Journal for Aug 15-21

18 years ago

Another week gone by with very little done. The lazies and the heat got me. Finally has cooled down to seasonal, mid to low 80s. Nights very obviously longer now and it is right chilly mornings. Haven't used the furnace yet to warm the house but it won't be long. I don't even want to guess what fuel oil will be this season.

Dodged the big one on Friday. Weather predicted a cold front. They didn't see what was going to happen. Around 3pm it arrived in the form of 60 mph winds, lightning etc.

Knocked power out to several thousand people in Spokane (branch on line), started many fires but fortunately had heavy rain with it so either put out the fire itself or contained them till the crews could get to them. One house was bisected by a falling tree, occupant had just stood up to see someone at the door when the tree landed on the couch. Our county was some different. I suspect the winds were higher than 60 and lasted for about an hour, no rain but heavy dust. Zero visibility, multi car pileups. People just will NOT slow down when they should. One unlucky guy stopped to help, stepped out and was rearended by a semi, he was critical last I heard. 6 cars including 3 semis in that one and closed the highway for about 3 hours. Multiple reports of firs during the wind but all were extinguished before running. How I don't know. As dry as it is with 60mph winds they should have been gone in an instant. Last year in same conditions a fire ran for 3 miles.

Re: Alma's treatments. They are for radiation and only take about 5 minutes. Alma says it takes longer to get undressed/dressed than the treatmen. The nice thing is our appointment is 11:00 and they mean that. Not like a lot of doctor type offices where an appointment time means everyone gets the same time. The only chemo scheduled is a hormone therapy and that will start 8 weeks down the road but is only 1 pill a day for 5 years.

The drive isn't all that bad. Going to Lewiston is a bit better as the route runs through a couple small towns, over hill/dale around corners so it isn't as boring as going to Spokane where you put it on auto pilot and maybe turn the steering wheel slightly a few times. 51 miles portal/portal.

Was out to the wood patch on Sat. Cool, high for day was 77. Finished up the snag that I left, most went on fire pile. Then fell/brushed/loaded the last tree where I am working. Left about 1/2 of it for the next trip. I quit at noon with only a half load. Can't see getting all beat out when there is no need to push it. Have one more tree in that area but will have to beat a track about 50 ft through the ancient blowdowns. I walked the route for a quick look. Didn't seem too bad, only found two logs in the 6ft tall grass crosswise of the proposed track.

Sprayed the flower bed that has been hijacked by chickweed yesterday. Was still looking pretty healthy last night, might need another feeding. Those petunias and marigolds are tougher than I...

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Comments (7)

southerngardengal
18 years ago
Harry glad that it doesn't take two or three hours for Alma's treatments. That means you don't have to spend the whole day going, waiting and coming home...LOL.

We had one of our rabbits to kindle last night. Only had 5 but they look healthy. It is amazing to me how a tiny little kit can move around a cage when their eyes are still closed and find the mommy rabbit.

We got the thirteen New Zealand Whites on Saturday. They look very healthy. We still have about four months before we can start breeding them. Then our meat rabbit business will be off the ground and shall we say crawling....With a lot of hard work and lots of faith in what we are doing maybe one day we will be up and running.

Harry, I will trade a few days of our temps for a few days of yours. It was 95 degrees about 5 this afternoon.

I put a few eggs under my silkie today. She had decided she wanted to set and was sitting on one egg. So I added three more. She is small so didn't put too many under her. Maybe now this time we have at least two hatch...Oh well that is the way things have been going....And just maybe she will hatch all four of them. It is slow go of getting meat chickens raised at the rate I am going but that is all right. I am enjoying what I am doing.

Hope everyone has a wonderful week.
Jan
southerngardengal
18 years ago
Harry, I hope all is going well with Alma's treatments and that you two can get some rest of the weekend from your daily trips.

Looks like all our farmer friends have run away. I miss reading what is going on with everyone.

We got a good rain yesterday. It rained about 45 minutes but it was slow, soaking kind. Everything looks so green and alive this morning. It is still really hot and humid so by noon the plants will be drooping again. AT least I know the roots got wet yesterday.

