Doctor visit

I was clearing the back 40. I had the burn pile going (campfire). Making great progress. I pulled out the lawn mower to go over the area I had cleared last week. Tame the clumpy grass. The weather was drizzling. The mower plowed through the weeds. I had set the blades at the highest level. The stickers of blackberries were being chewed up. Then all of a sudden, wham, something was sticking out of my cheek. A piece of debris has slipped past the bag and hit me in the face. The high set on the blade allowed something to fly out and escape from below the wheels.

I take off my work gloves and reach up. I can see out of the corner of my eye something sticking out of my cheek. I think it is a stick. I try to pull at it but I can feel the tug on my cheek. What ever it is it doesn't want to come out easily. I leave the mower and race inside so I can look in a mirror in the bathroom, and see what I have done to my face. I call for Riley. Of course, he is slow to respond not knowing I have had an accident. Riley is the only one home.

Looking in the mirror I can see I have impaled myself with a stick of sorts. I twist it with my finger and try again to pull it out of my face. It takes a few gentle tugs and twists before it finally comes out. It is a piece of hog wire fencing with a little hooked edge on the end which was holding it in place under the skin. By turning the stem, the hook was able to find its entrance point and come out through the existing hole. I cleaned the area as it bled down my cheek. Not a big hole, just about a quarter of an inch cut. Using hydrogen peroxide and water, I rinsed the area, grateful I had my glasses on or that the wire hadn't hit me in the neck or closer to the eye.


The rain started coming down in earnest while I was inside. I asked Riley to bring in the mower as I was finished for the day.

The next day my cheek is puffy and warm to the touch. Something is causing the beginnings of an infection. I am to drive a friend to the airport. She is a nurse, so I ask for her opinion on what to do. She says it is infected and I need to go to the doctor to get antibiotics and have it looked at.

After dropping her off I call for the appointment and can be seen right away. I have my friend's son with me as he is home sick with a cold. She needed to do this trip, but her son would have been sent home from school, so I said I would hang with him. I bribe him with a chocolate milk shake and fries while I drag him with me to the doctor appointment.

The Doctor turns out to be the same doctor that saw Trevor and did Trevor's toe surgery recently. He immediately prescribes antibiotics and warm compresses to raise to the surface any debris that might be trapped under the skin. He notices my ring, which I hadn't been wearing at our previous appointments. The doctor looks down at my chart. I can hear his disappointment in his voice when he says "Oh, you are married." I respond with a smile, "Yes, happily."

He reads further where I have put recent surgeries. He does a double take when he reads I have written "spayed, 2005". He laughs and says he hasn't had anyone write that response before. He tells me the correct term tubal ligation. I tell him yes, I did know that, but spayed or neutered just fits me better.

I have also written down my hand surgery in 2001. He looks up again at my hand. He had been so distracted by my big ring that he had missed entirely my missing and deformed fingers. He asks about the surgery. He knows the doctor that performed it. I explain that the middle finger is a reattachment with a "then" experimental joint. We discuss wearing safety goggles next time I mow the lawn. I tell him I am wearing the full face guard my husband has for when he uses the chain saw.

Our time is about up, so the doctor makes a quick retreat. The nurse comes to give me an updated tetnus shot and I head out with
my young charge to pick up the prescription and get on with my day.

Everyone says how lucky I was not to have been impaled in the eye. Luck would have been not to have been impaled at all. I will be tackling more of the ivy by hand to clearly see what might be beneath. I had been worried about glass bottles. I had found a couple in the yard while clipping. I guess for a while I will just have to stick to the hand pulling and clipping until I am sure all dangers have been addressed. I just need another break in the weather.

Tom and I had a furnace guy come out to bid the conversion to gas from electric, on Friday. With the price of electricity going up and the price of gas at a ten year low, transferring to gas will pay for itself in a short time. The bid came in for converting the water heater, the furnace, the stove, and a line for a fireplace $10,000 or less; $7000 for the equipment, plus the running of the new gas lines. $1700 to bring the gas from the street to the corner of the house the utility company will charge us.

With the price of electricity going up to pay for all the green electricity projects and wind mill farms, it may not take long at all to make this a reasonable decision. The coal plant that Tom is working at is shut down temporarily. There are no plans to put in any new coal power plants. It just makes more and more sense to switch to gas, which is in abundant supply in the USA. One of our own natural resources.


Then there is the remodeling of the kitchen to accommodate the new appliances, which I am guessing will be $3000 to $5000. We will need to move the laundry and build special cabinetry for the double ovens and move some switches in the wall to accommodate where the ovens are to be located. Some drawers will need to be re sized to accommodate the drop in stove top. The island is going to get a complete make over as will our new pantry.


Years ago, my parents converted from an old oil heated furnace to natural gas. With the prices these days, I would think they are rubbing their hands together with glee at their forethought and planning. We anticipate this conversion project breaking even in seven years or less. One thing that came to our attention when comparing our old utility bills with our new ones, we had gas at our last house, was the use of the fireplace. When we used the fireplace the gas bill went up extensively. We were very wasteful. I definitely want a blower on the fireplace so at least it has some utility.

Tom said we wont start this project until summer. We have time to think and dwell on our ideas. Meanwhile, I will continue tackling my backyard hidden by neglect. I am making my list of plants I would like to see. As I clear more land, less expensive ideas filter into my mind. Tom wants a six to eight foot retaining wall. I finally heard back on a retaining wall bid. To have the landscaper do all the work started at $14,000 plus the dirt and gravel to be brought in. I asked for a bid on just the manor stone for me to do it myself. $2500 was all the rock cost. I was guessing a 60 foot length, three feet tall, in two segments. $12,000 is the labor alone. I figure I have two strapping boys that are looking for work. I will have a pallet delivered and we will see how far we get. The estimate said I needed 15 pallets, but I could trim my plans down. Do a little at a time. Work with the existing slopes.

I have been seeing some great pictures on line of steep slope landscaping. Lots of Heather and pretty bushes. I can see the yard manifesting with trails and plantings. I can do this.

Dirt moving

The dump truck arrived at 8:00am. I chose to have them drop at the top of the drive instead of at the bottom. I moved my car to the street so it would not be stuck in the drive way once the dirt blocked the drive. I lay down a plastic tarp to make clean up easy. A little trick I learned along the way. The tarp helps keep the pile together while working.





I decided since the dirt was right next to the bed where I want to put it I really didn't need the wagon right away. I could use a cleaning bucket to scoop and dump. Gravity was in my favor. Besides I didn't want to take the time to tighten the bolts, as I needed every hour today just to get the plants in the ground and get the dirt out of the driveway.

I was working from the top of the drive down. Every plant weighed forty to seventy pounds and was incredibly awkward to shift. I needed to get underneath the plants and pull the existing weed barrier up and dig a hole for each plant. I am going to take advantage of the fact ( cheat) that I want to raise the bed four to five inches so the next time my car tire slips onto the wrong side of the concrete border, the ground will be high enough, I don't get high sided and hung up. Besides I found the ground underneath to be a mass of very inhospitable clay and rock.
This digging holes was a huge undertaking and the longer the plants were out of the ground the worse off they are.




I dug down just enough to make hollows then tossed in the new compost and am hoping that having built up the bed six to eight inches with plants and compost that the plants will survive the transplant. I sprinkled some slow release fertilizer and added another layer of dirt.





It took all day, from 8:00 am when the soil arrived until the children came home at 3:00 pm. I pretty much worked steadily, moving almost three yards of dirt and digging holes and tearing out weed barrier with a knife and shovel. I was sore and grateful when the children finally gave me an excuse to quit.





We had to go volunteer for chess club. Leaving less than half a yard still sitting but covered in tarp. The boys wanted to skip chess, but I told them we had a commitment. If we stayed home I was going to have them help move that last little bit of dirt. They chose chess club.





My muscles are still feeling the workout. This morning it took less than 2 hours to move the last bit and clean up the driveway of the residual spills. I still need to sweep more, but it looks pretty good. I just hope the plants do well.





I still haven't' tightened down the wagon. Now that the dirt is moved using a bucket I am not so motivated to work on the wagon. Tom tackled part of it after work. Riley worked on more bolts. I am told a few remain. Plus since it was sitting unattended some how one link pin was misplaced so one wheel is not attached. I am about ready just to return it to the store rather than deal with it.

The basement is dry. As I had hoped the towels and the concrete absorbed the water and we can now move on.

