😦 We have a high wind warning for tonight. 😦 It would be much better to announce the weather warnings than all the buzzes and whistles that come before it. By the time the buzzing & whistling is over, a tornado could be past.
Just a couple of seconds of alert would be enough to attract attention.
When I lived in Annandale, I had a garden every year. I had a small plot that gave me tomatoes and beans aplenty at harvest time. Not much, but it was something and I enjoyed working it.
When I came here, the soil was bad; so I had five yards hauled in. But I never had a good crop of anything. So, for the last five years I have vowed not to mess with it this time.
But still, this year, I went out and dug up my small plot. To my dismay, I didn’t see a single earthworm. You know what that means?
So, I wrote a poem:
Not a bee buzzing on the vine,
Not an earthworm in the ground.
Means not a bit of fruit to pick,
When harvest comes around.
But I’ve done most of the work already, so I’ll put something in the ground to see what happens.
🙂 Home again after three weeks away. The weather leaves much to be desired, but it is always nice to be in my own home again. We had good traveling weather.
🙂 The opportunity to visit our daughter and grandson. The opportunity to see them at their sports and other things. Hearing our daughter sing and perform in church. She performed with some others, doing a version of “The Mark” a Daily and Vincent song. We love the song and were glad to have the chance to hear their rendition.
🙂 Jam tonight with some fellow musicians. I will read or do some handwork while enjoying the music and visiting with others.
Some might call it a form of spontaneous generation, therfore earthworms come from newspapers, but I happen to know that earthworms like that stuff and will come and raise their families there..
🙂 Newspapers live! I have a reason to keep writing, but we’ll have to develop an earthworm beat so we don’t bore the little guys with all that big-people news.
🙂 Chas, I’ll match your high winds with a 5.1 earthquake. We may not have exciting weather here, but the ground beneath us does literally hiccup and roll now and again, spilling our furniture and belongings onto the floor (not in my case last night, but others not so far away had cupboard contents to pick up). My dogs ran out of the bedroom to stand staring at me (sitting on the sofa as I held on through the long rolling motion that seemed to go on forever).
🙂 Janice, good to have a vet you love. 🙂
😦 I’m really tired. It was a busy week. I was supposed to go to a brunch this morning with church friends but bailed, just the idea of getting dressed and out of the house that ‘early’ defeated me after the week I had (and the week I’ll have coming up). I also have a casserole to make for church tomorrow. At least I got the shopping for it done last night. I may try to squeeze in a nap later today.
😦 Work atmosphere remains depressed and/or stressed, depending on the day/week or moment. One of our younger better-liked editors announced the other day that he’s leaving to do public affairs work for an area university. We’re all just dragging. … And it really takes a toll, both physically and mentally.
😦 Just been in a period of weariness lately, feeling defeated. But God has his reasons for these seasons he takes us through. It’s just that I haven’t been through one in a while. I prefer the happy/life-is-easy-and-wonderful seasons, of course. 🙂
Mumsee, last summer I put newspapers between the plants to keep weeds down.
In Annandale I kept a 4’X6’ compost pile. I had lots of leaves from maple & poplar trees. I never burned or sent the leaves away. I ground them with the mower and composted them. I was always a year behind because I emptied the compost pile in the fall and put the leaves in it. A little water and lime and they decay over the summer.
But you are correct, earthworms don’t come there, they appear there. You make it right and they show up. I’m not only disappointed, but surprised that I didn’t see any.
Michelle, congratulations on the book. I’ll have to read it.
I’m thinking of writing a book myself. The basic plot is a man is shipwrecked and washed ashore on a desert island. He struggles for existence, though he doesn’t have any knives or other tools. There is a batch of cargo washed ashore with him. At the end, he is found dead with the cargo spread around him. What they found was boxes of food wrapped in plastic and he was unable to open it.
I have never been in an earthquake. I have experienced almost every natural phenomenon but that. Tornado from a distance. I saw it but wasn’t in it. Nor a tsunami.
I understand that it is a weird feeling of helplessness.
