Hello, I'm Mary, Book 4

Mary · Joined: 18 May 2006 Posts: 761

Snow comes and goes on the mountains to our east and north. Yesterday they had a fresh coat, today it has melted and we see rock again. We had strong cold wind for 2 days when I got nothing done outside. Today and yesterday have been beautiful for working outside, and I am thankful for every good day.

Finally today I finished with the digging in that flower bed project that seems to have taken me forever. If I was working for somebody else, I'd fire me! However, since I'm my own boss, I'm still employed. Today I dug out a fall blooming aster which was a little bitty thing in a 4 inch pot when I bought it several years ago for a couple of dollars. Now it would have easily filled a washtub. It had so many quackgrass roots entwined through the roots that it's no wonder it was struggling to live and give me a few blooms. I have a few pieces of it planted in new places, and about 1/2 of what is left will go back into about the same place after I add another wheelbarrow full of good dirt to the empty spot.

I decided that Patch's lump of proud flesh needed a pressure bandage, so 3 days ago I applied one. Yesterday I unwrapped it, cleaned it up, and rebandaged it. The pressure is making the lump flatten out and therefore either it or the medicine I am putting on it has caused it to stop growing. Now the skin needs to grow over it. I took pictures before the first pressure bandage went on, and again yesterday. I should also measure the wound so I can tell when the skin starts to grow over it.

We got new vinyl in the spare bedroom today. It looks like a short clipped carpet, several muted colors all intermixed. In a few days we need to shop for a few plush area rugs to go beside the bed. The old bed was donated to the Salvation Army thrift store, and the new one should be here tomorrow or the next day. We like the wallpaper, so we left it alone. I can't emagine hubby and I applying wallpaper. Some things we know just won't work!

Yesterday as I was hanging clothes on the line I tripped over a rock at the edge of the flower bed and fell into the dirt still holding on to the clothesline. The pole that supports it wasn't designed for so much weight on one side. It was about 10 years old and has held up to a lot of strong wind with laundry tugging on it, so I guess we got our money's worth. We had to go to the lumber yard to pick up the bifold doors we had ordered for the closets, so we got a new clothesline too, and wonder of wonders, the support pole is the same size as the old one so it just fit right into the socket.

Today hubby got the bifold doors hung on the closet openings. One door frame is crooked and there is a hump in the floor, so that one went back out to the shop twice for trimming before he finally got it to fit and work right.

One day recently I canned 7 quarts of pears. Our tree has outdone itself this year and the fallen pears are covering the area under it. For the first time they taste ok, not really good, but ok, so I canned them with with a mint leaf in each jar. Maybe tomorrow I will can a batch with orange rind, it sounds good, and another recipe I would like to try uses pineapple juice instead of sugar and water syrup. Since they really don't have much pear flavor, I can use them if they have some other interesting flavors.

God's Warrior · Posted: Wed Oct 22, 2008 10:16 pm Post subject:

Mary, what color are your asters? Here is a picture of mine. If they aren't the same as yours. please save me some of your seeds. I will do the same for you if you wish. I am almost through gathering seeds but still have a few more (such as the asters) that aren't ready yet.

Click to see full size image

Mary · Joined: 18 May 2006 Posts: 761

My astors look just like yours. They sure do brighten up an otherwise drab garden in the fall. Thanks for the offer. I have lots of bags of seeds for you, and the heirloom iris that I promised, now I just have to get them in the mail. I think you sent your address to me already.

This evening as I was peeling vegetables for our pot of chicken soup, I looked up and there, not more than about 30 feet outside my kitchen window was a fox trotting along parellel with the fence between the yard and the pasture. He stopped a few seconds later when he saw the horses. Patch got curious and walked toward him, but he only moved about 50 ft, stopped to sniff at something, then trotted to the edge of the pasture and disappeared into our neighbor's field. His winter coat is getting pretty, and his tail is big and fluffy, and as long as his body.

I have finished the flower bed I have been working on for several weeks. It was a major job, but is now all cleaned, has had new soil and manure added, been replanted mostly with plants that were too crowded elsewhere, plus all the bulbs I dug up as I was cleaning out the quackgrass and weeds, and the new bulbs I bought. I mulched the whole thing with the bark chips that we made with the chipper from the bark that came off the firewood. It's kind of red looking, hopefully it will weather to more of a brown color. Near the back gate I planted snapdragons and pansys I bought for 10 cents each so I have a bright spot to look at every time I go out the back door. Next spring the crocus and grape hyacinth will come up between the pansys, giving me another bright spot before the pansys bloom.

I unwrapped, cleaned and rebandaged Patch's foot again today. It looks good and I think the skin is starting to grow. He eats his grain and vitamins while I doctor his foot, so his mind is on something else, which helps him stand still.

The shade cloth is off the greenhouse now, folded up and stored on shelves in the garden shed. Hubby got a new tire for the riding mower, recharged the battery, got it started, mowed some grass and weeds, and put the mower away for the winter. Next spring we will need to buy a new battery for it, no point in buying one now. No telling how old the battery is, we have had the mower about 4 years now but bought it used. The tire was old enough to be deteriorating from age so it would not hold air for very long. It's been a weekly thing all summer to charge the battery and pump up the tire, mow, park it, do it again next week.

In the last few days the forest service has been doing a lot of slash burning in the mountains. It was fine for a couple of days but then the wind brought us the smoke. Today it cleared out enough to see the mountains. It makes pretty sunrises and sunsets, and does lessen the danger of a catastrophic forest fire in the future. We have had a couple of rainy days, plus lower temperatures and higher humidity, so it is fairly safe for them to do the burning now.

Mary · Joined: 18 May 2006 Posts: 761

Our fall weather continues to be mild and dry, perfect for doing the outside chores that we need to try to finish before winter. Yesterday I hoisted hubby up in the tractor bucket to cut some branches on trees in our lower small pasture, along our mini creek that feeds our pond. One branch had broken off in a windstorm, blocking the road though the pasture into the next one. Hubby cut a few more limbs on nearby trees, and we loaded the pieces in the tractor bucket to be transported to the woodpile along the fence where they will dry nicely over the next couple of years before we need to burn them.

Patch's wound is healing nicely so now I am leaving it unbandaged. I can see the progress of the skin growing over the wound. Maybe in a few days, when it is completely covered, I can go for a ride. I haven't been on him since late August.

Yesterday morning I missed getting a great picture of the sun coming up behind the sagebrush along our east fenceline. Smoke in the air made the sun a bright red, and looking at it through the bush made us think about the burning bush Moses saw. There wasn't time to get the camera, it was gone too quickly, but will always be in our minds.

With one major flower bed project finished, I have been working on another one, thankfully not such bad shape, so it won't take so long to complete. This latest one is right along the house foundation, just across a narrow strip of lawn from the big one I just finished. It didn't look too bad until I cleaned up the other one. (It's a bit like washing a spot on a wall and having to do the whole thing).

I'm going to close this book now, and start another one. I have pictures of the big flower bed project to show you, and I know that some of you are on dial up internet connections and it takes a long time to load pictures. Look for more chapters in Book 5 which I will start right now.