Journal: Country Living at Its Best. And Worst.

Last Monday after only a couple of hours of working in the yard, I threw out the second pair of gardening gloves in less than a month after wearing holes in the fingers.  At this rate, I’ll be all out of gloves before the summer is half over!

A whole flock of unknown plants have sprouted in the garden on the west side of the house.  I think they’re weeds; but I’m doing the biblical thing and letting the tares grow up with the wheat, until I can tell what they are. 

I have sometimes let skunk cabbage grow for a while, thinking it was a hosta plant.  But it isn’t long before I can smell it.  😝  There’s a reason why it has that name. 

The scientific name is Symplocarpus foetidus.  Some people call it ‘polecat weed’. 

It has a really nifty ‘flower’, though:

Just don’t get your nose too close.

That evening after supper, Larry went out to put away the weed-eater he’d been using – and let in a hummingbird moth. 

I tried to catch it; but those things are fast, and quite adept at dodging.  It was bonking into the kitchen lights and into the window next to the outside porch light.  I turned off the kitchen light, the better to catch it in the window, but it disappeared. 

Then I spotted it, over on the wall next to the stairs door, where it had landed on a decorative plate that hangs on the wall there.  I grabbed a towel with which to capture it. 

I prefer capturing and releasing hummingbird or Sphinx moths, as they are ‘good’ insects, wanting nothing more than nectar, and thus doing a bang-up job of pollination.

I removed my reading glasses, since they make things across the room look blurry, replaced them with the regular ones – and realized that what I had thought was a hummingbird moth perched on the plate was actually a monarch butterfly painted on the plate.  🤪  🤣

Before long, the moth emerged from its hiding place and went back to its rapid, evasive flight patterns around the room.  After it sizzled through my hair a couple of times, I decided That’s enough of that, and went for the flyswatter.  I’d give him a tap or two, stunning him, and then grab and release him outside.  I swatted him three times – yet he flew strongly on.  He then hid, and I didn’t see him for two days.

Larry, meanwhile, was having troubles of his own.  He was attempting to go take a bath – but Tiger was dogging his every step.  (I wonder why we don’t say ‘catting’ his every move?)  Rather than blocking the cat when this happens, or gently pushing him back out into the hallway, Larry tries to fake him out by first rushing one way, then about-facing and dashing the other.  Tiger, knowing the drill, rush-waddles and dash-blunders right after him, tail straight up in the air, except for that happy little crook at the end.  He catches up, cuts in front, rubs lovingly around Larry’s ankles, and purrs.  Larry, milquetoast that he is, stops and picks up the big bruiser, petting and cuddling him.  Tiger used to be scared to death if anyone picked him up.  It was easy to tell he’d been thrown, the way he stiffened, braced, and stuck all four legs out, the better to catch himself.  (He was too nice a kitty to ever claw us, even in fear.)  But he learned long ago that we would never toss or throw him, and he loves Larry to pieces.

Larry was finally able to escape into the bathroom when I distracted Tiger by rattling the food in his bowl.

Pulling weeds isn’t my favorite thing to do; but I do like the end result.  Tuesday, I watered the lawn for the first time this year.  One of these days, I hope we can get underground sprinklers put in.  I strung soaker hoses through two of the flower gardens that are more difficult to water with sprinklers, and then I needed to attach a long garden hose to the soaker hose.  Larry can tote, pull, and position long garden hoses as easily as if he’s playing with toothpicks, and he has never really understood that it’s hard for me.  So I rant and rave and threaten to put cockleburs in his underwear drawer... and he laughs and puts the hose where I want it.

But, lacking the hose, and because it was a hot, sunny day, I carried water in gallon pitchers to those flowers I had recently transplanted, as they were looking rather wilted in the heat.  They promptly straightened up like magic.

As I trotted around pulling weeds and tidying up flower gardens, I discovered to my surprise that the honeysuckle vine is still alive!  Some of the menfolk around this joint who pretend like they’re related to me knocked down the trellis with a big riding mower... and some of the offspring once broke the vine off right at the ground as they took a fast-flying, albeit errant, flight down the hill on a snow saucer.  I thought the hapless thing had expired years ago.  Now I see that it simply took to creeping cautiously, furtively, and most likely fearfully along the ground under the maple tree. 

I need a new trellis!

Shall I electrify it, to punish anyone who dares touch it?

After discussing burdock in my journal of last week, several friends informed me that the entire burdock plant can be used in all sorts of ways, including making tea from the roots.  A friend who was following the conversation wrote, “You can eat nettle, too.  One year I tried that.” 

