Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas

As you might imagine Christmas this year was a bit weird. I'm still working on getting better and I can actually stay up til about 3 now before I poop out - progress. Kim and Steve do Christmas with their daughter and son in law in St Helen's. Our house is right on the way  and usually Brandi needs to be on her way home on Christmas or early the next day due to work. I do the big Christmas dinner midafternoon on Christmas Eve, then Christmas day is present opening and eating left overs in our pjs. The girls love it because they have the whole day sprawling out in front of them to eat candy and play with all thier new stuff - what's not to like? David was running the ship this year from shopping to most of the cooking to clean up - we had a few mishaps but nothing too major. The biggest was he did the shopping on Wednesday and knew you had to defrost the turkey - he put it on the stove meaning to ask me but I was sleeping........ and I found a defrosted turkey breast in a pool of water the next morning. So for Christmas the dogs got 9 pounds of premium turkey breast. Which they're still working on. And will be til New Years.

Brandi got here around 11 after a long and tedious drive, we'd had an ice storm which was melting but she said there were patches of black ice and her car got tidal waved multiple times on the highway, her top speed was barely 60, but she got here. Kim and Steve made it past the downed power lines, the downed trees and the now famous landslide in Astoria.... but we were all here! I had a fun time but was by the time everyone left I was completely wiped out - back to bed with an ice pack. Brandi took care of bathtime, pjs, etc... The girls slept with mom upstairs so after they went to bed we finished wrapping gifts, hung  out and then back to bed. Christmas morning was so much fun - chaotic, but fun. Jackson was on video so he could watch - it's so funny. Adults open each gift, thank the giver, etc.... Kids? It's like letting rabid ferrets loose, the  paper is flying, screaming and jumping, they ripped through the entire pile in less than  15 minutes while simultaneously shoving candy in as fast as they could. Then of course it ALL has to come out of the packaging so we can see what we got, then everyone spends the hours looking for the seashell barette that came with the fairy that is the size of an eraser. 

Brandi headed back around lunch time  after brunch, the girls are staying until New Year, they have a two week vacation this year. I go for my follow up with the surgeon tomorrow, it was supposed to be last week but due to the weather got moved. I am working from home Wed and Friday, possible Thursday depending on what the doctor says. Then we have then Saturday and Sunday - then they go home. I'm hoping by the weekend I will feel good enough to do something fun with them, not that I haven't. With David's help we did do gingerbread houses, decorated the tree, etc... but it was pretty limited. He also got in a few days of duck hunting, he's actually off hunting today. It's been raining since Friday and the rest of the week is rain too so it will be inside stuff for the remainder of their visit. They arent' complaining - we have a ton of new stuff to play with so I guess it all worked out in the end. 

 

Great Galloping Gallstones

First off I can't believe it's been since AUGUST since my last post - I'll try to do better. I tend to blog in my head, but I guess getting it from point A to point B can be the sticking point. December has been unkind, for the first time in my entire life I had the Flu. It was bad enough to stay home and work but I can work from home - so I did. I didn't use any sick time at all and only had to reschedule one visit so I was pretty pleased. Last week I went to the office on Monday and worked the whole day - I had taken some vacation for when the girls were here  with  all sorts of Christmas stuff planned.  That night however - I thought I had heartburn, I didn't eat anything weird, hmm. I could not get comfortable, it got worse - I sent David upstairs as I was up and down, up and down. At 2am I took a turn for the worse (worser?) and commenced puking.  David got up and took me to the ER around 3am.  I saw the triage nurse and then went back to sit, 2 hours later I asked if I would be seen, the woman at the desk was very apologetic, the back was full and not moving.

We left at 6:30 am. 

At 11 am David packed me up again to Kaiser Urgent care, we were seen pretty quickly. They drew blood and ran an IV for dehydration, my labs came back normal but the MD noted my white count was very high. He thought it might be  a virus and said if I wanted they could do a CT to rule out anything , I said yes and then changed my mind while waiting. Take me home, but David said no, just do this one thing and then I'll take you. I waited, asked to go home 14 more times, had the scan and then back because the MD wanted me to wait just in case. When they said an hour - I honestly Could Not. The MD said I could go and he would call if anything came of it. We were a mile from home when my phone rang  telling me to go right back to the ER. Can I do it in the morning? No, I needed to come back now. We ran home, I packed a backpack, let the dogs out and back we went. I got settled in the ER - David had packed me a pillow and blanket and then I sent him home. I knew nothing would happen that night and he was beyond exhausted. I was given a room in the ER - my gallbladder was extremely infected and swollen, the reason I had to come back was it was close to perforation. Yeeha. They were so nice - I had pjs and slippers to change into which made all the difference in the world. I ran fevers, they ran antibiotics - I could not seem to retain that I'd be having surgery as soon as I was afebrile. I was surprised every single time - after the 4rth time they just stopped telling me. I went straight from the ER to surgery at 8:30am

Surgery went smoothly and at 2pm I was discharged to home, it was laproscopic so I had 5 incisions. Of course complicating things was I still had a nasty cough from the flu so that was really fun. David went to pick up the girls on Friday - and no, we didn't want to cancel. David is fully able to care for them and I was able to do some quiet activities with them - I just have to take frequent breaks. I've used up all the sick time I didn't use when I had the flu, I feel like it's been years since I've been to work! But I am getting better and so glad it was not was worse! And very glad David insisted on the CT scan instead of going home like I wanted. 

