The Community Exchange

7:28am: The Community Exchange and Respectfully Green
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"Green" ways to deal with Garden Weeds


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5:33am: How Much can you cram into one week?!?

Yeah, yeah - so I don't write much.  And the last couple of times I sent pictures and notes directly to folks.  Of course, I'm still missing a few email addresses - Like Richard's (Rich, Ric).  But, hey, the good news is that I'm still alive and hanging around to make someone miserable <eg>.  At least that's good for ME.  >:)

So I'm into rambling for a few minutes.  It's tough, but we're trying hard to impose a real (okay, semi-real) "day off" for ourselves (currently Sunday) - and this is it and I felt like sharing my mutterings in case anyone was interested.

Let's see.  A friend of ours died.  I had 3 progressively worse days leading up to all the symptoms of another heart attack and ended up back in the hospital in Spokane.  Turned out we caught it in time and it was an easy fix:  another pill to relax the muscles strangling some of my arteries.  So besides a midnight run to the hospital in Colville, Eddie had 3 days of running full speed back and forth to Spokane (240 miles round trip).

GREAT News, though!  The same doctor who installed my 4 stents 3 years ago went back in this time - and he says that my arteries are actually a bit clearer than they were 3 years ago.  Way cool and totally unheard of.  The consensus is that whatever I'm doing (big changes - different rambling) - keep doing it!

Never a dull moment - including some humorous "adventures" while in the hospital - and busting our butts to get ready to go to court on Thursday afternoon for the car accident the end of February + an earlier appointment to pick up hundreds of used books for the shop.

The next day took us to our friends home where we began the process of gathering "stuff" for the shop, which worked into the better part of a week of hauling, sorting, pricing and negotiating.  Whew.  In the middle of this, we had a kitten that maybe fell out of a tree late at night and seriously broke his leg.  Emergency room for him - surgery next day - nursing a cat (!!!!) in a makeshift confined space in the middle of the living room.

The greenhouse groweth and need transplanteth.  The garden needs plowed and some things into the ground.  People need help, shit happens, Eddie starts work in Northport this week - just as his Oil Change business looks like it's starting to take off.

Oh yeah.  And the wedding in a couple of weeks.  If you don't have an invitation by now - email Noni with your address.

Okay, I'm tired - so that's the end of my rambling for now.  Much love your way!

5:25am: Catch-up...........Sorta

November 7, 2007

 

Time flies when you’re having fun – so I guess we’ve been having WAY too much fun.

 

It’s been balls-to-the-walls for the better part of the past 6 months now, with the past several months being almost beyond belief.  And still… I’m (we’re) behind the power curve and behind on many things yet.  Important things.  Like last year’s taxes.

 

It’s been an amazing summer for me health-wise.  Except for a lung virus, my health and stamina have improved to the point where I can once again get an amazing amount of stuff done – which is excellent on many accounts, especially with these “monster” projects we tackled this year.  I’m not deluding myself, though; just appreciating the opportunity.

 

Fall has been cold, but otherwise mild.  Lack of rain this year is going to be a real problem if we don’t get significant snow this year – and plenty of rain in the spring.  It’s going to snow any moment now – and not much more than our firewood situation is prepared for it.  Leaves and ankle-busting black walnuts blanket the ground, hoses and tools have disappeared under this blanket and when the snows arrive they will be as good as not even here until spring thaw.  The lawn mower is broken (hence the leaves) and sitting in the middle of the way.  It’s going to be spring before we can get it fixed.

 

Eddie had a rough couple of months after his knee surgery, but mostly he’s okay in that regard now.  Age is catching up with both of us – and apparently we’re now going to suffer for all the fun we had when we were young.  You know, skydiving, scuba diving, skiing and all the other bump, bruise, twist and tweak things we did.  Sucks now, but I would do most of it again.  <g>

 

I’ll try to get some pictures sent or posted soon.  I’m missing a lot of email addresses because of the problem with our address for the better part of the past couple of years.  So if you want pictures and you haven’t heard from us for a while, drop a note so we get your address.

 

Nahani and Wright just celebrated their First Anniversary together and are getting ready for a 3 week sight-seeing trip to Arizona and leave next week.  I’ll be further behind during that time because guess who has to pick up the slack?!?

 

Did I mention the two of them work part time for Bull Hill?  Well, it WAS part time – but looks like they will be pretty much full time next year. 

 

Happy Fall!

6:36am: YeeHaw!

July 24, 2007

 

We have a floor!

 

Yesterday we started at 7am and the finishing touches were put on at about 4pm.  Not bad for a crew of 7 with only one experienced cement person and 2 with only minor experience.  It ain’t perfect, but it’s actually quite nice.

