Pics of the front yard 9-30

Salvia's..deer resistant and hummers love them!

Mary, guess what that stump is?!!!

Planning planter box placement

The new garden fence line

Front of the house...trying to decide what to do with that sandy circle

September is gone....Wow!  That large salvia in the middle with the red flower is pineapple salvia...when you rub the leaves they smell strongly like ripe pineapple and are great in drinks etc.  This evening I just walked around the front and snapped some photos to record the progress we have made...trees removed, weeds cut and fence getting moved.  We are slowly coming up with a plan...no hurry

New Colors! 9-29

Woo hoo!  Today I added the three latest colors of Fiestaware to my collection and they are wonderfully fallish colors...Chocolate, Ivory and Paprika...sooooo pretty.  I also picked up four 10" plates for those times when the small is too small and the dinner plate is too big.  There is a shop just up the road in Georgetown called the Frog Pond and they have all kinds of Fiestaware open stock pieces in many colors and the place settings and all at Macy's sales price, so why drive to the big city when we could take a leisurely drive into the mountains, no traffic, no huge parking lots.  I drove so Larry could enjoy the scenery for a change and on the way home we scoped out one of the areas back roads.  I also found that cute little leaf dish with the bird on it in a shop in Georgetown.  Larry says what are you going to put in it?  I said nothing and I got the glancing man look...the one that says I'm nuts and what do we need that stupid thing for....ha ha ha.

It was 98 here again today, I am looking forward to the temps getting back to normal. This time of year I like to be outside as much as possible while the weather is nice and when it is this hot I'm inside with the a/c all afternoon, but I manage just fine...Oprah is on then or I might catch a teeny catnap if my eyes happen to close.  We have really enjoyed sitting out on the deck and watching the stars after sunset or before turning in for the night...it is so quiet then, except for cicadas...noisy bugs.  We really love this place.

Beautiful Oaks 9-28

It has been fun learning first hand about our wild neighbors here in the transition zone of the Sierra Nevada foothills.  Deer DO make noise to communicate with each other...it is hard to describe the sound but it is a very quiet bleat...like a lamb might make with a clicking sound in there somewhere and if something urgent happens they do like a weird loud warning cough.

The does have been weaning the fawns, the does can get after those babies when the babes try to nurse!  The fawns are becoming more independent and moving farther afield from momma.  They were sure frisky yesterday...three fawns were bounding back and forth across our lower meadow like crazed pinballs, springing all over the place in that springboard style that deer have.  They reminded me of a crazed kitten or chihuahua racing all over the house.

It has been hot here, but thankfully not as hot as Los Angeles or the valley...I did have to fire up the air conditioner for a few hours this afternoon.

This morning I could really see the leaves have started turning yellow on the blue oaks...they are so pretty, so of course I had to take pictures.  As for me, after my jam packed day yesterday, today was a recovery day...meaning beyond minor chores and cutting Larry's hair I did absolutely nothing.

And as my friend reminded me and I can't remember the quote that says it best, but there is no failure, even in doing nothing as I said in my post yesterday.  In choosing to do nothing in and of itself is still an action, a choice and often we can learn more in doing nothing...so thanks for reminding me Mary!  So failure isn't an option because it doesn't exist.  Phew...so much to remember...ha ha ha!

 

A scary peek into my heart! 9-27

Today I had a plan and stuck to it. I have been really stuck and I am working my way through my internal muck.

I was up before 6 and did my cleaning of the bathrooms, sweeping and mopping the floors and then off to the market here in Cool. On the way to the market I stopped at the newly opened Gym here in Cool to get information on joining and classes offered.

It might seem odd to some of you, but I haven’t ever been to a Gym. I’ve talked about it over the years but Larry has always rolled his eyes at me. He is a believer in you can do all that at home and it’ll cost you nothing. Larry has discipline like nobody I have ever seen and I work hard to keep up with him, but when it comes to exercise…YUCK. I hate that I need to exercise to maintain my health and weight…I would rather be doing anything else….digging in the dirt, reading, art, photography. I did an aerobics class way, way back when the kids were very small and I have done videos at home, but after awhile I get bored with them….I lasted the longest with the yoga videos, but I’m sure that is because Larry was doing them with me.

So, my point with all this rambling is I may join the Gym, learn how to use the machines and take a spinning or aerobics class, PLUS it is a way to meet other women in the area and the place is less than a mile from home…so convenient…I’ll keep you posted. My sister Lori is a fitness Queen and loves going to the Gym, so we’ll see if I have a little of that in me too.

By 10 a.m. I was done with everything I HAD to do for the day and onto phase two of my day…working through my issues.

I have learned that the ONLY failure in this world is doing nothing. Doing nothing means not trying, not making mistakes, not succeeding and ultimately not living, because in doing nothing we are in a state of suspended animation. We are alive, breathing, ageing and dying, but we are not living.

