Mountain Mama's Point Of View

  The continuing saga of the stove I got for Christmas. Lovely as it is ..... it is still missing the oven door. The repairman was scheduled to come last Thursday, but was delayed until today. It will be yesterday when you read this. I had already posted today while waiting for the sun to burn bright and warm the day. You may recall that I stopped the man with hammer as he headed for the stove to "fix" the problem. He made all the necessary calls to GE for the warranty and they contacted the repair facility they contract with. The man called and said he was on the way. I didn't move, as I was in the middle of a thought. Still in my doxie pj's I heard the arrival and scurried to corral the canines and head to my bedroom to contain them and put clothes on. HeWho is not cognizant of his surroundings opened the door and let the man in. Much barking and sniffing ensued and the furry clad contingent seemed to like the intruder. He was very nice, but appalled at the conditio

  I was sitting here in my favorite spot, reading blogs and sipping coffee when I heard a scratching behind me on the right side. It sounded like it was inside and I immediately jumped up to look. Logically, I knew it was nothing actually in the house. The three canines would have alerted the world to the presence of an intruder. Bo would have screamed and Toni Louise would have risen from her nap behind the recliner that is usually being held to the floor by HeWho. Eddie, being a dachshund, bred to hunt small critters would have done just that. So, no mayhem inside the house had me looking out the window. No problem finding a window, since my entire outer wall is covered with windows. It was loud enough that I expected to see a bear, but they are hibernating currently. Aren't they? Maybe one awoke and decided to visit and complain that my garbage bins were empty ... I saw nothing. Nary a creature was stirring, not even a mouse. For someone who likes critters, I am not at all fond

  Dora, the turte is happy with a larger area to explore. She even has a floating log. My idea for a sunning platform is not working, so I ordered one and I can hardly wait to put a lot more water in her new home so she can dive to the bottom. After hunting for a larger habitat and finding aquarium prices to be like a mortgage payment, something I no longer have and don't want, I found a substitute quite by accident while wandering around Walmart. I am pretty sure it is meant to house Christmas decor, but it is narrow enough to sit where the old habitat sat. It is deep enough to hold many gallons of water for Dora's adventures. Dora loves it! The old habitat was blue and she couldn't see clearly, now she follows my every movement. I think she might be smiling. So far, we have yet to make a good seal in the hole HeWho drilled, knowing he had the wrong size bit. Swore he could "fix" it. He purchased three corks, none fit, then he decided to carve away at one and it

  The recent warm days have had me in my She Shed. Hours spent with the drill and jig saw, as I am rethinking my lay out. The shed is big, but space is still a premium not to be wasted.  One dilemma is access to the lofts on either end. I have a ladder, but I have to haul it up to my shed from the tool shed. Kind of awkward, not that heavy, but if I decide to leave it in my shed, it takes up precious space. I am thinking to make some cubes along the wall in the middle of the floor space. I can stack them  and use them as steps, and storage. In order to do this, I need to move a counter top and some wood to work with. In order to move the counter top, I need to move all the counter tops .... I am basically starting completely over. Progress seems to be slow. My drill battery died and I had to quit for the day.  I needed my sewing machine for some mending and set it up on my kitchen table. Much to my dismay, it needs some work. I took it apart and clean and oiled everything. I threaded i

  Aging is a strange thing. Memories can be triggered by the oddest things and once prompted you tend to ponder the memory and remember all the details. One such memory got stuck in my mind as I went about my daily chores this morning. I was making the bed and suddenly thought of a woman I had not thought about in a long time. I don't remember the exact year, but thinking back to how old the children were I have narrowed it down to the early 1980's. We were attending a Pentacostal church in our search for the perfect fit for our family. Turns out, there is no such thing. Since a church is made of the individual people who meet there every week and not a one is perfect, you will find that there is no perfect fit. This one was pretty close and most of the people we encountered there are remembered with heartfelt fondness. There are always those in any group (church or otherwise) who tend to feel they have a handle on everything and their way is the "right" way. Above cr

  When last we met, I had the stove, but it did not have a power source hooked up and was missing the oven door. Sorry, let me rephrase that. The door was here, just not actually attached to the oven. The delivery guys took it off to get it through the door opening. HeWho needed it off to facilitate his tinkering, so it was not an issue. The stove was all tinkered with to change it from natural gas to LP gas and slid into the gaping hole in the kitchen. I was watching a movie on Netflix to keep myself occupied during the tinkering. I tend to want to question the man and offer suggestions. He does not appreciate my input, so it is better if I am silent. He was hooking up the existing line to the new stove when his wife's nose twitched. "I smell gas." I figured it would not be a good idea to remain silent since I have a very keen sense of smell that HeWho does not have. Gas leaking into our confined space could not be good. I heard the burner ignite and hoped it was burning