 

Fortunately the cement trucks were able to get around 3 sides of the work site, which was one of my jobs – to direct the driver (go figure!) and work the delivery boom.  I also manned the water hose and tried to keep the cement from solidifying on the tools.  Us, there was no hope for; we had cement in every crack and crevice.

 

Eric moved a lot of cement and helped considerably with the screeing.  We were very glad to have him.  Noni filled in wherever was necessary and made sure we had plenty of cold water to drink.  Good thing, it was in the 90’s and even though I was already quite dark from all the hours working outside, I ended up with the upper half of my body quite pink.

 

There’s still a lot to do before we can begin moving in and setting up stuff, but we anticipate it should go relatively quickly from here.  Getting the roof up and the floor poured were the ‘biggies’.

 

Things are moving along at a full out run right now.  The garden is almost a month ahead of itself and we’re harvesting almost more than we can eat and preserve. 

 

We found the perfect home for Batty and that allowed Rascal and Noni to complete their move in with Wright.  They still have a lot of her stuff to move yet, but at least the settling in is well on it’s way.  Kinda cool, actually, as now I can ask her to go home.  <grin>

 

Old friends of ours from our Yardbirds days dropped in out of the blue a couple of days ago.  It’s a small world sometimes.  They’ll be back in a few weeks and maybe even settle up here.  Vickey and Gordon will be here for a week on the 7^th, and there’s rumor another close friend whom we haven’t seen in a long time will be visiting next month or soon after.  Now if we can only get Carla to come for a visit, and maybe Amanda and Co., it will be a perfectly wonderful year!

6:27am: Roof is On!

... and we're now working towards trying to get the floor poured by the end of the week.  Hopefully things will go much quicker now and we'll be done before you know it!  

The garden overgrows and we're both eating out of it now and starting to freeze and can a lot of stuff.

Things are a-humming around here.  >:)      Bzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

7:05am: Pictures have moved...


Yahoo is going away - but they moved our pictures for us.

 http://www.flickr.com/photos/community-exchange/

8:01am: Never a Dull moment...

Wright got all the posts set this week.  He and Noni put up the girters yesterday and expect to have the trusses up today – which means we’ll have the roof on and maybe even the cement floor poured next week.  Noni works a festival on Saturday and then up at Bull Hill on Sunday.

 

Eddie is just now doing better and going to try heading back to work tomorrow (on crutches).  He will be off Sunday, work Monday, then off Tuesday and Wednesday if all goes well.  <fingers crossed>

 

This week has been pretty awesome.  (In no particular order)

 

-         We have 4 new baby kittens (unfortunately, born in our bed – but we have them in their own now.

-         A flock of Golden Eagles (at least 7) doing their quiet, lazy circling in and around the trees, fields and river apparently looking for food.  They were so close you felt like you could reach out and touch them.  The shadows they cast are huge!

-         Pole Cats!  Mama and 3 baby skunks, totally unafraid, doing the mom/kid thing right outside the kitchen window.  They sure are cute when they are little (and not eating our chickens!).

-         Had our first fresh radish, zucchini, turnip and beet greens, snow peas, strawberries and basil.  Yum.

-         Last night we had a not-so-fun encounter with a large dog invading the house at 2am.  He reeked of skunk and appeared to not be all that intelligent.  Nice adrenaline pumper in the middle of the night.

 

Tomorrow I load up all the overflow from the greenhouse, about 40 good sized plants, and take them into Northport to the new Saturday Farmer’s Market we have there.

 

Gotta go water and weed…  um, after dishes, I guess.

7:43am: Summer Fun

June 19, 2007

 

To say a lot is going on around here is kinda lame compared to the actuality of it.  <grin>

 

If you haven’t already, check out the pictures I uploaded.  We got the building site leveled, the water and power lines run, and about 75% of the ditches filled back in.  The rest of the dirt will have to be moved with shovel and rake, so it will most likely take the rest of the year to get that done.

 

Wright is working down in Rice with Zilly until Thursday, when he and Noni will start digging the holes for the poles.  That’s no small task, since they have to be 4 feet deep!  Then the poles have to be set in concrete and cured before the rafters go up and the roof on.  But we ARE making progress.  >:)

 

Eddie went in for knee surgery yesterday.  His doctor says old age is catching up with him faster because of all the physical abuse he put himself through when he was young.  It’s called jumper’s knee (imagine that!?!?!) and it’s where the bone starts to deteriorate and leaves rough patches that cause the ligament to get hung up on it as the knee is bent/straightened.  So yesterday they went in with a camera on one side and the equivalent of a Drimmel to sand it down smooth again.