 

The Very Bad, Very Awful Horrible Week.

It happens sometimes, but why does it always happen at once? We had the girls the previous week - this year since they're older we take them for 8 days a month and that has been going very well. I work from home a lot so I could be around if  needed and they had a ball. David dropped them off Sunday morning and that is where my tale of woe begins. Every couple of years David takes our expenses - cell phone, internet, insurance, etc and re-evaluates. We dropped the umbrella policy, got cheaper and better car insurance, went from Verizon (that has been steadily going up) and got T Mobile. When we were there we also signed up for their internet service as ours was closing in on 60 a month, T Mobile was half of that. And for a week and half it worked great - until it didn't. Our house is ALL connected so when the internet goes out it's a problem, plus I work from home most of the time. I called and spent TWO hours on the phone with the tech, back on line. then had to drive into the store and got a new tower. This was while the girls were here and I was working, it was fun. Lots of fun. But I was back online and figured we could switch to the new tower after the girls left. I've also been having some problems with increased heart rate and some shortness of breath, concerning but it could wait. SO Monday I"m working and I also emailed my PCP, 

Around 3 or so the internet goes down again and it's super out. David heads to the store again and I do what I can. Then Kaiser emails me and asks me to call the triage nurse who promptly tells me to to go to the ER  because I might have a PE(yes, they did email me, that's Kaiser).. I don't think I do....but you know. ARRGH. So I call David and no, I don't want him to come, I feel fine aside from the aforementioned issues and there is no reason for both of us to sit around the ER - it's about 4pm by now. He gets home and proceeds - I kid you not - to spend FOUR HOURS on the phone with the "tech". The tech keeps panicking and leaving and coming back, they reboot, take the sim card in and out, factory reset, move it, turn it on turn it off, reset, move it.....a whole afternoon of assholery. Meanwhile I am stuck in ER Hell because there is no way to tell if I;m ok without extensive testing. Assessment, bloodwork, Xray, CT scan, more bloodwork, IV to flush out the dye - I got home around 11 pm still short of breath but with a whole bunch of things not wrong with me. Hopefully my phone call on Thursday will go better. We still had no internet so I'm at work at 7am the next morning and now have to go into the office daily. David returns all the T Mobile towers and  Zipley is coming on Thursday to put it back on. He had actually called the tech that morning to give it one more try but the tech - this is insane -looks at the notes from the last call and tells him he can't help him! What kind of service just does that???Ugh. Our phones still have internet but no TV, no Alexa,no tablet, etc... we are like well dressed Amish people. Well, maybe better dressed. 

So. Wednesday I am scheduled for my last COVID booster which I'm on the fence about. I get bad reactions but I am also out in the field seeing a very medically vulnerable population so I decided to do it. When I get up the next morning, I am a little achy and tired so I called off - I have over 3 weeks of sick time banked so not a worry. About 9 am I'm back in bed, shaking from chills, everything hurts, I think I have a fever.....and then the guy from Zipley comes to hook up the internet. David just shuts the bedroom door leaving me  with my canine nurses - Dutch likes to test my reflexes by squashing a kidney every 20 minutes. But then we have internet again and I watch the final episode of the last season of Stranger Things on my little Alexa in the bedroom and by dinner time I'm sitting upright. I work a half day on Friday from home and get my stuff organized, finally feeling better. The weekend has gone better - we did a little yardsaling which is more that we were just driving around. We came across a gun show so in we went, I looked around but mainly sat and played on my phone while David perused the latest in weaponry. Got coffee and watching the Matrix. Thank goodness. 

 

Not Babies Anymore

The last day of school was the 17th - last day of kindergarten and we are now the proud owners of First Graders. They no longer look like preschoolers, they're long and skinny - accented by the fact they seem to be inheriting thier father's height. When I bought them new clothes all I could think was this can't possibly fit - but it does. A little sadness for the toddler/preschoolers that are well in the rear view mirror. Thosae chubby arms and legs are stilts, they eschew any clothes deemed "babyish" and the battle cry is often "I can do it myself!" Big kids talk to them and thier eyes light up in admiration that an older kid paid attention to them and it's retold in great detail. And that's what they aspire to, to being a big kid and being able to do so much more. 

How did those days speed by so fast? 

I blinked and it was gone.

But as one age ends, another begins. Six is such a fun age - they're old enough to dress themselves but they dress like Elton John. Once they brush thier hair they have no problem letting you braid it - the fancier the better. They are so much fun to take out, both the girls can sit through a meal now and we can go out without having to chase one while having an iron grip on the other. This time around we took them with us to Seaside to visit Aunt Kim and Uncle Steve, they decided to show off thier (LOUD) singing skills by singing "Chicken wing, chicken wing, hot dog and balony, fucking macaroni"........ - I almost fell off the sidewalk and Uncle Steve instantly declared this was his new favorite song. I said what did you sing and they sang it again, insisting this was the correct words. FYI it is CHICKEN and macaroni but not a battle I wanted to fight downtown Seaside so we just stopped the singing for now. We ate lunch at Sams where Nana had a beer to help her get past the singalong. They had a great time and liberally complimented the guy bringing the food that he was the BEST EVER. They told the waitress she was beautiful many times. C and D are very complimentary and honestly I've seen them light people up - it reminds me it's never a bad idea to compliment people. 

