MY "STAY-CATION"

August – the great vacation month. Mike is motocaching Utah accompanied by son Yancey. A friend is vacationing with her family on the Oregon coast. And last night Hallie called enroute to northern Idaho to visit friends and take in a concert / festivity in Sandpoint.

I read the made-up word “staycation” online yesterday and loved it. It so describes what I’m doing this week. I’m here in “paradise” staycationing with the dogs, and it’s the best kind of vacation ever.

So, Mike donned his cycle duds, and you can see that Nellie knows what’s happening and doesn’t like it while clueless Bess asks, “Mike's leaving? And that matters -- how?"

The farm is the best place to staycation with the dogs. We are all three much happier here. It’s cooler, easier to walk them, and they like to lounge on the lawn (which we don’t have in town) or go to the pond. I actually have more freedom to pursue my retreat activities than I would in town.

 

We were late leaving the town house yesterday (Friday, Aug. 9). I had a meeting with friends in the morning. And by the way, one of them no longer sews and handed me lovely scraps from her stash. Fun!

I was back home by 12:30, and then it took me two hours to pack and load the pick-up. I was miserable in the 98-degree heat as I pushed and shoved coolers and crates and boxes in the back of the Dakota.

 

Staycationing is not entirely without problems. Seems like some problem is always left over. It had been impressed upon me that my first duty was to check the woodshed to see if we successfully trapped the “monster” that had taken up residence there. No such luck, I thought – and thank goodness!! I really didn’t want to deal with it. My headache went away.

It then took another hour to unload and unpack, but I set right to it. It was 87.5 degrees, and both the dogs and I felt relieved for the cooler temp and a breeze. Then we went for a walk down the lane to the hawthorn trees, and I picked more berries while they patiently explored.

I thought it would storm. I heard distant thunder and the breeze briefly became gusts. After supper Nellie moved off to her house in the woodshed where she feels secure, but Bess was nonchalant. Apparently we were just on the edge of a system and it moved on through. We had a quiet night with the exception of the coyotes, who set up a yodeling session fairly close. Ferocious Bess felt obligated to warn them that they better not come closer, and the coyotes seemed to respond with more yodels. It was a bit unnerving, but I shushed Bess and the coyotes moved on.

About that “monster” in the woodshed – I realized I hadn’t been thorough in checking the traps, and it had to be done. So, first thing this morning, I checked the woodshed again, and long story short, I disposed of a woodrat that has been plaguing us for about a month. (For forensic purposes, photographs were taken. I'm glad I'm not a forensics pathologist.)

Staycationing means maintaining a certain amount of routine. The dogs and I took our early walk out to the mailbox, and on the way back, I picked more “haws” in the lane. I also picked three cups of ripe strawberries from my garden. I’ll see what tomorrow’s pick brings and then decide how to preserve them.

A friend notified me that several fires have burned in this area, so Nellie and I walked back to the canyon rim to check it out. Lots of smoke but I couldn’t see the burned areas. 

Later . . . KW