 

Noni got him a cane for Father’s Day – since it appears he’s looking at future surgeries on his knees and ankles.  They gave him 3 days worth of Vicodin for the pain, so now he thinks he’s Dr. House!  <lol>

 

He’s parked on the couch for at least the next 3 days with his right knee extremely elevated and constant ice packs on it.  So far the pills are keeping him cheerful, and I’m thankful for that.

 

In the meantime, the garden grows wonderfully, and the weeds grow not-so-wonderfully.  We’re trying to keep up with eBay while we work on getting a book printed, and we got an explosion of requests for our soap products in various shops the past couple of weeks.

 

On one hand, it’s great to be expanding our soap sales – OTOH, it’s a rather inconvenient time to be making, labeling, invoicing and running around with it in rather large quantities.  We’re stretched pretty thin right now, and things tend to fall through the cracks more often than we would like.

 

But we’re all having fun for the most part.  I personally am doing exceptionally well.  Two months ago when we started the heavy outside work it wore me down terribly, and now I can see and feel how much better my endurance is and how much stronger I am.  Now to just keep my blood pressure and anger down and I should be doing great for a bit now (or I’ll drop dead and it won’t matter <g>).

 

Nahani and Wright are in the process of moving into his place together.  It’s a nice house that needs lots of finish work inside, so them doing it together is truly making it “their” home.  It’s great to see them so in love and even talking about babies.  I have new hope that I may actually see grandchildren some day!  Now they’re talking about and working towards turning her place across the street (tire bale berm house) into a micro-brewery and putting in a field of custom organic hops.

 

Our nephew, Eric, will be here in a couple of weeks to spend a month with us.  So much exciting stuff going on, he’s going to be very busy and probably build some muscle in the process.  It’s going to be a fun time with him, and we’re also really looking forward to his folks spending a week with us when they come to pick him up.  There’s also rumor that Dustin will spend a week with us on leave from the Navy later this summer – AND that early fall will find my friend/brother Rich and his family here for a visit.  Wow.

 

Oh yeah, we have baby chicks and we’re due kittens any day/moment.  We’ve sold a lot of plants out of our greenhouse and are getting herbs and radish already.  The grapes have exploded and it looks like it might be a nice harvest this fall.  Of course, these are just the highlights…

 

Hope everything is wonderful in your world!

5:53am: Pictures!
Apparently there are two ways to get into the update for my journal.  One is a bomb and the other is hard to find.  BUT, I found it today!!!!!  <cheering>

I also figured out how to upload pictures on our yahoo space (again), so please take a peek at a few of the things happening around here that keeps us ultra-busy and mostly out of contact.

http://new.photos.yahoo.com/respectfullygreen/albums/

I'll try to update it as we take more photos of our progress.

6:22am:

June 8, 2007

 

Well, believe it or not, I’ve tried to update my journal pages for the past two months.  Something was wrong with the web pages, though, and they wouldn’t submit.  I certainly didn’t have the time or inclination to download one of their remote clients and have to learn ANOTHER program.  >:p

 

So far I found the one I wrote last month and got it posted.  As soon as I locate the one from April I’ll get it posted, too.  No time to do more writing this morning – but I’ll try to get back soon and post an update.

6:06am:

May 6, 2007

 

It appears things aren’t going to slow down around here until, maybe, first snow?  >:)

 

Noni and I had two fairs/shows the past couple of weeks; first the Earth Day one in Chewelah, then yesterday a fund raiser for the Colville Food Bank.  We’ve noticed a distinct trend that people are doing a lot more looking and a lot less buying than in the past.  Of course, the price of gas just jumped over 30 cents a gallon this past month – so that could be a contributing factor.

 

This will be our last show/fair until the big one in Tonasket in October…  because our store “The Community Exchange” is becoming a reality!  <cheering>

 

We got our building ordered last week, and it should arrive in very small pieces the end of next week.  We have a set of plans, basic instructions… and lots of motivation.  We’re getting tons of community support, for which we couldn’t do this without.  To say it’s a shoestring operation, is almost an understatement.  But it’s certainly all coming together.

 

Our greenhouse overfloweth.  We’ll be planting like crazy out in the garden this week.  Then we’ll have a couple of weeks to work on the store before we have to get the rest of the greenhouse planted and beans and such in the ground.  Extra greenhouse plants and the vegetables we’re growing are going to be our primary income and source of food for the next year.  If the weather and all of Mother Earth’s various creatures and elements cooperate, of course.

