Broken, Broken

 It's been a long six days.  There's the whole holiday weekend thing.  But there's also been some unexpected mentally exhausting things (not that the holiday and social gatherings aren't all ready mentally exhausting enough for me).

Last week, during the heat wave we had, DH and DD1 decided to go up north and go canoeing/kayaking with her two oldest (Faline and Buck) as well as DS1's two oldest (K3 and Toad). It was going to be a head up north one evening, spend the night at the family cabin, go float the next morning/part of the afternoon the next day, possibly spend another night depending on a number of factors, and then head home kind of trip.  DH wanted, since our truck is a 6-passenger kind, for all of them to ride together in one vehicle rather than taking two vehicles on a 400 mile round trip journey.  In terms of expense, it would cut fuel costs roughly in half.

Luckily, logistics (and DD1) prevailed, and she drove herself and her kids separately from DH, K3 and Toad.  This not only gave them a second vehicle to run the shuttle from put-in to take-out on the river with, but it avoided having three kids (two in car seats) crammed together in the backseat, with two overly large adults and a fourth kid (the unlucky skinniest teen/preteen) crammed together in the front seat for 200 miles of hot humid driving (even with air conditioning going) each way.  Not to mention gave them room to keep their clothing and bedding bags inside the vehicle rather than putting all baggage in the open bed of the truck and hoping they didn't encounter pop-up thunderstorms to get everything wet along the way.

Well, they didn't encounter any thunderstorms on the way there (they did almost immediately after getting off the river and loading boats onto the trailer the following day).  However, DH, along with K3 and Toad encountered a deer when they were about 45 minutes short of their destination the first night.

I got a phone call from DH about the time I expected him to be calling me with the "We're here" phone call he usually tries to give me when he's traveling without me, so that I know he's at his destination safely.  Instead of hearing "we're here" though, what he said to me was "We hit a deer."

OH F---!

The world came to a screeching halt.  My gut fell through the soles of my feet.  The pre-sunset daylight went black.

"We're all okay." Was the next thing he said.

The sun shone again, if not quite as bright as it had five seconds before.  My gut rose somewhere around my kneecaps.  Because I was expecting the next statement I heard to be "Get in my (company) truck and come get us please."  I knew that DD1 had left a few hours earlier than he had; they weren't caravaning, so wasn't there at the scene with him and the older two grandkids.  Plus, hers is only a five passenger vehicle.

Instead, I heard "The airbags went off, the side ones, I cut them off so we can see, the truck seems to be fine mechanically, and we're on our way again.  I called 911 but all the cops are busy elsewhere*, so they said it was okay to continue on and we'll do the police report in the morning."

*there aren't a whole lot of police officers in that rural part of northern Michigan, so it's not surprising that there wasn't one available to do a non-injury non-wrecked vehicle deer hit accident report.  Probably busy with other, more serious deer/car accidents, honestly.

The deer had hit them near the passenger side front tire, dented both the doors on the passenger side, as well as cracked the passenger side headlight area, and dented the fender too.  So, after describing to me the damage that DH had seen, he said aloud the thought that was in my head (which made my gut hit the ground again):

"The insurance company is probably going to total it, even though it looks like all somewhat minor cosmetic damage.  Because the airbags went off.  I think that's the policy these days; if the airbags deploy, the vehicle is too expensive to fix so they total it." 

For the record, it's a 2017 truck, we've been the only owners, and it has only about 85,000 miles on it.  It's in great condition--other than the current deer fiasco.  We were not looking to replace it (and have a vehicle loan in roughly the $900-$1k a month range) in the next several years.  

So that was one night last week.  The next day, I noticed that the blower on our (gas) water heater didn't seem to be shutting off even though I was using zero hot water all day.  With just me home, and not doing any laundry or running the dishwasher (or taking a shower, yet), there was no reason for the water heater to need to be firing and heating water constantly.  Weird.  I checked all that I knew to check on it, and couldn't find a reason.  

DH called shortly after that and said that they weren't staying another night, they'd finished canoeing/kayaking and gotten off the river, K3 and Toad were heading home in DD1's vehicle with her and her kids, and that he was headed over to the police station in the county where the deer had hit them the night before in order for the cop to look at the vehicle and file the accident report, then he would be heading home.  

Rather than burden him with my suspicion about something being wrong with the water heater--not only was the blower going constantly, there was absolutely no hot water (I'd checked)--I decided to just tell him about it when he got home.  I'd let him think about the truck and the police report and the insurance claim process on his drive and not further distract him with water heater issues.

But I did tell him about it within the first fifteen minutes he was home.  He checked all the same things I'd checked (proof that I'm not inept at home maintainence things):

• Getting air?  Seems to be.  Blower/fan has been running continuously afterall.
• Got spark?  Yep, can see the 'glowplugs' (not an open flame pilot light system) light up. 
• Got fuel?  Well, we have a recently filled propane tank outside, and the whole system had been checked (and pressure tested) by the fuel company just the day before.  (Hmmm, something in relation to that testing????)  Not to mention that both the (gas) dryer and the (gas) cooktop worked fine.

 and declared that we would have to call a plumber in the morning as it was all ready after business hours that day.

