End of June already?!

I can't believe it's been over a month since I last posted here in "No, Really."

A few weeks ago we went to the Apple store and got me an iPhone.  I must say, all the starry-eyed praise I've heard from other iPhone users - is true. It's an incredibly smart device. Listen, here's how smart this phone is: the iPhone is so smart, it does not find it necessary to make me look stupid to boost its own ego. Anyone who's been made a fool of by some smart thing knows that is an unusual thing in smartness these days. I'm glad I got it! iPhone.

Just a few days after that, the weekend before Father's day weekend, Steve and I were strolling through the Wally and I noticed he had fallen behind - he was there - and then he wasn't. I turned around to see where he was and I saw him standing before a glass counter display in the electronics department. Granted, Steve loves music as much as anyone of our generation, but it is unusual for him to fall out of formation like that, so I rolled back to see what he was looking at.

"See those little things there?" he asked, pointing at some shiny little devices about the size of a Ghirardelli chocolate you sometimes see around the checkout counter at the Walgreen's. "iPod Nano," he said, reading the placard. "When we were at the Apple store the other day, while you were waiting for your new phone, I was looking around the store and I put on a set of headphones - the old-fashioned kind that cover your ears - that was hooked up to one of these little things, and I could hear it!  It was the best sound I've heard in a long, long time. And these little things? They hold thousands of songs!"

"Wow," I said, "That's something, isn't it?" In that moment, I could not wait to get back up to the Apple store and get him one.

In the following week, I got exactly that chance between a car-service appointment and a lunch date with a friend. I stopped by the Apple store and got Steve a tidy little iPod Nano, a set of headphones that cover his ears and a dock that he can plug his Nano into and listen without headphones.

On the way home from that day's errands, Apple gift in tow, the thought popped into my head, What if I brought a puppy home? I imagined myself saying, "Look what I got!" But I didn't bring a puppy home with me because that would be a decision we'd need to make together.

When I got home that day, straight out of the blue, Steve asked, "Can I get a puppy? I'd want to go to an animal shelter, interact, and see who resonates." Seems like one of those times we had the same idea.

In the following week it was extraordinarily difficult to keep from giving Steve his gift of music early, but somehow I managed to wait until Father's Day. He was surprised and pleased.

Meanwhile, the idea of getting a dog was still in the air at our house, and then KFOR news ran a thing featuring the Edmond shelter, about how with all the dogs (and cats) they have, they desperately need families to adopt some of those doggies (and kitties). We talked amongst ourselves about it and decided to center our search a little closer to home.

One day rolled into another, and last week I pulled up some information online about various shelters closer to us than Edmond. Last Thursday we decided to go check out some shelters and interview some dogs.

We ended up at the El Reno shelter where their inventory consisted of (1) a disheveled red and white  spaniel looking guy who barked constantly, (2+) a little wiry terrier looking mom with a passel of little black pups, (3) their alleged daddy (but I wonder, because he was white, and there was not one light complected pup in the litter), (4) a pit bull (not available for adoption because he had killed a couple dozen of his neighbor's chickens), and (5) a medium sized red shepherd mix.

"This one's a pretty good little dog,"  Officer McClain said. "She followed some kids home the other day, and has stayed right on their porch for the last two days. I picked her up just today, and she came right over to me, licked my hand. Friendly. Pretty good little dog."

So we brought her home with us, and she is friendly and a good little dog. Here's a picture of her:



We brainstormed a series of names and settled on "Annie."

Called our family vet, Dr. Terry Wood's office, and they could see her on the following Monday (day before yesterday as I write).  We took her in on Monday afternoon for a checkup, shots, and to get an appointment to have her spayed.

She's about 35 pounds and change. Doc estimates her to be about 8 months of age. He could not give her any shots, though, because she's expecting. About three weeks along, he figures, so we anticipate we'll be whelping a litter of pups in about six weeks. He said as soon as those are weaned we can have her spayed.


In an interesting twist, Dr. Wood had also picked up a dog for himself at the Mustang animal shelter a few weeks earlier that he figures must be a litter mate of Annnie's. Spittin' image, he said - same coloring, same patterning, appears to be the same age and build - only Doc's dog is a male, and Doc discovered his dog had already been neutered.

I am very curious to know more of the story behind these two dogs, but as smart as Annie is, neither she nor her brother speak English, so we'll just have to guess.