I did a burn pile today. The weather was overcast and wet and breezy. I figured my neighbor would have his windows shut today and the wind would blow most of the smoke away before it really bothered him again. A friend suggested not burning or using loud power tools on weekends as a consideration to the neighbors enjoying their yards.

I had been doing my work on week days anyway when the one neighbor complained, but I keep that tip in the back of my mind now, so I can tell him how thoughtful I am not to be ruining his weekends next time he complains about my hard work.

to look at the yard, it looks like I barely made a dent. But I know how much I burned of the cut blackberries and downed branches. At the garden show last weekend I talked to the noxious weed specialist from the county. She said not to leave the downed blackberries on the ground as they will sprout creating more roots. I had to clean it up and it has been gnawing at me to get them off the ground before the burn ban in June.

I will continue clipping and cutting. Trevor moved the bricks for the fire pit. I need another fire pit. I am going to have several, so I don't have to drag the debris very far. Once every thing is down to a dull roar I will find a good spot for just dumping debris. But right now there is just too much to dispose of to just pile it up some where.

I am about ready to bring out the mower and set it on high clearance for the cleared areas so I can keep those areas finished without new growth of berries. Keeping this busy makes me feel better about not doing anything regarding the job hunt. Between the boys being sick or needing to be run places and the house and yard work, my days have been pretty full.


As I work on the yard I get some great ideas on the perminant landscaping. The problem is Tom has some ideas also that are more expensive and different from mine. I want to get a few plants in the ground in the back but I am afraid they might get bull dozed when Tom tackles his ideas. It is one of the reasons why I am working so hard at clearing the back so we can see what we have to work with and come to a happy compromise.

Heeeelp

Today I was to drive Trevor to school early to start making up for missing four days last week, due to his cold. Every time I tried to put him to work this weekend he claimed nausea and the need to relax. I get he is still recovering so I assigned him the light duty of watering the plants to keep their roots wet until I can get them in the ground.

Riley and I stopped by a bark and soil place to order a delivery of good top soil for the plants. Three yards to be delivered Monday morning, $136 including delivery. I needed at least two yards so I erred on the side of generosity since I had to pay a $20 delivery fee. $20 was not bad.

Ordering the dirt meant we needed to swing by home depot and buy a wheel barrow. I opted for the four wheeled kind. It came in a box needing assembly. When we got home I put Riley to the task of putting the wagon together. I told him it was a giant Lego set. He put it together but didn't tighten down any of the bolts. The thing felt like it would rattle apart. I will need to do that today.

While Trevor went to put his shoes on, I went into the basement to get a plastic tarp for the driveway to contain the dirt when it is delivered this morning. What I discovered in the basement was another pain in the rear.

Yesterday evening the toilet on the main floor overflowed. It has a running problem. It was probably plugged and someone used it afterwards without noticing and the whole thing continued to drain. I, of course, discovered the flooding. Right by the front door and into the office where both my children were hanging out ignoring the flooding. Who knows how long the toilet had been running. God had taken pity on me at some point and the plug had broken through and stopped going over the top of the seat. But the water covered an extensive area. I screamed flood and sent the boys scampering for towels to mop up the mess.

This morning I went down in the basement to discover that the flood had not been contained to just the first floor. The smelly water had drained through the ceiling of the basement and landed on open boxes. Luckily much of what is left in the basement is in plastic bins. The water had made a stream bed through the boxes in basement creating a gentle shallow pool under the weight training machine and the boys' couch.

Trevor made the mistake of showing up at the car in an undershirt and un bathed moments later. He got the brunt of my frustration. I asked him if he was a homeless person considering he was heading to school in his underwear. I had told him to bath and had him up in plenty of time to bath. He had chosen to sit and eat his breakfast at the computer instead of taking care of his personal needs. I yelled and told him to march back inside and bath and put on appropriate clothing for school. He had wanted to be early. I had wanted him to be early. But I am tired of his smelling stinky in the morning, skipping the shower. He must bath each and every day. I doubt he had bathed in a couple of days, especially with the weekend. I was done. He fumed but went back inside and jumped in a quick shower and put on a real shirt. Of course this time he did not put an undershirt on underneath just to spite me. He was clean and didn't smell, which counted for a lot when driving him to school. We barely beat the bus coming up the hill. He was probably a half our early but not the full hour he needed. He was still putting his belt on as I drove away from the school.

While I was gone delivering Trevor, Riley had tossed the towels down on the basement floor to help absorb the water. These towels had just come out of the dryer from cleaning up the bathroom. Keeping ahead of the disasters is challenging at the moment.

I had been really proud of my accomplishments this weekend. I took the caulk and climbed the ladder to tackle the windows that were leaking in the living room. I took a can of expanding foam and filled in a couple of holes in the exterior siding where a little of that kind of attention was needed. I took a can of insecticide and circled the exterior of the house spraying the foundation. I used an interior insecticide for the baseboards inside the house.

We have been seeing the periodic black ant making an appearance in random locations. I wanted to make the house a little more inhospitable to the ants. If they still continue to show up I will hire an exterminator. I am guessing that will cost $400 for a house this size. I figure the ants are residual from the colony living in the decommissioned hot tub we demolished and destroyed. Searching for a new home, I wanted to make sure they found my home unwelcome.

I still need to dig the holes for most of the boxwood plants. The dirt is being delivered today, this morning, to spread over them ounce they are in the ground. I need to tighten the bolts on the wagon, so it doesn't rattle apart and lose pieces, while I use it to spread the dirt. I need to mop up the basement and continue to get rid of stuff. I am going to have to hose off some things that are salvageable.

This morning I need to be several bodies at once. I am a little overwhelmed. I almost wish I hadn't bought those boxwood on such a great deal, but they do look lovely and they help define the edge of the driveway so the turn is not so blind. No more getting stuck because the edge of the drive is now visible above the grill with these boxwood.

Off to dig holes and avoid the water in the basement, which I am hoping will evaporate away into the concrete given time. I will get everything in the basement moved, I already shifted thing around a bit. I want to take advantage of the sun, which makes working in the yard enjoyable, but will dry out my root balls. But first I have to tighten down my wagon bolts so I can use it.

Tonight is chess club for Riley and Scouts for Trevor. Which means I will get little help from them on any of this after school. I wont even be here to work on anything as I will be cheuffering children. Tom hates Mondays as I am not home to greet him after a hard day at work.

The dirt will need to be moved as quickly as possible as it will be blocking much of the driveway. Which is why I am prioritizing the plants and wagon over the basement flood. No one will see the basement. It will still be there waiting when I get back to it. Lovely day.

Boxwoods

A friend suggested I check on Craigs list for plants, see if I can find a great deal. I did see an add for boxwood. It said I would need to dig them up. I had Riley come with me as Trevor has been sick and lacks energy at the moment.

We are running late as I needed to swing by Ace and by new shovels. All my shovels had broken and I was down to none. The house is up in the hills with a beautiful lawn edged by boxwood. The wife considers the boxwood stinky weeds and wants them gone.
The husband said sure. Surprisingly, I am their first customer. Probably because until this weekend the weather has been too crappy to do any gardening for anyone around here.

Riley and I pull up in the jeep, which I have taken the precaution of lining with plastic. We pull out our shovel. The husband looks at us and asks if we would like some help. He has a tractor with a shovel bucket. I say sure I would appreciate it. He asks how many and I say as many as $30 will get me. Pretty soon we have the whole north row of the driveway dug up and loaded into his tractor trailer. He has even volunteered to deliver them to my house. Twice as many as I had anticipated and delivery too. With the proper tools you can really get a lot done and have fun doing it.

The only thing I can figure is he really wanted those boxwood gone and this way he didn't have to worry about the disposal of them after he pulled them up. The tractor arrived and and I had both Trevor and Riley help unload. The husband was tossing these massive root balls around where I directed along the driveway. The boys helped using the wheel barrow. I was so grateful. There was no way I could have accomplished this many bushes and gotten them home without the husband's help with his tractor and trailer. I gave him $40 for his plants and felt guilty it wasn't more.

Once he left I got to work digging holes in the ground. We hit weed barrier and then clay within inches of the surface. Each hole was torturous. First Trevor bailed then Riley as the work was intense and difficult. Riley helped with the suggestion of watering the area thoroughly to loosen up the ground. By the end of the day only four plants were in the ground.

