Neither snow, nor…

February 20, 2025 Shirleyjdietz4 Comments

I looked it up. “Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds.” Add to that list cracked windshields and minus 25 degree weather.

I knew it was going to be a week of new experiences, even before my friend called. She is always apologetic when she asks for help, that’s how I know something is coming. “I know you might be really busy tomorrow, and that’s okay, could you possibly drive my mail route with me? My windshield is cracked and I’m waiting on a new one. There aren’t any mail vehicles available and I’m going to have to deliver from my SUV.”

There was a time when I thought the USPS supplied vehicles to all their carriers. You know, those white truck-like ones with the name and logo in blue. It turns out, there aren’t very many of those, not nearly enough for all the rural routes in our area. Most of our local mail carriers have bought their own vehicles, specially equipped with controls on the right. My friend has a very nice Jeep that’s not even a year old. Word has it that there is a defect in the windshields (not just hers) that causes some dangerous cracks. The warranty covers replacement, but finding a windshield is hard. She would have to wait a month or more for one on back order.

But her immediate concern was doing the route the very next day. I decided it might be fun to see what it’s like to deliver mail. I agreed to help.

It was -25 degrees F in the morning, the day after President’s Day. Mail holidays always result in more mail to deliver than usual. As I sat in my house, considering what to wear on this adventure, a thought came. We were going to be driving a 70 mile route with a window down. It would probably take six or more hours. It might be kind of chilly. Probably should put on everything I have.

I arrived at the post office around 10 am. Sharron had already been at work since 7 arranging her mail trays and loading packages in her car. It was full – the kind of full that makes you shut the door quickly so nothing falls out. She had me get in the car and start getting it warmed up. She finally got in the passenger seat, with two trays of mail on her lap and packages under her feet.

“Are you nervous?” she asked.

“No.” I answered.

“I am.” I could have asked her to explain, but decided not to. Best to act confident.

Her route starts on the south edge of town so it didn’t take long for my training to begin. She kept telling me to drive slow and steady. And then I realized why she was nervous. She had put herself and all this mail in the care of a driver of unknown skill. And she was asking me to drive within inches of hundreds of mailboxes without hitting any of them. She was actually quite brave. And desperate. And nervous.

She would take a couple trays of mail in the front with her. Letter, magazines and packages were arranged in order of the route. She would pick letters from the tray and scan packages with her scanner, bare handed. It’s not something that can easily be done with gloves on. Next she would reach out the open window and stuff them in the mailbox. When a tray was empty, we pulled over and she got a full one from the back. On we went.

Tray after tray of letters and an SUV full of packages

I had heard her talking about people on her mail route. She often had to take a package to their door. Sometimes she had conversations with them, and she had come to know them. She knew the color and size of each upcoming mailbox. She knew who had a dog, and what their dog’s name was. She knew who shopped Amazon regularly and who got lots of magazines. Once in a while she would hold her hands over the heat vent to recover from the cold. We delivered mail all day. Often in the winter, she would be driving the route in the dark, but not today. We were done around 5 and the sun was still on the horizon.

There were no breaks and no lunch hour. There was an unheated bathroom stop at a park, and another at a bar where she delivered mail. They were brief. Although sheltered in the car and quite bundled up, we were somewhat cold all day. The window was open nearly all the time while we drove. It did get up to 7 degrees, which was the high temp for the day.

I have new appreciation for my friend and the way she does her work. I am thankful there are people who love that job enough to do it, day after day. I used to wonder if I would like working for the postal service. But my idea of the job was walking through residential neighborhoods, with a cool uniform, and a backpack of letters. Not this. You could not pay me to do this for a living. Nope.

But I enjoyed helping for a day. It was a very cool (literally) adventure. And I only hit one mailbox, or bumped it, maybe. It didn’t fall over, just sayin’…

Getting Carried Away

February 19, 2025 Shirleyjdietz2 Comments

Part of being human is what I call “getting carried away”, and I do it a lot. It usually results in doing things that I didn’t plan on doing, but which turn out to be satisfying. That’s what happened yesterday.