Which lead to the discussion that it is the original water heater to the house, circa 2003.  And, because it is dual chambered and supports both domestic hot water and our hydronic radiant heat system, (and 75 gallon capacity) was a damn expensive unit 23 years ago. Something like three thousand 2003 dollars. Also had to wait 3 weeks for it to come in after we ordered it, as they weren't a commonly stocked item at that time.  If it's dead and we have to replace it, because 23 years is way past the life expectancy of a water heater, how much is a similar one going to cost in 2026 and how available are they?

Ugh.  More money outlay in the near future.  Plus, we had cold showers that night and I had to heat water on the stove to hand-wash dishes with as the dishwasher wasn't going to get them clean and sanitary running only cold water.

Called a local (privately owned) plumbing company in the morning.  They could send someone out around 2 p.m. that afternoon to look at our water heater.

Except, DH had a 2 p.m. appointment with the Chevy dealer body shop to get an estimate on damage to our pick up for the insurance company, and I had an appointment at exactly that same time that had been made three weeks ago and I would definitely get a no-show fee if I canceled it only 5 hours before hand. Plus who knows how many more weeks out it would get rescheduled for?

So he told the plumber that wouldn't work, when was the next time slot they had?  It would be the following morning, and well, we could use the stove to heat whatever hot water we needed in the meantime, so not a life or death thing. He took that next time slot.  Partly because we'd rather support the little guy in our hometown than call the several other (corporately owned) plumbers around and see if they could come before 1:00 or after 3:30 that same day.

When the plumber(s)--two twenty-something guys early in their plumbing careers--came the next day and took a look at our water heater, they both were scratching their heads.  Ours was the oldest water heater they'd ever seen; possibly made in the same year they were, LOL.  But they bravely tried their best to diagnose the issue, then called in their boss (the company owner) to come have a look because they were stumped.

He checked everything they did, and narrowed down the issue to the most likely to be malfunctioning part based on his observations.  Then he proceeded to take that part off, take it apart, clean it off, stick in back together, put it back on the water heater, and voila!  The water heater worked immediately!

PHEW!  A $300 plumbing call is so much preferrable to who knows how many thousands of dollars for a new water heater.  Although I did joke to DH later that he should have asked for a discount, since it turned out to be an educational experience for the two young plumbers, and when the horse vet brings vet students out and the students work on your horse you usually get a discount on the service provided.

Turned out there was debris clogging the fuel line on the water heater.  Most likely related to the pressure testing done by the gas company as that day was the last day I know the water heater was working properly and I had hot water when I turned on the taps.  But kind of hard to prove three days later when the plumber found--and cleared--the clog.

Meanwhile. . . got the repair estimate from the dealer collision center.  It's a lot.  A few hundred over $15k.  That's the total on the list they gave DH of parts needing replacing.  Some parts on the list he is questioning as it was a side impact, not frontal, and the front/dash airbags were not deployed, so no damage to the dash or instrumentation there. . . 

This morning, he got a call from the insurance company; they had received an estimate too from that same dealer collision center.  And because the estimate sent to them was $16,800+, it exceeds the insurance company's repair threshhold of $15,800 for this particular vehicle, so therefore they have declared our truck totaled.

But wait a minute!  Did you notice the discrepancy between the written estimate given to DH and the estimate by the same collision center sent to the insurance company?  Yeah.  DH did too.  He mentioned this to the insurance person on the phone.  They are as confused by the differing amounts as we are, and have requested DH email them a copy of the estimate he was given.  There will be some comparison going on.  

Maybe the truck is not totaled afterall.  We wait in suspense, and possibly will be taking the truck to a different place to have a second estimate done. . . 

Partly because a $500 insurance deductible bill and a fully repaired truck is much better than truck shopping and signing on for a (near) $1k a month auto loan payment right now.  But mostly because those two estimates from the same place don't match and that's kinda hinky.  Not saying there's attempted fraud going on, but what other explanation is there?  Inquiring minds want to know.

The Bear Trash Can (aka my recycling bin)

 This post might get a little long, there's a story to tell.  Bear with me.  (Ha ha, you'll get the pun if you read all the way through.)

This is my "recycling bin".  It is what I've put my recyclables into for over 20 years.  We do not have curbside recycling out in the country where this little place here is located.  We have to provide our own collection container and drive our recyclables to a transfer station or other recycling location (depending on what we are trying to recycle).  As mentioned in this recent post.

Prior to being my recycling bin, it was our trash can.  Around the time we finished building the house and moved into this little place here, most of the trash companies were getting out of bag pick-up and going to wheeled trash bins that they provided their customers.  So my trash can became my recycling bin in the early 2000's.

