End of May

For all of our complaining about not having a spring, it seems that we are finally into a pretty good end of spring. Yes, I said it; it is nearly the end of spring. Tomorrow is the first day of June (Happy Birthday Aunty) and in only 21 days, it will be summer. Sometimes it is like that in the Dakotas, we go from Winter to Summer with only a very short spring, if any.

Today was a head to Linton day. I took Jaxon with me and we dropped off Paulina. She needed to grab her car and head for WIshek so she can get to work and start earning her keep. Ha!

I have been trying to give Jaxon some quiet time after he ate his donut, so maybe he will take a nap. Not really happening for me. Victoria gave him some money to buy a donut for himself. It was great, we walked into the bakery and he took the dollars out of his pocket and picked the donut with sprinkles, only one in the place with sprinkles. He was going to save the money for a toy until he found out we don’t have a toy store in Linton. Technically we do, but I am guessing they didn’t have the pirate ship he was after.

Jaxon eating his donut and drinking chocolate milk.

This is how Jaxon ate his donut, sprinkles first.

I have been fading between tired and ready to work, so not sure how the day will turn out.

I could be making a list of work to do. Things like: clean the car, fold the laundry, wash the dishes, clean out the fridge, start packing non essential items. Funny but none of those things sound too interesting. Actually, I should be reading the Farmers Union Day Class curriculum and planning for that event, but….Why can’t I get it together. Perhaps if I started knitting I would feel like I am doing something.

Top of stocking cap.

Stocking cap.

Above are a couple of photos of another stocking cap that I finished last week. I did this one from the top to the bottom rather than the way the pattern is writtten. I wanted to see if that could be done, and now I know it can be done, I think that is the way I will always do it. Yipee.

The cats are having an orange day (Translated that means a “do nothing day” the idea comes from my nephew, Carson.)

Roger taking a nap in the sunshine.

Sophia seems to be moping around. Makes me think of the song Janis Joplin sang, “Down on me…whole wide world…down on me.”

You can see that I am starting to think in terms of the challenge that is starting tomorrow!

Time for a change

Some plants I put in today.

Geraniums with Dusty Miller. The old toilet bowl is now the home of the blueberry plant. The only one that survived.

Audrey.

Row of hostas.

It is absolutely beautiful tonight. The temperature is just cool enough to put on long sleeves, or if you are tough enough to sit outside in a t-shirt. Guess where I am with this sinus drip still happening? If you said t-shirt you are in the money. I have been a bit warm all day, well it was hot and muggy, so no surprise there. Anyway there is hardly any breeze. It is so calm that you can hear the mourning doves and the pheasants and the Canadian geese by the creek, not to mention all of the little birds squawking around the place.

Mostly birds don’t bother us, that is until they try to nest in the shop and cause all sorts of chaos there. Thanks to brother Adam fixing the doors last fall, all of that has ended. Now the crazy little barn swallows have decided our porch is the perfect spot to build a nest. In fact two families have moved in, one above each light fixture. I guess that is what happens when no one is around to turn on the lights every now and then. We are going to have to move them as they could cause some electrical damage if they haven’t already done so.
I guess the problem wouldn’t have happened if we had finished off the porch as intended. It is a funny thing how money, or the lack of it, prevents a person from doing lots of things. I am currently sitting out on my porch drinking coffee. Yes I am having coffee without you. (Family joke.) I thought the dog would join me, but I think she headed for her kennel because it is starting to get dark.

I really have not been a fan of Audrey, but of all things, she and I had a pretty good day together. As I sat, she sat nearby without any harassing or licking or anything. She also stood by and watched as I transplanted some geraniums and added Dusty Miller to the pots. I was calling her the slobber dog earlier this week, but she is really good about minding her own business. Don’t tell anyone that I said she is a good dog; I wouldn’t want this to get to Victoria or anything.

I don’t want this to get too long, but I did want to let you know that I will be working on a challenge for myself during the month of June. When I worked as the editor for the Prairie Pioneer, I wrote a weekly column and in doing that, I often started out with a phrase from a song. My topic was never, or almost never about the song at all, but the thing that I was writing about seemed to fit with the phrase. It was fun for me because people would tell me “now you stuck that song in my head for most of the day.”
Anyway, I am challenging myself to post a blog everyday with a phrase from some song present or past. I will tie it to what I am doing at the time, and hopefully write more substance instead of always throwing in pictures of some plant or another and a visit from the grandson. Yes, I will still write on those topics, but the whole point is to make the writing more of a story…You can be the judges at the end of the month as to how it turned out.

