Enjoying Life

Since my last posting on June 16th I have been dealing with a gray squirrel that has decided that my yard is the perfect place to live, but with pets I don't care for his little friends that he brought along. By this I mean fleas, ticks, etc. So started the ongoing saga of trying to encourage him that my yard is not the place he wants to live. I put bird feeders up, sunflower seed was the first thing he (prefered to it) got into and next the chicken scratch, so that went up as well. Out came the moth balls, most wild animals can't stand them, didn't work, and now the live animal trap is out, but so far the squirrel seems to be smarter.

Then I discovered aphids in my trees, finally got them with the last spray. I like to keep them under control because if you don't they will go on into your flower beds, gardens and all other trees. So at least one battle won.

Now I have discovered something has dug a hole underneath my concrete ramp going into the lawn mower shed. It is a nice clean hole, kind of like a chipmonks, but a much bigger hole and whenever, what ever it is goes into the hole, it pulls dirt in behind itself. I'm really confused on this one. If it is a bull snake, I'm tempted to run the water hose down in and that would bring him out and he would leave, but I don't know what I'm dealing with for I can't ever see the owner of the hole. (I know I'm the owner but obviously I am sharing my residence right now).

The past two days have been spent putting up temporary fencing on part of the east yard so that I could do some very necessary reseeding. Really pissed my Sheltie/Blue Heeler cross off, but like I told her "you will adapt" and she looks at me like "Yah Right". Anyway I roughed up the soil, put down some mulch material, seeded, more mulch type material and the straw to help keep the moisture in. I have waited as long as I have because I wanted the nights to get warmer so that I would have a faster germination. Even at that long towards morning I have to start looking for a blanket. Haven't decided yet what to do tomorrow, but Friday is devoted to going to the Vet's for Trixie's annual checkup and shots.

There is the possibility that I will be dog sitting the end of the week as well. We'll see. So that pretty much sums up June until now. Has been a very busy month and full of a lots of little adventures here and there. Luncheons and just plain enjoying my friends. I think it was Monday afternoon that I went down to the casino for a while, first time I had been down there in about 3 months. I only play the penny machines and I broke even the other day and by that I mean I didn't make anything and I didn't loose anything.

Once I get things finished around the place I need to start doing the senior Tuesday down at the casino. The lunch alone is worth the money and it doesn't cost me anything. I have really enjoyed the month of June. It has been a good month.

Pickel's Birthday Party - June 14, 2008

As almost everyone knows my brother and I left the old Ute behind on Friday AM heading south to AZ for Pickel's Birthday Party. When we left the valley there was still heavy ice laying on all of the hay fields where the big irrigation systems had been left running the night before. Can you imagine leaving that kind of weather and winding up in 112 degree weather. As usual for this poor Colorado gal I had to start looking for the Gatoraide as soon as we arrived in Chickenburg as my body does not like the heat. The traffic was very light all the way to our destination on Friday and we thought that it must be because of the gasoline prices. Were we ever mistaken. On the return trip yesterday the traffic was very miserable and it is hard to believe how slow some of these large motorhomes are and then some of them, golly gee get out of their way. The drivers had to have been retired truck drivers for they weren't letting anyone stand in their way, much less a little Chevy S-10. I asked my brother if he would like to drive coming and going and he said sure. Sure glad that he was at the wheel. I checked a CD audio book out of the library which we listened to Friday going down and then purchased another one to listen to coming back. That is the way to travel. We both thoroughly enjoyed the books. Made the trip a lots more interesting and by not driving I certainly enjoyed myself, put the seat partially down, listened to the story and just relaxed. Today has been a bugger. Took until NOON to get laundry done, CD back to library and you know how it goes, was out of groceries, lettuce, milk, bread. Tomorrow I have another birthday luncheon to go too. Wed. and Thur. I can work on the place and then have another luncheon on Friday. Hopefully by the weekend I'll be back in full swing. Time will tell.

