Mountain Mama's Point Of View

  What shall I write about this fine day? Are you like me, having wonderful topics in your head all day long, but when you have the opportunity to sit down and write, you draw a blank? The last couple of weeks have revolved around The Patient and his many needs. The weekend was horrible. He was having pain behind his knee. He was walking on his toes and gasping with every step. I found it to be incredibly annoying, I knew if he did not listen to me and stretch that muscle, he was in for a very long recovery. No pain pills left, relying only on Tylenol. You know those charts on the walls of the hospital rooms with the illustrations of pain levels? They should be updated with pictures of the faces The Patient makes when he is in pain. Very graphic! Anyhoo, Monday morning, The Patient called to me from his bed. "Call Susan, I can't stand this anymore." he rasped out theatrically.  "Is that your phone, right there next to you?" asked the caregiver. He looked confuse

  Our nights are getting cooler and I wake to temps in the 60's. As pleasant as this is, my garden suffers. I have at least two dozen big green tomatoes on the vines. They need the temperatures to come up considerably to ripen. The beans are still producing daily, the peas have slowed down, as well as the squash. I only got 3 cucumbers from the vine and it is turning brown.  As much as I love the cooler temps, it makes my garden look sparse and sad. I suppose today is as good as any to build my frames and cover them with plastic to create my green house over my garden beds. Since I found the electric stapler, this will be a  breeze. My flower gardens are showing signs of hibernating for the winter, as well. I now have four hibiscus. The two that produce the large white, with red throats are already setting seed. The apricot one and the red one are still blooming. Had I clipped back the spent flowers sooner, the white ones would have bloomed again .... my bad. Cosmos are still flowe

  I was joking with the surgeon that since he put the cow vein in The Patients leg, all he wanted to eat was beef. I failed to mention that all he ever wanted to eat before the surgery was beef. I suppose he is a cannibal now, eating his on kind! Two days ago, when asked what he would like for dinner, he asked if we had any short ribs in the freezer. We did, but the making of short ribs needs to begin very early in the day. I did get them out of the freezer and he got fish for dinner that night. Braised Beef Short Ribs is worth the effort! I use my instapot for this, since I can saute in the same pot used to slow cook the ribs to yummy perfection. The prep is the hardest part. I was dicing and slicing onions, celery, and carrots while browning the meat and gathering all the ingredients for the feast to follow. Short ribs are well marbled with fat, so just a touch of olive oil on the bottom of the pan to keep the meat from sticking is all you need to start. The fat will render itself as

  I have been recovering from my toothache, which was accompanied by my headache, so my knee decided to act up as well, then my hip and sciatic nerve must have been jealous because it joined in on the fun. Rain and winds and weird formations in the sky occurred as well to make my hands and one of my toes ache incessantly. I was a hot mess, but being a hot mess does not exclude one from their daily responsibilities. As you all know, I have The Patient to take care of. He is out of pain pills, but, to his credit, he did offer the last one to me. Being wise beyond my considerable years, I did not partake of the offering. I knew full well that I would never hear the end of his generosity. Instead I took Tylenol and Ibuprofen and I soldiered on. While The Patient is busy being a pain in my a$$, I decided to make my escape to the great outdoors and get started on removing all the vegatation from the shallow ditch and replace it with rock. Where, you might wonder am I getting enough rock for

  It is harvest time! I have been getting up early to pick peas and beans and squash and tomatoes. Monday was a wash as far as my garden went. The Patient had an 11am appointment with Susan.  She removed the stitches. The glue was holding them and making it difficult to grab the suture material. This was traumatic for The Patient. I have removed stitches from small children with less drama. Susan agreed with me that his creatinine level and the lowered blood pressure were a result of him not drinking enough fluids. So, no renal study for now, unless he presents more symptoms. She instructed him to get up and WALK every day. He either chose not to hear this or simply ignored it. Left to his own devices, he has slept until 1:30 for the past two days. It always amazes me that he can fall to sleep as soon as his head hits the pillow, despite having slept so long into the day. When I commented that he was asleep when I went to sleep and he was asleep when I woke up. Apparantly I hit a nerve

  Despite the fact that I have yet to finish organizing my shed, I decided to tackle The Patient's shed. His shed is smaller and located close to the house in case I am needed. I can only work in it in the early morning and late afternoon when the sun is not bearing down on the metal roof. My shed is under some massive trees and only gets sun on one short side. I can lose myself in my shed as I am putting stuff away. As long as I have water to drink, I can stay up there for hours. When I tire of being inside, I can step out and into my largest garden area. I can weed for hours on end. I listen to books on my phone or simply let my mind roam. It is so very peaceful in my gardens and many prayers have been said in this setting. As everyone knows by now, I never found my everyday cutlery. Everyone calls it silverwear, but it is stainless. I don't clean silver! Other things have been unpacked and then disappeared. I had been looking for the electric stapler. The Patient was just go