we weed whacked the dead garden with a living 3 foot weeds… that the heat seem to produced. I wrapped up some of the hoses.   Clean up the inside of my small garage.. and painted some OLD metal cabinets we ripped out of the kitchen a few years back. I took the small one and scrubbed it.  Then sanded the rust spots and painted it black… scrub up the chrome handles.  Maybe next week I will do the large one that held the sink..  Learning curve is DON’T BUY CHEAP PAINT.  The push button was a S.O.B. to keep pushed down so I could spray the paint. Had the King do one side for me to see if it was I was too weak.  And he had trouble too…   so it was the paint can, not me.

It was great to have the double back door open. Fresh air coming in.. First time in over 45 days we have not had the AC on… It was a great day.. And I look forward to hopefully 20 more days. 

So August don’t run away just yet.. linger a while longer for me, please…

NOT MY PRESIDENT…

NOT MY PRESIDENT…

 

I am not saying not America’s President… the nations, President..  just not mine..

See I haven’t had my President for quite some time..  Two that come to mind were mine… Kennedy and Eisenhower.

Kennedy was American Royalty… now matter what you say about his family.. actually his parents and siblings.. he was the great hope for America.

His wife and children were the great hope for American’s.

His parents?  Well, his father for all senses and purposes was  a crook politician and not exactly a honest business man.  His mother’s family… was in the thick of Boston politics since the beginning of politics in Mass.  The crookest of politicians..  Why none of that seem to be apparent during the times… in John … I don’t know.  Yes we all know NOW.. what a womanizer (to say the least) he was.  But he had good people surrounding him, bringing Peace Corp and other great programs.

Eisenhower, I liked and still like. One of the only Republicans that I like.  He is the reason why we have such great roads across the nation. He also was about holding the Mexican jumping the border at that time.. I don’t know how he did it with out walls..  but he did.  

On a personal note… I got to see Eisenhower almost on a daily basis for a week, he use to wave at me on my way to work. He was staying on the Newport Nave Bases from time to time, during his Presidency.  He worked out of their Naval College, where war games were played on a huge board. As he and his generals and Admirals worked out the nations foreign polices and etc.  

In fact because of him, I was involved in a walk out protest before we all knew about such things.   It was the first time the President had came to the base.   I was working for the Naval Exchange in the office.  We had been hearing for weeks that he was coming.  Then we found out he was coming on base and driving just a block from where we all worked.   We wanted to go watch him drive by. He was coming at 11am… We talked to our bosses about it.. but it was the over all dept. manager, who got to decide and he said NO… we told him, we would work thru our lunch time, if we could go, so there would be no lost of time.  Still NO.. THEN the day came.. it was 8am.. we were all bummed we could not go… then one daring soul…. (no, not me) who said.. WHY DON’T WE ALL GO?  After all they CAN’T FIRE ALL OF US… we all smiled and said.. I am in.. one after the other… and at 10:55AM… WE ALL LEFT…

It was a glorious feeling …. We all walked the block quietly… and when he came.. we all cheered… and he waved… some of us had cameras…  All I got was the flag on the front of the front bumper… lol..  And then we walked backed to the office.. To be met by the head manager….. who said.. you know .. this will be put in your records….  We didn’t care… WE  GOT TO SEE OUR PRESIDENT.. up close… and it was for weeks later, that I got to wave at him..  He would be out on the lawn of the house he was staying in, hitting golf balls as I walked by at 5 to 7am.. he and his body guards… he saw me, and he waved first… I was beaming…  I didn’t get to vote for him as I was too young. But I did count him as MY PRESIDENT. 

Kennedy was from my neighborhood. Meaning New England.. his wife’s family had a house in Newport.. his kids pony Macaroni was shod by our blacksmith.. So he too, was MY PRESIDENT..  and it tore me apart.. as in San Diego, I heard on the radio that he had been shot. I turn on the television… and there it was.. I almost tore the screen door off the house going out to tell my husband who was talking to the neighbor… screaming.. THEY SHOT OUR PRESIDENT..  To me  that was the start of the end of our country having decency… As they said.. it ended our innocents.

