Yowsa!!

Quickly--a terrible thunder and lightning storm starting. Had to go out and help the new chicks back into the little hidey hole...they are soaked...sheesh




  Will try to post tomorrow...gotta turn this thing off and unplug....

Mothers Day.

This was one ass-kickin' MD weekend for me. 

  On Saturday, my brother and family came and we grilled burgers and dogs and brats, and the guys went fishing while my SIL and niece and grandson and I all played with kittens in the house. It was sunny, but the wind was brutal, so we ate indoors.  The food was good and the beauty of spending a day with family as almost more than I could bear. Check this out:

 They wound up taking 4 kittens instead of 3. We had the best day...so much love and laughter !

  The guys went fishing out at the pond. My grandson was the first to catch a fish, and indeed, wound up catching 3.  My brother caught several as well, some crappie and blue gill and bass.  But the man of the hour was my beloved, and here he is with his "prize"---

A beautiful bass!! She was full of roe, and they gently released her back into the water, as they did with everything they caught. My niece, who is 7, is an avid fisherman herself.  She goes with her dad all the time. For some reason she didn't want to fish though, she played and ran and had a ball out there with my grandson, who is really good with little kids. He's a big 13 now.

   The fam left around 6:30 pm and grandson stayed the night. Then this morning around 11, my son came over. He just missed our big waffle and eggs breakfast.  He brought me 6 African Cichlids for my fish tank. He helped the Irishman do a few chores around here, and we sat out in the beautiful sunshine for a good part of the day. We grilled a late lunch, and enjoyed ourselves immensely.  He helped me water the garden, and promised that he would be by next week to hook up an outside spigot for me. The he and the Irishman moved the chooks out into the coop. They rigged up a piece of chicken wire to divide the run in half, and we will leave them that way for a couple of days. Give the older hens a chance to get used to them being in there to help lessen the chance of nasty attack on the newcomers.  He also helped hubby with the big barrel composter, and they turned it around and cleaned it out.  It was a really wonderful day, and having my son all to myself (his wife is out of town) was priceless.  The boys cleaned up all the dishes and wouldn't let me help. lol  We hung out in the yard and talked about the gardens and looked at the progress. The peas are finally up, the squash are germinating, the potatoes are FINALLY busting through the ground.  There is a whole bed full of fingerling potatoes that came up volunteer from potatoes that we apparently missed. The tomatoes and peppers are looking great.

  I hope to get some seeds in the ground tomorrow morning, one reason I am up this late trying to get the laundry finished.  We had several days of rain coming last time I looked...but the weather forecast changes constantly, so who knows? lol  I should probably go look again.  I went ahead and watered today anyway. 

  My yard is looking grand. I have yellow and purple irises all in various stages of blooming, the Shasta daisies have started flowering as well. The peonies are ready to open any minute. The primroses are pretty in pink,  the containers of allysum and nicotania I planted look gorgeous. My wisteria is growing like a weed, and I am getting some starts of a snowball bush from the neighbor...as soon as I figure out where to put it. lol   All the lilies are huge and lush, though they won't flower for another month or thereabouts.The rose of Sharon is looking healthy and robust, and it will start to flower in a few weeks, probably.  The grass is growing in where the water lines went in, and I probably need to buy another couple of pounds of seed and sow some more.

  Okay. The dryer has stopped. I'll fold those and put the last washer load in the dryer. Then I'm heading off to bed.

  I hope all you mothers had a wonderful day too...and those of you who aren't mothers as well.

  Blessings on all your houses!!

Namaste.

Thursday slipping away...

I 

I really love this picture....

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Well...I lost most of Wednesday...felt so terrible that I had to forego the trip to the recovery house. I didn't get up until almost 9AM and felt so weak and yucky that I was back in bed before 1.  I slept until almost 6, and got up and made some supper for the Irishman. I was back in bed around 10:30 and slept until 9 this morning. I have felt better today, different at least.  I am coughing, but at least the sore throat is gone.

Today was the potluck at the womens meeting, and I made a batch of zesty chicken salad and a ginormous green salad to take. The chicken salad kept tasting so bland...I added lemon curry. Still bland. I added fresh ground black pepper...still bland. I added a healthy dose of horseradish...better.  LOL...then I realized that maybe my sense of taste was off because of the cold. Oopsie.  I used 3 pounds of chicken breast, onion, celery, apple, pecans, water chestnuts, basil, parsley, sour cream and mayo. Oh yeah, and curry and horseradish.  :) Everyone raved about it and when all was said and done, there was only about a quarter cup of it left to bring home.  So, I guess it was good.