I slept in until 10:00 am today from exhaustion. I had the boys water the plants as soon as I got up to keep the roots moist. I need to have compost delivered. I have decided if I can cover the roots in good dirt perhaps they will stay happier. I definitely need to amend the soil and these plants are big. I would never have been able to afford them from a nursery. I just wish I could have been more prepared with the ground ready, but with Craig's list you have to move swiftly.

The husband was going to pull the plants out either way. I was just their motivator to get the plants removed immediately. He did make $40 rather than having to pay for a dumping fee. Still He was a great find with his tractor, which he told me he rents by the hour for $50 with a 4 hour minimum. I told him I would call when we were ready. I still have to dispose of the blackberries.

Today's project will be to get that lower campfire pit going.

posting mad

I shouldn't post mad, but dang Trevor can make me mad. I checked his phone messages to make sure he was being good. The posts were all innocuous. The one that pissed me off was the one where they were discussing his reading book for English and he admits to skipping tons of chapters. He hadn't done well on the tests, telling me they were tricky. They were tricky because he hadn't read the material. I just want to yell and scream and spank him. Instead I tell him he can be grounded from his scout trips.

He is still home with his fever. It spiked as he sat on the couch getting ready for school. He could feel it coming on as he asked for a thermometer. I had told him he had to go to school today if he wanted to do a scout trip. Now the scout trip is off the table as I send him back to bed.

I am so mad at Trevor for the missing assignments and grades. From one week to the next he is all over the place. He seems to be able to focus on just one class at a time. He has to figure out a way to do all six. Considering most of the time he is watching TV or playing games. This cold does not help as he now has a week of work to make up on top of the other stuff he didn't do.

Visited the Rental

I finally convinced a friend to do the road trip with me. Well, she called me and told me she had an errand to do and would I like to go with her, if we swung by my old house and picked up that lawn mower I had been wanting and check out the new tenants.





I met the woman. I saw the new paint in the rooms they had done. Only two rooms had been painted, which was disappointing. She had also painted R's old room that was so nice already. She had gone pink. She has girls, two little girls not in preschool yet. Pink is in, blue is out. The yellow is very bright in the newly painted bonus room. The Master bedroom looks stunning. I loved that room totally.





My girlfriend noted that overall the house looks better than when we lived in it. Okay, that works for me. My girlfriend got good vibes off the whole situation, which made me feel better as I am all a twitter from our last experience. It might be possible that she liked the family because they have an 11 year old chihuahua, which my friend tends to melt over. But she was right, the house was clean, the children happy and friendly. They seem to be loving the house, so all is good.My concerns may be nothing.





I left letting her know that if they are going to buy the house they needed to buy it by 2016 as I will be putting it on the market again if they don't buy it. I told her we have five years to sell and avoid capital gains tax or IRS issues and treat the house as a primary residence. I have four years left in which to sell the house. From previous conversations with the other new tenant and then with her, I got the feeling he was not very good at passing on important information. Information I would want to know if I was in her shoes. I want them planning and motivating. I do not want to carry on being a land lord for ever. This house cost too much money to be a rental. Even with the new mortgage we are still in the hole, just not as deeply. There is no room for repairs. The insurance is out of our own pockets. I want the house sold.





It was nice to see the house being cared for. As long as the rent is on time, I will try not to dwell. Meanwhile Tom laughed at me and asked what I planned to mow with my lawn mower back in my garage. There is a little swath of overgrown grass I can mow in the back. Once the blackberries are cleared from below I could grass down there. It will be a pill. My girlfriend said she wouldn't want to be dragging that lawn mower up and down the hill. I said maybe I would get a cover for it and just keep it down below as needed. Maybe get a little shed for tools for down below. I wish it was a self propelling mower now. I didn't need one at our old house, but I could sure use one here.





I am beginning to see plans though. I am pinning down the plants I will want to put in. Everything from a Camilla or two to a couple of Arborvitae and a Laural to fence off the neighbor's house visually. A few fruit trees are needed. The snow has delayed any yard work at the moment. But it is almost April and spring break and my boys owe me some serious yard work for summer expenses.





There is even a merit badge involved for Trevor to earn his summer camps legitimately from the sweat of his own labors. I look forward to the help in the yard. I will even let him feed the blackberries into the fire. I can only burn until June so if he doesn't want to have to drag the debris up the hill to the driveway, he'll need to motivate and start burns now.





Meanwhile Trevor has been home sick this week. I got a call from the school nurse, Trevor was in her office with a head ache and nausea. When I asked how bad she said there is a vomiting flu bug going around and she would prefer he not throw up at school. I said I would be down in ten minutes. She said he would be outside waiting. I arrived at the school in time to see Trevor heaving into a garbage can by the pick up area. The school nurse knew what was coming.

Trevor has a gross bug and has been home for three days now coughing and heaving and feeling miserable. I have been pushing chicken noodle soup and water and juice, easy foods on the stomach. I dread the make up work time when he gets back to school.





This morning there was snow again on the ground. Riley thought there might be two hour late start. I tell him to check the e mail for an alert. He calls out to me "late start". Minutes later my phone rings and one of my girl friends calls to tell me she is surprised there is no late start. I tell her Riley said there was. I go and check the e mails myself. Riley was reading an announcement from his old school in Oregon. They have also had snow and are on late start. Our school is on regular schedule, thank you very much. Hate to disappoint Riley but he had better run to catch his bus. I tell him he needs to be careful to check which school bulletin he is reading in the future.





Trevor lies miserably in his room coughing and just feeling overall miserable. I look out the window at the late March snow on the ground wishing I could go out and garden. I am going to check Craig's list for plants. This weekend is a gardening show I am going to attend. Despite the weather I am going to think positively green.

moss cleaning

I couldn't stand the build up of mossy green slime on my roof. You can see the obvious growth since the roof is supposed to be a smooth glossy metal and instead looks scummy under the gutters and rough coated with a skim coat of moss growing all over the rest. I had been talking to a friend who just went out and used a scrubber and water on a green mossy growth on a house. She said the simple approach worked.









I got out my extension ladder that I bought at the auction for $30. It can be an A frame to eight feet. Tall enough to reach the lower gutters. I worked for two hours on the garage roof as that is the easiest to reach having a nice paved front for the ladder to sit properly. I used the new mop I bought Tom for the kitchen to reach as far up each of the roof slats as I could. Soapy water in a bucket and the long pole to help reach further. The best was the little hand brush though as most of the build up was on the bottom edge just above the gutters. Scrubbing off the heavy moss was very satisfying even though it made the parts I hadn't scrubbed look even worse.









I worked my way in sections of three feet. Three feet was about as far as I could reach easily each time I had to move the ladder. It was good exercises. Tom asked me if I could get thin for him one more time. I had been thin right after the upstairs man cave floor went in. All that stooping and hammering kept me out of the kitchen and physically fit. This yard work will do the same if the weather would just cooperate. Keep me out of the kitchen and physically fit.









A neighbor walking her dog stopped to tell me how pleased she was to see me working on the house. Getting the yard cleaned up. The new can arrived for the yard waste and I filled it to over flow with ivy today and have it already out for pick up which isn't until Friday. I figure for a few weeks it may just sit up there and get filled immediately until the front yard is under control. At $10 a month it is still cheaper than hiring a clean up crew to come haul everything away. That bid was $1800.





A friend suggested when we bring down a few of the trees that we use the trunks to build up the retaining wall They wouldn't last though since they would decompose. I found a great book at the thrift store from Better homes and gardens with landscaping advice. There is a chapter on dry creek beds for run off and a chapter on steep hillsides. The problem with the reading is I sit and eat while I read. The doing is much more productive and keeps me out of the kitchen.


The rains are coming down again so today I am stuck inside. As I drive my car out of the driveway to go pick up children or run an errand I can at least admire the roof section I was able to get clean. I am told there is a spray I can use that does the work for me and I would just hose it off, but that stuff costs money and I haven't found out the name. Elbow grease and soapy water seem to be doing the job at the moment.

Tried a new recipe last night. I knew before I started the odds of the family liking it was slim. I had stopped at an Indian food store and bought some spices and Lentils. Lentils are supposed to be very good for you. Strike one against with my family. I thought it was lovely when finished, a mild Indian side dish. Riley found it too spicy. Trevor found it not spicy enough, and Tom just didn't bother caring at all. Tom fed his portion to the dog, laughing that the only time the dog pays attention to him is when there is a plate in his hands. Everyone knows how food picky Tom is, even the dog.

