Where does time go?

Today is August 31, 2011 and now it's been nearly a week since we celebrated our 5th anniversary. Deciding to stay at home and prepare our own celebratory dinner, Bob made up his shopping list for Cioppino, a wonderful San Francisco fish stew. Did you know that cioppino means 'chip in'? The fishermen, at the end of the day, would make a big pot of fumet (stock) and each would contribute seafood from their day's catch. We'd frozen the shells from our NY Eve lobster dinner, and with the addition of some carcasses from our supermarket fishmonger several days before the 26th Bob prepared the stock, to which he added tomatoes, herbs, etc. We prepared baby octopus as Mario Batali suggested with a wine bottle cork to tenderize, adding it and king crab, extra large fresh shrimp, green mussels and lovely chunks of Striper given us by our neighbor, Bill Mabbitt, an avid fisherman but whose wife doesn't eat it. Bob made a baguette, and I made a very flavorful tomato/herb salad. Along with a bottle of Nero D'Avola wine, we had a lovely meal, ending with my homemade Thyme ice cream served with fresh raspberries.

Yes, we felt the earthquake at our house, each of us thinking the other was doing something to make the house shake, and the dog not knowing which way to run. It was a pretty bizarre sensation. And we had almost virtually no rain or wind from the hurricane. Amazing what being on the other side of a mountain range can do, isn't it?

We've embarked on our vacation plans for 2012, and will soon have to decide between Sciacca, Sicily, Sardinia and Freiburg, Germany. How exciting is that? The young couple from Rome have an apartment in Sicily and are excited about coming here to Virginia and from what we've read and seen about Sciacca, we would have a wonderful time there too. What we don't choose for 2012 may be arranged for 2013. Freiburg is only a short train ride from France and Switzerland, so we'd be able to triple our experience when visiting there. The more we read about HomeForExchange the more excited we become. Scores of people have participated in these house exchanges many, many times and just when you ask "who'd want to come stay out here in the woods?" you read about a couple who are looking to get someplace where they can get away from the crowds. Well; here it is.

Tomorrow Bob (and I) will attend a class on total knee replacement. The effects of the cortisone shot administered earlier in the summer has begun to wear off, so it's good that this surgery has been scheduled. My dislocated shoulder continues to heal, but I'm reminded daily that it isn't yet normal. You don't realize how much movement is made with your shoulders until you do something. Reaching backward; shaking a rug; sweeping a floor, raking. And those are only the obvious ones. But now I can lie on my right side without my shoulder feeling like it's on fire.

Our hens are providing us with all the eggs we'll ever need. One of them seems to be not laying yet. We could isolate who we think it is (lighter colored and small comb and wattle) but it really isn't important. It's not like we need another 7 eggs per week. Last week one of them laid an egg literally twice the size of others and we found it to be a double yolk.

Saku had his yearly exam yesterday and was found to be in good health and weighing 85 lbs. He is a morning dog; in contrast to Rosie who was not, if you can believe that they can be just like humans. He is just crazy and so happy when we are all up, and this morning you'd have thought he'd just had an upper. Romping and running and playing with his sheepskin like a puppy. He's getting better about staying near the house, but then will suddenly decide he needs to take off and disappears. As a result he's getting used to being on the end of a long leash in the yard, keeping watch over everything from the driveway; and soon he'll have to wear his orange 'school crossing guard' vest as the hunting dogs will be out moving bears in the woods.

We have another month to enjoy local fresh picked peaches and nectarines before apple season really takes over, and close to two months to still enjoy home grown tomatoes. As they say, it's still summer here.

10/2/2011

Well, here we are, now two weeks since Bob's surgery which went very well. He's been at home and seen by a home health nurse and physical therapist since 9/23, both of whom will discharge him from their care after he sees Dr. Pereles, his ortho surgeon on Tuesday. Then he will begin outpatient PT, followed by a routine at the Staunton Y which we've recently joined. It is nearly impossible to walk safely out here in the woods what with fallen tree branches and gravel roads. The Y is really nice, recently remodeled and expanded and with everything we need to help us get our bodies back in shape and legs strengthened for being navigating foreign lands. I've been undergoing PT on my right arm and shoulder for nearly a month after asking my doctor just how long it should take for full recovery. It was found that I had impingement syndrome and had I not been treated would soon have had bursitis. Now I'm doing really well with it and, also, on Tuesday will have it evaluated for my own discharge from their care.

For the whole of Sept. we had rain and more rain, 8.5", the 5th wettest Sept. ever. Now for the past few days we've had really cool weather which we don't mind, but enough is enough. It's too cool for the beginning of Oct. in this part of the country. An aside to this weather business. We regularly watch a DC station and the other night just cracked up when the weatherman, telling about the weekend temps said it was going to be cold: at 60 degrees. We've decided this guy has never been to a state that's really cold.

The chickens are doing well, and I've begun to treat them to free range for an hour or so each late afternoon. The first day when I decided they needed to be back in their yard, I walked up to the gate and they all came running behind me; this is the lady that brings them food. Five followed me through the gate; the sixth decided she wasn't done hunting and pecking yet, so for the next 30 minutes or so she alternately scratched and tried to figure out how she was going to get over/under that fence to her sisters. She tried flying over once but the fence at that point was too high and she simply wouldn't go away from sight of the other hens. Finally, as it was getting almost dark, she decided to nest down in the corner of the garage and the coop, actually behind where they spend the night. Their bodies must slow down at nightfall as I was able to work up to her, grab her tail and put her over the wire fence, at which point she promptly went into the coop and onto the roost and they were locked up safely for the night. The next night either she or another one, did much the same thing, except that I was able to grab her earlier and drop her over the fence. Last evening, I walked up to the yard and through the gate followed by six clucking hens. It's very interesting to watch what they do and how they act.