🙂 Draft is done on the book, but it needs a lot of clean up. I’ve been working through it the last day and a half (with daughter asking, “do you want to do something? I’m leaving on Sunday,” so I feel guilty. I finally put it on a flash drive and took it to the laptop and we “watched” The Impossible together. Me editing, her working a puzzle, movie going. I may do that tonight, too).
😦 My personal deadline is April 1. I need to set it aside to write the novella due May 1.
🙂 I’ll have plenty of “down” time the next two weeks to do so with the comings and goings of people in my life and work.
😦 I just want to finish editing WWI, but I have to get on to 1870 Nebraska. Something is driving me.
🙂 I think it’s the proposal going out to editors in the next week or so–who will then want to see the whole thing and it’s not where I want it just yet.
🙂 I LOVE the editing part–it’s like a puzzle, though tedious to go through ever single “that” in the manuscript–there were some 600+. I culled 400 out . . . I’ve got a list of overused words and I have to check them all. that’s what’s taking so long.
(As an FYI, there were 1478 Claires in the manuscript–she’s the heroine)
😦 I also discovered I forgot to finish writing one chapter . . . hmmm. See what happens when you have to read it to find out what’s in it? 🙂
🙂 Wonderful four day reward for finishing–Hawai’i with my daughter. I was simply happy the entire time. Happy to be in Hawai’i, happy to be done with the book, delighted to be in a good place with my daughter.
😦 🙂 She leaves for her final quarter of college. Vague plans made, lots up in the air.
🙂 😦 All we can do is listen, advise when asked, and pray.
🙂 God’s hand obviously has been upon her since before her birth. He’s got good plans for her. Satan doesn’t like them.
🙂 Lovely rain storm. We have a pond in the backyard, but it’s because we’re in the neighborhood low spot. My husband doesn’t think we’ll have to water our back lawn ever.
🙂 Washer gray water diversion pipes in. When summer does come, I’ll be able to turn a valve and the washing machine water will go to water a flower bed (if you’re on FB, see photo of that “pond”). I’d love to do the same with the shower, but that looks too complicated even for my nuclear engineer.
😦 Memorial service today for daughter’s best friend’s father–a good man, Universalist, musician. Should be filled with great music, good vegetarian food, lots of stories and for us, sadness.
::-( Many deaths and dying in our congregations; babies being born with difficulties.
🙂 It is an honor to pray and to weep with those who weep.
😦 Too many papers to grade.
😦 Forgot to submit my budget request.
😦 Apathetic students.
😦 Not too many houses on the market for us to buy. The ones that are there are too big, too small or too expensive. Or they are the right size at a decent price, but have too many problems to fix for our liking. And there are no suitabe rentals to live in until we find what we like.
🙂 At least our house sold! Now we have to wait for all the finalities to work out. The appraiser is coming Tuesday.
🙂 D1 and family coming today! She wants to go through her stuff and see if she wants any of it.
😦 Packing for a move after 11 years of accumulation, as well as all the stuff we moved here we don’t need but are too sentimental to get rid of it.
Chas’s story is somewhat reminding me of our current healthcare situation. We have all the miracles of modern medicine, but because of the Affordable Care Act no one can afford modern medicine.
Our carbon monoxide detector won’t stop beeping. We put in fresh batteries but it won’t stop. It started a couple of weeks ago so I took it down. Tried again today but it is still beeping. Do the detectors have to be replaced as well?
Mumsee, Chuck, my son, says that carbon monoxide and smoke detectors should be replaced after abut 10 years. There’s something in them that deteriorates. I need to replace mine. Just slow getting around to it.
It has been about that long. We will put it on the list. Along with buying more smoke detectors. We have eight smoke detectors and one smoke/carbon monoxide detector. I change the batteries, but did not know about the detector itself. Thanks!
Chas, I mentioned to our fifteen year old mechanic what you said and he said it made sense. And then started talking about half lifes and such and how the original smoke detectors had such and such in them with a half life of four hundred years so they should last a long time.
Which reminds me, seven year old in glasses was reading the encyclopedia during school yesterday and he started laughing and laughing. I asked what was so funny. He had come across an article about Blondie of Dagwood fame and said it was the one he read in the comics every day. That boy.
