Dead heading and other garden work

I had grand plans to work in all of the gardens today, but the wind is blowing so intensely that I couldn’t get myself outside after 1 p.m. The whistle blew for the fire trucks shortly before I went inside. It seemed that there must be some great fire, but it ended up being a call to an accident, and fortunately no one was badly injured. I do feel sort of like a truck hit me. It must have something to do with the air pressure. Maybe a hot bath would do me some good. It sounds like a plan when I get finished here. I ended up doing a bit of work mostly on the flower garden end. Below I am sharing a picture that I just happened to get of a bird sitting on the old corn cultivator.

Mourning dove on corn cultivator.

I started with the most important thing which was the plum trees. We have the bug or blight or whatever it is problem again. Last year, I got the bad ones off the tree early, and must have gotten all of them, so there wasn’t much of an issue. This year, I am a bit behind the wagon, and so there were lots more to take off, and I fear the yield will suffer, though we will get plums from both trees for a change. Here is what I am talking about below.

Plum tree with some sort of bug in the plums.

After the plum trees were finished up, I decided to work on the peonies. I hate how they look when the wind is tossing them around and the grass is growing up the middle and the flowers are dying. Here is a before and after version of cleaning them up.

Peonies before.

Peonies after. I even did the tulips in the foreground.

Here is some evidence of what the wind is doing today. It seems to be picking up as I type. I was up to the pool to bring Paulina a jacket during break and one of the roof panels on the pool house sounds like it is going to lift off or crash through. It made me jump. Paulina just laughed and said, “It always does that.”

Pots are dropping over, no use even standing them up anymore.

Willow tree is losing branches.

Wind chimes in the closed corner are going big time today. Nice sound, but it means pretty windy.

Really should have finished the lilies, but I just didn’t have the energy.

This chair has been calling my name, but I still haven’t taken time to sit out there.

Trusting, obedience and sacrifice

As usual, the message that I spoke this morning was not exactly what I had scripted. I seem to get away from myself more and more. Perhaps one day, I won’t need the script at all. I can only hope. Anyway, here is what I was working from and the message that I essentially relayed to those gathered.

The scriptures used were Matthew 10:40-42 and Genesis 22:1-14. The title for the morning was, “Trusting.” I added the real title for the post. Hope this makes some sense to those who have the time to read it.

Today’s message, might seem like the calendar should read March or April and this should be a Wednesday evening with our gathering being focused on the beginning of Lent. Although the sermon title is “Trusting,” some of what we will discuss today is about sacrifice and how much we are willing to give up for God. Though we are not a church that focuses on personal sacrifice during Lent, the idea of sacrifice is always in front of us when we come to church. Every time we walk through the door, we could be and perhaps should be thinking of what God gave up for us. At the very heart of Christianity is a sacrifice, the sacrifice of a son.

Now the scripture of Matthew is about welcoming and is actually the lectionary focus for today. As Jesus was telling the disciples to go out and proclaim his message, he lets them know how important their work is to God. He also tells them that their task is more than just sharing the story of Jesus, it is also doing. Specifically he mentions water, and the mere act of giving a cup of water to someone in need as doing His work. Last week we talked a bit about how helping people find stable sources of drinking water is one of the missions of some of the ministries we support, so we are about the business of giving that cup of water even if we aren’t filling up the glass and handing it out to them.

But before we look deeper into that business of what Jesus was telling the disciples and what it means for us, let’s go back and look at the scripture lesson from Genesis. This is one of those Old Testament stories that we know oh so well. It is probably something we learned in Sunday School of Bible School, a story we have pondered a time or two, and maybe there was a coloring page or some sort of activity that went with it where we filled in some sort of art work to get the image of that animal caught in the thicket that Abraham was directed to at the last-minute so that he wouldn’t have to sacrifice his son. In reality this is a gruesome story, and maybe it is not so appropriate for youngsters to hear. There is enough cruelty in the world, why do we have to look at stories like this in the Bible?

