Mermaid on a Raft

I’m still here.

04/03/2024 It’s sure been a while. I’m adjusting to living where pollen rules the world. I’ve never seen pollen like this before. Miraculously, my allergies are not affected by it, but I’m in the minority.

Bill and Highway were here in the middle of March for 2 weeks. The first time I took Highway out to the fields to walk he was gagging and reverse sneezing so much that I took him back to the house. I started him on allergy meds and they helped him a lot. His one nostril is totally clogged and he blows out big snots. It’s really gross.

Bill’s visit was to do a few little things and to redo the guest bath. It was the original vanity and the floor was original too and it was horrible. Bill has never done LVP before so it was a learning curve but he figured it out.

During. There was some rot around the edge of the tub and around the toilet that had to be fixed.

I love it now! New vanity, mirror, lights, hooks and towel bars. We still plan to redo the fiberglass in both showers at some point.

I’m just a little OCD and I had to paint the silver rim on the bottom of the trash can gold.

He also installed a new fan in the master bedroom. The original one was in there and still running but man, it was ugly.

Last year I hired a guy to come every 2 weeks and mow. It was $55/ visit. I decided I wanted to do it myself. The yard is over 1/2 acre, which isn’t a huge deal breaker for a push mower, except when it’s 98 degrees and 147 % humidity. I bought a riding mower, an electric weedeater and a shop vac that is also a blower. I’m all set.

Before I bought the mower, I was complaining to my neighbor Joyce that I couldn’t find the dog poop because my grass was too long. She had her husband come mow it for me. I made them a pan of lasagna for mowing. She said he really really liked it. I’m happy I can mow when I want to.

I had a guy come and dig out some old boxwood in the front garden and then Bill cleaned it up some more. I was itching to plant. We got 2 yards of compost and spread that while he was here but the 2+ yards of mulch didn’t get spread. I bought 20 plants and dug holes for all of them. My friend Margy came and helped me. We planted everything. And then we mulched. At least a dozen loads of mulch were put in the wheelbarrow and then spread. It was back-breaking work, especially for an old lady like me. I was D E A D that evening. After I showered I could hardly move. I’m going to put the mulch on thicker this weekend.

This is before we weeded and spread the compost. We took as many white stones out as we could. That’s a ton of fun.

The green tarp still has mulch that I need to spread the next few days before all the grass, I mean weeds, are killed.

It looks so much better. There is an area between the sidewalk and the house, 2′ wide where I plan to plant some phlox, thyme, sweet woodruff (if I can find it), and some sedums. Pics next blog.

As I said, the pollen was next level. It took me most of one afternoon to scrub the back porch. I got it all cleaned up and spent Sunday reading out there.

The porch is in bad shape and will be replaced at some point.

These clowns love it, as long as I am out there.

I turned my firepit into a flower garden. It’s filled with seeds. There is also a wooden box with a dozen Romaine plants in it.

This definitely isn’t where I want to stay forever but it was a good choice as far as neighborhoods go. It’s quiet, the houses aren’t very close and there is nobody behind me, it’s all fields. The dogs and I take advantage of having that. They love their afternoon walks.

I’ve watched some good movies and series lately. Poor Things was great, so was Boys in the Boat. The Tourist, season 1 was excellent. Season 2, not so much. True Detective season 1 and 4, are really good. I just finished Apples Never Fall. That was a great series.

I really don’t have much else to rattle on about so I’m going to wrap this up and go watch Oppenheimer.

Enjoy this wonderful weather. XO

It’s a One Day More year

02/02/2024 It’s February. For some reason, January seemed like it had 83 days. Bill and Highway left on the sixth of January, he had a Dr appt that he wanted to get back for. The KY realtor called me before he left and they wanted to do aerial photos so he also needed to cut all the grass before they took pics. Of course, soon after the grass was cut, it snowed. They still haven’t done the drone photos.

We didn’t get any snow here, but it was bitter cold for a week, in the 20’s and we had a really nasty windstorm. I don’t have anything laying around outside except my big garbage can. The wind was starting to get strong when I went out to get the mail. The garbage can was lying in the driveway instead of tucked along the house. I put it in the garage. The wind was really howling that night, many people in the county lost power, signs were blown over and some other random things, but all was good here. When the boys and I went out to walk the next morning I noticed the neighbors’ trampoline was gone. Parts of it were laying on the road. I picked the metal pieces up and laid them by their driveway. It wasn’t until we started out for our walk again that I noticed the trampoline.

OMG, the trampoline.

After my neighbor got home from work she and ?? removed the tramp. I posted the photo on IG and my friend said trampolines are the state bird of Alabama. Seriously, I wish I had seen it in flight.

The master bedroom floor and the master bathroom are done, for now. There is still some trim work to do in the bathroom and the bedroom needs to be painted and a new ceiling fan. I wanted a different light for above the tub, something with some ambiance. Originally there was a can light above where the tub is. I bought a light on a whim from Amazon and what a whim it was!

No more nasty dirty carpeting! I love the easy-to-clean LVP floor.

This tub is huge. My legs are long and I can completely stretch out with about a foot to spare.

It’s not very easy to get in or out of, maybe if I was 45 years younger.

So much better than before. I just bought the art pieces at an antique store.

The new vanity gives us a little extra room, the other one was huge and OLD!!

I seriously LOVE this light. I had to hire someone to install it because Bill was gone when it came and I certainly couldn’t wait. I thought it would cast a shadow but didn’t realize it would be this cool.

Needless to say, I love the bathroom. We still need to get new doors for the shower but that’s not a big deal.

I have been walking the boys in the field daily, usually in the afternoon because I figure the coyotes are sleeping then. I have found some interesting things in the fields by the woods. I would really like to walk the dogs in the woods but there is so much trash, broken glass, and metal. Bill said probably snakes too, so we stay in the field.

Big fungus, I believe a type of Turkey Tail.

These are from the sweet gum tree. They’re sharp but really cool.

From the far side of the field towards the house.

Over the weekend we woke to a really misty morning. I got the dogs ready and we walked before the mist was gone. Whenever I see mist it reminds me of the movie, American Werewolf in London.

These are my 3 Crepe Myrtle trees. I don’t think they’ve ever been pruned. I watched some YouTube videos and got to work.

They’re pretty bare. I hope I didn’t Unalive them. I can’t get the top branches. I don’t want to get on a full-sized ladder and use the loppers because I use my body as leverage. I have to put one handle against my shoulder and pull the other handle with both hands. A ladder would be dangerous. I did what I could with a step stool.

I determined I couldn’t finish the Crepe Myrtles so I decided to work on my raised bed. Not really raised, it may have been a firepit.

Earlier I had cleaned it out. Today I laid cardboard down and emptied 160#’s of soil and compost in there. I’m ready to plant. Except, it’s still February.

The boys and I are going to be checking out a few different dog trainers. I want to work on recall so they listen better and I’m able to take them to more places together. They also need better dog socialization skills. A small pup got away from its owner and ran out to see them. First off, they almost knocked me over with their leashes and they were terrified of this pup. This needs to change. Someone is coming here on Wednesday and then the following Monday I’m taking them to a place an hour away for an evaluation. They really listen pretty well for having only me train them, but they can do better. I can do better also, in learning how best to handle them. We’re a work in progress.