We went to the arcade and they had a blast of course - favorite games were shooting and driving race cars, C managed to not only shoot all the pirates but then sank the ship - we know who will be Poppop's hunting buddy. It was a lot of fun and Aunt Kim gave us her points so we could get extra prizes - a fun afternoon! This visit has been a bit more low key, one of the perks of them being more independent is I don't have to take days off from work, David takes them to the park and I can work with them here, they can amuse themselves. The loft office gets a great deal of traffic - I have a teapot and china sets for them so lunch is always  a tea party while Nana works. I bought a low table so they can do playdough, draw, etc while I'm working. The downside is the dogs often join us so it will be me, girls, both dogs, Bob the Cat in my 7 x 7 office and Poppop has the other 2000 feet to himself.  When I'm off work we do art projects and bake, play on the swings and wading pool, the days go by pretty fast. We were doing pretty good this time around accident-wise until Dutch whacked C in the eye with his tail this morning giving her a red peeper, but she recovered pretty quickly. Oh well, we tried. They will be heading home in a couple of days but will be back a couple of times over the summer. I never thought in a million years I would be one of those doting grandparents with the best granddaughters in the world - 

But here I am!

 

Banned Camp

The First Amendment has been taking a beating lately, hasn't it? People seem to misunderstand the difference between "freedom of speech" and "sedition", "racism", "hate speech", etc..... You get the idea. It's become such a muddle, I sincerely doubt that back in December of 1791 our forefathers could have envisioned the right to speak one's opinion could have lead to Twitter, Facebook or January 6th. But like gun control, abortion, Trans, CIS and Binary no one seems to know what to do anymore. First there was no limits on social media platforms, you could pretty much freely chat about bombs, hate crimes, cyber bully with out any repercussions - that was not good, no sir. 

But now. 

So to be fair I have been banned Four times in the past year and a half. The first one I will take but it was related to a meme that I had posted (which I thought was funny) (I still think it's funny, sorry not sorry). The weird thing was it had been posted a year and half prior, then suddenly it was taken down by the Facebook Puritans and I was sent to FB jail for a week. I'm kind of guessing someone noticed it and reported it? But I had shared it from someone else's page, not sure if everyone gets in trouble or just me.  So there is that one. 

The last 3 were just bizarre. Last year on my 60th birthday an old classmate jokingly called me an Old Lady, I shot back I'd hit him with my cane. A week in the Pokey for threatening someone with violence. Oh and with FB don't try to argue - you'll get absolutely nowhere. It has a page that comes up if you disagree, you disagree and it instantly tells you you're wrong, go sit on your cyber bunk. The most recent was I am on a Mid-century modern page which is where I get some of my decorating inspiration from. This house was built in 1938 and quite a few on this site have the real wood paneling, etc that I do. Someone shared a video of an update in which the couple PAINTED  over their turn of the century woodwork - it was henious. So I posted a picture of my living room and made the comment I would "shoot anyone who painted over my livingroom". Yup. Apparently on FB you can not make terroristic threats to anyone decorating badly. 3 days in the hoose gow and a month on restriction. I have no idea what the restriction is - it moves my posts in groups lower??? what is that?? - just every time I'm on I get a stern message reminding me I'm being punished. 

The last one was on Reddit - let me stop and tell you here I LOVE AITA (Am I The Asshole)in which people tell their tale and you can write your opinion. It's like group participation in Dear Abby, one of my top ten time wasters actually. But like all of the internet there are trolls and I got caught by one. The troll started by trying to get me to argue, I wouldn't and then told them if they wanted to debate to go on Facebook - that was not what landed me in hot water. I called them a Karen and that is, believe it or not one of the number one reasons to get a 2 week gag order. Yup, you can look but for two weeks you cannot post. And the crappy thing is you don't get punished unless someone reports you. Like a Troll. Lesson learned. They didn't care the troll had been baiting me, I was the one that uttered the Karen so I got the cyber spanking. Bastards. And I don't know about you but it feels like we went from Do What Ever You Want to Here's Your Scarlet Letter in a heartbeat. 

 

Three Years In

on Saturday the 11th was our 3 year Anniversary of moving to Oregon. Three years!  When we first moved here the twins were only 3 years old , we pulled up in a van with Bob the Cat, Molly and Rueben. The house was a disaster to put it mildly, the smell of cat urine was overwhelming and it was one of the few 90 degrees days they'd had that summer so it was baking! David, Kim and Steve had cleaned one room and the bathroom of cat pee - we slept in there with the door shut for a month. When we were 30 minutes away I got an alert that FedEx was not going to deliver our mattress - I panic called them as the idea of sleeping on that floor was beyond even me. I was able to get through and after convincing them it was not an abandoned house and better yet, the driver was kind enough to come back - I will never forget that feeling of relief, 

sometimes the simplest things are the most important.

I had save my time from Bayada -vacation, holiday, personal so I was able to take off for two months. Aside from major surgery I've never been out of work for that long! It was a good decision looking back, we had a ton of work just to make it livable, we scrubbed and painted, set up the rest of the utilities ( we had no internet for almost a month), reconnecting with Kim and Steve. We explored our town, met our neighbors and I pulled a bazillion blackberry vines. Bag after bag of trash, just went you thought you were getting on top of it David would take down another stand of blackberry vines and another pile of trash would appear. We had an entire livingroom set next to the garage - I found a mound and pulled two bags of dirty diapers out of the ground.

Yuck!

