Mountain Mama's Point Of View

  We left home early this morning expecting a repeat of leg #1. After he had been in surgery for over 4 hours, I started to get a little anxious. He thought he had a viable vein in his leg which would have simplified the procedure. Oh, ye of high hopes! Finally about an hour later they called me with an update to say they were finishing and he should be in recovery soon. But that didn't happen. I left him in pre-op at 12:30 for them to start the arterial line, which is a sterile procedure and I couldn't stay. The anesthesiologist was doing this and said he would be going from that into the surgical suite. He did not get to recovery until 6:10.  Dr. Ross looked as tired as I felt when he found me in the waiting room that had all but emptied. He had excessive bleeding that did not want to clot and stop. Well, that's not good I thought to myself. He said we could no t go home as planned tomorrow, that we would see on Friday. He thought he might need a transfusion tonight. So, ...

The day began very early, 5 am, to be exact. We were on the road by 5:30. Yes, it was very dark as we made our way through the mountain and into Helen. The overcast skies made sunrise be very subtle.  HeWho is always afraid of being late and got it in his head that we should be at the hospital at 8am instead of 9am. He took some of those hairpin turns too fast for my liking. Yet, a car passed us despite the double yellow line on the road. The posted sign proclaimed the speed limit to be 15, sometimes 20 around those curves. We were hitting 30 and this car came flying up behind us and disappeared around the next curve .... never s aw it again.  We made it to the hospital with time to spare. Used the valet parking even though HeWho argued about the $12. Worth every penny for me not to wander around looking for my car and walking back and forth to the entrance. Old men! As much as I wanted to sleep on the trip, I was too frazzled by the leg of the trip through the mountain. No sm...

  Another hot and sultry day here. My back yard is in shade in the mornings and I headed out to look at last night's garden growth. Everything is a little off kilter with the mild teperatures we have enjoyed most of the summer. Now that it is hot, everything seems to grow overnight. I grabbed a pair of shorts and a t-shirt to go out, not that I couldn't have gone out in my sleep attire, secluded as we are. First I lifted the giant squash leaves to see that a few yellow neck squash had grown while I slept. In a couple of days, we will enjoy a pan of squash. I don't like to let them get really big. They get tough and they taste better when they are smaller.. Then I checked on my baby limas. Not quite ready and just a few. They are setting new blooms, though. No tomatoes taking on any color, but there are well over two dozen that will ripen at once. I see a batch of tomato sauce in my future. I picked a few green beans and then walked over to the field peas.  I went back insid...

  The cute one reporting here on the activities at our house. Just now I was napping peacefully, wedged against the back of the recliner next to my sister dog, Toni Louise. We have both been suspicious when Mom calls our names lately. She has been giving us a daily dose of medicine. It tastes okay, but I am not going to simply comply with her administration of something I can't lick first. Oh, what am I saying, I will eat just about anything from Mom, but this was ugly yellow liquid in a syringe that she squirts down our throats and we feel compelled to swallow. Toni was the first one to run from Mom when she saw the syringe. I am not a copy cat (not a cat of any kind), but it seemed like a good idea. Eddie is most obedient when Mom tells him it is good for him and will make his incessant (new word for me) itching stop. He did refuse to open his mouth, but Mom slipped that syringe through his back teeth and released the medicine on the back of his tongue. I hid. Eddie told us it wa...

  What a lovely day as we begin our adventure. We are going to Franklin, North Carolina. Only 35 miles away to the east of our mountainside. More mountains loom in the distance. We traveled this road before we actually moved here. We pulled a U-Haul with some of our belongings to our new home before we closed on the sale of our business. Keep in mind that there is a U-Haul dealership right here in Hayesville, but the contract in hand had us returning our unit in Clayton, Ga. Why? Who knows. Anyhoo, we had been on this road before, but the scenery was lost to me since I was riding in my designated area in the back with the dogs. Hard to gaze upon the mountains with just a slither of window for my view. We did not go into Franklin before turning south to Clayton. I kept seeing things on Marketplace for Franklin, so I did a little research and found that Franklin had lots of thrift stores and .... places to eat. HeWho loves to eat away from home, despite being married to an excellent ...