The family resource center where I volunteer has recently moved to a new facility. In one of the new rooms we plan to have a boutique for new moms. It will have everything they need for babies, and young children. It’s presently full of bags of donated clothing, blankets, diapers, furniture, clothes racks, boxes of hangers. There was a narrow path through it, but it was a little treacherous.

Next to it is another slightly smaller room full of toys and furniture donated from a daycare center. Boxes, bags, more furniture, and a lot of “stuff” are stacked in there as high as my head.

I entered these spaces with one task in mind. I wanted to finish up a display item. It’s a nice piece of furniture with a wooden, two drawer base. It has a top portion with glass on the sides and door. I was attaching a plywood back that I had covered with fabric to the top. This piece of furniture was partially buried in the middle of the room. I had to move a lot of things to access it. That’s where the whole thing started getting out of hand.

I realized that I should have a place to put the piece of furniture when I was done with it. That required moving three heavy tables, a dozen folding chairs and three large pieces of kitchen countertop. Since there really is no storage area for items like this, I decided to create one. I decided to use half the toy room for storage. That required moving half of everything out of the room. It was a game of moving piles of things from one place to another. I knew that it would all have to be moved again to a better place. I was hoping the better place would become obvious, or that the stuff would shrink during the process. Most everything I moved was large, awkward, and not on wheels. Fortunately I have been moving furniture most of my life and nothing scares me.

It was hard, but strangely, it was fun. I also like doing this kind of work alone. That way people are not trying to stop me or tell me it can’t be done. Yes it can be done. I did it.

I finally had enough space cleared to work with the display case. To nail the back in place, I really needed to put the glass top on the floor. I tried to tape the glass door shut, but that was not too successful. I actually considered leaving that project until I had another person to help. But I was on a roll and wanted to finish what I’d started. It was a miracle I got the top off the base without breaking any glass. It was a second miracle that I got it back and in its place along the wall.

Now it is full of colorful quilts for babies, and I am only slightly sore from my workout. Never mind that the hour I had intended to spend turned into five hours of “getting carried away”. It was a very satisfying afternoon.

Feeding the Beasts

February 13, 2024 ShirleyjdietzLeave a comment

A righteous man has kind regard for the life of his animal… Prov. 12:10 AMP

My recent experience tending the animals on Julia’s farm while she and Kevin were in the hospital with Gwennie brought a lot of things to mind. I did manage to keep them all alive and well. (Click here for list of chores)

People who work with the land, with animals, and with plants have an important connection to some basics of life. Doing chores regularly, faithfully, with a watchful eye to the welfare of other living things is all about character development. Having access to the outdoors, specifically to a farm is a blessing. I worry about generations of children who have no idea what I’m writing about.

I can quickly give some of the complaints that people have about this kind of work. It’s too hot. It’s too cold. There’s too much dirt. I’m tired. I hurt. It’s inconvenient to do it now. There you have it, and it’s all true.

However, what I find every time I’m given animals to feed, is that I like it. Animals are glad to get their food. They don’t actually say “thank you” but they act grateful and make me feel like I’ve done them good. They get used to the times they are fed, and act calmer when on a schedule they can depend upon. (I know how I feel when I’m hungry and there’s no food – it’s stressful!)

A couple days of doing farm chores gets me into a comfortable rhythm too. I get more familiar with my charges. They become more interesting to me and I start noticing small behaviors that I missed before. I get satisfaction from faithfully showing up with life sustaining food for them. Most everyone who has had a dog or a cat knows that people bond with their animals, and that goes for any animal, really.

I learned a lot of my large animal care from my friend Carroll Barnhill, in Florida, on his horse farm. Animal food can be expensive, but his animals always had plenty even when he had trouble making ends meet. He was out at the barn every morning early, turning on his coffee pot in the feed room, and getting busy. Every animal got fed, their water buckets washed out and filled, their stalls cleaned, and fresh hay put in the feed box for them to graze on during the day. The finishing touch was to clean the corridor with the blower so everything looked neat and tended. The stable wasn’t fancy, but it all made sense for the needs of the animals. And it was satisfying.

