Woe is Me

Woe is Me.

I have so much to be grateful for

But ZZZZZZ'not

This dreaded code'n'my'node~

~~~~~

I have a retirement party to get under way

My health's going south

No rest for today,

To get anything done,

I must breed' thru my mouth.

Lordy, Lordy, This won't be fun.

I will get it all done,

Fear not, I'll survive...

Under clouds and the sun

At least I'm alive.

Though the day was unwelcome

With feeling so crappy,

Floors shine, dinner's eaten

And everyone's happy.

The sneezing, eyes water,

Kleenex are soaked,

Steeped tea makes life better,

Don't tease me, no jokes.

This is the end,

There won't be any more,

Don't wake me, Don't touch me

Or there will be war.

Until further notice~

BlessYourHeart

Sweet Amber Maple Syrup

We are at it again.

We are in the process of setting up for another sweet spring.

The maple trees are being tapped as I make this entry so I cannot

stay with you long. There is maple syrup to dream about.

There is a Dark Chocolate Cake in the oven, (sorry Sherry, wish you could be here for a hunk with Peanut Butter Frosting).

Coffee's due to perk,

And Pork Chops to brown and set in the slow cooker

with potatoes and carrots, for supper.

By 5 p.m., the guys will be hungry and ready to retire for the day.

Well, Maybe.

Until next time ;-)

a wink and a smile and

I'm on my way to the woods.

Break time is arriving fast.

You're welcome to come along for the ride.

BlessYourHearts

In An Instant

I'm always taken back a step or two, not because I'm off balance, though my family may choose to disagree, but because some things just happen.

It's day three of a wasted weekend for me. I didn't plan it that way. It just happened. I was shopping, minding my own business, finished, headed for the parking lot when, out of the blue, my body screamed a painful tear from my backside, around my hip and straight down to my knee. I was so surprised.

I did not fall, or twist wrong. I was just getting on with my day when my bod decided it had enough.

Two days with my very best friend when these things happen, ICE, Aleve for pain and plenty of rest AFTER my son helped me into the house and got me into the recliner with lots of supportive pillows everywhere.

Finally on day 3, I was able to get my day going almost back to normal.

A trip to the farm, rounded up my Grandmothers old cane, she looks rather goosish, don't you think,... and I was off and running.

You can't keep a good man or gal down, as Pa always used to say. I now understand how Dad's cane and Grandma's were their best friend, always there to support them when they needed it. It's amazing how a little piece of wood can be so useful. Today, I was grateful for that.

Then, as if things weren't stressful enough, we got bombarded with flying ants today.

They were everywhere, but all coming out of the hole left in the kitchen ceiling where the water damage took out several ceiling tiles due to the ice dams we had on the roof after the quick thaw of our two feet of snow. Oh, yes, we do love the thaw., and oh, yes, we do hate the intruders. B l a s t dem varmints! I must have swept up 300 of them. Look out ants, you will not be safe here...

Bill is a very happy man. Andy's old truck that he has been working on, is finally out of the garage. Yipee!!! And, it runs., dropping a bit of rust, but it runs easily from point A to point B.....so good~

But, look closer. When I took this picture this evening, I see he has a Ghostly Ford Friend in the passenger seat.

eeeeeeeeeeeee:(

But Bill is happy his Lil Blue New Holland has it's rightful place back inside the garage.

I see Bill's up to something again., oh but always. He loves his freedom to complete a project uninterrupted. I think he plans to do something sweet with that big, flat pan.

I'll bet it's going to taste pretty good on pancakes.

After all, it's that time of year again.

until then~

BlessYourHeart

Retirement Rocks

I suppose it wouldn't be fair to just leave and not say goodbye,

But we did.

The morning after a small gathering of work-related friends

( of which there are no pictures ),

We passed Butternut Creek,

and the Old Homestead grounds,

( the house looking very renewed ),

past this gorgeous well-used red barn,

and to the Redemption Ranch for breakfast

with one of the boys and friends who were home

to ride their sleds on the 2 feet of snow we got a week ago.

I'm holding this picture, for proof, that my GrandLove, Josh,

DOES know how to wash dishes. His mother will want to know.

Sorry, Bud, but chores first, then the fun.

We took a roadtrip to our daughters a couple hrs. away,

to find her walking,

and walking her sick horse, Windy.

Windy had gotten a bad belly ache with Sand Colic which was a

near death experience for her. She had to be medicated with pain killers,

antibiotics, and tubed into her stomach to be treated with a gallon of

mineral oil, then continually medicated for 5 days.

The following day the vet returned to treat a blood clot the size of a

grapefruit in her throat., poor thing. She is eating cookies again and doing so much better.

On to Bill's responsibility as a Grandpa.

He was busy the week, teaching Austin how

to make Scrambled Eggs. Good job, Dude.

Most of the time was spent here. The kids are finishing off a part of their old farm house that was never done. The room is huge, twice the size you see here. When finished, this will be a master bedroom and bath.

Do you thing these little Kings on the Mt. were glad to see us?

Love It!!!!

The very first thing done when we returned home, was

Fix the broken recliner. Bill almost flipped backwards into the window

when he sat down...no longer a problem thanks to my Mr. Fixit Man.

Bill spent two days moving heavy snow just getting back to the cabin.