We set  mouse and rat traps  - some nights were pretty snappy, but thank goodness no insects. I'll take a rat over a cockroach any day of the week! We had no furniture to speak of, most of what we transported was appliances - we had my grandmother's bedroom set, 2 tvs, the dining room furniture and ........ well. That was it. We spent our evenings parked on the mattress with all the pets watching tv on the floor. But we got to see the girls, Brandi and Jackson when he was stateside - oh my, that was the best thing ever. No more full days of airports arriving sleep deprived, thousand dollars of flights, having to save vacation constantly. They were now a mere four and half  hours by car! 

That was it!

And if you're wondering why we didn't buy closer -  it was mainly cost and being near a large town. We bought this house right before the explosion and it was well under 100,000. It was a mess as you can see from the pictures but it had great bones and it was really our kind of house. During this we bought a second house to flip in Astoria - in the end it turned out to be an amazing decision but getting from Point A to Point B  I would never do that again. NEVER. And no, I still can't talk about it but the whole thing stank from one end to the other. But - it's over and done with.

And we got money out of it, I can deal. 

The other really fun thing was I didn't have to take the first job that came down the pike. Usually when we move I usually end up taking two jobs- The job I need which is anything fast hire and then later on the job I want. Yes I'm an RN and yes, there's a lot of jobs out there - a lot of AWFUL jobs. You make bank but they bleed every penny out of you and then some.  I wanted something that was not hands on and I did not want to be administration. And I found my job, I started working for the Area Agency of Aging and Disability - I will be there 3 years in August and I can honestly say I love my job and I love my co-workers. It's a really nice place to work and my job is right up my alley. 

I have to say this year we feel like we're really settling in, the first two was constant working on the house, working at work, the other flip house, etc.. But it's been fun. Since this house was built in 1938 we've furnished it with estate and yard sales with some FB MarketPlace thrown in. We are slowing down of course, it's taken awhile to find just the right pieces haggling our way through but we have the house furnished how we like it. We still yard sale on the weekend because it's fun poking through other people's things but we've slowed down a great deal. We have the girls coming this weekend, we take them for about a week or so at a clip and it's great to get to participate in watching them grow up, no more peering into a video screen. So overall aside from some bumps here and there it's turned out to be a really good decision. Of course there's been some bad things, the Astoria house and of course Molly and Rueben's sudden and insanely heartbreaking departure from this plane. But we also ended up living 5 hours away from Jess, owner of Sitka, Rueben's half brother and she helped us get Bee and Dutch - so much to be grateful for!  I"m glad we took the plunge.

 

Grow Away Little Girl

Since March I've been experimenting with gardening - a couple of things have sparked this interest. In December I moved into another position at work which keeps me busy but I also now have more free time on my hands. I work from home two days a week and that means no travel and I can spend my lunch hour pottering in the garden. The other reason is why everyone else has a sudden interest - prices. David and I spend about $80  to $100 a week in vegetables and given the financial state of the world these days - it will not get better anytime soon. So, I thought I'd let you know what I've figured out in my horticultural travels. First off, I have inherited my Grandparents green thumb.

Hooray. 

Hydroponic Gardening - my first outing - I researched units and found some horrifyingly expensive. What's the point if I'm spending a thousand dollars (or more) on growing $50 worth of lettuce? Amazon has some cheaper versions, the one I bought holds 72 plants, the net cups and sponges, came with a pump and cost $114. You can also DIY with PVC pipes but the labor and cost end up being about the same. The unit came with almost no instruction so I Youtubed it.  I checked out lighting at the local shop and  nope - $500 to $1000 for a basic set up - $80 Amazon. I bought a seedling heating pad ($14) and trays ($12) plant nutrient mix ($15). Discovered old tissue paper ($0) works just as well as special growing paper. So. I bought rock wool to replace the sponges, it's biodegradable - I'm not sure if the sponges are reusable. I planted zucchini in the hydro unit and it's growing great guns! but it takes up a huge amount of real estate covering my other little plants. So far I've counted about a dozen little zucchini, the rest are pretty new seedlings.  But in the end everyone is growing well. The only issue is pollination, since the unit is outside not a problem but if it's inside you have to do it by hand. Which was not hard at all. You Tube. I change the water once a week, my reservoir is a 10 gallon black covered tote ($6) and you have to keep it out of the sunlight or you get algae. Algae will take all the oxygen out of the water and kill the plants. 

Dutch Bucket -  I'm doing this passively right now - you can buy a set up with a pump which works like the hydro unit but it's more expensive ($225 for 6 with a pump) and it takes up a lot of space. I do have a lot of Amazon points though.... but for now since I'm still figuring it out I'm not investing in something that may not be workable. So. 4 inch net cups ($12 for 25), clay pebbles ($11 for 2 pounds which is a lot), 5 gallon pail with a lid from Lowes ($7.50). I'm using the Kratky Method for this which I'm loving. I took a plant from the hydro unit, in the cup with the clay pebbles (for holding it upright and aeration), David cut a hold in the lid for the cup to sit in. Add plant nutrients, fill to the top, pop the top on and that's it. I explained the Kratky method below.

Raised Garden  - David built these (about $500) - we spent more because it will be a permanent structure. David also had to put a fence and gate because Bee and Dutch were using them for playing King Of the Hill and would not stop. Bastards. We got a load of topsoil for the yard anyhow to fill a dip and we had the rock left over from the driveway, easy peasy. I had seedlings started, seeds, etc... I bought belles, lavender and hydrangeas for the middle garden to attract the bees for pollination and a couple of started plants at the small nursery down the road.  Since I started quite a few seedlings I have most of it filled, I have another set of seedling started and they will probably go in next week.  I've also inspired some neighbors to start their own gardens, one waved at me yesterday and shouted rather cheerily "we're copying you!" so my efforts are not going un-noticed. 

