Author: Dackel Princess

I’m Getting Sloshed

I’m starting to think that my new occupation should be “Ark Builder”! It seems that all it does is rain! Now this is just great for my garden. All my squash, zucchini and cucumber plants are growing like crazy. The peas, it seems, do not enjoy the heavy rain and would like just a smidgen of sunshine!


It’s not that I don’t enjoy an occasional rain shower. There is nothing like it after a dry spell, but these continuous, cold raw days where is rains, no pours, is getting all too familiar and very old!
Hubby sent me out to see how much rain had fallen in the last 24 hours. Yes, it was still raining, and yes I was unhappy about having to go out in it.
I got my rain coat on and traipsed up the hill to the rain gauge. One and one half inches of the liquid stuff!
I sloshed my way back down the hill and into the house. Feet soaked and feeling none too happy. Hubby smiled and then his next words froze me in my tracks.
“If it rains much more, you’ll have to spray again.”
Then he hobbled off on his crutches to the sick room to sit with his blanket and watch another rerun of “Law and Order”.
I stood there with my mouth hanging open and with tears in my eyes. My poor aching body hasn’t recovered from the last spraying.
Oh well, when we finally get some fruit, it’ll taste awfully good.

Strawberry Rhubarb Pie

Pastry for 2-crust pie
1 1/4 c. sugar (or 3/4 cup sugar & 1/2 cup Splenda)
1/8 tsp. salt
1/3 c. flour
2 c. fresh strawberries
2 c. (1-inch pieces) fresh rhubarb
2 tbsp. butter
1 tbsp. sugar

Combine 1 1/4 cups sugar, salt and flour. Arrange half of strawberry-rhubarb in pastry-lined 9-inch pie pan. Sprinkle with half of sugar mixture. Repeat with remaining fruit and sugar mixture. Dot with butter. Adjust top crust and flute edges. Brush top of pie with cold water and sprinkle on 1 tablespoon sugar. Cut steam vents. Bake in hot oven (425 degrees) for 40-50 minutes or until rhubarb is tender and crust is brown.
Serve warm or cool with vanilla ice cream.

My Greta

I took a nap today. What’s so unusual about that? Not much really, except that Greta was my constant companion. Usually she wants to sleep down by my feet. Not today. She was right up in my face with that little mustache of hers tickling my face! But she was quiet, save for the little wisp of her breath in my ear.
It was raining here today, gray, dark and cool. So a nap under a warm afghan felt so nice. We slept for an hour before I woke to make myself a late afternoon cup of tea. I got up made the tea and came back into the family room and sat to drink it. I glanced over at the sofa and there cuddled up under the abandoned afghan was my Greta.

Do Apples Grow On Trees?

If you think that fruit just grows on trees then you are 100% wrong! There is a lot of work that goes into growing good quality fruit. I know. Today I walked around and sprayed all our fruit trees to protect them against insects and fungus. We have various apple trees, peach trees, pear trees, plum trees and cherry trees.


Now if we were still a commercial operation we would have a tractor and a mechanical sprayer, but we are not. We are a small family of two with an acre of land with 35 fruit trees and grapes. What does this mean? It means that you use a hand held, hand pumped sprayer and that you carry it all the time you are spraying. I will tell you that 2 gallons gets pretty heavy!

After the back breaking work of digging the vegetable garden I thought I was pretty much off the hook for any more heavy work for the rest of the year. How wrong I was.

I do not say this often, but I miss all the work that Hubby does around here.

Shhhhh! Don’t tell him I told you that because he will never let me live that down. I am always complaining about how much I do and how he doesn’t do anything. I tell him that if he worked half as hard as I did he might actually appreciate me a little more. So it’s quite a shock to find myself in this position.

The thing is, he actually enjoys doing all the spraying and pruning and stuff to the trees. He thinks it’s relaxing. Ha! It’s not what I think is relaxing.
I think sitting by a pool of warm swimmable water, eating a frozen “Milky Way” candy bar is relaxing. Not spraying a bunch of fruit trees and sweating and getting all yicky.

No the water and the candy bar thing sound ever so much better!

Who Makes You Laugh?