About ten years prior to that; in 1991, DH and I purchased it (most likely from Pamida or Kmart, as those were the two housewares shopping options where we lived) when we moved to the U.P. (Upper Peninsula for you non-Michiganders and non-Sconnies).  We kept it in our enclosed, but unheated, back porch in the first rental we lived in while DH was in college at the engineering college there.  The second rental we lived in, his final year of college, did not have an enclosed porch.  So we kept this trash can on the back deck of our mobile home which was situated on a corner of the landlord's farm, with woods about 50' from our back door.

The close proximity to the woods is important here.  Because it's how the recycling bin got to be known as the Bear Trash Can in our family.

There were (and still are) black bears in that part of Michigan.  Occasionally we'd see a bear on one of the dirt roads we drove on going to or from work (me) or classes (DH). Including the dirt road we lived on. More consistently, they could be spotted near the dumpsters behind the grocery store in town.

One night, in very early April 1993 (we remember the time frame because DS2 was born the second week of March that year, and he was not yet a month old), DH and I both were woken up from a sound sleep (remember, we had a newborn, so if we were actually asleep it was a pass out from exhaustion kind of sleep!) by what sounded like footsteps and heavy breathing in our living room.

He looked at me, and I looked at him, both wide-eyed in the darkness, and he said "Did you hear that?" To which I replied with a question and a request "Is somebody in the house?  You get up and go check!"

With hearts hammering, I checked on DS2 asleep in basinette right next to the bed, and DH grabbed a baseball bat (why it was in our bedroom, I have no clue). He quietly slipped out of the bedroom, through the utility/laundry room that joined our added-on master bedroom to the rest of the mobile home, and peeked around the corner where the kithen was to his left and the living room to his right.  Turning on lights as he went, he searched the living room, hallway, bathroom, DS1's little bedroom (where he was thankfully still asleep), then the kitchen last.  He found no person in our home, even though he checked behind the shower curtain in the bathroom; we were both that sure we'd heard the breath and heavy footsteps of a human.

Sure now that there was no one in the home, DH stepped out onto the back porch and shone a flashlight around toward the driveway, looking for a person or a car.  Seeing nothing but our own vehicles, he went back to bed where we rehashed what we'd heard.  Eventually we both calmed down enough to get back to sleep, although I'm pretty sure there was a diaper change and feeding for DS2 first.

The next morning, DH went outside for something (I don't remember what, very possibly to drive to the college and go to class), but that's when he noticed our trash can was missing.  It had been on the back deck the night before, and now was not there.  In the daylight he could see much further than he had with the flashlight the night before, and he thought he could see a bit of blue out in the woods behind the house.  So he walked out to investigate, and found our trash can.

As you can see in the picture at the beginning of this story, it has handles that latch down to hold the lid on.  When DH found it, the lid was not on it anymore, and our trash was scattered around.  That was odd.  

Finding the lid, he picked it up to place it back on the trash can (he had gathered up all the trash that he could and put it in the can).  That's when he noticed two punctures near one of the handles.  Weird, but whatever.

(Ignore the flyspecks.  Ugh.  Apparently I need to wash my recycling bin.)

It wasn't until the following weekend, when we took our trash to the township collection site (they were open twice a month for residents to bring in their trash; no pick-up service available in that rural spot in the 1990s) that one of the men working there commented on our trash can lid.

"Looks like you had a bear, eh?" he said.

 And suddenly it all made sense.  Those footsteps and the heavy breathing that had woken us up that one night?  That wasn't a human intruder in our living room.  That was a hungry bear on our back deck (the other side of the living room wall) snuffling around and absconding with our trash can.  Those punctures in the lid?  Bear tooth marks, where it had bit the lid while prying it off to get to the trash inside.

So that's why, even though we haven't needed a trash can for trash in over two decades, we didn't get rid of it.  We kept it and repurposed it for holding recyclables.  That trash can is a part of our history, with a great story of its own, and neither DH nor I will ever willingly part from it.  Its the Bear Trash Can.

Books Read in 2026: June

 A Murder for the Books by Victoria Gilbert.  I picked this one off the library shelf because the cover looked interesting.  The blurb sounded like it might be good.  And then I got it home, looked at the cover some more and thought "I think I've read this before".  But, rereading the blurb, I wasn't sure if I had or if the storyline was just similar to a few others I've read in recent years.  However, by Chapter Two I was predicting what would happen next, what 'new' character was about to come into the story--right down to their name, and I knew that yep, I have read this book.  Well, into the DNF pile it went (although, technically if I read it all the way through in the past [covid times???] is it truly a Did Not Finish?)  Like movies and TV shows, if I've read a book before it gets stored in some corner of my brain and then when I try to read/watch it again my brain goes "here, this is what's going to happen now and now and now, the end, let's think about something else shall we?"  In other words, my concentration and enjoyment go out the window.  Been there, done that, next!

The Secret History of Audrey James by Heather Marshall. I picked this one up at the spring book swap based on the blurb on the back of the book.  Sounded like it could be interesting, depending on how it was done.  It was alternately interesting, horrifying, somewhat frustrating (as in sometimes I felt the author was putting too many twists--character lifestyle wise--into the time period in question), a bit stale and trite, and I set it down, took a break, and picked it up again several times. I did finish it; about 2/3 the way through I thought I knew how it would end, what would be revealed in the final third, and so I did read it completely.  Yes, I had figured it out.  Overall, I think I did like the book and may possibly look up more from this author.