  The new range was delivered without a hitch late yesterday afternoon. Wait, I lied. Of course there was a problem! It came with out the orifices needed to change it from natural gas to propane. HeWho had to drive to Murphy to get them, so it was dark by the time he returned with the needed parts and our dinner. We ate and then he fiddled with the new stove for a bit. Bedtime came and we called it a day and retreated to our bed. The stove is still in the middle of the room, waiting to be moved into the kitchen and hooked up to its power source. This is progress! Slow, but progress, nonetheless. I just might cook today. I might bake a cake in case you are coming over! Such excitement, I can barely stand it. I will not declare victory until it is actually hooked up and in use .....

  Another Tuesday, delivery day. For the third time. Didn't get my stove and the new expected delivery date is now the 20th. Three weeks with no stove and I am not happy. The reason was that it snowed north of us ..... I cooked breakfast on the electric griddle and used the toaster oven. With so little counter space this was a balancing act. The griddle moved so that one leg went off the counter top and the raw eggs went rushing onto the counter and the floor. Mr. BoJangles was delighted to clean the floor. I am not sure he should have, he looks a little nauseous. He licked it up so fast that the other dogs didn't stand a chance. I kind of feel bad for the little guy. Maybe it will teach him a lesson about greed. I have been smug about the weather here and got my comeuppance last night when it dropped to 11 degrees. Could have been lower, but that is what it was when I woke. So, tomorrow is supposed to be the delivery day. Just got a text confirming it. Of course we have had th

  Getting used to being retired is hard. At first, you might feel like you are suddenly free of responsibility .... As inviting as that sounds, after the first month or so, it gets boring. Well, for me, it did. I was not used to just doing nothing. Not that I was doing nothing. I still had to cook and clean and take care of the house and the animals. Laundry had to be done, the bed had to be made and the dogs had to be fed. It certainly didn't take that much time and when this was done, I was left to do whatever I wanted to do. This was a bit overwhelming. I took a lot of naps and that was nice. I read a lot of books and that was great, but I still felt at loose ends. It was the beginning of winter, and I found myself sleeping too much and watching too much TV. The news does not provide one with calm thoughts before bed and I dream a lot. Spring finally arrived and I was busy building a garden and found that I could stay outside all day long and it made me very happy. Rainy days fo

  Monday, Monday .... Here we are, another Monday with NO STOVE. Rumor has it that the GE stove I chose to replace my first choice of a Hisense, will be here tomorrow.  Where have I heard that before? Life goes on and yesterday I made a delectable pot of soup in the slow cooker. Using some of the smoked turkey breast and some frozen green beans and carrots from my garden along with onions and celery. I thought it was good and HeWho siad it was as he ate his bowl along with a bag of oyster crackers.  We have been having take out and eating at food establishments. I sometimes want to tape the mouth of HeWho shut, and order for him. He ALWAYS orders food he should only have in moderation given his history of heart attacks (three, so far). If he does have a salad he will drown it in dressing, so much that anything that makes it to his stomach is incidental. And BEEF is what's for dinner, every dinner as far as he is concerned. The side is always fries, no baked potato for this cardiac

  The new stove ..... still waiting! No, I am not kidding. How long does it take to get a new stove? Let's see, the first delivery had a broken igniter and they picked it up last Saturday. On Tuesday the scheduled delivery of another one did not appear. Yesterday, Thursday, it finally showed up after many calls. They say they could not find our address and HeWho had to saty on the phone and direct them here. After having to help get the last one into the house, I told him to make sure they brought it inside. I retired to the bedroom with all the dogs to assure they would not be underfoot. I could hear them and assumed my instructions were being followed. I was wrong. HeWho was trying to get the stove up the step and into the house himself and needed help. The only help available was me. While on our Christmas trip, I shut the RV door on my left thumb. It is still very tender and I will lose the nail. It is ugly and sore. Yesterday, while trying to help lift the stove over the thres