How have I learned this you ask? Because I have had to struggle all of my life to keep moving towards living and not standing still in fear. I learned at three and a half years of age that life can end very suddenly and in losing my Dad I had those magical years of childhood stripped from me, meaning that I learned about the reality of life (we all die) before I could process it.

I’ve only recently realized that everything I have done good or “bad” has all been driven by that very early catastrophe. I must have done something bad for my Dad to be taken from me…there is something bad going to happen….anything I have can be taken away from me, my husband, my children, my home, MY LIFE. As a child I’m sure I was glad it wasn’t me the “bad men” had killed and along with that I’m sure was buried guilt that a child would have no way of understanding or dealing with. So blah, blah, blah….I’ll save the rest for the epic of my life.

And believe me at 51 I keep thinking I should have WAY gotten over all that, but I have never really stopped and faced it which I am doing now. I guess subliminally I figured if I kept moving on I would find whatever I thought I needed or whatever was chasing me wouldn’t catch up…

So, even in my hobbies I let my fear of everything keep me frozen and I’ll think something to death but don’t ever execute it, because I may not do it right!

My exercise for today was that I was going to do 10 crappy drawings. Drawing is a challenge, I took a class 15 years ago and was a star pupil, but I never practice because….YES, I might not do it right! LORDY! I have taken watercolor workshops over the last 10 years, but yet again I don’t ever practice so I CAN get good at it because I over think the process and of course by not practicing I don’t improve.

Today I had no excuses…the chores were done and I had the whole day in front of me. You know what? I DID IT! Ten drawings of crap…by striving for crap I didn’t worry about doing anything right, but I have never been able to really do anything half assed so I just did the best I could with my limited knowledge and skills. I just sat outside and drew what was in front of me and when it got too hot I sat inside and drew what was in front of me.

After four drawings I broke to make dinner and then I was back at it. I made an agreement with myself and I was sticking to it. Now, why I picked ten I don’t know…five would have been good enough, because after finishing ten my hands were pretty sore. I erased very very little…that is an exercise in drawing class to just draw and not worry about correcting. It was wonderful being in my right brain all day. I told Larry after I finished that I felt like I had been away all day and had just returned home. The last drawing is of my man on the deck reading and I did that in about five minutes…a quick study…ha ha ha, but I can tell it is a man and I am happy about that.

Most of these you can actually tell what I was seeing, so it was a good day.

I share all this because I believe that if we don’t share we can’t learn. We are so very afraid that someone might think badly of us or use something against us that we withdraw from each other and when we do that how will we learn anything?

So to end today’s epic entry I will stop pushing the keys on the computer! Enjoy my crappy drawings!

P.S. I don't think I give enough credit and thanks to Larry for sticking with me through all my ups and downs...it has to be LOVE!!! Thank you Larry. I love you.

Migrations 9-25

All God's creatures seem to have little clocks and calendars, it has been fascinating watching the changes.  A week or so ago we noticed the bats were gone already.  The first full day of fall our resident hummingbirds left and the last few days there have been huge, high, noisy formations of white pelicans heading south.  The past week every afternoon the turkey vultures gathered above like they were having a meeting and then they would disperse, but day before yesterday while we were watching the pelicans the turkey vultures starting swarming from the north to the south....they travel more loosely but we had never seen so many at one time and they just kept coming from the north and heading south like the pelicans.  We have been hearing geese too.  The mama deer are chasing off their babies, harsh weaning.

We went to Mel's Diner for breakfast...very yummy and then Larry spent a couple hours cleaning the truck inside and out.  We are having a week of Indian Summer....the next several days are in the low 90's, but with the low slant of the sun and long shadows it is way more bearable than a month ago.

We have no plans, just adapting to living without wheels under our home and enjoying our little piece of paradise.

Happy Autumnal Equinox! 9-22

 First day of Autumn...my favorite season!  It isn't so hot, the mornings are cool and I love watching the leaves change color.

The oaks are raining leaves now in the breezes and our trees haven't started changing color yet.  I decided to cook a bunch of apples in honor of the day....they turned out so yummy.  A little real maple syrup, honey, water, lemon juice, cinnamon and chopped walnuts cooked down until they are real soft....so good warm with ice cream or with granola or in yogurt.

Updates 9-21

Not too much exciting to write about each day.  Larry finished digging up and replanting fence posts, he also dug out the two cherry tree stumps and cut all the branches off of the fig tree...it's stump will have to go one of these days too.  We had our propane tank swapped out one day.  A couple of days ago we actually took our first walk around the "neighborhood".  Yesterday Larry hung the drapes in our bedroom, so it is mostly done and he hung my "stuff" on the walls in my art room.