So those of you who voted for Trump and Biden.. you have  YOUR presidents…  and so does the nation… BUT THEY  ARE NOT MINE.. I did not vote for either of them, as I was too young. Being 20 when Kennedy got voted in.. but I sure would have voted for him.  And our country is in disarray for your choices.  Not mine.

 

and the return of the smoke

This is not the moon.. this is early morning sun... you know the one of Red sun in the morning ... Sailors warning...   This is the way it has been for the past 5 days...

Picture shows more pink like.. when the eye caught the bright red of it.

 

Taking a day off from life…

Taking a day off from life….

Those of us who jumped in to the retirement life, know that we are busier than we were before when we worked.  And some of us, has wondered, how did we ever get everything done that we needed to get done, when we were working and still doing things at home.   The answer is… you did a band aid job of the what the home stuff was. 

You did the heavy duty jobs on weekends and vacation time. That is why a lot of people didn’t  do much vacationing in the older days.. There were quick trips to grandparents home, if they did not live in the same state.  That was a car trip, with food and snacks and drinks in a cooler.  And when you left grandparents house… you had your cooler filled by grandma… fried chicken, maybe some salad.. fried potatoes and cookies freshly made… for your trip home.  These were usually once a year or every other year. Depending on how far away it was…  And if they lived close by, then there were project days on the weekend, to help out grandparents at their home.

Once you retire, after you catch on, that all projects don’t have to be done in 2 days or 6… you break up the different parts of the project and you can slow it down. Even go to lunch with friends.. as the project will still be there tomorrow morning..  That is the good part of retirement. The hard part is saying NO, no thank you, I really don’t have time for that.. when some one tried to sign you up for volunteering for THEIR favorite charity or what ever…

But one of the things that makes me laugh at the newer generation… is they seem to think their two days off are THEIR DAYS OFF…  my guessing is from life as well as the job.. Because they will tell you, they don’t have time to fix this or that.. or get a project done on those two day off.. BECAUSE IT IS “MY” DAY OFF…  And no way, are they doing even an hour or two after work… just too tired….

So those of you over the age of 70…. Did you do little to nothing on your weekends or after work?  What about YOUR parents..  I know my dad would work on some of his projects for a couple hours .. some times after he ate dinner… He figured an hour here or there, was less to do on the weekend.. And if we were really lucky, and he had a couple hours free on Sunday… we got to go to the beach in the summer time.

After my dad retired, he still was working, because they had a horse farm.. So the summers were full of haying..  Prepping for getting the grass tall enough to cut… cutting, tossing it and if the weather co-operated, they got it loaded and in the barn in those few days… There were fences to mend… there was the fields to plow up…  And there were horse shows on the weekend.. Some times one day …some times the whole weekend.

In the winter it was not as busy.  I saw some wood carvings down in the basement in his work shop… when I was visiting from the West coast… I told him how cool I thought they were.. and asked.. how come you never did these when we were growing up…. And he looked at me and smiles..  “when did I have time?” Between work and keeping our place together… there was never time..

Guess he didn’t believe in Days off from Life…

 

Now I know how kids feel the first week of school…

Now I know how kids feel the first week of school… 

And I kind of remember the feeling.. You know when it is still summer like and you are in a hot school room trying to listen to the teacher.. Whose words start to blend in to the Charie Brown  blah blah blah….   And you are looking out the window, and wishing you were out there.. It is great to be out there these days.. 

That is how it is these days… and I am trying to enjoy every minute of it. Because the weather man is telling us, it is going to get hot again by this weekend.. back to the 100 to 102 weather.. and NO RAIN… 

While today was in the low 80’s .. it seem cooler as the wind was blowing.. Not really bad, but enough for a nice breeze to be enjoyed while working in the yard. 

It is getting close to fold in the garden. I did pull up the onions on one side. The other side has a coupe zucchini plants that are alive and well. And couple of beans stalk hanging in there.  The fava beans are kind of puny and might just use the seeds for the plants of next year.