Eleanor Oliphant is completely fine by Gail Honeyman.  Not sure where I first saw this book mentioned, but I ordered it from my local library. It sucked me in.  What's that trite movie review quote?  "I laughed.  I cried."  Very apt for this book.  Entertaining and thought provoking (at least for me) at the same time. Two thumbs up.

Murder Unshelved by Vannetta Chapman.  This is an author that I have read for years, mostly liking her murder mysteries more than her Amish fiction.  This is her latest mystery (maybe the beginning of a new series?)  If I may be blunt here, it was awful.  Started out good, got a little questionable (Was it written by AI?  By a high schooler? Was it editedn for content at all?) about a third of the way through and just past halfway I was so sick of the ever weakening writing that if it wasn't a short book I would have just set it down as a DNF.  Instead I forged on to the end.  But I don't think I will read another book by this author ever again.

How To Ride The Horse You Thought You Bought by Anne Buchanan.  Another book I saw somewhere online and decided to see if I could borrow it from the library.  While my local county library system didn't have it, I was able to get it via the statewide library interloan.  So far, I've only read the first few chapters, which are very basic.  Not to say they are lacking, but rather that after 40+ years with horses there wasn't anything in them I haven't known for a long long time.  Hoping that further into the book there will be clear to understand descriptions of much more technical and difficult stuff (ie. perhaps new or stated in a new way to me)  Everything so far has been written in an easy to understand format and with helpful illustrations.

Goodwill Treasures in June

 The week DH was out of town, I rounded up some of our stuff that we don't use anymore, and also a bunch of DD2's stuff that moved back with her in 2024 that she has since decided she no longer wants/needs, and I took it to the local Goodwill.  I had decided to stop debating the 'best' or 'most ethical' place to donate it to and just went with 'get this shit out of my house' and took it to Goodwill (which happens to be the closest and most convenient with drop-off times charity to this little place here). 

Ahh, the joy that a now empty 12 square feet of floor space in my house brings me is immeasurable.

After I dropped off a literal floor to ceiling backseat of a pickup load of stuff to the rear door of Goodwill, I drove around front, parked and walked myself in the front door of Goodwill to see what I could see.  You never know if you will find something useful or not, it's kind of like a treasure hunt.  What thing that I actually need would they have for sale today?

Well, I found a new summer dress, which I don't have many of that fit anymore (lost weight and also toned up core muscles in the last 18ish months).  I also found a few jigsaw puzzles.  But my two big 'wins' are actually things that don't take up much space at all.

Browsing the housewares, I spied a small heart-shaped springform pan.  I've had a hankering for cheesecake for literally months, but haven't made one because DH and I surely don't need to eat that much of a rich dessert in a few days and I wouldn't want any of it to go bad.  Neither have I, really, wanted to invite extra people over just so I can share cheesecake, and all the planned family gatherings haven't worked out for me to have the time immediately beforehand to make a cheesecake.

But with this little cheesecake pan, I could cut down a recipe to be just enough for two people to not overindulge in calories or have to endure unnecessary company.  Not only that, the sticker was the color of the week, which meant this little gem was a mere $1.24!!  WIN!  Into my cart it went.

Now I will be ready to make a just right sized cheesecake whenever the time is available and motivation strikes me.  

My second big find was also in the housewares section.  It is the perfect replacement for this, my favorite pan to make a grilled cheese (or ham and cheese, or turkey or beef and cheese) sandwich in.  It is older than my marriage, and is the last remaining piece of the pots and pans set I was gifted by a really good friend back in 1991 when I moved out of my parents' home and in with DH (who was my boyfriend at the time).  It used to have a non-stick coating, but, as you can see, that has mostly worn off.  It still makes a great hot sandwich, so I have kept using it.  But in the last year or so, the handle has started to crack and break where it is attached to the pan, and is getting looser and looser.  I have to be really careful how I hold it to not have it swivel and unintentionally dump the contents of the pan.

So when I spied this little (8-inch) ceramic frying pan on the shelf in Goodwill, I grabbed it for closer examination.  It appeared to be very lightly used, if at all.  I could find no scratches on it.  Maybe a very slight discoloration from beind heated and used a time or two, but it was so faint I couldn't say for sure.

Then I turned it over and saw this:

 

a good quality pan indeed

and I knew that it was definitely coming home with me.  (Googling it, I found that brand new this exact pan costs $40-50 near me depending on which store you shop at.)  Given that it was the perfect replacement for my beloved sandwich pan and it cost a mere $5.49 at Goodwill, how could I not buy it?

I have, since purchasing it (and washing it), tested it out.  It does indeed make a perfect grilled cheese sandwich.

I'm really glad I decided to just get rid of the space-eating pile of cast-offs in the manner that I did.  Not only did it gain me floor space and a happily less cluttered home, I found two very useful small items at very small cash outlay.

