Manus Manum Lavat

This family of eagles with two juveniles and two baldies are still hanging out around our place. I guess I don't mind at all because they are such incredible looking birds.

I have to scan the trees each day before Charlie gets to go out and do his thing. 

Mica has improved immensely with her diaper padded/booted foot. She was trotting around in the farthest part of the pasture at feeding time last night. It doesn't seem to me that there is an abscess, but what exactly do I know? Perhaps she bruised her foot or something. All I know is that it makes me happy to see the old girl happy again.

I got Rich in for an eye appointment finally! He normally goes to the VA for his eye appointments, but getting anything done through their vision department is at best a bit difficult. I imagine it relates to staffing shortages. And who wants to drive 5 hours for an eye exam anyway? [Especially since I have limited distance vision now!]

Today is my consult with the cataract surgeon. While at the appointment yesterday for Rich I asked if they would be dilating my eyes at the consult/exam. The answer was yes. 

Oh. Crap.
When Olive came over to help me with Mica and do a quick walk before she went to pick up her son, she decided that she would drive me to the appointment. I was shocked but pleased at her offer.

I figured I'd have to sit in the waiting room for hours to get some eyesight back from being dilated.

I told her I wouldn't want to impose on her. She laughed. Of course just this week she announced that she was pregnant and I offered my services to help out with anything she might need. Someone to play with her 2 year old if she was tired, or whatever I could do.

She quipped, "Don't worry! There will be times I call on you to come keep an eye on Aiden while we go for baby scans!"

Yep, that sure sounds reasonable!

I got a text from my neighbors at the top of the hill. Would I feed and walk their dogs this weekend when they went out of town? They hated to impose...but they would compensate me.
I replied that there would be no compensation, I'd be thrilled to do it.

There is an old Latin saying that I learned in my first year of  High School Latin.

Manus Manum lavat.
"One hand washes the other."

It certainly works in rural areas with good neighbors.

Glimpses of us in Iso

I am normally NOT a person that does 'self' photography, but I was stuck inside waiting on a phone call from a doctor's office on rescheduling ...

I wanted to convey an emotion felt by so many isolated people out there. I cannot imagine having to stay indoors and not be able to get out and wander around.

I get antsy if I am not hiking or walking daily. I will pace the house or sit and be grumpy.
Obviously I wouldn't ever do well in solitary confinement.
Even the internet or TV streaming doesn't interest me!

I liked this shot even though it shows off my gloriously aging face which I am finally coming to terms with.
All those lines! I will attribute them to being outdoors all year round. Weather beaten features are handsome on a man, not so on a woman!

Anyway.
Here is a glimpse of our morning routine. Coffee, handwritten journal, sewing machine pushed to the side and laptop all on the table in a jumble. That is, before I cleaned up.

I had set my camera on a timer and then sat down to talk to Rich about what he would like for supper.

I set my little red camera up in front of me and used my smartphone to take shots of Rich without his knowing. He really doesn't like photos of himself. Probably since he refuses to get a haircut and hasn't bothered to trim his facial hair.

I ask a lot and he just ignores it. His hair, his face. Oh well.

But there it is ... that's how we are.

A friend of mine did an amusing photo session with his kids and himself. Placing himself in the same frame over and over again.

I just had to try it while I was sitting around.

I tried to get Charlie in on this but he wouldn't cooperate.

Oh wait!!!

Here is the final. I couldn't help but add this one in.

There I am! Stinky!

Glimpses of life stuck inside a tiny house.

Yes, there is Charlie's dog bone in the photo. I never even thought about removing it!

Have a good day.

Time to catch up!

Rich had surgery on Thursday morning.
This is Thursday afternoon with Nurse Charlie keeping Rich occupied and making sure he keeps his knee up.

The doctor said he removed the bursa which looked like nasty cottage cheese and said he sent the necrotic tissue to the pathology. The lab results were posted for us to see already. I read it, but will wait for the follow up appointment to see what the doctor says about it.

So Friday and the weekend were spent with lots of ice, rest, and the leg raised.

I hauled a mattress for our neighbor to the local landfill. Since I was going, I filled the back of the truck with pieces of metal and 'junk' that I'd cleaned out from a corner in the Big Shed. Tossing the metal 'junk' onto the huge pile at the land fill felt pretty good.
I'm working up to loading the truck up with some larger stuff and heading to the 'junk' yard where I would return with some cash.