This story is an important lesson for us to learn. This story is about obedience and trust. And then again, if we didn’t know the ending already, it might have a pretty interesting plots. It seems like one of those tense episodes that sort of pulls you into it. You pass the television while it is one, in middle of some major task or another, and pretty soon you are standing in front of the screen and you can’t leave. What is Abraham doing? He has his son with him and they are going on a walk. You can tell that something is up as he has taken along some wood like they are about to build a fire. Now he straps all of this onto the little boy to carry. The music gets more dramatic as they climb higher and higher, and now he tells the servants to stay behind as the two go on alone. Something seems odd; you just know that this isn’t going to turn out too well. You don’t want to watch, but you can’t move, because you want to know the ending.

The problem for us is that we already know the ending. It is sort of like the joke Jay Leno told about going to watch the movie, The Titanic. I don’t remember it exactly, but it was something to he said before the movie started he wondered out loud to the person with him about how they were going to show the sinking of the ship. He was commenting about what the special effects would be like, and someone near him overheard and complained that now the ending of the movie was ruined.

We know before we read it how this story ends because we have heard it before. Because of that fact, we need to look more closely at the story. We need to be careful not to pooh-pooh away the significance of Abraham’s actions. We know there is going to be a ram in the thicket, but Abraham didn’t know that for sure. He just knew that he was being asked to sacrifice his son, the son that he and his wife had waited for – for so long, this son that was going to be the father of a great nation.

Last week we talked about how Abraham and Sarah kicked out Hagar with Abraham’s other son. That boy was on the verge of death in the desert when God interceded and led Hagar to water. Was this a punishment for Abraham? It was certainly a test. God wanted to see just how obedient Abraham could be. To me this is sort of interesting, God testing Abraham’s obedience. What about when God told him there would be a son. Abraham and Sarah weren’t so obedient or patient at that time. No they had to step in and use the maid to get their son because they didn’t seem to trust that God would provide. Maybe the birth of Isaac made Abraham realize that God meant what he said, and this time he goes off on his own with his son and is determined to obey.

Here we are at the verge of turning off the video, we can’t watch anymore, and God finally says stop, don’t kill the child, there is an animal caught in the underbrush for you to use for the sacrifice. Abraham comes within inches of sacrificing his own son in obedience to God. What an amazing test of obedience. I know for a fact that I wouldn’t have passed that one. I dare to bet that it was a good thing Sarah wasn’t along on that trip because I doubt if she could have either.

As much as we want to stop here and move on, this story isn’t over. When you really sit down and think about this story, it is just a hint at what is to come. This is a story as much about God and his son as it is about Abraham and Isaac. See later on in the course of time, a father sends his son out into the world to complete that sacrifice. Just as Abraham strapped the wood onto little Isaac, Jesus carried his own cross part of the way up that hill where he was crucified. We all know the ending of that story too. See, I told you this scripture would fit better in Lent.

The story of how Abraham is tested is just a hint at what is to come. Jesus isn’t being tested. God isn’t being tested. That sacrifice really happened. Jesus really was crucified, and his father in heaven was there, but this time he let it happen. Now we could sit back and say, yea it is like that Titanic joke, he knew the ending, and it really wasn’t that big of a deal. The resurrection was a sure thing, and so there was no real drama or suspense. If you believe that, you have missed the point.

If we remember the stories from Lent, we know how Jesus was tormented with the knowledge of what was to come. How could God feel any less of the emotion; how does any parent feel when their child is hurting? As I pondered this issue, it came to me that there are many times in the scriptures where we read that humankind was made in the image of God. Think about all of the emotions that we feel at any given time. Where do you think those come from if not from the one whose image we are formed from? If we can feel the hurt of our children, our siblings, our friends, how much more can God feel the hurt?

We understand the pain losing a loved one. I know what it was like to lose a brother and both of my parents, we have talked about that before, but the loss of a child—that has got to be an unbearable hurt at any age. I can’t imagine the pain of the families in our area, no matter what the circumstance. I cannot fathom what was going through the mind of Abraham as he was walking up that mountain, but doing it in complete obedience, trusting that following God’s will was what he needed to do.

In Matthew, Jesus tells his disciples and us that we are to go out and welcome the world in his name. Sometimes we will need to bring more than a handshake as a sign of welcome, but sometimes a smile and a bit of time is all we are asked to bring. The questions these passages leave us today are simply these: “What are we willing to sacrifice in order to welcome others in the name of Jesus? How far up that mountain are we willing to go when God beckons? Remember God doesn’t ask what we are not capable of doing, maybe we just haven’t found our limits. Amen!