One afternoon we were entertained for almost an hour by the crazy deer.  The local herd has enjoyed our moving of the fencing because they have been able to get to the fruit trees.  The day Larry finished planting all the fence posts discombobulated one of the does.  There was also a hunk of cement sitting where none had been before and she wasn't sure if it was going to jump up and eat her or not.  With the fence posts all in a row she wasn't sure if there was fence attached or not and wasn't sure if she could proceed safely.  It took her over a half hour to make up her mind and just made us laugh.  She would move forward a few steps craning her neck and looking this way and that, then she would get frightened and spin and move away a few steps.  Then she would stand there looking back and spin back around and tip-hoof her way back and then she would start the whole process over again.  She finally went up the hill to look over things from a different perspective, then she went back and slowly hoofed her way into the "orchard".  Some days we are entertained by the quail, or the buzzards or the little birds...always something going on around here.  Every afternoon there is a little mob of bluebirds that come through too.

We went to the HUGE Master Nursery in Auburn to find out for sure what these two trees are in the front of the house.  I had an idea what they were, but wanted to be real sure because if they were another type that was messy or the roots destructive they would have to go being that close to the house and not everyone does their homework before choosing and planting trees.  I love plants so this nursery was nirvana, I will have to go back by myself and just hang out and browse....they grow much of their own stock and their people are nice and full of information.  We hooked up with a lady who marched us to the tree section so she could show us how our piece of tree matched up with another and we were happy that they are Chinese Pistache trees and not Pepper or Ash.  We also learned about the best way to plant in our clay and recommended trees etc. 

Then we were wandering around looking at potential possibilities for my two large flower pots and someone else helped us find deer resistant plants that would possibly work for us.  We came home with some plants and we got them planted up in their pots where they look very happy.  We wanted to come home with some more plants for the hillside that we moved a lot of topsoil too, but there is a gopher torturing us with its presence and we need to get rid of it before buying and planting gopher food.  The little meany seems to know when we are sitting there on the deck and does his little tossing of dirt out of his hole to taunt us...makes me wish for camo, shotgun/rifle with scope and silencer...ha ha ha.

Today I had a long overdue massage right here on this side of the river and she was pretty good.  I spent the afternoon getting my yarn stash organized and seeing all of it gets my creativity stirred up planning projects.

A Fun Day 9-16

Yesterday was just a day of ironing and puttering around.  Larry works every day on getting the posts out of the ground so we can reuse them.  They are in cement so each one is quite a lot of work to get out, but as of today he has all but two out, and one already back in the ground setting up.

We decided to quit putting off the shopping of recliners...we love having our recliners, have had them in the past, but we didn't replace them in Fallon because we knew that home was temporary, we have them in our trailer which makes it very comfy.  We started at La Z Boy, but everything had to be ordered unless we chose the recliner color that was on the floor (in the model we liked) and it was the exact same fabric as our current furniture which we are putting in the living room and I wanted something different, plus the sofa wouldn't be delivered until the end of October sometime so we decided to check out a couple of other stores.  One didn't have much we liked so we decided to go check out R.C. Willey's.  We have seen the ads on T.V. but have never been to a store....WOW.....it is like the Cabela's of home stores.  Every kind/style of furniture you can imagine and most is in stock....we were glad for the salesman to guide us through the store.  They even had a couple real stuffed bears in a little woodsie scene over in the mountain home themed section.  It was just amazing.  We found what we wanted, it gets delivered in a couple of weeks...it is in stock but they only deliver up here once a month.  Then we found the huge clearance room, and we oohed and ahhed our way through it....a good place to shop when on a tight budget or just need the odd chair or a great deal on a dresser etc.  Nice quality stuff and the place is HUGE!

While in Roseville I was a good girl and had my Mammogram, that was a huge weight off my chest....ha ha ha ha ha.   We had a great lunch at Chili's and then later had a lovely piece of dessert at the Cheesecake Factory to charge up our batteries for Bed, Bath & Beyond....found what we needed there and then up the hill to home.  Love that we can travel less than half an hour, be in the hub of everything and then drive on back to our little home in the country...not three and a half hours worth of driving home!!!!

More

Oh, I forgot.  We had company on Thursday...Lou and Vickie came up for the day to check out our new digs and they were bearing gifts...they also brought a Nation's chocolate pie which I didn't get into the picture...it was wonderful....the visit and the pie and I LOVED the stunning orchid plant.  I made a lovely roast beast for dinner, we had a great visit.

Friday I had my hair cut finally....it had been since we were down in Coarsegold...being so busy with the house it wasn't high on my list of things to get done.  Every day we just keep plugging along on projects.  I can see the table top in my art room but I still haven't gotten my yarn organized...almost there.  I need to get in the habit of writing this blog earlier in the day...before bedtime I just get lazy or forget what the heck I had thought about earlier to write and I'm thinking I'm forgetting something here.....hmmm.