The problem with the family not liking the lentils is I bought a couple of bags of the beans. They plump up substantially. Now I have this food stuff in my cupboard and no one will eat it but me, and it is too much food for just me. I am going to try experimenting with flavors or add it to the stuff the family does like. It is kind of like Tofu in that it takes on the flavor of what ever is put in it. I liked it.

Room mate reunion

My 25th for College is this year. I have some friends that went to our 20th. They were not going to the 25th, having been there and done that already at the 20th. We all arranged to meet at the coast instead for a fun weekend of catching up. The drive wasn't nearly as long as it would have been if we drove back to the college campus.





One of my old room mates has just purchased a beach house. I mean "just". They bought it last summer and it still smells new and looks new. They had it built. A lovely two bedroom walking distance to the beach. There were four of us, just the right number for the cabin. No spouses and no children this trip.





They all brought knitting and sewing projects to work on. Not an idle hand in the group other than me. I brought home improvement magazines to read to plan for my next project. I am on hold until I can control my spending or get a job to support my renovation habits.





My girlfriends are what you might call master knitters. The projects are professional with fancy stitching and beautiful yarns. Socks, scarves, mittens, sweaters and bags in lovely patterns and colors. One friend tells of her sell out craft booth at a recent bazaar. Having seen the finished products, I can believe it. If only she could make these beautiful items in volume she could open a successful store. They compare stitches and opinions on colors while I watch in wonder, their hands flash as the needles flicker and the rows grow. Talking and knitting at the same time without missing a stitch.





Meanwhile I plan the move of my laundry room and price out the plumber and electrician. I do get to saw a branch off a tree that has fallen over on the property, but that is the extent of any house projects. The deer pass by while we drink our morning coffees. Tame enough to come close to the windows, while we watch just feet away.





The weather on Saturday was lovely, cool but sunny. We all are able to walk the beach. One friend looks for agates. A gentleman comes up to me to ask if we had seen any refuse from the Japanese Tsunami. Supposedly the tides have been dropping debris on the beaches. I hadn't noticed. There was a pile of garbage in the dunes, perhaps gathered off the beaches by clean up crews.





I get out a comfortable beach chair our hostess has found while thrift store shopping earlier in the day, and settle in for a good magazine read while the more ambitious of our group continue to walk further down the beach. I am not a beach walker so much as a beach sitter. I love to snuggle down in a warm coat and watch the surf, listen, and read. It is funny how the sight of the water makes me want to go to the bathroom. Walking only exacerbates the feeling. Sitting is much more comfortable.





We are all on frugal budgets. The world has not been that kind to our generation. All our husbands have been in and out of work over the past 10 years. We ourselves have been in and out of work the past 10 years. Refinancing mortgages, buying cars, supporting children, nursing sick parents, none of us has escaped from some tragedy or stress.

One friend's father is in the midst of stage four cancer and not expected to be around by the end of summer. The other three of us have already lost one parent each. We empathize with that painful trauma she is experiencing, wishing for her pain to be gone, yet hoping for a better outcome than what we all know will be coming, loss and tears. I am glad at least for the moment this weekend provides for her, with friends letting her escape and enjoy. We all understand having been there in that struggle to support and love a sick and dear parent.





The budget for the weekend is tight. We eat in most meals. We have pizza the first night at a restaurant. Enjoying being out without family. The next night we toss together what ever everyone brought to create delightful food for our pallets. Home made soup for the first course and pasta with brots and stewed tomatoes for the second. One friend makes a cake to celebrate a belated birthday. The event is effortless for everyone. No catering to the needs of others.

My phone rings several times during the weekend as either Tom or my children check in on me wondering if I know where something is in the house or if a friend can come play. I am miles away but still have the answers to problems at home. My friends laugh at the number of times my family calls me.

We have such a fun time. Not once is the TV turned on or music played. No one has an I phone or the latest gadget or game. I wish the weekend could have lasted longer. Relaxed and sated we head home to reality of children, husbands, and work.

When I get home. The family is hungry. We had laughed at the beach when one of us had received a text asking what she wanted for dinner when she got home. At my house I had to go out and grocery shop for dinner after my drive home. Everyone was waiting for me. Tom had cooked up fajitas, but he needed fresh tomatoes. He had also been doing one of his cleaning projects. The kitchen counter sparkled, but the floor still needed mopping. I buy a mop while I am grocery shopping. I usually do the mopping by hand because you can get into the crevices and scrub the kick plate under the counters. Tom likes a mop. He doesn't crawl on the floor.

The boys had tried to go bowling on Saturday, but they couldn't get a lane at the local alley as the place was booked up. When I got home Trev called his friends and arranged for me to take them since they hadn't been able to go the day before. While they bowled I got the shopping done. I was tired by the end of the day. It had been a full and busy schedule.

I am sad the weekend is over. It barely was long enough to see everyone and catch up. They all live reasonably close to one another so they can see each other more often. For me, the weekend barely scratched the surface of time. I can't wait to get together again. I miss that college time, just hanging out, puttering with good friends. Life seems to be both fast and slow at the same moment.

Weeding

The rain is driving me crazy. I just want to go out and work in the yard. There was a gap in the storms today. Just a little drizzle that petered out after a while. I found my old thick leather gardening coat with the hood and some heavy vulcanized gloves. Tom had mentioned the front walk needs to be sprayed for the weeds coming up. I decided to tackle it by hand. There is definite satisfaction in pulling up the weeds root and all, knowing the ones you get whole wont be growing back again.


With this wet weather the weeds come out with satisfying ease. Sucking out of the ground with only the rare breakage of the long carrot shaped root. I was able to work for at least a good hour before I was finished going down both sides of the front walk. Large green piles of weeds were left in my wake as I worked. I will need to leave the piles for now as I filled up the garbage can with ivy and put it out for garbage day, just before I started doing the weeds.

I went all along the exterior of the driveway, tugging out dead blackberry roots from earlier sprays and new weeds trying to sneak by my vigilance. Because of the rain, the weeding was a muddy mess. The piles by the end of my working were a testament to my labors. My back and legs ached a little from bending over and stooping. I tried to stretch as I worked, I could feel my unused muscles in my legs pulling at me. I finally needed a break for some water and came inside. Shortly after the rains started again in another torrential down pour.

I am waiting for a drier gap, so I can caulk the southern exposure windows that need to be re caulked to keep the water out of the house. The rain has been forcing its way through the exterior seam where the caulking has grown old and cracked. Easy fix if only the weather would cooperate and dry out for a day. The caulk needs to set for some hours in warmer drier conditions. Just one day of sunshine is all I need.

I still haven't made my trip to the rental to pick up the lawn mower. Between snow, rain, and the few sunny days that allow me to catch up on the yard, I have been putting off the drive. I will get down there eventually. I can check up on how everything is going with the old house. Haven't heard any complaints so I assume all is well. I see sun again. I may go into the back yard and see if I can get some blackberry roots while the soil is so accommodating to pulling them out by hand.

Flat Tire

Riley has reached the point in his 10 hours of driving experience, including the class, of being able to point out every time a driver does something incorrect, including me. I take the calm quiet approach as he criticizes my forgetting to signal for a turn when there is no traffic around; or not stopping at exactly the right point for the stop sign. He points out the other drivers on the road making mistakes also. He tells me he is probably the best driver on the road as he follows all the rules. I grin and bear it. I am glad he is vigilant.

Trevor calls for his pick up from after school track, on this cold and rainy day. I tell Riley to get his wallet and keys so we can go pick him up. I want Riley to drive. Every moment behind the wheel is good experience. Afternoon has traffic, Riley needs practice changing lanes and driving in traffic. We arrive at the school. Riley sees his brother and keeps driving until I tell him to stop, making Trevor walk further to reach the car.

The driveway into and out of the school gets a lot of traffic as you can imagine. The road is pretty beat up. Pot holes are full of water with the rain coming down. Riley plows into one and then another. I tell him he needs to miss the pot holes, they can cause a flat tire with the sharp hard edges of asphalt or concrete. We arrive at our driveway shortly. Riley proceeds to turn down the drive. He miss measures the turn and plows into the concrete retaining wall that curves down the left side of the drive. I tell him if he hit any harder he could have set off the air bags. I said I would have really gotten mad if he set off the air bags.

We drive into the garage. As Riley turns off the engine looking very sheepish, I tell him to walk round the car to look for damage. That is when we discover the fully flat tire on the front passenger side. I tell him to back the car out so we can change the tire, then call a halt. There is plenty of room to do the change right here in the spacious garage. He has left enough room to comfortably work on the car out of the wet and rain.