Which reminds me: the neighbor stopped by to pick up seven year old to take him to pizza. She called to tell me a steer was out. I relayed the message and a few minutes later, five young adults were all arranged around the corral, gently herding the wild steer back into his pen. I told them that was an unusual event that a bunch of teens would leap up from whatever their Saturday afternoon held, to go help each other with no question of reimbursement or grumbling, just because they could and it needed to be done. I love my children and I am so grateful to God for the opportunity to get to know them.
Peter, I sold my home before coming here and bought another. My house was in escrow, as is yours, and I looked at everything in my price range and nothing. I knew I was leaving the country and did not want a fix me upper. I prayed and God moved me to look in a development 10 miles outside town where my best friends live that I had not even considered. I went online and found my house and then asked my realtor to see it. I truly feel that God guided me to this home.
I looked at it and then prayed and then looked again. Made an appointment with my realtor to put in a bid. I worked all day and was anxious about the bid so I stopped and prayed and asked myself what was I anxious about. I decided I was okay with the house, but knew the amount I was willing to spend and was worried about a counter offer. Once I realized that and decided it would be mine only if the price worked I was fine. When I got to my realtor I found they had lowered the price by 15,000 that day and I was only asking them to go down another 5,000 and my home was already in escrow and ours was the first bid.
I learned later that the house smelled of smoke, but they had left all the windows and doors open and I just thought the folks looking before me smoked. However an ozone treatment took care of that eventually.
Praying that God will show you just the right place and confirm His will.
🙂 🙂 praises that I got off center for a day.
I went with the boys basketball team to Goroka for a tournament. A fun day in the sunshine
Goroka is two hours away. We left at 7am and got back 12 hours later.
It was a prayerful trip, especially the return as it is not safe to drive here after dark. We were caravaning with two other vans so that helped.
Just some observations as we drove:
People are alongside the road and in the road at all times. Hard to see them after dark.
It is a beautiful drive throuh the mountains. Everything is green. Most of the hills are just covered with grass. The grass is higher than a man. As you drive there is high grass right next to the road and then it parts and you see the far vistas.
The road twists and turns over and around the mountains. Some parts are smooth and then you come to a section that you have to stop and ease into and out of. Many potholes or sections they are working on.
Flatbed trucks full of people and others sitting on the edge – pmv’s or public motor vehicles
Most bridges are one lane with right of way going away from the coast, where cargo would be coming from.
as you cross a bridge you can see in the water a mama washing clothes an children swimming or playing.
Lots of bush material homes of different shapes and sizes right next to the road. some are round.
schools even a trumpet school
cell phone towers
no small electric lines, but some large electric towers
surrounded by beauty on all sides
for those who have found me on facebook, I just looked and I did an album called Highlands Highway in 2009, which shows the road and some of the homes.
Wandering Views 
😦 We have a high wind warning for tonight. 😦 It would be much better to announce the weather warnings than all the buzzes and whistles that come before it. By the time the buzzing & whistling is over, a tornado could be past.
Just a couple of seconds of alert would be enough to attract attention.
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🙂 a day of sunshine, quite rare, I was able to get laundry done and dried and leave linens and mattresses outside for the sun to bake
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Again, I have broken my vow. 😦
When I lived in Annandale, I had a garden every year. I had a small plot that gave me tomatoes and beans aplenty at harvest time. Not much, but it was something and I enjoyed working it.
When I came here, the soil was bad; so I had five yards hauled in. But I never had a good crop of anything. So, for the last five years I have vowed not to mess with it this time.
But still, this year, I went out and dug up my small plot. To my dismay, I didn’t see a single earthworm. You know what that means?
So, I wrote a poem:
Not a bee buzzing on the vine,
Not an earthworm in the ground.
Means not a bit of fruit to pick,
When harvest comes around.
But I’ve done most of the work already, so I’ll put something in the ground to see what happens.
😥
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🙂 Chas wrote a poem.
🙂 One day closer to end of tax season.
🙂 I am enjoying the book, A Rooster Once Crowed.