Dad's Socks

 It has been several years since I made my Dad any knit socks.  This spring, since I was knitting a pair of socks for my Mom to surprise her with for Mother's Day using some of the free Zauberball yarn she had gotten for me, I decided it was nigh time to make my Dad a new pair of socks also.

He has wool allergies, so I wouldn't be using any of the Zauberball for him, even though there are several skeins of it in manly colors.  Instead, I dug into my stash of cotton fingering that I bought in the past just for him.  I pulled out two colors: Doe and Marlin, intending to do contrasting cuffs, heels and toes.

Well, I got distracted when I was casting on and grabbed the Doe (main color) instead of the Marlin, and had knit the entire cuff before I realized my mistake.  I was using the Deflect pattern, which is rather more involved of a cuff than I typically have on sock patterns, and I wasn't about to tear it all out and start again in the intended (contrast) color.  So I 'personalized' the socks by doing only contrasting heels and toes, LOL.

I have knit this pattern before, without adding in any contrasting yarn parts, so I was confident I could adapt the pattern for them despite my screwing up of the cuff color.  What I didn't fully realize was that I was heading into the busy growing/gardening/riding/being-outside-all-the-time season and that this somewhat complicated pattern might not be the best project to try to do and have finished by Father's Day.

And it wasn't.  I got sock #1 finished in April.Things were still looking good for my Father's Day deadline at that point.  But the second sock, well, it was delay after delay after delay from early May on in terms of finding time to work on it.  The week before Father's Day arrived, and I was only halfway through the (men's size 10) foot.  I thought maybe, if I pushed, I could get it done in time.  I looked at the plethora of tasks with my name on them, and stressedover how, exactly, to push knitting that sock.

One week before Father's Day

Then, two days later, I had a revelation in three parts: 

1. I wasn't going to be seeing my Dad on Father's Day itself.  
2. He had no clue (and neither did anyone else) that I was knitting him socks for a present (most years I don't get my parents presents).
3. I would be seeing him the Saturday after Father's Day and could surprise him with socks then.

Phew!  That gave me a whole extra week to work on that second sock!  And, with DH being out of town for that entire 'extra' week, I could (hopefully) use the time I wasn't spending on normal taking-care-of-DH tasks (cooking his eggs for breakfast {I typically eat yogurt and granola, so actually 'make' two breakfasts every day since DH doesn't eat yogurt or granola}, packing his lunch on in-office days, emptying and putting away his lunch box after said in-office days,  doing his laundry {half the people, half the # of loads}) and apply that to knitting Dad's sock.  Because really, if I looked at the breakfast and lunch packing/putting away lunch box time alone, it added up to like 2.5 extra hours I should theoretically have available!

(Which also made me really look at labor distribution as empty nesters and conclude that perhaps we need to have a meal responsibility related chat in the near future. . . )

You know what?  I got that sock done!  

two days after Father's Day

They are now washed, blocked, and ready for surprising Dad with this afternoon.  😁

Finished and blocking on the clothesline.

Aunt L's Cookies

 For over three decades, there has been an annual family reunion on DH's father's side of the family.  And, until the last six or so (because she's in her late 70s now), one of his aunts always made and brought hundreds of cookies to share.  They are simply known as "Aunt L's Cookies" because nobody else in the family makes them.

(And because she made literally hundreds of them, nobody else ever brought cookies to the family reunions, LOL.)

Thankfully, around 2010, someone compiled a family cookbook (of submitted favorite recipes), and the recipes for both of Aunt L's special cookies was included.  So, once in a very long while, I have made them myself for eating at home with my family.

It's been a long, long time though, since I had made either one.  Since this year I am trying to make lots of different cookies and not the same old three or four recipes over and over again, I thought what a great excuse to take the extra time that Aunt L's cookie recipes require and make those.

First up, her Magic Peanut Butter/Chocolate cookies

Dough:

 1 1/2 cups flour

1/2 cup cocoa

1/2 tsp baking soda

Combine above ingredients and set aside.

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup softened margarine (or butter)

1/4 cup peanut butter

Beat these together until fluffy, then add:

1 tsp vanilla

1 egg

Then add flour mixture and mix thoroughly, then set aside.

Make the filling:

3/4 cup peanut butter

3/4 cup powdered sugar

Blend well

To make the cookies, divide both filling and dough into 32 balls each.  Assemble by flattening a chocolate dough ball in the palm of your hand and place a filling ball on top, wrappinng the chocolate dough around the filling.  Place on a cookie sheet and flatten with the bottom of a glass dipped in sugar.  Bake at 375 degrees for 7-8 minutes.

the magic peanut butter surprise inside

Then, her Orange Chocolate Chip cookies

1 cup shortening

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup brown sugar

1 egg

2 Tbsp orange juice

1 Tbsp orange zest

2 3/4 cups flour

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

1 cup chocolate chips, chopped

Cream shortening and sugars; add egg, orange zest and juice.  Sift flour, baking soda and salt, then add to creamed mixture.  Add chocolate chips.  Shape into a log and roll in waxed paper.  Refrigerate several hours or overnight.  Slice 1/4" thick and bake for 10-12 minutes in a 350 degree oven.

my slicing was a little generous on the width

(These are much easier to slice cleanly if you chop the chocolate chips.  If you get distracted [ahem, me, in the past, not this time!] and forget to chop them, it still works, just doesn't slice as easily.)