I’ve found some interesting shows lately. I watched Candy and Love and Death. They’re based on the same true story, one with Jessica Biel and the other with Elizabeth Olsen. I liked Elizabeth better. I also watched Fool Me Once, True Detective, the first 2 episodes of Expats, Griselda, and The Postcard Killings. I just read that Northern Exposure is now on Prime. That was such a great show, I can’t wait to watch it.

Tomorrow is a day out, Margy and I go to lunch on Saturdays. I’m looking forward to a meal out and maybe a little shopping too! In another week or so we’re going to Raleigh. I need to make a Costco and a Trader Joe’s run. An hour isn’t too far to drive for that!

Max just told me that it’s close to his dinner time! He’s pushy like that. Happy February everyone!

A new year, a new you.

12/29/2023 It’s almost a new year and with that comes another trip around the sun for me. Birthdays, it’s a love-hate relationship. I hate growing older but I prefer it to the alternative. That was my fathers’ outlook on aging. And as always, he was correct.

I’m grateful for my health and grateful that I am still active. I strive daily to keep moving. That’s not to say I don’t have downtime and often covet those afternoon snoozes, because I do. All I have to say to the boys is, let’s take a nap. They’re on the bed waiting for me. But on the flip side, if I walk into the laundry room, they’re waiting to get their leashes for a walk. Speaking of walking, we average 3.5 miles a day, we walk twice a day, every day. When it was warmer weather but not dreadfully hot, we were walking three times a day. I have been doing this daily since January of 2020. The only break I had was 3 weeks with my ankle surgery. My low average is 25 miles a week. 25 X 52 = 1300/year x 4 years is 5200 miles of walking. Why am I not thinner?

FB just reminded me that it was 4 years ago Dec 28th that I left Roatan to move back to the US. Four years and three states later, here I am.

Bill moved me here and went back to KY on Sept 10th. He came back here on Dec 9th with the idiot Highway. He has been working on the house. I bought all new blinds, a garbage disposal, new flooring for the master bedroom and bathroom, new quarter round for the floors with the new LVP, a new double sink vanity with 2 new black faucets, a new toilet and a new freestanding bathtub with a black freestanding faucet. So far the master bedroom and closet have new flooring. The guy I hired was referred by my neighbor. I am not a fan of his so far and if he doesn’t show up tomorrow, I will be much less of a fan. UGH.

The horribly dated jetted tub. It’s getting torn out along with the ugly tile. I don’t always keep my stool in there.

The vanity is so old, I got a nice dark wood one to replace this. The cabinet on the wall is already at Goodwill.

The flooring will match the LVP in the bedroom, the halls and the living room.

We also plan to redo the guest bath, and the floors in both extra bedrooms and the kitchen. The kitchen will be a huge redo.

The high overhang will go away as will the tile backsplash. I have a new sink and countertop picked out. I haven’t even looked for tile.

I also plan to paint the cupboards and possibly put down a tile floor. Trace is really good at laying tile and he wants to do a cool floor in here.

Dec. 21st was a hard day for me. It was a year that we put Gringo down. I’m not sure I’ll ever get over that. These two, I don’t know what I would do without them. I swear they don’t know they’re dogs. They’re looking out the bedroom window waiting for the dog next door to come out.

Barrio is a nervous guy. He carries these toys around for what seems like hours.

Max is just cool and handsome and really bossy.

I drug my Christmas tree downstairs and put it up before Thanksgiving. I honestly think it was the prettiest Christmas tree I’ve ever had. I took it down today (12/29).

I lost momentum. It sat like this for over a week., stool, tree skirt and boxes everywhere. You can see the lights are only partially on the tree too.

I found some tree decorations I kind of forgot about and stuck them in the tree. It was beautiful.

I’m really happy I hung on to the funky decoration things. I’m usually the kind of person who tosses stuff and then regrets my hasty actions.

This alcove above the fireplace has no function. Prior owners had their TV up here. (We’re going to move my TV up here and rearrange the living room). I might not like it. Eventually, the fireplace will get new tile too.

I bought a few sets of bottle brush trees at Target and did a little lighted forest up here.

I’m really surprised that Max shares the chair with Highway.

The fireplace was hooked up in September but I was too paranoid to turn it on. The morning after Bill and Highway arrived, Bill decided to turn it on **AT 4:30 A FREAKING M**. The fireplace has never been used and there was dust/dirt, shit on the logs. ALL THE SMOKE ALARMS WERE GOING OFF IN THE HOUSE, **AT 4:30AM**. The dogs were freaking out, the loud chirping kills their ears.

It actually took a few more times until we could turn it on without the alarms going off. Now it’s nice to have it because I usually keep the furnace off unless it drops below 40 degrees.

There are huge fields behind our house, surrounded by woods. I could never get out there because the gate was locked and I had no key. Bill cut the lock off one day so I walked the dogs out there. They were so happy, no leashes and deer shit to eat.

They love the woods and fields to run in. We wandered in the woods a little and then walked all around the edge of the field.

The next day Bill and Highway joined us for a walk. Just as we were headed back, a truck came down the path behind our fence and a guy got out. He looked like he was part of the Duck Dynasty. He was not happy that we were out there. He said we were chasing the deer away and he wouldn’t be able to kill one. He said he spends thousands of dollars to hunt back there, he feeds the deer and then hunts them. Isn’t that illegal? He claims the deer wouldn’t come around if they smelled dogs and people. I wanted to tell him that in KY the deer must be stupid because the dogs can chase the deer on a Tuesday morning and the deer are back that afternoon. He must have smarter deer. He asked us to stay out until Jan 1 when the season is over. I apologized and said no problem at all. Whatever….

Bill brought the pressure washer with him and we cleaned the siding that was mildew covered and the screened-in porch. Then Bill dug the pavers out of the garden (previously he cut all the boxwood back to the ground) and I pressure-washed the pavers. Then he placed them back as a border. We’re going to get landscape fabric, cover this mess up, and mulch over it. The boxwood will come back.

You can see a few pavers here, they were black with mildew.

I just had a little dirt on me. My glasses were covered too.

What a difference. I’m not going to plant here like I did in KY. I spent way too much money to then turn around and list the house. Here I just want to make it have Curb Appeal.

Bill just went to get pizza for dinner. Max hit me, it’s dinner time and I’m obviously not moving quickly enough towards the kitchen to feed him.

Happy New Year everyone!! XOXOXO

The ants from hell.

11/2/2023 to 11/12/2023 (That’s how long I’ve been trying to do this blog)

On Sunday and Monday, the last few days of October, I was outside in the backyard, catching some rays. I had 2 dog cots out there and my chaise, it was beautiful and sunny for two days. Then Tuesday was gloomy, ushering in much cooler weather. This morning it was a balmy 30 degrees when we started our walk. In the blink of an eye, the weather changed. I really don’t mind the cold weather, it feels good and I know Max loves it because he’s always in a fur coat. Luckily I have my dog hair-covered fleece leggings that are warm enough for cold winter walks.

The dogs and I have been hanging around the house most of the time. I usually walk them 3 times a day, morning, early afternoon, and after dinner. I try to wait until after 8 on weekdays so that most of the “going to work” traffic is gone. After dinner I wait until 6-ish, most people have gotten home and are inside. Then on the weekends, I try to walk before 8 AM, when people are still sleeping. I have met a few people walking their dogs, that’s the easiest way to meet people in a neighborhood. Several people comment on how well-behaved Max and Barrio are. They don’t know that they are secretly psychopaths, that Barrio does the loop around the house, crying, with a toy in his mouth for 30 minutes at a time, or that Max has to smell my breath every time I eat something. Max has food issues, Barrio has mental issues.