Thanks for reading....

~V

Baking Bread Today

For the first time in this new house and the first time in a long time I'm baking bread today.

It's a comfort activity for me, baking our bread, almost a religious experience.

We're still finishing up some of the interior finish woodwork, still moving out of our temporary dwelling, but I'm baking bread today and it feels like home.

Baking Bread with the James Taylor channel on AOL - what could be more placid?

Maybe I'll add a photo of the finished product once it's baked.

If you're curious to know my recipe/method, you can see it here: http://eightsusquehanna.blogspot.com/2009/01/baking-day-and-other-projects.html, bearing in mind that asking me much of anything is like trying to get a drink of water from a fire hydrant. It is a fun read, though, and it will walk you through exactly how I make bread.

Thanks for reading!
Vicki

Dodged Another Bullet

Last night the weather kids very clearly stated that we were very likely to have dangerous weather between three and five in the afternoon today.

This morning Steve and I did some work in the garden, mounding up potatoes, and weeding and mulching  and then replanting the bare spots in the okra row. I told Steve not to set the sprinklers because we'd be having some rain later in the day, and oh, did we ever!

Big crazy mean tornado, grinding through Canadian County, EF5 tornado doing its level best to flatten El Reno and environs, rolling SLOWLY across I-40... long story short, leaving a long, wide path of destruction but missing us to the north...then a firing line of similar weather setting up again, missing us to the south.  The whole time we're watching live continuous coverage with color Doppler radar on our local TV station AND the interactive weather map on the internet.  For hours we watched intense weather patterns heading straight for us, only to dissipate slightly as they neared us as if opening a portal, sending the brunt of storms around to the north or to the south of us.

We did get about forty five minutes of pretty intense, no-kidding-I-really-mean-it rain right here on our little homestead, probably about two inches worth here. (I expect to see okra sprouts shortly!) Then the weather cleared out, moving on to the east, revealing clear skies and sunshine to the west, thank you very much. We had been so wrought up with watching all the color radars and being prepared to go blankets and pillows into our Safe Place that I had not made a move toward supper preparations, so when it was all done for us here, Steve said, "Wanna go up and get a Chick-fil-A or something?"

He went out to the front porch to wait while I locked up the house, and observed a small piece of torn leaf falling straight down from the sky, a little green piece of storm debris. Landed right on our porch.

Now we're back home for the night, and glad to be. Garden got a good quality watering.  There's water in the pond across the road again, and even though it isn't quite full (yet?) it's another beginning. I saw an egret circling the pond again and the sounds of little froggies already fill the air. Doesn't take those frogs long at all!

Wonder what it's going to do tomorrow?

...Looking Forward,
Vicki

Update on Steve's Shoulder

Steve is (counting on my fingers) four days post-op and is doing pretty well, due in large part to the fact that he is NOT out there trying to overdo it for once!

An outpatient, he was ready to go home as soon as he was awake enough to realize the surgery was over. He woke up HUNGRY and scarfed down about a half dozen little packets of crackers and a big ol' Dr. Pepper before he was released, and then a #2 cheeseburger, tater tots and half-Coke-half-Dr.-Pepper from Sonic on the way home, hardly any of which he remembered the next day, Versed.

The first day his arm was "asleep" most of the day because of the anesthesia they used, but he had a pretty rough night as the block began to wear off. Neither of us got much sleep Thursday night, which put me in mind of the days when I had new infants, of reminding myself to sleep when they slept, which I never seemed to remember when they were sleeping. After that first twenty four hours, though, he really did start feeling better, for which both of us are supremely grateful. I am very pleased with his progress. Se see the doc again next Monday.

A pretty girl sent us home with a satchel containing pressure wraps for his legs and one for his shoulder, along with a rechargeable pump that puffs the wraps up while he's wearing them.. The shoulder wrap has freezy stuff in it, so we put it in the freezer for an hour or so, and then put it on him to work its magic until the freezy stuff thaws out or until he's ready to get up. He's been up and about too much to get much use out of the leg wraps, but he's gotten a LOT of relief from the shoulder wrap.Someone was having a good day when they thought up freezy shoulder pressure wraps, I can tell you that.

This morning we took a leisurely walk the length of the field and back, had a bite of lunch, and now Steve is napping in front of the TV while I plink around on the computer with music in my ears thanks to earbuds and the James Taylor channel on AOL Radio.