As punishment for the pot hole and the concrete wall, I tell Riley he will have to empty the trunk of everything as the spare is underneath all the junk and garbage. I drag over the big garbage can. Being Riley, he goes and gets a pair of rubber gloves to wear so he doesn't have to touch anything with his bare hands. You never know what gooey mess might be under the next layer. He dumps everything on the floor of the garage where I help in sort and toss garbage from keep. Most of it is garbage with the exception of three umbrellas. I had been wondering where my umbrellas were, left in the trunk from football season.

The carpet comes up to expose the spare. It is a mini spare tire. We get out the jack and feel for a metal plate under the car, as I explain that the plastic might crush and not hold, so you want to find the right spot for the jack to hold properly. The jack has a top seam that keeps the metal from slipping out when you put it in the right place. I have Riley pump up the jack turning the funky crank until the tire is off the ground fully. I tell Riley he doesn't have to get it up really high as the higher it goes the harder it falls. Best to get the car jacked up just enough. I dump some of the items we are keeping on the trunk and hood and park the garbage can behind the car, to remind us all not to drive it without a tire. I explain to Riley, someone could easily get in the car on the driver's side not realizing that the passenger tire is missing. I want to make it obvious "Don't Drive".

I decide that we can just throw the bad tire into the other car and take it down to Les Schwab. No point in putting on the mini spare only to have to remove it again. Riley finds the special tire iron and asks which way to undo the bolts. "Lefty loosy, righty tighty", I say. I tell him sometimes the bolts are on so tight you have to jump on the tire iron to get them started. The first one does take some muscle. Once loose though, Riley uses his fingers to unscrew it. He gets the others off and puts them into a bowl I hand him to make sure they don't get lost. We both laugh at the same time and comment about the scene in a "Christmas Story" where the boy tries to help his father and loses all the nuts in the snow. I tell Riley that is why I am having him do the whole thing.

Riley asks when the last time I had to change a tire was. I can barely remember. I tell him I have called AAA or a tow truck, but they cost $90. This is a good experience for both of us. Since we are in a dry garage, it is not even a cold wet job. Riley is enjoying himself, something to tell his teacher at his next driving class. I don't think he will be driving through pot hole puddles as often either.

We load the tire into the other car but by the time we get to the tire store, the store is closed. I will be dropping off the tire later. Tom calls, he has arrived home before we get back from our unsuccessful errand. Trevor has informed his father that Riley crashed the car. I tell Tom it is just a flat tire. The car will survive to drive another day. Riley is not happy Trevor said anything, but I tell Riley not to worry, the hard part is over. The car will be in one piece again, once we get the tire fixed or replaced. His father will not be mad.

This is the reason we are driving around in old beat up cars, so if and when my children hit concrete walls trying to park or get flat tires, it is not a big deal, just an experience to have so he knows what to do if his parents aren't around to make suggestion or help. Hopefully, Riley wont be correcting my driving as often since he seems to be really good at having his own little oops now. I sit serenely in the passenger seat clutching my hands together white knuckled, awaiting our next driving adventure.

good choices

I waited around all morning for the tractor excavator guy to stop by. He didn't show up so I went up to the club for a delightful lunch with friends. As I left the club he called apologizing that a job he was working went over and he had no cell service at the country location. I told him to come by as I was available.

He arrived at my front door in light brown car hart overalls, looking like he had been working hard. An older gentleman with a limp from climbing around all day on a construction sight. He knew his stuff. I took him out to the back deck to look at the yard. He offered the opinion that we could just turn our backs and ignore it. He also said I didn't have a lot of dirt to work with. he would have to be judicious to make it work. He said all the black berries need to be gone and everything on the ground scraped away. The decomposing debris would create a slick carpet under the new dirt if it was left and cause the ground to slide away unless the top layer of the old dirt was clean of the dead blackberries. What a chore, with that news I knew it would be a while. besides we want the soil really dry before we move it around, the least disturbed the better.

I told him I did want that retaining wall as you could see the ground slumping away slowly. We want to stop that erosion for good. He said the project would cost $2200 just to move the dirt around to where we would want it. Create two terraces. one at the house level and one below. He said it would create probably a six to eight foot retaining wall, no way to get around it, there just wasn't enough product or soil to work with, on the first level. the lower level wouldn't be so bad. H wasn't allowed to put anything over the sewer system, which is the deer path. So the project will end short of that deer path. I will still continue to clear to the fence. Plant my fruit trees down at the fence as I know that area will be undisturbed once the black berries are gone.

I called the dig line to have the water and electric marked out so I knew where everything was. When the water people marked the line for me yesterday, they gave me the paperwork from an earlier camera scoping of the sewer line. We don't have a clean out on our property. There are ones on both sides of us. Around our hook up at the bottom of our property on the the deer trail, three feet under ground, are leaks and roots. I asked if I should be concerned. The Utility man said it was their problem on the main sewer line. The line wasn't bad enough to deal with yet. I just have to be careful not to dig or bury that area, thus defining the upper terrace. I may only put in the one retaining wall for the upper house at this time. Especially if the excavation alone is $2200. Can't wait to hear what an engineered wall costs, since we are over four feet.

Last night Trev went to a teen activities center a non profit organization sponsors. A friend has been before and thought he would like it. He was dropped off a few minutes before the doors opened. The friend saw some other friends and rather than check in when the doors opened opted to skip out. This program lasts until 10:30 once the doors opened. It is well supervised with a couple of gyms to play pick up basket ball or dodge ball or do crafts in the rooms. There are TVs with movies and comfortable couches. There are multi player WII games or X box. Its a night for teens in a safe environment, if you go inside.

I am so happy and grateful Trevor opted to go inside. He made the right decision. The friend will be in huge trouble having chosen to not go safely into the building. Running around in a not so nice area of town after dark is just looking for trouble. Who know the next time what might happen.

Trevor had a blast, and wants to go again. He said Riley would love it since they have the multi player WII games and X box. Trevor knew other people there from school. Funny thing is he said he didn't know every one's names but they knew his. I hear through the grape vine of parents of other children he is well liked at school.

He was texting like mad in the back seat while I was trying to have a conversation with him. I asked who he was texting. His regular text friend had her phone taken away for receiving an inappropriate picture from another boy. That boy needs to be reported, but I will leave it to the her parents to work it out. Trev said she was totally pissed and blew up at the young man at school for causing her to have her phone privileges revoked for something he did.

Mean while Trev is texting another girl. I ask if she is pretty. He says yes, but she is in a wheel chair from a birth defect. He legs didn't develop. I glow with pride. My boy does not discriminate against girls with disabilities. He is texting madly. Of course now that he has unlimited texting I will have to start checking his conversations just to make sure they are appropriate. Wouldn't want Trev to get himself or anyone else in trouble like that other young man. At 11:00 pm another text comes in. I hear the phone do its little warning jingle. I tell Trev there will need to be rules. No texting after 9:30 pm on school nights. No texting after 10:30 pm on weekends, though I know there will be exceptions.

One of my other friends told me her daughter hasn't been getting enough sleep because she will receive and respond to text calls until two in the morning, causing sleepless nights. I want to nip that issue now. I told Trev he will have his phone confiscated at night if he stays up late texting. He is hard enough to deal with when he reads a book late at night. He needs his sleep. He texts his friend the new rules and picks up his book to read. I did not hear the phone again.

I am just so pleased with Trevor and his choices. He owes me money for his camps. I am posting the debit and credits on the fridge. I told him last night his good decisions have bought him some credits toward camp. No yard work needed. There are still plenty of hours owing. I am not worried about losing some hard labor. I wanted to reward him for his good choices.

He recognized the idiocy of his friend leaving to go carousing for trouble, and moved away from the situation. He makes friends with cute girls in wheel chairs along with cute girls in band. He plays in the pep band, he plays football, he does scouts. He goes early to school to get his work done for the classes he is struggling in. I glow with parental pride.

Not to leave Riley out of the equation, he has been living an exemplary semester. Trying to stay on top of his grades. He passed his drivers class without a hitch. Still has 40 more hours needed behind the wheel before he can get his real license. Trevor is going to take Riley with him to the teen night next time. Now that Riley has heard from his brother what it is about he is more amenable to going. Riley was intrigued by the eight player gaming. My goal is to get Riley interested in something healthy outside the house, give him a little social life.

