Category: Life

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!

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.

How does your garden grow…
We finished the garden at 7:43 Monday night. All cleared, fertilized and planted! Yahoo!!!!!! These last few days I have worked harder on this garden than I have, since giving birth!! I still need to run my twine for the Pea plants to climb, but that’s a 15-20 minute job before we leave at 2 on Tuesday. Here are a few pictures of our garden!

After getting it all cleared.

After the planting!
I want to let you all know that although I will try to write each day while Hubby is in the hospital, I probably won’t be able to comment at your sites until I come back home. See you soon!

When I was young an innocent (?) I believed that I wanted nothing more than a house in New Hampshire, with fruit trees and a vegetable garden. Ah, how lovely it would be to grow ones own fruit and vegetables. Mother Nature would have nothing on me. I would be one with the earth. (Insert a deep, happy sigh and blue grass music.)

Fast forward 20 years. I have my lovely home in New Hampshire, and fruit trees around us that Hubby has cultivated. This year, yes this year would be the year I would finally have my vegetable garden. Over a month ago I started my seedlings. I carefully watered them and talked to them and I felt a true peace inside. This would be good.

Then yesterday, knowing that our time was slipping away, we knew we had to lay out the garden and dig it. Since math has never been my subject, I let Hubby figure out dimensions. He mowed the area down very short and we began.

I must tell you that after the first half an hour, I had decided that having a garden was stupid and I simply should chuck the seeds and go to the grocery store! However, I resolved not to wimp out. Hubby would dig up the sod and I would cut it and shake out the dirt. We worked from 10 AM until after 5 PM, stopping to have a quick lunch in the middle. By 5 I was aching and sun burnt, and tired like you would not believe!

We came into the house and took showers, and then got into the jacuzzi. I soaked for a while, but then decided I should get out before I fell asleep and drowned! I got out and lay down on our bed in front of the air conditioner. Tired, aching and pink. No, make that red.

Hubby came into the room and asked innocently, “What’s for dinner?”
“Reservations”, I replied.

I fell asleep at 9:30 last night and slept until Hubby woke me at 7:30 this morning. Still tired, still sore and yes, still sunburnt. After making a Recycling Center run, we were back out in the garden working. We are probably 2/3 of the way through, but don’t ask me for a real percentage here, because like I’ve said, math isn’t my thing. I think on Monday we’ll be able to get the garden completed, but I give you no promises here.

I may yet give up my title as Mother Earth 2!

I like to believe that I’m still really, very young. I feel young. I believe I have youthful, hip ideas about life. Most of the time when I look in the mirror I still see that 19 year old wrinkle free girl that I once was.
But lately, I’m finding that there are little things happening to me, that confirm something I’ve been denying. I am in fact, getting old.
It started harmlessly enough. First I had these gray hairs that began to appear. I told myself I was simply “prematurely” gray. A little dye job and no one was the wiser.
Then I noticed a few little tiny lines. Mostly around the eyes. Okay, those are “smile” lines. They just mean I’m a happy person. Not old!
But then I did something the other day that made me stop, sit down and finally admit that, yes, I am indeed getting old.
I was sitting typing on the laptop. I’d taken off my glasses because I cannot see the screen with them on. I typed and typed, and then got up to go into the office to print something. I reached over to the table for my glasses. They weren’t there. Okay, maybe I’d taken them off in the kitchen. I got up and walked over to the kitchen. I looked all around the kitchen, which in fact is quite a feat because I am blind as a bat without my glasses. I went into the bedroom and looked there. Nothing.
I gave up and went into the office and started the print job I needed to do. All the while wondering what I’d done with my glasses. Just then, I felt something like a tick on my hair and reached up and, yes, you guessed it, there were my glasses on top of my head where they had been all along.
Now it’s not easy to admit that I am suddenly a middle aged scatterbrained woman. I don’t feel old. Really, I don’t, but there are these little things that tell me that when you hit menopause you lose more than your ability to procreate!

