Dairy Daze...and Now Beyond

  On Tues, today is Friday, our neighbor Bonnie, gave me a couple of grapefruit.  Perhaps that is an odd thing to wax nostalgic over, but nonetheless it brings back many memories. My father was a big believer in the power of vitamin C to cure all ailments.  In the bathroom cabinet he kept a bottle, it was  indeed a brownish glass bottle, of chewable vitamin C tablets.  We girls; Leslie, Teresa and I, would occasionally amuse ourselves by getting them and watching each other's faces as we chewed one up.  They were not mixed with any sort of sugar or flavoring whatsoever, just tiny pills of straight whatever-it-was they used to put the actual vitamin into a tablet form. Just thinking about it makes my jaws pucker up.  Haha! The faces we would make! I believe Dad usually encouraged to do this when someone had a cold, or even thought they were coming down with something.  It was supposed to be a preventative measure as well as a curative one. To get m...

 I think this is my Christmas cactus.  It has spiky leaves.  I think the Thanksgiving cactus has smoother leaves....well, I know they aren't technically leaves, but you know what I mean. This is the second year this has bloomed.  I love it.  So pretty.   Of course, these have to be "forced" to bloom.  I don't really have a safe dark spot to put it ..well...I would have if I'd clean out a cupboard or a wardrobe...but whatever.  I put it in the bathtub of our dinky bathroom and put a dark cloth over it.  I keep it there for a month or so...all of November at least.  I noticed a couple of weeks ago that it was starting a few tiny buds on it.  I left it in the dark a little bit longer, then took it out last week.  It doesn't have a great deal of buds or blooms, but enough that it will be lovely for a couple of weeks at least. Last year I repotted it after it bloomed and it nearly died.  I'm not sure what to do this time....

  This amaryllis was from a lady who gave her whole huge pot of them to Aunt Kathy's cousin; Mary Lou.  Kathy had them in her front yard...the whole pot of them actually, one fall and gave both Gail and I a few of them.  They are super determined to survive because I do just the bare minimum to care for them.  They bloom, then leaf out.  I keep them in the house until it gets warm enough in later Spring to leave them out on the porch.  I leave them on the North side of the house, under the air conditioner, so they get the condensation dripped all over them.  I bring them in before they freeze and generally just let them die back. I do fertilize them occasionally over the summer and fall. Though I am really not sure if they need it or not.  The leaves just naturally die back.  I vaguely know they need a dormant period, where the leaves die back, but I don't know when exactly that is supposed to be.  This year the leaves had died back duri...

  Today, during the 11 AM service time we had our annual Christmas program.  We were seated near the back so we didn't get a clear view of anything, but the whole concept was was fairly simple; an adult couple narrated the Christmas story straight from different Bible Scriptures while youths from all age groups acted it out. No lines to memorize. As they went along in between here and there were a few Christmas carols that we were all invited to join in. This all made for an endearing Christmas program.  All the kids, of all ages, got to partake if they so chose, and of course all of the adult parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, brothers, sisters...etc, were able to enjoy seeing their precious poppets perform. When the production was over and the cast were standing on stage we were all invited to stand and sing another Christmas carol during which they went around and lit our candles.  It was nice, but there were a couple of notable moments.  For one thing, if...

 Here it is the 13th already.  This has been a busy week, with little slow down in sight. I had two sub jobs this week; a full day at the highschool and a full day at the elementary school.  I'd say the elementary school was more difficult, because my charge was in a mood.  Haha...  There were quite a few kids in moods.  Two weeks before Christmas break, and all sorts of testing and EVERYONE was in a mood, even the teachers. Anyway I also had Bible study one morning and then our Ladies group's monthly meeting another morning this week.   Today I go do my caregiver job...I don't really think of it as a job, per se.  It's more like going over and hanging out with Grandma and Grandpa for the day, helping them with random chores.  Such sweet people.  Time is just flying by so fast.  In 5 months Ellen will be graduated from high school.  I can hardly believe that. Let me check my camera roll and see what I've been up to picture...

