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.

Hubby’s Operation 2

Great news to report. Hubby came through his surgery with flying colors. Here is the story.

We arrived a little early for his operation. So, we ended up sitting around for a while. Eventually they called us in and we had the same nurses Hubby had two months ago for his other knee! They remembered us as the funny couple who made them laugh.
This time instead of the terrible female Anesthesiologist, we had a very nice man. He was the assistant head of the department. He came in, closed the door to lend us some privacy and we discussed how to go forward. What he did was give Hubby a nerve block in his leg and a nerve catheter in the leg that they will leave in for several days. This will take care of his pain. They also used a spinal block, but no Opiates. Hubby just does not do well on Opiates.
Soon they came in and took him to surgery and I went to the surgical waiting room. I sat knitting and talking with a woman I did not know, but who needed to also waste some time.
Two hours went by and Hubby’s doctor came in and told me how well he had done. No surprises, all pretty straight forward stuff. He said he was doing so well I should go back right off and see him.
I asked the receptionist and she said she would take me in to him in half an hour when he was “settled”. So I waited. I tried not to be a pain in the backside, but I was getting a bit nervous. Finally after 2 hours (!!!!!) I told the woman I was a “practical nurse” and she’d better let me back there. (Lord forgive me this lie, but quite honestly, there is nothing I could see “behind the curtain” that would shock or offend me!)
I must have sounded a bit hysterical because she quickly took me back.
And there he was. Sitting up happily in his bed feeling no pain, but being totally clear in his mind. He told me all about the surgery, about the doctor showing him the knee after it was removed and how neat that was, and how well he felt!

Soon they moved him up to his room, where he immediately wanted something to eat. He ate 4 containers of Jell-O, about a dozen packets of crackers and some sorbet before some soup arrived. Once he had downed that and was still hungry, they made him a meal of turkey and potatoes.
I felt like I could leave him, so off I went to get a few things done and get some food for myself. I called him a bit ago and he is doing great!
How do you spell relief?

Getting Ready for Hubby’s Surgery

With the garden laid, and the house cleaned we packed our bags and waited for the house sitters to arrive. Fritz and Greta met them with great happiness and many wiggles. We sat down and talked for a while before it was time for us to leave. We kissed Fritz and then looked for Greta. There she was on the kitchen rug looking like she had lost her only friend. What a sad, sad sight! I was ready to toss her in my bag and bring her along!
We left and drove over to stay the night at a motel near the hospital. Nice clean rooms, good Wifi, and cable TV. What else do you need?
Hubby’s surgery is set for 10, which means we need to be at the hospital at 9 AM. He is not nervous at all, even though this surgery is much harder than the last one. It’s funny, the last time the surgery was more complicated, but not nearly as difficult on him physically. This time it’s physically more demanding, but not as hard for the doctor to perform.
To me it sounds like it is tough no matter which way you slice it.

Mari, Mari, Quite Contrary…

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!