Mountain Mama's Point Of View

  My heart is heavy today. You all know that my baby girl recently lost her puppy and is still grieving that loss. Yesterday was another difficult day for her and her husband.  Gemma, the pit mix, who has been with them for many years with no aggression whatsoever. Until she met my Eddie. She attacked him, but other than scaring the poop out of him, he was not injured. No blood was shed. Then a couple of weeks later she attacked Max. Max is an old little guy who was there when they adopted her. She has always gotten along with him. They were buddies. My son-in-law was bitten when he pulled them apart. They kept the dogs separated after that. I know it had to have scared poor Max. He was top dog for so long, but never resented his new sibling.  After this they consulted the vet to see what they could do for Gemma. My son-in-law loved this dog as much as his wife loved her puppy. They decided to try behavior modification. During this time, Gemma was never left alone with one of the other

  Standing in the shadow of the tree line, I was taking a water break, admiring my efforts. Mulch makes such a difference. I am not quite done here, I still have to cover those dead leaves with more mulch. Still, it is coming along. Pivoting, the daylilies I transplanted are looking a bit sad. They should perk up soon. I needed to fill in that litte gap there. You can't really see in the picture, but the slope is daunting for an old lady with vertigo! There were some wicked briar things growing there. I dug up what I could and then planted and covered the entire area with cardboard before mulching. Here's hoping they won't come back. I need more mulch, you just can't have too much mulch! I have about 25 feet to go here, until I am done with this portion. Then I will have the entire side of the driveway done! This picture was taken shortly after we moved in. This is that same spot now. I am staying in today to rest all the muscles. The major storm this morning helped me

  This is the garden I mulched yesterday. It is on the side of the deck that faces the driveway. The flamingoes glow at night and there are some lighted bees along the ground near the plants. Two gardenia bushes and an azalea are there. I dug up and split some tiger lilies I had planted behind our house. I put them there until I could decide exactly where I wanted them to go. It is nice to have them in a place where they can grow and spread until I need a filler plant. I am also nurturing hosta and some daylilies there, along with watermelon growing there. Meanwhile the grass I planted is coming up! I have been keeping it wet, and it has been raining nearly every day. I am looking forward to some lush and think grass. The entire yard is seeded. If we take a short trip now, I might come back to a real lawn!! But, before I will even consider a trip (north, this time), I think HeWho should complete his deck project. He seems to be at a standstill. Part of the deck rail is up and then he p

  Impressive, right? This is my driveway, that is our truck and our trailer. After backing down this drive every day for the past two weeks with a trailer attached, HeWho must have decided to scare his wife and demolish my hostas all at the same time. Upon awakening today, HeWho announced his many tasks. First he had to go check on the boat at the welder's. It has been awaiting attention for some time now and needs to be at the place that will check out the other parts to make sure it is water worthy. I nagged incessantly  gently suggested since the month of Februrary that HeWho get the boat to the shop and not wait until they are so busy. First trip of his day was to the welder. Boat was promised to be ready YESTERDAY. It hasn't been touched. Second trip of the day was to pick up the boat. Why he didn't pick it up on the first trip will remain a mystery, since he doesn't know. I was under the impression that he would pick the boat up and take it to the next place. I am

  HeWho builds would appear to be thinking .... I hope he is thinking about the crooked piece on the left side, I know I am. When HeWho comes up with an idea for a project, he is all systems go and rarely bothers to think about alternatives to his ideas. He is all set to get this done. I, on the other hand do not care for this railing he has come up with. I didn't say so because this has sometimes backfired on me and he has abandoned projects altogether. Better to let him finish, then find a way to work with it. I would have used some laurel wood with its twisty nature. Not to mention that we have plenty in the woods and it would be free. He has now decided to remove the original stairs up the embankment and turn them over, you know the way they were meant to be. The treads are not wide enough for my feet and I have small feet. I haven't said a word, but I realized it was wrong when he first installed them. Sometimes, if I wait long enough, he will figure things out on his own.

  Warm and sunny and I am out of energy. I feel like I have not accomplished much today. HeWho has been a whirlwind of energy and accomplishment. I took this picture last night before the sun slipped away. Then I went inside and threw a meal together. I was done for the day. When I went out this morning I discovered that HeWho had laid the decking before he came in last night. Now he is getting ready to screw the boards down and get the rest of the deck boards up there. This picture makes it look unlevel and crooked. It is not, checked it myself. The other end is sitting on the ground. I didn't realize just how much the ground sloped! My pink flamingoes light up at night! While HeWho played with his deck, I started the foot path that will lead up to my She Shed. A good start, but I have so much more to do! I planted hostas on either side and will pick up more path lights when I head out to shop. The ground is very rocky and hard to dig, but I have determination on my side! This the

