The cavalry is coming sometime today! I talked to my Lunch Bunch friend, Kay, yesterday. (Actually, she called to check on US after we had to miss Lunch Bunch last week due to the pile of crusher dust in the driveway.) She talked to her husband, then they talked to their pastor, and she called to give me the name and phone numbers of two people who might be able to help us.
I talked to Jeremy, who actually CAME yesterday, driving his truck up to the pile in the driveway and walking the rest of the way up. He says he can help us!!!!!!
He will come today, he says, rain or shine, and flatten out the pile of crusher dust. It’s a good thing he said rain or shine because –
this is the forecast for us today. (We’re just southeast of Fort Smith in the middle of this image). I think that he has informally adopted us because he spoke several times of our being stranded up here. He is truly a NICE guy who has already gone the extra mile for us.
The plan at this point is that he will fix things enough so that we can drive up and down the driveway at will. Then he will bring an estimate of fixing the driveway in a more permanent fashion that will last a little while.
I thanked him profusely for coming out yesterday. I slept better last night, knowing that help is on the way. It was really starting to bother me that no one could get UP the driveway, either, like fire trucks, ambulances, police…
When Jeremy is able to free us, we will make a celebratory trip to town (weather permitting) and try to catch up on some of the errands we’ve stacked up in a week’s time.
Let’s hear it for Jeremy!!!!
Filed under Challenges, Friendship, Housekeeping - Maintenance
My husband and I just got our cardio for the day.
We were sitting at our computers in our office, each concentrating on our own thing when a clap of thunder hit so suddenly and so loud, we BOTH went straight up in our chairs.
We were both quiet for a second and then started to laugh. Wow. Talk about getting our heats going!
I got up and got the garage door shut in case we’re in for more serious weather. Still hoping for at least a short cool-down.
Filed under Mother Nature
Matt Wilson Found Art – Grace Ebert – Colossal.com
We wanted to get our trash down to the bottom of the driveway this morning for pickup, but as I told you, we’re trapped up here, with a humongous pile of crusher dust in the driveway at the point we wanted the guy to spread it on down the driveway. It is impassable.
SO – my husband backed the truck down about 1/4 of the 650 foot+ steep driveway. We each took a trash bag and started walking down to the bottom. I have seriously thought about buying some football cleats to wear when trying to walk up and down our driveway. The gravel rolls, making it really hard to walk without falling on my head. I walk down on the edge on one side where there is a bit of grass for more traction.
Anyway, I got down to the bottom with my bag, then took the smaller bag I had brought in order to gather several days worth of mail from our box. I started up and saw my husband trying to gather stuff. His bag had ripped, spilling stuff all over. I went up and we gathered it up, and each took part back down the driveway. We got things bagged up for the trash men and started up again. It’s MUCH harder to walk UP the steep driveway than come down!
I had to stop three times on the way back to the truck to catch my breath. Since thunderstorms are imminent, the humidity is fierce today, too. I guess this is showing me I need to do this much more often in my efforts to get healthier – if it doesn’t kill me first… :0)
The truck is back in the garage now, safe and sound from the coming storms, which are forecast to last until about 2pm today and then start up again this evening. Oh, GOOD!
We caught raccoon #6 overnight, OF COURSE, when we are unable to get out to relocate him. We’re trying to decide if we should simply let him out of the cage or what.
Another piece of news is that our dog, Amber, was barking like a nut at our trailer we have by the shop. GUESS WHAT! We have a mama SKUNK and her babies under there. My husband managed to get Amber back in the house without her getting ‘skunked,’ thank goodness. We’re not sure what to do about the skunk family, either. This may have happened before, but we’re not aware of it.
The rain has started. It’s quite dark and ominous-looking now. I’ll close the garage door soon, but we’ll leave our front and back doors open as long as we can so we can enjoy a possible cool-down as the storms move through. It would be good if we don’t get any damage from the storm. We have enough on our plate already, thank you very much.
Filed under Amazing Animals, Challenges, exercise
Never doubt the strength of a mother’s love or how long it will last.
I’ve found an easy, lazy way to eat in line with my new Mediterranean eating plan. I got some Healthy Choice Cafe’ or Simply Steamer frozen dinners the last time we were able to negotiate our driveway, a week ago now.
The dinners have a small amount of meat or fish plus a good amount of veggies. They have a special steamer bowl where you microwave the dinner, then turn the upper steamer bowl over, adding the cooked food to the sauce in the 2nd bowl below, creating a very pleasant meal.
