'D' is for Dogs, of Which I Have Two

It's Day 4 of the 'A to Z Blogging Challenge', which means today's letter is 'D'. So I feel I need to brag on my dogs. My husband will laugh to hear I am writing about the boys; he says they don't need the attention. But I love all my four legged pets, they are part of my family just as my children.

This is Ketka's Meriadoc of Buckland, commonly known around our little corner of the world as Merry. He came to us from a breeder in Michigan. Merry is a Norwich Terrier, and he lives to be loved. This picture doesn't show it, but he is actually laying on my helpful hubby's legs watching television. If you lay down on the carpet, he will lick your face so long you will actually not be able to breathe. He's a lover, not a fighter.

 

 

The white fuzz ball in the bay window is Peregrin, Prince of the Halflings, aka Pippin. Yes, here is the other adventurous hobbit. A West Highland White Terrier, we rescued Pip from a pet store. He is my boy; when we ride together to work he has a tendency to slide into my lap while I drive. We have an easy rhythm together and our lives would be slow without him.

 

My animals are just as much a part of my family as my children. Together we form a strange pack: Four humans, three horses, two dogs, and one cat. But we all get along, and having the patter of four little feet around the house is comforting.

 

Thinking of bringing a new animal into your home? Please consider a pet from either a reputable animal rescue or shelter. And don't be afraid of an older animal. They have just as much love as a puppy, and they need more reassurance. They've already been abandoned once.

 

AND... no matter where you find your next family pet, please spay or neuter to help control the pet populations.

Tune In Next Week...

 

 

 

Next week I will be among the several hundred authors / bloggers participating in this Blog Hop. I must confess this is my first 'rodeo', so to speak. While I blog quite a bit and on a variety of subjects, this time I am joining others on a topic. I'm excited!

As I have often stated, opinions are personal and not everyone agrees with everyone else.  But that's what makes the world so interesting. Discussing and arguing, freely exchanging ideas, ah the possiblities are endless. But enough about that.

 

What do you love about Autumn and Fall? What does it remind you of? What about reading? Do you think it's a good subject to read? Well, as authors, we are always ready to share our Autumn stories and why we love snuggling in the cold. *wink* Starting on Friday and ending on Oct 22nd, over 200 Authors and Bloggers will share their favorite things about those sexy men we know and love.

And while we do that, we are EACH doing a giveaway. Yep. There will be over 200 giveaways on each blog hosted by that Author or Blogger.

But that's not all....

We have THREE grand prizes. You as a reader can go to EACH blog and comment with your email address and be entered to win. Yep, you can enter over 200 times!

Now what are those prizes?

1st Grand Prize: A Kindle Fire or Nook Tablet

2nd Grand Prize: A $50 Amazon or B&N Gift Card

3rd Grand Prize: A Swag Pack that contains 10+ paperbacks, ebooks, 50+ bookmarks, cover flats, magnets, pens, coffee cozies, and more!

Plus - each blogger will also be doing a drawing for their own give aways

Check back in on November 9th and let's hop around together!

Wait..What..Not Again!

As June progressed, I finally got all the turnip greens out of my garden, and it seemed things were well on their way to a fabulous summer. I peeled and chopped and canned zucchini and summer squash while dreams of mountains of beans, rivers of sweet peas and bushels of tomatoes danced him my head. Once again, Mother Nature had other plans.

That's right - we have another drought on our hands. Just as my corn was tasseling and the bean pods were plumping, the rains went away. For more than three weeks, not a drop fell from the heavens. When the grass starts crunching under your feet, then you know it's dry out there.

So, I harvested my cucumbers (apparently they like it hot!), and squash and monitored the damages. Both my helpful hubby and my father-in-law pronounced my garden dead on more than one occasion, only to see me harvest baskets of potential pickles. My corn popped inside the husks but the beans popped out in full force, leading to a basket so full I had to have my son carry it to the house.

At last I relented and pronounced the harvest done. Some seeds were extra prolific (Squash of all kinds, cucumbers, pole beans) while others never ever popped through (carrots, peppers, peas). But for what did come up I reaped gold.

