Posts from the ‘Me and the House’ category

Another foray into gardening

There was a time when I planned to turn Beardog Hill into an herb garden. ( Herb Garden, Part 1 )

But, that was before it was Beardog Hill and since Bear has taken as much of a liking to it as Karl did… well, I think it will stay Beardog Hill! (Bear on Beardog Hill)

At my Swan River Road house, there was a gorgeous herb garden right in front of the front porch.

Sage, chives, mint…. I was spoiled by being able to skinkle down the front porch steps and nip off a few fresh herbs when I wanted.

The fresh basil and cilantro from Swallow Crest Farm have renewed my want of my own fresh herbs. Although I’ve been buying the live basil and fresh parsley and rosemary…the grocery store “fresh” herbs do NOT have the intense flavor that the basil and cilantro fresh out of the ground have.

So, this morning, needing nothing from the regular grocery, I whistled Bear to the Jeep and off we went to Hooper’s Nursery to see about some herbs.

Hoopers is loverly!! The day was beautiful. At 10:30 a.m. this Saturday morning, there were more employees than customers and I had a chance to speak to several and ask all of my questions.

The Hooper’s folks are as wonderful as their grounds are beautiful and I came home with…

Chives, rosemary, sweet basil and regular basil, parsley and lavender. Cilantro, peppermint and spearment will be ready next weekend.

My plan/hope is for container herbs…transportable container herbs that can go in the motorhome as well as into the house for winter.

We shall see.

My thumb’s greenness has not been tested for some time.

But all of the children have new homes in new pots with good soil. A red flyer wagon is on its way to allow moving the little ‘uns to and fro in and out of the sun as needed.

Whoo!!… After all of that…

I put my feet up and poured a glass of my favorite summer wine: Paradise dry pear wine from Ten Spoon Winery in Missoula, Montana. I am not normally a fan of non-grape wine and definitely not of sweet wines, but I love pears and it said “dry” so I tried it a bit ago. While a wee bit sweeter than my normal Chardonnay, it is still a dry, crisp wine with just a hint of pear. Well chilled, it is a refreshing sip on a hot day and it is from Montana :)!

A Sunday Evening

A hot week followed by a cool, but anomalously humid weekend that finally recouped into an absolutely gorgeous Sunday evening with clear, cool air! The sky turned blue, the air dried and the light was picture perfect.

I stood in the sunroom and enjoyed.

Quiet. A cool breeze. Late afternoon light through the trees.

Bear…relaxed and comfortable.

Bob was out as well…

…seeing what there was to see.

A Sunday Evening.

Happy Solstice (yesterday)!

The skunk??? No, just Bear in the tall grass…a bit ironic that his tail looks very skunk-like.

But we stayed clear of Skunk-ville today: work, a run to Whitefish, more work and a beautiful couple of hours outside this evening.

Bear had a much better day today and recovered his smile and his usual sang froid!

It was a glorious first day of Summer in Northwest Montana! Hope it was wherever you are – Happy Solstice (yesterday evening) and may your Summer be beautiful.

On the fritz

The last two weeks, it has been one thing after another…on the fritz!

Yesterday, Monday, started with no hot water. I checked the breakers and the water heater’s breaker was broke…there had been thunderstorms…I reset the breaker, heard the water heater fire up – yea!

But, then…the water, it was scalding hot. It hadn’t been scalding hot prior…blech. A call to the plumber, a discussion…he will be here tomorrow…

Meantime, I usually have VERY hot, as in TOO HOT!, water. Occasionally I have to reset the water heater’s reset but the breaker is holding.

The good – well, kind of good – news is that as I pulled things out of the closet where the water heater lives, in preparation for the visitation from the plumber…I discovered that water was rising from the crawl space …just a wee bit of water, but enough to necessitate a massive closet cleanup.

…that explains all the mice in the house of late…kind of good news #2 = the explanation being the “good” news.

Work went on the fritz as well. I spent most of the day with the rest of the team chasing an elusive bug. Shortly after 6:00 p.m. we had a conversation along the line of “what we should have done at the beginning was…” – yep, it was that kind of day.

Despite an inclination to abstain from wine this work week…I didn’t.

I poured.

I sat.

I looked on the scene.

So…some things fritzed. But…my dog is happy, the grass is green, the air is crisp and clear. Not everything is on the fritz.

One of those days

Actually, it has been one of those weeks :) !

The work days were very long: combination of a short week and the first week post install of new software so lots of minor tweaks that we strive to take care of ASAP. Change is hard and frustrating for most, so the faster we are at accomodating requests, the easier it is for all to accept that which they cannot change…new software.

In a burst of optomism last week – optomism that this week would be normally paced work-wise, I made an appointment for the motorhome for service. At any rate, the week was rather full and except for the mad dash to take the motorhome to the shop, Bear and I had not been off the property for any variety of smells and experience the entire week.

So…Saturday morning: overcast and raining – even though going back to bed with a book sounded wonderful, I loaded Bear in the Jeep and off we went to town.

I should have listened to that voice about going back to bed…

It is not unusual to get a rock thrown from passing cars and trucks. Most “highways” are two lane. They are very good two lane roads with normal width lanes and good shoulders, but no dividers. And the speed limit is generally 70 mph.

Two objects in opposing directions going 70 mph and colliding….WHAMMMM!! I never saw the object but it had to have been fairly large. The impact shook the Jeep and made my teeth rattle. I’d had a good grip on the steering wheel as there was enough water on the road for the occasional hydroplaning action. The vibration and jerk gave me a good jerk as well. AND, although whatever the object was, it had not come through the windshield, the glass was broken clear through and the front passenger seat was covered with small bits of glass.

I pulled over to check on Bear and collect myself. Bear was a bit wide-eyed but no glass went to his area. He’d slid a bit into the front seat but was none the worse for anything. No glass came my way but I felt the afteraffect of the collision in my arms and chest and that disconcerting feeling of trying to run through in my mind exactly what had happened.

An auto glass place that I’d gone to 5 years ago – the last time I took a rock – was near. I stopped there and ordered a new windshield. Then I drove home, took an aspirin and went to bed … call me in the morning :)!

The remainder of the day was spent in laziness. It poured as hard as I have ever seen it pour here – a good day to be lazy and inside. By evening, the sun came out and there was a breeze in the trees that made it feel like Fall: clear, crisp and cool.

I walked around the woods with a comforting cup of hot tea, watching Bear enjoy the cool and being grateful that the worst thing from the day was a broken windshield…minor. Bear obviously had no lingering effects as when I opened the Jeep to really make sure there were no glass shards in the back, he hopped right in, ready to go again.

Writing this on Sunday morning…I had no lingering effects either – no soreness, bumps or bruises. Still, I think we will spend the day at home and I do not expect we’ll be doing much – one of those days!

Motorhome mileage at oil change 5/30: 44709
Motorhome gen hours at gen oil change 5/30: 538