Oh on Friday I received my birthday gift from my sister Lori...she sent a bunch of fun things and I have been enjoying the Charlaine Harris, Sookie Stackhouse book series that was the main part of my gift.  I haven't had time to read anything for quite awhile and I have been reading them since receiving them...very entertaining.  I have spent quite a bit of time out on the deck or draped across the love seat inside relaxing and reading. 

Tomorrow will be two weeks in the house and we are starting to get settled in.  It has taken awhile to make the shift from work zone and constantly seeing everything that has been wrong with the place to enjoying all that we have done and appreciating the comfortable home that we have created.  Wow, did we get a lot done in a short period of time...ahhhh, so nice now.

Yard work 9-14

 Hi, I'm back...I was in a hormonal depression for a few days, but I'm done now.  Larry has started working on moving the deer fence that is attached to the deck and surrounds much of the front yard...we have felt like we were in jail.  We are making the garden/fruit tree area smaller so Larry has to dig up all the posts and is re-setting them where we need them.  You can also see in this first picture the two cherry trees that I cut down today.



I used a toothy hand saw to cut down both of the trees, great exercise!



The cherry trees had been getting hit by above ground sprinklers for several years apparently which had really damaged them badly and they were oozing sap.



Here is my mule hauling the limbs up to the burn pile...ha ha.



While we were up at the top of the hill Larry found a bag of our garbage ripped open.  A bear had gotten into the garbage and hauled a bag from one edge of the property up the hill before tearing into it...shows some intelligence...it left it's calling card too...rude.  I wouldn't mind seeing it one of these days...safely from inside the house of course...the bear, not more poop!

Larry is at the top of the hill in this picture.



The view from where Larry was standing at the top of our place.





And this is what bears DO DO in the woods!



Have a Great Week! 9-12

Got the pictures 9-7

Here are yesterdays pictures.  It is amazing how these babies can change...Connor's face has slimmed down so much.  Ian is taller every time we see him it seems.

Today I moved about 5 wheelbarrows of dirt and pruned a mini citrus tree...time will tell what kind it is.  Larry worked on figuring out and repairing the sprinkler system.  I had big plans to organize my bags of yarns, but I ended up doing nothing the rest of the day....very nice.  It was cooler today and breezy, very nice.

Ian's pictures 9-5

Here are a few of the pictures that Ian took while using my camera this weekend. I am still trying to figure out my blog issues with posting photos. The first is from our front deck across the "orchard" to the shed, the second is my crackle glass collection and the last is Andrea and Connor who is now 10 months old...and Andrea just turned the BIG 3 0!

Back to quiet...ha ha ha 9-6

For some reason I can't get any pictures to upload and I am too tired to figure out why tonight...I'll mess with it tomorrow.

This morning Ian helped Larry and I do some yard work.  He shoveled dirt from around a fence post for Grandpa and he helped me prune the rest of the oleanders.  He did a fine job...BUT when I took the pruners from him to cut a really large branch, he asked if he should go get Grandpa!!!  Are boys just born with that attitude I wonder?  He then helped Gramps haul the branches up the hill to the burn pile.

They left around 12:30 and I set to cleaning.  It was a teeny bit cooler today and will be cooler than normal or normal for the next 10 days or so....I guess no fire season this year...it has been quiet across pretty much the whole country this season.  Until later!

A lovely day with family 9-5

Had a great day today...it wasn't as hot so we were able to spend more time outside.  Ian had a lovely time playing in the dirt, running around and practicing with an old soccer ball he found (at his Friday soccer game he scored 3 out of 4 of his teams goals, he is doing really well).  While Connor was napping Andrea, Ian, Larry and I played Mexican Train dominoes.  Ian pooped out eventually before we finished but he does better all the time.

Andrea requested my spaghetti for dinner so I spent the afternoon making that with a salad and garlic bread...YUMMY.  They have enjoyed seeing the deer every day and this morning for the first time since we've been here something had been in the garbage but none of our plastic bags were ripped open...whatever it was was trying to carry it away.

We are all pooped but Ian is watching our DVD of The Bee Movie...AGAIN, he watches it at least once every time he visits...Seth too. 

Ian borrows my camera too and runs around taking pictures...he took some interesting video this time...its a shame I can't share it with you..ha ha ha.  He took a great picture of his Mom and brother but for some reason it won't upload here...maybe tomorrow.

Pics of the kids 9-4

Our guests arrived and Connor was checking out what he could reach.

Connor looking innocent...not touching anything..ha ha ha.

Ian and Connor..both are growing like weeds.

Connor

Ian

Climbing Grandpa's frame

Connor checking out Grandma's toy.

Andrea checking out her birthday gift.