My final tally for the first Reece garden is: 20 quarts of beans, 15 pints of pickles and pickle relish, 5 quarts of summer squash and onions, 10 pints of lemon honey jelly, 8 pints of zucchini pickles, and 3 quarts of pickled butternut squash. All in all not a bad haul.

The tomatoes came in slow and never in any great quantities, so I just shared them with friends and co-workers. We got 5 full grown pumpkins, which were ready by the end of July. I am saving mine for Halloween. The biggest failure was no watermelons. I love watermelon in the summer. This year I had to resort to grocery store melon. Boo.

I gathered seeds from all the produce that I could and I intend to try again next year. No winter garden, I'm not ready to fight another battle against turnip greens. No, we are going to plow, rake, plow, rake, and hope for cleaner dirt next spring. I had a lot of fun, recalled a lot of good times with my father, and I wouldn't trade a callous or twinge in my carpal tunnel for anything else. Good times from the simplest thing - a new memory to join the many from childhood.

Thanks for listening to my summer saga. It might not sound like all that much fun, but trust me. It was a blast.

Spring Showers Bring...Road Trips

Once the great Turnip Green disaster of 2012 was averted, I thought for sure my garden was on its way. Seedlings were popping up, squash and cucumber vines began sending out their first runners, and my pumpkins appeared to have been set into pure fertilizer. Visions of fresh vegetables danced through my head at night, and on Sunday mornings I couldn't wait to be on the road to measure the week's progress. Then - another crisis.

From Mother's Day until Father's Day, I was out of town. Not for business, not for fun, but for family issues. First, my 92 year old mother lives with my brother and his family. My sister-in-law was getting a well deserved break and would be gone for two weeks. Since my brother has odd hours (he's a doctor), my sister and I decided to split the assignment between the two of us. So for ten day I 'baby sat' my mother. It was wonderful.

I had always been a Daddy's girl,. My mother and I get along, but I'm a strange child (it says so in my baby book). Only when my dad died early did Mother and I finally come to a mutual place from which to base our adult relationship. When she could no longer drive herself around, my brother moved her into his house in South Carolina. It was the best thing (did I mention she is 92?) and we all agreed it was time, but afterward I discovered it hurt.

Spending ten days sitting with my mom, talking, working crossword puzzles, watching every game show on television, fixing her meals - it was glorious. For really the first time in my adult life we related and bonded and discussed past history which cannot be undone. When Memorial Day weekend rolled around and it was time to go home, I was so sad I didn't even listen to the radio the entire three hour drive. I wanted to just savor the moment.

Well, the next day I returned to my little slice of vegetable heaven, only to discover nothing had been done in 10 days. Okay, in gardening terms, ten days is an entire season. The weeds were taking over. I lost my carrots, my lettuce, my peppers, everything that wasn't a squash, pumpkin, cucumber or beans had simply been overwhelmed. For five hours I pulled and grunted and cursed (again) my city-slicker hubby, but as the sun began to sink over the horizon there was a semblance of order in my plot.

Then, less than a week later, my aunt died. Back out of town I go, knowing that when I returned there would be more weeds to wrangle, plus they were cutting hay that week. I prayed no one would run over the pumpkins, which by this time had already started to bloom. Returning six days later, I raced up the expressway only to discover - more zucchini and summer squash than Carter has Little Pills (obscure 60's reference - look it up!).

When I say zucchini, I mean green blimps! These monsters were at least 7 pounds a piece and as long as my arm. Nothing close to the grocery store zucchini. My first thought was: did I plant the wrong seeds? But then I looked at summer squash and they were enormous yellow pillows! You think I am kidding? One summer squash made a casserole that fed three people for four days! My hubby asked if I bought the seeds from some mutant source. They were huge and they didn't stop coming for weeks. Even my usually eager town friends were saying no thanks, we've had enough.

Harvesting everything that was ready took two extra large storage tubs from Wal Mart. After some more weeding (those turnip greens were stubborn little twits), I left knowing that upcoming weekend I would again be out of town - this time for a family wedding in Ohio!

Well, the gardening fun didn't stop there. Next time, we will discuss who knows more: my city boy husband, or me?

Welcome To My Mid-Life Crisis

This fall I will turn fifty, a point of dread for me since my mother turned fifty. Of course I was only 8 at the time and thought my mother would shrivel up and die. I mean, really - half a century seemed ANCIENT! Of course, as the magic age has steadily approached my opinion has changed. I know I won't shrivel up once my birthday arrives. Or at least I hope not.

