New Life Old Farmers

It was a very hot dehydrating sort of summer day.  I spent it on Beau doing my best to ride like the wind breeze and not knock anything over, such as barrels & poles and trying to remember the pattern.  My Loving Spouse spent the day resting in the shade, visiting the snack bar, photographing the action and being my head cheer leader, all the while dreaming of riding as soon as THE knee is healed.I am amazed at what a comfortable team Beau and I have become in such a short time.  My view for most of the day…

We wait patiently and calmly for our turn while others are flying through the course kicking up dust and doing their best to shatter their previous times.At 55 I am only interested in starting a new sport that is fun with other fun people.  This gaming seems to attract a highly competitive, yet lighthearted group, who enjoy watching others improve….and that makes it a delight!The riders come in all ages and are so very knowledgeable.  Some of my new friends, happily coach me on how to do better.  They say I am very teachable, that could easily be because I am extremely aware, that I know nothing and welcome all the help I can get.  (They will also look at the pictures of THE Grandson when we have a bit of down time, friends are good).Gaming (see Patterned Speed Horse Association) is a sport for families to enjoy their horses together.  The riders take their riding seriously, but do not seem to take themselves too seriously, so it is an enjoyable and relaxing break from repairing the house.

When the kids were a LOT smaller, the younger two were on an equestrian vaulting team together.  They worked hard to become strong, balanced and fit…to say nothing of amazing as they learned to canter around while standing on horseback…However, the competitions were stressful days of being in the right place at the right time, with lots of rushing around and anxiety…a very far cry from Gaming, where the sign ups happen right before the event with a casual…”Okay, who wants to ride, the next event is…”

Everyone beat me yesterday…everyone, but that is okay.  I beat me too, riding faster than my old times, so progress is being made!  The last event was barrels and it was hot.  Everyone was tired.  Beau and I were beat, tired, hungry and I don’t know about him, but I had a definite headache.  I might have packed it in, but I needed this time at this arena to ride next month in ‘The Classic’.  All I needed was a clean ride…not knocking any barrels over.  The announcer on the mike was in a lighthearted mood, which kept the tired spirits of the riders up.  He was joking and teasing over each ride and rider.  He did not know me, but saw My Loving Spouse come to the fence to photograph my ride, so he jokingly said, “Wave when you get to the second barrel”.  Barrel riders are riding their horses fast and hard and each second counts, plus they are trying to hang on, because coming off your horse on a ride is certainly a Bad British Word, no one waves ever….until now.  I was hot, tired and thought…oh what the heck, I am going to be the slowest might as well have some fun and so I did, I waved at the second barrel and there was a burst of laughter that may not be forgotten too soon….it was so much fun that when they goaded me to wave again on the home stretch…well why not!

(Most of the ride is attached, if you are so inclined…)

Ellen’s Barrel Run

I love, love, love old windows…and doors….and bits of wood…and…  So it is no wonder I am where I am with an old house with lots of old bits we are trying to restore and save and fix and live in and a work shop full of what some might call junk-trash, I call treasure.

The wall above our bed need a bit of something.  I needed to do something creative as I was running on empty what with nursing THE knee and just the thought of a project was making me smile.  I was off to the barn to look for an old pallet, planning on putting the boards together and then painting a simple white heart on it, didn’t find one.  Looked at my stock of old red barn wood…not quite right…and found one of my old windows (that we don’t get rid of because I might need them) and it was perfect.  It gets hosed off and left to dry.I wanted more than just the window and went about trying a handful of things that were ‘just not quite right’ or ‘didn’t Bad British Word work’.  First was the old wire I attempted to bend into a heart, which did NOT go well.  I thought about writing on it, but did not have the right kind of pen,  but now have a small collection of drinking glasses with writing on the bottom of them as I tested out the pens I did have.I resorted to making words with wire, which can be both fun and frustrating as some words are harder than others, so writing “with you I am home” was too hard, so settled for “with you is home”…

…not completely happy with it, and I totally forgot that the walls in the bedroom are dark grey, so black wire will NOT show….  Bad British Word, back to the drawing board.  I do love our old corrugated tin, so asked My Loving Spouse who is slowly getting around a bit more, if he could cut me out a heart.Which he did, and I love..but it (the window) was still not quite right…

Then doing errands I was able to find the right pen (a Sharpie) to write on glass and I was off to the races. The great thing about writing on glass is that you can print off what you want, tape it in place and end up making words that look like you actually know what you are doing.