I’ve decided I have a strange sense of humor. I say this because over the weekend they had a “Blue Collar Comedy Tour” marathon on Comedy Central, and I found myself glued to the tube and laughing like a crazed woman at the jokes.
My favorite of these four comics is Bill Engvall There is something about his humor that makes me laugh so hard I fear the loss of certain bodily functions. He tours around doing work with Jeff Foxworthy, Larry the Cable Guy and Ron White. They’re all pretty funny, but Bill is my favorite. Possibly this is because he had both dachshunds and German shepherds like we do.
Of course the fact that in the last week I’ve been either in the hospital taking care of Hubby or at home doing the same, has probably affected my judgment, but these guys are funny!
I tried to share the “joy” with Hubby, who laughed a bit, but started to look at me with concerned eyes. He had that, “Is she losing her mind?” look on his face, as I sat there wiping tears from my eyes from the hard laughter.
It was then I decided I’d be better off leaving the “sick room” and watching Comedy Central where I wouldn’t be observed.
So am I strange or what? Who is your favorite comic?

Daddy is Home

I sat in the car all the way home, excited because I knew I would be seeing “my girl” Greta. Well, I’m glad I didn’t hold my breath as she hasn’t a thought for me since our return. She has spent all her time, with “Daddy”!


Am I jealous? Yes! She’s supposed to be my girl! I even had to close the door to my bedroom last night to “force” her to sleep with me!
So who is at my side? Who follows me everywhere and just wants kisses and cuddles?
Fritz!
The dog I have always thought was Hubby’s dog. As I write his is sitting crowded into the chair with me, sleeping soundly. This big old boy is happy that Mommy is home.
You could just knock me over with a feather on this one!

The Lord & My Knitting

The Lord has a sense of humor and I think he enjoys playing with my mind.

Yesterday I sat knitting again, day 2 since Hubby’s surgery. Click, click, click, went my needles. A mile a minute. I felt like I was making headway. Another foot and I would be done. I laid out my work to take a look and gasped! A three row mistake, about a foot and a half back! I tried to figure out a way to disguise it. Well, you can’t. There is was sticking out like a sore thumb! I debated. Do I leave it or do I rip out all of that hard work? Hubby and his visitor told me to leave it. No one would know.
I’d know.
I got out my book. My guide to beginners knitting. There it had pictures of how to thread a knitting needle in before you rip out your work, so you do not drop stitches. I worked carefully threading that needle in, and then, I ripped.
I felt like crying as I tore out all those hours of hard work. How could I have gone so wrong?
If my timing was correct, the mistake occurred when Hubby was in surgery. I was worried, I was upset. It’s his fault! If it wasn’t for his operation I would now be done with my project!
Hubby laughed and told me I should just have relaxed and not worried. Then all would have gone well. I should have had some faith.

Yes, the Lord has a sense of humor and I think he is amused.

Super Wife

I’m afraid I’m getting to be too bossy. This whole wife of the sick patient thing has gone to my head. I arrived at the hospital this morning to find Hubby eating breakfast. Wonderful. He looked good and seemed well.
However his bed had not been changed and he had not been bathed. The last knee surgery his comfort was not well looked after and the poor man wound up with a horrid rash on his back that took two weeks to heal.
So this time I am wifey on the spot.
I personally bathed him, powdered him and got him into a nice cotton T-shirt. Then I settled him in, made sure he got pain medication, and then made out his menu for tomorrow.
Physical therapy showed up and got Hubby up and out of bed. While he was up I stripped the bed and made sure his bed was remade
I made sure Hubby ate a good lunch, got him settled in his freshly made bed, and then sat knitting while he slept. The nurses weren’t pushing for him to go back onto the perpetual motion machine for his knee, so I suggested that it might be time. No one was listening to me, and I mentioned to Hubby that I was only doing what he told me to do. Watching out for his care.
So I sort of insisted he go back on the machine and get another dose of his pain medication, (It had been 4 hours), so he would be comfortable.
The nurses finally got around to it, and he is now sleeping while he is on the machine.
What is so hard to understand here? A wife knows how to make her Hubby comfortable!

I do admit though. It’s sort of heady to be in charge. Not that I’m being mean about this or anything, but it’s just kind of nice to know what Hubby needs and knowing that you are completely accurate.