Hope everyone has a good day....
Jan
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Thanks you guys. I didn't mean to sound like I was willing to concede on not getting paid. Suzy hit the nail on the head, explaining the bottom feeder pecking order of the small contractor. There's steps or a process that we take to up our chances of getting paid other than running to a courthouse. Surely, you all know that once one opens that can of worms, you can add months,costs and the risk of not collecting the full total amount. In addition, knowing your adversary and treating these situations on a case by case differential is to our advantage. Trust me, it's better to play detective, using your understanding of what is really happening, to get what you want rather than to threaten too early. As far as the guy who has empty promises, we are in the 'squeaky wheel gets the grease' step in the process. We're camping out in his front yard, so to speak. Jimmy and I both know how many aces we hold in our hand. We know when someone's ego and reputation is at stake. I am friends with two of his sisters, one of his brothers and his mama adores me. Jimmy knows the same 300 or so people this guy knows,lol. This alone ensures us that he won't stiff us and is more threatening than any call or letter from a lawyer. My Jimmy is very personable and charming. Yesterday, he exposed a few of his serious peacock feathers, so to speak, to this guy while discussing this debt and handing Jimmy some cash that amounts to not even a lousy tip to what he owes us. Although not being openly discussed, all the players know what's at stake here, where we all are on the time line and when push comes to shove. Jimmy and I know when to burn our bridges. I also know when the ball is in Jimmy's court,not mine. It's to my advantage to let these boys be boys, if you know what I mean. ;o) The good news is, that your kind words,prayers and sunflower thoughts made a big change yesterday. Half of what is owed to us came in the mail! But more importantly, another prayer involving money was answered yesterday. Even more needed, this little miracle made Jimmy and I feel a much missed breeze under our wings that really uplifted us. Oh good lord, you're all gonna get a kick out of this. But first let me tell you about what our day was like after I wrote this journal yesterday. Like I said, I knew writing out my feelings would throw me into some level of action so I started with the basics and cleaned the house while Jimmy was working. We both agreed that we would put 2 hours into chores/work and go to the beach. Heat index predictions were 110 degrees. We had no idea that a thrilling roller coaster ride of utter fear and joy would unfold the rest of our day. While I was cutting up watermelon and lopes for our cooler, Jimmy let me know that he put the cash with the checks we got in the mail in one of our dressers but had 2 twenties and some ones on his person. Boy, did we get lucky with parking. The closest spot to the beach on the street we picked. So rare, we had to high five each other. Virtually impossible when you consider it's the busiest week of the season with 300,000 people in one 13 mile long stretch of beach. We claimed our turf on the sardine packed beach and the oppressive heat got us to the surf sooner than usual. The temp of the water was a perfect 71 degrees. Chilly to the toes at first but easy to wade on in without hesitation. And the there was such a nice sandbar with waves strong enough to keep a good eye but spaced well enough to have a blast. Many of the beach goers were taking advantage of the wonderful surf. It was so nice for us to be exchanging those, "Gosh, this is so much fun" smiles between us. Whew, talk about good for the weary soul. My senses seemed to be in overdrive when leaving the water feeling a formidable under toe against my calves. My sinuses only smelling the sea and my taste buds salty, I was thrown back to a place in time feeling as if I was walking out of the water with Lindsey after a swim. Her presence was so strong I could taste and smell it. I'm feeling better by the minute. For the next few hours we snacked, did some word puzzles and swam about every 1/2 hour due to the heat and the fun surf. I couldn't help but overhear a man behind us, with a new york accent, conducting business on his cell phone. Then his son, about 11, his daughter, about 14 and his wife joined him drying off from their swim. The boy was very loud throwing a bona fide fit yelling at his mom and stomping his feet. Jimmy and I dipped our sunglasses down our noses a tad and exchange that "look" while the people in front of us picked up their sand chairs and reversed them facing us instead of the ocean. It got weirder by the nanosecond after that. The boy gets even louder, screaming at his mother for not bringing his chair to the beach while now the people in front of us that are now facing us are also moving their sunglasses exchanging that "look" to us. Seconds later, bad turned to worse as the father started screaming as loud as his son throwing empty threats of leaving the beach, packing up the car and cutting their vacation short. The teenage girl, who remained quiet through her embarrassment get the brunt of her father's scolding, not the boy. Then all eyes on the jammed packed beach grew large when the man announced to his children "I wished I never had kids". I grabbed the arms to my chair to rise up and Jimmy said: "Oh no you don't Diane." I tried to settle back in my chair. About 90 seconds later with more screaming out of all of them except the mother, the father called his daughter a b--ch then yelled to his two kids: "I wish you two were both dead and buried." I jumped out of my chair like a bat outta he11. "Take it off the beach, now," I said. I said some more stuff but because I was seeing red I can't recall exactly. I know I was brief and didn't curse. I sat back in my chair for only a minute telling Jimmy and the now audience on me that I was going in the ocean, "I needed to cool off in more ways than one." To my hopes, Jimmy soon joined me in the water and was met with, "Lindsey made me do it" with a big grin. "Oh, I know, he exclaimed, but she would of been 10 times worse than you!" When we got out of the water this sad excuse for a father and his family were no longer there. Four people approached me and thanked me. Jimmy dubbed me the "hero of the beach" for the remaining hour we were there before we headed home. After some down time, around 6pm we both decide to run up to the produce stand together to get some corn for dinner. Jimmy pulled into the food store because he wanted something and I went to the trunk to get some money out of our beach bag. Earlier on the beach, I noticed Jimmy threw his cell phone, car keys and what certainly looked like a 100 dollar bill to me in the side pocket of the