It's All Just Life

          I have so much to tell you this week and of course, I have pictures to go with my stories too.

          "Your pictures really make the stories," Momma told me once.

          And when you find something your mother likes, you do more of it. If you look back to some of my earlier letter blogs you might find only three or four photos in the whole blog. Go back far enough and all you'll find is clip art!

          So let's start at the beginning of my week, shall we?

          Last Sunday we had a baby dedication at our church. This little cutie patootie is Sophia, granddaughter of Mike's friend, Vernon. She'll be a lucky girl if she takes after her beautiful mother Tracy. Aaron is her daddy and Vernon's son.

          Mike talked to Vernon the day before. "If you go, I'll go," he told him and Vernon said he would.

          Come Sunday, Mike went to church with me but Vernon didn't show up. He'd changed his mind.

          Quick as we were out of church, Mike said, "That Vernon! Let's go see if he's at the cabin."

          "Why? You could just call him." I didn't so much care about driving out to the cabin as much as I just wanted to go home. I had to pee.

          "I want to give him hell in person."

          So we drove out to the cabin to see if Vernon was there. He wasn't but it wasn't a total loss. I got a picture to show you.

          Speaking of Vernon...

          Every time he comes to visit he asks, "When are you gonna put a pipe in that driveway?"

          We had a gully through our driveway where the water washed all the dirt away. Mostly it didn't bother us but it puts a twist on the RV when we take it out — not that we've done that, but putting a culvert in was something that needed to be done. Mike's old tractor couldn't have done the work but the new one could and did! Mike scraped the ditch with the bucket as much as he could but sometimes rocks got in the way. And there were some big rocks too! If the bucket didn't catch the edge of the rock then it would just skid along the top. 

            So we resorted to good ol' fashion muscle — and a pickaxe.

          "Let's put the pipe in now," Mike said when he thought he had it deep enough.

          I helped him set the pipe in place and stood back. "Holy crap, Mike! We're gonna have a great big hump in the driveway now!"

          Mike stood back and looked. "No, it's about right. See the driveway is higher back there. I'll build it up so it's level."

          I didn't argue. In my old age, I've come to realize some truths. One of those is, I don't know everything. If he says it's right, I'm sure it's right. I've voiced my concern and that's all I can do.

          When Mike was done needing me I went back to the house and worked on my projects, which I'll show you later. After a while, Mike comes into the house.

          "I'm gonna need more stone," he said.

          "Call and order it," I said.

          Mike called and the quarry we had been dealing with was four weeks out. Four weeks! "I called and got a load two days ago. How can they be four weeks out now?"

          "Maybe they got a big job," was all I could think of.

          Mike called another quarry and not only got a load the same day, it was cheaper too.

          Mike worked on the driveway and is getting really good with his new tractor. There was a learning curve, don't 'cha know.

          When it was all said and done, Mike was right. Once he built the driveway up it's just about perfect — and so much better!

          Now, while I'm talking about driveways...

          The Kipps' driveway was in sore need of a new layer of stone. "If I call and get a load of stone, what should I ask for?" Lamar asked Mike.

          "It used to be called modified but now it's called 2A."

          "Do you think he'll open the tailgate and spread it as he drives out?" Lamar asked.

          "I don't know. All you can do is ask. But I'll tell you what. You get a load of stone and I'll spread it for you," Mike offered.

          Lamar got his stone the next day. Mike took the tractor, I took the golf cart and Ginger and followed him down to the Kipps.

          I watched for a while but the day was so beautiful I wanted to go explore, see what was blooming.

          "Look at your Rhodie!" I exclaimed to Lamar. In my mind's eye, I could see the big beautiful flowers coming on.

          "Yep. It's been like that half the winter."

          I headed out to the creek and scared up a pair of ducks. He tipped one way and his wing brushed the surface of the water. 

           Then she tipped and brushed the water too.

         

          As I followed the flight path of the ducks I spot an old car sitting on the bank of the creek. Lamar told me a long time ago that the car was there but I'd never seen it before.

          I'm gonna walk out there and take pictures, I think and start looking for a way to do that. The bank was steep down to the creek so I walked a ways down to where the bank wasn't as steep. But now there was a different problem to deal with. There was a big pile of brush that had piled up from the last flood and there wouldn't be any getting over that for this old woman! I'd have to find another way. I went back up to one of the deer paths I'd spotted on the way in and crossed over to the driveway that goes back to Vernon's cabin. I'm not worried about trespassing as I've already been given permission by Vernon to go back there any time I wanted. I had to guess where the car was and I didn't miss it by much! Ginger, on a leash, soon got tangled in the brush. Rather than have to carry her, I looped the leash around some brush and left her there. I'd pick her up on the way back. 
          There was a lot more color left on the car than I saw when I first spotted it.