When it’s hot, I like to do chores early in the morning when it’s cool, and in the evening when the sun is lower. When it’s cold, I put on a coat and gloves. Dirt washes off almost everything. I can work tired, and I rest better when my work is done. I find ways to deal with pain, and actually hurt less when I stay active. And life is inconvenient in so many different ways, how could we expect chores to be different? Being faithful, regular and vigilant leads to fewer inconveniences. It’s a rule, I think.

Adventures: Minding the Farm

February 3, 2024February 3, 2024 Shirleyjdietz1 Comment

My 6 month old granddaughter’s surgery is this coming Thursday. Both parents are taking time off to stay with her in the hospital for the expected 3 – 5 days in ICU and step down units. I am staying home to mind the farm. My goal is that all animals be alive and where they are supposed to be when Julia and Kevin return.

You’ve heard enough about the dogs. Of course, they get fed every morning and evening (and anything they can get in between).

I’m writing this to see if I remember all the instructions I’ve been given.

MORNING CHORES

In the barn:

1. Feed Rosie the horse, 3 handfuls of horse feed (1 from her previous kind, 2 from the one she’s transitioning to) plus a squirt of some kind of goop

2. Feed Kita the horse, 3 cups of her feed, 2 doses of supplement, 2 scoops of diatomaceous earth, wetted down with a little bit of water. Hay for the day, and check water.

3. Feed Heidi the goat. Small scoop of goat feed, water, hay as needed.

4. Prepare feed for field animals. 2 buckets with 2 large scoops each of horse feed for horses, fill with water and let soak. Also a bucket of all stock feed for sheep – 1 large scoop.

5. Put halter on Rosie and lead her to pasture for the day. Leave halter on gate. Clean her stall.

6. Put buckets and bales of hay in Mule

In the field:

1. For ponies, goats, rams – throw hay in two or three spots, at least half a bale

2. For horses – dump the two buckets in separate feed tubs, make sure donkey gets a little from the sheep bucket. Hay in hay box, about 3/4 bale. Check water.

3. For sheep (ewes) – dump their feed in feed tub. Put hay in for sheep and Rosie (they share a pasture). Check water. (Question: how do I keep Rosie from eating the sheep feed?)

Field horses and Carlos the donkey, finishing their morning hay

EVENING CHORES

In the barn:

1. Feed Kita, same as in morning, more hay if it’s really cold. Check water.

2. Feed Heidi. Check hay and water

3. Go get Rosie from field, feed her medicine with a handful of her food. Put rest of her food in the stall with her. Hay, couple flakes, and water.

4. Prepare feed for field animals as in the morning.

5. Buckets for horses and sheep in the Mule, along with hay for all in the field

In the field:

1. Toss hay to ponies, donkey and goats, at least half a bale. Check water.

2. Feed horses their buckets as in the morning. Hay again, 3/4 bale. Water should be good if checked in the morning.

3. Feed sheep their bucket and some hay, check water.

Still Burning

May 2, 2018May 2, 2018 Shirleyjdietz1 Comment

Still burning after three weeks.

Last month, on the 12^th to be exact, I decided I would dispose of some old financial records that weren’t needed any more. I also had a stump in the backyard from a tree that was cut down this spring. It seemed to be a good idea to me to burn the papers and possibly the stump at the same time. I started the fire right on top of the stump and probably spent an hour getting rid of the paper. The stump was perhaps two feet in diameter and began to burn a little around the edges so I put some dry wood on it and kept it going.

It did eventually begin to burn all the way to the middle – over the next week! We would think it had gone out but a wisp of smoke would go skyward every time the irrigation would water it, so we knew there was still heat there. A couple of times I would find downed branches (we live surrounded by trees) and throw them on the stump and in an hour or so we would see flames again.

The stump itself was about two feet in diameter but the roots spread out quite a bit more. Today it began to flame again.