The finished window project is done and for me it is perfect…or so I thought!

One of my crafty friends thought I should still use the heart and I’d have to say she was right!

I needed the words and the heart to get the finished look I wanted….

so now… I am really done
…and I love it!

This summer evening was perfect!  NOT hot and NOT windy…as we’ve been dealing with both for sometime….today was perfectly beautiful.  The weather was just too nice to not take advantage of it, so we called for a spontaneous after diner game of croquet.  Our croquet season has taken a big hit because of THE knee and we were ready to make up for lost time.

The first item on the after diner agenda was a small family field trip to the Vegetable garden.  Some (all) of the family members I live with seem to think it is no big deal to grow amazing pumpkins.  I sometimes (often) have to remind them of the wonders of Mother Nature.  I only planted a few seeds this year and still the patch is thriving.  The pumpkin vines started to invade all the other vegetables so I even did the unheard of, I trimmed the vines back and in so doing cut out 40 pumpkins (yes, I counted them).  The pumpkins I do have growing are getting big…fast…and it is amazing…and my family thinks so too, they just like to pretend that I am the only crazy one.  Our friends came to play croquet and their first words were, “Wow!  Look at those pumpkins!”  I like having friends.

With the pumpkin field trip over, we were ready for croquet!  My Loving Spouse and THE knee are not yet ready for competitive sports so he was excused to the safety of the house and a comfortable chair.  We were a small group of mallet wielding athletes, just grateful for a beautiful summer evening to be outside and to relax and to play.  Grateful, until the quiet, mild-mannered Number Two Son swept us all not only earning the W (win), but denying all of us from obtaining Poison as well, which in our crazy scientific seasonal point scoring tally is disastrous.

We all quickly agreed there was time for a second game, giving Number Two a second W (back to back wins) for the evening, but at least in the second game we older mature gals’ managed to obtain Poison and earn a few extra points to go along with the Straw Hat Point.  It was the debut of my pink hat, My Batty Granny Hat, (with a nod to My English Sister in law), now that I am a Granny and the batty part???  Well…..only time will tell, I’m sure THE Grandson will love my pumpkin patch.

With My Loving Spouse recovering from THE knee, he has spent most of the time down, not ‘up’.  When ‘up’, he has had a lot of time to surf the net on his iPad, researching horse training, Guinea Hogs, knee replacement operations, Go-Pro cameras, pony carts, and pod watering systems, just to name a few.  I was in favor of the watering pods as we have needed to have a more efficient and cost-effective method of irrigating the land we have.  After of few days of his research and cussing at the on-line salesmen who couldn’t-wouldn’t ‘answer a straight question’, I shot down to the local irrigation guru and picked up a sprinkler system on steroids.  This system can be moved easily with the ‘bike’ and it can be used around the animals, which served most of our concerns.  All we needed to do was put it together…it would be ‘easy’ and only take two days.

 

Why is it that sometimes when manure stuff happens, it happens all at the same time?

In the last 24 hours, ‘stuff’ happened.

My Loving Spouse is having a tough time getting over his knee replacement.  It has been 4 weeks, and although he wasn’t planning on doing a jig after a week or two, he was planning on going back to work…and having less pain…and having doctors call him back when things were really not looking ‘right’…and not feeling sick.

Last night he was not doing well…

The dishwasher broke…

He went to bed and I spent an hour in the kitchen cleaning up an additional mess  left behind on this hot summer night via some nasty animal…and maybe feeling a teeny, tiny bit sorry for myself.

This morning My Loving Spouse made his debut back at work where he lasted one hour and was sent home by the head honcho.  Back on the farm, the plumbing backed up and someone was having stomach ‘issues’ that made this very problematic…isn’t that always the way!