          I walked around the car and saw there was no motor, the seats were reduced to springs and ultimately, nature reclaims. 

           I can't tell what kind of car it was and the only thing left on the trunk was the word Overdrive.

          I made my way back to where I'd left Ginger and was feeling rather proud that I'd managed to fight my way through the underbrush without getting stabbed in the eye — then I got stabbed in the eye! But don't worry, I'm okay. It was just a little irritated for a while.

          Back up on Vernon's driveway, I see dark clouds moving in while I stood in the sunlight. The only thing that would make this picture better is a few bales of hay sitting in the field, I thought. But I take what I get.

          Back at the Kipps, I continue my walk along the creek. A little turtle comes swimming toward me. Yeah, it's a leaf, I was fooled.

          Looks like petroglyphs, I thought but in reality, they're trails from whatever bug killed the tree.

            Ginger got a drink.

          No wonder we need a new bridge!

          I visited with my Miss Rosie while Mike finished up the driveway.

          "That's the best I can do," Mike said. "There's a hump in the middle of the driveway and if I back blade it anymore I'll bring the dirt up. It really needs a little more stone."

          "It's great!" Lamar complimented.

          There's a little stone left that Lamar can shovel around and fill in a few places.

          A couple of days later we get — no, wait — Mike gets a card in the mail. "It looks like one of those hearing aid offers from that place over in Towanda," Mike says. "It's postmarked Lehigh Valley."

          This hearing aid place uses a font on their cards that look like they're handwritten. But it wasn't. It was a really nice handwritten thank you note from Lamar.

         "Every truckload of stone needs someone to move it around, but not everyone could or would do the job." Mike read to me and I thought it sounded like a poem. "Thanks, Mike for being such a good neighbor and friend to offer and follow through. You did a great job of fixing our driveway and we're very thankful. Lamar." 

           Mike closed the card and looked at the beautiful Snowy Owl picture for a minute, then flips it open again. "How come Rosie didn't sign it?" he wondered.

          "Well, I don't know, but how come my name's not on there!"

          "I did all the work!"

          "Yeah, but I let you do it!"

          "I wonder why it's postmarked Lehigh Valley."

          "I think all of our mail goes there," I told him.

          "But don't they have a local box?"

          "Yeah, but if it's like Missouri, they told me they stopped doing local because it's faster to send it to Jeff City to be sorted and then sent back. I'm guessing it's faster to send it to Lehigh Valley."

          "Maybe they mailed it when they were out someplace," Mike mused.

          It was clear to see that he wasn't happy with my explanation, besides, he could be right. I called Rosie and put her on the speaker.

          "Rosie, Mike wants to know why your name's not on the card." I don't know why I started with that question, but I did.

          "Because Mike did the work for Lamar so I thought he should write and send the note. It's not that I'm not thankful, I am, but if Mike wouldn't've spread it, Lamar would've had to do it by hand so I think he's more thankful than I am."

          "Okay, how come my name's not on it?"

          "Because Mike did the work while you were off taking pictures!"

          "Yeah, but I let him do the work!"

          Rosie laughed.

          "Ask her where they mailed it from," Mike said.

          "You ask her. I'm going to make my coffee," and I shoved the phone at Mike.

          "Where did you mail it from?"

          You could tell the question puzzled her. "Right here at the house."

          "Don't they have a local box?" he asked.

          After a little discussion, Rosie sided with me. She thinks it all gets sent to a bigger sorting facility.

          Spring is here and everything is popping out all over the place! I saw my first Robin Monday.

          "That's a Robin?" you ask.

          Yeah, he wouldn't turn around for a picture until he was on the other side of the dog fence then I didn't want his picture. You'll just have to trust me on this one.

  

          I toss all of my food scraps into the weeds for the critters to pick through. One thing they never eat, and I toss anyway, is onions. When I went to toss scraps a couple of days ago I see I have some volunteer onions growing from the scraps!

          Eastern Painted Turtle.

          I've got a book on reptiles and amphibians but I can't see this frog well enough to know what his name is.

            A Great Blue Heron.

          My volunteer crocus are blooming. I'm guessing they blew over from the neighbor's yard. Sally's got beautiful flowers.

          Those pussy willows didn't waste any time! Look at them now!

          Last year's Bittersweet. There's still a few berries hanging on.

          Our Yellow Weeping Willow.

          Down in town, the Forsythia is really blooming. Up here on the mountain, ours has barely started.

          Look at this mess would ya! I just vacuumed the landing outside the cat room and look at this mess!

          "What is it?" you ask.

