Vans & Roses

On Monday, the Hubs will take possession of this.  And it's about time!  His current van is a 2002 that he bought when we  moved here in 2003.  He has put over 200,000 miles on it.  It's time to retire the beast before it costs us any more $$ to keep going. 

It made us realize that I have had my Tahoe for 5 years, this month.  I don't know what the deal is, but I absolutely LOVE my 'Ho!  I love the looks of it and totally love the way it drives and handles.  My last couple of vehicles in Alaska were Chevy S-10 Blazers and I loved them as well.  I can only imagine how awesome it would have been to have had a Tahoe in Alaska!  The 'Ho is an '03 and I only have 128,000 miles on it.  I am hoping it will last a very long time.  I don't particularly care for the looks of the newer models and it's a good thing!  Chuck checked the prices on them, just out of curiosity,  while he was looking for his van, and they are like $50-$60,000.  I'm not even sure if that was the Z-71 model.  Yikes!  How do people afford payments???  If I recall, for mine, we financed about $30,000 for 5 years and my payments are $468 a month.  It must be that a person buying a brand new one has to decide between a house payment or a truck payment!  LOL

Chuck picked my 1st roses for me yesterday AM.  My favorites bloomed beautifully and the bush id LOADED with buds! This is not a great picture.  These are actually a salmon color, with tinges of deep pink.  Ya' know!  The camera on this iPhone4 that I have really sucks compared to my 3GS.  I'll be so glad when I can upgrade in November!

What a dork I am.  Here is a MUCH better shot taken with my 'real' camera.  Nikon to the rescue!  This shows the true colors.

Anyway, the roses have started blooming early this year.  Last year they bloomed after I went to Alaska and I'm pretty sure it was sometime in May.  This will start my summer of fresh roses by my computer every day.  Chuck will pick me fresh ones, every couple of days :)  He has his moments.  Wonder who he'll pick them for whilst I'm gone??  Susie & Dixie, mayhaps :)

I'm getting down to the serious stuff in getting ready for my trip  I was commiserating last  night with Terri (lovely daughter) as to what knitting projects I should bring.  I have so many projects lined up, it's hard to decide, but I did narrow it down to "the less complicated, the better".  I've only been serious about knitting for a year, and I really don't have a lot of experience or confidence going for me yet.  I'm so easily distracted, that if I can't focus entirely on what I'm doing, I make mistakes.  If I don't catch it right away, it's difficult to fix and often I have had to rip something all out and start over.  But as I was about to say, there will be a LOT of distractions in that house while I'm there.  I can't wait :)

Back to the knitting thing.  For some reason, I am having the WORST time with a baby blanket I am trying to knit!  Its ridiculous.  I'm making it for the gal that works for Chuck.  She is due next week (in fact they are inducing her on Tues.)  I have known abut her pregnancy since the 1st moment she found out.  She helped me pick out the yarn & I got it right away.  I already had a pattern I wanted to try.  So, yeah.....this was about 8 months ago.  I didn't start it right away because I had several Christmas gifts I was making, figured I would start it after the New Year and have it finished in plenty of time.  I was so wrong!

This was when I learned how dangerous distractions can be.  I "thought" I was comfortable with the pattern.  I "thought" I could knit on it while watching TV.  I "thought" wrong!  Twice I found mistakes and had to undo a few rows, stitch by stitch and redo them.  (very slow process)  The 3rd time I screwed up, I took it as a sign that this wasn't the pattern for me!  I found a new pattern that I liked even better and I seemed to get along alot better with it.  In fact, I was zipping right along and had the blanket about 2/3 completed when I went to San Diego.  When I came home, however, that had all changed.  Murphy had pulled the needles out of the knitting, she chewed on the needles making them worthless and she chewed up and pulled out a bunch of the yarn!  It was a mess.  So.....I had to start over. 

