07 September 2010
Heart Home
Can we have more than one heart-home? A place that lives in our heart and cells? I love this place that I live in. I come over the hill, and see my city below, and I am filled with richness. The tapestry of greens. But, browsing the location that one of my dog sitting client is visiting, I recall other riches. I remember the richness of distance, being able to look and look , over the hillsides, into folds in the hills. A richness of beige and ochre and buff, old gold and olive and goldenrod. Golden-red velvet draped over the folds of the hills, changing tones in the winds. Winds that whistle, and bring dust and tumbleweeds (Russian Thistle, usually). Texture, that of the velvet hillsides, the carved channels, sandy, crunchy, silky. Plants spaced at arms reach, so that each can get some water.
The summer is almost over
I won't be able to get help from RDA for housing situation, for years, if at all. D decided he would continue to live here. We've got it set up that he cannot get to any money, and his SS check is there to pay the mortgage. Today, while I am dog sitting, comes the following email from him.
Could someone explain what finances have to do with who cares for the animals? Two dogs, 4 cats, 2 chickens. THERE ISN'T ANY MONEY. I will buy him another pair of gloves at the $1 store, and we will see how long it is before he looses them. This summer, he lost a bunch of passes for the movie theater, (regained), his glasses (not regained), and as usual, multiple travel coffee cups. Of course, if you put cups in the water bottle holder on the bike, they are likely to fall out somewhere. On the trail, off the front of the bus, wherever. And then I am expected to immediately replace it all. Bike seats are expensive. Use duct tape.
When I met him at the coffee shop, last Sunday, to refill his medication containers for the week, he was in one location, his coat and reflective vest were in another. When I had him move to join me, he left behind the medication containers, which someone kindly brought over to him.
And, he can't get his computer to work. Last time, it was because he didn't give it enough time to open a program, and re-opened it 27 times! The time he couldn't get the cds to play, he had turned the sound entirely off, using the sound icon. And he just doesn't get that DVD's won't play in the CD player.
He likes to spend his days at the Senior Center. I have finally figured out why. They serve lunch there, and he doesn't even have to assemble it himself. Plus, he can get on their computers, and play Solitaire as long as he likes. I watched him play repeated games of Solitaire for 5 hours, one day.
I had hoped to get the entire main garden dug, mulched, weeded, planted, cover cropped. Partly planted. No cover crops in. Bunnies eating the bean plants, cause I haven't been able to get the weeds around the garden cut down. The best tool for that is the hand sickle. We now own 3 of them. Only one of them can be located. D will set tools down anywhere, and not remember where, by the time he has gotten a drink of water. Somewhere on the front half of the property is a yellow plastic sheath hanging up with the sharpening stone for the scythe in it. We've never been able to find it. Or the live trap, of the "trap the raccoon" size. Or the round file to sharpen the sling blade for cutting the grass.
I wanted to sort boxes of stuff, and GET RID OF SOME OF IT. It needs to happen when I can have someone keep me supplied with fluid, and move the boxes I am done with, so that I can get up again. I also have to be able to take the stuff I am done with away, RIGHT THEN, or D piles more things on top, and we loose track of what has or has not been sorted.
I wanted to work on getting stuff out of the way of the sewing machine. I want to make some clothes. There is stuff between me and the sewing machine that is full of cat pee, because D didn't keep track of where cats were. And no ability to machine wash anything, unless we go to the laundromat. He can't even smell when it is clean or not. Last time we were washing cat-despoiled items, he was wearing a shirt that had been assaulted, and couldn't smell it. And was putting laundry into a laundry basket that had been similarly assaulted. (Juvenile male, now neutered).
Summer is almost over, and I have not eaten my fill of raspberries. I think I only got one batch of them this year. And only a few strawberries. One of my blueberry bushes produced some nice handfuls of berries, And I have taken cuttings from the blueberry plants. At $7 to $10 per bush, I can't buy any more. And this was not a good year for the plum tree. Pollination? Lack of? Last year there were about 5 gallons of Shiro plums, which I love. This year there were 2 plums.
I wanted to do some bud grafting, in august, of plums to the plum suckers, to give to friends. I may still try it when I get home, but it is probably too late in the season.