My brother and family are coming on Saturday to pick up my niece's 3 kitties.  She is so excited...my grandson is coming that day as well to spend the night and then my son will come on Mother's Day and we'll grill some hamburgers and hotdogs and spend the day together before the boys go home. My son said something about not having any money to take me out (he has had no work for 6 months) and I said I'd treasure a day together at home with him and Tristan. His wife is out of town for the weekend, and won't be home until late Sunday night, so I get him all to myself. So, we'll have a grand time out in the back yard and it'll be great. Hubby has been revamping the grill to make it last another year. Put in a new burner unit and cleaned it all up and painted it. Looks like new (well, almost.  lol)  We use the heck out of it, and it must be about 9 years old now. Tom and husbandman are going to run a water line outside so I can have water for the garden.  That will be my Mothers Day present.  Yippee!!

I'm running on fumes. Time to try and get some sleep...tomorrow I need to work in the garden and the yard. The house needs cleaning as well, so I'll certainly stay busy until time to go to my 8 o'clock meeting. No rest for the wicked...

The kittens are playing all over the house now and the cuteness factor is almost unbearable here.  I'm pretty sure that a box of tiny kittens in a room with world leaders could produce some lovely results.

Off to try and get the doggies in. They are sure loving this nice weather and want to stay out all night. Sometimes I give up and let them...

Namaste.

Toodles to Tuesday

Mmmmm..the strawberry trifle.  Might just be time to make one of these again.  I have a potluck on Thursday night that I'm taking salad to. maybe dessert as well ??

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  Woke up in the middle of the night last night with a sore throat, of all things !  Have felt borderline crummy all day. Did manage to get the spring cleaning started, and accomplished quite a bit. Been sneezing like a madman, making me wonder if it's allergies. I haven't been allergic to anything much, but who knows?? It's an exceptional year. We are being over run by nasty little buffalo gnats and the wasps seem especially bad this year as well.

  The hail didn't do any visible damage to the garden, thank goodness. It did knock a lot of the little peaches off (they're about the size of a marble right now). We were gonna thin them out anyway.  Thanks, Mother Nature!!  lol

 Made some nice vegetarian taco salads for supper...beans and rice, avocado, lettuce, carrots, onion and salsa on a toasted tortilla shell. Turned out pretty good. It was 82 today, and I didn't feel like eating anything I had to work too much on.

   I'm going to bed if I can get the dogs in. They are out there keeping the world safe...Hopefully I can sleep.

My head is stuffy and my eyes hurt...

  Off tomorrow to the recovery home for the womens meeting if I feel up to it. Really hate to miss it, as I didn't make it last week and  nobody much goes up there (it's so far).  Keeping my fingers crossed.

  Here I go...wobbling myself on off to bed....See you all tomorrow...

Namaste.

Toto...I don't think we're in Kansas anymore...

Holy cow. This is a photo at about 5:30 pm today, out on the highway by our road.  It was sunny and blue skies one minute and black and menacing the next.  It looked like a monsoon out there!  Then the hail started and we had large grape sized hail that came down for over 20 minutes. There was over a foot of ice in the ditches... The winds were roaring and the rains were flooding the yard and street.  It got really foggy and the folks around here lost power for about 3 hours, because the straight line winds took down a bunch of telephone poles again--criss-crossed them over the highway.  The road is shut down for now and the crewd are working feverishly to restore power.  Somehow, ours did not go out.

  After dinner, we had another event...one of the smaller kittens (the runt, actually)  got too close to Molly's dish as she was eating and she snapped at it and caught the corner of it's eye. There was blood everywhere and I was panicking  (in my take charge in emergencies kind of way.) IT looked like the blood was bubbling out of the eye and I got a little freaked...after cleaning it up and calming it down, the bleeding stopped and I could see that it was just a little wound at the corner. The eyeball was alright. It really scared me.

 This has been a weird day, and I feel a little used up. 

  I spent some time with someone who I may have to cut ties with...seems like everytime I am around her, it just sucks the joy out of me.  It's too bad, but I cannot afford that. Not to mention the fact that it's not fun...

  Kind of afraid to go check out my garden in the morning...hope the hail and all didn't do too much damage. My tomatoes are about 6 inches high and the peppers are about 4, so there's potential for harm. I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

  Feeling a little adrift. Not sure about the whys or the wherefores, but it is a little uncomfortable. Maybe it's just spring fever ??

  Planning to start some spring cleaning tomorrow.  That will feel good. I have some things to put on Craigs List and some things to throw away or find homes for.  Clearing the clutter is always a good way for me to get to the heart of what's bugging me. My brother and family are coming on Saturday, so that's always good motivation to get the ball rolling. Hopefully the Irishman will have the grill back together and we can bbq out on the back deck. The weather is supposed to be nice...maybe I can even get the mowing finished !! 

Sunday is Mother's Day, isn't it?  Need to get a card made for my DIL and my baby sister.  I'm getting a garden water faucet for MD from my son. He's been out to measure for pipe and even if it isn't all ready to go by MD, it will be soon.  A real treat...with the cistern, we never had any outside water source. I'm excited...

 Alrighty...time for me to hit the hay and get some much needed sleep. I have been sleeping better since this anti-inflammatory started working.  They said that he gave me a cortisone shot during the surgery, and doesn't want to give me another one until at least mid-May, if I need one then.   Maybe I won't...