But in preparation for this momentous occasion I decided to learn new skills, or resurrect skills not used since my childhood. First up on the list: plant a garden for the purpose of canning and freezing food for the winter.

My father's family were farmers and every year, no matter where we lived, there was always a garden. Fresh tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, not to mention trips to the big farmer's market would provide plenty of fresh vegetables for the months when good produce was hard to find. While it isn't such a necessity to have a personal garden any more, nothing can beat the taste of good, fresh produce.

Helpful hubby promised to be of assistance and my father-in-law plowed the garden up at his farm, about an hour north of where we live. After carefully searching the Internet for heirloom seeds (plants which can produce seeds for replanting) I made my selections and off we went to create our first garden together in 25 years of marriage.

Little did I know that I have married the only man in North Georgia to never have spent any time in a garden!

Join me for my series: So... You Want to Plant a Garden! as I provide a play-by-play commentary on my summer project. It will make you laugh. I promise!

For Tess

Job 35:11           Who teaches us more than the beasts of the earth and makes us wiser than the birds of the heavens?’

 

Men are frequently confused by the relationship between women and horses. Perhaps there is no rational explanation, we love them for more reasons than one can list. We are introduced to these mighty beasts, we come to understand them as well as we do ourselves. We know when they are happy and we fret when they are ill. Carrying themselves with a grace and fluidity we envy for its ease., they take us to heights never imagined. The normal, every day frustrations and stresses disperse from simple acknowledgement by a nicker when we enter the barn. They make of us more than we are.

Today we helped a beloved friend ease across the Rainbow Bridge. For more than twenty-seven years, Tess was the light in her "mother's" eyes. A bold and fearless mare who gave all she had and when the end came, she met it with the same fire and determination which carried her across jumps and fields. Tess had her Mary with her and Tia in the next stall and the memories of the days of glory to take with her. She left behind in all of us memories and hoof prints we will never be able to erase from our hearts.

Why do we gravitate to horses? Shrinks and researchers have entire lists of reasons, most them are bull. Horses are big and strong when we feel weak and unable. They are unconditional love at a time when girls want someone to love us for ourselves. They never judge us, or tell us we need to lose weight or do better in school. A warm shoulder to cry on, a friend we can spill out secrets to with a guarantee of silence. They are our first encounter with a creature totally dependent upon us for their welfare. It is a heady feeling, taken along with a vow of lifetime protection. Some people forget that vow, when their sturdy beast begins to fade in the canter or can no longer soar above the jumps. When they need us most many falter.

Mary did not falter. She made a vow and she kept that until Tess looked her in the eye and said, "It's time, I'm ready."

Farewell Tess. Go enjoy a well earned rest over the Rainbow Bridge. I am sure you have already made an entrance. You always did.

James 3:3

If we put bits into the mouths of horses so that they obey us, we guide their whole bodies as well.

A Hint of Fall in the Air

The past few days have been blissful here in the South. Mornings arrived with a chill and a hint of the coming change of season. They continued as clear days without the wisp of a cloud anywhere in sight until finishing  in glorious color with sunset and the return of a chill. These and many more wonders are the reasons Fall is my favorite time of the year, especially in this neck of the country.

Soon it will be apple festival time and craft fairs and funnel cakes will abound. Friday nights will be for high school football and Saturdays for watching horse shows and playing with my ponies. Sundays are for family and church and catching up. Which will bring up back around to Monday and more work waiting and resting up for Friday again. The cycle of life spinning another year from the threads of life.

I don't tend to get much work done in the fall. Outdoors brings so much more than the house, which I will soon be resigned to when winter begins his reign sooner than I will be ready. But for now, bring me fall. It brings the contentment my heart longs for, the harvest of the summer complete. Time to make preparations for my winter projects.

The years fly past faster every year. The children grow and begin going their own ways. Helpful Hubby and I both grow older and greyer each birthday and Christmas morning gets later every year.

But maybe I am only entering my mid-life crisis. I will accept that. Soon I will be at the jumping off point, and I can feel myself gathering to scream inside. I have a year to get ready for the big one so if I am going to crazy it needs to be soon. Maybe after fall - I can't miss my funnel cake fix.