I've been working on it every chance I get, but have had a couple of set backs.  A couple of those opportunities happened to be in the middle of the night, when my hip & leg are hurting and I can't sleep.  That's when I get up and take a couple of pain pills.  Yep, you guessed it.  I shouldn't be knitting during those times.  It took 2 screw ups before I finally got the hint.  I do believe I will be taking this project to Alaska to finish & will mail it to her.  The baby will never know the difference.  But I've gotta tell ya'.  It's great yarn and I DID love it, but I am so damn sick of it it's not even funny!!

Floral Tax News

Allow me to start off this entry bitching.

Okay.....so I wrote my bitch session all out and then deleted it like a good girl.Now I don't know what to write about.......

How about my roses?  Here's a shot of their progress thus far.  I sure wish we had known what we had when we planted them.  As you can see, they are all different types and look rather odd because they are all different sizes and growth patterns...or whatever.  But we got them from a neighbor that was moving a couple of years ago and she had cut them all down to the nubs, so we didn't have a clue.  Oh well.  No big deal.  It will fill out better soon enough.

 I have one pink one that has opened and the others are loaded with buds!  I hope I get to enjoy them before the Japanese Beetles move in!

 We did go and get plants for the garden and some of my flowers, yesterday.  I got 3 of my new favorites, Mandevilla.  I love them and the Hummingbirds love them.  It's a Win-Win for me!!  The plants get huge and trail down with clingy vines.......gorgeous!!

 Then I found some of these!  The 1st time I ever saw them, was last year in Alaska.  Terri & I found some at a greenhouse up there.  Purply magenta with green edges.  They are SO pretty and I was thrilled to see them at the Depot of Home yesterday!

 I got really radical with my Azaleas last fall and trimmed them WAY back, cutting off most of what they had going for them.  They haven't been flowering that well, so I didn't figure I had much to lose by trying it.  It worked out very well!  They are full and beautiful.  I just wish they kept blooming all summer.

 I would write more, but the day is wasting away and I must go pick up our taxes.  Yes, they are done and my finding of various deductions that I had overlooked saved our butts!  Put us in the 'black', thank God!!  Whew!!!  Another severe screwing averted. 

Hot & Crispy

Wow.  It was 102 here yesterday and they are calling for 104 today. Ugh.....  That is just wrong! So, I shall light a candle and say a prayer for the man that invented Air Conditioning and stay inside and let my Bionic Hip heal, while the electric meter spins in a wild frenzy to keep me cooool............I think some knitting might be in order today.

Chuck rounded up a couple of strays young men in the neighborhood to help him get hay for "The Girls".  The guy we buy it from grows the most awesome weed free Bermuda and he was baling

yesterday, so Chuck headed over for a couple of loads.  208 bales of fresher than fresh, yummy hay for our babies.  They were sure happy last night to get that treat, since their pasture is all dry and depleted.  We need rain SOOOO bad!  It's been weeks upon weeks since we've had anything significant.  But what a miserable day to have to get the hay at 102 degrees!  With hay, it's all about the timing and ya can't take a chance and wait, so that hard working man of mine was hard at it yesterday!

Between the heat and the Japanese Beetles, my poor rose garden is looking pretty sad.  I do believe that Chuck finally got the Beetles under control and with plenty of watering, the roses finally seem to be making a come-back.  I'll be so glad when I am able to get out in the yard and take care of some of this stuff.  All of my flower beds and plants need a lot more TLC than poor Chuck is able to give them when he gets home at night.  Hopefully, it won't be long and I can get out and do more. {and hopefully, it will be cooler by then too, so this Yankee doesn't melt!}