 

Eddie likes his job at Napa Auto Parts in Colville – which is a very good thing, and may even get us out of this deep hole we’re in over the next couple of years.  I had a conversation with some lady at the fair yesterday about how flexible and adaptable folks around here have to be just to make a living.

 

Well, I’m off to the races – unload pickup from yesterday, water greenhouse and chickens, feed critters, mow, laundry, chores (including the ones we missed yesterday), ad nauseam.

7:36am: The end of January was busy and fun. But then came February with it's promise of spring in the air.

I have been terribly sick the entire month of February - with a whole 3 days of feeling good just about dead center and just long enough for Eddie to be very sick and get over it.

I'm sure all the other events didn't help my situation.

- Eddie was laid off work on the 7th.
- We figured this was good timing, because his mom's house sold suddenly last month and this way he could drive the Uhaul to Lousiana for her.
- Eddie's employer told a lot of lies and half-truths on legal documents to the unemployment department - a total character assignation - in order to get out of being responsible for his benefits.
- This was a gut punch and required a detailed rebuttal within a deadline - which also required a delay of departure for his mother, which...
- Created panic and a general mele' with his Sister and Mother.
- We had to close down the Gift Shop & Second Hand Store in town and find storage for all our stuff. We're working on plans for getting the store opened in April in a new location.
- I got walking pneumonia along with the flu. Noni and Wright and Eddie helped mom pack up her house and park the uhaul in the yard.
- It has been snowing for over a week now and it's going to be at least Saturday before mom and Eddie can even leave.
- Today I am finally better and may actually get to sleep in my own bed tonight.
- My book "Organic Spirituality" is almost done and will soon be ready to go to the printer.

No telling what next month will bring!

7:33am: Lightening Speed...

This is the middle of January already!  The days have been zipping by at lightening speed for me.  Is this a good thing?  At least it's mostly good stuff going on...

eBay kept us extra busy through the holiday season, and it hasn't slowed down much since then - especially with the opening of our STORE last week and a bigger push for us to get mom's garage cleand out of the stuff we got from the auction back in November (she sold her house and will be moving to Lousiana by the middle of March).

Our little Gift Shop & Second Hand Store in Northport is doing okay - especially since the weather has been consistently crappy with snow, ice and 0 temperatures.  It gives every indication that by spring our biggest problem is going to be keeping it stocked!  So it appears this coming year is going to be balls-to-the-walls busy and productive.

6:40am: Update

I can't believe it's the end of November already - another year gone!  

The last several months have been non-stop around here; rewarding and fun for the most part, though.  We got the store open a couple weeks ago.  It's slow, but steady, except for yesterday when everyone in the world apparently went to town to do their holiday shopping.  Noni is running the shop Thursday & Friday 1 to 5pm and Saturdays 9am to 4pm, and since Thanksgiving day, Mom is going to run the shop on Wednesday afternoons.  It will be fun for her once business starts to pick up.

It's taken two weeks already to dig the house out from under the disaster it became while we were doing barter faires and putting together the store, but at least there's a bit more open space and not just small paths to walk through.  Next is to tackle the deck before the hard snows hit and bury it in white.

Noni is spending a lot of time with her boyfriend, Wright, which is to be expected.  <warm smile>  He has a place down the road and they have a lot of friends in common who get together to play music and sing.  Many of them are our friends too, and it's nice to have an extended family like this.  We actually managed to capture the two of them long enough to take some Pictures

Our email is suffering some very bad, very nasty, and downright destructive viciousness the past couple of months.  At first we thought it was a worm, because we kept getting these "returned" and "failed" messages addressed to all kinds of odd addresses (kqp, wosadf, fft, etc.) from our toteg.org accounts.  None of the virus programs found anything, and after we got blocked from my sister's server and then our local (friends) server, we finally completely reformatted our hard drive and started over.  Well.......  apparently it's not coming from us, but being generated by someone else because they are still coming/bouncing.  This is particularly malicious and we don't have a clue what to do about it.  

So any mail we send out will use our business address (Respectfully Green) - and we ask that you do NOT forward this address to anyone else or use it at all except to ACCEPT mail from us.  Our other addresses (eddie and traveler at toteg dot org) still work fine for receiving - so please use these to send anything to us.

This is going to be another very busy month.  We've got soap and shampoo and lip balms to make;  gift baskets to assemble and get to the store, shops and listed on eBay;  shows to participate in;  computer programs to reload and files to recreate;  and hopefully find some time to send out Holiday Letters/Cards and take a bit of time to just relax.  (what's that?!?)