Random Thoughts As Labor Day Approaches

It is the first of September and summer is officially over, at least in our neck of the woods. School has been in session for a month, the children have settled into their routines of school, homework, activities. Soon the leaves will start changing on the trees and (hopefully) cooler temperatures will invade North Georgia. Oh, Fall - Nature's Paint Explosion. How I love the crisp air and clear smells that define my favorite season.

Soon it will be Apple Festival time, and the Fair will come to town. We will take part in traditions born long ago and carried on today for reasons vastly different from their original meanings. The Fall Fair was a time to come together, to celebrate a success harvest to provide food during the coming winter and to fellowship before the cold and snow kept everyone confined and apart. Today we go to the fair to eat cotton candy and ride the rides. Oh how the times have changed.

This summer went by faster than anticipated. I can barely remember the Fourth of July, it seems more than just two months ago. Helpful Hubby and I didn't take a formal vacation, preferring to steal days here and there along the way to run off to the lake or just hand around the house. That, I have decided was the wrong thing. The act of booking a vacation and planning where to go and what to do is cathartic. Without that wholesale clearance process that accompanies a vacation our brains begin to clog with useless, out-dated information.

Europeans as a whole take the entire month of August as vacation. Why can't Americans get away with the same thing? Because after ten days the men would drive us all crazy! Maybe the better policy would be three vacations a year - one with your family, one by yourself or with friends and one with your significant other only.

Sounds like a plan to me!

Another Month Slides Into the Dust

Well, two more days and March 2010 will be history. Let's look at what has happened around the globe this month. The Democrats ramrodded a health care reform bill through Congress even though 85% of Americans don't want it, the weather went wacky all over the country dumping record amounts in the NE, and I have still not heard from any reputable publishers about CATALYST.

The first item is one of the three areas I choose not to discuss in public. The other two are religion and the Great Pumpkin. But, if the general population has not figured out we are rapidly sliding down the hill toward becoming a Socialist nation then they deserve what they get. I highly recommend reading Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged to anyone with a mind still capable of making independent decisions. It will give your life a direction and affirmation.

As for the weather, Mother Nature has obviously hit menopause. I would assume we are heading toward global climate change on a magnitude not seem in humanities lifetime. Does that mean we are the cause of this change? Not completely. I think these cycles of the earth are normal. God set into motion a living system, complete with chaos theory. Free will is not confined to people.

I am working on a new book. Nothing related to science fiction or fantasy, this book is in honor of my daughter and our two horses, Bella and Penny; and all the other horses who find themselves in rescue centers. If you love horses, then join the movement for responsible breeding of horses, especially Thoroughbreds. The reckless search for the next great racehorse unfortunately leads to many wonderful not so great horses have to find homes. I will never let I horse I own or care about be sent to the kill pens.

My closest friends came for dinner Sunday to catch up and provide support for my son's godmother and her daughter. Stacey lost her husband last year to ALS, and there are still some sore spots, but it was wonderful for them to come up and enjoy some fellowship with old friends. I pray for her everyday.

My husband has to have tests done tomorrow first thing for his heart. I ask everyone to pray for his protection and that nothing extreme is wrong. Updates to follow as I get them.

What do you mean it's March?!?!?

Just yesterday I was watching the countdown to the New Year. Today I realized it was the end of the first week of March. What happened to January? Did I sleep through it? And February - did I blink and it disappeared? Ever since I was little people told me time flies as you get older but passing at the speed of light is ridiculous.

When I am writing, time seems to move in slow motion. There is never enough time for me to get everything accomplished I have laid out. But I push forward. If I am not writing other things get attention but I always feel "I should be writing". Is there a correct balance when you are a wife and a mother and a friend and all those other hats that women tend to heap upon themselves?

When women do things which enrich themselves and not their family, are we being selfish? I learned a lot time ago I cannot be responsible for any one's happiness except my own. However, as a corollary to that statement, if I am not happy I do not have the right to inflict my misery on others. So I write. It makes me happy, which in turn makes me a happier person for my husband and my children. So - am I selfish or am I doing my best to make a better family life?

I propose I am making my home happier. Because - if Momma ain't happy...