Normally, he finishes this job in less than half a day. We are glad to see the weather warming and melting some of this stuff.

We are so ready to be done with this knee deep snow and move onto

a new and exciting adventure.

Are you ready for this? Brace yourself, for we are going to~~~~

ready?~~~~~

grow potatoes.

What?, you say?

There are 48 varieties, and so much more.

Not often does opportunity literally ' knock on your door,'

but it did.

It seems a seed company from WA. state wants to lease our tiny

field for a test garden to grow different cold weather varieties of potatoes.

After a lengthy discussion of how this all works, we had a gentleman's/gentlewoman's handshake to seal the deal until the paperwork is complete.

We are excited to see how this all comes out.

So~~~

To be continued~~~

It's been an exciting and busy first week.

Here's hoping yours was productive and fun too.

Now, on with the plans for a Retirement Party for My Man Bill.

BlessYour Heart

Switchin' Hats

After 40 years at the paper mill,

Bill is hanging it up.

He says he's ready to switch hats.

As of today, he has retired his lunchbox,

that box that no longer comes clean.

It's time to relax.

Our first road trip will not take us far.

We have GrandLoves to hug, and their Mom's and Dad's.

We will do as little as possible at first.

We will watch and just enjoy the view

as we boggy-on down the road.

We will have a few laughs

Lots of laughs.

We will go fishing. That 'cat ' sure was good.

It jumped right in the pan.

We hope to see this again sooner rather than later.

One of the road trips of our future.

Naaaa, it isn't time to leave just yet.

What's the hurry.

We really do not know what is in store for us.

We do know one thing. We will probably continue to do

whatever we did on our weekends together.

No matter what it is, I'm sure we will work hard,

eat healthy and just continue to love our life.

We are fortunate to have nothing but time,

time to just pick up and go if we want.

That starts tomorrow.

Thanks for stopping.

Now, I have to throw a travel bag together.

Hey, where's my hat?

Have a great weekend.

and

BlessYourHeart

Just For You

It seemed it would never stop coming down~

and sideways, too!

So, I thought I'd share more of our morning!

I know, this is rare for me, to post twice in a day,

but, it kept coming, just for you.

Besides, I get so excited to see so much fresh snow

so I simply must show you how clean the world around

me looks today.

After all of these months with little snow,

we finally got what we were asking for.

The Lord just knows.

He knew we needed some moisture.

He sure has a sense of humor.

As gorgeous as what the clean slate looks,

it's heavy, wet, snowman stuff.

There are 3 cross-boards on this fence.

Yes, we got all that within the early morning til about 10 a.m.

Click on this next picture of the driveway.

Can you see where Bill drove out a few hours ago?

Somewhere under that white stuff is Andy's car.

There goes the dump plow adding salt to the road at the same time.

Andy got stuck first thing this morning, taking a vacation day so

I put him to work on the tractor to push a path. Boys like big toys.

It took 3 hours to plow the U-drive around the house.

Click this photo and you will see the mail did not go thru today.

Not for us, not for anyone.

I love this birdhouse. I'm so glad the robins were still

basking in the sun much further south.

Nice drift curling off the woodshed.

Now I was just thinking~~~wouldn't this Hydrangea make a great

Gnome Home?

There are frozen fingers everywhere,

some even touching the ground.

Even white on white has it's appeal.

You can understand how blustery this blizzard was

when the snow is even on the inside branches and the trunks.

Now, this is more like what we're used to,

but by Dec. and always in late Feb. and March.

In other words, we know when to ' hunker down '

for the Big One.

Our house is somewhere behind the trees and the snow piles.

We even have plenty of ice on the driveway under the snow.

Ahhhh, late winter, early spring, we are survivors.

But this? This we never like to see.

Looks like double trouble to me.

Icy roof~~~~has been giving us grief, but

we think we have finally found a solution.

That's another story.

Hope you didn't get any of this,

unless, of course, you too, needed the moisture.

You can thank God for that. He's such a kidder.

When Bill gets home from work,

we will attempt to find the cabin under its blanket.

It's been a pleasure.

BlessYourHeart

Northern Blizzard

Wow, it's nasty out there. The schools are closed, some of the major highways in our surrounding area are impassable or closed, snow, rain, ice and high winds are smothering us with blizzard conditions. At least it's warm out., but that can be a really bad thing making the snow nearly impossible to move, even with the aid of the tractor with a nice blade. The county graters and snowplows are the only vehicles on the roads. Even they are moving slowly.

My man got the Ram out this morning but called once he got to work saying it took him 20 minutes to drive there. We only live 5 minutes from the mill. By now there is usually a rush of vehicles heading to town to their jobs, but this morning, I have only seen 2 weather the storm. We are forecast for the ' Big One ' to hit today.

My hope now, is that the power will not go out. I don't expect that miracle with this wind and the amount of snow already bending the evergreens to the ground.

There is a truck under restoration in one stall of the garage, and the Ram gets the other. Bill's Lil Blue, his tractor, even is sitting out in the elements.

Today is plow day once again.

Now, Where's the car?

The entire country is feeling the effects of this storm in one way or another.

I pray you are all safe.

Thanks for stopping by and

BlessYourHeart