Just Life

Marc made it through his hernia surgery just fine and I find I am struggling to try and keep a good man down! He has done better than both of us expected in managing the pain without a lot of medication and in not needing to lay out prone resting. Regardless, I still am trying to tame him down a tad to just (finally) taking it easy for awhile.

Our weather has definitely moved into fall and despite my wanting to get out for some photo shoots, it just really hasn’t happened. We’ve been busy with other things looming on our horizon; things I’m not at liberty to yet talk about.  

I did get this photo of a neighborhood “home” on a back road I take to go the shelter. The creeping vine is just showing hints of the brilliant red to come but mostly what I love is that this home is very typical of Wisconsin homes—out of the ordinary and made out of buildings originally built for other purposes. Note the bell still hangs in the belfry.

I’m still busy processing food—tomatoes from the garden and apples from the trees. I just about have that wrapped up though and plan to leave the rest of the hanging apples for the birds. I pulled the tomato plants and have the green ones left on their vines hanging in the shop. Marc plans to start canning again soon—we’re closing in on close to 100 jars of goodness! And I won’t talk about the spaghetti squash I am awash in—probably close to 50 of them, also continuing to ripen in the shop and the basement.

Alas, our first hard frost brought an end to my California cosmos—seeds sent from my friend took forever to grow here and then when they did they got as tall as a forest and had just started blooming about a month ago and had produced hundreds upon hundreds of buds, only to be doomed by Wisconsin’s cruel trick. I pulled them all today after seeing them looking so pathetic.

I got the garden “shut” down by removing the water hose and the garden utensil storage bin and turning the compost pile one last time. Right now it is doing so well it looks like a worm bed, turning them up by the hundreds with every shovelful. They must know that with the heat produced in compost they may just survive the winter. I’ll leave the rest of the perennial flower stalks that are dying off to over-winter to provide the birds with some seed and add interest to the snow drifts. The same with the now pathetic looking sunflowers which the blue jays and flickers have been hitting hard. Our hummingbirds have fled as have all the songbirds but the geese are still calling overhead and the Sandhill crane family is still in residence although we will shortly say farewell to them for the winter.

Winding Down

Summer is rapidly winding down into autumn’s start. Due to our high temps this summer, leaf changing seems to have been delayed by a week or two and is just now beginning so no eye candy as yet. I just finished up my annual gig helping out at the Fall O’Rama bake sale for the shelter, and nary a tree was showing orange as yet. The pumpkins and fall décor were out in full force by the vendors however. One idea I really liked was the Solar Garden Lamp booth using cast off glassware like I am doing with my flowers. It was another year of my bread being a hit but my flowers not so much.

Finally, even the garden is waning rapidly. I tried processing the largest sunflower head into roasted seeds which Marc indicated were acceptable. The tomatoes still cling to the decaying branches of the plants but are taking about twice as long to ripen and have switched their colors from deep red to orange. It takes another few days on the window sill to get them to their prime. I have had hundreds that I have had to freeze for future use; Marc hopes to make pasta sauce! I must have harvested at least 50 spaghetti squash, some also before its prime, as the squash beetles totally took over so they sit in the basement maturing now. There are a few onions (which woefully failed to thrive) left to harvest and one last segment of fingerling carrots which I may get to today. Since we had no time to really care for the apple trees this year I had bad crops from two but the front tree has produced some worth saving. I have processed and frozen very few as compared to last year’s harvest though.

Of note coming up is that Marc has been living with a hernia for quite some time and its now imperative that he get it fixed so he is due to go in for surgery on Oct. 12th. I’ll play nursemaid to him for a couple weeks while he has a chance to hopefully get caught up on some much needed rest. It’s a pretty sad day when a man looks forward to surgery as an escape from working himself to death. The continual stress, such long hours, and miles and miles he has to drive weekly have continued to take their toll and he is so burnt out he has almost ceased to be able to function. Given that, I try not to press him to attend to much around the house so the projects left to do will remain just that. Daily, he yearns to be able to retire, but there is no rest for the weary and the road in front of him still stretches out many, many years. We both try to make do with our quiet life—thankful we have one left.

Yesterday, we attended a memorial party for our back neighbor—a lady my age who had just retired six months ago. They had finished building their large beautiful home at the same time as us when she just found out in July that she had stage 4 pancreatic cancer. By early September she was dead; hardly having gotten used to the fact that she was to die shortly, let alone having been able to enjoy her new and long dreamed for retirement home. Now her husband is left with the dog to rattle around in their 4000 s.f. McMansion alone. Sometimes I think life gets more precious the simpler it becomes due to age, because there becomes so much less left of it.

Oops, Almost a Month!

I’m being cajoled for allowing too long of a period of time between blog posts. I often wonder why our lives must be so fascinating to others that they would miss updates on pieces of it, but there you have it: a very loyal, caring fan club! I understand; it is done under the guise of hoping we are doing okay but in fact, not all is bright in this portion of the world. I’ve had more health issues than I’d like to experience this summer; the ultimate result nothing that is earth shatteringly scary or precipitous, but enough to make me somewhat of a shut-in. Add in the heat and the idea of just taking it easy has not been that hard to do. 

With much of the west burning up it’s hard to believe, despite our heat, that we’ve remained so green this year. I do my fair share of watering nearly every day, but thankfully get Mother Nature’s help with that chore often enough to really be helpful. A few comparison shots in the garden, including the orphan tomatoes that started up in the compost and you can see that it is at its apex. We’re getting a good crop of tomatoes and waiting on the spaghetti squash to ripen.

