Time suckers: Hot tubs and gardens

I was just going to water the garden.  That is all.  I wasn't dressed for down and dirty.  Just put on the sprinkler, and walk away.

Well.

I remembered that I wanted to put in permanent markers for the different plants (as opposed to the plastic thing sticking in the ground) and so I found the metal things and a stapler and started that "project."  Then I realized that many of the little plants had yellow leaves.  So I nipped those off.  Then I decided that it was time to come up with something for the peas -- so that they could grow up instead of trailing on the ground.

As you can see from the above picture, the garden is no longer sexy looking.  It looks like a carnival.  But the DAMN dogs kept running into it, and so I had to come up with something quick and dirty to take care of THAT problem.  GRRRR.  So with the few stakes I could come up with and the last bit of orange tape and some string, I came up with one ugly fence!  Well, it works.  I did that yesterday.

One of the DAMN dogs, waiting for someone to throw a stick.

I love the stakes and string combo, so that is what I devised for the peas.  I still need to come up with something for the tomatoes, but I am going to wait and see which ones survive.  Between all this rain and wind, some are taking quite a hit.  On the other hand, those that are weathering all the things thrown at them are getting quite hearty.  Survival of the fittest!  Always in play, even in the garden.

I found two little towers in the greenhouse to use as pea fences too!

So, before I knew it, I was dirty and well, I decided to check out the hot tub to see how that fared.  We have had nothing but headaches with that thing since we got it, however many years ago.  Peter has tried everything to get it "right," and it was all good until last summer, when he decided to drain it and not use it until Fall.  BIG mistake.  All this gook hardened in the lines and since then we have been battling what basically looks like dry skin floating around.  It was beyond disgusting, and no one would even go in it, so we drained it yesterday and I climbed in and scrubbed it within an inch of its life.  Then we refilled it.

Well.  The thing is, we can't use the artesian well to fill it, because it is 500 gallons and we don't have that much water.  So.  We have a dug well and so we use that, and we have a filter attached to it so that the water goes in clean.  But it has too much something in it, some brown mineral, so the water always turns brown.  When I opened up the tub, alas, BROWN TEA again, and more of that crap stuff floating.  I told Peter and he said he was done.  He quit.  Wasn't going to deal with it anymore.

So I have been running the clean cycle over and over and over and cleaning out the filters.  And somehow, the day seems to be disappearing before I can even decide what I am going to "do!"

Meanderings on May 29

I finished planting the garden today.  I was going out, rain or shine, and fortunately it was just cloudy and not too cold.  Dare I say, it was just right!  The dirt was so easy to work with, all wet but not too gooey, and there were worms everywhere!  How delightful, to see the little guys and know they are enriching the soil.

I know.  I was a little disturbed by the fact the worms excited me so much too.  But what are you going to do?

It took so long ... first I had to put down the weed stuff, and then I actually used a tape measure ... I don't know why.  Because the other half of the garden looked so damn organized!  I found it so interesting (and this is ridiculous and probably something I should keep to myself, but this is a filter-free blog!) that the pumpkin seeds I put in the ground were ... well.  Pumpkin seeds!  Yes, yes, I know that is over the top moronic to say, but I don't know, I guess part of the reason that I am doing this whole gardening thing is to know where my food comes from. And it is certainly mindful to realize that our food comes from seeds!

How come when you eat the seeds a pumpkin doesn't grow inside of you?

The dog was over by the garage clearly playing with a snake.  She kept sniffing around in tall grass and then jumping away, then going back.  I know it was a snake.  But no, I didn't go look.  I didn't want to faint.  The lawn needs to be mowed because all it does is rain, and everywhere I look there are snakes slithering in the grass.  (Well, it SEEMS like there are).

I believe a snake-free world would not be too much to ask for.

I found one of my earrings today, which pretty much is like a perfect birthday gift.  They are pink studs, my mother gave to me when she came back from Italy.  I've always loved them, and wear them several times a week.  A few months ago I lost one, and then shortly after that lost one of my pearl earrings.  I don't lose earrings all that often, so it was kind of weird to lose two of my favorites in such a short span of time.

So when I came across the pink one just sitting on a chair in my bedroom, underneath something, it was like a game of concentration, you know, where you turn over a card and try to match it with its like card by remembering.  I kept thinking, I KNOW the other one is somewhere else ... which means I would have two.  (I know, I am brilliant at times).  So.  It was not in my earring spots, so I kept thinking, I see it every day, so where is it?  On my desk!  The second one was there where it's been since I lost the other one, just a constant reminder of an irreplaceable item.

