Memorial Day is Monday and I am thinking of all the loved ones I've had who have served. None thankfully died in the service, but many served. I tend to joke (though it's true) that I've had family in every branch of the military, other than the Coast Guard. So please, no matter where you are, think of our military this weekend, and think good thoughts for them, blessing them wherever they are. It reminds me of a local group we ran into last weekend at Crawdad Days, called Shoeboxes for Soldiers. They mostly do local soldiers, but can always use help. Find a group similar to this near you. Trust me, I've done stuff like this off and on over the years as I could afford to. There are many soldiers who get absolutely NOTHING from family and friends back home while they are deployed, and these boxes of goodies mean so much to them. Batteries, hand held games, cards, small toiletries, letters, stamps, small snack goodies that will keep for the trip (especially chocolate, I had one soldier write and tell me he really didn't like Hershey's chocolate bars, but when you don't see even ONE in the base PX for six months, you really start to want and like them), puzzle books and just anything that will help make that stay away from everybody they love more meaningful. Whether you support the missions overseas or not, whether you like our government and how it's run or not, I personally believe it's important to support our soldiers so far from home, who likely are not getting anything to help their morale.
I am sad that this week had the devastating tornado in Moore, OK. I feel so badly for those folks and all they are going through. It has to be just awful to lose everything in moments like that. I really can't say much about it, because I simply cannot find the words, even now, to describe how I felt on seeing the news and photos, other than so very sad. The remnants of that storm cruised through here Monday night and into Tuesday, which meant no work for those couple of days, or for Wednesday while things finished drying out. Quentin did get out and whacked down those brambles for me that were regrowing.
Yes, I still need to clear up the trash, though not the one piece of pipe that's runniing across the shot. That is the protective PVC pipe Quentin put around the cable from the satellite dish to the house to keep the wildlife from chewing up the wire and cutting off the telly.
The logs and other downed trees laying on the left are what's left to clear up where the old tool shed was. You can just see, in the upper right, a bit of the Fleetwood trailer, now that things have greened up.
From the corner of the trailer by the bedroom looking back toward the front door. The piles are all the things I raked up Thursday, and I got a surprise in doing so. There's actually a double-wide pad under the single-wide trailer, and there's enough of it still in good shape that it will be a nice patio for entertaining once it's cleared off of all the grass and weeds growing on top of it, all without having to lay a patio at all. More work, but this means a lot less weed-whacking once this area's cleared up.
From the same corner looking toward the parking area/easement. You can see how greened up everything has gotten and how much weed whacking got done. You can even see how big the woodpile is getting to be. Today, when leaving, I found a tree down just before I got to the upper cattle guard. Someone had cut it up and dragged it out of the road, but it was good-sized for firewood, so I stopped at the parking are for the next photo and called hubby. Telling him what I found, he said he'd drive down to see if it was worth his time. A few moments later, "Honey? I'm getting the trailer, that's a LOT of good wood." He called me not long after I got to McDonald's, and told me he had the trailer back at the house and full and he hadn't even gotten it all. Good night, that is a LOT of wood. Heehee. All the better for our place for the woodstove once it's installed. (I keep hoping we'll get things going on that end, but it's nickel and dime things like that, and it's annoying me to pieces!)
The photo I stopped by the cow pasture to take, that I've been meaning to take for weeks. The arrow points approximately to where our property is on the mountain. The tip points basically at where I see the pinpoint of light from the yardlight when we are coming home after dark. The house is 1.3 miles up the road from the main drag, so it's kind of far up from the bottom by photo!
As for injuries, it's Bouncer. He figured out how to sneak out of the house through the screen door, despite it being latched, yesterday, when a stray tom was roaming around. We really need to get a gun and shoot that stray, he annoys the heck out of Bouncher, and now Bouncer's hurt. He went out and we didn't know it, and next thing we know, there's a cat fight going on next to the deck that ended up traveling around the back of the house and partway up the hill and all the way back to the Fleetwood, where we finally caught Bouncer underneath it and coaxed him to come to us and get taken indoors. He's got nicked ears, a scratch down his face from between his ears to nearly his eyes, a small scratch above his right eye and a chunk of skin and fur out of both hind feet. The left isn't nearly so bad as the right, because he's not using the right hind foot at all. It's not broken, but the injury is right where the ball and arch of the foot would be on a human, and I think we all know how much it hurts to put weight on that when you walk on tiptoes and have to end up stretching the muscles (and the owie in his case)! So he's tripoding around slowly, sleeping a lot, and generally bashing Smudge in the face when Smudge decides to try to fight. Bouncer wants nothing to do other than to sleep right now, and Smudge thinks Bouncer smells all funny and wants to beat the crap out of him. Funny enough, even though he's hobbling around on three legs right now, Bouncer tried to go back out and find that other cat again this morning to beat the holy heck out of it again. Thank goodness we caught him this time, and are treating him. Peroxide to douse the wounds right off once he was in the house, and while we're not wrapping it up because Bouncer likely would just chew the wraps off, we ARE using a lot of Neosporin on it, because I know from experience (and vets telling me it's ok), that as long as you only use the regular Neo (or generic equivalent), and not the kind with the pain relief in it, that it's okay to use. The medication helps speed healing and the petroleum jelly base won't hurt Bouncer if he eats it. So it'll be a couple of weeks before Bouncer gets to go back outside on his harness and leash for walks, till he's back on all fours steady instead of tripoding round the house.
Till next time, happy homesteading, Gentle Readers. I have to finish dumping emails and get myself home to enjoy my holiday weekend.
Heather what a pleasure it always is to see your photos. The leaps and boundless you have been doing are simply amazing. More pats to give yourself on the back, both of you.
ReplyDeleteGreat score with that downed tree.
Heather like you we have been lost for words as to the devastation that tornado caused. We did not get to see many pics at all of it w=but the very few we saw was enough. I am just so thankful that the loss of life was not very high. But our hearts do go out to all the families who sadly lost loved ones.
This sort of natural devastation is so hard fore us to comprehend as we don't get that sort of weather here well not to that extent at least.
Oh poor Bouncer. I sure hope that you can trap that Tom or whatever as he sounds like a real menace. It is a shame that people can't be prosecuted for dumping animals like that. Here they are shocking at killing the wild life and they also carry cat aids which is a horrific thing for our moggies to contract. Again all caused by the idiotic actions of mindless, uncaring morons.
Hopefully Bouncer will heal quickly.
It is also great news on your job front Heather, That will make things so much easier for you now and give you a little more job security too hopefully. Maybe it won't be too long now before your honey can get his job back too and then that wood stove will be in and working before you know it.
You sure won't know yourselves when that happens. That will indeed be an exciting time for you both. I can just see you now cooking up a storm on it when it gets hooked up.
Super congrats on all the brilliant progress you both are making there.