I will also be updating my categories. I think it is time to retire the I Remember Patsy to simply an I remember area that will contain stories of the past both mine and those told to me by family, friends, or simply acquaintances. I am also adding a gardening, a crafting and a food category. I have come to realize that when my family and I moved to Linton in August of 2011, I had all these grand plans to spend more time writing, and now Paulina has graduated, and we are considering moving back, and other than the blog, I really haven’t done any serious writing. Yikes, time to get serious…Good luck to me.

Garden day, Hurrah!!

The garden is mostly planted, but we need more dirt.

The tomatoes all in a row.

Finally we were able to plant the garden. I have been putting off organizing the Day Class for Farmers Union as if it were the hardest thing in the world. Today, when I knew the rain was headed this way and we had to get the garden planted, today was the day I finally accomplished something, and guess what? It wasn’t so hard.

My big issue was calling the main office to have the post cards sent. I kept thinking that I had waited too long and that it was going to be a big deal and that I didn’t have enough planned. On and on and on. Marsha was so nice and so helpful, and later today when I called in, she already had them, in the mail. OMG how do you get things done so quickly???

Well, guess what? With that out of the way, we were able to concentrate on the garden. Victoria was back from Jamestown around 11 a.m. She and James left for Zeeland to the place where Biscuit was being kenneled. They picked her up and headed to the farm and my brother Adam. Thank goodness he is willing and has room to keep that dog. I am not sure if we would be able to handle both her and Audrey (large black lab) in this yard without fence and such. The very first thing they need at their new place is a kennel. No ifs ands or buts.

Paulina and I hung around in Linton long enough to pack up clothes and food and such. We waited for the clothes in the dryer and a few items on the line then we headed south. Come to think of it, we left about the time that Young and the Restless was over. We still needed to fill gas, but we were out of town just after noon.

The entire time here in Herreid was spent putting in garden. James took the mower off the little tractor and put on the tiller. As soon as he had the garden retiled, we were hard at it. The peas and cucumbers were planted along the fence so they can climb. I even put Jaxon to work pulling the old vines from last year out of the fence.

We did a little crop rotating this year, so the corn ended up on the east end of the garden near the fence. The tomatoes are parallel to the peas running east to west and the rest of the garden follows suit in this order, peppers, beans, red cabbage, beets, carrots, and radishes. We added a couple of segregated beds to put in lettuce and spinach and yellow squash. I also have some garlic and we will try to put in one or two pumpkin plants, but really not more than that. The big disappointment is that we don’t have any seed potatoes. It looks like a large garden plot, but every year, I feel like we haven’t any room to plant like we should.

I also have three packets of sunflower seeds. I must have really wanted them this year as I bought them three different times all from different brands, but the same type of sunflower. I am still not sure where those are going in, maybe beside the concrete as a barrier. I also have asparagus that needs a permanent home.

Add to my dilemma, the fact that I have about five types of flowers to plant and nowhere to put them….yikes, we may be digging up some of the grass. This year that would be an easy task as much of the grass in our area is suffering from a strange winter kill. If it wouldn’t be in such a strange area, I might think about converting the area to a flower spot. Maybe if I just dig out the majority of my irises and use that area…

On the other hand, I could do a whole lot more if I had a truck load of good top soil to spread around and fill in my flower beds. I could even raise them up a bit and really plant something. I think it is time to advertise.

Again I will leave you with some photos. The red coffee can has two hostas in that I planted for Victoria to take to her new place if she ever gets to move. I dug out one of my two hostas to transplant it. When I pulled it apart, I ended up with 10 different plants. I can’t imagine what will happen when I move the large hosta. I decided it was too far along right now to move it since I don’t have any good beds ready for it. Perhaps next spring. I had to move the other one this year because it is being crowded out where it was growing.

Hostas for Victoria.

Jaxon sliding down the swing.

Jaxon with Victoria in his super man cape.