And now there are two, and they are safely lodged in my ears and I feel complete again, because I can replace the pearl earring easy enough.  But these would require a trip to Italy, and I know without a shadow of a doubt my mother would have no recollection where she got them.

So it's all good.   Or is it?

I mean, a trip to Italy, in search of a sparkly pink earring is exactly something that I would do.

Hmmmmmmm.  

Appreciation and thanks

Okay, as promised:

I am glad that I have the children that I do.  They are all awesome and the teenage years were a piece of cake with Hallie, seem to be swimming along problem-free with Maddie and Charlie, like wine, improves with age.  I enjoy all of them and am thankful that they communicate with me as openly as they do.  Thus far, they haven't given me anything I can't handle -- not by a long shot.  And no, that is not a challenge!

I have to say, the visit to the DMV today was so painless, it warrants a comment.  I walked in, I was the second person in line, I handed my stuff to the woman, she couldn't have been more pleasant, we chatted, I watched the people on either side of me get irate, yell and be frustrated, but not me!  Though, this is interesting.  I don't wear glasses and while I do have a left eye that is a little blurry for distances (and has been for as long as I can remember) I really do have good vision.  But seriously, every time I look into that eye thing at the DMV, I always mess up.  So today, I read the line and pull my face from the box and look at the woman and she is looking at me with the most curious expression.  And she said, "Wow, you didn't get any of those right."

Which reminded me that another time I went to get a license the person asked me if I was legally blind after I read the machine!  So I said that to the woman, and she said that I must do something wrong with the machine.  So she held it while I pressed against it, and there were the letters, clear as clear can be.  

Honestly, I've NEVER encountered someone so nice ... I was in and out of there in 15 minutes tops.  And ... the picture isn't even that bad! HAHAHAHA.

Last weekend when my back was killing me, we had gone over to the harbor in the boat.  There were people all over the place (it was early morning) in their exercise clothes, and I was completely consumed with jealousy.  I watched as a couple started walking up the steep hill, and I literally felt sorry for myself because I could hardly walk.  I walk around that part of the lake from time to time, and it's a great workout.  Boo hoo for me.  But seriously ... I am grateful for the fact that I CAN exercise and hike and get my body to move and know that I am strong and in pretty decent shape.  It is something I often take for granted (except when I am struck down in major pain from a gardening injury) and I want to say that I appreciate it immensely.  It is such a major part of my life.

And lastly, because I don't want to get a bad rep as a PollyAnna, I am grateful that I can still sing Bye Bye Miss American Pie and not miss ONE SINGLE WORD.  I have no idea why I know every single word, but I do, and I am so happy that the brain cells haven't spit out even one teeny lyric.  EVERY word I'm telling ya!  (We sang it on the ride home from Concord today, and Charlie kept saying, this is the longest song in the world!  Yep, all 7 minutes of it.)

So now, I'm going to take my Chevy to the levy ... which cracked me up because Charlie asked "What is a levy," just like I did so many years ago when I first heard the song, and I had to say quickly that it was a type of dam without missing a word!

I am blessed.  And talented as hell :) (And modest as well).

Bitch and moan session

Ho hum, another rainy day.  I am going to have to suck it up and go plant in the garden, but it's not just raining.  It's COLD out too.  And the water is still brown and icky. Blech.

I also have to go have my license renewed, either today or tomorrow, and that is like a high priority on my list of fun things to do ... NOT!  It's not as bad as it used to be, or at least four years ago it was fairly painless, but I've had the renewal for like six weeks, and naturally have left it until the LAST moment. Double blech.

Maddie just finished her last final this morning and keeps running about the house yelling "I am in summer."  Has she looked out the window?  Has she been in this crazy climate for so long she's forgotten that summer is at least 60 degrees.  NOT FORTY?

I have a splitting headache, the third this month.  Which is pretty remarkable because I don't get headaches.   It feels sinus-related, so I am thinking allergies.  I don't get those either, but I guess we are always reinventing ourselves, so I guess the new me is going to be a cranky, allergic, headachy wench.  Works for me.  NOT!  LOL

I may have to break down and actually take something ::::::::choke:::::::: medical-related for this, because it's not going away and it's not easy to live with.  Nah, I know I'll just keep suffering, I'm ridiculous that way.