We hope you have a wonderful holiday season - and that we get the opportunity to talk or visit sometime soon...

If you get the chance, take a peek at the awesome gift baskets full of our wonderful soaps and salves we've been making.

12:48pm: Screaming Right Along...
October 22, 2006

Whew. This is the first time in over a month that I’ve felt that I can actually take a few minutes to catch up my journal just a bit. And the breakneck pace is going to begin again as soon as I get up from here to catch a shower.

Let’s see, what’s happened?

- We got a Siamese kitten. >:)
- Kitten got sick >:(
- Three trips to the vet, medications, feedings every two hours constant monitoring and ultimately hospice care ended up with three broken hearts when Smoky didn’t make it.
- We got a companion kitten for Smoky. She’s a real love. Pinto
- Eddie took a whirlwind trip to Fort Lewis (south of Seattle – 400+ miles) to pick up a serious overload of military surplus stuff for us to sell.
- First freeze had Nahani scrambling to pick and process all the cabbages
- Kitten and Ft. Lewis trip had us seriously behind in getting ready for the Tonasket Barter Faire. It was push, rush, rush, shove, shove up until the minute we left for it at 6am Oct 12th.
- Four days in a tent, dust and dirt, campfires, friends, found us packing up in the rain and hoping it wouldn’t snow. (it didn’t)
- The day before we left for the barter faire we semi-finalized a deal for us to take over a disastrous Second Hand Store in Northport. The job of cleanup and organization is overwhelming. It’s amazing how much stuff and junk can be spread out and piled up; rained on and dirt encrusted.
- It took a day and a half to catch up on our eBay sales and shipping after we got home, then we had to charge head first into working on the store – we have a target date of opening on November 1st, and that will only get us the first two rooms ready to go (and the outside, hopefully at least a path cleared).
- We’re working without light or heat, so we’ve got the propane heater running and a shop light in the middle of the floor. A lot of heavy lifting and scrubbing (with cold water – or heat it with a coffeepot).
- This store is going to be awesome! We’re really excited about it, and so is much of the community. We get constant questions and even have folks already approaching us about a space for their stuff on consignment. Tons of people around here know us and the folks we’re teamed up with have a good reputation, too. We couldn’t ask for better – it’s just that we’re back to biting off more than we can chew all at once.
- Oh yeah, Eddie started his new job the first of the month – so there’s schedule changes and lots of new stuff to learn.

In the meantime we had a power line down last night for about 7 hours. That’s one of those things that happens that makes you realize just how addicted to power we are. Scramble to get heat, change plans for dinner, set up candles and lanterns, and roam around to see what you can do without power.

And the snows will arrive at any time now, the trees are dumping their leaves and making their way into the house in massive quantities. Raking and mowing leaves, wondering if we’re ever going to get the chance to collect more firewood, rescuing tools and hoses and such from the yard and piles of leaves before they disappear until spring, swapping out summer/winter clothes, washing bedding and everything else that went to the barter faire, putting away what we brought back from the barter faire, pouring dozens of dozens beeswax that has sold, working with customers to list their things on eBay for them, updating web pages, collecting eggs, chasing free range cattle out of the yard.

Yep, I’m tired. But it sure is great that I’m back up to speed enough to keep up this massive pace. Every day the three of us are eating a bit better, removing more and more chemicals and preservatives from our bodies, relying less and less on commercial products that are poisoning us. So I should be around for a few more years.

Don’t be surprised if you don’t hear from me until Christmas, though.

Current Mood: rushed

6:41am: 25 years Ago - Today
Wow. Time flies when you're having fun. >:) But I must admit there have been some rough wind currents at time through the years.

Twenty-five years ago today, Eddie and I were rushing around Lake Tahoe, Nevada like crazy people with a van full of friends and family, running down a license, saying our wedding vows in an (almost) cheesy wedding chapel run by "Dr. Love", herding everyone through MacDonalds for our "wedding feast", playing a couple hours at the local Harrah's Club, then rushing 200 miles back to his mom's place in preparation for another 1000 mile trip home the next day. Whew! It was a whirlwind trip in 3 days!

I am so glad that my sister and best friend were there with me 25 years ago, and that we're still close. It was wonderful that Eddie's family was there, too. Today I want to think about all the love wrapped up in that event and how much I still love them all.

Eddie and I are hunkered in and ready for whatever the next 25 years hands us. No time or energy to do anything today, however. To say it's a whirlwind of activity around here is the years biggest understatement. Fall is always a busy time of year, and it sure seems we end up adding to it for an overwhelming flurry of activity more years than not.