The bad news of all of this heat is …the blueberries, raspberry took a beating as well as the strawberries.. They were all watered daily.. at about 3am. So the water would stay with them… and go in the ground and not dry up. But didn’t help.. all the berries are small.  And the WEEDS of course did fantastic.  Being watered daily and too hot to go out and pull them out..  So a lot of them are a foot or more.

We are thinking seriously of changing our garden once again… going back to raised gardens.. maybe black papering the weeds out… 

Oh, well, it is ok and it is just so great to feel productive and enjoy the sounds of the yard.. Only thing was this afternoon, we got run off of the deck by bees… looking for water I am guess.  Along with some yellow jackets.. Killed about 6 of the yellow jackets and 20 came to their funeral..

The King went to the store and bought a salt gun…no not an assault gun… a  SALT gun… you shoot salt from it..So he sat on the deck this evening shooting yellow jackets. Guess it is good practice with hunting season coming up in 2 months.. and he was having fun.

 

Ah, summer time and the living is easy…

 

What a glorious day….

What a glorious day….

 Yesterday, I got so much done… I was going to do a project. I wanted to make a large box on the back of my toilet so I could put the fake flowers there that I have, but also have room to put the can’s of refresher, that seem to slide off the tank…

 In the process of making the box, I needed a sander thingie.. to take out the roughness of the board I was using..

Well that ended up a great search.   With no sander.. but found a wire brush. 

 In the process of trying to find some things.. I ended up cleaning up the front half of the garage. The part that has become a catch all.  Boxes, ice coolers that belong else where..  So an hour later it was cleared, and some other stuff lined up where the junk was. 

 It was so nice to be productive OUTSIDE… the wind was blowing easy, and the smell from the rain of the morning, ….it was just great.  Been so long since I have been able to work outside.  Just listening to the chimes, as I worked..

And they all danced…..

And they all danced….. 

As you see from yesterday’s post.. we are having fires all over our valley as well as neighboring states and Canada.

Every morning for the past week, we have woke to smoky skies.. barely seeing the sun until it is about noon and straight up.

We have all prayed for the firemen, for the people who have had to evacuate from their homes and also praying for RAIN…  

Our prayers were answered some, on Sunday night late.

It was about 10pm.. and it started and down it did come. It did come down for about an hour I think they said. Even puddles on the roads.. 

Our town over the weekend has had a music festival that is every year at this time…  I head a story which made us all understand.. and those of us who were awake at the time, surely understood..  and even those of us who heard it later. 

See there was a show going on at the field in town, where the festival is … don’t know who was performing… but when the rains started.. it was not the usual reaction… The people sit in their own chairs or sit on blankets…  but when the rain started? 

EVERYONE STOOD, AND STARTED TO DANCE, hooted…AND LAUGH… to the point it was hard to hear the band, but the band did play on… to add music to the dancing of joy.. the dancing with hands raised to the sky…and time and time again.. THANK YOU GOD.. THANK YOU GOD FOR YOUR RAIN..

 

While it isn’t enough to stop the fires… but it was enough to give the firefighters a breather…

 

 

 

Hard time of the year….

Hard time of the year….

 

Each year about this time.. it gets hard.. See we don’t have the normal good old summer time anymore..  I say anymore because I don’t remember it being this way when I was raising my kids here in the 1980’s..   And this year it started early, as it usually starts in August.. And we have had this going on for at least 3 weeks and the past week and half we have had it closer to us, than usual.

 

Fire season is what I am talking about .. 

This one is close.. meaning as the bird flies about 12 miles.. got another one on the other side of the valley about 30 miles away.. Neither one is put out. The poor firemen are exhausted, the pilots have been flying daily, getting water from the lake for the fires..

We all know how hard they are working to get them out. And the people are going to schools and fairgrounds for safety.. People are amazing.. person after person, putting on Facebook…   offering their trailers to haul animals to the fairgrounds.  Any help they can do, truck and trailer for taking possessions…  

In this day and age of hatred, and nastiness, it is heart warming to know there are great people out there helping in anyway to strangers..  Even with some of the nastiness over people moving here from other states is forgotten as they offer to help in any way.