Today is the half-way mark to being able to get back to doing some normal daily activities.  It's been 3 weeks today since my surgery and there are so many things that I can't do for "6 weeks".  My follow-up appt with the surgeon is the 28th and I can't wait!  The incision has healed 'nicely' and I'm finally able to leave it un-bandaged and I'm past the point of any risk for infection, so that's a plus.  They actually "glued" the incision, so I haven't had to deal with those nasty staples, like I did for my back (all 24 of them. yuck).  There has been so much improvement the past week or so, I am finally able to get a feel for how much better off I am going to be. I am feeling better in general, but also gaining in strength and stability each day.  The Physical Therapy is rather rigorous, but so very beneficial.  I have gone from my walker, to using only a cane and half the time, I walk off and forget that.  Chuck is paranoid that I'll fall and 'disrupt my ball joint" as he puts it.  LOL  Actually, as time goes by it IS getting harder to keep from doing the things I'm not supposed to do.  This last 3 weeks might be tougher than the 1st 3 weeks.  Still can't bend over (but I 'can') still cant get my leg past that 90 degree point, still can't sit in chairs too low, still can't 'twist & shout', but......Boy Howdy, can I walk!!  Not for miles and miles, yet, but a hellovalot further than I was able to!  Still can't drive, tho'.  Some surgeons say 2 weeks, mine is all about waiting 6 weeks.  I could understand that while I was dependent on Percocet to keep me pain free, but I'm down to Vicodin now and much less often.  Anyway, I'll be a good girl and wait for his okay, but I am sure antsy to DRIVE!!!!!!!!!!!  Places to go. Things to do. People to see.  Primarily......lunch with Victoria!!!!!

Well, me thinks I shall go check on some blogs, check in with FB and tend to my knitting!  See ya'.

Moving On

Yesterday, the vet's office called to tell me that my dear kitty's cremains were back and ready for me to pick up.  It made for a sad start to my day, as I headed to their office, but it was also rewarding in some way.  I took the special little cedar chest with me that contains Max's cremains, so that I could place hers in it with him.  They were such good buddies, it seemed like the natural thing to do.
I miss her terribly, but I also do not have to worry about what she is feeling.  She is free from all that and for that I am grateful.

We have been having some beautiful fall weather and the roses in my new flower bed are regular blooming idiots! 

 There is an orange and yellow one that is about to bloom and a lavender one and the yellow one has a ton of buds.  Soon they will be gone, along with the perfect weather :(.  One person is telling me that I need to cut them back before the first frost and someone else is telling me not to cut them back until spring.  An article I read online, re: roses in Arkansas, said to prune them in February.....WTH???  I think I'll wait til spring, as that advice comes from Victoria and she has been growing beautiful roses in Arkansas for several years.

Think Positive

Allll righty then........this AM I shall write a more positive post, because I really can't expect you to come here and read negative stuff, time after time after time.........How dreary of me of to only post about the bad shit.  I must dig deeper and pull some more upbeat shit out of my ass hat!

My rose garden is going {growing} great!  They survived the transplant and are thriving and blooming.  All 9 plants have lots of new growth and they all are in bloom and/or loaded with buds!  I'm pretty sure I owe it all to Martha Stewart and her Epsom Salts tip.  Plus I've been watering, spraying and fertilizing right on schedule, like a good little rose gardener.

Here's a yellow one that Chuck picked for me this AM



Isn't my vase cute?? I collect Wymsiclay Cats for my mantle and have a couple of vases that are like the kitties. Too cute!

Chuck is getting ready to go riding with a friend. ARG!! I wanna go SOOOOO bad. It's a beautiful sunny 61 degrees. Perfect for most anything, but particularly for riding my Sweet Susie. Fall riding is the best and I am so tempted to try, but that would be a huge mistake. I might not be real smart, but I am smarter than that. It's already been over 2 years. I guess another 6 months won't kill me.

In Puss Puss news, she finally took some more Nutri-Cal this AM {actually, Chuck forced a finger full into her wee little mouth} and shortly there-after she drank some milk. Awhile later, I found her IN the kitchen sink drinking water out of a rinsed out bowl I had set in there. Very strange, but all good. I weighed her yesterday and she is down to 4.8 lbs, from 5.4 eight days ago. She has been a steady 8 lbs all of her adult life, so you can imagine what a little skeleton kitty she is under all that hair. And this is a lousy picture, but it is her in her 'new favorite spot'.

