I love field flowers. I’m thankful for the time I spent in Wisconsin this summer, which is where this picture was taken.  I’m thinking about that family reunion Wisconsin trip and there were several happenings that I never mentioned that were very good.

A very satisfying element of the reunion was that it centered around my grandfather’s farm which has undergone several major changes in the years since he passed away. My father and my youngest brother made a decision years ago to take advantage of the farm’s location, close to town, and built a very attractive nine hole executive golf course.  The farm house became the club house with some clever remodeling, and also had living quarters for my brother.  The barn became the workshop for the golf carts and lawnmowers.  All of us who visited got to golf in the evenings when the paying crowd cleared out.  Many of the cousins got to peddle soft drinks to the thirsty golfers, hunt for lost golf balls and other chores.  The farm had never looked so good, with it’s landscaped meadows and brooks and ponds.

My brother married and got tired of golfers looking in his living room window so he moved to another house.  The golf course hit a few bad years with weather, the economy, etc… and my brother built another business for his own income.  It was headquartered on the farm and largely internet based.  The second big change was made when the golf course was closed and the farm became Par Lane Condominiums.  My brother’s family remodeled the clubhouse again and moved back.  The energy efficient duplexes that he built and sold were very attractive and the abundance of green space left room for walking trails and picnic areas.  My parents bought one of the units and love living there.  It’s a safe and beautiful community where most of the owners know each other and socialize. Walmart moved in to the adjacent property and erected a nice, tall fence between them with a gate – it’s like having a shopping mall in the back yard whenever something is needed. 

Even with Walmart next door, the farm is still on the edge of town where the woods and the wild meet the streets and buildings of Hayward.  The old barn is still standing and functions to hold lawn maintenance tools and tractors.  As we gathered  in the evenings at the reunion we often remembered the places we had played, the spot where Grandma’s garden had been and where the chicken coop had stood.  The landscape is as beautiful as it ever was, even through all the changes.  One of the special occassions that my brother had planned for us was an afternoon photo shoot with a photographer.  She came and took photos  of all our families using the barn and the pond around it for backdrop.  In return for her services she had permission to use the setting for other photo shoots and I’m guessing it could become quite a popular place.

It was a good, good time.  And I’m thankful for family, for Wisconsin heritage, for all the memories that have been made in that spot. 

This is a picture of the Gray Kitty that lives at my house.  Putting up her picture, or any other picture, is what I must do to begin posting on my page since I still have an “error on page” that keeps me from entering the cursor until I put in a picture.  Just as I had to figure out a way to begin my posts, through much frustration, I must also figure out a way to begin THE BOOK.  Every day at work I look at this month’s calendar page with it’s wisdom from Mary Engelbart “begin anywhere, just begin”. So I think it’s talking about the book that I’m supposed to be writing. 

Tonight on Facebook a friend back in my northern home town mentioned that she was working on her book.  She’s an ambitious sort but I didn’t know she was writing a book and telling people about it.  She sounded sort of confident and it made me think maybe she knew how to publish as well as write. ” No”, she said,  She didn’t care if it ever got published, she was just determined to write it. That might be the right attitude and I’m going to try it on for starters.  Forget publishing for now. 

Tomorrow I’m going to make a plan, with deadlines and defined tasks.  I’m going to attempt to do at least one thing every day, no matter how small.  One of the small things that I did today was to address the confines of my paying job.  I requested a change of status – from full-time to stand-by.  Nothing will happen quickly, since we have to find a replacement for me and nothing of that sort seems to happen quickly if at all.  But once I am working less it will become more important that I work on the book as a job, regularly, with other people keeping me accountable.  I think that’s what real writers do. 

I hope I don’t regret this post in the future when a reader asks me how the book is coming along… I’m just sayin’ it’s a little scary making public committments, but it’s a beginning, right?



the storms gather…



and I get to watch for the 4 hours I’m traveling

I have had a few days off this week and decided to take the time up in Jacksonville with the daughter who doctors horses and other larger quadripeds. My history with veterinarians has always been on the client side, meaning that I see them come out, do their work and leave.  Now I have seen the practitioner side where they go from one job to another with multiple phone calls in between, maybe a meal, maybe not, and arrive home late with equipment to clean, supplies to restock, notes to record and file, and their own animals to tend.  This is not a job for the faint of heart.

Dressing a bad leg wound

Her canine assistant sleeps on the floor behind her seat (nervously because articles in the shared space keep shifting and landing on top of her).

It rains almost every day lately and much work is done outside. Getting wet is common.

Most of the patients are large, frightened to the point of needing sedation, and non-English speaking.

I didn’t get a picture of it (aaaarghgh… should have!) but frequently saw Dr. Jules’ hand disappearing up to the elbow inside a horse’s mouth to check a tooth.  Dental work is done with a grinder the size of a machine gun. I “got” to hold the tongue aside (grab it in whole hand and pull to the side, yuck) and keep the horses’s head up in the air.  I also got to mess up an appointment on the computer, drop some papers in a large puddle, and get us lost driving to a farm – good job VetMa!  All in all, an interesting couple of days and I’m looking forward to a next time.
 

This pic has nothing to do with my post, except that it made it possible to write it.

Where there is a will, there is a way, and I have found it! Today I am excited about two things. The first thing is that whenever I want to start writing a new post and get the “error on page” message, that’s the one which means I can’t get the cursor to appear in the text box, all I have to do is insert a picture.  It can be any picture because after I insert it, there is my cursor! I can delete the picture afterwards if it doesn’t have anything to do with the post.  It still doesn’t work quite right because I can only reposition the cursor with the up, down and sideways arrows, but at least I can get my writing done. There are other things wrong with my computer too but it has been a good companion for almost three years now so I’m going to honor it by not complaining.

