Archive for August 2013
Sensing Familiar
It is only August, but already, there are enough hints of the season ahead that I am noticing flashes of recognition for our experiences of one year ago, when we came to this place we are now calling, Wintervale. I am sensing that we have accomplished that first year of newness, and now will begin drawing on memories of the year before, as we navigate each new adventure that pops up for us here.
There are still daily incremental changes underway. Yesterday, when I got home from work, I resumed the project of putting up boards lining the stables in the barn. While the task seemed to breeze along easily for me on Sunday, last night I struggled with every step. If something could fall, it did. If I could drop a board or tool, I did. I finished the second stall, but without much in the way of joy for the accomplishment.
I had been diligent about not leaving behind a stray screw on the floor of the stalls that might poke the feet of the future tenants. As I stepped up on the ladder to mount the final board, the entire box of screws flipped off the ledge and dumped in a heap below. Oh, joy.
Time to clean up and stop fighting the trend.
The upgrade of two stalls is complete. That leaves two to go. We are making progress.
Thinks
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.
there are too many thinks
to think about
all up in our heads
some gathering clout
to gain in importance
the rest dribbling out
falling through cracks
too wide to stop
real ideas
leaking right out
out of our sight
and far from our minds
joining lost things
deserving thought-time
leaving behind
unspecified finds
words from our friends
chores that aren’t done
happy-go-lucky
freewheeling big fun
heavier things
left incomplete
usually because
they’re too hard to do
needing deep thoughts
not here to fall through
grabbing for grasp
while clinging to hope
some new way will come
to successfully cope
succumbing to sleep
that seeps up from below
the too many thinks
continue to flow
.
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It Happened
Here I go again with the old, “be careful what you wish for” line of thinking. I was hoping that our new dog, Delilah, would eventually turn out to be good at controlling the populations of critters around here; or at the least, discouraging them from being a nuisance.
Late on Saturday, to our surprise, she landed her first kill. She found a little bunny buried deep in tall grass, and sat at that spot for most of the evening. As daylight faded into darkness, we began to wonder what was going on out there. It appears she felt no compulsion to need to eat it.
The next morning, after Cyndie let Delilah outside, she returned to the front door, after a brief period of free time, with the still-intact, yet definitely dead, rabbit. She was carrying around her little trophy like it was a precious new play toy.
Eeew.
Grand Day
It was a beautiful summer day yesterday for us to showcase our place for friends. Delilah got loads of attention, and was a charm the whole day. I walked our trails several times, guiding tours. I noshed and nibbled all afternoon, to my heart’s delight. Unfortunately, I didn’t pull the camera out more than once or twice, because I was so occupied with having a wonderful time that I kept forgetting to capture all the fun in pictures. Here’s a collage that samples some of the atmosphere of our grand day.
Having Company
Our many friends, coworkers, and acquaintances have been listening to us gush about our new place throughout the 10-months that we’ve been here, and only a portion of them have been able to make the trip out for a visit. For most of those who did, it was back in snowy December when we hosted an initial open house.
Cyndie and I have long hoped to host another event to welcome visitors, initially targeting June, envisioning live music in the barn, and combining celebrations of multiple family birthdays which fall during the month. That event didn’t happen. Another month slipped by, and we weren’t able to pull anything off. By August, I started to worry that, unless we just picked a day and did it, we would completely miss the summer opportunity to invite people to come enjoy a first-hand experience of this place.
A couple of weeks ago I convinced Cyndie to let me choose today’s date for a subdued “open house” event that wouldn’t require a lot of preparation from us. Then I sent out a few email invitations, mostly to folks who haven’t been here yet,
Initially, many of the responses reported conflicts, which didn’t surprise me at all. Now that the date is upon us, we are thrilled to find that more people than we expected have responded that they are intending to come. Of course, Cyndie and I can’t help but want to try to tidy things up a bit before visitors arrive, so that feeling of a “subdued” event is fading fast. I am getting the feeling that it could be a real wing-ding of a day.
There are just two things missing from the vision Cyndie had in mind for the June version of our party: a live band playing tunes, and horses in the paddocks, but I don’t think that will be a problem.
As a matter of fact, it presents an opportunity to invite them back again at another time, when things are in full swing around here.
Critter Controllers
Back in October of last year, when we arrived as new owners of this property and home, we immediately discovered that mice and moles appeared to be all too comfortable here. The mice inspired our energies toward getting a couple of cats as house mates. Mozyr was to be our big mouser, based on his incredibly intelligent and athletic showing-off performance during our visit to the feline rescue shelter.
Pequenita is just a wee little thing, but proved to be quite the go-getter and primary instigator for affection and initiator of conflict.
Neither one of them has left a gift carcass for us, during the time since we brought them home, but we have not seen any evidence of a mouse indoors during that period, either.
They are doing something right for us.