While I was waiting for the Septic Angel to call me back and say when he could come out, friends showed up and made the mayhem…better.  Our Friend the Farmer stopped by as he too has been worried about My Loving Spouse and THE knee.  We were sharing our concern, taking My Loving Spouse’s temperature, because that is what the Vet tells him to do with his cows, when Our Friend the Farmer’s Girl Friend stopped by with a box of doughnuts…let me tell you, this was a sure sign that things were looking up!

So, I put on a pot of coffee…and then the Septic Angel showed up.  Two hours after the call went out, he didn’t bother to call…he just came, this is unheard of prompt and immediate service!

It was feeling almost like a party.  Usually, when this ‘stuff’ happens, I am alone to deal with it, to talk septic systems with the Angel and try to interpret the dialog latter to My Loving Spouse, which always seems to go something like,

“Did you ask him about the leech field”

‘What?’

“Well, did he say anything about the flow and the ground and the tank and the….”

‘What?’

I liked having My Loving Spouse home to talk to the Septic Angel himself and all I needed to do was pour coffee.  I really like having friends…and friends that will help dig up your septic system…even better!

…and sit down at your picnic table with a cup of coffee and a doughnut while the Septic Angel pumps your tank about 12 feet away.

With everything flushing well again, the Septic Angel left as did the rest of the coffee & doughnut crew.  We were left with THE Knee, a broken dishwasher and waiting for the Doctor to call My Loving Spouse back.  

The next set of friends family stopped to see us on their way back to Texas.  They helped try and fix the dishwasher.  Helped me to wash all the dishes I had stashed in the dishwasher to make the house look clean for their visit.  Made runs to the workshop with me to look for the tools My Loving Spouse needed to fix the dishwasher, visited, looked at pictures of THE Grand baby, took us out to diner and…looked at THE Knee.  Yes, this particular friend family is a doctor.  His diagnosis…cause for concern…yes, cause for panic…no.  We were relieved.  We were grateful.

Grateful for friends…family…

..who show up from around the corner or across a bunch of states and join into our mayhem,

making it better and making the mayhem a sweet memory.

 

Our grandson was born

and

we are blessed!

Healthy

6 pounds 11 ounces

His mom and dad are over the moon

and like the birth of one’s child

the birth of one’s grandchild changes you/me

my son with his son

My Loving Spouse repeated over and over with a catch in his voice…

“He is the most perfect, beautiful baby…”

….

What’s a Grandparent’s job?

I suppose it will be ever-expanding and changing as our family changes

I think perhaps the baseline responsibility for me now is

to be a

support and encourager to the new parents,

sharing their joy

and

honoring their desires* as they navigate this adventure called parenting

and

we are blessed

….

*I will be happy to bore you to tears with pictures of my perfect little grand son,

so feel free to ask (in person)

they have asked that we not post pictures of their darling son on the internet

One of the ‘issues/gifts’ My Girl was born with was the inability to sleep.  You could say she was nocturnal.  From the first night she could crawl out of her crib, it wasn’t fun.  When she was small keeping her safe each night and getting her to sleep were an ongoing challenge.  When she started school the issues increased.  It still took her hours to fall asleep, so getting her ‘up’ each morning was an additional challenge, because of course she was still tired.  Did I mention that this was not fun?  Not for her or me…as she got older, I’d often say, ‘someday’ you’ll have a job that works for your clock’

….and now she does, working the graveyard shift at a classy resort in the next town.  She goes to work when we go to bed and visa-versa.  As you can imagine, this is a hard job for the resort to fill, most of us can not stay up all night, even if we wanted to.  Imagine staying up all night doing audits AND being nice to people…I don’t think so.  Not only can she do it, but she is doing a great job, so when the resort needed a Night Auditor to go to a sister resort for a couple of weeks and stay there, she said she’d do it….a ‘business trip’…living in the resort….working…in a different town…where she knows no one…exciting, challenging and lonely…and wanting to share a bit of the adventure with someone.