Since we’re actively trying to increase our veggies, I cook another one – either fresh, frozen, or canned – and put it to the side of my husband’s plate, adding the veggies to the bowl of my meal. Very little work, lots of good veggies, delicious meal – perfect healthy dinner for a lazy cook like me. :0)
Filed under DIET!, Mediterranean Eating Plan + Recipes
I’m feeling like “Ms. Grumpy” this morning, in that our plight of being stuck on top of our ridge line continues. We are still unable to find anyone to spread the big truckload of crusher dust. I’ve left our name and phone number with JoesDriveways.com, plus HomeAdvisor, two of the online home worker finder places, hoping that 1) someone calls me back, 2) we can afford the services, and 3) the person can come soon. Fingers and all other appendages are still crossed. Of COURSE it’s rainy today.
Yesterday I finally finished going through the pantry shelves, throwing things away, cleaning and reorganizing what is left. (I won’t go into detail about a can that ‘exploded’ in the back, leaving a mess that had congealed, or the little bitty bugs I vacuumed up and then sprayed for. All is clean now.
We just finished gathering our trash, both for the week plus what I’m throwing out from the pantry. We’re acting as though we’ll be able to get it down to the bottom of the driveway tomorrow. Hope springs eternal.
I’m trying to choose something in the house to tackle each day, particularly because 1) the rain seems to be with us forever, 2) we are stuck up here, and 3) I want to feel as if I’m accomplishing SOMETHING each day. There are MANY things needing attention from which to choose…
I wish you a nice Monday.
So far, I’m moving slowly in our switch to a more Mediterranean eating plan. The main reason is my husband views most veggies with distrust, if not contempt. I have figured out so far that stews, casseroles, omelettes, quiches and frittatas are a way I can increase our veggie intake without my husband revolting. I’m using meat as a flavoring, rather than the main focus, and not including any veggies toward which he is actively hostile. I can also ADD a meat (or tuna fish) flavoring to recipes I find.
I am scouring the Mediterranean cookbooks and online recipes for ideas to expand this. So far, it’s kind of difficult to find much help, though I’m determined to do this. I can also make some of the dishes for myself, serving something else to my husband, but I would like to do this as little as possible. I did find a couple of recipes for veggie ‘fries’ with interesting dips he might go for.
A backup is the Healthy Choice Cafe Steamers line of frozen dinners for me. Since my husband likes a lot of the Lean Cuisines, I’m not stuck in the kitchen trying to come up with something every night. Salads and fruit are rounding out our meals and snacks.
Filed under DIET!, Mediterranean Eating Plan + Recipes
Filed under Amazing Animals
So far, the tomatoes are doing well. Yesterday I got out with my clippers, ties, and stool for a good pruning session. I cleaned things up, supported the plants well, and delighted in seeing some green tomatoes!
I don’t want the tomatoes to get much taller, but the video I am going by didn’t say much about the indeterminate tomato plants growing up too tall for the supports. Usually mine spill out over the sides of the planter and sprawl all over the ground. That’s what I’m trying to avoid this year, because the guy in the video says the plants will concentrate on producing more tomatoes, rather than all the greenery.
The plants should be getting lots of oxygen. That is supposed to help them not get any diseases. I’ll mix up some bug spray next, because I don’t want the tomato worms sneak in and start eating the plants.
Filed under Gardening, Square Foot Gardening - Raised Beds
Ever since we had crusher dust delivered last Thursday, we’ve been stranded on top of our ridge line. Because the driveway was wet, the guy with the truckload of material was unable to really ‘tail-gate’ the stuff as he drove down. It just basically came out of the truck and onto the driveway in ‘piles.’ Until we can find someone with a tractor, front blade, and time to help us, we’re stuck up here.
I talked on our chat program with our son this morning. I was able to tell him that other than being a bit aggravated, we were fine. We have food, water, a comfortable house, power, and even a dog and cat for company. We can do all our usual things EXCEPT get down – and back up – our driveway. It we have to have a problem, this is about the best kind of problem we could have.
One of the men I contacted yesterday called me back today to say he was unable to come up with anyone who could help us. I thanked him profusely for taking the time to contact the people he knew and then call me back. People are really nice and go the extra mile sometimes.
