It’s a pretty special day. Grammie got a new pair of walking shoes!
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Noreen
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Noreen
Reality Check
Yesterday as I was coming back from my walk, I decided to take a detour from the county road and cut through the backyards of our area. As I came upon the far east end of our original lot, I stood still and looked, and looked and looked. Dennis is very particular about our property. Nothing leaning against the garage walls, no piles of limbs that have fallen or blown off the huge Maple. When lawn mowing season hits, he wants to make sure we are tidy. Bless his heart.
As Dennis does spend a lot of time in the garage porch, his view of the backyard is very present. A shady yard means that grass has a challenge. Wanting to have our backyard look as nice as the front yard, Dennis felt it was time for some serious work to be done. That serious work would entail having the backyard tilled and replanted. We spoke to a worker bee about the possibilities of having that work done as soon as the soil was of a good temperature and dry enough to till. There was talk about the amount of grass seed and also the variety of seed for a shady lawn. A packer could be rented from the hardware store and heaven knows we have plenty of hose to keep the new seeds moistened. That was a far as the plans got as it was only the end of March.
As I mentioned, today I stood at the far end of that back lawn and looked. What our backyard really needs is about four dump trucks of dirt to bring it to a good grade for drainage when we have heavy rains. I tentatively broached the subject with Dennis at supper. We keep the backyard very tidy and it has a lot of eye appeal as the perennials show themselves. Yes, there are some spots of good grass and then there are some pretty sparse areas. And . . . it is all ours.
What does our backyard harm is standing water. Does that happen often? Being a low lot to begin with, more times than I can remember. In times past this entire subdivision was a pasture.
Homes were moved onto lots that had been plotted, ours being one of them. Topography had little attention. Stauffer Avenue, which by city maps, is labeled as an alley; 20 feet wide. It is much wider now as traffic has a way of blowing out the boundaries. Stauffer Avenue continues to be built up year after year by the city. It really needs to have a field cultivator come and work it up and then put down the final finish. I know the extent that it has been built up as in years past during fast spring thaws there would be water making its way in the car garage and the tires would be frozen down. Dennis contacted a local contractor and they raised the garage off of the foundation and added a ten inch cement block to the existing foundation. Problem fixed. Well guess what? Stauffer Avenue is now again level with the garage on the south side and none of the ten inch block is visible. Stauffer Avenue to rising. The moral of the story is that we will continue keeping our backyard up as best we can and live with the reality that, given the enjoyment we received from the backyard, we can contend with it as it is. Let’s be real. Dennis is 80 and I am 73, this in time to come will be someone else’s problem. Sometimes you have to accept rather than expect.
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Noreen
Good Eating
Today was time to get some extra things prepared for the freezer so when I hear “What’s for supper?” I won’t have to have that deer in the headlights look. The bowl on the right is an eight quart bowl that is just perfect for working with a total of six pounds of a blend of meat and all the fixings. I pared the onions, green peppers, celery in the smaller bowl and that has the beaten eggs, spices and oatmeal ready to go. With Dennis’ homogenized hands he gets to blend it all so it is ready for some freezer containers. One day it will thaw and bake and there will be food on the table, just as we have never gone hungry here on Stauffer Avenue.
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Noreen
Better Choice
In the recent past I had received a gift from a fellow quilter. Hmm. It does ring true that we gravitate to colors that we enjoy. Lorraine must have really loved peach. My goal is to turn her passion into useful colorful blankets for wee ones . . . and we seem to have about six of them right now ranging from just about two to six. I feel better working towards an end to usefulness rather than pushing the “peach stash” from shelf to shelf. Right now I have one top done for a twin sized bed. Not fancy, but colorful enough for a little boy or girl to wrap up in while watching cartoons. The remaining peach blankets may be tricked out in other colorful trims, but the pattern will be the same. Grammie is up to the challenge.
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Noreen
Traveling through town today to get to the Shopko Pharmacy was just like a puzzle someone had drawn on a map. Talk about impatient people. The detour for those out of town people who are not used to stopping at every corner of a block for a four-way stop sign I am sure is frustrating. In time they will figure out their own route. It sure does not impact me.
We have been dog sitting all day for Sandy’s terrier, Tix. She found out if she laid on the bed in the west porch and nestled her body up to where the pillows are, she could snooze and had eye to window contact for watching traffic. Dogs are amazingly smart.
I stitched a bit this afternoon after I had finished a book that was getting a bit thrilling. Humorous murder mysteries . . . who knew?