All day long. I pick up the toys and put them in the basket. He takes them out.

Thoroughly into his peanut butter and yogurt-filled Kong.

Right after we moved here my neighbor said I needed to get my yard treated for fire ants. I hadn’t seen any and didn’t bother to call anyone. Then we had torrential rain and the fire ants came out in full force. I found out just how much fire ants hurt, and how much they itch and then blister, by stepping into a nest in flip-flops. My fear was the dogs getting in them, especially Max with the tons of fur on his body. I called several places to come treat the yard and they were all booked out for a few weeks. Most charged $125 and said I would need to have it done a few times a year. I called several different exterminators. One guy came out and said he could do it that afternoon but it was $200; however, there is a year warranty. So if I see fire ants again within the year, they will come back and spray. That sold me. He came back that afternoon and treated the yard. The front yard didn’t have as many nests as the back so I was letting the dogs out front to go to the bathroom. I kept them in for a few hours after the yard was treated and he said to give it a good week to kill the ants. Ten days after he treated the yard I decided to let the dogs out back again, it’s fenced out there, and much easier to keep an eye on them. We were just coming in and Barrio was on the porch jumping around and licking at his feet. Damn, his back legs had fire ants all over them and they were crawling up his legs. I tried to get as many off as I could, then took him out front to the concrete and the hose. I laid him on the driveway and washed them off. I was picking ants and squishing them but they were still crawling on me and biting me. I took him back inside, stuck him in the tub, and filled it up. I shampooed him really well and rinsed him a few times. Once he was dry I gave him a Benadryl and canceled my dinner plans for the evening. I wanted to keep an eye on him. He was groggy but not scratching. I didn’t want to put anything on him because he would lick it off. He was fine the next day. I called the guy who sprayed and he said he could come on Tuesday. He re-did the whole yard. He was surprised there were so many new nests after he treated the yard. This time seems to have done it because I don’t see any ants in the nests. However, I see so many nests along the road when I walk the dogs, it’s crazy.

My neighbor Joyce told me about two groups I should join, one is a local FB group for our neighborhood and the other is called Next Door. That’s an app, once you download you enter your zip code and are in a chat group with people in your area. The first time on there I saw a woman post that she wanted to meet people and didn’t know how or where. She said if anyone was interested in hanging out to message her. Totally out of the norm, I responded. We messaged a few times, and then she came over to meet me and walk the dogs with me. She lives about 5 miles away. Since then we have gone shopping and we do Saturday night dinners, checking out the local restaurants. Margy and I went to Mezcalito twice, it’s really good and the atmosphere is not your typical Mexican restaurant.

On the other side of the plants is a large bar area.

These were chicken quesadillas with a side of fries.

Last night we went to Longhorn’s. It’s a meat restaurant and it smells like a cooked cow in there, but they serve several chicken dishes and other no-meat options.

These were called Firecracker Chicken Wraps. They were sooo good. There was an avocado lime dip for them.

My friend from PA (she lives thirty min. north of me) is coming down tomorrow and we are trying the new Thai restaurant. I’m excited, I love Thai food.

I have been sitting on the outdoor furniture couch I bought in KY because I left the leather couch in KY for Bill. Sitting on the outdoor furniture isn’t bad for a little bit but night after night, my butt was screaming. It was so uncomfortable.

I finally broke down and ordered a couch and oh my gosh, what a difference.

It’s so comfy, my butt is extremely happy.

One of the things I liked about this house was the fact that there were no houses behind my yard, it was just fields. I never gave much thought about the fields, until one day a week or so ago. I was in the yard on my chaise, the dogs had their cots out there and we were chilling in the sun. I kept hearing a noise but didn’t give it much thought until it got closer. Damn. They were cutting the fields and producing a huge haze of dust. I schlepped everything inside and got the boys in too, just in time. It was dust and tiny particles of the crop that had been previously planted everywhere.

I hope they are done cutting here for the year.

Now we can see the deer better and the dogs can bark at them.

I live in the flight path of Seymour Johnson Air Force base. It is home to the F-15E, strike eagle. Luckily, they consistently fly over the house and I am captivated every time they do.

The following is from the internet. The F-15E Strike Eagle is a dual-role fighter designed to perform air-to-air and air-to-ground missions. An array of avionics and electronics systems gives the F-15E the capability to fight at low altitude, day or night and in all weather.

The aircraft uses two crew members, a pilot and a weapon systems officer. Previous models of the F-15 are assigned air-to-air roles; the “E” model is a dual-role fighter. It has the capability to fight its way to a target over long ranges, destroy enemy ground positions and fight its way out.

To me, these planes scream FREEDOM. God bless our military.

Margy and I went downtown and checked out a few stores. They are revitalizing the downtown area.

Flowers and plants are two things I love.

My boys, sitting in front of the ratty nasty steps to the back porch. This house needs some serious love.

I was on the back porch reading, it was sunny but super windy. All of a sudden my neighbor’s pool flipped completely over. A few days later they turned it upright and set it where it was supposed to be but it doesn’t look very good. It may be usable, who knows.

This is a new painting Trace did, I got a print and framed it. He sees many goats when he is climbing, this one is amazing. It feels like he’s looking right at you.

I rarely take my phone when I walk the dogs but happened to have it this morning, the sky was beautiful.

I just got back from walk #2 and it’s damp and cold out with more rain predicted. I just made a chai latte and I’m going to plop my butt on my new comfy couch and read.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone and thanks for the push from Florida Maryanne. This would have still been in the editing process if you hadn’t messaged me.

Changing Zip Codes

09/16/2023 I’m really not sure where to start, but, here goes. Soon after Kathy left I decided I wanted to move away from Kentucky, mainly away from Burkesville. It’s a nice little, tiny little town, the people are nice, it’s pretty, and I loved our property (except I was terrified of copperheads and rattlesnakes getting the dogs). I like privacy, not having neighbors on top of me. I liked being able to walk the dogs in a swimskirt and a bra and not have to worry about anyone seeing me. However, I did not like the poor quality of health care, the choices for dining out, and the lousy horrible excuse for a grocery store that is IGA. Their prices were double that of other stores, the produce was miserable, only iceberg lettuce, red and green peppers were individually wrapped in cellophane bags, zucchini were wrapped two to a tray and they were usually $4+ for two. I was amazed that so many people did all of their shopping there. I buy a lot of produce, veggies and fruit and it was a 40 minute drive to get a decent variety of that. Lowe’s was almost an hour away, we had two local hardware stores and the prices were very high in both stores. I was tired of it. I was looking all over, N and S Carolina, Virginia, West Virginia, Florida. Real Estate prices were high and interest rates were insane. My friend from PA moved to Smithfield NC and she told me to look around there. She gave me a few other cities close by. I happened on the house (that I bought) on the day it was listed. It seemed pretty cheap for what it was. I chatted with the realtor, looked around at the area. The house was in the county but 10 minutes from everything that I wanted to be near. Most yards were 1/2 acre so nobody on top of the house and the backyard was fenced. We talked it over and decided to just buy it. No, we never saw the house and no, we’ve never been to Goldsboro, NC. Remember, we’re the people who bought 31 acres sight unseen in Kentucky, a state we never even set foot in prior to our move.