So the move seems to have been good for everyone. Everyone is settling in nicely. We have been hear a little over six months now.

Scout program

I have some dear friends that are LDS. I don't follow that faith, but I love the family support and unity. They really know how to be involved in their children's lives. Recognizing the gift children are in our lives.

I had to pick up the coupon cards for Trevor's scout troop fund raiser. The location of the pick up was at the local LDS center. There are young people, not quite teenagers, in the main hall to direct you as you come in the main door, send you to the right room for your meeting, smiling and helpful children.

The meeting I was to attend was for Scouts. Full of parents, and some children, most were wearing scout uniforms, adults and children. Happy and cheerful to be involved in such a wonderful program for boys. The order of the arrow presented the opening ceremony. The boys were well adjusted and happy, having a delightful time being the center of attention with smiling adults enjoying the entertainment.

One young man, order of the arrow is for the teen age boy, had long hair down his back. I was impressed with his long hair. It was quite the statement. Perhaps he had an affinity with Samson in the bible. I loved that he looked so comfortable in his own skin. I loved that he broke the mold of scout steriotype. He had probably never had lice. I loved the feeling in the room of caring and support. The boys on stage reflected that caring with their comfortableness being center stage.

The boys were taking time to participate in a safe and fun activity. The parents were being parents, involved and caring who their children associated with. I wish Trevor had come with me to feel the good vibrations in that room, know what he was involved with something on a bigger scale. This was a district meeting. Troop and pack leaders from all over our area were participating.

Many of the people in the room were too old to have their own children in the program. They were involved because they cared about the Scouting program. They know they can make a difference in a program that works. Keeping boys on the right road to success is challenging these days when there are so many opportunities to fall by the way side and fail. These boys will have good influences with their peers and leaders. They will do fun activities they would otherwise never get the opportunity to do; Hike fifty miles, camp out, shoot targets, go snow shoeing in a national park.

Being a scout opens doors that they might otherwise not even know were there. Hidden gems of fun and experiences that may lead to greater deeds. In the first generation of astronauts there was not a single man in space that had not been an eagle scout.

A dear friend of mine has a son who was a recent scout. She told me he received a scholarship right out of college to go do good deeds in Bolivia, with the roof and stoves program. Showing people in third world countries safe construction techniques for roof and stoves. Such a simple thing yet so very important. She said the influencing factor in that donation was that her son had Eagle Scout on his resume.

There are always going to be the weirdos in every group. I have told my boys to be alert. Tom has given them his own lecture. Being involved helps keep the dangers away. This program gets boys, their needs , their personalities. It works. For our family it works extremely well as Tom and I don't do those outdoor camping and hiking activities. We are not depriving our children of their own opportunities to experience the great outdoors just because we don't do it.

I took Tom camping once. He kept his I pod in his ears the whole time. The sounds of the wilderness disturbed him. He paid $4.00 for a hot shower at the ranger station. We had only been out one night. I am glad Trevor enjoys the Scouts the way it is supposed to be. Becoming a good person and a contributing member of society through good works and fun experiences, with the support of a group of involved and caring adults. The good works these people are doing shows its success in the cheerful and helpful children that greet you at the door when you walk in.

Burn pile

The city ordinance allows for three foot camp fires. The fire must be contained and attended at all times. I have ordered an extra garbage can as there is no yard waste service. The extra can is $10 a month extra. I just have to bring it up to the street with the other cans on garbage day. I checked into the costs of the other options. Having a big 300 gallon can is $100 deposit with a $10 pick up and $10 drop off fee and $2.50 a week rent. Go for the even bigger cans and the pick up and drop off fees go up to $120 plus the rent is by the day. I can get a lot of mini services in a regular can for $10. The regular cans are 90 gallons.

I filled this week's can to over flowing with ivy. I am clearing the wall out front so the hoop is fully exposed for games. With our cars in the garage, the driveway is ready at all times for a pick up game. I need to raise the hoop to standard height. Trevor commented on needing it at the right level. Easy fix I hope. I still have piles of dead ivy from last fall. With the new can coming I can load it up with the front yard debris every week.

Meanwhile, while I wait for my can to be delivered, I started gathering the downed tree branches and woody blackberry sticks that litter my back yard and toss it on the camp fire I built in the back yard. My neighbor comes out on his deck and tells me that I can't burn leaves. I tell him I am not burning leaves I am burning the trees I cut down. I tell him to look at my yard, I am trying to clean it up, give him a better view to look at. His yard is not much better than mine, but it is better.

He is not happy about the smoke. I ask him if he can shut his windows. What does he expect me to do with all this downed wood and more to come. Some of the wood is from previous owners. I can't bring in my lawn mower until the sticks are all gathered up. It is a long haul to the front yard. Camp fires are allowed from October to June. I have a window of opportunity.

I plan on moving my camp fire around the yard, no more than three feet big. I did a good job cleaning up the area I worked on. I will try not to make the fires on his side of the property so the smoke will hopefully go another direction than towards his house. I want to get those bushes put in between our houses so he doesn't have to see me at work. A couple of arborvitae and a Laural should give both of us a good screen.

This is the same neighbor that asked me not to start using noisy power tools before 9:00 am as he sleeps in. I tried to accommodate while putting the hard wood floors in the man cave. Smoke from my fire is a little more troublesome. I can't control where the smoke goes. The neighbor probably loved when the house was vacant as no one disturbed his peace.

Once everything is under control, he can have his peace back. I just need to get the yard under control. I have to say my complaining neighbor has neglected his house. It needs a paint job as the faded blue is noticeable. He has cardboard up on his windows to keep out the light. He also has blue tarp hanging over the sliding door of his deck, I assume to keep the heat in or the light out again. He occassionally mows his lawn but it is shrinking with my encroaching black berries. A work in progress, but no one seems to be working.


Riley came home from school. I thought he might like to hang out around the fire pit, but he had no interest. When I went to pick up Trevor from track, Riley took the hose I had out and poured water on the fire to put it out. He didn't want to tend the fire while I was gone.

I will start a new fire this weekend and get another area tended. I don't know what to do about my neighbor, but I am within my rights and the yard has to be tamed. The yard work will eventually end, but I do love my little fires.

Beautiful day

I walked with my girlfriend this morning, three miles, after seeing the boys off to school. this morning, I was calling to Trevor to get out of bed and take a shower. He is in track now.He needs to shower every day. He picks up his phone by his bed and texts me "Leave me alone." to my phone. I am sure he meant it in the best of humor. I yell at him again to get up and take a shower.

Riley is already downstairs. He goes to bed at nine at night and awakens well rested at six in the morning. Trevor stays up reading until 10:30 or 11:00 some nights, if I don't catch him and tell him to turn his light out.

Tom has to be up by 4:30am these days in order to do the hour drive to work and be there early. They have broken ground on the project he is working on and things are intense. He comes home exhausted and is in bed by nine also.

Riley takes his written driver's test today. Yesterday, he passed the sample test with flying colors, best grades in the class. Only missed one question because he miss read it.

I also had Riley check his school grades, only to find missing assignments he thought he had turned in. We are going to have to check those on line grades regularly. He is close to honor role again. It just has taken some time to settle in and learn this new system. I know he can do this.

Trevor is also loving school but needs to check his grades on line regularly. He is motivated by track. He will be in great shape. He tells me they make the big kids wear pregnancy gear. It is a forty pound weight suit they have to run a mile in. He also has to stand holding the throwing discs with arms extended for over a half an hour, so he says. Great conditioning for football.

At Scouts, they are starting a fundraiser for which I am now chair. I track the sales and money for the boys. 50% of the sales will go to credit for the boy's camps this summer. Trevor is costing me a mint. He has football camp and scout camp. Both camps run about $275 each. He will be fund raising for band and football and track and scouts. Everyone is doing discount cards. Pick your preferred card. Last year I just bought all his cards for football. No way am I doing that this year. He is involved in too many activities.

The sun is out. I am heading out to clip blackberries. Did I tell you it is $180 for eight hours of a tractor plus the $60 drop off and pick up. The yard may be too steep for Tom and me to do it ourselves. We may have to hire it done. Add that to the costs. So I clip away at what I can do.

Yard work

I stared out the window all morning waiting for the sun to appear. Finally at 1:15 pm, the sun came out. I raced into my work clothes and grabbed my clippers. Some where in the back of my blackberry infested yard is what looks like a cyclone fence. I want to find that fence as it could indicate my property boundary.