She used to like to lay on my printer tray, which is beside me and between me and a window. That way she could keep tabs on everything. LOL I just gotta keep lovin' her while I can and keep her purring and comfortable.

Doctors, Roses and Tahoes

Most things were going halfway decent this week.  Got home from an interesting weekend of camping to become besieged with outrageous allergies, mostly due to the entire countryside being covered with a plethora of yellow 'flowers', AKA, Ragweed.  The Ragweed and grass pollen counts are off the  charts here and I've got it bad.  Head and chest congestion, coughing up "pollen balls" (sounds better than phlegm) and much blowing.  Yuck.  It is very {unusually} dry and the lack of humidity and low dewpoint makes it worse.  I pray for a break in the weather SOON!

While we were camping, we had a call that our friends son was in a motor cycle accident so they hopped in their truck and headed for the hospital, but did come back later, as he was 'fine'.  Totaled the bike, but he escaped with only a broken collarbone and 3 staples in his head along with an abundance of 'road rash'.  They guy that got hurt was Roy, that used to work for Chuck.  He was riding the "Crotch Rocket" that belongs to the guy that currently works for Chuck.  No insurance on the bike.  Crazy people.

I had an appointment scheduled for my X-rays and visit with the Neurosurgeon on Wednesday.  It was to be my long awaited and anxiously anticipated 6 month check up.  The hospital lost my order for the X-Rays, causing a long enough of a delay that I couldn't see the surgeon afterward.  That got rescheduled for today.  MY surgeon was out of town, so I had to see another one.  I was NOT happy about that, especially since I couldn't get any straight answers or information out of him.  I did at least find out that my X-rays showed that all of my hardware is still in place and the bone grafts appear to be healing quite nicely.  That is very good news, and my main concern, but......I had many questions about a few issues I have been having and some limitations I am still experiencing.  Didn't get any satisfaction out of this guy!  In a nut shell, he told me that I should be happy that I am not in as much pain as I was prior to the surgery; that I need to remember that I am no longer 20 years old {WTF?}; that where I am at might be as good as it gets but I should continue to see improvement over the next 6 months.  Crap on a cracker.  That was so not how I wanted this appointment to turn out.

I did finally get my Tahoe back on Wednesday after being without it for almost 3 weeks while Chuck's van was awaiting the arrival of a new engine.  But then the water pump went out on the Tahoe, so I was without it for most of yesterday.  Good grief.  I think our vehicle situation should be back to 'normal' now and it sure feels good to have my 'Ho back!

The rose garden we put in last month seems to be a success!  The gal we bought the roses from had trimmed them all back...a LOT, and after the trauma of the transplant I wasn't sure they would fare well, but they all have a lot of new growth and we have had a bloom here and there, but now they are suddenly growing like crazy! Here's a shot I took of one bloom and some buds on Monday,


And here they are today!


yep! These are all those little buds, all opened up and quite fragrant! The other plants are getting lots of buds, as well. Very encouraging, indeed. Now if we can just get them to survive the winter :)

The Rose Garden and A Happy Horse

Well, the rose garden is officially finished and hopefully they will actually live and grow up to be somebody!

Chuck worked SO hard on such a hot day to lay this out and get the stone set just right! I love stone, always wanted a stone wall and he has given me the next best thing. He bought a huge truckload of these great stones back when we first bought the house and has made me several flower beds from them.  These pictures aren't the best, but you get the general idea.  Hopefully when the roses take off again and are bursting with green leaves and blossoms, I will get some better pictures to show off.  You can sure see how dry and 'crunchy' our lawn is from the lack of rain! We've even got a couple of tress that are dying... :(

I sound pretty optimistic for someone with 2 brown thumbs, don't I??  But I insist that I should be able to grow roses since it seems that everyone and their brother has roses growing in their yard.  The garden is in direct line of my view to the horse pasture from the window by my computer.  It will sure be pretty WHEN it takes off and they grow nice and pretty.  The lady we bought them from pruned them a LOT....almost like they need to be pruned back about in February, at least in this part of the country. Ah, well. Time will tell.  We got 9 bushes for $60, which is a great deal and not so expensive that we would be out a whole lot if they don't make it.