So, our offer was accepted and we signed the papers and now owned a house in North Carolina. My friend Rona, who lives nearby offered to drive down and meet the realtor and check out the house. She called me while she was there and confirmed my thoughts that it needed some love. At that point it was a done deal so we couldn’t back out if we wanted to.

The packing began. It’s kind of interesting that 2 years prior I was packing the house in AZ, getting ready for our trek to KY in Walt, the RV from hell.

We closed on the NC house around August 10th. I was in full packing mode from then on, with an anticipated date of August 26th to move. Two years to the day we left AZ. However, we ended up loading the Uhaul truck on the 26th and leaving on the 27th. We planned to transport Bill’s truck to NC on a Uhaul trailer but a few days before we were to leave we found out it didn’t fit on the trailer and we would have to tow it on a dolly. Not ideal, but it worked.

The guest bath became box central. The guy at our local liquor store was my hero. Most of my boxes came from there.

The guest bedroom became where we stored the stuff that was ready to go.

In the frantic state my life was in, I still had enough smarts to remember I had a $500 FLEX card to use or lose when I changed Medicare. So I bought 4 pairs of prescription sunnies from Zenni.

The room was growing. How did I have this much shit?

I’ll really miss this kitchen, it is my favorite. The big windows are the best!

The inside of the Uhaul that Bill said, don’t worry, there will be plenty of room left.

All the art went in the truck that was being towed.

The end of the night after we packed everything. We had 3 guys come help, the county coroner and his 2 foster soon-to-be adopted sons. Super nice people and we were so grateful for the help. Yes, I had a VODKA!!

I was messaging my long-time friend Cims while I was having my vodka. After that, I went in to take a shower.

Our KY shower is probably 5′ long and 3′ wide. It’s ridiculously huge. I forgot my soap so I stepped out of the shower to grab it from the sink. When I stepped back in my right foot went out from under me. The next thing I remember is Bill yelling, what the hell was that? I was on the floor of the shower, blood from my leg was all over the floor. (I hit my shin hard on the tile step you walk over to enter the shower.) Bill grabbed a pitcher that we use to rinse the shower and started washing the blood away. I thought, is this a crime scene? WTH is going on? Then he said, I don’t think it’s a good idea for you to sit there, can you get up? I got up, dried off, put antibiotic cream and a bandaid on my leg and I don’t remember anything else the rest of the night.

The really unexplainable thing is, I got up the next morning, got in my car with the 2 boys, and drove 15 & 1/2 hours to get to NC. It was supposed to be a 9-hour trip. We hit a major traffic jam that lasted almost 2 hours then when we got into the mountains of western NC we got hit with torrential rains. The road was twisty and up and downhill, tractor trailers everywhere, tunnels, you name it. I finally radioed Bill on the walkie-talkies and said, I can’t do this, we have to stop. I was white-knuckle terrified. During my drive to NC I finally remembered what happened when I fell in the shower. I’m sure I blacked out. It all came rushing back to me, along with the insanity of following the fall with a 15-hour drive.

The adrenaline kept me going for a good 10 days before I started to crash and burn. I was manic, I had 6-7 miles on my Fitbit every day. It’s still pretty much a blur.

The goonie on my chin has gone away but not before it was all kinds of colors. I had a hematoma on my neck, it was really sore. After I came down from the adrenalin rush, I was hurting. I went to an urgent care, and they put me on antibiotics because of my shin and gave me some mild muscle relaxers. They didn’t do much. I was still really hurting so I ended up taking Gringo’s Tramadol because I couldn’t get comfortable. I made an appointment with a chiropractor. The chiro cracked up when I told him I was taking my dogs meds, in fact, I went yesterday and he asked how many Tramadol I needed the previous night. I said none…

So, yeah. It was a trip. We rolled in here at 11:30. I let the dogs out back to pee and grabbed 2 moving blankets and a pillow and laid down on the floor and slept. Bill got a chaise lounge out of the truck to sleep on.

He stayed here 2 weeks hooking up the washer and dryer, the stove that we brought and the reverse osmosis filter for the water. I did something else super smart. I had a cart full at Amazon, the day after we got here, I changed my address on Amazon and hit enter. I ordered all of the stuff. However, I didn’t notice that it defaulted to my KY address. Amazon helped me fix most of what they could. I had changed my address and we hoped packages would be forwarded. In KY, Amazon comes via USPS. After 10 days of the lost packages not moving on Amazon tracking, I called Amazon again. I told them it was my fault but could they help me at all? I thought they may have more sophisticated tracking than I did. Amazon reordered everything that was lost at no cost to me. I was blown away. So, now I have everything and I’m done shopping.

While Bill was here we ate out a LOT. Having a variety of food choices was a big move factor, as were good grocery stores. We have all of that here.

I’m going to wrap this up with a few photos, typing is killing my shoulder.

Bill brought the pressure washer and he bought a round scrubbing attachment for it. He cleaned the garage and drive, I did the sidewalk. It made a huge difference.

The stove was a bear. We had to have gas lines run as there were none.

We had a bad storm the other night. This is the backyard.

The yard is over a half acre. We actually looked for a riding mower to buy for me to mow and then decided to pay someone to do it every other week.

WalMart has a store 8 minutes away that is just groceries, it’s so stinking convenient. Another few minutes and I’m at Harris Teeter and Sam’s club. Heaven…

It rained so hard it washed the drain on the walk.

I’m pretty well organized now. Little Miss ADD and OCD

This kitchen needs a serious update. It pales in comparison to the one in KY.

And that’s it folks. Remember, changing zip codes is not for the faint of heart. It takes quite a bit of insanity thrown in there too.

Smalltown USA

07/12/2023 Holy Hannah. I suck at blogging. I apologize but I really don’t mean it because I had to force myself to write this. It’s now July 25th and I still haven’t finished this. It’s not because I’m busy, unless you consider spending a few hours under the pool umbrella reading, floating on a raft, sharing fruit with the boys and taking a nap busy. Then I’m so dang busy!!

Living here turns you into a rutabaga. I am not sure, but I probably don’t like rutabaga. This is a very quiet town, for people in Williamsport, this is Nisbet small, Everson friends, Burkesville makes Nooksack look like a metropolis. There is not much to do here at all, aside from the lake. Lake Cumberland was just designated as the number one lake in the whole USA. Dale Hollow Lake is in the top 10 of the cleanest, clearest lakes in the US. It’s a fishing and boating mecca. If you don’t do either, it’s dullsville in Cumberland County. During the summer this tiny burb is over-run with campers and boats, they’re everywhere. It’s a big money business 4 months out of the year.

Bill’s sister Kathy was just here for a visit. She flew from Harrisburg to Nashville, where Bill picked her up. We’re a two-hour jaunt from Nashville. We had some great weather when she arrived but then it got rainy and gray. Not pool weather at all.

We mostly hung out here, in the pool when the weather was hot or in the sunroom. Sitting in the sunroom is my favorite place to be, if it’s not as hot as an oven in there. It’s great because you have a 360-degree view of the property. I do have a problem with hummingbirds flying in the sunroom if I let the door open. I have so many hummers this year. They are all tiny Ruby Throats and they love the Monarda that I planted for them. I watch them go from the plants by the pool, over the fence to the Verbena and Monarda along the driveway, and back over the fence to their feeder. They’re active little things.