From my upstairs bedroom window I can see a glint of the fence now that the berries are at their ebb. If I can get the berries clipped down now I can reach them all to spray right as they begin to reemerge for spring time. The spray can only reach so far. The glint of fence is a good twenty to thirty feet further than I had originally been clipping. A deer trail runs through the bottom of my property. I had assumed that was the end until I saw the fence out my window.

It is a really nice fence, or at least it was. As I clip along the fence line, I had to get to the bottom of my property by using the cleared area my neighbor's landscaper had made for me to make sure I knew were the property lines were between our houses. My neighbor has planted a natural fence of Laural to hid my untamed yard from her view. Her yard guy had mowed down the hedge on the back side to give me a path to the bottom of my lot. I gratefully take advantage of that access to reach the fence. The path though is ten to fifteen feet short of the fence. I have to start clipping to get the rest of the way.

I find some of the fence damaged and crushed by fallen trees. I am sad to see the damage as it is a nice fence. I seems strange though that it goes from one side of the property to the other but not up the sides, just a wall of fence at the bottom.

I spend hours clipping berries, trying to expose the logs that are down across the crushed portions. I can't get someone to cut the logs off if they can't reach them. That is my whole goal, to expose the yard so it can be dealt with. I need to see what I have. On paper the lot is over twice as big as our last house. With the blackberries to contend with it seems even bigger.

My hands are pricked with thorns even through my work gloves. There is still more fence line to clear, but darkness falls and I have to quit in order to find my way up the hill. I am going to work some more as long as this clear weather holds.

This morning as I look out my window eating my toast, I realize one of the snags of a tree in my back yard is half the size it once was. We had planned to cut them down, but due to the winter ad weather hadn't gotten to it yet. I stare some more at the broke trunk, as my brain recovers from the impact that the fence is just recently crushed by my own tree. My own fault for not moving quickly enough to get the rotten tree out of the yard. I even had a friend lined up a couple of weeks ago to do some chain sawing. Instead we worked on installing the instant hot water in the kitchen sink and fixing the heater in the man cave. End result, love what we did, but the tree broke off and crushed my fence. So much to do, so much to do.

Driving lessons

Driving school is almost over. Riley will continue to have in the car sessions until all six of the behind the wheel sessions are completed. He has up to three months. He is to schedule his fourth session behind the wheel. I put it off a week when I found out it was freeway driving for the fourth session. I wanted him to have a little more time to get comfortable.

We have done a couple of street drives to the store and back and put in some drive about the neighborhood to give Riley experience behind the wheel. Every week he improves more and more. He doesn't drift nearly as much. I don't have to clutch the door handle to hide my fear nearly as often.

He did stop at a stop sign only to pull out in front of an on coming car he hadn't seen, but we survived. No more dents to the cars, so far. He has a couple more hours under his belt now.

I decided he was ready for the freeway. We started by first driving up a nearby highway so he could get a little feel for speed. He was good at paying attention to the speed signs . I have warned him, as has his teacher, that he is screwed if he gets a ticket. We come to the on ramp of the freeway and I ask if he is ready. He turns onto the freeway.

Luckily we live out away from major freeways. It is Sunday so traffic is light. He slowly gets the feel for speed. We stay in the slow lane. 55 becomes 65 then 70. Cars still pass us. Riley asks me what the true speed limit is and I tell him 70.He laughs. He does say that getting the feel for this speed is more difficult.

When we get off the free way the first time he says it is hard to give up going fast. He sees now why people get speeding tickets. The next loop on the freeway, even though we are in the slow lane, he forgets to signal as he merges. He doesn't even look really for on coming traffic as he concentrates on just getting on the freeway and up to speed. I flinch as another car passes us in the lane we want to be in. Riley doesn't even notice. There is just too much to absorb all at once for him to catch everything.

I am very impressed though, with his progress. A couple more hours behind the wheel and we will be ready for heavy traffic. At the moment I have chosen times and locations that keep the public safe and Riley safe from the public. The roads have been light of traffic. He has done night driving with his instructor. He complained about having a hard time seeing the lines on the road. I enjoyed hearing that because I always thought that was a sign of my age and failing eyes, not a real physical issue of faint paint jobs.

My car is not happy. I need to take it in for an oil change. It is as if the car can tell someone else it at the wheel. The breaks stick at first when I am driving again, The gear doesn't want to change when we start with Riley at the wheel. It may be a matter of getting the feel for the car, but learning to drive is hard on the engine. Starting the engine when the engine is already going is one of my favorites. The other is talking to me and not noticing the light change. He is so not used to being in the driver's seat. He would talk all the way through the light if someone didn't point it out to him.

I think I will take Riley with me this week when I go for the oil change. He will need to see that process. I need to give the car a little loving treatment so it survives this abuse. Over all though I am pleased with Riley's progress. Another week and he graduates from drivers Ed and will be ready for the road. I think he is ready. We will be tackling traffic next.

Caucus

Tom talks big but refused to go to the caucus. I told him if you don't get involved then don't tell me you are going to run for some office. This is a way to meet the people in charge of your local party. He told me only the riff raff come out for the Presidential campaigns, besides it is the least effective and least empowering vote you have. Stick to the local levels where you really make an impact.

My response was to tell him I do both. I have waved signs on the street corner for the school levy. I have sat in on the committees to pick new Principals for the children's schools. I have been part of round tables for choosing the direction the Mayor wants to go with the community. Years of PTA had honed my committee skills. You can't get much more local than that. I was still disgruntled he wouldn't go with me.

I have never attended a Caucus. I am not some one who will sit and listen to the news say the public is apathetic or uninformed, without going out and educating myself to prove them wrong. Learning, watching, seeing, I thought it would be enlightening to attend my local precinct caucus.

Tom was right in one regard, all walks of life showed up. Old men and women in walkers and canes and wheel chairs, families with small children and babies. Most were very casually dressed. Of course, I dressed up in nylons and a dress, not knowing what to expect, but I was one of the rare few.

I had let it be known who my preference was, through a cold call solicitation, as a result over the last few weeks I have been inundated with phone calls and e-mails to please come and get involved. They needed me. They needed the body count for our candidate

The doors were supposed to lock at 10:00 am, but the turnout was tremendous. The line of humanity went round the building then snaked back. There was no way they could get all of us checked in before 10:00 am. I saw a man come out of a side entrance. He was talking to some people in the line. Soon small numbers were going in this side door. I slipped out of line to ask. Turns out if you had your voters card with you with the precinct listed on it, you could cut in line, since they didn't have to look you up in the computer and tell you your precinct. Being the organized woman I am. I had followed the advice in one of those e-mails and brought my voters card and photo ID. I was in. I could go through the short line.

ID was checked, my neighborhood letter was stamped on my hand. Now the next phase was to find my table in the mass of humanity. The tables were supposed to be in alphabetical order but I couldn't tell as I wondered through the building looking for my neighborhood table. Finally, I spotted the name on a card on a table in the middle front. This building is a huge expo center, the room is as big as a football field. Jammed full of people, easily over 1000 people if not half again that many.

The leader of our group is one of the people that I have been getting e-mails from. He knows my house as we all, at our table, live in the same neighborhood. We are also sharing the table with another neighborhood, so we are crammed in, standing room only, around this table. The noise of voices flow.

A call to order and a prayer opens the meeting. Then we do the Pledge. People are still trying to find their tables. We hold up our sign to help locate more from our neighborhood. There is an instruction sheet on the table for us to follow. We need a secretary and a leader. Our table leader that has been assisting us gets his title officially voted as leader for our neighborhood. He asks me to be secretary. Recognizing many years of PTA has helped me negotiate in committees, I am enjoying the moment. I think he saw me as a good leader and foil for him. He is an older gentleman. The chaos in the room was making him edgy. He knows me, as he is one of the e-mailers I have been in correspondence with.

Now, the idea of a caucus is to choose the delegates and alternate delegates to represent your neighborhood in the next level, the county. Everyone that came to this caucus has stated a preferred candidate when they signed in.You can be undecided, but no one was at our table. The idea is to pick delegates that will vote for your preferred candidate. We have 13 people from our neighborhood. 9 were Romney supporters, 3 were Ron Paul, and one was Santorum.

One neighbor wants to make sure that the delegates chosen represent the percentages. He got the correct idea that you could potentially load the delegation with a minor party choice against popular vote. It was a numbers game.