I couldn't begin to list all that's going on, especially since I have to run here momentarially and Eddie and Noni will be running soon after. But today I just couldn't let get by without at least comment...

5:04am: Harvest and Ch-ch-changes
Things are moving at warp speed around here, and no sign of slowing down until at least first snow.

First, Nahani's changes: the truck is parked for good. It need repair, and that would mean the winter on the road for her, so she's chosen to sell it for whatever we can get for it instead. Her tires were supposed to be here last week for building, but the folks are having a tough time getting the wires and now it's going to be at least another week before they come. The three of us have combined all our individual endeavours under one Limited Liability Company, called Respectfully Green.

Eddie: Two weeks ago Eddie put in his notice to leave Schucks and on October 1st he will start a part time job at a tiny hardware store in Northport. This is a good thing on many levels: 15 miles round trip vs. 80 miles per day (at $3.39/gal), two extra hours at home every work day cuz of shorter commute, and working for folks he likes and have the same ethics and attitudes we have. Of course this is yet another pay cut and he will have to find part time and/or piece work to help make up the difference, but so far our community is supportive and it looks like they may have plenty for him to do. One day at a time.

I'm celebrating the one year annaversary of surviving my heart attack ordeal, and scrambling to keep up with all the changes Eddie and Noni are imposing on me. Getting a gallong + of tomatoes every day, and odds and ends vegetables every few days, which all have to be taken care of. Our doctor put us on a special diet this past week, and it's been rather intensive. Unfortunately, I don't feel all that well on it, so will be glad when today (the last day!) is over.

If you're the least bit concerned about health and nutrition, I highly recommend "The China Study" by T. Colin Campbell. It's informative, thorough, and readable.

4:59am: 7 Stitches and Record Temperatures
I haven't changed my mind about life being good, but of course there are always going to be bumps in the road and a variety of challenges along the way.

Last week Eddie got his first case of gout in a couple of years. We headed it off quickly, so he only had a few days of miserableness, thank goodness. Of course I had to pick that time period to get my first ever stitches - 7 of them - in my foot when I tripped over an ill placed punch bowl cup that broke and sliced my foot good. It wasn't really all that big a deal, other than the stupidity of it , and the urgency to get the bleeding under control because of all the blood thinners they have me on for my heart. Cest La Vie...

The garden grows (as do the weeds!), the berries ripen, the chickens crow, and I'm in a perpetual state of being "behind" (which I'm learning to live with). Right now we're paying the bills, but never know from day to day if we'll have anything left over for any of the 'extras', such as clothes, paint, parts, etc. That's okay, too, since our stress levels are mostly low.

It appears we're going to have record temperatures (107^)the next several days, though the news says the rest of the country has already been feeling them. A little early this year, but not totally unexpected. Hard to believe 30 years ago I was in Arizona during a record setting 20+ days of temps over 120 degrees - without air conditioning. The pace of living changes when it gets this hot. But this, too, shall pass. >:)

Lots of "hopes" didn't pan out this summer, so far. We'd hoped to have our nephew, Eric, stay with us for a month or so. Mom had hoped for her house to sell. And Noni had hoped to have at least the outer walls of her place set. Oh well. Humans make plans, and the gods laugh.

This morning I'm off to the doctor and a bit of yard saleing (bargain hunting), and tomorrow we have a big wedding function to attend. Yep, life is good. Hope yours is too!!!!!

Current Mood: satisfied

7:02am: Life is Good...
The majority of the mess from the carboy explosion is cleaned up and we have a new “decorator” carpet (that looks like it belongs in a kids room ), but the books are still stacked throughout the living room awaiting the removal of the remainder of the carboys from upstairs. As I’ve told several people, we could laugh about the first incident – but if it happens again I’d have to burn down the house.

The garden is taking shape. The greenhouse was so overflowing that Noni said it was growing it’s way out to the garden on it’s own. Most of it is planted now, and the size of the plants is pretty impressive. So really, nothings been lost by being behind. In fact, there’s a chance I’ve been putting a few things out too early in past years (like pepper plants). The grapes grow like weeds, the weeds grow even faster. We’re eating what strawberries the deer didn’t get, and the first raspberries are beginning to ripen.

No more skunk problems, but I think Eddie may have accidentally blown it up when he was trying to smoke it out from under the old chicken house.

We’ve had graduation parties and birthday parties. The next month or so will be time to do all the outdoor stuff, like painting and repairing, before the harvest begins and it gets crazy again. There will be a little time for gatherings and relaxing, if we remember to take the opportunity (since there’s ALWAYS more than enough needing to be done).

Yep, life is good.

Hope your life is good, too!