beach bag. With all the excitement and the fact that Jimmy is ADD, I never asked him about this bill. When I went to the trunk, the beach bag wasn't there. I gasped as I realized I left it on the street next to the car when we left the beach. We set land speed record getting back to the beach where we parked. We're both scared as he11 because even though Jimmy said he put the cash in the dresser he knows himself all too well and might of not put it in the dresser. With me trying to convince him that I did in fact see a 100 dollar bill in the beach bag earlier, we both were so scared that Jimmy somehow put all the 500 in our beach bag earlier before we left the house. I'm convinced that is exactly what happened and I apologize to him for making such a mistake. He graciously offered up, "Welcome to my nightmare. We'll never survive if my ADD rubs off on you!" Meanwhile, it's the busiest week of the season and we are in deep dinner rush hour traffic. I keep closing my eyes and Jimmy weaves in and out of traffic. I prayed. Low and behold, we pull into the street we parked at earlier and there it sat on the sidewalk. He pulled up, I opened my door and yanked it into our car,lol. We gasped as we saw what we suspected and thanked God. So, here our beach bag with 500 dollars in it sat on a public street, in a very crowded resort and the only disturbance was tire tracks. There was no argument that we knew darn well that Lindsey protected it for us! Heck, we felt so good the rest of the night, I skipped watering my plants and excepted their "cooked-look" from the day's oppressive heat and only had ONE scoop of ice cream (with dark chocolate kisses and Heath bar pieces.) That snack choice alone should tell you that things are much better now. ~di, going back to the beach today wishing for more excitement but not as scary as yesterday. :o)
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Hi everybody!! First off, Gretchen ((((( )))))!! I am so sorry to hear of your loss! Sending good thoughts and prayers to you and your family. NHSuzanne, CONGRATS on your 10 lb loss! That is wonderful! Jen, I hope those headaches are history! Well, Ahem..... Thank you all for the wonderful birthday wishes! I woke up this morning early and right after my 2nd cup of coffee there was a knock at the door. A big box was on my doorstep! Thank you, thank you, thank you Jen!! The first thing i opened was the lovely card with pictures of Jen's BEAUTIFUL girls Tara and Erica. These two are real Cutie Pies! Everything came so beautifully wrapped. There is a real garden theme here...Everything in pastels: a multi colored pastel picture frame with a butterfly and flower pot. Next was a package of tea candles to go with the darling potpourri burner that is also pastel and bedecked with butterflies. Then 5 different scented wax potpourri discs for the burner, all shaped like little pies, all smelling good enough to eat; honeydew/melon,french vanilla,golden spiced pear,fruitberry/spiced pear and spiced pumpkin. last but not least is a little ceramic crock which matches everything else! Jen said that her girls helped pick out the gifts and I must say, Tara and Erica have excellent taste! Jen, I love everything! The frame awaits the "perfect picture" and sits on my desk. The potpourri burner is in use as I write this, I chose honeydew/melon for today. The little crock sits on my bedside table.I have yet to master my digital camera. I will TRY to post pics. Thank you soooo much. I am enjoying our emails, too. I went out for breakfast with friends, lunch with DD, got my nails done and am getting ready for a dinner out with a some friends. Another friend has invited me out for breakfast tomorrow and there will be a small party at Sunday school. DS has been away at camp for the week (HIS birthday was Wednesday)and we have a family party planned for NEXT weekend.lol! So, you see, I plan to celebrate ALL WEEK LONG!! Marci, you have outdone yourself with that marquee. I printed it out. Who knows when I might see my name in lights again? DeeMarie, Age? I'm old enough to know better but too young to resist!! Ha Ha!! Raeanne, That ornament WAS tacky, but lets not overlook it's practical aspect. You never know when you might need "one of those"! Still no word from BJ. I hope she is having a good trip and that we can hook up here. Thank you all so much, Love, Tikanas
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Good morning everyone! Almost done my cookies - one more batch to go. I do clean as I go - otherwise I'd be working on the floor! Going to start putting away my baking stuff in a couple of minutes once the last recipe is 'in the bowl' and clear off my dining table. Need the space to pile bags of stuff to go down to the in-laws for xmas and to clear out the living room floor so I can start vacuuming today. I want to have my housework done today so when we return from xmas I come back to a clean house and can relax. We are joining all of you getting inundated with snow - it's our turn big time today with a forecast of well over a foot - with blowing snow more like 2 feet already in some spots. Deja vu from this time last year, eh? Some young lad put a flyer in our mailbox for snowshoveling - by hand - I already called him since we want our house clear when we return from traveling too. I'm going to call him today in a bit to ask him to come by when the snow stops, once the plough goes by. I will do some shoveling myself. My neighbors offer to blow us out for free but I don't feel at all right about that - they won't take any money so I have declined. It sounds like a young couple on the phone doing the shoveling and they live around the corner from us - I am quite happy to hire someone needing a few dollars. We have no where to put a snow blower otherwise we'd have one right now. My back is still recovering from the manual labour and I know I have to drop some weight because it spasms when I carry a few extra pounds - doesn't take much these days. Okay, I'm stopping my whining now. I saw the weather in the bad areas on the news last night in the US. My heart goes out to everyone concerned. Not funny at all. Hard to enjoy xmas when you have no heat, running low on supplies and all you can see is more snow falling. Once I get on with my housework I'm going to work on a few craft projects so I don't keep looking out the window. Have some computer work to do too for my website/business I'm trying to prepare for the new year so that's fun too. Hugs to everyone, I will probably check in later! Peggy
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turnkey4099
Original Author
18 years ago
Not much to say today. We get a day off. The radiation lab called just as we were getting ready and told us the machine was down. We have to call tomorrow before leaving to see if it is up, they are sure it will be but just to be safe.