And I Also Love This Guy

 After publishing Monday's post I Love The Sky, I realized how, if you read it out loud and didn't enunciate, it could sound like I Love This Guy.  Which could make you think that that post was about something totally different than it is.  It's not about a man.

And, since I have an old, partially thought out, post in my drafts folder that is about DH, I thought now would be the time to finish that one up and get it published.  

Because I do love this guy🡻🡻🡻🡻🡻

He doesn't really like to have his picture taken, so most of the ones I have of him were taken kind of on the sly.  Like this one where he has his back to me.  But it is a photo that I really like because he's not a horse person.  Or at least, he's always claimed that he's not (but, unbeknownst to him, they are growing on him and he's starting to show signs of growing towards being a horse person).

This photo was taken on a chilly rainy day last fall, one where the combination of air temperature and amount of water falling from the sky were too cold to put horses out into.  The kind of weather where they get soaked through and chilled.  

So, on that day (which I think was a Sunday), I had decided that horses would stay in the barn all day.  When I cleaned stalls after church, I put each horse, in turn, into the cross ties while its stall was being mucked out.

DH had been working in the tack room on some part of the finishing of it, and when I got to the Poetess's stall, he insisted that she didn't want to stand in the cross ties for those ten minutes while I cleaned.  She had been rather unhappy about the other horses being in the cross ties right outside her door while she was shut in the stall, and I knew that she would rather be outside (she has a rainsheet she can wear to keep dry, while the others didn't) even if it was raining.  

Unfortunately, even with her rainsheet, it wouldn't have worked for her to be the only horse out there because the others left in the barn would have been upset that I wasn't also turning them out and make a racket, which would have then caused her to get worried about being the only horse outdoors and upset and start running around.  I definitely did not want her racing around in the mud, slip, fall and get injured.  Which meant she had to stay inside all day like the rest of the horses.

Back to the photo. . .

When it was time for me to clean the Poetess's stall,  DH took her just out the front of the barn where she could munch grass (I believe the rain and wind were from the north that day, so the barn most blocked them from the rain in that spot). All on his own.

Not a horse person.  Ha!  If he wasn't a horse person, he wouldn't have cared if the Poetess preferred to be outside while I cleaned stalls.  And if he wasn't a horse person, he definitely wouldn't have volunteered to stand out there holding her lead rope while she grazed.

Yep, I love this guy.

I Love The Sky

 Apparently, from looking at my camera roll, I love the sky.  It's not a new thing, it's been going on for years.  I all ready knew that I tend to take more pictures of plants and animals than I do of people.  What I didn't really think about was how many photos I take of the sky in all its moods and formations.

I'm Glad I Didn't Blink

 Strawberry season in my area was very short.  It's not typically a long season, only a few weeks, but this year it was unusually short.  Blink and you'll miss it short.

Partly because of the cold rough winter we had and the deer damage to the strawberry fields.  Partly because Spring was kind of cold.  Partly because Spring was also rather wet, with several spells of flooding all over the state.  And, partly because just as the plants which had survived all that were starting to get ripe berries on them, our weather got hot and humid, then very rainy again.  Like five out of seven days with some sort of rain.  Which made the berries ripen very quickly and then just as quickly, even if they weren't ripe, start to mold.

I'm glad I didn't blink.  If I had, I would have totally missed out on fresh picked local strawberries.

I knew I wasn't going to get any strawberries from the patch in my garden.  The deer and other, smaller, four legged critters had ensured that by eating off the plants just as fast as they began to grow.

I had hoped to do some u-pick strawberries, so I was keeping an eye on the Facebook page of the local strawberry farm.  Unfortunately they, and a few other u-pick places not as close to me, announced in early June that they would not be able to open this year for u-pick due to crop damage (aka deer and weather).

So I watched the Facebook pages of some of the small farm markets that have popped up in the area in the last handful of years.  Pre-picked strawberries wouldn't be as cheap (or as fun to get) as u-pick berries, but at least they'd be fresh (compared to grocery store strawberries from the West Coast) and they'd be those smaller flavor-packed berries that this part of Michigan grows.

When I spotted a post that was only two hours old stating that the closest to me farm market (of the bougie kind) had strawberries in, I practically dropped everything and drove over right away.  The whole nearly 8 miles from this little place here to there I hoped that they wouldn't be sold out by the time I walked in the door.

And thankfully they weren't.  $7.75 per quart later, I walked out with two quarts of fresh local strawberries.  Knowing that they wouldn't keep for long; some all ready weren't looking too firm, I started making plans for how to best enjoy them and use them up.

First up, strawberry shortcake for dessert that night!