The Kratky Method -  this is the addictive one. I've got 3 going, rock wool ($12 for 100) or net cup and any light blocking container ($0). I have 3 so far using a kombuca bottle, a yogurt container and an old hydrogen peroxide plastic bottle.  Same as the Dutch Bucket - the way it works is you put your seeding in and fill to the top. As the plant uses the water the space left provides the air to the plant and gets the roots to grow to reach. You just need to add it occasionally and you can use a container depending on the size of the plant you want to grow - I will be using the Dutch Bucket for zucchini in the future. You can only do one plant per container (unless you use a tote sized one ) so it can look kind of junky. 

The whole reason I'm experimenting is I'm planning on year round gardening. David will be finishing the green house and I have the big lights  - FYI look on FB marketplace, Craigslist, etc.... failed growers sell that stuff for nothing!! The only downside is everything smells vaguely of pot. But I bought about $1500 dollars worth of equipment for $75 so no complaints here. So far I've been pretty pleased with my progress. 
 

A Year Of Dutch.

Today is Dutch's official One Year Anniversary of being our dog. A year and a half ago was the horrible dog year, Molly first dying 32 hours after being diagnosed with a terminal abdominal tumor. Then Rueben following on her heels to the Elysian Fields not 6 weeks later with so many tumors they were on his heart and one lung was obliterated. No, we were not asleep at the switch - both cancers are insidious, there were virtually no symptoms until it was too late. Molly we didn't have time to breath - for Rueben the vet told us we could pursue treatment but best case was 6 months and he would spend the 6 months with surgeries and treatments. And just when we thought it couldn't get any worse Rueben and I were attacked by a raccoon  - we were both mauled and bitten multiple times - that just pushed everything over the edge. As hard as it was, we let him go gently. Crying for two months straight  doesn't even begin to cover it. 

I was destroyed. 

But then there was Bee the puppy and even though we were still recovering it was like the world was righting itself.  So smart, cute and her crazy antics  - you couldn't ask for a better dog. And then a few months later I got a text from Jess letting me  know that Bee's brother had been returned due to some unfortunate circumstances, was I interested? It was an almost immediate YES and I was on my way 5 days later - his name was Red which I changed of  course, a red dog named Red just makes you sigh, doesn't it?  The ride home was me being excited with Dutch quietly sitting in the back seat, trying to take it all in. When we got about 20 miles from home my new car died at the gas station which resulted in a slightly hysterical  phone call to my office since I couldn't reach David. Carmen came and got us, calmly loaded Dutch in the backseat and took us home. And it was of all the simple things the battery. When we arrived Bee was beside herself with joy - Dutch not so much. He went from pillar to post to pillar in a span of 3 weeks so he had some catching up to do. And dogs do grieve, I'm sure there were a few weeks he waited for his family to come get him and bring him home, he waited. But the sad, quiet days grew shorter and - I don't know if they really ever forget, but like us they move on. 

David gets tired of my lauding his virtues, yes he's the best looking dog he's ever seen, he's very smart, so nice and yes, he does seem more talented than other people's dogs, but honestly I don't think I've had a dog that I've loved this much in a long time. You know how sometimes you'll get a pet and they're just the best thing ever? But he is - he's so gentle and sweet  - when the granddaughters are here all he wants is to be with them. At night he lays on my lap,much to Bee's annoyance. Like any sister she does things to get under his skin, she'll take the favored toy and hold it so he can't have it, get in my lap and refuse to move - Dutch takes this all seriously and becomes a drama llama by throwing his head back and howling. Bee just keeps it up. But for the most part they get along well and they play well. David continues to train them to hunt and hopefully this fall they will get out there a few times. Dutch got some new stuff for his anniversary much to David's eye rolling and Bee got too since you cannot explain this anniversary stuff

Happy One Year With Us Dutch! 

You're the best!

 

Bumbling In Botany

I have a tendency to bulldoze through anything - I rarely approach anything slowly with great thought and research. I get blindsided by inspiration often - I'll just be toodling along and suddenly will think I should take up learning Udo or maybe live in a Yurt. In Idaho. While raising Alpacas and then next thing you know I'm attending YouTube College getting my PhD in Binge Watching How To Shear Alapacas. David is a big Nope on many of these ventures if they incude requirements such as Work  Visas, snowshoes or livestock. His take is I will lose interest as soon as the next Fun Thing comes along and he'll be in charge of a herd of bleating sheep. And he doesn't like sheep. He might not be wrong. But if it's something that doesn't require anything from him, moving or a loan and might possibly of use he's ok with it. Which is how I ended up playing with hydroponic gardening. 

I have a few reasons I'm interested in this - you can do it year round, it can be inside or out and if I can get to the point of growing real food - we will be saving tons of money plus decreasing our footprint. I initially started looking in the pot growing shops and quickly abandoned that - the investment was way out of my comfort zone. Lighting starts around a thousand dollars - and that's just the lighting. Most people frequenting those shops are pot farmers and start ups, not zucchini and lettuce people. So - on to Amazon. My set up plus the pump, plus the lights came to under $200 so I was happy with that. In the relative scope of things that's not bad for a hobby. We have a closed in sun room in the back - i was going to start off in the grow room under the house but realized starting out it would be difficult, there is no water hooked up down there so I would have to carry buckets of water up and down the ladder for the weekly water change so that was off the table. Plus David pointed out we have plenty of room up here so aside from the fun factor of telling people I was gardening under the house there wasn't any benefit to it. 