  Meet Bruno, My great grand dog. A better picture below. A baby, so puppy breath! Look at that sweet little face! He was handed around so much I wondered if he was able to stand on his sweet little feet. We arrived on Christmas Eve and Bruno came out in my daughter's arm to greet us. I had my three dogs on their leashes. I picked up Mr. BoJangles to sniff the puppy and he immediately started that growl in the back of his throat. His hackles rose and I handed him to HeWho and picked up Eddie. Eddie sniffed him carefully and Bruno sniffed Eddie. Eddie is very polite unless you bother his food while he is eating. Toni Louise was indifferent, she has been through many additions to our pack of dogs and probably figured this was just a new one and she would get used to it soon enough. The granddogs were not happy with the addition to their house. Max is the smaller dog and went to sit with Papa. Gemma sat by me and sometimes on me. Max is old and really does not like Bruno. Gemma is nic

  New year, new insurance card. Different company. A big pain in my a$$. Following the instructions that accompanied the card to register, I went to the site and did just that. This is when I looked over at the reclining man and told him to register his card. He didn't. He likes to wait until the last second to do things. So, given his tendency to procrastinate, I reminded him. I didn't say, "did you register the Caremark card yet?", but I would ask if he had gotten the email that says, "welcome to Caremark". Then he would ask what I was talking about and I would have to explain it again. No surprises here, it is a pattern. I COULD have done it for him, but I occasionally dig my heels in and make him take care of his own business. The stove delivery scheduled for today was canceled, due to "truck problems". It has yet to be rescheduled. We had a storm last night and it rained pretty hard all morning. I figured they didn't want to get wet, or at

  HeWho finally got Alexa dusted off and connected with our internet. We use her mostly for music. HeWho loves gadgets and he bought Alexa as a gift for me. Just one of many gifts over the years that he wanted and bought "for me".  I am not much of a tech person as you all know if you read this. I use my phone mainly to listen to audio books. Free, from the library. I like free stuff and bargains. My daughters call me cheap. My son calls me thrifty or frugal and he is known to call me excited if he finds a good bargain. He is his mother's son. But back to Alexa. You have no doubt heard the same stories as I have about how she is spying on us, her and Siri. You laugh and wonder if it could be true, then think it should be okay since anything overheard in your home would be of little value to anyone listening. But you still use it. If Alexa is listening to our house, it would be quite boring. HeWho holds the recliner to the floor (retirement messed with his head and he no l

Here is Dora in her freshly cleaned habitat. Her green and blue ball is supposed to float around, but it is too big for her habitat, like she is beginning to be. My search has not come up with one labels as a reptile habitat that is bigger than this one. I will need to explore the big aquariums and then customize it to her liking. She sleeps under the platform and that is referred to as a "hide". I can still see her, so I would say it is not big or private enough to be called a hide. It has "steps for her to grab to reach the top. When she was tiny it proved to be a better challenge. Any higher in the current habitat she would be able to escape. Her water also needs to be deeper. Dora is climbing over one of her fake turtle friends. She will later move it out of her way. She favors the green one next to her. I wonder if she might be a bully to a new live friend. I think she needs a companion and I have been looking for one. I wish I could happen upon one in the stream, l

Sunday morning was drizzling and dreary as I sipped my coffee. A headache developed as the morning turned to afternoon. I was holding my head and bemoaning the ache in it. HeWho asked if I had taken any tylenol. I responded in the negative, sitting with Eddie by my side. Did he offer to take the 4 steps to the kitchen to get a dose of pain relief for his wife. No, he did not. I didn't ask him to, just got up and dosed myself.  I had put the last 3 gallon bottle of water on the dispenser earlier and knew we would have to go to Walmart to fill the other 3 bottles. Soon as the headache subsided we climbed into the truck, knowing it would be time to eat after we purchased the water. Since I still had no stove to cook on ..... So we meandered through the store and found some deals. Boneless Prime Rib, $4.90 lb. and a few other good buys and went to check out. There was a long line at the self check-out.  HeWho is a big fan of the self check-out. Me, not so much. I will say that I could

  Let's see, where did I leave you? Yes, I remember. Delivery day had me going to bed with the old stove blocking my coffee bar and the new one languishing on the porch. The slider door did not open sufficiently to let us take out the old to bring in the new. HeWho had a solution. He was going to remove the slider, just the side that slid back and forth. This is a tiny dwelling, so no fancy doors that would open all the way. I can't say why I figured he had exhausted all possibilities before deciding that this would be a solution. I should know better after 49 years of watching him do things until finally say, "Well, that didn't work." Like I said before we were just about an inch shy of having enough room after removing all the parts that made the appliance wider. He was so sure he had the solution that he suggested we could bring the new refrigerator in and take the old banged up one out to the porch. I didn't bother to tell him that the new range did not ma