Anyway the two crazy photos are of Jaxon in his new pajamas. Victoria didn’t realize what a cape would mean to him. He was seriously disappointed that he wasn’t able to fly after he put them on. We had to watch him like a hawk because she was afraid that he would try to jump off the porch or something. Right now he is sound asleep. I guess that is what happens when you help Grandma and Grandpa in the garden and you throw hissy fits about not finding worms in every single hole. I finally had to tell him that the worms were going to cry because they needed their mothers in order to get him to put them back in the ground. It was a wild time. I was glad when the 6 p.m. whistle blew, and we were finished and could go eat supper.

Fern peony about to bloom.

Sorry this was so long, how you weren’t too bored!! Happy gardening and happy to report that my health is improving, nothing like a day in the sunshine!!

Jaxon is visiting

Jaxon on the swing.

I haven’t really written about this extended visit because I didn’t think it was really a big deal. Now I am starting to see just how long this is going on, and how hard it is becoming for Victoria and Jaxon. Nate and Victoria are in the middle of a house sale. They have accepted an offer on their house in Jamestown, and at the same time offered on a house in Hebron, ND. Hebron is out west of Bismarck about half way between Bismarck and Dickinson.

For those of you who don’t know North Dakota, here is the geography. There is an interstate highway that goes through the state from east to west. If you divided the state into three equal parts lengthwise the interstate would be on the line nearest to South Dakota. Now take that line and figure it this way: Fargo is on that line as it touches Minnesota, drive west for nearly 100 miles and you hit Jamestown, drive almost 100 more miles and you hit Bismarck (also right in the middle of the state), 100 more miles and there is Dickinson, not quite 100 more miles and you are in Montana. Hope that helps.

Anyway, there is some sort of legal problem with the house they are selling in Jamestown in terms of the deed. It has to do with the street and what the city owns and where the house sits, and it should have been corrected like three owners ago, but now they are having problems. Why is it that problems like that always show up when someone you know has the house? Anyway, the realtor was trying to speed things up, so she suggested that they move their possessions out of the house, so the buyers could do the final “walk through” and hopefully keep interested. That was the beginning of May.

On May 4, James, Paulina and I packed up and went to Jamestown to help Victoria finish moving. This was after spending a day in Bismarck at a track meet. We moved one load of boxes to their storage unit before dark hit then we went to Jessica’s place to sleep. The next morning (Sunday) we were up at the crack of dawn and started moving and packing more and cleaning the house and moving more. I took a couple of hours off in the middle of the day to have my hair cut. We left Jamestown about when it was turning dusk.

We went all the way to Herreid to unload everything that we had in the van. Paulina, Jaxon and I were in the van. James and Victoria were in the little green neon. They had to go through Zeeland to drop off a dog. They had both dogs in the back of the neon. We had the cat in the van. She never made a peep all the way home. We stopped in Sterling for a bathroom break and checked to see if she was still ok.

By the time we unloaded in Herreid, James and Victoria were there, and we were ready to pack up for Linton and some much needed rest. It felt more like we had been working for a week rather than an evening and a day. So, that was quite some time ago and Victoria and Jaxon are still living in Herreid. We spend lots of time together, and tonight Jaxon is on an overnight with Grandma and Grandpa and Aunt Nina. Victoria had to go back to Jamestown to mow the lawn, check on the house and pay another month of the storage shed. I think that they should charge those costs to the realtor and the lawyers who can’t seem to get the paperwork straightened out.

All I know about the whole thing is that Grandma and Grandpa are going to have a really, really sad day when they have to help Jaxon pack up the little box of toys that he brough to their big house in Herreid and send him on the road to Hebron. We keep telling Victoria, she could just find a job around here and live, who knows.

Anyway what we do know is that tomorrow James and Victoria are going to get Biscuit from the kenal in Zeeland. At the price they are paying it is over $200 already and going up. Perhaps another bill for those lawyers who can’t get the paper work right. Also the kenal people aren’t able to keep the dog anymore. So Vic and James are moving her to Adam’s on the farm. Hopefully this will be a short stay.

The picture above is Jaxon having fun in the park in the front of the yard of the “big house.” I stole all of these photos from Paulina. She really needs to take more….for me to use.

Plum blossoms with a bee in the center.

Memorial Day

Family at Fairview.

Flags at Fairview cemetary.