Then, “Yuck,” she finished.  haha

Loren and Norma went to Lake McConaughy, Nebraska’s largest reservoir, for a couple of days last week.  It wasn’t entirely enjoyable, however, since they both acquired pinkeye.  Driving isn’t very pleasant, when one has pinkeye.  But they wanted to get home, because Wednesday evening was the night of our graduation ceremonies, and Aaron, our oldest grandson and Norma’s oldest great-grandson, was graduating.

Wednesday morning, I intended to spread mulch in my flowerbeds.  Larry made it from a couple of dead trees he took down and ran through Jeremy’s grinder.  But he had successfully hidden the pitchforks!  I looked around... couldn’t find them... and decided to just pull weeds.  I found a wayward peony; a spent blossom must’ve tumbled over the retaining wall and taken root.  So I dug it up and put it in an empty spot in another flower garden. 

I found the old trellis, too, and tried with little success to straighten it.  That thing is heavy-duty and sturdy!  Those guys must’ve rammed it at high speed, to bend it up the way they did.  I finally gave up and just jammed it back into the ground the best I could.

I filled the bird feeders, then headed indoors to get all nice and clean again.  Did I ever mention that I really don’t like dirt and weeds??  I poured some Cranberry & Sweet Orange bath salts into the tub, and used the Cranberry & Sweet Orange soap that Teddy and Amy gave me for Christmas.  Mmmmm, mmmm.  Soon I smelled good... the bathroom smelled good... and all itchiness from pulling weeds was gone.  There were bath bombs and lotion in that Cranberry & Sweet Orange set; I’ve already used them.  I still have one bath fizzer, and most of the big bottle of handwash.

Whataya know, the hummingbird moth reappeared, seemingly none the worse for wear.  But he was a little slower on the trigger than usual, so I was able to toss a soft towel over him, capture him, and release him outside.  He flew away, looking reasonably hale and hearty, considering his lengthy indoor sabbatical.

Lydia, with her three youngest, Jonathan, Ian, and Malinda, came visiting, bringing me yet more Mother’s Day gifts:  a large decorative box (exactly what I needed for loose photos), inside of which was a huge bar of scrumptious-smelling Honey Almond soap, mint lip balm, body butter, salt scrub, and scented roll-on oils.  Lydia had made all but the soap.

I decided to tell her what she probably had already guessed:  the New York Beauty quilt is for her and Jeremy.  We went upstairs to my quilting studio to look at it, and she oohed and ahhed over it quite satisfactorily while the children enjoyed themselves in the little library next to my quilting room.

Thursday morning, I headed outside early because I wanted to put a stack of boxes by the trashcan out front before the garbage truck arrived.  Most of the boxes were empty, though a few contained some packing.  I also wanted to clean out the chest freezer in the garage, as I figured the meat in it had gone past its expiration date.

Boy oh boy, had it.  Had it ever.

I opened the lid to discover...  the freezer had been OFF.

This, in case you don’t know these things, is not nice. 

Furthermore, I was only able to get three or four packages out.  The few large ones at the bottom of the freezer, containing who-knows-what (somebody’s mother-in-law, for all I know), were too heavy for me to lift.  The packages I extracted partially filled one box.  I closed it, put it inside another box, and then inside another, and lugged it out by the trashcan.

At 9:15 a.m., the garbage truck arrived.  The man got out... looked at the boxes... acted peeved... started pitching them into the truck...  spilled one that had a couple of small bags of garbage in it... stood and looked down at the bags... shook his head... and left them there on the ground.  How do ya like that?

I was then even more peeved about it than the garbage man. 

It was already 82°.  The flower gardens all looked nice enough that I decided they didn’t need my attention that morning.  So I consoled myself over the freezer misadventure and unpleasantness by going directly to my sewing room and sewing pearls onto the New York Beauty quilt.

The air conditioner didn’t seem to be working very well that day, and I was glad for the little window air conditioner in the small window at the top of the landing, right outside my quilting studio door.  I figured the main unit needed a new filter, so I left it for Larry to worry about when he got home.  It turned out, the breaker switch on the outside unit had blown; all I needed to do was to press the button.  I’ll remember that, next time.  Maybe.

Larry put together my new bird bath when he got home.  The birds are already enjoying it.

At 1:00 a.m., I finished sewing pearls on block #21, and quit for the night.  I was over half done. 