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Noreen
Gray Skies
This is the time of the year when you cannot take for granted what an outdoor thermometer reads. It may be a 42 degree reading but in the open with the raw winds it is more like . . . “Get a warmer jacket on for Pete’s sake.” And that is what I did this morning as I headed out for my walk. The trail I have been taking is a by-pass out to the industrial park. As of tomorrow the open field along the trail that the city owns will become the command center of a huge road and street project. My luck all they would find of me would be a turquoise smear of what had been me wearing my jacket as a huge self-propelled earth mover had mowed me down. The Canadian Geese that have kept their vocal cords tuned up honking at me while I passed their way will surely get a workout from all the commotion of the construction site noise. I must say they were a bit touchy.
To keep my life balanced I have dove into trying to work up some fabric in my stash. Peach not being my color will provide
me a chance to make some blankets for the three great grands that live north of Duluth. Boring peach has just gotten a dose of lime green. It can serve such a better purpose than being stacked on a shelf – way to the back of the shelf as I would pick out some of my more favorite colors to work with. I did check the color wheel and this was what I thought would be the most appealing to three little girls to take along to their summer cabin. They do quite a bit of the evening fire pit before bed time. Can’t have too many cover-ups from the chilly northern nights.Dennis is off visiting his buddies, who both happen to be in the hospital here in St. James. By the time he returns I will have selected some soup for our evening meal. What with my birthday this last weekend, we should kind of push back from the table a bit and have a few lighter meals. Dang that is hard to do. It isn’t really all that painful and I know myself well enough that if I am working with fabric, I dare not snack in between meals as clean fingers are a must. Catch ya tomorrow.
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Noreen
After these last two days spending it with Carrie, Kevin, Kersten, Megan and Nicholas and, of course, my ole cowboy . . . life just couldn’t be imagined any sweeter. Nothing fancy for meals shared . . . it was the fellowship shared on multiple levels and plans being made for possible times of getting together again. When Nicholas came into the house this late afternoon asking his mom if she thought dad could bring clothes to St. James so he and Megan could stay for a couple of days . . . for grandparents nothing could sound sweeter even if the request could not be granted.
For a thirteen year old and a nine year old to still enjoy being with the older folks that much, I heard the angels sing. A 240 mile round trip for the dad to then have to be followed home by the mom ——. It may be possible to grant Megan and Nicholas’s wish for an overnighter before Easter. We will keep our fingers crossed.
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Noreen
Happy Birthday to Me! A great year it has been. Hubby, children and their spouses, grandkids and friends. I have it all and I don’t take any of it for granted. I am anticipating this next year and I will embrace all that comes my way.
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Noreen
So what does that say when I would rather spend a shopping trip to a sewing machine dealership in downtown Bird Island than shoe or clothes shopping. Well! Let me tell you I am all about giving the creative gray matter a cocktail of new ideas. Karen and Al are great. For a fee of $59.00 Al goes through the sewing machine from stem to stern and that includes making sure the foot pedal is also checked. Where does the foot pedal sit . . . of course the floor, where all the fuzz, thread and bottom of the shoe naughtiness lands. Amazingly there were three additional decorative stitches that were added to my options when Al did the “firm ware” update. I think of myself as an avid sewer. Within the 16 months that I have had the machine the needle has stitched the equivalent of 900 hours. There is no way I could count the number of hours it takes me to poodle around getting the layouts ready to go under the needle.
I felt really happy this morning as I anticipated the day. It meant a road date with Dennis and we always enjoy those. As the day progressed, it just got better and better. Dennis and I don’t rush on our dates. A stop for coffee just adds for smiles, hugs and visiting. Life is really good up in the northern country.
A noon lunch at the Broaster and a Dairy Queen on the way home makes for a pretty sweet road date.
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Noreen
Today was a sad day but it had to be done. My exercise bicycle is out to the curb. I have thought about this often in the past. I have used it, enjoyed it and valued it for decades as a way for me to get that bit of extra exercise when the weather kept me indoors for lengths of time. What I had noticed was the instability of the bike when I would get on it and when I would get off of it. The fact that the handle bars would go backward and forward as I would peddle was, in itself, a good workout. It was the height that was needed of the seat for me to get onto the bike. Hmm. Maybe I have gotten shorter over the decades. As I would have my hands on the handles to lift myself onto the seat there was a bit of a wobble in the bike itself. The base of the bike in the front was very narrow compared to the width of the handlebars. It could also be that with shoulder surgeries I was not able to use an equal amount of pressure on each handle when getting on the seat.
Whatever! I knew that I could not take a chance of overcompensating and have the bike tip . . . with me on it. Can you just imagine the phone call to 911: “I have fallen off my exercise bike. The bike is on top of me and I am wedged in between the center post of the basement and the hot water heater.” In talking it over with my chiropractor, Kurt, he advised to stay with both feet on the ground and walk and walk and walk. Bless his heart. He was gracious enough to leave the “. . . at your age and with your replacement knees and shoulders . . . “
