Squirrelville

We are being invaded by squirrels this spring.. just yesterday while planting my bedding plants outside I was entertained by three fuzzy little fellows and the dogs...

The squirrels torment the dogs all day long...and I am glad, it keeps the dogs out of my hair while I am outside...not very friendly of me I know, but I get so much more done if I don't have to stop and pet each of them every time I make eye contact...ahahahha

The squirrels are attracted by the sunflower seeds I have out for the birds and their babies...but the birds never get a chance to come to the feeder unless it is early, early morning because the squirrels are here all day long..chasing each other, fighting, and chattering at the dogs, who park themselves at the bottom of the tree and stare upwards for hours.  This one really daring fellow came down to within three feet of the ground and threw pine cones at the dogs head, hitting a them a few times and now the ground is littered with pine cones. The dogs are old and have the patience of Job (sounds like Jobe). They have caught the odd squirrel before and so are confident in their strategy of waiting them out, knowing that if they stay by the bird feeder, sooner or later the squirrel will try to get closer....It is very entertaining and a better  sitter, than TV is for people's kids....

Yesterday, R finally got around to working the garden spot up...it only took me three weeks of nagging to get results, better than last year...yeah... How ever it will remain to be seen just how well it will grow...I asked for a couple of buckets of sand to be put on the garden to help the carrots and spuds grow more uniform...and as is his typical response...if a little bit of sand is good, lots of sand is better, so last night R hauled 5 truckloads of sand onto the garden site...and then had trouble working it into the soil....so this morning when I walk over to the other yard where my garden spot is located....what do I see....a beach volleyball court to die for....OMG, there was so much sand on the garden, I am not sure how well things will grow, and if it will even hold any moisture now...since sand is so porous. ahahahhaha  He sheepishly admits that he got a bit carried away...I would have to agree.. But commenced putting the garden in. First Potatoes... only two rows since we have no basement to store them in in the fall, they tend to sprout. Then 5 rows of corn and 4 rows of beans, I want enough beans to make bean relish and still put some in the freezer... a whole row of 5 different kinds of lettuce...and then 2 rows of carrots alternating with tomato plants, since they are great garden companions, the tomatoes are heavy calcium feeders and pull it up to the surface...where the carrots can benefit from it too, and the carrots make the tomatoes taste sweeter and less acidic, and then the last row has all Roma tomatoes, 14 plants, I hope to have enough of those ripen to make pasta sauce...and freeze for soups...  I threw a pumpkin seed in on one end and a zucchini on the other...but boy what a chore... I had to have R help me carry the water from the rain barrels to water the tomato plants, but they look really good, the greenhouse works great for starting things in advance. Oh ya, I had started a few pepper plants too, and put those at the end of the lettuce  and bean rows...so we shouldn't starve this summer unless we get hailed out or early frost or grasshoppers, all of which is quite possible.  

After lunch, I went with R up north to our other land, he had to take the salt shed to the cattle that he had moved yesterday morning.  The dogs came with us in the truck, they ride in the back.  The dugout that R had dug deeper last fall when it ran dry, is a real improvement over how it used to be.  He damned one end up higher so it would hold more water and luckily that particular dugout dig get some run off and is nearly full. the dogs had to go for a swim of course...so I threw them a stick, but only Riley, the chocolate lab went in to fetch it...he never retrieves, he just goes and gets it and then takes it away and chews it up into little pieces...only the yellow lab retrieves and brings it right back to me...sometimes he waits for the chocolate lab to retrieve it and then when he is close,he steals it and brings it to me.... so when it came time to put the dogs into the back of the truck....Riley just jumps in but the yellow dog has to have help, he has hip displacia...so he puts his front feet on the tail gate and R lifts his back end up...and he got all wet....ahahahahahahah  I said don't feel to put out...when they came out of the dugout they run to me and then shake themselves off....boy that water is cold.

Now I am in the house living a life of leisure, while R is back working in the field. Cultivating the soil to ready it for planting tomorrow.  Finally, he is started... I bitch at him but really the reason he is delayed is either looking after the cattle on pasture or helping me with my little projects...I can't do the work easily myself anymore but it doesn't stop me from planning all these projects... poor R.

I think I will make him a burger and fruit salad for his lunch tonight...we have our bigger meal at noon.

Some of you might be thinking I am bi-polar, with my posts so dark and sad last month and so light and frivolous this month, but it is a conscious choice I have to make to bottle all that up or it would drive me insane, or more insane than I apparently am at this point.  R is not ready to make any kind of changes and unless I want to force both of us to life in constant strife, I have to let it go...for now.  Not the healthiest choice, I know, but what else can I do, I just need to fix what I can for myself and not worry about him. Even a few minor changes that I make for myself may go along way in helping. I am going to look into Tai Chi dvd.

...I like the slower movement, it is almost meditative I think...but still tones the body and keeps the joints limber...  I can just see it all now, me in a leotard, barefoot in the early morning dew communing with nature and the energy, while performing Tai Chi...(slow motion karate)  to the accompaniment of birds song.ahahhahaha. Just watch, some manic Robin, protecting her nest will swoop down on me and either pull my few hairs out to bed her nest or shit on my head.  How ZEN is that.