🙂 Sunday School lesson/activity decided upon.
🙂 Looking forward to 6 Arrows performance on You Tube.
🙂 Bosley and I got to see her wonderful vet yesterday.
🙂 My friend K had her first experience with knowing that without a doubt God had met her need in a trouble time and made His presence known to her.
🙂 Rejoicing that Michelle got her book finished after all those months of research and focused energy.
🙂 Happy to have expectation that Karen O’s tenants will be gone!!!!
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🙂 Chas’s poem.
🙂 Home again after three weeks away. The weather leaves much to be desired, but it is always nice to be in my own home again. We had good traveling weather.
🙂 The opportunity to visit our daughter and grandson. The opportunity to see them at their sports and other things. Hearing our daughter sing and perform in church. She performed with some others, doing a version of “The Mark” a Daily and Vincent song. We love the song and were glad to have the chance to hear their rendition.
🙂 Jam tonight with some fellow musicians. I will read or do some handwork while enjoying the music and visiting with others.
🙂 Laughter—what a gift!
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chas, if you tear up some newspaper and put it under your soil and water it well, you ought to have plenty of earthworms shortly.
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Some might call it a form of spontaneous generation, therfore earthworms come from newspapers, but I happen to know that earthworms like that stuff and will come and raise their families there..
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Good to know some inch of humanity still loves to read the newspaper!
I’ve also bought a bag full from the bait shop and released them to the wild,
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🙂 Newspapers live! I have a reason to keep writing, but we’ll have to develop an earthworm beat so we don’t bore the little guys with all that big-people news.
🙂 Chas, I’ll match your high winds with a 5.1 earthquake. We may not have exciting weather here, but the ground beneath us does literally hiccup and roll now and again, spilling our furniture and belongings onto the floor (not in my case last night, but others not so far away had cupboard contents to pick up). My dogs ran out of the bedroom to stand staring at me (sitting on the sofa as I held on through the long rolling motion that seemed to go on forever).
🙂 Janice, good to have a vet you love. 🙂
😦 I’m really tired. It was a busy week. I was supposed to go to a brunch this morning with church friends but bailed, just the idea of getting dressed and out of the house that ‘early’ defeated me after the week I had (and the week I’ll have coming up). I also have a casserole to make for church tomorrow. At least I got the shopping for it done last night. I may try to squeeze in a nap later today.
😦 Work atmosphere remains depressed and/or stressed, depending on the day/week or moment. One of our younger better-liked editors announced the other day that he’s leaving to do public affairs work for an area university. We’re all just dragging. … And it really takes a toll, both physically and mentally.
😦 Just been in a period of weariness lately, feeling defeated. But God has his reasons for these seasons he takes us through. It’s just that I haven’t been through one in a while. I prefer the happy/life-is-easy-and-wonderful seasons, of course. 🙂
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Mumsee, last summer I put newspapers between the plants to keep weeds down.
In Annandale I kept a 4’X6’ compost pile. I had lots of leaves from maple & poplar trees. I never burned or sent the leaves away. I ground them with the mower and composted them. I was always a year behind because I emptied the compost pile in the fall and put the leaves in it. A little water and lime and they decay over the summer.
But you are correct, earthworms don’t come there, they appear there. You make it right and they show up. I’m not only disappointed, but surprised that I didn’t see any.
Michelle, congratulations on the book. I’ll have to read it.
I’m thinking of writing a book myself. The basic plot is a man is shipwrecked and washed ashore on a desert island. He struggles for existence, though he doesn’t have any knives or other tools. There is a batch of cargo washed ashore with him. At the end, he is found dead with the cargo spread around him. What they found was boxes of food wrapped in plastic and he was unable to open it.
LikeLike
I have never been in an earthquake. I have experienced almost every natural phenomenon but that. Tornado from a distance. I saw it but wasn’t in it. Nor a tsunami.
I understand that it is a weird feeling of helplessness.
LikeLike
🙂 Draft is done on the book, but it needs a lot of clean up. I’ve been working through it the last day and a half (with daughter asking, “do you want to do something? I’m leaving on Sunday,” so I feel guilty. I finally put it on a flash drive and took it to the laptop and we “watched” The Impossible together. Me editing, her working a puzzle, movie going. I may do that tonight, too).