Birthday of a sister

Today was the birthday of two of my sisters. Usually they celebrate together. This was only the second time in 40 years that I know they were apart. The other that I am aware of is the one 40 years ago when one was being born and the other was locked out of the local maternity ward because of the “no one under 16 may enter” policy.

The first time, I spent the day with the older one. I ended up taking care of the three orphans left at home with out mother or father because another sibling was coming, and today I went with the younger of the two.

Of course there may have been times when they were not together and I was not aware of it. I did spend four summers away from home during college, and then there were the years in Eagle Butte and Jamestown, so I can’t say that they had all those other birthdays together, but it does sound much more dramatic for the story, and we all know that if I didn’t make up some drama for the story, then there wouldn’t be any in the family. Nod, poke, wink!!

I will say that I was a nice older sister (17 at the time) and when I finished working at out grandmother’s café, I went home to make supper and bake a cake for Melissa so she could have a nice 7th birthday. I wonder if our parents gave her a gift besides a sister. I can’t say that I remember there being and present opening. I also don’t remember anyone else from the family being around. It seems like it was always me and those three.

I do remember going to the hospital to visit. In those days it was normal to keep the mother and baby for about five days. For some women it was the only vacation that had. Our mother worked at the local livestock sale barn. The sale was on Friday night. She came home from the sale knowing that labor had begun. She had a suitcase packed by the bedroom door when I got home from hanging out. She said they would likely be gone in the morning. Sure enough when I left the house to be at work by 6 a.m., they were gone. By 11 a.m., I had the call at the café that it was a girl.

Later that week, I took the three (Adam, Kathy and Melissa) to the rodeo in Mobridge. It was probably July 2nd because the rodeo is always on July 2, 3 and 4. It would have been the 29th Annual Sitting Bull Stampede. The first night is kids’ night, so they probably got in free and that was the big deal of it.

Anyway, Happy Birthday to both sisters. Hope we have many, many more years to decide if there will be together or apart or swimming or eating or inviting or not inviting or whatever. Today the entourage went to the Dakota Zoo. Yup the old, “going to the zoo, zoo, zoo, how about you, you, you? Joke of it all, the birthday girl went shopping while we were at the zoo. The only time we spent together was when we went out for supper at the new Mackenzie River place in Bismarck. Say that 10 times, fast!! Here are the photos. Jaxon was acting for the camera, as usual. Maybe he will do Hollywood since his mother wouldn’t.

Birthday girl eating her complimentary cake.

The group of attendees minus me as I was taking the picture. Victoria and Paulina chose to be in the distance.

Jaxon eating a lemon. We told him Paulina did that when she was little.

Paulina, James, Kathy and Victoria at supper.

Good weather for ducks…or smurfs

I am not even sure if ducks enjoy playing in the rain. I couldn’t find any out in the Spring Creek behind my house. There are sounds of Canadian Geese and ducks living there, but today nothing was out or about except a few pesky song birds, of which I am not sure the species name. As I went out looking for a few shots to put on the post today, I kept hearing a song in my head, “like walking in the rain and the snow with nowhere to go …” I had plenty of places to go and lots to do, but the rain kept saying come outside and take some pictures. Thankfully I did it while it was only drizzling. As I am sitting here and typing, I can hear plenty of water running off the roof. “Me and you and rain of the roof…” Only difference is I am sitting alone in my office haven, and everyone in the house thinks that I am busy writing up my message for tomorrow. If they only knew how much time I really spend doing that. Ha!!

Hope you enjoy the pictures and their stories below.

North view of Spring Creek, no birds around.

Closer view of that bend in the creek, still no birds.

Looking south on the creek.

Some sort of song birds in the trees.

In all of these views, I am standing on the old train bridge. It has no tracks and isn’t used anymore, but still standing. I used to walk across it without a problem as a teenager, but it scares me to death now. It was not nearly as deep in those days in fact jumping off this bridge was a sure broken neck or leg, but now, it would be a sweep downstream. As I said, I sure hate walking out this way lately, especially when it is windy, however today, I had no problem walking off in a near run after I took that second picture below. It could be used in a creepy movie.