On a couple nice days that weren’t too humid to work outside, after Marc completed the window caulking, I finally got all the trim boards painted. Another little niggling project that was good to have finished before the weather turns. I’d really like to see our front door painted but so far I haven’t been successful in convincing Marc as he’s still trying to finish up work on the Freightliner oil leak. He’s been out of town fairly frequently and even though much of it is in state travel, it still makes for very long days which often go to around 8-9 p.m. before he comes rolling in. His constant exhaustion is palpable. 

On the really good news front, my daughter and boyfriend just returned from an Eagle Cap Wilderness backpacking trip in the Wallowa Mountains of Eastern Oregon and they are now engaged! Marc and I both really think they are soul mates and that they will be exceedingly good for one another. Looking ahead in my schedule, I am about to start my marathon bread baking stint as the bake sale that the shelter participates in comes up about mid-September. Each loaf I make is put together one day then baked the next so to make 20 loaves is not a slight undertaking. I’ve also made a couple of my plate flowers which I will donate and see how they do as income-generators.

Mainly Garden & Rummage

Between trying to keep up with the garden weeding, watering, harvesting and cleaning of produce and running this year’s shelter rummage sale, I haven’t had time for much else. For awhile I was overrun with peas, now it’s chard, plus the tomatoes are ripening. We’ve had a rainier warmer summer than in years’ past, so the weeds sprout on a daily basis in both the garden and flower beds I am trying to establish. It’s not uncommon that I am out there a couple hours daily to do battle but in actuality, I lost the war long ago. I worked the rummage for the better part of ten days from 7 a.m. onward so I really got behind.

With some great volunteer help, I managed to pull off my first year of chairing the event and actually coming close to making what we have in previous years. Due to some snafus with delayed advertising (which I wasn’t running) I think our traffic was off; donations were off and hence, sales were off slightly. It’s a fun event but by the time I had swept out the warehouse and handed it back to the marina owner after the ten day endeavor, I was spent! The photos show the first day of getting in donations and our unpacking and setup. Quite a job for a bunch of older ladies and lots of walking back and forth on cement floor!

Besides the funds raised for the shelter, the biggest personal benefit is that as volunteers we get first dibs on the goodies, for a contribution. I was able to add to my glassware stock (to make my glass flowers), oddball miscellaneous things (a large bell for the yard), practical items (cell phone case), impractical items (Xmas décor), entertainment items (books and puzzles), and best of all, a scroll saw for Marc which was in really nice shape. He has always hankered after one, but given the retail value of $1200, it wasn’t something high on his list at this point. Now he has it and is happy as a kid with a new toy as he practices making gizmos and gadgets that at this point serve absolutely no purpose at all but practice. He does assure me however that when it comes time for him to make my kitty window boxes, the thing will be worth its weight in gold.

I have a rather aggressive agenda for the rest of the summer so blogging may fall to the wayside. I need a new crown on one of my molars; I’m fairly certain I have some skin cancer going on my face (see the dermatologist next week); I have quite a bit of outside and inside trim painting to attend to and I am devoting lots of time to searching out properties on the internet that might be suitable as an exchange for our Yuma lot. We are tearing our hair out that we cannot get it sold and are already greatly in a loss position where it is currently priced, so I will make a last ditch effort to reach out to sellers in Wisconsin who have free & clear properties they haven’t been able to sell and see if they’ll take what we have and we’ll take theirs. It’s going to involve lots of emailing and contacting listing agents but just maybe we’ll be able to find that needle in the haystack. It’s better than sitting and doing nothing and gives me an important project to pursue.

Summer's Here

Summer has settled in with a combination of nice days, rainy showery days, and often nighttime violent thunder storms. The garden is coming along much better given the warmer days and I spend most of my time either weeding or watering it and a little less time harvesting it. I tried to start the flower garden next to the house using seed, which hasn’t been a great success so I may be forced to plant mature perennials next year if this doesn’t work.

Marc meanwhile finished up making the rebar skeleton for the bottle tree that Eric got started for me and I love the result! I figure if I can find red bottles it would look particularly festive against the white snow of winter around Christmas since we placed it front and center close to the house.

During some of his off time Marc has been getting involved in making our own sausage and brats and the results are wonderful! It’s also proven to be quite a cost savings to use meat we find on sale for 99 cents/lb instead of the nearly $4/lb retail the stores charge for them. The only problem is that they are fairly addictive!

We took time out to attend the Waupaca Strawberry Festival one Saturday; mainly just to look at some of the craft booths to see what people are making to sell. Eventually we may want to run with this idea after Marc retires since he is so handy at making things. I’ve been giving my glass flowers as gifts and they are big hits but they prove problematic to ship so they may prove easier to sell locally at craft fairs. I’ve been hitting up the rummage sales left and right scouting for glassware at reasonable prices and have walked away with some nice vintage pieces.

Speaking of rummages, the shelter’s is fast approaching in about two weeks and I find myself now in charge. The lady that has been heading it up no longer volunteers for the shelter so the mantle was passed to me since I helped co-chair last year. I expect to be very busy with that since there is a day of setup, then three days when we take in donations which need unpacking, sorting and setup and then the following week we have three full days for the sale and a fourth when any leftover items are offered out for free. After that there is still one more day for cleanup since it is held in a generously donated marina warehouse out at one of the Chain of Lakes. On another note regarding the shelter, the good boy Chance with the amputated leg I wrote about recently was adopted by a doctor! Go Chance!