😦 My personal deadline is April 1. I need to set it aside to write the novella due May 1.
🙂 I’ll have plenty of “down” time the next two weeks to do so with the comings and goings of people in my life and work.
😦 I just want to finish editing WWI, but I have to get on to 1870 Nebraska. Something is driving me.
🙂 I think it’s the proposal going out to editors in the next week or so–who will then want to see the whole thing and it’s not where I want it just yet.
🙂 I LOVE the editing part–it’s like a puzzle, though tedious to go through ever single “that” in the manuscript–there were some 600+. I culled 400 out . . . I’ve got a list of overused words and I have to check them all. that’s what’s taking so long.
(As an FYI, there were 1478 Claires in the manuscript–she’s the heroine)
😦 I also discovered I forgot to finish writing one chapter . . . hmmm. See what happens when you have to read it to find out what’s in it? 🙂
🙂 Wonderful four day reward for finishing–Hawai’i with my daughter. I was simply happy the entire time. Happy to be in Hawai’i, happy to be done with the book, delighted to be in a good place with my daughter.
😦 🙂 She leaves for her final quarter of college. Vague plans made, lots up in the air.
🙂 😦 All we can do is listen, advise when asked, and pray.
🙂 God’s hand obviously has been upon her since before her birth. He’s got good plans for her. Satan doesn’t like them.
🙂 Lovely rain storm. We have a pond in the backyard, but it’s because we’re in the neighborhood low spot. My husband doesn’t think we’ll have to water our back lawn ever.
🙂 Washer gray water diversion pipes in. When summer does come, I’ll be able to turn a valve and the washing machine water will go to water a flower bed (if you’re on FB, see photo of that “pond”). I’d love to do the same with the shower, but that looks too complicated even for my nuclear engineer.
😦 Memorial service today for daughter’s best friend’s father–a good man, Universalist, musician. Should be filled with great music, good vegetarian food, lots of stories and for us, sadness.
::-( Many deaths and dying in our congregations; babies being born with difficulties.
🙂 It is an honor to pray and to weep with those who weep.
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Chas, that’s such an upbeat story line. 🙂
Congratulations on the book, michelle!
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🙂 Another week done.
😦 Too many papers to grade.
😦 Forgot to submit my budget request.
😦 Apathetic students.
😦 Not too many houses on the market for us to buy. The ones that are there are too big, too small or too expensive. Or they are the right size at a decent price, but have too many problems to fix for our liking. And there are no suitabe rentals to live in until we find what we like.
🙂 At least our house sold! Now we have to wait for all the finalities to work out. The appraiser is coming Tuesday.
🙂 D1 and family coming today! She wants to go through her stuff and see if she wants any of it.
😦 Packing for a move after 11 years of accumulation, as well as all the stuff we moved here we don’t need but are too sentimental to get rid of it.
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Oh, and I forgot:
🙂 Arizona is in the Elite 8! Now to beat Wisconsin.
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Chas’s story is somewhat reminding me of our current healthcare situation. We have all the miracles of modern medicine, but because of the Affordable Care Act no one can afford modern medicine.
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And that shold have a 🙂 beside it.
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Ooops! 😦 😦
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🙂 Janice: “because of the Affordable Care Act no one can afford modern medicine.”
😦 And that about sums it up.
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Our carbon monoxide detector won’t stop beeping. We put in fresh batteries but it won’t stop. It started a couple of weeks ago so I took it down. Tried again today but it is still beeping. Do the detectors have to be replaced as well?
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Mumsee, Chuck, my son, says that carbon monoxide and smoke detectors should be replaced after abut 10 years. There’s something in them that deteriorates. I need to replace mine. Just slow getting around to it.
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It has been about that long. We will put it on the list. Along with buying more smoke detectors. We have eight smoke detectors and one smoke/carbon monoxide detector. I change the batteries, but did not know about the detector itself. Thanks!
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Mumsee, I dug out the instructions for my Carbon Monoxide Detector and read it for a change. It says ten years. I need to buy a new detector.