  After a dozen or so tries at downloading pictures, I gave up and went on with my day. Highly annoyed at the entire process. I did everything the same way I always do, but it just refused to work. Then, decided to try again, not expecting better results ..... first attempt and it cooperated! Enjoy my peony! When I planted it, right after we moved here, I put it next to the little porch that leads to the door going inside. This means it is almost hidden. I put it there until I could figure out the yard. You might recall that the yard was pretty non existant. Rocks led right up to the entry with a very small patch of grass that ended at the ravine. So, pretty much no yard at all. Since then I have spent many hours raking all the gravel away and sowing grass seed every year. The winter's cold purges the rocks to the surface and I spend the first couple of times mowing, stopping to pick up rocks. The areas of the yard I have seeded finally look like a yard and after that peony goes do

  When I am so distraught I can no longer bear to think about things, I write. When I am overjoyed, I write. Just the way I can process. Today I am just so heartbroken. Is there anything more horrible than to not be able to take your child's pain away? My baby girl, Adrienne lost her puppy today. Birdie was the happiest little dog ever and went to the vet to be spayed and had a bad reaction to the anesthesia. She died. My grandson called me so she could talk to me while he drove her to the vet's office. She cried and I cried and we both were unconsolable. She loves all her dogs, but Birdie was special. The little dog would hold her front paws up to her when she was tired and wanted to be held. Seeing her with her little dog made me so happy. If we live long enough we will all suffer losses. Part of life. I think I will go wash my face and prepare dinner. I wish I lived closer to my baby girl. I am just so sad for my girl.

  I wasted the day away yesterday, just too tired to do anything. I was still awake at 4 am yesterday and slept about 3 hours in all. No nap, just a whole lot of sitting and reading. I did venture out to look at my gardening efforts thus far, but didn't even pull a weed! That is not like me! I always harbor guilt when I do nothing. HeWho tells me there is nothing to feel guilty about, and he would know! He has been busy trying to read the instruction manual for his new toy, the robot mower. He sits in his recliner with the lamp by his chair on, the overhead light on and the flashlight from his phone. The print is so tiny he can't read it. He declined my offer of a magnifying glass and finally dragged out the printer and printed the entire book in a bigger font. I figure they must have been environmentally aware and were trying to save paper because it took quite a stack of printing paper. Paper is not cheap! After he printed his reading material, we went to bed. I actually fell

  I left you with visions of a robot mowing my yard yesterday. Before you get the idea that I will not be mowing my own yard with my Ryobi push mower with a very small deck that allows me to get into tight places ..... The new mower is for the portion of the leach field that we are responsible for. The riding mower that he bought when we moved here is back in the shop with a belt issue for the second time. This prompted him to research other mowing options. Yesterday morning was spent moving one garden to another area that I took some pictures of that are now trapped in my phone. I also thinned some seedlings of cauliflower and brussel sprouts and spread them among many large pots. My raised beds are full. I have watermelon growing in a pot, as well as tomatoes. I can't wait to start harvesting this stuff. After I napped and got everything ready for supper that included a Key Lime Cheesecake that did not need an oven. I thought I had graham crackers, but didn't, so I used Ritz

  I though I had fixed the download problem for pictures .... I didn't. I took some nice photos of the retaining wall and all the blueberries on my bushes. The strawberry plants are blooming. I will need to net it soon. Meanwhile, HeWho is still patting his own back about the great wall he built, has now decided to construct a deck up on the embankment. His wife told him that he chose a spot that was not level in the least. I was proven right when he finally roped the 10 X 12' space off and discovered that it will have to be 40" high on the high end and then touching the ground on the low end. He wants to eventually close it in on three sides to create an outdoor kitchen.  He went so far as to pick up the lumber for this project yesterday. He likes the shopping part and the planning part. He was "working on it" today. He was going to haul those block thingies that support the structure up the stairs he built today. He huffed and he puffed while laboriously making

  It occured to me that I was leading up to another travel story in my last post, but stopped to make my doctor appointment. Upon returning, I was so excited to download some pictures that I went into a totally different direction. To recap, I was talking about the RV in the sun in my daughter's driveway. Our meager 4 days was up (HOA rules) and we had located a campground close by. We were getting ready to leave to park in a new location when it happened .... I did my part to facilitate motion, brought the slide in, secured all the things that HeWho leaves on flat surfaces to prevent them from acting as projectiles and flying around. Put the toilet lid down. Got all the canines in position. He started the engine, or as locals here say, cranked her up. We were rolling back out of the drive when we hit something. Seems that the person tasked with readying the outside stuff had not brought the awning in. One should not drive with the awning out ... or the slide. I have seen many RVs