We still have a CHANCE that one of the people I contacted will be able to help. He said he would try to arrange something after church.
We might have an interesting time if we CAN’T get someone to help us today. All next week is supposed to be rainy, starting as early as late this afternoon. Fingers crossed the stars come together to get someone out here. So we wait. Fingers crossed.
Filed under Challenges
I want to be a dog with a good home.
“I want to work like a dog, doing what I was born to do with joy and purpose. I want to play like a dog, with total, jolly abandon.” ~ Oprah Winfrey
“The dog is a gentleman; I hope to go to his heaven not man’s.” ~ Mark Twain
“All his life he tried to be a good person. Many times, however, he failed. For after all, he was only human. He wasn’t a dog.” ~ Charles M. Schulz
“Every dog must have his day.” ~ Jonathan Swift
“You can usually tell that a man is good if he has a dog who loves him.” ~ W. Bruce Cameron
“I think dogs are the most amazing creatures; they give unconditional love. For me, they are the role model for being alive.” ~ Gilda Radner
“My fashion philosophy is, if you’re not covered in dog hair, your life is empty.” ~ Elayne Boosler
Filed under Amazing Animals
Filed under paintings I love
It’s my sister-in-law’s birthday today! I hope she has a wonderful celebration.
This is the type of tractor (with operator) we’re trying to get to come to the house and spread the crusher dust pile that has us trapped in our house. The pattern over the years has been – I call and nothing happens. Then my husband calls and the guy (or his dad) come and do their magic on the driveway, pulling up gravel from the edges and then smoothing it all down. Both of the men are really artists. The problem is that our job is very small and probably a headache for them.
Update – My husband called this morning and left a message. Within 5 minutes, the driveway guy called him back, but said he’s covered up with work and can’t come. We’re trying someone else, and the driveway guy said to call him back if we can’t find anyone else who can help us.
Our weather is supposed to be nice today, with a 70% chance of rain tomorrow the last I checked – so it will probably be an outside day for me again today.
I plan to check my tomato plants carefully to see what I need to do. The plants are getting as tall as the supports now, so I’ll watch the video again to see what I’m supposed to do at the top. I’m also planning to use my new pressure attachment for the hose to clean our deck chairs and maybe the deck. I’ll see how the day goes.
Some actual progress on my diet! I’m finally beginning to see some progress on the switch to the Mediterranean eating plan. I’ve lost a couple of pounds this week and my system is calming down gradually. I’m feeling a bit more energetic, too, and so I’m able to get some things done around the house. All good signs!
I found some new yoga poses I’ll add to my routine that are all for strengthening my ‘core.’ I’m doing about half an hour now, so the new ones will make my yoga session around 45 minutes.
Happy Saturday!
I told you earlier that we’re stuck up here on top of our ridge line until the guy who has helped us with our driveway before (or someone else) comes to spread out the crusher dust/chat the guy with the dump truck brought yesterday and was unable to tailgate due to the wetness of the driveway.
Happily, we had everything we needed to completely redo the irrigation system out there. We tore everything down first, saved the parts we could and threw the rest away. We ran a new large line around the top of the deck and new irrigation lines down to each container from it. We just finished by lunchtime, so we came in and ate and then took naps.
We just tested the system and tweaked all the controls for the lines running to each container. It looks like we’re fixed now. It’ll run this evening on the timer and we can see how it goes. I moved all the chairs and tables back where they are supposed to be.
The next thing will be to pressure wash the deck chairs and see what the deck itself needs, but that’ll wait until at least tomorrow.
My husband will call our driveway guy later today to see if he can get him out to help us.
Filed under Gardening, Housekeeping - Maintenance
Filed under When Wood Comes Alive, wood carving
I truly believe that you create your own happiness. That doesn’t mean at all that when bad things happen you should plant a false smile on your face and pretend all is well. I’m talking about a basic decision you make deep inside to lean toward the positive in life and have the happiness come FROM you, rather than merely reacting to what is going on around you.
Remaining curious, learning new things, reaching out are all part of the same basic core idea that it’s your life and your decision how you spend it.
Part of my own personal happiness is discovering yet another talented person – in-person or online – whose gift takes my breath away. I’m so glad to live on the same planet as the people creating beauty in music, art, photography, and countless other media. My biggest regret is that my life is finite and I won’t be able to experience all of the beauty. What a way to go, though! :0)
Filed under Georgia Gerber Sculpture, sculpture
Yesterday my husband called again about the chat/crusher dust for our driveway. Amazingly, they didn’t have any record of our call/order. Later yesterday the truck came and left a big truckload, ‘tail-gating’ the material from a point where my husband marked our driveway and then down to the road that runs in front of the house.