  So, the range was delivered yesterday. I really wanted a gas cook top and an electric oven, but a tiny home's power supply prevented that fantasy. You must be wondering what I have cooked thus far. Nothing. It was delivered to the porch and HeWho knows everything about appliances assured me that "stoves are light weight, we can get it inside". The overly optimistic man was on his lap top and his phone researching how to hook it up. My suggestion to call the gas company fell on deaf ears. We pulled and disconnected the old stove and I cleaned it up to sell it. Then we tried to get it out the door. He measured and cursed it, then took the knobs on the front off. We needed just an inch to work with, but he was discouraged, so we stopped and his investigation on how to remove the slider began. I went about my business and left him to his. I scrubbed the area behind the stove, found some pills that had fallen and rolled under the stove. I was happy to know the dogs didn'

  Today is the big day. Our scheduled delivery of my new stove with an oven that doesn't leak hot air and has a working temperature control should be delivered between the hours of 10 am and 2 pm. I woke at my normal time 7:30 and began my day. Out went the canines, coffee dripping slowly into my cup. The dogs came in and settled next to me on the sofa and I was about the business of dealing with email. I figured I would give myself 30 minutes, maybe 45, to sit quietly with my coffee. Then I would get going on cleaning the old stove to sell it for whatever I can get for it. The top works and maybe a new gasket around the oven door would help. Whatever I can get will be more than I had and I no longer want the stove. My plan in the back of my head, my inner clock ticking away, I had not even finished half of my alloted coffee when HeWho was asleep was up and dressed, saying he had gotten a call and "they are on the way." It wasn't even 8:00. This annoyed me, since I wa

  I was told I would have to wait for my Christmas present until we returned form our trip ..... and that I had to "pick it out". I immediately asked if we would be visiting a litter of puppies. He laughed. He tells me we don't need more pets, that we don't want them to outlive us. What a pleasant thought. I asked incessantly and then started telling everyone that he would be introducing me to some contractors and giving me a real kitchen!! I like to push the envelope, you know. I do need more counter space, my oven takes forever to preheat and leaks hot air into the entire house. Not to mention the leaky faucet that leaves me having to put a dishtowel at the side of the sink to keep my belly dry. I ride the counter with my belly as I wash dishes. HeWho says the faucet never leaks when he uses it .... both times he washed dishes. So, you might be wondering by now what I actually got. There was a time, years ago, when my washing machine finally gasped its last breath a

  During our stay in Florida, I was plagued with dreams and what must have been nightmares. Maybe a premonition of my son's accident? Who knows? I felt a push to the back of my head in the middle of the night. But, let me set the scene for you. We sleep in a king sized bed. This does not mean there is endless room to stretch out my legs and snuggle down into the warmth of my covers. Three canines share the space. They are not big dogs and Toni Louise usually starts out in bed and after some Mommy time and cuddles, she leaves to go to her bed on the floor next to her master's side of the bed. That leaves a fat dachshund and a 13 lb. BoJangles. Bo loves to tunnel to the bottom of the bed and curl into a ball of warmth for my feet. Eddie likes to sleep between HeWho and me. One would think this means that I have warm feet and a nice little heater by my side. This would be ideal if I didn't overheat in the night and try to flee from the warm animals. This means I cling to the s

  I am back! It was not a stellar ending of 2023. 2024 will bring new challenges, for sure. The first one finds me unable to download all the pictures I took in the last few weeks. Frustrated, I will temporarily give up and just use my words. My daughters would tell you that I use them too much, but they are cut from the same cloth as me (they wouldn't admit that if you paid them) and will share their opinions with you whether you want to hear them or not. We had a pretty uneventful trip to Florida. I always remind HeWho drives NOT to give the dogs anything to eat before we depart on a trip. He has his morning routine, though and upon seeing him the dogs gather at the fridge where the treats of pumpkin, peanut butter and oats made by your truly await dispensing by him. Yes, Mr. BoJangles had a treat before jumping up the steps and into the RV. As we wound through the mountain into Helen, he vomited. I had covered his area with a towel just in case, but he didn't stay put and ma