I fed the cats... gathered my paraphernalia... and settled myself in my recliner with the heating pad to relax and to mollify my back.  And then...

A critter of unknown species and genus went skittering down inside the wall between the refrigerator and the loveseat, mere feet behind me.

I went on mollifying my back, but I was not necessarily relaxed.

Friday, I again spent most of the day sewing on pearls.  I think I completed block #28 of the New York Beauty, though I wasn’t totally sure, as the quilt is in a bit of a wad on my quilting frame while I sew on the pearls.  If I was right, there were 8 blocks to go on the quilt itself, and 4 on the pillow shams.  One dozen more blocks on which to sew pearls.  Since each block has right around 185 pearls, that left 2,220 pearls to sew on.

Here’s Tiger, always underfoot, staring up into my face to see which way I’m planning to go next, so he can cut me off, get tripped over, apologized to, and petted.

There were a number of tornadoes across the state that day, mostly to our west.  Here’s one that demolished a house near McCook, Nebraska.  An elderly couple inside the home were shaken up and bruised, but otherwise all right.

Saturday after Larry got off work, he mowed the lawn, then began using the pressure washer on the back of the house and on the deck.  This takes the dark oxidation off the log siding.  When that’s done, he will stain the wood. 

The essential oil diffuser the children gave me for Mother's Day has made the atmosphere in my quilting studio a lot more pleasant.  I keep the diffuser filled, and try a different oil or combination of oils each time I refill it.  I particularly like the last one I tried, ‘Raven’.  Since that room smells like squirrel nests on hot, sunny days, this is a welcome relief.

I tried the packets of NingXia Red wolfberry juice that came with the essential oils.  Yum, good stuff.  But whoooeee, it’s waaay too expensive.

That night, I headed downstairs to get a birthday card from my stash to give Lura Kay.  It was her 79^th birthday.  Each step I took down the stairs, for some reason, I kept expecting at any moment to see a bat swooping around – and before I was halfway down, I sho’ ’nuff did.  I made like the Hunchback of Notre Dame and skedaddled back up the stairs, a whole lot faster than I’d gone down.  The card could wait. 

Larry went hunting for the bat, tennis racket in hand; but didn’t find it.

The bat swoops on – hopefully, outside.

After 7 ½ hours of pearl-sewing Saturday, I have 527 hours in the quilt.  78.5 hours of those are in the sewing-on of the pearls.  So far, the greatest amount of time was in the quilting:  168.5 hours.  That was followed by the piecing:  106.5 hours.

I had just added my latest tally of hours to the Excel document I use to keep track of all this, when I heard the unmistakable sound of a fox screeching right out front – and Teensy was outside. 

I rushed to the front door and called for him.

No Teensy. 

I hurried to the back patio door, called... but he didn’t show up.  I opened the garage door, called his name, and waited a moment.  The cat failed to appear.

I hoped that, because the fox was screeching, this meant there was nothing in his mouth.

Thirty minutes later, Teensy came trotting in, fine and dandy.  He leaped up onto my lap and began pumping his paws and purring.

Yesterday afternoon, we found this fuzzy creature in the living room:

Ah, the never-ending joys, startles, and frights of country living!

This was one big bumblebee – every bit as big as the end of Larry’s thumb, and the end of Larry’s thumb is not small.

I don’t mind bumblebees and honeybees (so long as they aren’t the aggressive kind, swarming me en masse); but I don’t like wasps at all.

My niece Susan, at about age three, once came running into the house, slammed the door behind her, and said, panting, “I don’t wike doze wopps!  Dey toin dare heads and dey wook at a witto grill!”  (Did you get that? 😃 )

My family laughs at me when I’m taking pictures of wasps with my macro lens, getting closer... closer... closer...  Then, mission accomplished, I lower the camera – and discover I’m no more than 6” from the awful thing!  I then put the metal in ‘back-pedal’.

Last night after church, we dropped off Lura Kay’s birthday present – the Stars table runner.  She was sick that day, so we quietly hung it on the mailbox, where John H. would find it when he got home from church.  

Then we went to Wal-Mart, where we stocked up on fruit and dairy products – all those things I can’t order online.  We got birthday gifts for Lyle and Levi, too; Lyle will be 12 and Levi will be 9 tomorrow.

The topic of discussion on one of the online quilting groups was, “Describe the funniest quilt you ever made and tell us the story behind it.”  So I told the following story:

Back in late 2003 when my mother was in the hospital for the last time before she passed away, I would sometimes take handwork with me to work on while I sat in her room keeping her company.  One of the things I was making was a small quilt for Victoria, who was 6.  I planned to give it to her for Christmas.