  Namaste.

Sundays are for rambling...

 'Twas a beautiful Sunday, even though things didn't turn out quite a planned. Ever the flexible couple, we  just changed our plans to fit circumstances today. lol

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  We got up early and headed out to visit the church we had chosen . We hit some road work and detours, got all turned around after missing an exit, and drove about 50 miles in the wrong direction before we realized what had happened.  The exit ramp numbers were all going the right way, so it took a while to realize we'd been on the wrong road. 

  I offered to let the Irishman go worship at the church of Bass Pro Shop that we passed...or even the Church of Cabella, which we also passed. He declined.  lol  We wound up going to a movie at the Jamestown Mall and seeing Death at a Funeral, starring Martin Lawrence and Chris Rock, along with a host of funny people. It was great and an hour and a half of belly laughing was just what the doctor ordered.

  Stopped on the way home and bought some shrimp and made scampi for supper. It was awesome...

  I came home and put the cucumbers in the ground. Checked a few other things too and hubby took the grill apart and cleaned it and is going to paint it with some grill paint we got at Home Depot when we bought the new burner setup for it. I swept the back deck [again!!]...we have had a plague of seed pods, blanketing the decks and the front porch. Hopefully the tornadic winds of the last couple of nights have finished them off.  

  Tomorrow I hope to get the garden beds ready for the seed plantings. Not a lot to do, just raking them smooth and getting the bad boys planted really. Haven't checked the weather... today was mostly overcast, but almost no rain fell.

 I have to make sure that I call the chiropractor and try to get in in the next couple of days. I have a nerve pinched in my shoulder that is causing my hands and fingers to go numb all night, every night. It is starting to happen now when I am driving too...it's an old problem, and he fixes it every time with a few adjustments.

  The chicks are adolescents now and it's time for them to make the journey outside to the coop.  

  THANK GOD !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  lol   The constant chirping and cheeping is driving the cats insane...

  I am so glad to be back online. This blog anchors me and soothes me...and you all bless me.

Namaste.

A Saturday of dubious leisure...

 And here it is...nearly 11 pm.  I honestly thought I would get here early and catch up..oh well.  It was a great day and the weather even cleared up and turned beautiful.  I got going early enough this morning, but time seemed to slip between my fingers and before I knew it, it was time for supper.

  I started the day with breakfast with the Irishman, and then moved onto the fun stuff after he left. lol  I finished up some laundry, that was in the dryer and the washer...the slipcovers and couch blankets that my dogs sleep on.  The covers needed doing, because the male cat that started spraying had left his mark. Arrgghh...he has since gone to live on a farm where he and his brother will have full run of 2 barns and several hundred acres.  There are way too many cats in this house. They are all goofy and displaced, and at least 9 more of them are being given new homes. My brother and his daughter are taking 3 kittens next week.  Another kitten is getting her new mama around the same time. Another farm family is taking more kitties, they have 3 children and are very excited. It is sure a big relief and a load of my mind.  Anyway, I was cleaning up the laundry and did a load of his filthy work clothes too. Then I dyed a set of heavy cotton napkins and a couple of old dish towels...they were all dingy and spotty, but the dye job made them look almost new again. The color is wine (go figure, lol) and the result was grand.

  I went into town looking for some yellow bell pepper plants for the garden, but for some reason, no one seems to have any this year. I have planted about 18 bell pepper plants so far, and it will be plenty. Reds and greens it is.  Even though I found no bells, I did buy some flowers...allysum and nicotania to plant in the 5 planters that grace my sidewalk. Later in the day I went to another plant sale and bought chives, garlic chives and parsley. I also got some sweet potatoes.

  The garden is coming along, slowly, but I'm doing the best I can. So far, I have about 16 tomatoes, and peas, and basil, and peppers, and potatoes and cabbages and cukes in the ground. I have 2 dozen butternut squash seedlings (just breaking ground) and have seeds for okra, carrots,beets and radishes.  I have onion sets that should get in soon. I have a few other things too.  As you can see, I have been busy.

  I am getting up in the morning and going to a Unity church over in St Louis. We have been visiting some churches around and about...from time to time.  It's about the same distance to go across the river to St Louis as it is to travel down to Belleville...

  There's never a dull moment here at the Kelley hacienda. I've been cooking away , as usual, and staying busy enough. I am so glad the weather has warmed up!  The kittens are running around getting into everything one minute, and then all crashed out asleep the next.  They are so adorable...the dogs have spring fever too, and the last 3 nights in a row, they have cornered some wild animal or another out back.  maybe they are keeping something out of my garden??

  The knee is slowly getting better. I am taking a prescription anti-inflammatory and it is helping alot. Somedays I can walk around a lot without ever limping.  I found out that the doctor took out 40% of the quadrant that was torn...no wonder it's taking time to heal!

  Time to go see if the doggies are ready to come in and get myself to bed.

  Sweet dreams, all y'all....

Namaste.