View into the water while standing on the bridge.

Deer carcass below my feet. Yikes!

Paulina came home one day after taking some pictures at the creek and reported that there was a dead deer in the water. If I had not known that in advance, I might have freaked out about seeing this rib cage skeleton.

The back of the dike where Tigee hides out.

This dike view is to the east of our place just beyond the garden. This year would be a great time to cut it for hay. It seems that the rains this year are perfect for hay, but the problem is getting it cut and dried enough to put up.

On my way out to the creek, I stopped and took a few garden pictures. The pear trees are hanging in there, but I am not sure about the way these leaves look. I am also not seeing any new growth yet, which sort of makes me apprehensive about the expenditure. Oh well, live and learn. At least we tried. The peas below are hanging on the fence without me having to train them. I should put them on the south fence more often.

Pear trees, leaves still don’t look so great.

Peas are beginning to climb the fence.

Mushrooms in the grass.

The mushroom above is pretty typical of the grass this spring. I can’t even remember how many places I have noticed them, and I thought they only grew where there is something rotten hanging out. Makes me wonder who or what lives under them. Did I hear someone say Smurfs?

Smurf sort of weather.

I embroiders this Smurf for James several years ago for Christmas. I may have another one someplace. I do have the pattern, shoot I should have made one for Adrienne. Oops, now it won’t be a surprise if I ever do one. Well, I won’t hold my breath, hope she doesn’t either. HA!

Puddle at the edge of the driveway.

Mr. Robin was heading for my strawberry patch.

Robin kept hopping closer even when he saw me.

I just had to share this crazy robin. I couldn’t believe how it just kept looking at me as I was taking its picture. I suspect after checking the strawberries that it knew what was in the tires and was hoping I would leave so it could have the last un-pecked up strawberry. Yes, I did rescue one. I will have to figure out how to net that area so the birds can’t share the bounty. And finally I will leave you with the work I should be doing today, though the houses are clean, I am not walking back and forth in the mud to finish the laundry, as Scarlet said, “Tomorrow is another day.”

Rugs are getting a rewash on the line.

Farmer’s Market and random thoughts

As I mentioned last night, I got up this morning and did a Farmer’s Market stint. I was up by 6:09 so that I could get the radishes picked and washed. By 7 a.m., I was eating breakfast and ready to head out. I took a breath and paused. No sense being there that early. I ended up unloaded and in place just after 7:30. Of course this was an unofficial Farmer’s Market, so it wasn’t advertised or anything, and no one of the locals stopped. In fact it began sprinkling about 8:15 so not a good sign. Just before 8:30 a young gentleman with the crew that is rewiring the town for fiber optics for the phone/cable/internet company stopped by. He took a bag of radishes, a small zucchini bread and two muffins. I sold at least one of each item that I brought. The sale totaled $3.00.

We visited for a bit, and I almost had the impression that he was checking to see how young this woman was sitting by this booth. Sorry to be a disappointment, but I am grandmother age by more standards than just little four-year-old Jaxon. In truth, if I had married and–well just had children when my mother did, I could be the grandmother of a 17-year-old, or 18 with a stretch. The crew that does the fiber optics has an age minimum of 18, so you get the picture. Anyway, I had the first sale of the year, and hope the young man enjoyed the purchase. He did tell me that he appreciated the prices. Hmmm, maybe a repeat sale next week. Wonder what I can cook up for that one. Did I hear cookies? Perhaps!

Now for some pictures to end the post.

Fresh radishes!

Items for the FM.

A look at the morning as I went to pick the radishes.

 

Newest pot with petunias and fern in the middle.

Daisies in bloom.

 

Tigee, tired from a day outside.

 

Tigee, hiding out in the house.