The Lewiston/Clarkston valley is doing the usual, collecting smoke from the fires. Wasn't bad yesterday but at times it makes for almost full overcast. Word is the the School fire (the big one) is pretty well contained, somewhere around 75% now. Other fires going also getting under control. As for grain fires I did hear that one did take out 150 acres the other day - that is the only big one I have heard of.

Had very cool (almost furnace time) yesterday, mid 70s, windy, rain. Didn't add up to much but at least washed the dust out of the air. Stopped harvest probably until this afternoon. Supposed to be cool today and tomorrow then back to above normal for several days.

Probably go out and start split/stack of the last load I brought in. Might move the hydraulic splitter back into operation.

I screwed up!! Since we have a day off today I suggested Alma make a shopping trip to town and pick out the paint for the kitchen. WHAT WAS I THINKING? Oh well, I've been slowly picking away at that for a month getting the wallpaper off and preparing for paint, might as well bite the bullet and finish the job. Then it will be on to the bathroom.

Harry K
broodyjen
18 years ago
We finally got some rain here. About an inch on Tuesday, and a little bit more today. I actually did some mowing today, which we hadn't done in a few weeks because of the drought.

I started breaking my baby pony to lead this week. So far he's more cooperative than I thought he would be, but it's hard to get help with it, and it's something I can't do alone because the mare is so uncooperative. It's kind of like the whole Henny Penny story....nobody in the family wants to do any of the work, but they sure do like coming out and playing with him. But oh well....

I took a second job yesterday. My DH threw a fit, but it's only 2 hours twice a week, so I don't think it's that big of a deal. Also, it's turning out horses and cleaning stalls, so to me that's not really work, more like getting paid to exercise. The owner is a little bit nutty--she has 7 horses and they are all like pets to her, she doesn't ride any of them (I think only 2 are even broke to ride). She has special feeds and supplements and herbs and sprays for each one. There's a certain order she wants them fed, and then another order they have to be turned out, or else "they get mad." Luckily, she works evenings so she won't know if I feed/turn out the wrong one first! She keeps them inside all day because it's so hot....meanwhile the "million dollar" stallions at my main job are out in the hot sun every day. Go figure!

