Back to the Disaster

This is a photo from our first summer living here. It shows the tar papered unfinished section of the exterior of the house. It also shows Chloe, our Lab/Dalmatian girl.

These photos are about 15 years ago, those large trees have been gone for several years. Sadly.The screened porch is the tar paper area on the above photo. The foundation for it was already there. We had it built that first summer.

The screened porch was the connecting piece on the outside.

We reached 87 F yesterday. It will be 80 F today then 50s and 60s. Sixties is great gardening weather so that will be my agenda for the week. Yesterday and today I am occupied by steam cleaning the carpets. Three down, three more to go in the living area. The remaining three are a runner and two smaller area rugs. They badly need it. I bought this one in 1981. It's survived many large dogs and several cats.

In between I managed to make biscuits and bread. I know, too much excitement to bear. Actually, the draw to blogs is, for me anyway, the daily happenings in the lives of those we come to a friendship of sorts through the click of keys.

The Old Grey Mare

I took some photos a couple of days ago when the mares meandered from pasture to the paddock.

This is 32 year-old Babe. The first born.

20 year-old Ivy. She is a half-Arab, the other half is American Saddlebred. Half Arabians are registrable as long as one parent is a registered purebred Arabian.

This is Babe's son, 21 year old Zenny. He was her last foal. 

25 year-old Queen. Her name says it all. She is half-Arabian. Her dam was a Morocco Spotted horse, now deceased Fleetwind.

Poor Zenny has spent his entire life with the mares. He was weaned with his sister and I put him back with the mare herd because he is sort of a dependent kind of guy. He has stuck with his dam. Mares are bossy, that's why I say poor Zenny.

I finished mowing yesterday. We need rain or it won't be green much longer. Later I will attempt some weeding and seed sowing. I also need to put seeds in my pots. I'm attempting to grow all flowers and herbs from seed. I did herbs last year and it worked out well. I have decided the only plants I'm going to put money into are my few vegetables.

As an aside. New brakes for a car have become rather costly. Now we need new tires. *sigh*

New Species to Me

Prunus virginiana L

Chokecherry

I was mowing yesterday and saw this amongst the wild things growing in abundance on the property. I have not seen this before so I looked it up on the plant identifier. It's large enough that I know it's been here a little while, growing where a pine was felled 3 years ago. I find it very pretty and it has a light fragrance. Something new to add to the northern jungle.

I got half the yard mowed. I won't be finishing today as it is very windy and what I have left is in the wide open. We took the car in for new brakes today. I was going to drive the truck but that couldn't happen. The power seat wouldn't move and it is not possible for me to reach the pedals. Locked out of driving my own truck. Just not right.

Does Gatto know this is a Goodwill box?

More About The House That Was a Disaster

My favorite room in the house.

As I noted before, this house was a disaster when we bought it thirty-two years ago. A neighbor, who had looked at it before buying some of the land, gleefully told me her husband said the best thing that could happen with the house is a bulldozer. I did not respond. I loved the barn and immediately saw the potential of this hodge-podge house. 

This is part of the 1984 edition to what remained of the original farmhouse. This area was not a disaster, it just needed some finishing work. The 1984 section of the house is on the east end.

Now we jump to the west end 1973 addition. It is now a bedroom but had been the living room/dining room combination. This was the disaster area of the house. The person we bought from purchased from the original farm owners in 1983. He was a highly creative man with a serious alcohol problem. After the east addition he just stopped. The outside of this part of the house was left in tar paper and nothing had been done with this end. This was what my neighbors saw as a unfixable problem and I saw as possibilities.

You will excuse me for taking this opportunity to show off some of my horses professional photography sessions. We turned this into a bedroom. It's large enough for two moderate sized rooms but if that happened one room would be windowless, so it's one.

Gatto also likes to admire those lovely equines.

There were three bedrooms, two of them small. We took down the dividing wall, making one room. From that I had a small area sectioned off for a broom/coat closet. There weren't either in the house.

Just for smiles, my furball, Gatto.

Also, a dinner that took as long as the pasta cooking time.

 Happy Mother's Day.

In Our Future

Think About It 

I had to post this. I think most people in the US are not actually aware of where all this is going. I have thought a lot about it and Robert Reich's article is basically my thoughts, but I would expand it further. As more and more people become unemployed and fewer and fewer jobs are available what do you think happens besides the obvious consequences? Think about taxes, in particular FICA (Federal Insurance Contributions Act), which is Social Security and Medicare. The wealthy pay little to nothing into this. The cap is $184,500 this year. Medicare is subject to tax above this amount, if they are taking any kind of salary. The thing is, folks, the extremely wealthy don't get their money through a salary. They may have some salary, but it's still cut off at 184,500. Less paid into FICA, less is in the trust fund. Less in the trust fund means smaller payments which eventually leads to us being told SS doesn't work. Poof! There are many, many consequences to this oligarchic system, this is one of them and one that will affect many of you reading this in one way or another. If you don't need SS to live on I do believe at some point the lack of Medicare will definitely have negative consequences. Medical bills can wipe out a comfortable retirement account very quickly. Think about it.