  The heat everyone has been complaining about has made it to my mountainside. We are still cool in the mornings, but the rest of the day is hot and humid. My energy seems to drain quickly. So, I have been working in the She Shed in the afternoon after the shade has sheltered my little retreat. The heat is still an issue, but I have been able to put a couple of hours a day in unpacking and organizing the interior. The exterior has a new sign on the door that just struck my fancy.  I have employed the free entertainment center parts and built a standing desk to hold my crafty stuff. Since removing the queen bed, a whole new space has opened up. More later on that. Supposed to be hot and sultry today, so I am thinking an adventure is in order. Yesterday was a down day for me. Just felt pretty awful. A little dizzy and clumsy. My depth perception was way off and I dropped things that fell short of my intended target. I did manage to change the bed sheets and do several loads of l...

  Come, take a walk with me. It is such a beautiful day here, nestled into the side of my mountain. Look down the ravine at that patch of fern, isn't is lovely? I hear the rushing creek at the bottom along with the buzz of bees collecting nectar. 79 degrees and a light breeze complete my contentment. I am at the back of my house, walking along the narrow path between the drop off of the ravine and my porch. I planted some sunflowers in the vegetable garden by the fence. The fence and netting provide support. See the two bluberry plants thriving there? One bush yeilded exactly two large and delicious berries this season. Just you wait, next season will be better! My dog fencing has not been put to use to thwart wildlife. The netting seems to be a good deterent. Further along is cucumber plants. I harvested one this morning to go with the tomato in the window waiting to be eaten. A little olive oil, red wine vinegar, fresh cracked black pepper, a touch of salt, and a dab of sugar pou...

  The weather has finally calmed and yesterday was picture perfect. I decided to get rid of some furniture that was crowding everything. This decision was not made yesterday, but several weeks ago. As you know, anything involving help from HeWho takes time .... In order to move the furniture, we would need to employ the flatbed trailer. You might recall that magical day when I heard the shout "Look Out!!" from HeWho drives and tows and looked up from my weeding to see the pontoon boat crash into the trailer, then the tree. Since then the boat has been successfully moved to the paved area, but the flatbed was still unmoving against the tree that I no longer want to cut down. I don't think I mentioned that the contents of said trailer, the pile of bark sided pieces cut from logs that I had not used up in my gardens. The trailer's back wheels were up on this pile. I had thought the trailer remained unscathed, but that little wheel that is on the tongue is no longer there...

  Rain, rain, and more rain. All night long thunderclaps and lightning lit my bedroom. Rain would come down hard enough to be heard, despite the mighty wind of the ever present fan sounding and the air purifier next to HeWho can sleep through just about anything. This has been for the past few days. Wake up to a bright sunny morning, only to watch it dissolve into overcast skies promsing more wet days. I managed to get the narrow side of the driveway planted with fern and hosta, then ground cover to discourage weeds and grass, then mulch on top of that. You would think all that physical labor would slow my mind down ..... not so. I can set out to fulfil one goal and my mind autimatically turns to the next project, and the next after that. You remember my surprise sunflower garden. The one the bees love to visit. Sorry for the blur. This is better, caught my little friend in mid-flight. Then after the high winds and pounding raindrops. the sunflowers were no longer standing. I went ...

  The weather here has been wet. I heard the rain pelting the roof again last night. So much for mowing today. The day began very early. Eddie saw the vet yesterday, then had to be back this morning to be sedated for a skin punch to be sent off to the lab to try to determine the best course of treatment. He did a skin scraping yesterday and believes it might not be allergies, but a parasite. So, how did Eddie pick up a parasite? We put out granules around the dog yard, our entire yard, that will kill fleas, ticks and mosquitoes. We use Frontline on the dogs and monitor their diet carefully. I woke in the middle of the night pondering the issue. Only thing I can come up with is traveling. It is not like we can stop and disinfect the areas before they go. So, Eddie is recovering at the animal hospital while HeWho is getting new tires on his truck. The housework is done and I am ready for Eddie to come home so I can hold him. He has come to hate the vet's office. He used to be happy w...