I wanted to check the base of the fig tree, where I piled wood chips, and see if any pieces have rooted, and dig them up/cut them off. And then stick some in the ground and PRUNE HARD to keep them at a better height.
I still have not dug up the available off shoots from a friend's fig tree, which is a different variety than mine, and ripens about a month before mine.
I want to go the market and buy a bunch of juvenile nut trees, the cheap ones, and plant them out in the back area (if I can get there). That area is big enough for quite a few nut trees, and I like nuts for protein.
"S, you and H took me to your bank and totally locked me out of any and all money. I NEED a few things! Because you did that (and I understand why) I am NOT doing YOUR (not our) animals starting Tue the 14th in the morning. And the cats are also yours in the evening. AND starting Sun the 19th ALL the animals are yours all day on any Sun you are home. I QUIT!!!
Also I NEED a couple of things before the weather starts getting cold again. I need another pair of gloves (some good warm ones). And I will keep them in the cooler on the bike so the dogs can't get to them. I need another seat on the bike (mine is starting to come apart). And before it starts to really get cold I need one of my jackets repaired or replaced. Every one I have the zippers are broken."
When I met him at the coffee shop, last Sunday, to refill his medication containers for the week, he was in one location, his coat and reflective vest were in another. When I had him move to join me, he left behind the medication containers, which someone kindly brought over to him.
And, he can't get his computer to work. Last time, it was because he didn't give it enough time to open a program, and re-opened it 27 times! The time he couldn't get the cds to play, he had turned the sound entirely off, using the sound icon. And he just doesn't get that DVD's won't play in the CD player.
He likes to spend his days at the Senior Center. I have finally figured out why. They serve lunch there, and he doesn't even have to assemble it himself. Plus, he can get on their computers, and play Solitaire as long as he likes. I watched him play repeated games of Solitaire for 5 hours, one day.
I had hoped to get the entire main garden dug, mulched, weeded, planted, cover cropped. Partly planted. No cover crops in. Bunnies eating the bean plants, cause I haven't been able to get the weeds around the garden cut down. The best tool for that is the hand sickle. We now own 3 of them. Only one of them can be located. D will set tools down anywhere, and not remember where, by the time he has gotten a drink of water. Somewhere on the front half of the property is a yellow plastic sheath hanging up with the sharpening stone for the scythe in it. We've never been able to find it. Or the live trap, of the "trap the raccoon" size. Or the round file to sharpen the sling blade for cutting the grass.
I wanted to sort boxes of stuff, and GET RID OF SOME OF IT. It needs to happen when I can have someone keep me supplied with fluid, and move the boxes I am done with, so that I can get up again. I also have to be able to take the stuff I am done with away, RIGHT THEN, or D piles more things on top, and we loose track of what has or has not been sorted.
I wanted to work on getting stuff out of the way of the sewing machine. I want to make some clothes. There is stuff between me and the sewing machine that is full of cat pee, because D didn't keep track of where cats were. And no ability to machine wash anything, unless we go to the laundromat. He can't even smell when it is clean or not. Last time we were washing cat-despoiled items, he was wearing a shirt that had been assaulted, and couldn't smell it. And was putting laundry into a laundry basket that had been similarly assaulted. (Juvenile male, now neutered).
Summer is almost over, and I have not eaten my fill of raspberries. I think I only got one batch of them this year. And only a few strawberries. One of my blueberry bushes produced some nice handfuls of berries, And I have taken cuttings from the blueberry plants. At $7 to $10 per bush, I can't buy any more. And this was not a good year for the plum tree. Pollination? Lack of? Last year there were about 5 gallons of Shiro plums, which I love. This year there were 2 plums.
I wanted to do some bud grafting, in august, of plums to the plum suckers, to give to friends. I may still try it when I get home, but it is probably too late in the season.
I wanted to check the base of the fig tree, where I piled wood chips, and see if any pieces have rooted, and dig them up/cut them off. And then stick some in the ground and PRUNE HARD to keep them at a better height.
I still have not dug up the available off shoots from a friend's fig tree, which is a different variety than mine, and ripens about a month before mine.
I want to go the market and buy a bunch of juvenile nut trees, the cheap ones, and plant them out in the back area (if I can get there). That area is big enough for quite a few nut trees, and I like nuts for protein.
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