 

 I added the last two pictures in order to tell you a story about Tigee. I didn’t want to post it at the time it happened because I didn’t want to stress my sister Adie. Tigee was my mother’s cat, and everyone in the family feels a bit of ownership of her. I took her to my place without even asking if anyone else wanted her. I said she had to live with me because I basically have the same yard as my mother’s house, and then Tigee wouldn’t have to move. Of course right after that, we moved to Linton, but we came back so a moot point now. So the story about her recently is that she disappeared for about two hours the day that Annabell left for home. That cat is into hiding as of late. She was laying in the grass behind the garden while James was weeding, and then just like that she was gone. Paulina nearly had a breakdown looking for her. In fact Paulina and James walked all through the yard and over the dike and everything to no avail. Later Tigee came sauntering home as if nothing had happened. They finally realized she was sleeping in some tall grass under a tree across the dike. She is only allowed supervised excursions for now.

Have a great weekend!!

 

Baking time…rhubarb muffins to zucchini bread

I plan to go to the Farmer’s Market in town tomorrow so today I decided to bake for it. Actually there is no official Farmer’s Market, but I decided that since the radishes are ready, I will go and if someone comes fine. If they don’t stop, well, I guess I will take a book along to read. In the meantime, I will leave you with some pictures and information about the rhubarb muffins and zucchini-cinnamon bread that I made today. I also plan to bring some dill as a few sprigs are ready, and some of the ladies like it for their vegetable soup.

First up Rhubarb Muffins.

Rhubarb Muffin recipe.

These would be best if made in a pan for muffin toppers. I will have to do that with the next batch, but then I will need to double the crumble that gets put on the top.

Batter, oh my I forgot the oil, good thing I noticed before I put it in the liners.

Why do I always manage to drop batter in the middle of the pan?

Crumble on the muffins.

Coming out of the oven; notice my ingenious pot holder. I use a pliers. It is much easier for me to maneuver than bulky pot holders.

Next up the Zucchini Bread. This recipe has so much cinnamon that my grandson, Jaxon, calls it cookie bread. Wish he were here to have some with me. Perhaps I need to deliver a loaf to him one of these days.

Zucchini bread

The cookbook I am using is the Herreid Centennial Cookbook which was put together by my sister, Melissa, way back in 2001 when our town was 100 years old. Now for the pictures of how this was put together. One of my favorite kitchen toys is that mixer. I just wish we had been smart enough to buy it sooner. It isn’t even mine. It belongs to Paulina, but we bought it for her with the agreement that we would get to use it until she moves out. Funny how she hasn’t gotten the memo that she can check out any time she likes, but she can never leave. (Where have you heard that before?)

Batter in progress.

Hope I never grab the Cajun spice while I am in a hurry and need the cinnamon.

Dry ingredients.

Finished loaves. I made three small and one large. Yummy!! Wondering what to price them.

I always like taking baked goods to the Farmer’s Market because if it doesn’t sell, I am happy to take it home and make a pot of coffee and invite friends to help me eat it, and console me for not selling it. HA!!

 

Back to work

I am in the office today, so really shouldn’t be on the blog, but I guess. I need to do my bulletin, write up a message for the monthly newsletter and complete the background check for the church conference profile. I am having some serious trouble with the password to get to the site. I may have reset the one they gave me then forgot that I reset it. Now I have asked for a new password, and this is what I got on the email back to me.

p_l_id=22141&ticketKey=f8f7650b-71cc-406b-ac36-65ffd6f6f181

I am showing it because I know that no one here will be using it for anything, but seriously, I have no idea how much of that is password and what is just gibberish. I actually copied and pasted it from my email to make sure that I didn’t type it wrong. I am sooooooo confused. Well, I guess that I will give it a try and let you know how it goes. At least the light in here is great, now just to hunt up a three hole punch so I can organize a binder to save the hard copies of my messages. Knowing me, I will repeat the same stories over and over unless I have some sort of record to check on.

Hope you all have a great Wednesday.

By the way, we received word last night that Annabell is safe at home with her family. Would love a photo of that reunion. Her mother said the hugs would go in the order of sister, father and then mother. Her mother wanted to be last because she wanted to hold her forever. I thought that was a neat way to look at it.

Bye-bye Annabell

The hardest part about opening your home to a foreign exchange student is saying good-bye at the airport when they go home. OK, so I am not speaking from experience, but I know that is what happened to my sister and her husband this morning in Bismarck. Annabell came to the US last August from Germany. She was an absolute delight. There is no way to say what a wonderful experience is was to have her in the family, and I didn’t even get to be around her all that often.