Last fall, the grounds here had an unnerving amount of dirt mounds and trail scars to indicate we had quite an infestation of moles and/or gophers. There are oodles of suggested ways to trap them, poison them, or chase them off. One brilliant method involves eliminating the insects and grub worms under the lawn that the varmints find so appealing. I’m just not up for all of that.
We got a dog.
Up to this point of the summer, we haven’t been seeing any new mounds of dirt, but something is slowly, but surely, tunneling under the grass, leaving a maze of scars in the lawn. I have no idea if Delilah will turn out to be the solution for driving off the moles, but last night, she displayed a fair amount of interest in chasing a scent she picked up when I directed her attention to one of the soft spots trailing across the turf.
Garden Tending
We have spent the last two afternoon/evenings down at the labyrinth garden, trying to finish off marking a rough outline of the path, and get things planted. The creation of this labyrinth has been an important priority for Cyndie, and she has forged progress against all manner of weather delays, lack of time, and conflicting demands.
I think she has been buying plants for that garden all summer long, and I haven’t been able to help her to see where they should go. She has needed to get some in the ground just to give them a chance to survive until we know where they will ultimately fit. Now we need to get everything planted before the growing season is over for the year.
A couple of weekends ago, Elysa helped accomplish the greatest amount of progress, defining the basic path borders for 3-quarters of the labyrinth, using paving stones that Cyndie purchased. Last night, I came close to completing the marking of the last quarter section which remained to be defined, and was then able to adjust the width and shape of the borders previously laid out. That finally brought enough definition for Cyndie to recognize the route, and allowed her to commence with relocation of wayward plants.
There is still a lot of work to do, before it becomes a true realization of the idea we jointly developed, but for now, the route is walkable, and I think that is amazing progress, given all the other things we are doing around here, simultaneously.
Evening Excitement
There was a little excitement in the Wintervale house last night, after Cyndie and I got back from working on the labyrinth garden. Actually, Cyndie was still down watering the plants when Delilah and I came back to the house. I was getting ready to shower and spotted a bat flying circles around our spiral staircase. I turned on some lights hoping I could keep an eye on him, and stepped into the garage to grab a broom.
The cats were visibly interested, but basically useless as predators. I thought it was going to be up to me, except the bat had landed and was now out of sight. Since Delilah appeared to be totally focused on her food and water, I decided to get the shower out of the way. When I came out, I heard Delilah’s bark and figured the bat was airborne again. Cyndie had returned and figured out there was a bat, so I pointed out the broom, and reported sighting the critter perched on a beam.
Cyndie took over from there, drawing on her years of experience evicting bats from the cabins over the years at the lake place up in Hayward. She grabbed a small step-ladder, and conked him to the floor. By this time, Pequenita was showing interest in finishing him off, but Cyndie would have none of that, and bagged the remains for disposal.
Order was restored. The labyrinth continues to gain definition, and we again filled every last moment of the day. Before the sun got too low, I walked the trail we worked to clear on Monday, hoping to get some better pictures with my camera, instead of my cell phone. Here are a few…
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Happy Reports
For those of you following my story as far back as June, when I may have mentioned missing my annual June bike trip to remain at work covering for a person out on a surprise medical leave for a potentially fatal affliction… I have news of a good outcome. It has been a long wait since the June diagnosis all the way to an August surgery. The surgical procedure went better than anticipated and I learned yesterday that recovery has progressed in leaps and bounds in the last few days.
What a joyous relief!
While filling in at work, I’ve returned to a full 5-day work week, and yesterday it was a good thing I was there on a Monday. My attention was needed in a lot of directions, most of them customer related. Luckily, business volume is holding steady, although on the brink of not as much as we are comfortable with, and I am processing a fair number of recent new orders.
Then the happiness continued at home!
In the mail, I found we received our first rebate check for the installation of our new geothermal furnace. Woo hoo!
Cyndie and I spent some focused time with Delilah, and decided she seemed a little under the weather. She has been on antibiotics for over a week, treating her Lyme disease. It seems like there is a battle going on in her. We hope the antibiotics are winning.
She recovered enough energy to come down to the woods with us to help clear trail. We let her run loose while we worked and then gave her repetitions at the exercise of coming when called. She performed well every time, earning enough treats that I think she is getting the picture.
I got her to grab a few sticks and move them away, and while I was digging out rocks, she gladly helped do some digging. Unfortunately, she has a penchant for coming back and digging up the holes I had just filled. She returned from one of her forays into the woods, with a particularly precious prize: an animal bone.
Our success with her, and our work down on the trail, brought us much happiness at the end of an already happy day.
I couldn’t resist stacking a few of the stones that we dug out of the middle of the path. Distributed in random groups on the side of the trail, they add a sense of spirit to the wonderfully magical route that we have carved through that part of our woods.
And that made us very happy, too.
Lacy Image
Cyndie captured this great photo of Queen Anne’s lace that grows on our property. Like all plants, some people consider it a weed, while others find it beneficial. Unfortunately, it is considered a pest in pastures, and it is sprouting all over part of the field we want to cut for hay and graze our horses.
Relative Something 