I said, in the position of secretary, that we could take any one as a candidate for delegate to vote on, I just needed their names. We would announce their affiliation and then vote. His problem was no one was thrilled to be a delegate. He had to bully a couple of his neighbors that had the same choice in candidate to put their names up for delegate.

As it was, for my candidate, we didn't even have enough bodies at the table to fill the roster. Those e-mails had been begging for bodies who voted like minded. 13 neighbors, 10 spots to fill, with 5 delegates and 5 alternates. We needed almost everyone regardless of affiliation. The order of delegates didn't matter, but the alternates did matter if you wanted to keep the support of your candidate equal. If a delegate couldn't make the next meeting, the first alternate would step up. The candidate needed to have that alternate be his supporter to hang on to that delegate seat. Tricky.

The one strong personalities neighbor got it quickly, and wanted to make sure of the selections and voting. It wasn't cantankerous as we were really going to turn out equitably distributed anyway, only having 13 people and 10 slots to fill. One poor mousy woman wouldn't even vote for herself when she was bullied into putting in her name as a delegate, for the purposes of trying to achieve that optimal split, then when she lost because she wouldn't vote for herself, her name was put in again as an alternate, and lost again. I felt so sorry for her. But I wasn't going to vote for her if she wasn't going to vote for herself. She wouldn't have been effective representing anyone.

After we were done voting, a couple of people wanted to rearrange the order. I talked them out of it, one reason was it wasn't necessary, the order of the alternates still kept the candidate support the same, secondly, and most importantly, it was against the rules to rearrange the order to suite. Our leader looked at me gratefully. It is always hard to work with determined and strong willed people to blend their wants to the needs of everyone. I was just glad to have some others in the group that did have strong thoughts and cared. I see too many that are apathetic or just walk through life with their heads bowed and meek. But I guess those are the ones we are here to protect, but not at the punishment of the strong and determined either.


I wish that mousy woman had just a little more back bone. We needed her as she was a supporter of my candidate. But I couldn't support someone who wouldn't even support herself. I would have walked all over her unintentionally. So would the other delegates, making her miserable. She was miserable already having to put her name in. She was being forced to do something she didn't want to do, it was obvious. I saved her some more misery by not voting for her even though we needed her vote.

We were done. Some tables that had had a bigger turn out were still voting delegates. Ours had been pretty easy. Our leader was disappointed because he didn't get as many delegates as he wanted for his candidate, but that was how the numbers rolled. I think of my neighborhood and all those houses and how many people did not show up. I wonder if they are democrats and going to continue to vote for this administration.

Our hope is that by supporting the underdog, our candidate might have some influence on the party platform, even if he doesn't come close to getting the big party vote. At some point though we will have to throw in with the big boys for a united front, or we wont have a chance. I just want them to know that we still have opinions that need to be heard.

I should end with letting you know that I did make fifth delegate, but as I said only three people were going to be turned down and it was hard enough to come up with the volunteers. There is even an alternate written in and voted that wasn't at the meeting just so we could get the roster filled.

The next meeting is in April. If anything, attending the caucus is a fascinating layering of bureaucracy, and quite the learning experience. I also realize that few people really step up and care enough to truly become involved. People make the least amount of effort possible to keep this country staggering along. It was a little time out of an otherwise quiet day. I enjoyed the novelty of it, to see the system at work.

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The thing is if you don't attend this first precinct caucus, it is now too late to get involved. Your neighbors have now chosen their delegates. The game is set. The numbers only get smaller from here. The next weeding of delegates is in April and I will probably get out of it at that point. I was not voting for the favorite, so I probably wont make the next cut. It was fascinating though. I have to say I did enjoy myself.

The icing on the cake was coming out to find, in the next room over, an auction going on. I was sorry to say I had missed the silent auction, as it had ended before we got out of our caucus. I sat in hoping to win a power washer, but I was out bid. I left to head home to have the rest of the day quiet and uneventful.

I came home to my family still not dressed, just schlepping around. Tom had suggested bowling, but with Trevor's toe still healing from his nail removal on Thursday, I thought it best not to have him stick it in a dirty used bowling shoe. The bandages are still wrapped around the toe making it difficult to fit shoes as it was. Trevor had to miss sports on Friday and the cooks said he couldn't work in the cafeteria in sandals, no open toed shoes. We will see how his toe is on Monday

I took a long nap and enjoyed the rest of my day. Tom thanked me later by giving him his own down day as a result.

Tom wanted steak for dinner so I had Riley drive me to the store for a quick small shopping trip. Meat, toilet paper, milk, $225 later we are headed home. I read an article that said in the last three years our standard of living has fallen off 20%. You can look at it the other way that the cost of living has gone up 20%. It still hurts either way. Imagine being out of work or working a below family wage job. That was just a small shopping trip, nothing excessive. I didn't even sneak in things we didn't need. It makes me feel good about attending the caucus. At least I am trying to figure it out, makes me feel a little less helpless.

Check is in the bank

My property manager called last night, the first of the month. The new renters has finished dropping of all the money they are supposed to give before moving in. The property manager will deposit it in her bank then deposit it into my bank after she takes her fees out. That arrangement works for me. If a check bounces it is in her bank to deal with not mine.

I am waiting for my final electric and water bill. I am to send it to the property manager for her to submit to the tenants for reimbursement. They are going to pay for the time they were in the house which was pretty much the whole month, with painting and moving in early. The wife admitted to setting up babysitting evenings during the month, with her children so the children would be comfortable with their new spaces. I did the same thing when my boys were little and we were buying a house. I would set up visits to the house through the real estate agent, or have picnics in the back yard if we couldn't get the appointment, while we waited for closing. It was a vacant house. I am going to read it as a good sign that they love the house.

I had already turned off the heat for February, so the tenants had to turn the heat back on in their names in order to get the house warm enough to paint. The other bills we will be reimbursed. All is good.

I hope these tenants will buy it in a year or two as they said they wanted. If not, it goes back on the market and they move out inconveniently. I am hoping that is their incentive. No one likes to move.

We moved out in 2011 turning the house into a rental. We have within five years to sell it from that date. By 2016 we hope to have the rental gone. The dilemma is do we depreciate. If we depreciate we have to pay capital gains on the depreciated amount when we sell. I am going to ask Tom to run the numbers. Knowing we don't plan on holding on to the house, we may want to waive that option. It might be worth our while to talk to a CPA. What ever we sell the house for will probably go totally into paying off the new loan. Break even in two years or get it out of the sale price.

Tom says I can put him in a nursing home if we can't figure this kind of stuff out for ourselves. There are plenty of programs available to spoon feed you through your taxes, if you want to take the time to enter it all yourself. Tom grouses around but likes the control of doing it himself. We have even done the years when we moved for work. It takes hours and a lot of crankiness, but he gets it done.

One year Tom couldn't enter the cost basis on some stocks. The computer program baulked. We received a letter two years later saying w owed taxes. He submitted the waiting figures manually to the IRS. We finally received the official notice that we don't owe any back taxes for the year 2009. He knew we were in the clear, so he didn't rush around to get it done in any hurry, but it added stress to my life. I had to get cranky.

There was also the time when the program tried to stop Tom from doing IRA contributions for us, because for two months of the year he had been part of a 401K. You can't do both 401k and IRA in the same year. He circumvented the program, and we later had to treat the IRA amount as income and take the contributions back. It is not perfect doing it ourselves.

What made me cranky was doing my Dad's Estate. There was no program for the DIYer to use. I was forced to use tax specialists. When they were done with the paperwork they refused to guarantee their work. I was out of time as taxes were due shortly. I didn't have time to go elsewhere as they had taken weeks to get everything finished. I paid and submitted their work. Two years later I received a letter. Something had been missed. I would rather have done it myself, mistakes and all, rather than pay someone to make mistakes for me.

Tom has the right of it, if you are willing to do the time, make the tedious entries. It is very doable on these new programs, on line for a nominal fee. We are about to pull up our britches and attack our records again for another year. Now we have health insurance and expenses, and a rental to add to the mix of self employed. It's going to be fun. I bought a really good expensive bottle of wine at the beach and hid it. We will open this lovely bottle of wine to celebrate our accomplishments once we are finished, and to apologize to each other for the bickering that comes with sorting our tax papers and doing this tedious chore ourselves.

I am still twitching from the not so smooth transition of new loan and new renters. But in a couple of months I will hopefully feel quite comfortable as the flow of money from one party to another proves worth the stress and effort.