So, my first round of seedlings I had about 20 survivors, I just added the second round. I am going to be gardening outside with raised beds but I want to get this down pat for the winter. David is also building me a greenhouse off the back deck - the whole idea is to be able to grow vegetables all the time. I had no idea what I planted in the unit but it's become apparent a good number of the survivors are zucchini. I have no vegetables yet but I have blossoms and when they open I will have to pollinate. So far I've had two flowers but they were both males so it was a no go. My second round of seedling are bell peppers which I grew from the seeds I took out of the peppers I used for dinner. I put them on wet paper and then in the dark for awhile, they all sprouted! So during this I decided I wanted a bigger pump than the one that came with the unit. I found a reasonable one - Amazon again! When it came I realized this one did not come on a timer so I had to order that and then wait for it's arrival. That came and  yesterday I started hooking it up with David trying desparately to ignore me as it was not going well. No indeed, not well at all. First, the tubing was too big so I tried a rubber band, then David used a clamp. I fired it up and it leaked like crazy out the top and then down the side. 

Of course. 

Sigh. So David taped and clamped it - sucess! I had just drained the water and refilled the reserve bucket so I plugged it in and went to figure out the timer I had bought. I was sitting at the table with the directions when i heard the not so gentle sounds of a waterfall.Hmm. Took me a second. I ran in to see the water gysering out of the unit - gyser!! Thank goodness the floor is a deck so the it just drained out - I got it unplugged and I guess it's a bit more powerful than i had anticipated. I reinstalled the old pump and all was well in Plant World once again. And no, the new stuff with not be wasted - i will be doing a dutch bucket system for the fall so it goes into the future greenhouse pile. The other thing I've discovered is around here we have a lot of pot farm fails - people think they'll make their fortunes but reality is the competition around here is fierce and then by the time you get through all the government regulations....but the upside is I bought about a thousand dollars worth of fairly new greenhouse equipment giant grow lights, fans, etc.... for $75. Even if I don't use half of it there is almost nothing invested - she even threw in extra filters (they're huge!). It all smells vaguely of pot but for $75 I'm good with it. David is working on the raised beds and then I'll transfer the zucchini out - it's growing like crazy as you can see in the picture but it's overtaking the entire unit and covering the new seedlings. I think in the future I'll be growing lettuce. Or whatever sprouts!! 

 

A West Virginia Haunting.

A couple of months ago a woman showed up on my Ring doorbell video, she looked about our age. She knocked and waited, then left with some papers in her hand. We didn't know who she was and we  really don't get many people we don't know down here. Our house is about 3 miles down a back dirt road and there are only about 8 houses - it's not an ideal place to solicit and no one end ups here accidently. When we got home there was no sign, nothing stuck in the door or mailbox, no note with a phone number. We figured she was looking for someone else and had found them. Two weeks later - she was back again. This time we were out of town and she rang the Ring doorbell, but I didn't catch it til she was in her car - once again we missed her. And again there was no note or any way to contact her. I posted a picture on the local FB community board hoping someone would recognize her and then someone piped up

"that's a process server".

Now, when you flip foreclosures you occasionally do end up in court - the reason they're so cheap is not only due to condition but there's often issues with neighbors, irate relatives, the deed, etc....but we'd never been served with papers. And the only house out here we flipped was the Astoria house which I will someday tell the entire story of that mess - we did well selling it but what a fucking disaster it was with the local assholes. But I digress. As you can imagine we were freaking out in the What Now Area - but then about a week later she came back and David called me laughing. It was over a stupid piece of property in Fairmont WV that we had bought about 8 years ago? It was a little nothing that there was some big issues with the deed that left us paying the taxes every year but unable to sell it. David actually though about challenging it but....no.It's not a desirable area, the piece is really small - like an 1/8 of an acre if that.  We stopped paying the taxes a couple of years ago and someone was buying it. David thought briefly of paying the taxes but I was No. By the time we got done fixing the deed etc... it would not be worth it. We let it go.

I was just relieved it was something small. Yesterday David got an email that we were getting a registered letter in the mail that needed signed - ugh!! So it came and it was another legal document ........from West Virginia. About a house we sold in 2012 and a deed correction tjat has absolutely nothing to do with us. Nothing. Nada. From reading it over it they have to notify everyone involved. I said to David we should just Strongly Object just for the hell of it, this is getting silly and annoying.  The problem with lawsuits, even the stupid ones can run into money whether you're right or wrong. You can be sued for anything at anytime and the kicker is even if its totally stupid if you dont show up you lose automatically.

I'm hoping this is the end of it, I'm sure with RE booming the house in Bruceton Mills is being sold, and that they just found an issue with the deed. Which is on the title company, not us. 