I did get to see a few of her volleyball and basketball games, and her school play. For some reason or another, I never saw any of her concerts, but I was at a track meet when she ran, and I was cheering for her. She was a star. She had no idea she could run, and ended up with 37 medals and two of them were at state.

Last night after the pool was clean and filling, Annabell and Adie went home to figure out what to eat. They were talking about grilling hot dogs, and that was fine with Annabell. Pretty soon, I had a text message asking if we would do a fire-pit. No problem. They came over along with Steve and then Kathy and Don and even Glenda came. It was great sitting and visiting all evening. It was a really fun time. It rained a bit. A beautiful rainbow, in fact a double rainbow came out.

Double rainbow.

Other end of the rainbow.

The evening was great. We roasted hot dogs and marshmallows and talked about lots of things and laughed. Then it was time for them to leave and everyone hugged and some of us cried, and at 3 a.m. they all left for the airport. During the day Adie kept texting us about how Annabell was making it from one part of the journey to another.

I know that she will be so happy to be at home with her mother and father and little sister. When we asked what she is looking forward to the most, she said the bread. Apparently the bread here is too soft and doughy. They are used to a harder crispier crust on their bread. I can imagine that crust from reading and seeing it on different movies.

As we were saying our good-byes, I hugged her and wished her a safe trip and good times with her family. I wish I had thought to add a blessing to her. I guess I will just have to give it too her here. Bless you Annabell, bless you for all the joy you have brought to our lives. We wish you all the very, very best. We are happy that you are going home to your family and that you have a wonderful family. We just wish that it didn’t hurt so much to give you back.

Pool is filling and other yard work

Yesterday we cleaned the pool. I really should have done before and after shoots, but a camera is the last thing you think of when you are standing in algae infested sludge while sweeping it to the pump that is draining it away. I didn’t actually get into the pool until it was nearly empty, and then it was to sweep it to Adie so she could fill the bucket with the pump. We have a weird system, but it works for us. It filled part of yesterday and most of today. We didn’t do over night so as not to annoy the renters. Here is what it looked like this afternoon. It is full and ready to hook up the pump now, but I will wait until Adie is ready to do it. That is one job not on my list of “is allowed to do.”

Pool filling with chlorine whale swimming around.

In the meantime of the pool filling, James and I did a bit more work around the yard. We have been unhappy with the way the strawberry tires turned out, so that had to change. We also want to eliminate the sandbox for the time being. It isn’t being used and is being beaten up by the weather. The sand was full of water when we opened it so we bailed it out, and used some of the sand around the concrete. I have been wanting to stabilize that for quite some time. I opened my bags of dirt and filled in the flower garden part, and James fixed the little white fence pieces so we could hold the dirt in. The pictures should explain it better.

Sandbox crab fill of water.

Strawberries moved to a new home.

James packing the last of the tires into place for the rest of the new strawberry setup.

 

Strawberries are ripening.

 

The tires are all in place, just need some dirt and the runners redirected.

 

A corner garden waiting for some seeds.

 

The flower garden to the north of the concrete, finally filled in with good soil.

 

James and I were glad to take a break for supper. With Paulina’s pool schedule, we are all on a pretty strict time schedule for eating. Perhaps that will be a good thing in the long run. We won’t be scrounging around for snacks all the time. This afternoon I even made a real meal for lunch, and I wasn’t in the fridge in two hours looking for something to snack on. Now, just so this plan lasts longer than one day. So, I will leave you with a few more pictures of the vegetable garden as it looks following James’ day of using the new cultivator toy. He is stiff from doing it, but I bet hoeing would have been worse.

The cleaned up garden.

Love that blue flax.

 

New Toy

I decided that James and I had enough of the hoeing stuff and we need help. So today we loaded up and drove to Mobridge and bought a little cultivator. James put together a few parts and is now walking behind it in the garden. Happy, happy yea!

The pictures above show the little cultivator.
Now last night one of my sisters called me Emma, who was our great aunt who loved to decorate her yard. She had a few other qualities that I won’t own, but…… So here are my new toys.

If I can get this video to post, I will show you how that cultivator works. Ok so no video at this time.