I ain't complaining, but It has been a hard summer for me
My father is 94 yrs old, is in ill health, he keeps falling down. He broke his arm twice this year. The second time was a rebreak. We didn't know it was rebroke. He keep working and finally asked me to take him to see the doc. He said it hurt. Coming from a guy who has the dentist work on him without anesthesia, well, I guess it hurt!
My mother is 93 yrs old, in constant pain and in a rehab center now, recovering from various illnesses. She had a stroke, but still knows who is who. Every day she is alive is a gift. Hope she can come home so we can fix her up.
My daughter is moving out to be closer to the university for medical school. She is a bit nervous about it, I will miss her.
Some poor guy tried to mug her on the school campus a couple of weeks ago around 2am.. Good thing she was a little inebriated and really sleepy, so it was a fair fight.
He didn't get what he wanted. He did get a faceful of mace and a swift kick in the you know where. I reckon he ran into a tree running away too,since he couldn't see real well. He left a couple of teeth there. He is sure caty wompus now. Don't mess with hillbilly gals!
He best find a new line of work. This one don't suit him.
My daughter's new nickname is LDS. No, that not the Mormon Church. It stands for LUCKY DUMB SHIT. Give her a lemon and she builds a lemonade factory and makes millions. She gets mugged and converts a pore little sinner to the ways of our Lord. Amen!
One of my last close friends passed away two weeks ago.
Another two passed away about 2 months ago.
Only got a couple of close friends I grew up with left.
On the plus side I have determined to have new friends YOUNGER then me from now on. Shouldn't be to hard!! Thanks to WA for all my new great friends.
Summer is busy for me since I live on a little farm, sort of. I lost two trees, a cherry tree and an apricot tree. To blight and bugs. My family relies on our fruit and vegetable crops to get us through the winter. We can jams, etc, dry and freeze to eat over the fall and winter.
On the plus side, my raspberry crop was the best I ever had . Got quarts and quarts.
No blackberries yet, and only two apricot and one cherry tree left, so apricot harvest fair and cherry poor.
My pear trees have no pears, and only one apple tree has apples.
It was a bad spring and my orchard bees all died, must explain why I got no pears and scant apples.
My neighbor has 3 honeybee hives, so lucky the honey bees took over for my pore little orchard bees.
My lone nectarine tree got a bore last year, I killed the bore that infected it and a new peach tree as well. The nectarine isn't doing so well yet.
On the plus side, my peach trees and plum tree had to be thinned or the branches would have broke!
My asian pear trees are looking spry, as are my concord grapes.
Only planted tomatoes and eggplant this year. Couldn't plant my regular crops due to mom and dad.The wild weeds are living it up!
On the plus side, my ground is lying fallow, ready for next year.
Loads of chicken poop for next year too.
Lost our chickens. A big boar coon killed two.
I gave the rest to another farm because I was living at my parents house taking care of them. They called me the next day and told me General Lee (my favorite hen) escaped the chicken coop and was looking for me. She kept escaping my coop too, and was always waiting for me on the back stoop come sunup. Followed me around like a hound dog. That's when we started calling her General Lee. He was good at escaping traps too. Till the last one at Appomattox .
Our cat died, She was a gentle little gal, her name was Stray, She was a wild cat that showed up one day.She had 6 toes on each paw! Pretty cool huh?
We fed her and she decided to stick around. I figure she was around 13 years old when she died. Real good with kids, but fought all the other cats to a standstill. She was a good mouser. RIP
Squirrels got in my attic. Little varmints! Had us a time getting rid of them. They are all gone now.
My area got rezoned for commercial use. So they are building 4 new apartment and condominiums just down the road. Soon lots of cityfied folks coming in.
That means my taxes skyrocket. On the plus side, I can sell my property at a higher price.
Can't stay on WA as long as I would like. On the plus side I make every minute count here.
If you have read this far, I am impressed!
You get a gold star!
Byron
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I can relate, Byron. Voles and/or groundhogs got all the various fruit trees in my orchard, all but one apple. So sad, they were 5 years old. But that's life in the country.
I moved in with my daughter so my chickens are faring for themselves (no problem on 10 acres and a creek)and so far (6 years now) no predators have gotten a one..
Sure hope your folk's health gets better. Sorry you had a rough summer so far. Pretty soon it'll be time to get those cool weather crops in the ground if you can (broccoli, cabbage,brussel sprouts, kohlrabi and I forget what else).
Anyway, to better days ahead for you and a great online marketing site!
Bunn
You are quite correct. How are you doing now? I know you have been having health issues. Let me know!
Thanks for asking, Byron.....doing better here, not quite up to par, but working on it. Spending about 2 hrs a day on my laptop. When I get to 12-18 hrs I'll consider myself healed enough. Haven't looked at my websites yet, maybe by next week. Getting better every day, sweets. Even hope to get some seeds in the ground this week while it's still warm.
Bunn
That is a lot of fruit trees! We had cherry trees when I was a child. I loved them every summer, but didn't love pitting them so much.