Rocky Mountains for You

My brother says, "don't you watch the Grand Jct. News at 10 PM" and I'm like "NO, I was in bed before that ever came on". What does all of this mean?? Well as everyone knows I planted a container garden this year. Well the low this morning was 29 degrees. Can you imagine on the 9th day of June. First obvious thing was that my squash was frozen, then my pepper plant, the plant, blossoms and lone pepper that was already a pretty good size and then my beautiful tomatoe plant. Well by 11:00 AM I was off to the nursery for replacement plants. The one thing that made me feel quite a bit better (with my brother being so smug for having covered his plants), I wasn't the only person buying replacement plants at the nursery this AM, (the nursery will be sold out before the day is over, so weather is good for some). You don't dare trust the weather in the Colorado Rockies. The virgina creeeper froze on the north fence, but all flower beds and potted plants are fine. Go Figure.

Month of May

OK, I mentioned in one of my prior blogs that I was concerned about the breathing tests. I had a followup appointment with my good doctor on May 29th and she said that the nurses had goofed when they gave me the test for they should have left me on the oxygen while taking the test and that wasn't done. She said that she had done a base line and compared to 2006 & then 2007 & with this test I was right on target. Nothing has worsened and we finally have my calcium issue straightened out. I'm so blessed to truly have a good and caring doctor. She doesn't rush to get you out so she can go on to another patient and she is the one that found my joint problems which some of the other doctors could not. Plus I am so much more comfortable with a woman doctor.

Well May was truly a very busy month. A normal day starts at either 6:30 or 7:30 really depending upon how I slept the night before (as a rule now that I'm not working I sleep like a log), but if I stay up to late I just don't get up as early. I take care of the dogs, do my breathing treatment, take my meds, eat breakfast and then do the exercise bike and weights. I wasn't doing the weights, but am now for that is one thing that the doctor insisted upon when I saw her on the 29th.

I have discovered that one of the things I let go while I working was my flower beds and if you knew how much I love my flowers you would know how disgusted I am about how they look. One of the first orders of business was to haul all of the dead branches to my brother's burn pile and this turned out not to be just one load, but the last count was 4. I have two huge flower beds out by the carport. This is where I started. What a mess, but finally got them shaped up and some annuals put in (finished using up one of my retirement gift certificates for that). I put in some marigolds, pansies, snapdragons and a flower that is called STOCK (what a beautiful smell it has. It is like a perfume). I also went to the other nursery and finished spending what remained of that gift certificate as well. Per my nieces urging I also started a container garden this year. I planted one beef steak tomatoe, one Orange pepper plant (I love the way these taste) and one yellow straight neck squash. They really seem to be doing quite well. There was about a week and one half that I had to cover them every night to keep them from freezing. Wanted so badly to plant some cucumbers, but they don't like me that well anymore. Then on top of everything else my youngest dog got a real bad case of the scoots and as of this writing I think we finally have a handle on that.

And would you believe as I write this on June 2nd, stuff that should have bloomed in April just started blooming the last week of May and stuff got froze. What a strange Spring this has been in the Rockies. On the 15th I took care of a friend's dog out on County Road "P". I would drive out of the AM and the evening to take care of her. One morning coming back to town I saw a large herd of Does meandering across the road, not having a care in the world. Another morning going out, just as I got up to the intersection of CR P & CR 34 I stopped to watch this Australian Sheep Dog (one of those beautiful black and white ones, long hair) moving a heard of cows all by itself with the Owner driving along slowly behind in his pickup, but the dog was definitely doing all of the work. I really enjoyed watching this. I love doing things like this for my friends and while I worked I couldn't. Hope gas prices are cheaper where you all are at, it is now $4.15 per gallon here in my little part of the world. I really plan on being finished with all of the deep yard work the 1st week of June then when I get back from Arizona I'm doing some reseeding of the yard on the east side of the house, the nights just aren't warm enough now. After that is done I plan on getting back inside and getting the carpet shampooed. Oh and I still don't have the deck cleaned and washed down for the Summer so you can see I have plenty to keep me entertained.

Busy, busy, I wouldn't have it any other way.