Since our grill was murdered by a falling tree, I got a new tiny one and spent the afternoon putting it together. The grill is small enough for me to cook on the porch! This winter I can cook steaks on the grill under cover!

I spent Saturday clearing the old busted up metal gate panels from around one of the locusts that will get cut down. I tied up Sven to the tree and let him do some cleaning too. Little Richard was staked nearby and he did some trimming.
I tried my weed whacker on some of the tougher weeds just north of the pen to no avail. I'd need a blade on the 'whacker'.

I was stumped for a while and then recalled that there was a Scythe in the shed. It was a bit too large for me to handle well, but it did knock down the weeds. The blade probably needs sharpening but it served its purpose.
In fact, I went all around the north paddock and knocked down thistles and Smartweed. Sven loves the blossoms of the Smartweed. Now if I could rent my neighbor's goats for a few days they'd clean up what the Dexter's used to eat and the mules DO not eat!

I was tempted to do more with the Scythe but my arms and forearms were aching so I quit. The handles on it are meant for someone much taller than I am. But I admired the job I'd done. The mules walked around and ate the wilting nettles and the thistles.

I decided to take a walk down to the creek and check out how the mules were doing with browsing in the woods.

They are making good headway on the berry briers and widening the deer trails making it easier for me to wander around in the forest and look at interesting things.

They prefer to stay in the meadow which is really needs a rest now. Time to rotate again until I have to take them out of the south pasture when the tree trimmers come to work.

I took my camera...you knew I would, right? I'll have some photos from my walk later.

Sunday.
Day of rest. And I mean rest. I sold the cattle headgate to a neighbor and he came down to pick it up. All I had to do was point it out in the weeds and he loaded it on his truck and paid me cash. I can live with deals like that.

Next up on the sale block will be the aluminum hound dog box. Raccoon hunting season is coming up as well as coyote hunting season and dog boxes will be in demand.

I look at the piles of 'stuff' and wonder sometimes how I'll deal with all of that.

One step at a time I suppose.

My To Do List is still quite long. But I've done some large projects this year and I'm pretty happy with it so far.

That's it.
Boring stuff.

Rich's knee looks really good. We changed out bandages today. That nasty huge gross lump is gone. The knee is swollen from the surgery, but still looks [and feels better] than it did before surgery.

This and that

Just for fun...

Charlie in the Jeep, Charlie supervising my garden work.
Charlie resting on the porch.

Yesterday was a mow the yard day. Rich wanted to put it off until Friday. I had checked the weather and informed him that we'd have a 96-ish Hot & Humid Friday. Somehow I didn't think that would work well with how he has been feeling.

So we worked on the yard. He mowed, I trimmed with the little mower.

The yard looks nice. However the garden looks a bit lacking for this time of year. I hope the rains that are predicted and the hot weather boost its growth.

The porch was a mess. I finally decided to clear everything off from it and scrub it down.

Remember when I gave the neighbor kids a bucket of seeds and let them stomp it into the dirt that Rich put next to the porch???

I have green beans, Zinnias, 4 o'clocks, Cosmos, and small sunflowers growing like mad on the corner of the porch.

My Kenosha pals brought me a little gnome to put out in the garden. His nose lights up at night.

He goes well on the barrel with the teapot planter and the little baubles I spray painted last year.

I originally had him with the Dinosaur ... but thought perhaps it was best to separate them.

After supper I spent more time weeding and rearranging the pots to the little east facing garden.

I still haven't gotten stepping stones and am using old bricks to walk on. 

The neighbor kids fell in love with the cow skull and hen and chick plant. They thought that was a neat way to display a skull.

The next group of flowers to bloom will be the little sunflowers that I reseeded from last year and the blazing stars.

Yard work done for the moment. Rain today!
Charlie goes to the vet in a bit he is getting neutered today.

Our week had no appointments on it, but it is quickly filling up with other items.

I looked at my calendar. In July I have the 9th and the 10th where I don't have to go somewhere or transport someone to a doctor's appointment!

I never imagine my 'retirement' would be so incredibly busy.