Short note on Memorial Day. I don’t like to write about this topic since I made lots of enemies once upon a time for telling the truth about my past feelings. I was trying to offer a special shout out to my nephew in the military and give him a pat on the back because he joined up when ours is not historically a military family. Actually my mother’s step brothers both served and survived the military, one with a terrible back wound, in fact he was left for dead and lucky that it was so cold he didn’t bleed to death and was found the next day. Well, all that aside, as a high school student I didn’t appreciate the local Memorial Day services. Mostly because as a band member I was forced to attend meaning no going anywhere for the weekend and because the leader of the local veterans group was hard to understand when he spoke, and he carried on and on. I did enjoy the speakers that were interesting, but that was long ago. I guess what I learned from the issues is don’t be too honest when writing in a local newspaper.

So, today was a day of family, and was it a hoot. We went to Russ and Elaine’s place, (James’ sister) for a fish fry and pot luck. It was one laugh after another. It was great. I have a couple of photos since James and I went out to the cemetery just before the veterans got there, Paulina came along when we took the flowers off. I didn’t realize how hard it is for her to go there. Wow, she cried and cried.

Three photos for you. One of the graves of my parents and brother, one of the Veterans flags and the final one of the berry pie that Victoria made. Sure tastes good and really is appropriate for the day.

Victoria’s pie with ice cream, oh so good.

Sunday pre-Memorial Day

The flag is out for Memorial Day.

I can’t wait until we get into the regular swing of life again. Sunday’s need to be for rest and not the day to get everything finished that doesn’t get done during the rest of the week. I also look forward to living back in Herreid and finding our way to church in Mobridge on Sundays. In the meantime, I will let you in on what we did this Sunday before Memorial Day.

Last night we were actually thinking of heading to Herreid, but once we were home from the state meet, we realized just how tired we were. It wasn’t tired from the meet; it was tired from the whole year. Seriously, I don’t know too many years when we didn’t stay for the end of the meet. This year we were gone as soon as our athletes were finished. By the time Jon walked up the hill from the triple jump, we had most of the tent packed away. I was so tired that I fell asleep knitting on the way home. I will have to check that last row to make sure it is in the right pattern.

This morning we woke in Linton, and packed up and headed for Herreid. When we pulled up, Victoria was mopping the floors. Now we know why she texted so early asking when we were coming. It was great to come into a clean place. I have so been dreading cleaning here. She has taken care of the creepy attic flies as well as the dropped leaves from the plants I left here in April.

So today was spent on the lawn mowers. James, Paulina and Victoria were either riding or pushing until all the grass in the yard was clipped. I did a few things for the flowers. The peonies now have their stands in place.

Purple tulips and fern peony in the background.

The hosta that seems to be dying got a little more dirt, hopefully that will perk it back up.

New little hosta.

I even trimmed some of the trees so the mowers could clear without losing their hats. I now have those branches in some wet dirt hoping we can get them to root. Victoria has a tree in her yard in Jamestown from a cutting from last year, so I know it works.

Weeping Willow branches trying to get rooted.

I did a few things today, though not so much. I was still so tired, probably from the lack of sleep from this stupid sinus thing. The issue is the more I do the better I feel, so I best get to work and quit sitting around trying to recover. Amazing how much there is to do in a house that is your own rather than in one you are renting.

A couple of other pictures for you include: Jaxon with cheetos face, Jaxon and Paulina playing piano, tulips with the fern peony in the background, the pansies and tomatoes waiting to get into the ground, the garden waiting for seeds, three of the strawberries are coming back in the tires, the clematis is climbing all over the heart stand beside the Jimmie fan sign Jessica gave us for Christmas. and the flag is flying for Memorial Day.

Paulina and Jaxon playing piano.

Cheetos face.

Strawberries.

Clematis on the heart and the Jimmie fan sign.

Pansies and tomatoes and peppers.

The garden waiting to be planted.

Happy Day

Jaxon watching tv with powdered donut on his mouth.