It’s a little known fact that I maintain my house for the comfort of my dogs. I say little known, because it’s a big world and I expect there are still a few people out there who are unenlightened. Even Hubby, when we were first married, didn’t know the depth to which I spoiled my fur babies.
With cats it’s easy to explain to people why they sleep with you. Cats are sneaky. They wait until you’re asleep and then they slowly crawl, undetected into your bed. You have no choice in the matter. They just help themselves to your bed!
Dogs, however, are a little different.
When we got Shubi as a baby, I immediately brought her into bed with me.
“No”, Hubby said, “She sleeps on the floor in the basket.
At the time we were at our friends in Germany, so Shubi still had her brother to sleep with, so she was fine in the basket, but when we got her home to the USA Hubby tried to place her on the floor to sleep. He turned out the lights. A little puppy cry started. She was scared, she was tired, but so was Hubby.
“Okay” he said, “Just for tonight”.
Shubi remained in our bed for the rest of her life.
When Fritz arrived from Oregon, he was tired, I was tired and so was Hubby.
“We’ll just bring him into the bed with us”, I said.
So I got the little puppy and brought him into bed with Hubby, Shubi and me. I turned out the light. Fritz jumped around and the next thing I knew, he wee-wee’d in the bed! I leapt up, grabbing the sheets and blankets, and all but rolled Hubby and Shubi onto the floor in my attempt to keep the wee-wee from getting into the mattress!
As I changed the sheets, the sweet little white puppy got put into a crate and closed in the living room for the night.
He has never been invited back into our bed, although I do allow him to sleep on the floor in our room.
Enter Greta.
Once again Hubby felt it was better not to bring the puppy into the bed. After all, look what happened with Fritz! I would not be dissuaded, and Greta came to bed with us. The two dachshunds curled up together and fell asleep. Greta, remains a permanent bed fixture to this day.
The other day, Hubby observed Fritz on the sofa asleep. He went over to sit and pat him and before he knew what was happening, he had a lap full of dogs. I grabbed the camera and snapped this picture.

Yes, this house is maintained for the comfort of all my dogs!

Okay, here is my scarf!

I’ve learned to knit! Now I’m not saying that I am ready to move to Ireland and knit cable sweaters, but I am learning. I’m under a little bit of pressure here, because Hubby actually knows how to knit (no he did not teach me. I stuck to the old rule: never have your husband teach you to do anything).
When he was in college he broke his leg. This was long before satellite TV or even cable TV. No, VCR’s weren’t around either. So, what did he do while he was laid up in the hospital? He had the nurses teach him to knit. (I truly believe that this was a brilliant move on his part to get dates. Although he swears this was not the case.)
He knit three sweaters while recovering and he still has them. I can see that I have a lot to learn before I can compete with him. I’m still working on my first scarf.
I’m not a fast knitter. In fact I am incredibly slow, but I find it so relaxing that the longer I knit, the slower I tend to go. It will be interesting to see if I speed up while I wait for Hubby to come out of surgery in two weeks. I wonder if stress increases speed?

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OLD


This is my grandmother on her wedding day. Her name was Mary Francis Daniel Prussman. She was a strong, warm, wonderful woman who made my life so much better just by being in it. Here’s to you, Gramma!

Life has been a challenge, but as the week ends I can honestly say, I have stayed faithful to my diet! Good for me!

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For those of you who are wondering, our new passports arrived and are now safely stored, awaiting our next trip. Not that this will happen soon, but if I can sneak away at the end of the summer to Berlin to see my friend, Uschi, I might just do that for a few days.
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I’ve decided that, although in my mind I do not feel old, my body is obviously not cooperating. I carried a 50 pound bag of planting soil up the steps from the driveway to the greenhouse (full flight of stairs), on Tuesday. I cannot tell you how my shoulders have ached since. I used to be able to do this stuff without thinking about it. I am getting soft! I think after Hubby’s next surgery we should join a gym and then I will be training for the Mrs. Universe pageant!
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I did get all my seeds planted in the greenhouse. I spent a good part of the day on Wednesday cleaning the greenhouse and then planting. What fun! Here you can see the results of my labor.

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Our little Greta has really come into her own. She has always been a fun pup, running around, playing with her toys, chewing her rawhides and being a real little snuggler, but in the last few months she has become this little sweetheart. She runs to greet you, she sleeps cuddled in your arms and she is able to express the fact that she would rather be with you than with anyone in the world.

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Have a great Friday everyone!!!

Thirteen Things about Maribeth When She Was 13 Baby dog, Maribeth, and Laurie 1. I wanted to grow up and get married and have children. 2. I dreamt of having a small house with a vegetable garden. 3. While I was planting this garden, my children would run around in the fresh clean air. 4. I would have 4 children. 5. I would be married to a man who would love me forever. 6. I would become an artist and I would work at this at home. (when I wasn’t gardening) 7. I would have cats and dogs. 8. Life would be good and simple and happy. 9. I would wear jeans and t-shirts and straw hats. 10. And my hair would grow down to my waist. 11. I would have a little swing in my yard, where I would sit and watch my family. 12. Eventually my grandchildren would come to see me. 13. And I would live peacefully and happily ever after. Links to other Thursday Thirteens! 1. (leave your link in comments, I’ll add you here!)

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