Hope everybody is having a good week. Chins up, everyone....fall is right around the corner!
Miss_Kitty
18 years ago
Interesting week.

Got the pastures bush-hogged, the rag weed had taken over and I was choking to death. I couldn't go outside without my asthma acting up, I was gasping for breath even in the house this past week, the stuff was getting ready to bloom.

Took a soil sample to the Extension office for testing. (Getting ready to put in some serious herb beds.) Need to make a few more samples for the pasture.

Had the last ducklings hatch out yesterday. There seems to be 10 of them. This old hen-duck is a biter so I don't have a good count yet. Need to take the rest of the ducklings to the flea market.

Sold my 4 legged duck Wednesday. He went to a good home. I was starting to worry about him, he'd lost a few feathers from his second tail, I think the rest of the flock wasn't very fond of him. I gave them an extra to keep him company, they seem to do better in pairs.

HOpe the rest of you have good a week!

Here is a link that might be useful: quaddies new home
gldno1
18 years ago
afternoon all. We got a wonderful 2-1/2 inches of rain from the last system, but it is back up to 94Â° now and with the humidity, very uncomfortable.

My yard greened up so much that I had to mow the entire thing today, but hadn't mowed in a couple of weeks so it was pretty deep in spots. Then came in and finished off the peaches and am pooped!

We toured the farm yesterday with our DD and GD and was really surprised how the blasted weeds had grown in the drought. We are going to need to get the tractor out again and some fields to clip more thistles and ragweed and thorn trees. These seem to be the worst offenders.

I can't remember if I told everyone about my two heifers calving early and we kept one and are letting her raise the babies. Not sure how that is going to work out. They don't seem to have filled out like I think they should. I am going to try to start graining them and see if that will help. The little heifer is limping and I haven't got her up to check it yet. Sure looks like a Holstein should be able to support two babies, even with just her hind quarters....remains to be seen.

Our bank had a dinner last night, good food and a music show . The music was better than the food! Really enjoyed it.

Miss Kitty, glad you found a home for the quad. I guess there are rescue homes for everything! Interesting.

Broodyjen, we have a woman in our area who is a bit "unhinged" when it comes to her horses. She has a very professional ring and barn with very fancy fences. Her close neighbor says she spends a fortune on them.....must be nice. However, I was just in the daylily forum and they are talking about spending $1,000's for a single daylily....now that is what I call insane! Of course, if money is no issue, then I guess anything goes, doesn't it. To each his own.

Enough trivia.

Resting the rest of the day, gld
Miss_Kitty
18 years ago
Yes there seems to be a "rescue" for most speices. I suppose that it's easier to "rescue" animal's than humans but as a person working drug rehab, I'd kinda wish that more folks would help humans. (ick, I can't believe I actually stepped on that soapbox.) I'd better drop that line of reasoning and get back to the duck story.

To tell you all the truth, Quaddie didn't go to Florida after all. I guess I could say he was duck-napped and re-directed to North Carolina, but I would be "disasterizing" what is most likely just a bit of mis-information. (I'm mischeivous enough as it is, so will take all this with a grain of salt. No make that a nice red 50 lb. BLOCK of salt, this is a highly amusing situtation.)

I recieved an email from a different duck rescue organization (N.C.) who says that Quaddie is actually going to her place. Here, I'll quote it directly:

"Quaddie is actually coming here to live with me so I know he will have a good home. Lame Duck Rescue is a sister organization of ours but its not in Florida. The volunteer must have gotten the instructions confused. Quaddie is coming to North Carolina. We have better resources here to care for him. I have a world renowned vet specializing in waterfowl here who will thoroughly check him over and make sure he is healthy. It appears his penis was prolapsed when she picked him up and I will make sure hits taken care of right away. He will have a permanent home here with my other disabled ducks."

That was a cut and paste from the last email.

I suppose this means he may end up a gelded duck.

Nice to know he went to a home with those kind of resources.

I hope Old McDonald sees this, and would like to have someone email it to some of the "serious" farmers.

(rotflmao)
Kitty

Journal for Aug 15-21

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southerngardengal

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Journal for Aug 15-21

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southerngardengal

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