 

Rain Drops Keep Falling On My Head

You know how they always talk about Washington and Oregon being overcast and dismal all the time? It's kind of true, some weeks it just rains constantly. We ask Alexa for the weather report and I've noticed she tries to mix it up a bit so it doesn't sound so bad. "Monday rain Tuesday Rain Wednesday Showers, Thursday wet weather....." - but I'm not fooled. And then there are the winds so you can't really carry an umbrella, I have 3 raincoats thank you for asking. It doesn't rain all day - but it will pour overnight, then be Dismal, black clouds rain, clears up......everything this time of year is damp and muddy. David tries to keep up with the floors but it's a losing battle. He did get the lawn mowed today, the sun came out for a few hours and when it does it doesn't look real - endless blue skies with puffy clouds, mountain in the background - technicolor grass and flowers. Everything is green - it never stays cold enough for it not to be green and the grass grows year around. The flowers bloomed a month ago, trees are all budded up and I can see the giant rose bush we unburied from the vines last year will be spectacular. 

My hydroponic garden continues I'm down to about 20 plants but the ones left are growing well. The biggest ones I am pretty sure are zucchini and two of the plants have blossoms on them as of this morning. I think the next go around I will have separate the seeds because I'm not sure what didn't make it. I'm going to start some more hydro seedling and then some in regular peat pots. I will have a raised garden this year so I have to get started on that. David built a small deck around the back and it will be enclosed by winter - I'm still planning on being able to grow year round. We continue to work on the yard, David is going to fence in the front where we have the giant cement pads, I'm trying to figure out what I want to plant and where. We're still arguing about the Monkey tree which is native to here and David HATES it, goes on and on about how ugly it is, it's not my decision, blah blah blah. It's seriously not that bad and cutting it down would be more trouble than it's worth. 

This is the first weekend in almost a month we do not have small children - it's very quiet around here. We have nothing really planned, a couple estate sales, maybe doing a little cleaning out, some planting and yard work but just pottering around for the most part. Tomorrow there will  be sunshine at least for part of Saturday so we can get out and do something fun. Have a good weekend everyone!

 

Easter And All That Sugar

Yes, I know we just had them last week, we actually dropped them off the previous Sunday morning only to have them heading back in this direction Friday night. The reason was their spring break occurred the first week of April and Easter did not. But Brandi was fine with driving down so we could celebrate together and left shortly after getting off from work. And then headed back to get the Easter stuff that she'd carefully hidden in her closet and forgot. They didn't arrive til almost 11 pm but I had everyone's room ready, we got the girls in bed, then they realized they were here so I herded them back to bed a few times despite protests. I started the vaporizer as they both have allergies and I think they sleep much better anyhow. Brandi went upstairs to her room and that was all she wrote. 

The girls were up early the next morning since they had slept in the car, we left Brandi alone as i knew she must've been tired. I started boiling the eggs, tucked everyone in with Poppop and tablets so we could play the Makeup game. They LOVE the Makeup game - you get a girl face and you can do the hair, eye color and apply enough cyber cosmetics to make anyone look like a Deranged Prostitute in no time. When you're done you can take a screen shot and email it to Mommy's messenger which I'm sure delights her to no end. So the eggs cooled - not fast enough of course, but they did it. By that time Brandi was up and it was time to dye the eggs! It is also Close Supervision Time because having two six year olds, 18 eggs and six cups of dye can be a bit harrowing. The kit I bought (Paas of course!) came with paint so while the eggs dried we mixed the cake complete with the Breaking Of The Eggs - they do well with it. It's funny how you don't realize until you see a small child do it how much dexterity it takes to do things like break eggs and pour ingredients. They're very crafty right now and we do tons of arts and crafts, baking,etc - not only do they enjoy it but it's so good for motor skills. I wonder sometimes how many kids end up with physical issues because they simply don't have the everyday practice. 

While the cake baked and cooled we went back to the eggs, painted them then on to decorating the bunny cake. This consists of Nana just putting out bowls of candy, sprinkles and then I let them go. This year the bunny had actually eyes and whiskers - and some sort of Pox. Easter morning was spectacular, they're at that great age where they're young enough to  still believe but old enough to get excited about it. We got up and hid the eggs to prevent Bee and Dutch from finding them (they are hunting dogs after all!) D is a driven egg hunter, she needed to be reined in a bit, loping around the house  with her easter basket in hand. Brandi had also brought plastic eggs with small prizes so they both had a good run. Then we had to get ready for brunch, pulled the table out to giant size, got the extra chairs from the basement and Aunt Kim, Uncle Steve and Meg from Colorado showed up at 10. C and D LOVED Meg like they had known her since college and hauled her all over the house. D announced she would be her dining partner while C positioned her bad self between Brandi and Aunt Kiim. It was so much fun. Brandi and the girls headed out around 11:30 - school and work on Monday, Kim and crew left an hour later to drop Meg off at the airport. It was too fast, sometimes too busy but an awesome weekend!

 

Lights Out

Ugh. When I woke up I knew it was not time to get up, it  felt like almost but not quite - you know how you feel something is off but you're just not sure what it could be? It was chilly so I pulled up the blankets a bit then looked to see what time it was. Yup. Nothing. Nada. No faint glow of the clock, no blue light from the USB ports on the outlet. Our entire house has a faint blue glow to it at night - printer, Alexa, lap top, etc..... you get used to it, don't you?, so when the lights go out it's very noticible. I picked up my phone - 3;45am and it wasn't charging of course because we had no electricity. Hmm. There had been a weather advisory about snow, but I figured it was a bunch of hooey. (in my defense, it usually is). I looked out the window, Dammit!! I looked at the Clatskanie Community Board on FB which is where we get all of our info - and 2300 people were pioneering according the PUD. Dammit. 