  The lights went out while it was still light enough to see outside. They had flickered on and off for most of the afternoon, and we figured they would pop back on after a bit. We were wrong. No power from about 5PM until about 12:30 this afternoon.  No coffee this morning!!! I stumbled around and let the canines out to take care of their needs. Then we all went back to bed. I am useless without caffiene. I slept until 11:30! I sat up in the bed with sunlight pouring in the open window. I thought to myself, "So, this is what it is like to be HeWho!!" HeWho doesn't mind what his hair looks like donned his ball cap and dispensed himself to the closest gas station to aquire coffee for his beloved. It was pretty nasty, but I drank every drop! I contacted my Marketplace contact with the free entertainment center we were to have picked up yesterday. It is too big to fit in the bed of the truck and since yesterday's attempt to pull the trailer out failed, I suggested that w...

  Mom says I should compose a post for today. Compose is my new word, did I use it correctly? Mom says she just isn't feeling it. You can feel words? No pictures of my cute self today. The power keeps going on and off and I can't up load without internet. Mom says the power has to be on for the internet. This is all very confusing to a young pup, such as myself. I looked out the window and it is downright scary out there! The wind is blowing and the trees are swaying in the pounding rain. Dad says there is a tornado watch for our county. I don't know what a tornado is. Is it fun? I will tell you about our day so far. Mom is still a little sad about her chili.  She made this chili the other day and I smelled it cooking. It did make me hungry, but the people in this house did not offer us dogs a bite! So, as a result, I can't tell you if it was good, but Mom and Dad said it was. Then the next day, Dad ruined it with water. Not really sure how, but Mom was singing a song a...

  I woke early and the gray clouds were promising rain. Upon opening the door to outside so the dogs could go outside the cool air hit me. Made me think a nice pot of chili would be good. I had cooked some ground beef two days ago. It was a package I had not repackaged into smaller portions, so I only used half of it and had the other half lingering in the fridge. Soon as I had some coffee, I did a little research on the contents of my pantry. No canned beans, but I did have tomatoes. No problem, I always have dried beans on hand. I measured out a cup and put them in the instapot along with a quart of vegetable broth. I set them at 8 minutes and then gathered some spices together. Cayenne pepper, chili powder, smked paprika, and black pepper. I left the salt out since the vegetable broth has salt in it. After the first cyle of 8 minutes the beans were still hard. I added my spices and some water and did another 8 minute cycle in the pressure cooker mode. I chopped onion, Vidalia on...

  While the trip was fun and it was nice to get away, there really is no place like home. I was chomping at the bits to see my gardens as soon as we pulled into our driveway. Mystery flower revealed! That large packet of seeds labeled zinnia that was mixed with some sort of medium and did not look like sunflower seeds was sunflowers! This is what it looked like when we left. Not only did they bloom, but they also grew quite a bit! I like sunflowers, but may not have planted them in this particular location. They dwarf the maple tree and block the shrubs growing behind them. Maybe I should buy more seed and just toss it into the ravine! The lone surviving tomato plant is now taller than me! Not just surviving, but thriving. Lots of tomatoes in my future. The half barrel is lettuce, when we left it was just beginning to come up. Covering the fence is green beans and the squash is delivering, too. Peas on this side of the yard have taken over the fence. Early green peas are done and I...

  Hi all, it is me, Mr. BoJangles. We have just returned from a very long trip! Here I am in The RV. See that fan? Dad brought it along. He got it from his tool shed. I need to tell you that he loves fans and you will find one where ever he is. This one had not been used in a long time and when he turned it on the very first night of our trip, it screamed!! I am not kidding you, it actually screamed. Dad did nothing just sat there looking at it. Mom smacked his arm and told him to turn it off. Dad said it would stop "in a minute", Mom was not happy. I was thinking that maybe I could join in and sing some high notes that Dad says he hates. He must not hate them that much if he is happy to let this fan scream .... just saying. Turns out we needed the fan that night to block out the road noise. The park we stayed in was right next to a very busy highway and even with the fan we all kept waking up. Dad said we would not be staying here in the future. But we did on the way home. I...