Today I went to close the sunroom and there was a Black Swallowtail butterfly in there, trying like crazy to get out. It was on a screen when I noticed it. I tried several times to get it on the fly swatter so I could let it out but it was stressed and panicking. Finally, I got both windows closed and it got on the fly swatter and I took it out and released it. I would have felt terrible had it gotten injured while stuck in there.

Not my photo, I grabbed this from the web.

My flowers are doing great, my lettuce is gone but I planted more seeds, they are coming up quite nicely.

This is the new bed (soon after I planted it) at the end of the garage.

We went to Mikes Landing Restaurant, on Dale Hollow Lake for lunch one day. It was packed. Cool place right on the water.

Max, my pool dog. This guy loves the water.

Looks like Bill is supervising Kathy. Kathy is the ONLY person Barrio has liked. He laid by her, let her pet him and he followed her around.

My fav meal, chicken, potatoes, onions, peppers, pineapple in a vinaigrette, basil and rosemary marinade.

Kathy brought this to me. I love it, it hangs in the kitchen window.

We couldn’t figure out what this poop was until the neighbor saw it. He said it was from a raccoon.

Kathy made this for us. Quilting amazes me, I just don’t have the patience or concentration level to do something like this. I love it, it will be great in the winter while watching TV.

Parsley, I have so much. Soon the caterpillars will arrive and they’ll eat what is left. I dried enough to hold me over for a year.

I harvested 6+ cups of fresh basil. I made pesto and froze it in small quantities. It is delicious pesto, good parmesan cheese and pine nuts make a huge difference. I still have a lot left.

This is slime mold and it’s growing in my garden in the mulch. It looks like scrambled eggs. It’s not poisonous and will eventually go away or if you rake it and aerate it, it will dry up.

Our neighbor Mike asked if he could cut through our property onto his so he could drag this camper up on the hill. He has 80 acres that adjoins ours. We said absolutely he could cut through our field. He had a friend tractor it over here.

Max was over it. I could only bring Max and Barrio out. Highway was too insane and wouldn’t listen.

Getting it from our field to his was interesting. I thought it was going to rip the tail off the camper but it didn’t.

I am reading this now and it’s quite good. My bookmarker is a photo of one of my best high school friends, Lee Cohen. He and Steve Cimini and I were quite the trio. Lee passed away a few years ago and his sweet wife Susan made me this bookmarker with Lee and their dog Rose E on it.

Recently I’ve read: We Were the Lucky Ones, Before We Were Yours, Daughters of Sparta, The Scent Keeper, Where They Lie, Layla, The Wife Between Us, The Widow, Verity and Twenty Years. All pretty good books. See, I have been busy.

Also, I watched The Bear on Hulu. I really really liked it and I hope there is a season 3.

My friend Marcia (she used to live on Roa too) messaged me the other day and asked about our friend Yvonne. I didn’t know what she was talking about but saw I had a message from Yvonne too. I clicked on that message and it was an obituary. Her husband Ron had sent it to me. Yvonne had passed away. I was shocked. I was messaging her on Friday and she passed on Sunday. Yvonne and Ron lived about 5 min. from our place on Roatan. I’m so sad, Yvonne was a lot of fun and a good friend. I met her on Christmas Eve in 2013 at Stef and Jurgen’s party. We have been friends since then. You just never know. Rest in Peace Yvonne.

Monarda or Bee Balm. It’s covered with bees, butterflies and Hummingbirds. I have 7 of them, 2 short varieties and 5 tall ones.

No words. This dog. Bill was in the living room and he said Deb. Highway was in the bedroom with me and he went nutz. It was like Bill said there is a wild rhino in the house. No self-control at all.

My coleus. I love the vibrant colors and the variety of leaves.

The flowers by the garage, they are growing really well.

You know what? I’m ending this abruptly or else it will be 3 more weeks until I get this posted.

Enjoy the rest of your summer, fall will be here soon.

It’s been a minute

05/20/2023 If you’re wondering where I’ve been, I’ve been in the garden. In and out, crawling around in the mud and the mulch on my hands and knees, like a freaking 11-month-old. I wasn’t drooling (that I’m aware of) but the sweat was running in my eyes and dripping off my face. I am unable to squat down (knees) so my choices are bending over (not pretty), sitting on the ground and butt hopping along or crawling. I’ve done all 3. They are a very embarrassing look.

Previously this was all dirt and weeds, no blocks. I hated it.

We bought 100 blocks and made a low wall. Added topsoil and compost and landscape fabric.

Then I planted 30 plants all by myself. It was hard work for an old lady. When I finished, I showered and went to bed at 6:30 and read.

Then Bill ran drip irrigation, I still have an Azalea to plant in front of the electrical panel.

Last year we got a late start on the garden, sticking things in the ground haphazardly and hoping they would survive the winter. It was a mild winter, only really cold for a week here and there.

I’ve never been the type of gardener to have a system and plan where I am planting each plant. Not me. I stick things in the ground with little to no rhyme or reason. It just is what it is. Some of the things we bought last summer at a garden place in Glasgow did not do well. I’m not sure why as they were all perennials. We ended up digging them up and replacing them with other (many other) varieties.

Sometime last Nov. we planted about 30 bulbs and then we had really warm temps and they bloomed earlier than they should have. Again, It was a total surprise what came up, I had no idea what I planted.

And then we had a late frost and I had to cover things up, and still lost both my basil plants, which I obviously planted too early. I don’t learn.

I grew the onions from the spring onions I bought at the grocery store. They’re huge.

My Cilantro is bigger than it’s ever been, I wish I could preserve it.

I have planted enough lettuce for everyone who lives on Leslie Rd. I have had a salad every night for 3 weeks or more. I have 4 different kinds of lettuce and some spinach. I am in heaven with a salad from the garden.

I use my salad spinner several times a week. I bought this thing in 2010, it’s moved from WA to Roatan to AZ to KY. Still works perfectly. AS soon as the boys hear me get it out they come running. They love the lower part of the lettuce leaf that is crunchy. They are SOOO weird.

I have Red Seeded Simpson, Butter Crunch, Romaine and some variety garden mix, and Spinach.

So far this year I have purchased and planted over 120 flowers and 30+salad fixings.

I said, once the Azalea is planted, I’m done. But, I also said, I want to start some lettuce from seed to have later in the summer. When I was fertilizing tonight I noticed a few spots that could use another plant. I’m really going to try to not buy more. Seriously.

We got 2 huge loads of mulch in the trailer and still had to buy 10 more bags. The bags were much easier to spread than Bill shoveling it off the trailer. That is done, as of today, the Azalea is planted too.

I finally made it to Sunny Day nursery. It’s an hour away, in a different time zone, which is weird. I believe the people are Amish, really sweet people and they have an amazing place. On the first visit I wandered for almost an hour before I got a wagon to carry the plants as I shopped.

The fern house. It was so cool in there.

I believe this is called a polka dot plant..

Trandescantia, Bleeding Heart and Coleus.

Coleus, Dahlia, Hydrangea, Lupine, Phlox, Gaillardia and a sedum.

I fell in love with this plant heaven and was back 7 days later for MORE.

The whole time I’m plant shopping, the fact that all these plants means a lot of work, never crosses my mind. It doesn’t hit until the next day when they need something, water.

Nasty. We cut the silver ground cloth off also.

