SPRING WORK

We had summer last week. This week it’s sweatshirt weather again, and Mike says there’s no warm weather in sight. “Oh well,” I say, “maybe the rhubarb, the peas, the spinach and the radishes will like it.”

Tell you what, though – it’s dry, dry, dry. The need to carry water to my garden beds is quite evident.

The dryness was also evident as the farmer worked the fields. The house and grounds here are surrounded by fields – all of them planted in garbanzo beans (garbs) this spring. First they spread the beans. Then they tamped. Then they sprayed fertilizer (or something). And every time they worked, it created clouds of dust. “Are they ever going to be finished?” Mike demanded to know.

Well, I simply can’t be expected to clean house while dust swirls in the breeze. Instead we did outside things.

Mike has done a number of scary chores with my assistance. He cleaned the roof outside the east dormer by securing a ladder to a rope. He climbed out the corner window, braced himself on the ladder, and I passed him a small pail of water and cleaning materials. Then, using a staple gun, he attached wire fencing to the braces where the birds like to roost. I took no pictures of this feat. I was afraid they would be his last. 

 

Mike also undertook to remove pine boughs resting on the old woodshed. I do have pictures of that. I held the ladder while he cut the limbs. I always think the woodshed is rather picturesque. 

 

I'm not sure when the woodshed was built. Someday I'll research pictures and see what I can determine.

Today Mike said he was tired, and I encouraged him to take it easy. Next thing I knew we were trimming the old apple trees down by the pond. Nick and Hallie pruned the healthiest one last year, and Mike was so impressed with its appearance this spring that he decided to trim the deadwood out of the others. Again, I was the assistant. There’s a lot of down time in assisting and I politely declined to participate again this afternoon.

 

But in the process of this work, Mike decided he has to have a new lightweight chainsaw. Believe me, if Mike says he needs a new chainsaw, he needed it at least two years ago. He loves to keep things running. So, he did the research and plans to get one when we’re in town. KW

MOTHER'S DAY WEEKEND -- PICTORIAL REVIEW

Pepper’s folks came to pick her up on Saturday. We had lunch and shared a nice afternoon.

 

After Pepper and Party left, Nellie and I took our customary afternoon walk while Mike rode his bike. She enjoyed moving along at her own pace, poking her snout into rodent holes as the spirit moved her. Then she sat down on the drive to await Mike's return. They say dogs don't see well, but Nellie can see Mike on the road as soon as he comes into view. Then she goes to the head of the lane and nonchalantly pokes around while he rides up that last pitch. "Oh hello!" she says. "What a surprise to see you here!"

Sunday, Mike dug some rhubarb starts for us from a nearby “rhubarb grove.” The owner gave us starts last year, but when she heard those plants are struggling, she suggested we try again. This time we brought five crowns and planted them on the bank behind the clothesline. We’ll see.

Having finished that job, we headed to Orofino to geocache.

If you had told me when I was in high school that in my 60s I would hike steep trails above Dworshak Dam, I would have said, “not me!” The cache was located at the granite quarry. The picture on the left is of the Clearwater River. The picture on the right shows Russell Ridge, where our farm is located.

This picture was taken at the Ahsahka Cemetery. I had never been here – didn’t even know it exists. Mike found two caches on the hillside above the cemetery. Too bad he had to make two trips.

We had hoped to find a cache at the Dworkshak Dam visitor center. However, the road was gated and locked. “No trespassing – U. S. Government” read the sign. Hours are Monday through Friday. If you want to visit the center on the weekend, forget it. (Maybe they have summer hours – I don’t know.)

We had lunch at Subway, picked up a few groceries, and headed back to the farmhouse. I chopped up some stalks of rhubarb that I pulled at the rhubarb grove and made a crostata for dessert. KW

FIRST RATTLER OF THE SEASON

Mike asked if I thought we should be on the look out for rattlesnakes. I said I thought it was too soon, but the warm temps made me think it could happen.

Friday evening (May 10) we took the dogs for a walk. It was late and I was anxious to get on with it, so when I remembered at the top of the lane that I had forgotten the camera, I didn't go back. I know better, and yes, I came to regret that I didn't have it. As we returned to the farmhouse from the mailbox, I spied a rattler lying in the road.

I saw it first and alerted Mike. Then the dance began. I shooed Nellie to the other side of the road and she stayed out of the way. One thing about Nellie -- she recognizes the genuine concern in our voices and heeds it. Meanwhile, Mike attempted to control the clueless Pepper. Next thing I knew, Pepper, who never saw the snake and knows nothing about them, was laughing at me from the other side of the rattler. Of course, the rattler sensed the commotion and quite naturally coiled, making the whole situation even more dangerous. It seemed like it took forever, but finally we were on our way again, leaving the coiled rattler to wonder what had just happened.

Once back at the house, Mike decided to bathe Nellie, and Pepper got in on the act. KW

BY REQUEST: PEPPER PICS

We're puppy-sitting Pepper -- Ken's German Shorthair pup. She's about three months old -- and typical of puppies, she's a warm bundle of energy. Daughter Hallie, a true dog lover, requested photos.

