Tuesday Twaddle

I went for a walk this morning. Just enough cold to be refreshing. The sun is shining to make every thing sparkle with early morning dew. The sky is blue and not a cloud in sight. There are so many doves out in the yard that when I walk and they fly, it is as if a small explosion happens.

 

I think what I love about November is the surprises that greet me. I had no idea this tree had turned all orangy-red. As I was looking around to make sure no skunks were around, you know how it is with skunks, you smell them before you see them. I saw this at the back of the pasture and I was so surprised how fast that tree had changed. I was just out there and now it is all dressed in fall finery.

 

The leaves on the tree remind me that this is the first of November and we already have color on the trees. It has been a long time that we have had a normal fall with cooler temps. I am thankful for normal. Even if it is just for this morning as I walked. As Erma Bombeck quipped once, " Normal is just the setting on the dryer."
I think sometimes as I long for normal, it really is a state like " Tomorrow" and the famous " other kids moms" It isn't real, it exists only in my mind when I would rather being doing routine.

 

I think that is why we are reminded that we only have today. To be thankful for right now in the moment. To be all there where ever I am for right now.  To take the small things that I am given and celebrate them because of the quiet joy that opens my heart and my eyes to the beauty all around me. To be thankful for the blessings that I might miss if I am longing to be something I am not or to be in a place other than where I am right now.

 

Which of course means today, stacking wood. Moving it to the porch so it will be near the back door. It is lovely wood. I also really enjoy stacking firewood. It always makes me so happy and I feel so rich when we have lots of firewood. I imagine it is equivalent to a squirrel having lots of acorns.

Have a lovely Tuesday.

~Kim~

Getting Caught Up

I hope you all had a nice weekend. This first in November. The weather here is perfect. This weekend was a nice weekend but not one you really like to happen very much. We have this place in our yard that was turning into a swamp. Ron and I didn't bring it up to each other and we both quit using the gate. I stopped visiting his trees or going to that side of the yard unless I needed something over there. I hate water leaks and after two years in a row of replacing water heaters and dealing with leaking water it is important that it is fixed before the frost.

Because of where we live, in the desert, we have automatic sprinklers. The sprinkler pipes and the valves wear out just like every thing else. Saturday morning Ron said, he was going to have to start digging. I am not a good digger. I stood outside and talked to him as he started this horrible, yucky job.

 

The mud was horrible and smelled like sewer, the leak has been there awhile. There are three valves there so Ron had to dip water into that five gallon bucket and carry it out to dump it over and over until he could see where the water was coming from. He had to dig very carefully so he didn't hit a pipe or a valve. He was in mud up to his knees and he was sopping wet. You know I get tired of doing laundry and cleaning house and cooking dinner, but even on my worst day, it is never as hard as the things he has to do to keep things running around here. I know from the photo it doesn't look very big but the hole is about 5 feet by 3 feet. All weekend this was what he did and late Saturday, he came to the door and said, " Hey come look at the leak!" I thought he said, " Come look at this leaf." So I grabbed my camera as I thought to myself, " How wonderful is it my husband found a cool leaf for me." 

 

See all of that terrible mud. We kept making jokes about Hank the Cowdog and the emerald pond.
He replaced the valve that was leaking and it wasn't until he finally found the leak that was under the fence that the water finally stopped running. Now we have to let it dry out. He is going to use the tractor to scoop this mud and take it away and then use sand to fill in the hole and bring in some more dirt to fill the hole.

So our weekend was like that. The weather was beautiful though. I cooked a bunch and made pies. That is all I can ever  think to do, just cook.

Today, they are delivering our firewood.  I always enjoy when our firewood gets here. Then I am ready for storms.

Have a lovely week,
~Kim~

November

We have two cold fronts coming down from Alaska and all I can stay to myself is " Whew!! finally, I can feel like a human again." In November, the cold is a novelty, I am looking forward to the singing of the tea kettle on the wood stove, of the kids coming in and making tea and hot chocolate.   I enjoy baking and cooking when the weather is dark and dreary. I love to watch the flames in the wood stove and see the dance of the fire. It is November so it is time to sit and read Gladys Taber. For November she says:

"Every type of wood has a special way of burning. Chestnut is slow and firm and has a happy faculty of "holding over" so breakfast toast can be made on the long wrought iron fork. Maple is a good wood to burn. Apple wood smells the sweetest and is my favorite; the ghost of apple blossoms lingers in the old gnarled logs."

 

Only Gladys Tabor can write of burning wood a bit of art. Her words fill me with such delight. November will be a very nice month. Lots of expectations. I find that my mind is on my daughter, and the soon coming of her new baby girl. I am so glad that God brings blessings out of sorrow. When I think of my heavy heart last year at this time and to see how God has changed things 180 degrees, I wonder why do I ever worry.

So this November, I will enjoy the cold, and the rain, and the fog and the gray skies. The time will change and that is the hard part, last night I when I was ready for bed I thought to myself, next week at this time it will be only eight O'clock.  Oh well more time to sit in front of the fire and watch the flames and sew.

I am so thankful today, Have a lovely weekend.

~Kim~

Happy Halloween

I know I complain about the heat, too much I think. I wanted to tell you how beautiful it was this morning. We had a bit of rain Tuesday night. The air now is full of moisture and the smell is just heavenly. All of the smells of fall and cold and fog and today, I know why I will never move. All that is in me loves this place. My grandparents bought this place in 1963. In November that year my parents with my grandparents moved out here. I was four years old, I remember that every day I walked around the garden and the yard and the huge old trees, the old farmhouse, the Quonset hut where my grandparents were living all of it called to my heart. Even at four years old, I knew I was home.

 

Not much remains of the place that lives in my memories. This place had been a working farm and a dairy. All of that is gone. Where my house sits now was where the old barn was, it blew down in 1977 so by the time we built our house all that was left was an old foundation. This place survived a fire that destroyed most of the out buildings when my grandparents were alive. When I walk the pastures, I am reminded of the love I have felt for this place for most of my life.

 

Next year, all of that may change. The city has decided that they will turn the road in front of my house into a freeway. If they use the law of eminent domain, my front yard almost to the front tree will be gone. It will take all of the houses on the street. If that happens, remember my saying from last week, " Fear is the darkroom, where negatives are developed." I will not be afraid. I am reminded at four years old, even then God knew the heart of a tiny girl and brought me here. He still knows the heart of this old woman, and what ever it is that He decides I know I will be blessed  where ever I go. As He always says, " Will you trust me," I know I will because as I learned from last year, His ways are always the best even when I don't understand.

Today is Halloween, I love Halloween, and I love that my kids and some of my grand kids will be here. A home, is not the house I live in but with the people whom I have been blessed with, no matter where I go, as long as there is family I will be home.

Have a lovely day,
~Kim~