  Google is being glitchy about which pictures it allows me to post.  I have more pictures on my phone than what it shows when I try to post one here, so the "this and that" I am going to post here is partly based on what pictures I have available to post. Hence my first subject is this kitten.  We, Ellen and I, decided to call her Chica, but it just doesn't fit somehow.  Oh well. Smudge is learning to tolerate her, and will even show interest in playing when Chica is on one of her playing fits; romping around like a cat gone wild.   A funny thing about Smudge; she, like many in the family here, has a weight problem.  At her last vet visit she'd gained a pound and was up to 16, which is very chunky for a cat.  The vet says that cats only need 1/2 cup of kibble per day.  Smudge would eat that much for breakfast and then pester for more. All. Day. Long!  For the past 6 months I've only bought her weight control food, painstakingly measured...

  For Christmas and other gift-giving holidays we tend to spoil the littler children in our lives with as fancy of store bought gifts as we can afford.  Then, depending on age of course, they spend more time playing with the trappings than with the actual toys  The same is true of kittens.  I bought her a couple three new toys with bells and feathers and all.  Does she play with them? No.  She prefers a little length of yarn and any random cardboard box lying around.   Good thing she is so cute.

 We are off for our family Christmas tradition trip today....at least it is becoming a tradition since Gary retired.   Silver Dollar City This morning we will do some shopping down in Branson, before we go to the amusement park. Gary is going to get me a nice coat for Christmas, for one thing.  Then we'll go take in some of the SDC Christmas shows and lights and all after it gets dark.  It will be a long day, but we will have a good time...barring any random disaster of course. In the meantime here is a picture of some frost flowers I took yesterday on my walk to the creek bottoms. I have posted about them before.  It's only a couple different plants that have them.  When it freezes it squeezes the moisture still left in the dead stems out and forms folded ribbons of ice.  Where there is a patch of these plants it looks like someone threw out a bunch of wadded up paper towels. You can see them along the unmown back roads here on frosty mornings. S...

 A couple of weeks ago I was getting set to take Bella for a walk.  I still had her on her leash, thank goodness, when I saw a cat coming across the field, down the road Gary's kept clear hauling hay back and forth. She had 2 kittens with her.  She took them into the shed where he keeps the dump truck, and kept them there for a couple of days, but moved them I think because we kept going out there. For a couple of weeks we didn't see any sign of them, with the exception of seeing an orange cat around occasionally.  We weren't sure if that was the mother or not.   Then about 3 or 4 days ago Gary was welding down near the milk barn and left the door open.  He came back a few hours later and heard rustling INSIDE the building.  He went in and lo and behold...FOUR kittens.  He chased them all out.   Yesterday Gary came home to see a little gray kitten out in the former hay shed.  It ran when he walked over. So I went out there late...

 This morning is probably the last morning Bella and I will get to walk in the West pasture for awhile.  Gary wants to move the cattle back into it.  The grass has grown up quite a bit what with the mild weather we have had, so they can polish that off before he has to start feeding hay.   When we walk out there we always take a water break at the cattle waterer on the way back to the house. It rarely freezes over, I think the water coming in keeps it above freezing.   Tomorrow we will start going down to the sawmill for our walks, or if I am up to the hike back up the hill, we will go down to the creek bottoms.  

  The past week or so when I take the dog out for a walk in the evenings the first star to appear is off to the southwest.  I do wish I had a much more sophisticated camera on my phone...along with the knowledge to use it properly.  The combination of sunset and this star was stunning. Perhaps from this you can catch a smidge of the ambiance of being immersed in an almost otherworldly experience. The first star to emerge is but the herald of a host that lingers beyond the edge of the light.   As the light fades, the darkness deepens.  Then and only then can we see with mortal eyes the presence of thousands and thousands of other lights appearing.   The light on Earth has to fade in our eyes before we can see the lights of the heavens reflecting down on us.  So many lessons this might teach, but I am not ordained to preach.

  It is silly really, because chores are chores and I long ago resigned myself to doing them with little complaints.  So dishes, floors, laundry...whatever, it's all much of a muchness. But for some reason folding the towels is a task I put off as long as I can.  Occasionally I will even pile them somewhere and leave them until the next day.   They don't require a smidgen of skill to fold, like fitted sheets.  But I resent them.  Always, always towels to fold.  Ugh. That's all for today. Towels. Ha!