I love cherries, problem is, now they start to hurt my teeth when I eat lots of them. They have pits????? Good to know! Wow thanks!!
I wondered why they were so crunchie, (ha little joke there!!)
Seriously, pitting can be a problem can't it?
Thanks for the gold star Byron! I shall wear it with pride!
I can just imagine you regaling us on your porch, with your account, and I hear the buzzing of the bees, taste the blackberries, and other fruit as I sip elderberry wine. Some of my best recollections are the golden days I spent on my uncles farm in Northern Natal. (Now KwaZulu Natal)
"General Lee" sounds like a real character, you don't describe what happened to her, hope she escaped Colonel Sanders pot!
As a wannabee historian I have always been fascinated by American History, in particular the Civil War and recollect Dr. Paul Thompson"s , lectures on the subject. Paul left us university students in no doubt as to his affiliations, and the first thing one noticed on stepping into his office was the Rebel flag!
I am at present reading the book "Don't' know much about the Civil War" by Kenneth C. Davis, but one of the best reads on the topic, that I ever had, has to be the Pulitzer prize winning Civil War novel "The Killer Angels" by Michael Shaara.
Kind regards,
~Arthur
Thanks for the comments! Sounds like you had great times in Africa. I always wanted to visit there.
Rest assured General Lee is a venerable old laying hen. Like my grandma said "Ya don't et critters what got a name."
I love history an heard it almost from folks who were there.
I was around 5 years old before I realized that St Andy wasn't the American flag.
A little history. The Rebel flag is called many things, but the southern boys called it St Andy.
Most southern folks at that time were scotch-irish, or Scottish and , Irish. The Rebel flag if you look, is simply a Christian cross sideways.
In fact, it is the Scottish flag, the cross of Saint Andrew, Patron saint of Scotland.
My Mother's family hailed from around Winchester, in the Shenandoah valley in Virginia. My great grandpa had a huge farm there. He fought the valley campaign and scouted for General Jackson during that campaign. He stayed in the valley after cuz he was in his 60ties.
When the yankees took over the valley he become a guerrilla.
His manservant Henry fought with him. Henry was the son of his black nursemaid. Everyone just called her MaMa
Most histories of the Civil War don't talk about the part Black soldiers played who fought FOR the south. Reckon it's Politically Incorrect.
The most famous sniper in the Southern Army was nicknamed "WooleyBoy" He was Black. He musta been real good, cause we all can shoot! I guess he had a big ole afro. Soldiers would rub his head afore a big battle. Said it brought on luck! Wooleyboy was killed in 1863 as well I believe. that was a sad day too.
60,000 blacks served in the southern army as Infantry or Calvary. Notice I didn't say washboys, cooks, servants, muleskinners medics etc. Lots of black folks helped out there too. Got the same pay as white boys an weren't segregated.
My great grandfather had 5 sons. One was kilt early on in the war and July 3 1863 the other four were all kilt in Pickett's charge up at Gettysburg.
After the war Great Grandpa fled to Germany, Henry went with him.
Both died in Germany. Some German man fought with Jeb Stuart and let them stay with him for awhile.
Guerrillas weren't granted amnesty by the Federal Government.
Guerrillas had to leave America or stay and risk being shot or hung on sight. Hence the James and Younger gangs.
Our farm was confiscated by the yankees, the 3 gals still living had to root hog or die.
My grandma's ma married a McCoy from up in West Virginia. They moved to Texas an that is how we all came to be.
A great read for you is "The Real Lincoln" by Thomas Dilorenzo
Course, understand I am a bit biased and cranky about the second war of independence that we lost.
Thanks Ansley , wouldn't mind having you for a neighbor. I know you are younger then me too, so you have all the qualifications I am looking for. I know you can outlive me! When my blackberries start coming out you are welcome to come and pick'em . I forgot, my elderberries are doing well, so we can make wine. Gotta wait a while for elderberry wine, My Mom's got the recipe, an she is not thinking straight so it ought to be real interesting.
That was a superb anthem to keeping up the good fight! I know this sounds strange, but I want to be where you are...I want the bee problems and the blackberries and all the other stuff that goes with it. Life is a balance always and you may not realize it, but you have the gift...the gift of the glass is full! Blessings~Ansley
Sorry to hear that your summer isn't going so well. It seems that life never gives us one problem at a time but a bunch of them. I also am having a challenging summer. Lots of tragedy's that's happened in my family's life lately. But I wish you the best and will pray that things will look up for you and your family.God Bless!
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Yes! I've got a gold star. Thank you.
Very nice article, mLB. I enjoyed reading you. Thank you for sharing all of it even if it's based on a hard summer. You have a great daughter. Thanks again, MLB, for the smile on my face. :)
Your LJJ
Thanks mLJJ, my daughter is a little sweet heart, an so are you!
Thanks for the smile on my face:)
Your mLB
Awwww.. thank you and you're most welcome. :)