Each of us had the desire to go…but the timing was more than just tricky…

My Loving Spouse – still recovering from his total knee

Number Two Son – had agreed to help out at Vacation Bible School, but could handle the nursing duties at home

The Number Ones – were waiting as we all are on the birth of THE Grand-baby, who we’d all convinced ourselves would be like his mother and born early, but now clearly is following in his Daddy’s footsteps and is officially late

Me – wanting to see My Girl and play with her, a tad worried THE Grand-baby would come, grateful that I could leave the nursing to Number Two

So…off I went across the state to see My Girl.

Zip lining through the trees in the Colombia River Gorge was a 2 hour adventure.  She went like a pro.  I went like a 55-year-old mom, no fancy dangling for me, but plenty of whooping and happy hollering until we got to that one.  The one where you were suppose to just step off the platform and go down, straight down…and I was last.  What can I tell you, it wasn’t pretty.  I probably could have jumped off, but that was not allowed.  Stepping into nothing?  I’ve been trying to avoid that all my life.  In the end, I sat down on the platform and sort of scooted off and lived to tell the tale.

We hiked walked a river trail to see the remains of an old fort, meandering along one step ahead of the mosquitoes until we reached that proverbial fork cross in the path. Where it took us some time and attention to the details to find our way…She’s finally turned sleeping days and not nights to her advantage and is being brave with her life… seeing the beauty of where she is and what she is experiencing, acknowledging the loneliness, learning to navigate that reality and not let it overshadow all the good…that I think is being brave and I am proud of her.

My Other Girl is getting married!  This is the second member of Team Offspring to get married, but the first since I began quilting.  A wedding quilt is a big deal and a labor of love.  5 months ago, I asked the kids if anyone was making them one and if not, that I would be honored to do so and so it began… with a lot of help from my friends… friends don’t let friends sew alone, luckily for me.

Step one of course was the fabric, the colors…she loves sunflowers, they wanted browns, yellow and tan….  My Loving Spouse was drug off to the fabric store to help in the first selection, but it seems I picked up more fabric and colors for this quilt every time I entered a fabric store…it was a Wedding Quilt after all!  I literally spent days and nights on Pinterest scouring the site for a pattern and kept coming back to the one that just seemed right for this quilt, except all I had was a picture…no pattern or instructions and it was a bit complicated, so I needed help, lots of it.  Luckily for me, the first of the quilting friends steps in to make sure I get it right…and I was off.

Sewing 32 squares and then…cutting them up and sewing them some more…Laying them out for on ‘point’……not liking this final effect…laying them out again…and again…  My plan for adding the triangle pieces would have cut off the corners of each bordering square (Bad British Word) and little did I know, that when you quilt ‘on point’ the triangle pieces can stretch which will distort the entire quilt (Double Bad British Word).  I am grateful for Quilting Friend 2 who gave me a complicated mathematical formula for cutting the triangle pieces to keep them from stretching…and I finally have the quilt top completed.Fabric for the backing was bought in brown, as I drug My Loving Spouse back to the fabric store (the nearest one is 23 miles away).  Except we didn’t buy enough…so we did it again…and the second brown (on a second trip)…was not enough as well…  Thankfully, so entered Quilting Friend 2 (again) with a suitable and warm fabric for the backing…it was time to quilt it.  Onto the long arm quilter and I was working away.Quilting in circles, which I am still learning to do…Using one of the extra brown fabrics for the binding and I was done.  It took me 5 months, but I wanted to make sure it was done right.  I got it in the mail and off to ‘his’ mother all in time for a shower, that I didn’t even know they were having!Packed and sewn with love and prayers for a life time of blessings for them both…

My Loving Spouse is still recovering from his total knee replacement.  It has not gone as quickly as he’d hoped and there is still a lot of pain, however when he wants to he has found a way to get around…and he often calls me stubborn!

He’s even been known to go visiting the neighbor this way……but really who could blame him, they had puppies!  10 little ones born a day ago……makes getting out on one’s wheelchair/lawn mower all worth it!