For my Dixie update, I am SO happy to report that she is doing quite a bit better already!  She seems to be losing some weight on her "crash diet", which helps and she is also getting back to being her frisky self, so we know she is feeling better!  Yesterday, we let her out into the pasture with Susie and they ran and played and Dixie even kicked up her heels a bit!  I was elated!! The farrier will be here again Wednesday to trim her hooves again, which is great cuz they are sure growing fast with no shoes on, as well as her limited exercise.  But she's up to getting a bit more of that, now, from the looks of it and that will aid in the weight loss tremendously!

Southern Fried Yankee

The heat wave and dry spell continue, here in Arkansas.  All sorts of records are being broken as temps stay above 100 with heat index up to 115 most days.  In fact the days have turned to weeks and we have had no rain.  Everything is dry and crunchy...especially our lawn.  I have thrown away 1/2 of my plants because even after being watered twice daily, they are still dying.  It's really sad.  And everyday I light a candle and send up a prayer of thanks to the person that invented A/C!  LOL

Yesterday was a very fun day, in spite of the heat.  My dear friend, Victoria and I went to a nearby town to check out what was reputed to be an awesome quilt and yarn shop.  We left there, not only empty handed but very disappointed, as well.  It is unheard of for me to go to a fabric store and leave empty handed, but nothing inspired me.  I was mostly focused on checking out their yarn because nice yarn shops are far and few between in these parts, but I have more yarn just in my sewing room than they had in their entire shop!

The town we went to, Siloam Springs, is right on the Oklahoma border and about a 38 mile drive from Rogers.  It has some great older homes and fun little shops, so we did drive around and check them out.  Sure wish I had taken one of my cameras, but with yarn on the brain, I wasn't thinking about taking pictures.  It was very interesting to both of us {having both been raised hard core Catholics} to see that a couple of churches were being turned into homes!  We weren't even 'allowed' to enter a non-Catholic church, so the idea of living in a church, at first, made us both gasp!  But then, of course, we laughed at our silliness.  Times have sure changed!

All of our traipsing around the various Antique shops and such, did us both in, though.  V had knee surgery a few months before I had my back surgery and it bothers her to over-do it, as well.  I fared better with my shopping trips with Riley than I did yesterday, for some reason.  It was great fun, but we were wiped out and actually cut the day a bit shorter than originally planned.  The heat didn't help any!

As for my progress, my physical therapy ended about 3 weeks ago, and I must admit that I have not been doing my exercises as diligently as I should be and I need to work on that.  It's been almost 5 months and I'm pretty discouraged about the potential 'quality of life' that I will be left with.  BUT, he said that it would take a year, so I try to be patient.  I finally have my 6 month check up scheduled, for Sept 29th and I am SO anxious to go and see if I am healing properly and how things look on the inside, as well as to get the surgeons input on my progress.  Most days I try to make myself do more than I really feel up to doing, just because I feel that I NEED to.  Sometimes it works out okay and other times I am sorry.  I'm beginning to feel that that will always be the way it is.  I sure hope not, but I really don't know.  I can safely say that I am glad I had the surgery.  In spite of the ordeal, I am much better off the way I am now, as opposed to pre-surgery.  There is no question about that!  I do know that alot of what I am experiencing now, is due to nerve damage that took place during the surgery.  Not necessarily "damage", but simply the moving and repositioning of the nerves to accommodate the changes that took place in there.  That still affects my legs a great deal.  Bah.  Enough of that.