Me and Betty (Crocker) got busy in the kitchen whipping up some homemade shortcakes.  Since DH was out of town, I cut the recipe down to only two servings.  Because as much as I like strawberry shortcake, this diabetic girl does not need to eat six servings of it in just a couple of days.

I'm so glad I didn't blink.

I also didn't share, either.  I mean, I couldn't, really, being the only one home and all.

In case you're wondering, here's how I cut down Betty's recipe: 

It says that it makes six servings.  I only wanted two servings, which was 1/3 of a recipe.  So I did some math (ok, quite a lot of math) and got busy translating cups into tablespoons and tablespoons into teaspoons and dividing all that by three.

This is what I came up with, and it cooked up fine and tasted fine with the usual texture of this recipe when made in it's entirety of six servings, so I feel pretty confident it will work for you too if you want to give it a try.

>About a cup of sliced strawberries and 1 teaspoon of sugar per shortcake served, mixed together and allowed to sit for about 1/2 hour while I mixed up and baked the shortcakes.

>1 Tbsp plus 2 tsp shortening/lard

>2/3 cup flour

>2 tsp sugar

>1 tsp baking powder

>generous 1/4 tsp salt

>1/4 cup milk

Cut the shortening into the dry ingredients until crumbly, then mix in the milk until blended.  On a lightly floured surface (my handy dandy Tupperware pastry sheet), knead 20-25 times.  Roll out 1/2" thick and cut with a 3" (biscuit) cutter.  Bake at 450 degrees F for 10-12 minutes.  Cool slightly, then split each shortcake in half and layer with strawberries.  Top with whipped cream.

Unintentionally Dumpster Dived

 This week, I loaded up the accumulated recycling and took it in to the local transfer station for drop off.  This is something I've done every 2-3 months for over 30 years that we've lived in this general area (been recycling longer than that even, but collection was different in the places we lived back then.)  While I was there, I spotted something on the top of the pile that was off to the side in the same container where I was unloading mine.

Let me back up a tad, for reference.  Where I recycle has these gigantic metal shipping containers with 6 foot tall (at least) walls and a roof and several narrow slot window/doors in the sides.  You can only stick your stuff into on open slot, you are not allowed to remove/open doors on closed slots.  So, this particular trip, there were two open slots and one closed one on this recycling collection container. 

I unloaded my (ancient Rubbermaid 32 gallon trash can) recycling bin into the second open slot.  As I was finishining up, I noticed, out of the corner of my eye, what looked like a big rectangular Tupperware container, complete with (unbroken) lid.

Well, that grabbed my attention!  I set down my now empty bin, and moved to the other open slot to investigate.  Could it really be Tupperware in usable condition?

It was!  So I unashamedly grabbed it out!  As we established in a previous post, I have a love of Tupperware.  And I can definitely find a use for a modular mate large rectangle container!  In my book, Tupperware containers aren't just for the kitchen.  They're great for the craft room, the gardening shed, the tack room, the feed room, kid's rooms (multiple-part toy storage!). . . The list is practically endless.

Looking further down through that (chest-height) narrow slot door, I spied more Tupperware!  It was like somebody had cleaned out Grandma's (or maybe Mom's) house and was dumping everything 'old' and made of plastic.  Everything I could see was perfectly good, not stained and gross, or cracked or broken.  Just 'old' and no longer wanted.

I confess to standing on my tiptoes, both arms through that slot in the side of the recycling container, and trying to get ahold of all the Tupperware I could reach.   Could I have fit my head and shoulders through for better reach I probably would have. Thank goodness there was no transfer station staff in the vicinity at the moment, because surely leaning into the big metal shipping bin holding recyclables is highly frowned upon.  Let alone taking stuff out of it.

I came home with several 'treasures' to clean up and sanitize.  Had my arms been longer I probably would have 'rescued' more Tupperware from it's unloved status of being thrown out, even if it was done in an environmentally responsible manner.

That rectangular modular mate with lid will most likely end up employed in the barn in some manner.  The round modular mates probably will be put to use in the house somewhere for storing small things. Likewise the short round lidded containers. The lone lid will fit a couple containers I all ready own. 

But that chip and dip/veggie server, that's getting a good wash and a bleach rinse and it's getting used for people food next time we have a big family meal!

Friday Randomness

 It's been a long (but short; fast, busy) week.  

We've had some hot humid weather, several rainstorms, and a 15-ish hour power outage.  

We had Faline, Buck and Sixlet for about 7 straight hours on Saturday while DD1, Honorary Son and his parents went to a Detroit Tigers game.

Visiting Jedi, Crockett and Tubbs

Buck and Sixlet in the sprinkler

Faline and Sixlet lying out to dry in the sun

 We went out to eat several times, which is unlike us, but happened to work out that way.  Once was meeting Honorary Son and DD1 to hand off their kids after the baseball game. The other due to being too dang hot to cook on the stove or the oven and the one meat store that I can actually eat their lunchmeat (without my body protesting) being all out of said meat when I went to buy it in order to make (the planned) sub sandwiches for that night's dinner.