Current Mood: content

7:10am: A Week in My Life
I've had an amazing couple of weeks. Record high temperatures, spring flowers (iris, columbine, chamomile, sage, lupine) in bloom and all the myraid of bugs hatched out at once, broken lawn mower just before hosting a community yard sale and bazarr, rained (poured!) out second (last) day of bazarr, two day warning of location change of Ladies Gathering due to serious illness in the clan - and my first outdoor Ladies Gathering (I usually have them inside in the winter).

This Ladies Gathering is always a big deal because it includes our annual "plant exchange", where everyone brings the leftovers from planting, flower divisions, seeds, cuttings, home made plant remedies, etc. and we all get to share the wealth.

Our land spirits here are awesome, and they were in rare form during our circle. Being host, I lead the circle with thanks for everyone who could be there (28 this time), followed by a period of silence and prayers for those in troubled times. I named our clan members who were supposed to host this gathering, and my niece who had just lost her life and her baby at 8 months. Many others threw out their specific prayers and we added each to our own. The birds were singing and cavorting in the background, creating a surreal and deeply spiritual experience. We finished our circle with a mingling of spirit and voice in a prolonged "ahhhhh" (from the heart. "ohhhh" is from the head.). It's amazing how revitalizing these meetings are, and this one was extra special because Nahani was able to be here for it.

The next day was a morning in town and an exhausted Dee. The greenhouse runneth over, the weeds and grass exploded with the hot temperatures and downpour of rain, the grape vines and raspberry plants all need tied up, Nahani has folks in/out trying to get a start on building across the street, and then the day of extreme challenges.

Imagine a 5 gallon glass container of half fermented raspberry wine exploding over your head. That's what happened to Nahani, and Eddie was holding it when it shattered in his hands. I watched in horror as my reference books were hosed with the red waterfall. It took hours for Nahani, Tara and I to doctor Eddie's profusely bleeding hand, rescue books and papers, clear the area of glass shards and suck up gallons of liquid from the carpet. The damage was much less than anyone anticipated, but it's still going to take weeks to recover and put everything back in place.

That night Eddie and I had 3 midnight runs out to the chicken yard/house to rescue what we could of our hens and their chicks from an invading skunk. A sad time, and prompting another half a day of examination and security repairs.

The grass still grows, the lawnmower is still broke, the plants in the greenhouse are in desperate need of transplanting, a million more things vie for attention, and I'm so overwhelmed that I'm writing this instead of doing anything about it.

Current Mood: amused

8:02am: Hummingbirds and Yard Sales
I have been blessed with some amazing encounters with wildlife throughout my life, but I think I'm still most awed over the opportunities I've had to hold a tiny hummingbird in my hand, sometimes even stroking their downy soft feathers.

Since living here, almost every year at least one hummingbird needs rescued from inside the house. Most times they get in accidentally and can't find their way out (they tend to go UP). The other day Boots got hold of one and brought it in, where it escaped into a window. They are always mellow about my picking them up, which always surprises and delights me. I carry them carefully outside and open my hand, where half the time they stand for a second and then blast off at warp speeds. Sometimes I think they're in shock or injured because they just lay there and let me stroke them and offer them Reiki. Then they surprise me again by bursting off into the distance at full speed. Wow.

And hummingbirds are personable and friendly. They knock on the windows to tell us they're back and need the feeders filled. They come and see what we're doing out in the yard or garden, and they will even bathe in the shower of the hose when I'm watering (if I'll hold it still for them). Their clicks and clacks are starting to make sense, and I regularly get visions of a sharp beak stuck in my cheek or my hair being parted when they zoom by at ultra high speeds chasing one another. Yep, hummingbirds daze and amaze me.

This is a high stress week for me as we prepare to sponsor a Community Yard Sale and Bazarr next Friday and Saturday. The place looks beautiful and it's going to be overflowing with our neighbors and their new and used items. Actually it's going to be similiar to the Old Time Faires with an amazing variety of stuff. If this goes well, we may do it every year. And in all fairness, the stress is really low level compared to what it could be, because the folks setting up here are well grounded and very spiritual. It's going to be fun.

6:52am: Handmade All-Natural Soaps and Salves
Got a good start on my web pages. Bet you didn't know that I had my own line of Quality Herbal Products, eh?

http://www.toteg.org/Quality/Index.html

And while you're at it, check out Nahani's and Vickey's pages.

http://www.toteg.org/Nahani/Index.html

6:14am: There will never be a day that I get everything that I need and want to do done. It's a constant juggle trying to get the "needs" taken care of, all too often with a minute by minute re-prioritization as things demand immediate attention. For instance, everything stops when there's no water - in the effort to get water going again. Or when the power goes out, while there's still plenty to do, it takes a bit of gear grinding to figure out what needs done that actually CAN be done without electricity, then switching back when the power comes back on.