Where the pool sits in the yard was ugly. There was dirt around the bottom, weeds and it just looked nasty. I suggested we use rubber mulch. Bill looked into it and thought it was a good idea. I found some heavy plastic border to hold the little tire nuggets in place. We finished that this morning, it was a sweaty one.

The umbrella came for pool deck so I put the rug out there and the chaises. It will be nice to have shade but we have to really watch the wind, the umbrella could literally fly away.

Nights are just gorgeous on the pool deck. We need to come up with a routine to watch Max. He went swimming after dinner, 6th or 7th time today. He has super thick hair. I dried him the best I could but he’s still damp. He sleeps with me.

Bill woke me at 4:30 AM Saturday morning, saying, I think Highway is dying. This is the second time he has woken me in 14 months saying the same thing. I got up immediately and went to the living room. Highway was NOT good. His eyes were glassy and he was struggling to breathe. We have a nice vet very close but he has no diagnostic stuff. We called the Glasgow vet (45 min away). They’re closed on Sat. and had no one available to see us. So Bill threw him in the car and drove 2.5 hours (one way) to Louisville to the $$$ vet.

They did xrays and said there is something in his lungs, bronchitis, pneumonia (which he had a year ago) or cancer. Without a several thousand dollar biopsy, we don’t know. They put him on heavy antibiotics and prednisone. The bad thing is: he’s been on one kind of antibiotic or another for over one year. Does his body even respond?? He is better, breathing ok but he hacks hard, nothing comes out, and he is doing the reverse sneeze again. We’re going to wait and see how he responds to the meds to determine our course of action. Highway is 10.5 years old.

Dogs sure aren’t cheap. It’s a good thing we love them.

My friend and I went to Tennesee a few weeks ago. I needed a Sam’s cheese and chicken breast run. They had no chicken breast. When I got home I ordered 8 bags of frozen chicken, 4 breasts and 4 tenderloins from Costco. Don’t ask why so much because I don’t know. Then Highway had to go to Louisville, where Costco is. While Highway was at the vet, they don’t let you go in for the exam and xrays, Bill ran to Costco. It’s a drive to get there so we stocked up on dog food, VODKA and Bourbon.

This will last a very long time @ 4-5 drinks a week.

This was in the top of a pineapple I got at Sam’s.

We got lights for the sunroom. It’s so nice out there now.

I saw these advertised online and got some to try. Oh my…watermelon, grape, coconut, pineapple, lime, mango. These are so good.

They are my new addiction, no sugar added. Mango is my favorite.

Years ago Bill had a Schwinn bicycle shop. Schwinn started making exercise equipment, like the Air Dyne and the Bow Flex. We had both. I loved the bow flex but sold it when we left WA.

I decided I wanted one and found one on a FB group I admin on. I called the girl and promised her I would buy it but we couldn’t come until Monday. She said, no problem.

We got it home and inside, quickly realizing it takes up a lot of room. It’s now in the bedroom in a really terrible spot but there is nowhere else.

I got this April 17 and have religiously used it every day for 30 minutes. I play some music and exercise under the watchful eye of all three dogs. I’m not sure if they’re mocking me or not.

I’m also trying to walk at least 4 miles every day, some days I hit 5 miles. We walk the boys in the morning then I walk Barrio and Max after dinner. They’re easy, they listen and stay right with me. Tonight we were walking down the driveway to go up on the hill and I saw a stick in the driveway, only it wasn’t a stick. I screamed, I’m sure they heard me down the road.

At first Google lens told us ***what type of stones we had in the driveway***. My snake lover friend Andee said it was a rat snake.

With this photo Google finally agreed with Andee.

Max and Barrio were not interested in him at all.

Bill’s sister sent us this jug. It was their grandfather’s. Cool old jug. Very appropriate for Kentuckians.

Maybe Bill should store this moonshine in there. A friend gave it to Bill, he was told it’s rotgut nasty stuff just the Popcorn guy is famous.

I’ll end here with photos I took this morning. Bill keeps it well mowed where we walk the dogs every morning. It’s park-like, especially with the fragrant Japanese Honeysuckle. It smells fabulous.

Barrio and Max. Best friends, worst enemies.

Supposedly the bandanas are tick-repellant. They wear Seresto collars too. Ticks are bad news.

Bill just mowed this again today. I like walking the boys out there after dinner. They love going up in the fields and checking out all the smells. Did you know it’s very important for dogs to sniff? The mental stimulation is so strong that some say it’s similar to physical exercise. I let them sniff.

I could spend hours up here. So much to see. I play music when I walk them over here, It’s our little chill time.

We are getting company tomorrow. I was in the kitchen baking. These two “obsessed with me” dogs sat here like this for the whole time. They are ridiculous.

The sunroom, I live out there. See the towels on the boys cots? They like them there because after swimming they come up on the porch and face plant on the towels and dry their noses off.

I have an umbrella for the deck but it’s too windy to put it up. Bill is making a wooden thing we’ll slip over the umbrella pole and it will attach to the railing. No more flying umbrellas.

The tall thing is my out of control Cilantro.

I have flowers growing in there but I don’t know what kind. I did peat pots but…whatever. It’s green. I still have a lot of seeds left so I am replanting into the beds.

And that’s it, I’m outta here.

Happy Memorial Day. XOXO

The Perv’ of Burkesville

03/25/2023 Another month is gone. This was a fun March for Bill and I. We were looking forward to Trace and Jackies’ visit all of February. We spent the week before they arrived working to get things looking nice.

The guest room turned out nice, I like the color. Trace thinks it’s too dark.

I baked way too much and subsequently ate way too much. I went overboard on the fruit too, but that’s OK, I eat a lot of fruit and so do Barrio and Max. It didn’t go to waste.

We had typical March weather, cool and cloudy. The day after they arrived we went to Mike’s Landing on Dale Hollow Lake. I had not been there before but Bill and Jerry rode their motorcycles there last September. This time of year, the restaurant was closed and there wasn’t very much activity. It would be great fun to rent a pontoon boat, or even have a houseboat. I really want to kayak there too, the lake gets warm enough and is one of the clearest lakes in the US.

This is a big floating house. If we rented one I would need to take the dogs, but dogs are not allowed, so we won’t be renting one.

On Saturday we went to Creelsboro Arch. I had no clue what to expect as I didn’t bother to check it out prior to going. I was along for the ride.

This is called the Rock House @ Creelsboro Arch. It’s a 300 million-year-old natural limestone arch. The story says there is an Indian burial ground atop the arch. I was mildly interested in coming back and climbing up to the top. Only 2 things stopped me: SNAKES and SNAKES. The water on the far side of the arch is the Cumberland River.

We were chatting with some young kids who were smashing rocks. Some of them had crystals in them. We managed to find a few.

Only a few small crystals. There is a place in Marrowbone, (told you we lived in the boonies) a few miles from here, that sells geodes.

After there we went back the way we came so we could stop at Campbell’s Country Store. They had the most variety I have ever seen of flavored sodas. They were $2.00 a bottle. I’m not a soda fan at all but this was quite impressive. And the candy, that I could have done some damage on.

If they didn’t have it, it doesn’t exist.

This old nail/screw bin still rotated. Very cool.

And I was falling in love with the entrance. The building was built in 1876. There was a stack of old *Life* magazines by the bench at the front door.

They had a restaurant in the other half of the building. Pretty cool place.