 In the back pasture where The dog and I wander The woods are waning  Like the moon this November The moon followed me  From tree to tree And so I caught each moment That will not come again For winter will soon arrive With rain, snow, ice and wind And next November's Waning moon will not find These gaunt reminders  Of a woods undone by time Not all of the trees are dying Some are just asleep And a full moon in May Will find them soon aleaf.

On past the Raccoon Latrine, further to the back of the field is a log I use to do my stair stepping exercises.   But I think it is someone's home...perhaps a chipmunk.  Whoever it is seems to love walnuts.  Take a look: See all the black stuff scattered around? That is gibbled up walnut hulls. Let's get closer... Yep.  And there is his front door. Looks like a fairly cozy place to overwinter.  I bet it's packed with leaves and dried grasses.  And very likely there is a large store of seeds and nuts in there  Somewhere back in the most fanciful part of my mind, I expect to be standing there one day and see a large chipmunk pop out and invite me in for tea with black walnut scones and cream...a la Narnia.  And maybe the raccoon will amble over to join us, with a loaf of persimmon bread and a cup of cream.   That would be fun. Then Bella comes loping back by, and I remember I have dishes or laundry calling my name.  So I head bac...

 The other evening we took a walk a bit later than usual and found this... It looks like a relatively young coon.  At least he isn't very big. Fortunately I saw him before Bella did and managed to get her back on the leash.  He went up the tree nearest to him, but he could have taken off into the brush and woods and then I'd have had to be waiting for the dog til after dark, because I don't want to go plundering through the uneven woods and deep fall leaves in pursuit.   After Bella was on the leash I took her over to the tree and let her sniff around and look him over.  I don't know for sure if this is the very coon who made the latrine I blogged about a couple of days ago, but it could be.  Who knows? 🧐 

 Occasionally I cover gross things on this blog because, well, because in the country we just have to deal with gross things occasionally, you know.  Nature and the wildlife around here are endlessly fascinating to me, even the gross parts. Back in California where I grew up we were in a very rural area and dealt with marauding raccoons off and on, especially in the corn patch and the orchard during the summer.  They were just a nuisance I grew up with. I do have a very random but distinct memory of my knowledge of raccoons from when I was in 6th grade. For an art project we were assigned to do a painting.  It must have been in spring, because for some reason I chose to do a painting of a raccoon eating an ear of corn in the corn patch.  Haha..  One boy thought that was the dumbest thing ever. He laughed at me and said, "Raccoons don't eat corn!"  Ha! The joke was on him! The teacher, Mr Peterson, knew better from bitter experience I suppose, and corre...

Sometimes I wonder if I'm the only geek who records this stuff.  Maybe, maybe not.  But I still like recording the symmetrical numbers, or the ones that catch my fancy.  I guess I might have more to add for the year, but I am going to delete these off my camera roll at least. January 11, 2024 June 20, 2024 September 11, 2024, September 18, 2024 October 9, 2024 November 6, 2024 November 7, 2024

 The last day or so we've been blessed with over 2 inches of rain; most came overnight.  But prior to that we were in drought mode. So much so that the area where Gary bulldozed turned into this dust bowl. It was so dusty in fact that, as you can see, there were so many tracks in it I just had to take pictures. Deer Dog Opossum Coon? Does anyone see anything else?   Well, in looking at them again I don't see any of Bella's prints.   I'm sure now that there are tracks in the mud.  And for that we are so grateful. It has been warm the past week and what with the rain now the grass is growing back again.  This is good because it means we, and other folks around here, can put off feeding hay for a while longer.  Though I know some people already had started feeding hay.

 Last week I went with Gary on another well job.  This time it was to our neighbor-across-the-river.  Mary G. is in her 70s, lives alone, though her boyfriend, as it were, lives just around the corner from her a ways.  He is in his 80s.  But Mary had back surgery here a couple of weeks ago, so while she can maneuver around, she has to be very careful.   She has chickens and Guinea fowl, and they need water.  But her outside water source in the well house below is/was a spigot underneath the tank there as you can see below.  You can't really tell in the pic, but that door is rather narrow. So she wanted Gary to install an outside spigot so she would be able to water her flock by herself instead of calling on Carl, or other neighbors to help her.  So off we went. This pic is where he is cutting back an elderberry bush.   Things were going along swimmingly until he went to remove the old spigot so he could install the fittings to ...