Steve's having some shoulder work done today. He told the doctor "Once I'm all fixed up and have that 92 mph fastball cookin' again, I'd like it if you could write a note for my file releasing me from dish washing." Doc said, "Hmmm, actually, I usually prescribe 'washing dishes' as part of your post-op physical therapy..." Updates as available....

Thank God We Finally Got Some Rain!

Oklahoma has been in a drought.

The last week or so some weather has wound through the state, usually setting up east of us, and moving east. That evil rash of tornadoes over the last week? Fired up right here in Oklahoma - about thirty miles east of us, heading east. I do not relish heavy weather, not one bit, but we got nary a drop of rain out of all that commotion.

We've been keeping the garden alive with the garden hose. You can certainly keep your garden alive with a garden hose, but rain is the magic potion, and by golly, we finally got some, awaking early Easter morning to sounds of rain.

Not scary - no particular wind to speak of - a little easy lightening, a little light thunder - and rain, from light mist to gentle showers, most of the day. Enough to bring a little standing water in the low places, but not so much as to make the muddy places unbearable.

The birds are all thrilled. You should have heard them out there, singing their happy songs. It was a pleasure to hear!

Speaking of birds...

Birds have a sort of language. The specifics are different for different breeds, and, within breeds, may differ regionally - avian dialects, so to speak - but one consistent thing I've noticed is that they all use warning calls when they detect a threat of some sort. Around here the warning call we hear most often is one we refer to as "calling cat," a brief squawk that actually sounds like the birds are calling, "Cat! Cat! Cat!" I cannot reliably differentiate between a bird calling "Cat!" "Person!" or "Hawk!" but I definitely know a warning call when I hear it.

I was out by the well house  a week or so ago, heard a bird calling "Cat! Cat!" and looked up to see what kind of bird it was.  I stood still, looking toward the sound, trying to triangulate in on it and caught a flash of movement. I focused on the area of movement and saw a woodpecker working its way around the tree. I love woodpeckers and the way they work a tree - it's like they're standing on this vertical surface, moving side to side around the tree, which is what this woodpecker did.

I stood very still, watching, as the woodpecker made its way left and right. I noticed a perfectly round hole in the tree under an old stump of broken off branch, and thought, gee, wouldn't it be funny if a bird lived in that hole? As I stood there watching the woodpecker work its way around the tree, back and forth, it came to the hole and peeked in.  Looked around (as if to see who was watching). Poked its head in the hole. Pulled its head out and looked around. Head and shoulders back in the hole, one last glance out, and then disappeared into the hole!

Awestruck, I stayed put, still watching, and saw a second woodpecker just a few branches away.  I'm thinkin' we have a little woodpecker family making a home right out in the Sweetgum tree behind the house!

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Pleased as punch to have gotten some rain, I stepped out to the garden to get a few photos. Too many to post in this blog entry, but I will give you a teaser and a link. Here is the teaser:

Three Sisters - Beans, Corn, Pumpkin 

...And you can see the rest of the photos from today, if you wish, at http://gallery.me.com/vlnewby#100079.

As always, thanks for reading :) 

Vicki~

This Year's Garden

As we continue to prepare this year's garden, here is a note about what we have in so far:

Potatoes, tomatoes, leeks, onions, sage, mint, lavender, rhubarb, horseradish, turnips, carrots, cabbage, lettuce and dill.

Yesterday we planted some beans called "Ireland Creek Annie Bean," an heirloom shell bean with a bush habit with "superb delicious flavor, makes its own thick sauce." I'll let you know about that later in the season.

Also some wax beans, some Edamame Soy beans, some Cilantro (which I LOVE) some Borage, more dill, and some castor beans.

Castor beans are not for eating - they are highly toxic. This particular variety is a red-leaf variety. Castor plants are tropical guys, but will grow as seasonal annuals here in zone 7. Why in the world would I have a poisonous plant in my garden, you may wonder. They are spectacularly ornamental, true, but Grandma Susie always had a castor plant out by her garden behind her house. She said they kept the gophers out of the garden, so we'll see about that, too.

I still have green beans, pole beans, squashes, cucumbers, pumpkins, and tomatillos to plant. Oh, and Sweet Potatoes, when the slips come in. I have a bed saved for the Sweet Potatoes :)

Will keep you posted!