I am glad I no longer live where snow comes and stays, and melts a little bit and freezes, and MORE comes. Here, I can enjoy the snow on the evergreen trees and covering the browned grasses. I can watch my silly dog roll in it, shake it off, and roll in it again. My granddaughter learned to throw snowballs yesterday. But I can still go out and pick Swiss Chard and Kale, and there are still hardy crops, such as the Brussels Sprouts, coming out of the ground at the farm to nourish us. I love this region that I inhabit.

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. 

"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."

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. 

Eating Locally

25 May

When I got home, I made the most wonderful salad! Lettuce from a local organic farm, kale leaves from volunteers in my garden, Indian Plum growing tip leaves, dandelion greens. Added chive blossoms, curly marjoram tips, lemon balm tips, and sweet cicely seeds.  Vinagrette from the store. Lettuce was grown 15 miles away, harvested by me about 12 hours ago. Other bits grown on my property, harvested by me about 10 minutes ago. Dressing was the only thing to travel. I am definitley going to manage the Indian Plum in the orchard more, to provide more tasty tips. This was from one that I had simply cut to ground level about 6 weeks ago. I may cut more of them down, while the rains are still here. Indian Plum and dandelions are bitter flavors, which I like. The Indian Plum has undertones of cucumber. The Sweet Cicely seeds are at the green and chewy stage, and taste like licorice.

Garden One

The chives originate from ones I got from a friend of mine, who was/is a master gardener in Mason County. They have a darker red flower, and grow more robust leaves than chives commonly do. The salad burnet is coming back, just a thread of it, but the white alpine strawberry has one flower on it! The white-flowered rose campion is doing fine. The elephant garlic got crunched over, but will probably come back. I've planted more small ones near it. My preference is to simply cut the elephant garlic stalk off at the ground, and use it like a leek. That leaves the bulb to regrow (hopefully). I think that the Jostaberry is going to do fine. My parent Jostaberry fruited two years ago, for the first time, and I really like the complex flavor. I am not watering the garden very much, as I want the plants to send their roots VERY DEEP, to keep themselves watered. I also planted comfrey in the hole next to the nearby telephone pole, to bring up deep nutrients, and provide mulch for Garden One. Or chicken food for urban chickens. Or poultices for people. Just don't eat or brew the comfrey for yourself! One swiss chard, and one kale plant are doing ok. When they get bigger, people can harvest them, for eating raw (please wash in the artisan well) or taking home and cooking.

One of the weeks that you wish would vanish

Some weeks are more hurtful than others. This is one of the more difficult ones to stay smiling through. Sunday morning I called my co-grandmother, as I wanted to visit her, 10 days into recovery after major surgery. She was receiving, so I scurried over. I was greeted at the door by our joint grand-daughter, an opinionated, bright 2 year old. She and my daughter were over there, having a visit with Nana and Papa (grandma and grandpa). We all 5 had a nice visit, then 2 year old began to need a nap. I volunteered to drop daughter and granddaughter near their home. I had been trying for 2 weeks to get a visitation with either/both of them, and was very pissed off that they could visit one set of grandparents, but not both. It grieves me that I cannot have more time with grand-daughter. My daughter may not want to see me, as there is much history (not all of it good) between us, but why can't I see my darling bug of a grand-daughter?

Monday, I listened to NPR on the way to my volunteer work. It was a segment with tribal elders from Prince Rupert Sound area (of the Exxon-Valdez spill) talking with indigenous people in the Gulf area, where a way of life is AGAIN being damaged by petrochemicals. I raged in the car, and cried, as I listened to the recitation of the damages done, bird varieties never seen again, cancer upswings, lives and livelihoods damaged, reduction of awards to survivors, etc.

Then, I arrived at my volunteer work, where I try to work on my own computer as much as possible, as I have modified many settings, so that my aging eyes can see the screen. Well, I had arrived too early, and couldn't work in the office, so worked outside, (not a hardship as the day was WONDERFUL), until my battery got very low. I went in, and tried to plug my 'puter in to recharge, and I couldn't get a good connection (due to a previous injury to the plug), so had to continue my work on the resident computer. I changed their screen resolution, which is a quick way to make it readable for me, and I FORGOT TO PUT IT BACK! This, on a computer used by MANY people, who are not necessarily computer savvy. I also found that the yougurt that I had brought for lunch (courtesy of the food bank), was spoiled, so ate bread and boring food bank cheese. I got lots of work done, and then headed out, hoping to get my computer checked/repaired before work. Naturally, when I get to the computer fix-it place, the problem was gone. Intermittent electricals, how I love thee, let me count the ways. NOT. The tech discussed the repair options with me, depending on what the problem turns out to be. If it is the male part of the jack, it will be $70.00 to fix, if it is the computer receiver part of the jack, it will be in excess of $200.00 to fix it!

Tuesday dawned, with NO RAIN. I had been planning to work in the garden if it didn't rain. I had told my partner I wanted his help in the garden. He agreed, and I said I would drop him at the noon bus, to make it to his afternoon class on time. We had oatmeal for breakfast (which I despise, but we get from the food bank), and got out to the garden at 9:00 am. We worked for about 45 minutes, and then my partner declared he was done. I said no, we needed to work more, as it was due to rain for days again, and we need the food we will produce. He had a hissy fit, but agreed to work longer. A few minutes later, he went inside. After several minutes, I called in to him, and he said that he was getting a drink. A few more minutes, and I decided I would go in and have a drink, as I know that I am always so happy to get to the garden, that I frequently overdo it, and forget to eat or drink, for hours. I got inside to find a note at the table, from my partner, bitching about having to work in the garden, and saying that he was hitchhiking to the bus, and would be home later. I drove after him, and caught up with him. He refused to get in to the car, and we had a running argument, for a quarter of a mile. I told him that I could not deal any longer with his unwillingness to cooperate with me, and that if he was not going to come back and finish in the garden, he needed to find another place to live. He decided that he would move out.

 In thinking about his decision, I realize that with his damaged memory, he probably does not remember most of the years that we have spent together, when we really did have some very good times. I suspect that what he remembers is mostly the last several years, during which we have had a very difficult time. The brain injury he sustained almost ten years ago has damaged memory, and his logic abilities. Several years ago, he got a credit card, and discovered that he could get cash advances and go to the casino, which he likes. Before I caught on to what was happening, he had aquired two credit cards, had maxed out the cash advance limit on one, joined four book clubs, gotten several magazine subscriptions, and ordered about seven cell phones. We also started receiving daily calls from every get-rich-quick scheme, every "Learn online and make $50, 000 per year", every "Free vacation to..." marketing ploy. I started limiting how much he could be out and about, and started limiting his access to money. I tried to limit his access to online computers. (he was receiving about sixty emails a day from similar junk). "But I only take $5 to the casino". The record shows multiple cash advances to him at a machine at the correct address to be at an ATM at the casino. "But the cell phone was free". Service is not free, though.  TANSTAFL. Right now, all he wants to do is go to the library, see free films wherever, and have the free lunch at the Senior Center.

Tuesday night I learned that a dancer that I know slightly, who did an amazing Pas de Deux with another dancer that I know, lost her boyfriend to a mountain climbing accident over the weekend. I lost a teacher to an avalanche, some years ago.

Tonight, I learned that friends of mine lost a beloved dog, hit and killed by a car last night. I have lost both a beloved cat, and a loved but difficult dog to my 50 mile per hour road.

Could we make this week not be?