We have a portable propane heater so David fired that up after snitching the tank off the BBQ - my poor hydroponic garden though was SOL for the morning. To keep the heat I had to shut off the sunroom where they live, poor Neo! I got the solar flashlight/chargers off the windowsill, they were fully charged and ready to go. We also have rechargable light bulbs - good for up to 3 hours. Those I love - you recharge them by just putting them in a lamp and turning it on for a couple of hours. In the video on YouTube they said you can also use them as regular lightbulbs so if the lights go out them lamp just stays on. But the electric doesn't go out that often and David uses them for other stuff. Since the propane tank was on the heater that meant no BBQ coffee - after living in PA and WV in which the lights go out a bit more often I'm pretty good at. David hooked up the generator and it ran enough for the coffee pot to make some busy noise,....then stopped. After  few more tries he gave it up, it was too cold to keep putzing with it.  By this time it was almost 7:30 and David said according the Community Board town had some lights. So he drove up and got us coffee, 

I got a text from work that the office was closed, the road was a mess and the bridge that connects Oregon to Washington was closed as it was a sheet of ice. No interet, but we actually have cell service here so I watched Victoria on my wee little screen. Victoria is a spanish soap opera that I watched years ago - got halfway through and they took it off! ARRGH. But it's back and I've been binge watching for an embarrassingly long time - there's almost 180 one hour episodes and I'm determined to finish it this time. David said he would like to hear the english language once in awhile but I'm 30 shows out and then I'm done so he'll just have to suck it up.  But I digress. The lights finally came back on close to noon so I didn't get as much done as I wanted but there's always tomorrow, isn't there? The temperatures are back up in the 40s and it looks likes its melted, hopefully we can get back to spring - I was really enjoying those 60 degree temps and I want them back!

 

Grandparenting 101

When I tell people that we are keeping our grandkids for up to  10 days I'm often met with disbelief that we have then for that long of a stretch. We live close - but it's still a 4 hour hike, well if you drive straight. On the other hand if you meander up the coast, stop for dinner, do a little shopping AND take the ferry it's a bit longer.  So doing a weekend is doable but it's a crunch. The reason we take them for a week and a half is because Brandi is taking care of them herself and deserves a break and and a full week at the sitters is expensive so  we try really hard to cover school breaks. I know there's plenty of kids that spend all the school vacations at the sitters or daycare but if there's another option, why not? When we take them they can hang in pajamas, dawdle around - and play all day. And this is why we are here at the end of t he day, to see our grandkids on a regular basis, we wanted to be Nana and Popppop, not just two faces on a screen. 

C and D are on spring break, this time around is a little different. Since we have them pretty often I use a lot of vacation time up driving, etc.... and there's really no reason for it. David is semi-retired and is more than capable of taking care of them. They're six now so they can amuse themselves, you can take them with you and they are both about 95% independent in the bathroom department. We have the house set up so there's plenty for them to do - swings and a fenced in yard, two rambunctious and overly friendly dogs to run about with. We have an alcove behind the stairs that serves as a playroom - I buy toys off of FB marketplace to furnish it. It's pretty cheap and since they're not here all the time when they outgrow the toys I just donate them to Goodwill and start again. They have thier own beds, crayons, playdough, tub toys - so far we've never heard "there's nothing to do!". The loft which is my home office is the most popular place in the house with the miniture sectional couch, tiny wall mounted flat screen and low table and cube seats for coloring and rolling playdough. What's not to like!

I worked from home 3 days this week, I have my regular schedule of two days home plus the 8 hour Zoom training for the next 4 weeks on Thursday. On Wednesday C came up and I sent her down. she came up again, asked for a drink. Toast. Could she watch TV? did I like Sharks?Started a long winded conversation which included a bazillion questions. I told her to go downstairs because i was working. She then said she didn't see me working since I was talking to her. We both went downstairs and rousted Poppop out of bed with me explaining if this continued I would be packing My toys and going into the office. This went well for a few hours but then  they announced it was no longer Nana's turn to be in the Fun Home Office and I got kicked dowstairs since we are supposed to share Nana! Thursday David packed them up and they went to  visit Aunt Kim and Uncle Steve in Seaside - they rode the carasol, got toy kttens that meowed, played on the beach and made a friend, petted PIggles thier favorite little dog, and fell into bed exhausted after their bath. They've also been to Lowe's, the Tractor Supply and Shop&SAve - they're not picky. 

But all in all, the week has gone very well, we actuallly got stuff done this week. The weather has been awful the past two days - ugh. Rain, hail, wind, sun, fog, temp goes up, temp goes down . They have taken over the upstairs which is fine, not much to do today. We did go to Farmhouse Coffee this morning to see the Easter Bunny which was a hit. Then they got italian sodas and unicorn cupcakes, they attracted the attention of t wo women in thier mid-80's and showed off doing splits before I could stop them ( I looked at one of the women and said "Ok, your turn!" and she replied only if she got another hip replaced, LOL!). But aside from the spontaneous splits they behave well in public and enjoy going out. They head home tomorrow, Monday is school for them and work for me, at the end you can tell they're starting to miss home and Mommy. Brandi has gotten a few workfree/childfree days to herself and that's the other reason we do this, everyone needs a little time to themselves. Next up is Easter, they'll be coming down again this year. We do Easter dinner the night before and then Easter we do the hunt and a big brunch with Kim and Steve - I can't wait!