          It's hair — and blood!

          Judging by the color I'd say it's Jerry fur. Mr. Mister must of really laid into him the night before — and I didn't hear a thing.

          When I went into the cat room to feed them, Jerry and Mr. Mister were both there along with our wild girls. They ate breakfast side by side. I guess last night's tiff is forgotten.

          This is Jerry. He's here for breakfast most every morning but doesn't usually stay all day. He doesn't want to be touched so I respect that. I can see where he's got tufts of fur missing but he doesn't look too bad. I'm guessing he's getting old because he never seems to groom himself.

          I've been calling this guy Jerry Jr. because he's very similar in color to Jerry, and I know you can't tell that from this picture. Jerry Jr. comes around once in a while. He has to be careful though because if any of our cats spot him, they run him off.

          "Peg, what have you been up to this week?" you ask.

          Oh, gosh. What have I been up to? Well, I tried my hand at making Dream Catchers. It was my intention to make the web with wire and hang a couple of stained glass feathers from it.

          The first one I made (the one with all the colored beads) I'd used a heavy gauge wire and my knots aren't pretty. I tried a second time with a lighter gauge wire but don't like it any better. I don't think I'll make any more in this style. 

           I did find a free pattern online from Glass Patterns that I might try.

          I made two fruit hangers this week too. One is for oranges and one for bananas. It hangs kinda wonky because it wasn't made to hang like this. They're two separate pieces. I just didn't have a place to hang the banana so I stuck it there. I'm already thinking about design changes for the orange holder if I make another one. There isn't really any place for the birds to perch. The banana is for the butterflies. I haven't seen any critters on either one of these yet but it might be a bit early, at least for the butterflies anyway.

          I still make homemade yogurt. I had this batch stirred up for half an hour before I realized I'd forgotten to plug it in.   Could've been worse, I told myself. I could've found out tomorrow. Wouldn't that've been good. And I counted my blessings. 

          I like to use my yogurt in Cinnamon Bread, which I made twice this past week and shared with the neighbors. I think it's the secret to making it the yummiest. The recipe calls for buttermilk and if you use regular yogurt you might need to thin it a bit with milk to get the right consistency. My yogurt doesn't get very thick (I don't know why) and it ends up being just a bit thicker than the consistency of buttermilk. I ran this past Momma once.

          "You can still use it," she told me. "We always drank the yogurt my mother made."

          "You mother made yogurt?!" I was amazed. She never made spaghetti but would make yogurt.

          And that's what Mike and I do. We drink it. It's still scrape-the-bottom-of-the-bowl good. And to think I dumped out the first batch that turned out this way.

          Something else I still make and love is homemade laundry soap. Some people make liquid but I prefer powder. It doesn't take as much room to store. The hardest part of making it is grating the Fels Naptha soap. It's not hard, not really, it's just time-consuming and a little tiring since I make a double batch when I make it. That means grating two bars of soap on the side of the grater with the tiny little holes that look like someone punched it with a hammer and nail.

          I opened one of the bars to help with a stain on the front of one of my shirts. That bar has sat on the shelf in the laundry room, partially opened, for a month. When I went to grate it, the part that was drier grated so nice and easy. If I'd known that was the secret, I'd have done it a long time ago. But for now, I was stuck with fresh bars.

          "Peg, can you nuke it?" you ask.

          I know, right! I wondered the same thing. I took to Google and found out you can! One website called for it to be cut into pieces, another nuked the whole bar at once. I cut mine into pieces.

          It puffs up and makes the whole house smell but it grates down to a powder really fast and mixes easily with the Borax and washing soda. And to think that I've been doing it the hard way all this time!

          Something else I like to do is to cook a large batch when I cook things. I'll make two pounds of spaghetti at one time and that allows me to put a bunch of meals in the freezer. Mike will eat that. For me, I'll make a big pot of Unstuffed Cabbage. But that leaves me with a problem.

          "What's that?" you ask.

          I don't have enough Rubbermaid bowls. No, this isn't the first time. I try to limit my big batches when I have enough available bowls but once in a while, I need more than I have.

          "You can always use freezer bags," you say.

          I know, right! I've done that before. It's messy.

          "You could go into the way-back and get that box of plasticware you've got stored back there," you say.

          I know, right! I thought of that too. But here's the thing. I have limited shelf space. The bowls in the back aren't what I use now. If I buy more of what I'm currently using, I'll just make my stack taller. If I get a different kind I'll have to start a new stack. See the problem?

          We did our shopping, bowls weren't on the list, I forget to buy bowls. And here I am stuck making both two pounds of pasta and Unstuffed Cabbage in the same week!

          "You're gonna have to dig those bowls out," you say.