Sunday was a rainy dreary do-nothing day and that’s pretty much what we all did. There’s not a whole lot to do around this area when it’s cool and rainy. I read, never was much into TV.

Jackie had a 7AM flight out of Nashville on Monday so she was up and ready to go at 3:30AM. Bill and I got up to say goodbye to her and then I couldn’t go back to sleep worrying about her driving at that hour and the crappy weather. It wasn’t a big deal to her though, and she made it to the airport with time to spare. We were sorry to see her go but so happy she took time out of her busy life to come and meet us. I told Trace that she’s a keeper. We look forward to seeing her again and we would love to meet her boys, Jacob and Julian. They are 9 & 12.

The rest of the next two weeks are kind of a blur. Bill was working on building garden boxes for me and Trace was painting the lizards, fixing the sign,

I bought this at an antique store and the price sticker was on the front and left a mark. Trace repainted it so the mark is gone.

and painting my mermaid light. Bill’s sister Kathy bought me the mermaid light. It was all creamy white colored. Trace painted it and it looks great.

The lizards we bought at Conchita’s in Loreto, BCS and carried them home on the plane. They moved to Roatan with us but the climate in Roatan ruins pretty much everything metal and leather. Bill moved the lizards back to AZ but they stayed in the crate. After all of this traveling, they came to KY with us too. Knowing that Trace was coming, Bill pulled them out and sanded them, and primed them so they were ready for Trace’s artistic magic.

They turned out great, there are 2 of them.

Up close, now I need to decide where to hang them.

Bill bought lumber to build flower/veggie boxes for me. Trace helped him finish them. There is still one more to build.

I have been asking Trace for a few more paintings, specifically the girl with the sea creatures. He brought her down and also the one with the snakes. I still need one more to balance the wall. We are going to get these framed.

This has been a favorite of mine for years. He was working on this in 2013.

I need one more under Edward Scissorhands. All the artwork is by Trace.

Highway, AKA, the Perv’ of Burkesville or brother humper, was thrilled to see Trace. When I moved back to WA. (from Roatan) with Highway, Trace walked Highway daily after Dooce broke my ankle. Highway for sure remembered Trace, Max was fine with Jackie and Trace also but Barrio was still very timid and nervous.

Highway has many issues but the one that irks me the most is, he will NOT stop humping Barrio. It drives me bonkers and I’m sure Barrio isn’t really into it either. I mean, who would be?? I know it’s a domineering thing but come on, it’s getting old.

I love the way Max is looking at Trace. Don’t mind the different paint colors on the wall, I bought samples and hated them all.

Highway is such a pain in the butt. When anyone comes up the driveway he starts with this high-pitched whine that sounds like a 9-year-old girl screaming. Horrible.

My bulbs were up and partially opened when we got a hard frost, it was 15 degrees.

I covered them with what I could find. I’m surprised any of them flowered.

Now that it’s not super frigid the rest of the bulbs are peeking out of the soil.

Coming out of the upper field where we walk the dogs.

Max and Barrio. Man, I miss Gringo so so much.

We’re getting the pool ready, not sure why Bill decided to do it when it’s still cold, but he did. Yesterday Max wanted to go swimming. Bill tried to set the steps in but they were floating. They have to fill up with water, then we have to use weights under them to keep them down. Max almost used the floating steps and went it, Gringo would have been in immediately. That dog loved to swim. I still can’t believe my boy is gone.

These three love this spot, they can see all over the front fields and the driveway. It’s a good thing and a bad thing. Highway likes to bark.

We are expecting high winds tonight, then the weather is going to change and be summer-like again. I’m ready for that. Tomorrow morning I’m starting my seeds in the plugs that I bought. I hope by the time they are ready to plant that we have soil in the boxes.

I’ve never used these before. Fingers crossed.

Topsoil, that’s something else on the to-do list. It just keeps getting longer.

Wishing everyone a spring-like April, I, for one, am ready.

Meet me in the sunroom.

02/16/2023 I started this blog on Thursday, it was a dark dreary day. It started raining this morning when we were walking the dogs and it started raining again a little while ago when I tried to take them for another walk. The weather said potential heavy storms with a tornado watch. Lovely. It was 72 degrees yesterday with just a hint of sun every so often. At least it’s not super cold.

Bill started painting the inside of the house. Notice I didn’t say we started painting. The back entrance and the hallway are finished.

This is the back entrance into the house, and the mudroom is behind on the right. Barrio lurking as always.

Bill painted the mudroom teal and is working on the small half bath. In there we are doing beadboard on the bottom of the wall, it will be painted the same teal that we used in the mudroom. Bill hung peel-and-stick wallpaper on the top half of the wall. Once he got it papered, I decided I hated the mirror that was in there. Bill is trying to get the beadboard flat. It was so warped when we got it home, it can’t be hung like that. Hopefully, it will flatten so it can be painted and put up.

This is the mirror that was in the half bath. We painted the blue on it because it was brownish metal. I hate it.

While waiting for the beadboard to get flat he started painting the guest bedroom. It’s kind of a light denim blue, maybe we’ll do the guest bath too.

It’s not this dark, I just took the pic and it’s nighttime.

I was in Tennessee again on Wednesday. I was in search of a mirror and a few other things. I found the mirror at Home Goods.

I put my blinders on in there because, OMG, HomeGoods has some amazing things but the prices are ridiculous. My friend Debbie and I decided to eat at the same Thai restaurant we ate at the last time. It’s so good.

From there we went to a huge antique store and then headed to HomeGoods. Google maps took us back to Kentucky in a completely different way. It was a tiny bit shorter and we ended up in Celina, Tennesee. I was exhausted when I got home. I took the dogs for a walk and collapsed when we came back in. Shopping is hard.

The boys are doing well, Bill and I still miss Gringo, a lot. It’s not getting any easier, he was such a cool dude. Highway is still having issues with his chronic rhinitis, it’s so gross when he sneezes. We need to invent a shield for in front of his face. UGH.

Snot nose, snuffleupagus, it’s gross. I have a new area rug but I hesitate to put it down with Highway’s sinus erupting sporadically.

I think I spend more time on this driveway than I do anywhere else. Ever.

We finally got the indoor outdoor rug for the sunroom. What a huge difference that makes out there; we now would like to do the whole front porch. The furniture I ordered for the sunroom came, Bill is not enjoying putting it together. The reviews said it was very tedious. They were right.

Once Bill got the furniture put together I was so anxious to get a colorful rug for there. I ordered one on Amazon on Friday afternoon and it came the next day. It’s not the final rug, in fact, it will more than likely end up on the pool deck when I find something I really want for the sunroom.

Bill stuffed the foam into the covers and then I manipulated it so the seams were straight.

I really like it and the cushions are nice and comfy.

The rug makes it look nicer. There are 2 chairs, a couch and a table that can be used for storage.

My friend on the island, Yvonne, sends me stuff that she thinks will interest me. She just sent this photo.

Michael Douglas and Catherine Zeta-Jones with our friend, Sterling Lucas. They have property on Roatan and Sterling must be helping them with something.

Bill and I walked the dogs up the sidehill a few weeks ago. We don’t go up there often because that’s where I had the boys when Max disappeared for 2 hours. On the way up there, I found this;

These are called Devil’s Urn, a type of fungi. They’re not poisonous and there are mixed reports on whether they are edible or not. I did not have the desire to try them.

The amount of land we have seems unbelievable. We owned 28 acres in Everson, WA and it didn’t seem like this much property.