It takes commitment and determination to actually get around to the things I "want" to do, and always at the detriment of something that "needs" doing. But I learned a long time ago just how necessary this particular balance is. Sometimes I get caught up in the needs and lose sight of the wants, creating an imbalance in my life that usually causes even more difficulties like illness or mechanical breakdowns.

It's not helpful that I want to do both the wants and needs 'perfect'. Of course, that's beyond my abilities, but I dedicated myself to attaining perfection until just recently, and I have to constantly remind myself that it's okay to not be perfect and to just relax. Maybe someday it will come without so many reminders, and maybe I can do it without having to feel the constant need to appologize for my inadequicies.

It's a whirlwind time around here, with lots of exciting and good stuff going on. The house is a disaster, the lawn needs mowed, the list of needs/wants is too big to contemplate without being overwhelmed. I'm behind on just about everything but actually doing a pretty good job of rolling with the flow and having a good time doing whatever I'm doing at the time and not worrying about everything else that needs doing and isn't getting done. (that was a mouthfull)

Unfortunately I can't do everything all the time. Oh well. It's nothing personal. My family and friends are always in my heart and mind, and when occassion presents itself I try to let them know how much they mean to me.

6:09am: Never a Dull Moment...
It's spring overload time. The body hurts, the brain is taxed, more things need done in very short period or the opportunity is lost for another year, and the blooms make me smile.

Eddie is working strange, unpredictible hours and uncertain days off. This tends to leave both of us a bit unbalanced and disorganized. He has two trips to Spokane next week, and I'm going to try and go with him on the second one to do some shopping and (hopefully) get my eyes examined for badly needed new glasses.

Mom is getting ready to head to Lousiana for a month this week. It will be more like a working vacation for her, but the interaction and chores are ultimately good for her morale. Noni was leaving Dallas, TX yesterday headed home via Los Angeles (the long, slow way). Hopefully she'll be home in time to go to the saturday auction with me. She bought a beautiful wood cook stove for her place this week (she's going to be completely off the grid over there - very cool); actually, she almost stole it, and this is a good thing for us poor people.

We've had broody hens sitting on eggs for a while. It takes 3 weeks for them to hatch. A couple of days ago Eddie got up saying we must have baby chicks, cuz he heard cheeping. He had a few minutes before going to work, so hauled me and the camera out to see the new babies. Good thing we went out there when we did. Mama hen was dead in the chicken house (it happens), and 7 baby chicks were left alone in an upper nesting box.

I scooped them up while Eddie took care of mama and found a box to put them in, get the heat lamp and some bedding. One chick in the nest box was already gone, and three of the ones I was holding were very cold to the touch. Long story shortened; it was a very eventful morning with saving chicks and all the things involved in brooding (I was obviously not prepared for this to happen), plus introducing kittens to chicks and intervening when they sporadically try to either play with them or eat them. Not much else got done. >:/

So we have 3 healthy and happy chicks in the house, and so far one baby chick with mama out in the yard. Four more hens are still sitting, and we'll check daily for new chicks. They are soooo sweet and cute when they're babies...

7:29am: Auction
Yesterday I attended my first every auction. It was at a farm south of Colville and mom went with me. Overcast day threatening to rain, but fortunately holding off until after the whole thing was done. Not very organized, hours of exhausting standing, a few good deals and a lot of folks willing to pay much more than things were really worth. Overall, a good time and we're going to do another auction on the 22nd.

It's been non-stop around here, other than when I *have* to sit down and do some serious meditation. Even had to take the first nitro gliceron in over 2 months. But it's an exciting time on several fronts and it appears our foundling business is really starting to get off the ground. It would be real nice if Eddie didn't have to drive 80 miles a day for work.

Spring is in full force and there are constantly one of a million things that needs done. I'm really pleased with how well I'm doing, and soon I won't have a constant nagging worry hanging over me, I'm-a-thinking. Crocus are almost done and daffodils are popping out all over. Peas are planted and lots of stuff is up in the greenhouse. Strawberries are cleaned and composted and ready for a season of growing, as is the shade flower garden. Clover seed I spread a few weeks ago is sprouting up all over; one apricot tree is about to burst forth with pink flowers and another is in the process of being butchered down to a managable size (and hopefully will once again produce fruit). That's just the tip of what's going on around here.

Today I planning on taking it easy (relatively speaking, of course).