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Chas, I mentioned to our fifteen year old mechanic what you said and he said it made sense. And then started talking about half lifes and such and how the original smoke detectors had such and such in them with a half life of four hundred years so they should last a long time.
Which reminds me, seven year old in glasses was reading the encyclopedia during school yesterday and he started laughing and laughing. I asked what was so funny. He had come across an article about Blondie of Dagwood fame and said it was the one he read in the comics every day. That boy.
Which reminds me: the neighbor stopped by to pick up seven year old to take him to pizza. She called to tell me a steer was out. I relayed the message and a few minutes later, five young adults were all arranged around the corral, gently herding the wild steer back into his pen. I told them that was an unusual event that a bunch of teens would leap up from whatever their Saturday afternoon held, to go help each other with no question of reimbursement or grumbling, just because they could and it needed to be done. I love my children and I am so grateful to God for the opportunity to get to know them.
LikeLike
🙂 Taco casserole in the oven for church mission — I made extra for a “junior” version that should provide a few meals for myself.
🙂 Received my taxes back today, I’m getting $1,300 in tax refunds. Yay. I just need to sign & mail it all back so accountant can e-file it for me.
🙂 Got some need rest today. I feel better than I did this morning.
😦 Doc Martin is over already. Well, Season 6 anyway. Sounds like there’s a Season 7 coming to (finally) wrap things up.
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Peter, I sold my home before coming here and bought another. My house was in escrow, as is yours, and I looked at everything in my price range and nothing. I knew I was leaving the country and did not want a fix me upper. I prayed and God moved me to look in a development 10 miles outside town where my best friends live that I had not even considered. I went online and found my house and then asked my realtor to see it. I truly feel that God guided me to this home.
I looked at it and then prayed and then looked again. Made an appointment with my realtor to put in a bid. I worked all day and was anxious about the bid so I stopped and prayed and asked myself what was I anxious about. I decided I was okay with the house, but knew the amount I was willing to spend and was worried about a counter offer. Once I realized that and decided it would be mine only if the price worked I was fine. When I got to my realtor I found they had lowered the price by 15,000 that day and I was only asking them to go down another 5,000 and my home was already in escrow and ours was the first bid.
I learned later that the house smelled of smoke, but they had left all the windows and doors open and I just thought the folks looking before me smoked. However an ozone treatment took care of that eventually.
Praying that God will show you just the right place and confirm His will.
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😦
Sorry ’bout that Peter. I generally pull for the Big 10 teams, after SEC. But I don’t have a thing for Wisconsin. Sounds like an exciting game.
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🙂 🙂 praises that I got off center for a day.
I went with the boys basketball team to Goroka for a tournament. A fun day in the sunshine
Goroka is two hours away. We left at 7am and got back 12 hours later.
It was a prayerful trip, especially the return as it is not safe to drive here after dark. We were caravaning with two other vans so that helped.
Just some observations as we drove:
People are alongside the road and in the road at all times. Hard to see them after dark.
It is a beautiful drive throuh the mountains. Everything is green. Most of the hills are just covered with grass. The grass is higher than a man. As you drive there is high grass right next to the road and then it parts and you see the far vistas.
The road twists and turns over and around the mountains. Some parts are smooth and then you come to a section that you have to stop and ease into and out of. Many potholes or sections they are working on.
Flatbed trucks full of people and others sitting on the edge – pmv’s or public motor vehicles
Most bridges are one lane with right of way going away from the coast, where cargo would be coming from.
as you cross a bridge you can see in the water a mama washing clothes an children swimming or playing.
Lots of bush material homes of different shapes and sizes right next to the road. some are round.
schools even a trumpet school
cell phone towers
no small electric lines, but some large electric towers
surrounded by beauty on all sides
LikeLike
for those who have found me on facebook, I just looked and I did an album called Highlands Highway in 2009, which shows the road and some of the homes.
LikeLike
🙂 The McKs plan to be finished moving out by the end of tomorrow,
😦 They’re also moving my Chrissy & her stuff out tomorrrow, too.
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