          I know, right! So Mike went to town, by himself, for a haircut. That left me with all kinds of time to myself. I went into the way-back and found four boxes that said KITCHEN and not one that said PLASTICWARE. I hauled them all up front and found stuff I didn't remember I had. Blue, red, green, and yellow, colored plates. Soup bowls with handles. That reminded me of mushroom soup and I quickly put them aside. Nice, barely used pans, beautiful cut glass bowls, and cups out the wazoo.

          "Peg, what are you going to do with all that stuff!" you ask.

          I know, right! Short term, I don't know. Long term, I've got plans. Garden totems and mosaics are two that come to mind.

          A few of the more memorable things that I found include a John Deere coffee cup. Mike drinks a cup of tea every morning so from now on he's getting it in this cup.

           I found a set of three glass Garfield mugs from McDonald's. 

            And a brand-spankin' new box of 35 mm film.

          I also found two sets of salt and pepper shakers that still had salt and pepper in them. Not to mention the creamer and sugar still in their containers. I dumped the stuff and washed the containers. Not a big deal. Not really. The only issue being the moisture. While the powdered creamer just clumped into a solid brick, the sugar dissolved. Had he not stayed in his container it would've been a sticky mess. One set of salt shakers had plastic lids. No problem. Take a knife and break the clumps and dump 'em out. The other set, from Tradewinds, had a chrome top. Do you know what you get when you combine salt with moisture and metal?

          Momma loved this set too, I thought. Funny how she still dominates so many of my thoughts.

          If the salt shaker hadn't been stored on his side the damage might not have been so bad but there isn't any use to go there. Done is done.

          "Peg! Why did you store them with stuff still in them?" you wonder.

          Young and dumb? I've never put stuff into storage before, not ever. And this stuff wasn't supposed to be in storage. We were moving. The sale fell through, our stuff got moved, and we didn't.

          I can't save the top but I'm trying to save the metal piece that locks the top on. It's rusted pretty bad and I've got it sitting in a bowl of vinegar right now.

          Where could that box of plasticware be? I wondered. Later that day, when I went to scoop the litter boxes in the feral cat room, I found a whole stack of plastic bowls on the shelf in there — and then I remembered. I'd emptied the box, throwing out some things and keeping others. I obviously thought the bowls might come in handy for feeding the critters cause there they were!

          "What about lids?" you ask.

          That's funny because I found the lids in one of the four boxes I'd just emptied. Now I'll have bowls for the freezer and I'll worry about where to store them later.   

          Speaking of rust...

          Mike was reading the owner's manual for his new tractor and found out it should be greased every ten hours. Mike got his grease gun and tracked down all the grease zerks. Two of them, the two closest to the ground on the bucket, wouldn't take any grease. They're rusted.

          "They make a tool that you can force grease into the zerks," Mike told me.

          On our way home from our Thursday morning breakfast, we stopped at NAPA and Mike bought one. The directions say to use a light penetrating oil first so that's what we did. Mike did one side then the other.

          "Does that mean they didn't grease the joints?" I asked Mike.

          "Yep," was all he said but I could tell he wasn't happy about it.

          We weren't able to get the light oil to pass through the zerk but Mike tried to force grease in just the same. I think he was hoping it would work. It didn't.

          "It still might loosen up after the oil sits on it for a while."

          "What happens if it doesn't?" I asked.

          "Then you take it to someone else to fix."

          I've seen a couple of different birds at my feeders this week. I saw a whole bunch of these gray birds and they kinda reminded me of Juncos because of the white underbelly but Juncos are darker. I looked them up in my bird book and they are Juncos! Just a different kind. These are Slate Juncos (except for the Cardinal of course) whereas I was used to seeing the Dark-eyed Junco.

          Saturday morning I see this one. Once I saw the male she was hanging around with I knew what she was. She's a Brown-headed Cowbird.

          I watched as she got up to the pan, looked inside, jumped up on the edge and dipped her head. I don't know if she was taking a bath in last night's rainwater, getting a drink, or picking seeds from the bottom.

          This is a sparrow. Because of the heavy streaking, I think it's a Song Sparrow, which is common in our area.

          You know something? I have this big pot that I use when I cook two pounds of spaghetti. It's a beautiful, heavy-bottom pot. I went to get water for coffee, saw the pot air-drying in the drainer and realized I'm happy. It's just ridiculous the things that make me happy these days.

          The next day I was equally sad when I saw all the beautiful dishes I had, all laid out on the floor and stacked on shelves in the pantry, and they would bring joy to no one.

          We had the most beautiful sunset the other night.

           I scared Mike's herd when I went out to take pictures.

         

          Let's call this one done!