Fruit and Such

A rather distorted photo of newly purchased fruit.

I eat a lot of fruit, especially since I discovered, through Boud, Envy apples. Now I buy those along with another favorite, Cosmic. I don't know about any of you, but I dislike tart fruit. These two varieties of apples are crisp and pleasant. Now that we have this out of the way; it's a beautiful morning. Chilly, but bright sunshine. I'm a mite distressed realizing it is already May 7th. Time is moving way too swiftly for me to catch up. Remember those long August days that seemed to go on forever as a child? Now years fly by like minutes on a clock.

The severe pain has passed but now I am walking with a cane. It's surprising how swiftly the body changes when challenged by pain. I hope to strengthen my gait over time. We'll see. 

Enjoy the day. They pass by quickly.

A Sunny Monday

Sunday morning I got up, made coffee and sat at my desk for a morning reading your blogs. I think I read two when there was a knock at the door. Neighbor Bill had stopped by for a semi-early visit with some of his frozen green beans. He is clearing out the freezer  for the upcoming crop. He also had a tax question for Mark. 

By the time he left it was approaching lunchtime, so I made a quick soup. The remainder of the day I devoted to me. The sciatic nerve pain truly did knock me off my feet. Over a week of not moving hardly at all to moving poorly showed up in stiffness, a limping gait and big time back pain. I did a series of stretches, balance and strength work. I must say, at the risk of jinxing myself, that I do feel less tight this morning.

I've ordered shade tolerant wildflower seeds to put in areas of my lawn where the only thing growing is scraggly weeds. I'd rather flowers than weeds and it also becomes a space I don't need to mow. I strew seeds in a pasture twenty years ago when I had the brilliant intention of keeping bees. Mark finally convinced me I had enough to do. Back to the seeds. There are still flowers in that field.

Dinner lately has been anything fast. Mark spends some time in the evenings, after the beasties are tucked in, lopping the trillions of trees continually attempting a takeover, so it gets late.

Happy day to you all.

Later in the Day

Wild violets. They grow prolifically on the property. They are beautiful and are fantastic ground cover. They planted themselves here and I thank them.

 

This is a late-in-the-day post for me. I had been outside mowing, then the belt came off the mower and we have to wait for Neighbor Bill to fix it. I could either clean up the kitchen or write a blog post. My answer is obvious as to which I chose. The perennials are popping out of their winter hibernation, the dandelions are blooming and it's a sunny, chilly day. I ordered a bunch of flower and herb seeds a couple of days ago. I had great success last year with basil and thyme seeds, so I'm branching out. Annuals and herbs have become so expensive I cringe. It's not warm enough to plant them now, hoping by the time the seeds arrive it will be.

I have a couple of old rambling roses I need to cut back. It's usually done in the fall but.... They are looking scraggly. Out of many, they are all the roses I have left. Oh, back to the violets. I have a friend who picks the blossoms to make cordial. I know I don't have the patience for that. I have planned for years to make cordial with the elderflowers, another plant that grows profusely here, but they have died before I get to it. Every year.

Well, that's the day so far. The horses are happily grazing on pasture and my hay bill drops way down for a few months. All of us are happy.

Blogger is Not Being Nice

Unfortunately, Blogger has stopped my comments again. Yesterday I was able to comment on a few blogs and then I couldn't. Today is another day of silence from moi. So, I'll just have to talk about myself. 

The sciatic nerve pain has greatly reduced, but not gone. Being put off your feet as an, um, elder really can quickly set back progress made over a couple of years. Regaining that progress is not so quick.

We had a wonderful daylong rain on Monday, which was very much needed. We are starting to look like spring. It's currently 42 F and sunshine. It should be dry enough tomorrow to mow the lawn, which is swiftly becoming a hay field. The gates have been opened to the pastures, allowing the horses to adjust to grass while it starts to grow. Life is trundling along. That said, the anxious dread many are feeling is persistently hovering.

I don't know why I rarely make a casserole. I need to talk to myself about this. They are so easy it's really not cooking at all. Some leftover chicken, a little bacon, asparagus, artichoke hearts and of course, onion and garlic. Voila! Dinner. And there is enough for two more meals. 

Chin up, face the day with as much gusto as we can muster.

*I was able to comment to my blog on the phone. I may need to figure out a plan to use both my phone and computer together. I can't read them on my phone, my hands and eyes protest.*

Cat-Man-Do-Have-Some-Cats

 Constant vying for his attention. Animal magnetism I guess.