Today is going to be a good day! I know this because we found the blanket. I didn’t even mention it last because it was so stressful. Jaxon’s pony blanket was missing. We searched everywhere. It was the second time we lost it this track season. James’ sister, Alvina found it on the ground where I had parked the car at the Eureka track meet the day of prom when Paulina threw, and we left early. This is the second version of the pony blanket. The first one was lost forever probably at the Steele truck stop when we picked up Jaxon for the weekend. I think the never out of the house rule might need to be followed to protect this blanket from future loss. Anyway, here is a shot of Jaxon with the blanket. I found it this morning by the shot put bleachers where we were sitting waiting for the discus event to happen. Fortunately here in North Dakota things don’t always disappear. I guess that is why we stay in the wide open plains and put up with the lack of culture and enjoy our nothing to do life style. Right now I can’t wait to get back to the big house with the porch and the garden out back. I am sooooo ready for some summer life.

Day one, meet is mostly over.

The team walking in during the parade of athletes.

This is what the team did best today, hang in the tent. It was very comfortable.

Ryan on the podium getting his medal.

Second pass from James S to Ryan, so smooth.

Last pass from Ryan to Brock, this one was really effective.

The relay team heading for the podium.

Jaxon and I decided we needed a photo with the relay team. Jaxon wants to be just like these guys!!

So as state track and field meets go, ours was pretty much a Friday meet. We were qualified in the 3200 meter relay, a fully Friday event. Paulina was in the discus, she competed today. Ryan Schneider ran the 1600 meters today at noon. Tayler had prelims in the 400, didn’t make finals, and our only other event is the triple jump and that is tomorrow, so as I said, mostly a Friday meet. We currently have 4 points on the boys’ side and 0 on the girls’ side of the ledger. You can probably figure out from that how things went. As for the detail, Ryan was 8th in the 1600 and the relay ended in 6th. Both races were exciting.

Above is a photo view of our day, if I can get the photos to load. Paulina did not make finals. She was seeded 7th going in and threw a 101′ and some inches. The last throw to make finals was 104′. The girl seeded third also missed finals. In fact the girl who took first scratched her first two throws and nearly missed getting in. They threw into the wind and it was really a right handed day, but we were happy that she was there, and she still went over 100 feet, which was fine. She was likely 11th overall. That was the best I ever did in state. All of my other years, I was dead last. She was good with it, and walked away from the day with this statement, “Now I am finally finished with all the high school stuff.”

Ready to dough or…

The sky over bismarck

Actually that title means ready to go, but the dough part was so you could understand the pronunciation issues today. It is also what Carson used to say when he was very young. Any who, I just wanted to give a brief update on the state meet stuff. We are here getting ready to leave for the parade of athletes. Here are a couple of shots of the day and the room. We compete at 12:15 mile run, 1:00 400 meters; 4:30 discus and 5:30 4×800. We can only hope….

The room is so inviting when the wind gets cold.

Pack for Track day

Today is the day we pack up and head to the State Track Meet in Bismarck. It seems so silly to stay over night at a place that is really only one hour from here. In fact in many ways it takes about the same amount of time to get from here to there in the morning as from a motel room accross town, but… The but is what if there is trouble with the bus, or road issues or anything weird can happen, at least when you are accross town, you can figure out a quick way to get to where you need to be. We actually don’t have anyone competing at the crack of dawn, it is the big parade of athletes that the state here in North Dakota does. It is something unique to North Dakota Track and Field and really a nice thing for the athletes to experience. All the teams come in to the stadium and line up in alphabetical order. It will really be nice for our kids this year because of the new uniform sweats so everyone will be matching. James has been trying for that for all his years here, finally on year 11 he made it. Wow!

Jaxon watching tv with powdered donut on his mouth.

Right now Granpa and Jaxon are at the Park because Jaxon wants to be a pirate. Apparently there is some sort of pirate playground piece at the playground beside the pool here in Linton and he is wild about going to be a pirate. Must be a hold over of his mother’s love for Johnny Depp. Anyway before they left, he was sitting in the now nearly defunct rocking chair eating some powdered donuts that he and his mother bought at the store. While there they accepted some give away flowers that were headed for the trash. He wasn’t giving them to anyone not mother, not grandparents, not aunt, they are his flowers, so we put them in water for him.

The flower on the right is the spider mum Paulina gave me at graduation. The lily on the left is Jaxon’s flower he got at the store.

Finally I have a photo of Paulina and James hanging out in the kitchen in Linton. I am not sure how much I will miss this flowered wall paper when we leave, but hopefully the move will help the sinuses. Things are a bit better this morning, and I really slept last night, but it is still a ways before I will feel completely well.

James and Paulina in the kitchen just before track practice.