The other exciting thing is the discovery of some new blogs by great writers about writing. I clicked on a friend’s facebook link to an article about marrying young and it turned out to be one of many really great posts.  And that author had some guest writers, one of which was a literary agent who had written a book about how to publish your writing. I could hardly stop reading. My head is full of actual, concrete things I can do to move closer to writing a book. Wouldn’t it be great to have that as a full time job? I’m just sayin’ I think it would.  

It is the weekend. I am waiting to be refreshed because that is what weekends are supposed to do, right?  I am unusually tired and it may be more mental/emotional than physical.  I have been watching people go through stressful things this week and I tend to vicariously feel their pain.  Underlying it all is my own need to make a decision about my own needs for freedom, work, family time and retirement. I don’t even know if I should use the word “retirement” because I’m probably looking at a change rather than  retiring from anything.

I welcome change – well, at least the kinds of change I’m imagining.  I dream about relocating phsically.  Sometimes I picture myself living in Wisconsin near my parents, having coffee and taking walks with my mom in the mornings. Dad and I take rides in the country and talk about the history of different properties and buildings. In the afternoon I sit with my computer and work on writing my book.

Or I think about moving to north Florida and being vetma (my term for mother of a veterinarian).  I ride in the truck with Julie when she needs help and substitute in the office when the secretary is gone.  I pull weeds in Julie’s garden and have supper ready when she comes home after a long day.  I write my book. 

Or I visit Esther and Jonathan, find an apartment, visit coffee shops and Schmidt Park and play with my granddogs. Esther and I discuss what we’re reading and writing and I write my book.

Or I move to Cambodia where Dennis and I live on practically nothing in a second story apartment with beautiful tile floors and a balcony. I ride in tuk-tuks, or maybe a moto.  I have 44 orphan grandchildren who I visit regularly, helping them with their English and writing about their amazing lives. Book material for sure.

Or we move to North Carolina where we know no one and have no plan, no obligations. I write my book.

It’s true, there is a theme here. I guess it’s all about beginning, about finding the time to begin. Can I find the time to begin something in my present circumstances? The trouble with this train of thought is that it is addictive.  It compounds itself and grows in intensity. I actually have to pray for an attitude that allows me to go happily to work every day, to not be tired, to not be gloomy.  So while I wait for this good attitude to kick in I am studying what it would take to be able to afford this change.  I have conferred with a financial advisior and am studying up on social security. I’m investigating jobs that would afford more flexibility. I’m just saying that the answer will come and likely soon… just sayin’.





Last night I was finished with supper dishes and decided to take advantage of the long evening and work outside.  It is a bit cooler too, although 82 degrees might not seem cool to some.  In fact it was so pleasant that I’m considering putting lights outside so I can always work in the dark too.  There are a lot of places that need attention in the oneacrewoods and I don’t have enough daylight time to get to them when I am working my job away.  I

I picked seven pineapples of good size.  They are not completely ripe but sweet enough to eat and I need to get them before the fruit rats do. The rascals got two of them already and that’s all they’ll get. In one particularly fertile spot the pineapple plants not only fruited but also produced baby plants from the main stalk, sometimes three or four of them.  At this rate, if I planted them all, I could go into business in a year or so. 

After pulling weeds and propping up frangipani trees it was still not completely dark so I decided to burn my brush pile.  It had been growing and “curing” by the firepit for months and was getting intrusive on the lawn.  I love to make fire.  I burned it all.  It was dark enough by that time that the reflection of the fire on the lanai window made it look like the husband’s favorite chair inside the house was burning up.  Odd – I had to take the picture.



Chair on fire – she loves to burn things





it was a fern glistening with dew





bright spot in middle caught my eye







  

You hear a lot about bacon these days. Bacon ice cream, chocolate covered bacon… I’d go on but I’m already a little sick thinking about it. I don’t eat what people consider real bacon in any form. So today I had to cook thick slab pork bacon for my employer and she said it was perfect.  Not sure how to feel about that.

You can even find a recipe for marijuana bacon, although it has a disclaimer that it is not designed to encourage illegal activity but for medicinal use. It is billed as “two of your favorite things together” and the video is made by a charming lady named Watermelon. (???) Chances are I won’t be asked to cook that since one of the main ingredients is still illegal in Florida.

Oh, the things you can find on the internet.  

A phrase from a book I’m reading, “those who live quietly in the land”, and I’m wondering if that is me.  I have my own brand of adventure and I do challenge my limits from time to time just to see if they’re still there, but overall I am kind of quiet.  I abhorr politics, arguing with people, or even watching other people argue with each other.  There is something about the tone of voice people take on in those instances which makes me want to run away and be quiet. I would rather just listen to the silliest person on earth than try to argue them out of their position. 

There are those who “live loudly in the land” and probably influence the opinions of millions of listeners.  Most of my opinions are formed in the garden while pulling weeds or by myself, reading, or one on one with someone who has the time to speak into my problems.  I love listening to quiet.  It has a wonderful calming effect.  I am not Oprah, or Hillary or Beth Moore or Dana or Condi or…  and that is probably not going to change anytime soon. I am asked to be content with who I am.  I’m just saying there are times when I wonder why I am not a stronger voice for the things I hold precious.