Here's Pepper napping on Nellie's pillow with her special friend, Kathy's slipper.




 In the field.

"What was that?"

Sometimes when you're out on a walk you just get tired and have to lie down for a while.

The shade is nice.

More shade -- and nice soft grass.

"Ooooooh! - This is the life! Call me in an hour."

More sleep.

The first night she went right to bed in her kennel on the porch but howled some during the night. Last night she didn't howl, even when the coyote clan yodeled.

Her people are coming to get her tomorrow. It will be fun to see what she thinks about that. Nellie will be relieved! KW

SUMMERTIME?

Between Monday, April 29 and yesterday (May 8) when we returned, the temperatures at our Gilbert home ranged from a low of 29 to a high of 86. The change from cold spring to summer warmth was abrupt – and welcome. But, as everyone in the Inland Northwest knows, don’t take the electric blanket off the bed yet or put those quilts into storage. In fact, the forecast is for highs in the mid-60s next week.

On our way to the farm yesterday, we stopped in Orofino (Riverside) to pick up a card for Mike’s mother. A familiar feel washed over me as I got out of the pick-up at the store. It smelled like pine trees and river. Home. Some things never change.

While in the store, I also picked up a bottle of cheap sweet wine which I use for cooking birds. “Ma’am, you have to be 21 to buy these products,” said the stocker. I laughed but not because the comment was funny. If you’re going to compliment a woman on how young she looks, don’t call her “ma’am.”

Little Pepper, Ken’s Shorthair pup, is here with us because he has to travel this week. She’s been a good girl for us, but she pesters poor ol’ Nell unmercifully. Nellie apparently doesn’t understand that she could take care of that by booting Pepper into the next county. She’s going to have to get tough because her little cousin was born about April 30. Next month we’ll be training our own baby Shorthair.

The fields look different now, having been worked. In fact they were working today. Just look at that dust! I hung out two loads of laundry anyway.

Mike got right to work once we arrived. He had the old Dell computer re-built –new hard drive and more RAM. He got connected immediately – and so did I! CONNECTED! – Yay!! Then he serviced the lawn mower, mowed the lawn, trimmed with the weed eater, and serviced his old Yamaha dirt bike. Then he worked out so that he stays in shape.

I picked lovely large spinach leaves from the raised bed. That’s the spinach I planted last fall in hopes of an early crop. Some years it works, others it doesn’t. I made an impossible spinach pie for supper.

 

The daffodils are all gone now except for those my mother called narcissus. I’ve noticed them listed as “the Original Poet’s Daffodil.”

Haven’t seen the horses – and that’s a good thing. The ducks are gone, but this morning a pair of Canada geese flewoff the pond. We have a pheasant – Mike says there are probably two. We could hear crowing and finally saw them fly. The guy from Fish and Game says we’ll never have pheasants here, but we see a few every year, probably escapees from the hunting preserve in the canyon.

 

The pear tree is in full bloom now – 

 

And the apple trees are budding out. This picture is of the “awesome tree” in the curve of the road above our lane.

 

But it’s dry and even the breeze picks up dust off the fields. KW

"I always put it away"

Mike heard of a kid willing to do yard work. The kid came Friday to inspect the job. Someone else drove him and he brought a friend. (Red flags.) We don’t have a lawn – just the weeds in the drought-tolerant rock garden – and I thought I detected a look in his eye that said he didn’t really want to weed – kind of a dubious “how-do-I-get-out-of-this?” look. However, he agreed to come today to work.  

Today came. The appointed hour came. The kid didn’t come. We remained hopeful that he was just late.

Meanwhile, I was looking for a trowel he could use, and I couldn’t find it in the pail in which we keep yard tools.

“I always put it back in the pail,” said Mike, his eyes flashing in my direction.

“So do I,” I flashed back and added that I thought the day was already difficult enough without arguing about the yard tools.

Mike left on his new Yamaha 250 street-legal dirt bike to buy a trowel for the kid to use – you know, the kid who wasn’t here. I would have been happy to go, but Mike saves gas money by running errands on a motorcycle. It’s sort of the same thing as saving money on embellished towels by buying expensive sewing machines. To each his own, I say.

One thing always leads to another, doesn’t it? That shelf where we keep fertilizers, yard tools, potting soil and the like was a real mess, and now that I knew it, I had to clean it. When Mike got home he suggested I use the small shop vac to clean up some weed killer the mice had spilled – and then he did the work. What a deal! And I gathered the open and partially used sacks of this and that, emptying some into the vegetable garden and packing others to take to the farm. Some of that stuff came with us when we moved here. Time to get rid of it!

The kid didn’t show, so I joined Mike in the rock garden for an hour of weeding. No sooner had I started than I happened to glance up at the roof – and there it was! – my garden trowel – perched there above the eaves trough where someone had left it.

 

Mike admitted that he was the responsible party since cleaning the eaves troughs is not my job. He good-naturedly went after the ladder and retrieved the trowel. KW