I "volunteered" for this slide show for the 8th grade dance, but I was tough and said that I would only do the show itself, not deal with all the equipment at the school that no one knows how to use to present it, and I was assured by the person who suckered me in that I didn't have to.  Of course, like all volunteer situations, there are only a handful of people who do all the work, and while I can still remain tough and tell the poor woman running the thing that I WILL NOT do it, I am not heartless and just plain mean, so I am irritated that I am ending up doing something I didn't want to do from the get-go (and knew was going to happen!)

So there is always the fine line, where do you say no because you don't want to do something, or when do you say yes because it's really not fair to have one person take on a huge load with no help?  QUADRUPLE BLECH!

Well, since the Gratitude line is so short, I think I'll go jump in that one for awhile.

LATER!

Oh my aching back!

So today I planted tomatoes, peppers and lettuce.  I ran out of the black stuff (keeps the weeds from taking over) and so I will have to finish up tomorrow.  I still have quite a bit left to plant, but it's getting more difficult to figure out where to put things, I keep thinking, hmmm, perhaps it needs to be bigger?  Of course, there are enough tomato plants to feed an army -- way more than any one family will ever eat, but I'll do something with them.  I put in three different kinds of lettuce and spinach -- it's gonna be one heck of a salad!

After doing all the prep work last Friday, I pretty much incapacitated myself.  My lower back was totally shot by Friday night and I could hardly walk.  That of course did not stop me from planting the flowers I had bought on Saturday morning, which required me hefting around buckets of dirt from the gator to the flower pots.  The problem with my gardening-related pain is that when I am moving around and working I am fine.  It's the moment I sit down.  Then I am screwed.

But ... we had that little issue of running out of water on Friday afternoon.  It was due to a blown well pump, so while the repair guy was working on that, I headed to a friend's house to take a shower.  Because I was SO dirty, after hefting all that sod, that I was dying for one.  She forgot to mention they had no hot water.  Well.  Let me tell you.  A FREEZING cold shower is an experience.  But I am happy to report that since I reminded them that their hot water heater was on the fritz, they were able to call in a repair person that night so that THEY could have hot showers in the morning.  Am I not a great friend?

Yes.  I am.  I hardly complained about the cold shower.  She was making me great mojitos and then served me a delicious gourmet meal.  She is a great friend too!

So, then on Saturday afternoon, with me being gimpy girl, we headed over to the cottage with the intent of being in a place with water, as ours was the most disgusting dirty brown because it had been upset by all the work.  It was NASTY.  While I made beds and generally cleaned up, Peter was out in the garden putting in the plants that he'd taken out earlier to put in the new wall.  Our life is really just one project after another it seems.  I couldn't even ENTERTAIN the notion of assisting him -- my back was totally shot.  I could hardly get out of a chair.  Painful.  But my brother-in-law jumped right in and they went to town, both that evening and on Sunday, work work work.  Me?  I just sat sat sat.  I was done for.   The weather, which had been so-so all day, just did a hocus pocus and it turned into a beautiful evening, with a smashing sunset.

But ... Peter had lit the pilot light for the hot water heater, so after he was finished working, he went to take a shower.  And guess what?  There wasn't any.  The hot water heater was broken!  Geesh.  I was so excited at the prospect of a hot shower ... and it didn't happen, two days in a row!

The boat went in on Sunday and we all went out for breakfast on the lake.  The weather was so-so, but by the end of the day it was smashing.  We went out to dinner on the lake too!  

I was concerned my back might never come back (ha ha) but on Monday morning I was able to do a four-mile walk without too much trouble.  I was slow at first, but I managed to work out the kinks about half-way into it.

So I planted today ... and my back is killing me again.  I hope it strengthens up, because I find it irritating.  But here's the funny thing.  Because the well people were supposed to come here today to put in a new tank and raise the pump in the well, the whole shower thing was going to be a problem again.  The cottage still has no hot water, and the prospect of getting all dirty and not getting a shower concerned me, as I had a lunch date at noon.

Anyway, because of that, I had the washing machine, the dishwasher and the shower all going at 8:30 this morning to try to get everything done before the water turns to that brown slop again.  But ... I was so happy to be clean that there was NO WAY I was going near the dirt until later.  As a result, by the time I went out to plant, Peter was home.  And he was nice enough to help me.  Except, we are such different people when it comes to approaches.  Once we had laid out the black stuff, I grabbed the tomato plants and started cutting holes in the stuff and planting.  He was beside himself.  Do you know how far apart they should be?  I shrugged and said sure, I'd been planting tomatoes for years, I could eyeball it.  No!  He shuddered.  You have to measure.  I was like, how ridiculous is that?

He called his foreman to ask him the distance, found out it was two feet, took out the tape measure and began to cut holes in the RIGHT amount of distance.  I just rolled my eyes and planted.  A tape measure?  Really?