Now, it's time for today's foray into the leaves. Saku stands at the door and watches them, wanting to play but knowing her can't. Yesterday two of them came down onto the deck and that drove him crazy for awhile.

...look at this... more eggs

Recalling that I'd seen a hen come out from behind the boards a few days earlier, I finally remembered to take a look on Thursday, and what did I find but six eggs in a nest of leaves. I had to move some of the boards to get at them and while doing so, had a hen, presumably the layer, standing at my feet all the while. I also found an egg out in the yard, and this morning another in an indentation in the straw on the floor of the coop. A friend told us that young layers will often drop the egg wherever, and that they eventually get in the groove of using a nest. I continue to love their varying 'voices', insistent in the morning to get out of the coop and whispers at night as they settle in, all six of them toddering on the top rung. Now that I think about it; I wonder if it's the same one who gets the outside perch each night. Except for one who seems to have a longer wattle and higher comb, since they're all the same color it's very difficult to identify individuals. I don't think they'd go for wearing different color ribbons.

Earlier this week and in a funk what with the constant heat and humidity of the summer, I decided to pick up where I'd left off a couple years ago in my reading of A Year in the World by Frances Mayes. When I completed what was a particularly long chapter, I was more depressed than when I started. I was ready to sell everything and move to a Greek island where we would buy only what was required for furnishing a whitewashed house; one with a blue door and roof, with geraniums growing in olive oil cans and a vine covered terrace where we'd eat all our meals outdoors, shop daily for our food and wear gauzy, loose fitting clothing and sandals year-round.

Knowing I had to bring myself out of this funk, I asked Bob to read the chapter so we could talk about it. He wasn't ready to do anything so drastic as I, but the long and short of it is we embarked on planning a month long trip to Europe for sometime in 2012. And, Bob, who gets as much enjoyment out of planning trips as he does going on them, in looking at the cost of lodging and especially car rental in Sicily (our original first destination), stumbled on house exchanges. We are now registered with and will soon have the full description and photos on-line of our home, and will hopefully find someone who wants to visit this part of the USA. As we looked at the site, it became evident that residents of foreign countries don't all want to visit the same places and some are so particular as to say Manhattan (not just NYC). We've also discovered that more Irish want to visit the USA, so we've adjusted our preferred destinations accordingly; but we will also go just about anywhere. If anyone is interested in such arrangements, check out HomeForExchange.com We are finding the prospects very exciting, and who knows where we might end up. But the best part is that if we are successful in this venture, the cost savings will allow us to take a second extended trip in 2012. How great is that for being retired? And our "chicken lady" on being asked of her interest is very excited to serve as our airport chauffeur and resident tour guide. We're hoping another friend with a dog and fenced yard will agree to being Saku's 'camp' during our absences.

Bob worked his Texas smoker BBQ at the fair with the tractor folks every night, and last night we had so much rain they had to cancel the demolition derby. We had just over 4" here in West Augusta, welcomed and badly needed. Now we have sunny skies with some clouds and it's 79 degrees. By the way, the tomato plants are flourishing and we have a couple dozen fruits growing. A neighbor stopped by earlier today with a bag of wild plums and a bunch of beets which we will enjoy in a few days. She's going to bring us more plums and I'll make plum butter and hope it turns out as good as my mom's. I often think about a lunch I had at mom and daddy's on the farm before they moved to Minneapolis; fried blood sausage and her plum butter on homemade bread. Ummmm! I have not had blood sausage since, but we've noticed that "black pudding" as it's called in Europe, is very popular. We expect to find it on menus in Ireland.

Tomorrow I see my opthamologist and Tuesday is my turn for colon screening. Oh joy!

We've got eggs!

How exciting; our first egg arrived yesterday morning, and another came this afternoon. If they produce like expected, we'll soon have 6 per day X 7 days; well...you do the math. And a couple days ago we ate the first of our own tomatoes. The plants are now full of fruit, and I decided not to clean out the undergrowth around them as I think it's keeping critters away. We'll see. Actually, we've had two other ripened tomatoes - pear shaped - both of which had some kind of blight on the underside. The chickens loved them; as they do nearly anything brightly colored.

We've been laying low since Manako left. This heat and humidity just wipes me out and I don't appreciate having my face dripping and my hair looking as though I've shampooed and didn't dry it fully. The Oyen curse: face sweating.

Bob is "cooking" at the Augusta County Fair this week for the Churchville Steam Club - that's not the correct name, but they collect and play with old tractors. He smoked pork on Sunday and is doing chicken on site this evening, along with corn on the cob. He called me about an hour ago saying "the noise is driving me nuts." This afternoon they've had motocross (hundreds of 'em) on the nearby track and he said "Alice's husband wears 3 hearing aids; I was ready to ask if I could borrow a couple so I could turn them off." What a sense of humor this man has.

This morning when I got up around 6:15, on going outside I said "this is an August morning." The sky, and it isn't even the sky so much as the air around us was that sort of peachy shade - one I long ago observed as being part of later summer in Minnesota. For me this has always denoted a coming change of seasons, that of summer to fall, one which makes me feel very melancholy as we get into October and as autumn approaches. Those of you in the colder climates must understand that we have summer here until late October, and autumn almost to Christmas.

Next week Bob begins his regime in readying for the full knee replacement on 9/19; i.e., vitamins and exercises. We've both been pleased that the cortisone shot has held up so well and allowed him to enjoy walking about this summer.