Chuck is outside building my rose garden bed.  Time to go supervise the planting :).  Pictures tomorrow and a Dixie update.  Stay tuned!! 

Roses and Horses and Finches....Oh My!

My lovely daughter, Terri, has a faboo friend that is quite the gardener.  She has gotten Terri into it big time.  So much so that M constructed Terri a greenhouse and built wonderful garden beds for her!  Anyway, Shany {Terri's friend} created a rose garden as a memorial to her mother.  Shany lost her mother to cancer a few short years ago and seeing as how her mother loved roses she planted a lovely plot and even had a nice sign made.  That got me thinking.  My Mom loved roses.....yellow roses.  AND....roses seem to grow really well here in BF Arkansas.  Everyone seems to have thriving rose bushes, except me of course, because I always thought they would be terribly complicated and I would kill them for sure! Anyway, after seeing Shany's rose garden, I decided to give it a go.  I also had some influence from our dear Poolie, as she has some incredible roses under her care!

My plan was to have my Timmy help me build a rose garden while he and Riley were visiting.  He has really gotten into helping Terri and Shany with their gardens and we had a plan!!  Alas, time ran short and Chuck didn't have time to do HIS part in all of this, so Tim and I didn't get to build my rose garden together :(.  HOWEVER!  As luck would have it, the lady at the end of our road {who used to work for a nursery~and who's house was surrounded by gorgeous plants and flowers, including many roses} is moving!  Last night on his way home, Chuck stopped to see her and came home with 9 rose bushes and 2 HUGE SunPatiens plants (a form if Impatiens only HUGE)!  What a surprise!!

The plan is to build a big bed out of some rock we have that he made me a couple other flower beds out of.  And since the bed he made me for my Hydrangeas has taken off and done so well.....and since roses allegedly like the same conditions as Hydrangeas, he will make the bed for me in the same area of the yard.  Which, BTW, just happens to be near the pasture fence and in direct line of my view to said pasture, from my computer and sewing machine!  If they live, it will be prefect!!  She seriously pruned them, as you can see, but I suspect she knew what she was doing.  Her only advice was to water in the morning and again in the early afternoon and give them rose food once a week.  She said they don't like to "go to bed wet".  LOL  So....I think I can handle that.  I think I can, I think I can.......Of course I will be researching online and will greatly appreciate any and all input from any of you that are successful rose growers!!

And, in other news.......I was quite envious of Poolie's daily gathering of finches at her feeders!  I often see finches out on the fence and flitting by the window, but only after her influence did I finally decide to acquire some finch feeders.  Well, they went undetected for so long....5 or 6 days.....I was about to move them one morning, when lo and behold, I had a visitor!  That was about 2 weeks ago....and all this time I only ever saw just the one.  But 2 days ago, there were 3!  And this AM there were 5!  I am thrilled.  I love having birds around, just outside my windows and although I do miss my favorites in Alaska, there are so many down here that don't live up there!  The gold finches (only visit Alaska briefly), Cardinals, Indigo Buntings, Blue birds, House Finches, and I musn't forget the Hummingbirds!!  I'm still working on pictures.  For some reason, they seem to take flight when I quietly open the door, with camera in hand and a rambunctious Cocker Spaniel comes out of no where and goes bursting thru the door!  I just need to remember to camp out on the back deck, while Gus is at work with Chuck, and quietly wait for them!

And Dixie is doing a little better everyday.  Although I wish we had a horse size scale so we could weigh her and see if her "water and hay" diet is helping yet.  Can't see any difference yet, but with horses it does show fairly quickly.  She had to come over and investigate while I was watering the roses this AM.

Actually, her appetite hasn't been that great and she hasn't even finished all of her hay until yesterday.  Apparently it is improving, as she appears to be liking the taste of the fence......better keep an eye on her that she doesn't start eating it LOL  And I just noticed the ripples in the water trough!  Susie was taking a drink, just out of sight of the camera/phone.  :)