The road on the right is our property line, our driveway begins right after the big red box. We own everything inside the white line except the red box and the 2 areas that have the red X. Below the bottom red X is a hill that is 4.67 acres, we would like to sell this, we’ll never use it. At the top of the photo, you can see where Bill has cut paths to walk the dogs. We try to keep them out of the weeds and tall grass because ticks and snakes live there. Our house is at the yellow pin and the shop is on the left of the driveway. This photo was taken before we got grass growing, put up a fence, 2 decks and a pool. This was raw land on Sept 1, 2021, there wasn’t even a road. It’s been a lot of work but Bill likes doing that stuff and I help when I can (or he makes me).

We are getting ready for company and we are so excited! Trace and his girlfriend Jackie are coming to visit. We can’t wait to see Trace and are extremely excited to meet Jackie. She’s a climber also, and pretty much a badass, a perfect match for Trace. They arrive on the 9th, hence the mini house reno going on.

It’s getting close to dinner time for the dogs, Max will be in here hitting me soon if I don’t have their bowls filled by 5. He’s quite demanding.

It’s going to be 77 degrees here on Tuesday, welcome spring!! Hope it’s warming up in your part of the world.

The darkest day of the year.

01/10/2023 Oh 2022, what a year you were. I certainly do not want another year like last year. It did us both in with a variety of curveballs we didn’t expect. We managed to get through them, but it wasn’t easy or fun.

Walt, the miserable wretched RV from hell.

01/04/2023 One year ago we were existing in Walt, the RV that nightmares are made of. I honestly don’t know how I did that from September 1 to Feb 17th. At first, it was fun, but after 2 weeks, it was hell on earth. I know, I know, I should be grateful to have a roof over my head, and I was. For a few days. It was really hard with 4 good-sized dogs and the never-ending mud. The dogs were so good and just rolled with whatever was happening. It still was a very long 5 months.

We’re pretty well situated here right now. The weather is changing, below freezing, then 60 degrees. We’ve had some rain and that brings mud, but nothing like last year at all.

We are still walking the dogs every morning. Often Bill wants to wait until it warms up and they have a really hard time being patient. Personally, I would rather get up, get dressed and walk them, then come home and have a cup of tea and breakfast. Not Bill.

I was excited to get ready for Christmas. I had to order a new fake tree because when we left Az, I donated my tree to this guy who helps people who don’t have trees. I gave him all my ornaments too. (I had just bought them for Christmas 2021.) I think I was mentally hoping for a real tree once we got in the house. Needless to say, we didn’t get in the house for Christmas 2021 and we didn’t have a tree while we were in Walt. I was quite optimistic (overly) because I ordered 2 sets of mercury glass ornaments for a tree we never got.

There were no live trees being sold in our “town” this past year so I ordered another fake one from Amazon. We put it up and I decided it was too small so we returned it and I got a larger one that was partially flocked.

This is before we added a ton more lights.

I dug my decorations out of the containers they were stored in (since we left Washington in 2013). It was like Christmas for me, I honestly forgot what I had.

I got my crafty on and made some paper bag snowflakes. They were actually fun and not hard to do at all. I hung them in the 4 dining room windows and then we added lights and garland. It looked really nice, especially at night.

The hardest part was cutting through 7 thicknesses of lunch bags.

No pre-planned design, just cut as you go.

I hung them with clear elastic thread, not the best but it’s all I had.

Bill and I have not purchased gifts for each other for several years. This year he decided to buy me gifts. On a day he wasn’t home, my first gift was delivered. It was not in another box like it was supposed to be. I knew right away that I was getting a new Canon photo printer. YAY! Except now I had to buy him gifts. Bill is really hard to buy for because if he wants something, he buys it. I must have been complaining about what to buy him because he sent me a message with Amazon links in it for what he wanted. I bought him everything on the list except underwear because it wasn’t Amazon Prime and I am not paying for shipping. I did buy him a few other things that I thought of on my own.

I baked way too much over the holidays. I made almond biscotti dipped in chocolate and sprinkled with crushed candy canes, molasses cookies, ginger cookies and coconut macaroons. I ate a good portion of everything, it was ridiculous. I made a nice container for the UPS guy and for our neighbor who lives alone. We still had too much.

Christmas was hard. We had to put Gringo down on Dec. 21, the darkest (literally and figuratively) day of the year. Horrible horrible thing to have to do but we decided to do it out of love for Gringo. We both wanted him to be pain-free and that was the only solution. I can’t write anymore about him, it’s still too soon. Our hearts are broken.

We did get an inch or 2 of snow, the dogs were happy playing in it. It was so cold out (below zero) that the ground was frozen and we had no mud, for a change. The temps were crazy cold and with the wind, it was downright bitter, but it didn’t last too long. Pretty soon the temperature was 60 degrees and sunny. I’ve been told that February is the month for winter weather around here. Last year was a blur so I don’t really remember.

Such a pretty view from where we walk the dogs.

I’m currently on the hunt for a new pair of boots. I wear my ugly muck boots daily but I wanted a pair of boots to wear when I go places. Just typing that sounds ridiculous because I rarely go anywhere. Anyhow, through Amazon you can do try before you buy if you’re a Prime member. With try before you buy you can get 6 pairs of boots or bras, tops, swimsuits, whatever, sent to you, keep what you like and return what you don’t want. If you return within 7 days you don’t get charged. Well, I got my first shipment of 6 pairs of boots and didn’t like any so I returned them and ordered 6 more pairs. I liked a pair of Ecco but not enough to spend close to $200 on them. I returned them all. I ordered a pair of boots from Born and I could hardly get them on. I wear an 8, I swear they were a 6.5. Ridiculous, I returned them. Then I ordered 3 pairs from Zappos. The first pair are Cole Haan and they’re really nice but I can feel the stitching inside the boot when I’m wearing them. That’s a no. I’m currently awaiting on UPS for the other 2 pairs. If I don’t like any of them I might as well wait until next fall. This is what buying boots when you live in podunk Burkesville is like. Frustrated.

Update: UPS brought the other 2 pairs of boots today. They both hurt my foot. The left boot is fine, unfortunately, I still have the R foot to deal with. I’ve had 2 surgeries on that foot and it’s been in flip-flops since 2013. It feels very foreign to wear a closed shoe other than my Skecher slip-ons, which are stretchy. I feel doomed. I’d like to keep these boots but I’m afraid to. What if they don’t stretch out and I’m stuck with boots I can’t wear?

Second update: All 3 pairs are being returned to Zappos and I ordered 3 more pairs. The saga continues.

Bill baked some focaccia bread and I made an olive tapenade for it. I can eat that as a meal, it’s that good.

Totally forgot to put rosemary on the bread before we baked it.

This is another Christmas gift Bill got for me. It fits nicely over the tub and holds all kinds of things, especially a wine glass.

With the crazy warm temps my tulip, daffodil, iris and hyacinth bulbs are sprouting through the soil. I hope they’ll survive if we get another cold snap. I’m really looking forward to planting more this year, we got such a late start last summer.

And that’s a wrap. I have nothing of interest to tell you. We (as in Bill) will start painting the inside of the house, soon as I pick out the colors. I hate doing that because colors are never really what they seem. If I choose a paint color and he paints and I hate it, too bad so sad for me.

Thanks for reading.

RIP my sweet boy. 4-15-2015 to 12-21-2022