The good news is we finally got the material delivered. The bad news is that the early rain we had caused the truck not to be really able to tail-gate it properly, so it dumped, rather than spread. The end result is that we had to call our friends and tell them we wouldn’t be at Lunch Bunch today because we can’t get out.
I called the man who has helped us with our driveway in the past, but had to leave a message on his phone. I don’t know whether he’s gotten the request for help or not.
We will figure something out, but it may not be today…
Filed under Challenges, Housekeeping - Maintenance
When I get down, I make a point to at least walk onto the deck – if not sit outside for a while – and look at my flowers.
I hope that you have a place you can go when you need your spirits lifted, too.
Filed under Gardening
Filed under sculpture
It’s rainy this morning and very dark outside. It looks like the perfect day to spend with the covers pulled up over my head, probably snoring.
We caught raccoon # 5 overnight, so we’ll need to relocate him later today. I really hope we get to the end of this ‘family’ of raccoons who have found our deck and sunflower seeds. So far, though, they have all been relatively quiet, so no worries about rabies or danger to our dog, Amber, or our cat, Abby. Another good thing – the raccoons always make a mess inside and outside the cage on the deck when we catch them. My husband used the new pressure water sprayer thingie I got recently, and he said it did a good job! If it ever quits raining, I’ll look forward to using it to clean some things up.
Since we’ve started a new month, it means that I need to do bank statements, May bookkeeping, filing, etc. I’ll need to intersperse a bunch of online exercising, getting up to do stuff, and more to keep myself from nodding off…
Oh, I almost forgot to tell you. I made the experimental kielbasa casserole for dinner last night. My husband said it wasn’t his favorite, but encouraged me to keep up the efforts to get us both to eat more veggies. Next time I’ll try a more usual tuna casserole and see if he likes it better.
hahahahahahahahahah
I hope you have a happy day.
I love it that I discover an art form new to me, become captivated, then put it aside for awhile. Then I come back and look at what’s being done again, finding that the art has been taken to a whole new level, with artists thinking not only outside the box, but demolishing the box!
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I wish us all a happy June. We can certainly use it, can’t we.
My husband and I will celebrate our 53rd wedding anniversary on the 14th. Last year we threw caution to the winds and ‘renewed’ our option not only for the one year we usually do, but for another 50-year hitch. We’re totally addicted to each other, though I have to remind him every once in a while that I have a backhoe guy ready to dig a hole for him in the back yard for me….
I’m making progress on switching gears on my efforts to change my eating program and continue to lose the lard. I’m now moving as close as I can to a full Mediterranean plan, increasing our veggies a LOT, plus including fruit again, and continuing my exercise regimen, though I’ve been working outside almost every day lately, substituting the yard work for more formal exercise. Today I’m going to make an experimental casserole, with kielbasa, lots of veggies, and a bit of pasta. Hopefully, my husband will like it and not revolt. :0)
A bit later I’ll hose myself with Deep Woods OFF! and go out to check our tomatoes, our garden veggies, our elephant ear plants, and see if I can do some more hacking down of things around the yard with my loppers.
Have a wonderful first day of June!
Filed under Thoughts on a ________
“Hallo, Rabbit,” he said, “is that you?”
“Let’s pretend it isn’t,” said Rabbit, “and see what happens.”
― A. A. Milne
“Bunnies will always have a special place in my heart. They are often discredited as being good pets because they don’t ‘do anything’—ask any rabbit owner and watch how they laugh!” – Shenita Etwaroo
“The other day when I was walking through the woods, I saw a rabbit standing in front of a candle making shadows of people on a tree.” – Steven Wright
“I’ll give you three guesses, Rabbit. Digging holes in the ground? Wrong. Leaping from branch to branch of a young oak tree? Wrong. Waiting for somebody to help me out of the river? Right. Give Rabbit time, and he’ll always get the answer.” – A. A. Milne, ‘The House At Pooh Corner’
“We are very fond of books. You can learn nearly everything from them that rabbits can’t teach you.” – Alan Snow, ‘Here Be Monsters!’
Filed under Amazing Animals
creativeartworksblog 