I rode bareback (the first time in over a decade for me on any horse) on the Little Black Mare when one of her scheduled training days ended up being a light but steady rain and I didn't want to get my saddle soaking wet.  I'm fairly certain she's never been ridden bareback before, but she adapted to it well.  It felt weird for me too, and the first five minutes I was trying to get my own bearings, but after that I'd say we both enjoyed it (minus the uptick in rain in our faces that made me cut the session short after a bit).

I rode a lot (2-3 horses) on days that the weather was cooperative and only one horse or even zero horses on days that it wasn't.  Like the day that was 70-something degrees and 90+ percent humidity at sunrise and I was heat sick practically from the moment I got out of bed.  No riding that day; I didn't want to pass out and fall off a horse.  Instead, that day, I did only necessary horse chores (feeding, turnout, cleaning stalls bringing in, feeding) and slowly with frequent breaks.  Well, plus cooking and laundry, and housekeeping (but you know, depending on who you talk to, those don't count as work 😠).  

K3 came over on a not-rainy morning (original day had been rescheduled due to weather) to ride Jedi with my helpful instruction. (aka had a riding lesson).  They are starting to mesh a bit more as she learns the similarities and differences between him and the LBM (who she rode off and on the past two summers) and he tests her a bit to determine if she's the boss or if he is (and, with my guidance, she wins those challenges). 

pre-ride, heading in for grooming and saddling

post-ride, rolling his sweaty itches away

I assembled the new 'bistro set' I had purchased on sale on-line at Mother's Day (which had been super delayed in shipping) and installed it in its intended spot on the deck.  Even gave DH a haircut out there while he sat on one of the chairs ("It's very skinny.  And upright.")  Given that all of our other outdoor seating is extra wide and tends to make you sit slightly reclined (which I find uncomfortable), yes, yes it is skinny and upright.  It's just what I wanted for that space.  That space happens to be the 8-10 feet between the sliding door in the dining room and the sliding door in the living room and needs something that doesn't sprawl too far onto the deck or too close to either door.  Skinny.  And upright.

DH got my little tiller running--it had needed a tune-up--and between the two of us we got all the tilling done between rows of vegetables in the six planted sections of the garden.  I hand weeded around the tomato plants in four of the seven rows of tomatoes (and then a storm hit).

Two of the weeded rows,

unfortunately the dang deer have bitten off about half of those plants.

I found a nice rock in the garden, which I had to take a picture of so I could text the pun to DD2, whom I knew would get it.  Geology and puns, two of my favorite things.  Which are also two of her favorite things.

A gneiss rock.

(Nice, ha ha, get it?)

DH (finally) added fill dirt, brought to level, and put the pavers back into the section of the front walkway that we'd had to trench under (and thus removed the pavers from) back in 2022 when running the new underground electric line from the main box on the front of the garage to the barn (and then to his shop).  Those pavers have been piled in the middle of that spot ever since, with weeds growing up around them and making it difficult to keep the walkway weed-free or snow-free for almost four years now.  So I was really happy that he took it upon himself to complete this task that I'd tried to tactfully remind him of once or twice a year.

 

Re-installed pavers! 

7 pavers long and 5 pavers wide.

Also thrilling (and lavish praise rendered), was that DH decided to use the weed whip to get the rest of the walkway totally weed-free and mostly edged.  Hooray!  It's been several years since the whole thing was cleaned up at once.

The peonies have been in bloom, and with the heat are wrapping up very quickly.  It's been nice to enjoy their cheerful pop of color and wonderful smell this week.

a bouquet of peonies and mock orange

Also blooming are the spiderwort

and my Louisiana Black Gamecock iris (which seems to bloom every other year for me).

On the stormy night that took out our power, DH and I sat out on the front porch after the wind had died down and the rain had left, and watched the sunset while we talked.  The Yarn Thief joined us for part of that time.

Later, after it was dark and we had gone to bed--with the front door open as well as all the windows to try to get a breeze through the stuffy, very warm (80-ish degree) house--we were woke up by what sounded like something hitting the screen door at the bottom of the stairs (bedrooms are upstairs, the flight of stairs lines up with the front door, great for getting airflow into the bedroom area on a summer night).  

DH grabbed a flashlight and looked down the stairs, to see a raccoon on the porch right at the door. 

Well, that wouldn't do, we'd been trying to catch a lingering pesky raccoon in our traps with no luck lately.  So I hopped out of bed too, to be the flashlight bearer while DH grabbed the .22 and we went out coon hunting!  

The coon had fled up a cottonwood tree between the house and a corner of the garden when it heard us coming down the stairs and out the front door.  With me standing near the trunk shining the flashlight up into the tree, and DH a few feet out from me, we were able to spot that raccoon and get a successful shot that brought it crashing down (sounded like, in the dark, as it bounced off tree branches, it was going to land on my head!) to the ground.  Luckily it was not on my head, but about 6 feet from me.  So that was an exciting evening and night!

I hope this coming week is a little milder with both more catching up on tasks and a bit more time for sitting and relaxing.  And uninterrupted sleep!