I was going to sew the front half of a big, bright pink, long-furred teddy bear right onto the middle of that quilt.  I’d found the bear at the Salvation Army, and paid $.50 for it.

On this particular day, the quilt was done, and I was ready to cut the bear apart and affix it to the quilt.  I walked into Mama’s room, quilt in one hand, big teddy bear and long dressmaker shears in the other.

Mama, who was on oxygen and having some difficulty breathing, looked on with interest. 

“I’m going to put part of this bear onto this quilt for Victoria,” I explained. 

With no further ado, I jabbed those scissors straight into that bear and split him right down the middle, vertically dividing front half from back half.

Mama couldn’t help herself.  She gasped – and then, as the stuffing burst forth and flew around the room in a virtual snowstorm (I’d seriously underestimated the quantity of polyfil in that bear), she laughed ’til she cried.  She’d stop to catch her breath, then start laughing all over again.

A nurse came in with Mama’s supper and stared in amazement at the mess I’d made, as I tried with limited success to cram all that stuffing into a bag. 

Mama, still laughing, gestured at me and said, “She’s always carried everything to extremes!  Even sewing.”

The nurse laughed a little and went on staring, eyes growing yet wider when she spotted the assassinated fuchsia bear.

Eventually, I managed to corral the stuffing, get the front half of the bear, along with a good deal of stuffing, pinned onto the quilt, and sew it down. 

Mama thought that quilt was the cutest thing.  “I would like to see Victoria open that present!” she told me, and I promised we’d bring Victoria and the gift to the hospital so Mama could watch her open it. 

I should’ve done it right then, for Mama passed away on December 12^th and didn’t get to see Victoria open the teddy bear quilt.  But perhaps, being in ‘the cloud of witnesses’ gone before, she was able to see how Victoria laughed and giggled in delight at that little quilt.  I told Victoria all about how clouds of stuffing flew around her Grandma’s hospital room, and how her grandmother had laughed.  Victoria kept that quilt on her bed for several years thereafter, and called it ‘the quilt that made Grandma laugh.’

I have no idea where that quilt went.  It might be in some of Victoria’s bins that are still stored here in one of the cubbyholes.  Or she might have plumb worn it out.

In any case, I do have pictures of it; but they were taken before I had a digital camera, so they are printed and tucked away in an album somewhere.  When I get back to the scanning of pictures, I’ll eventually find it.  😊

Odd... there have today been tornadoes in both Paducah, Texas, and Paducah, Kentucky.  I hope my quilting friend who lives in Paducah, Kentucky, is safe.

At 4:00 p.m. this afternoon, it was snowing in the Nebraska Panhandle.  At the same time, there was snow falling in Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, Utah, Idaho, Wyoming, Montana, Alberta, and British Columbia.  Earlier, the snowfall included California, Washington, Oregon, Minnesota, and Wisconsin.  And throughout the day, there were a whole lot of tornadoes in Texas, Oklahoma, Missouri, and Kansas.  I just checked AccuWeather, and I see that there is flash-flooding in many areas ---- and tornadoes have recently hit Peggs and Leach, Oklahoma, and caused quite a lot of damage.  A mobile home was flipped upside down – but, amazingly enough, the parents and their three children were uninjured.  It is still unknown what other damage has been done, as communications are down, and large trees are across the roadways.

Larry did a bit more pressure washing on the side of the house tonight.  Reckon he can get that back wall and deck finished and stained by the time I’m done with the New York Beauty quilt?  That’s where I like to take pictures of quilts.  If not... I’ll find another location.

For supper, we had Black Angus burgers on small, toasted 12-grain loaves, halved, with lettuce, vine-ripened tomatoes, onions, ketchup, mustard, and relish.  Then, since Larry is caring for the neighbors’ animals, including the chickens, while they are gone to Florida (taking their grandchildren to Disney World), our second course was soft-boiled eggs.  For dessert we had fresh raspberries with Activa Probiotic blueberry yogurt drink poured over them.  Larry had his on a waffle.

The lilacs are almost ready to bloom.  They make the entire house smell good, once the blossoms open, since they are right beside the front porch.

Looks like garden work in the morning is out; it’s probably going to be raining.  Therefore, I shall sew pearls onto the New York Beauty quilt!

,,,>^..^<,,,          Sarah Lynn          ,,,>^..^<,,,