Now granted, I am an eyeballer by nature.  I hang pictures by feel, and Peter takes out his tape measure and level and quite frankly, all the pictures look off kilter to me when he does it.  And just right when I do it!  A brain thing I guess.  So it would never in a million years occur to me to measure a garden.  I do not even care if that is how it is done.  It is just wrong.

I know that he wants to look at the garden and see everything all symmetrical and as it should be, but I think tomorrow I might plant the other half of the garden haphazardly, just for fun.  

BAHAHAHAHAHA.  You think I am kidding???

Garden of delights

So the garden idea, despite the threat of snakes, is on.  And despite my comments on not laying it out, etc. I find that I am really far more organized than I give myself credit for.

I have researched it, which is my way, and the general consensus was that for a first-time garden you should start with a 10 X 10 plot.  So, I had Charlie measure that out and I was like, oh that's for sissies.  Let's double it, if not more!

Peter came home and saw the stakes and commented that it seemed quite large.  I said it was fine, and my list of plants going in keeps growing.  It seems the ONLY thing I am not planting is corn and beans!

So Peter and Charlie cut the sod, and now Charlie and I have to roll it up and that is one buggy, hot and icky job.  Oh well.  I KNEW that was all part of it.  I really want to go to the greenhouse and purchase all the plants to put in.  Starting from seed is another step that I will take on in the future if this all works out, but there is no time for that now (thank heavens!)

So after a few hours of rolling up sod, digging up patches to place it, placing it, then hefting it all into the Gator to throw the surplus over the embankment, we had a nice little patch of dirt.  Now we are waiting for a delivery of compost so we can rototill that into the soil.  Which was delivered, and we raked it out (ooooh, love the aroma of cow poop!)

And now is the perfect time to head to the greenhouse and get the lucky little new residents of said plot.

Which we did.  And now, we have been thrown off schedule a bit by the fact our well isn't providing us with water.  Hopefully it is the pump, and they just arrived.  So I am off to intend that it is .... just the pump.

Ophidiophobia -- E-I-E-I-O

UPDATE for  5/20: go to bottom to read:

So I was out mowing the lawn -- and it is a fantabulous beautiful day out and the sky is blue and the trees are bursting in joy and I was rounding the corner of the greenhouse and was happily assaulted by the dual fragrances of a crabapple tree in bloom and a lilac, when all of a sudden, there slithering in the grass.

Was. A. Snake.

Whooosh (gotta lotta whooshing going on, don't I?) I was suddenly and inexplicably filled with the most incredible fear and I started yelling.  YELLING out loud, freaking out ... unable to think clearly because I was SURE, POSITIVE the thing was climbing up the lawn mower to get me.

You would have thought it was an anaconda for all the carrying on I was doing.  The dogs were at attention ... what was going on?  I was screaming bloody murder over the sound of the lawnmower and I couldn't get away from the spot fast enough nor could I even figure out how to get off the lawnmower fast enough, because don't you understand, I associated the lawn mower with the snake and I had to disentangle myself from the entire mess and get in the house.

PRONTO.

It was a brown snake, not very big ... but it was all slithering and moving and OHMYGOD I can't stand snakes, I am not afraid of much, but snakes ... OHMYGOD ... and here's the thing, I think my fear is getting worse!  Because normally I see a snake and move on.  This time I was completely consumed (WHOOSH I TELL YA) by the clear knowledge that the snake was going to get me.

A little over the top?  Oh, yes.

The fear of snakes is referred to as ophidiophobia -- and here are the symptoms:

dry mouth (gosh I need a drink)

fear of death (ABSOLUTELY, not even sure the house is safe)

Having severe anxiety attacks (is that what that was?)

Breathlessness (well I am still breathing ...)

Feeling of sickness (entire body tingling with disgust?)

Experiencing a sense of extrication (does that also mean GET THE HELL OUTTA HERE?)

Nauseau (well for heaven's sake, we don't have to go overboard)

Losing mental balance (that implies there was a balance to begin with)

Excessive sweating (well no, that's gross)

Not being able to speak or think properly (Again, implies that was there to begin with)

Fast and irregular palpitation of the heart.  (PADDLES, STAT)

Is there a cure?

Hell yes.

You stay inside.  On a ladder.

Update:  I killed the snake.  Charlie went out there this morning and found it completely sliced in half with the head chopped off.  I couldn't actually go out and see it, so he took pictures of it.  I feel awful.  I am a snake murderer.