We had one really good rain and a couple shorter ones, and still the stump burned. It began to look different, kind of like a volcano that had blown its top. The husband was always looking out the glass doors to see if it was smoking. I was worried that the constant drift of smoke would get the neighbors upset, but maybe, like me, they kind of like the smell of a wood fire.

For the last week the fire has seemed to be out. The caldera, as the husband likes to call it, is huge, black and ashy and surrounded by its rim of large roots. We have been poking it and trying to see if we could make it level with the ground around it, but it was still needing an axe or a chain saw to break it up. As the irrigation ran this morning I was surprised to see it start smoking again. Something in there, underground, was still hot.

I have heard how important fire was to nomads who moved their camps frequently, how they would carry coals in special containers to have a fire starter when they needed it. The longevity of my burning stump must be something like that. Joe came today and cut what was left of the roots in pieces and set them on top of the hot area. Late this afternoon it flamed and our volcano is glowing hot again. I don’t know why fire and its attributes are so interesting to me, but there it is. Burning. Glowing. Fascinating.

Deciding to Change

March 29, 2016March 29, 2016 Shirleyjdietz2 Comments

Do you find it hard? I have held back on making changes to this blog for a long time, mostly because I have a hard time knowing what to change to. I’m not blessed with strong design opinions that send me searching for an exact thing. I’m not technically astute enough to know what changes would make the blog more efficient or easier to use. I’m not into hiring people to do things for me, or looking to pay for premium themes. I don’t have a lot of time to figure it all out.

Until now…

I’m visiting my Seattle family and am not expected to do much except amuse myself. Suddenly, there is time so I’m making the decision. The blog will change it’s look starting April 1 with the first post of the A to Z Challenge. On that day, if you are one of my readers and think you’ve gone to the wrong place because you are not seeing all the swirly, busy, colorful stuff going on in the theme I’ve used for the last century, no, you are in the right place, read on.

It will be simple, easy to read and navigate and full of all the usual.

I’m preparing you (and myself). Just sayin’…

And I really am interested – what has been the hardest thing you’ve decided to change lately? Or maybe it’s something you wish you were changing and haven’t had the time, like me?

It’s A Jungle…

July 30, 2014 ShirleyjdietzLeave a comment

With all the rain we have been getting, the oneacrewoods is turning into a oneacrejungle faster than I can tame it. Letting it go too far is a mistake that take twice as much work to correct. I broke down and got Joe to come help me today and we began cutting things back. You people who live in other parts of the world have no idea what I’m talking about. The vegetation that we remove gets hauled back to a corner of the yard where I hope it will eventually break down and disappear but right now it is a giant pile higher than my head.

I was working in one of my pineapple plots which had become a grass plot and suddenly I heard a curious squeaking noise. So strange, it seemed to be coming from under my feet and I finally located it. Two small critters about four inches long with big ears were panicking in the dirt where I had just pulled up a big grass plant.. They could barely move and were entirely at my mercy. I called Joe over to look. We decided they were rabbits. I’m not sure if they were just hidden in the grass or in a shallow burrow but I had evidently taken away their cover. Joe kind of camouflaged their little depression in the soil with some grass plants and we hoped Mama rabbit would come and fetch them to another home.

An hour or so later I was talking to Joe and he said ” di you see billow ge rabbage?” I am often clueless as to what he’s saying due to his unusual English dialect and rely more on gestures and pointing and good guesses when conversing with him. He pointed to the pineapple patch and repeated the cryptic message. I pondered and came up with “rabbits?” “Yes, big billow take them rabbages.” And since he was now pointing up in a tree I’m assuming he actually saw a hawk get the baby rabbits. Like I said, it’s a jungle out there and everybody has to eat. But I’m sad because they were so cute and had such a short life.

I raise lots of pineapples in the yard and can’t really eat them all when so many are ripe at once. The squirrels and rabbits help me out and I guess I don’t mind as long as they leave a few for me. But something I don’t want them to have is this nice bunch of bananas that is nearly the right size to come ripe. It’s only a few inches off the ground and I don’t know how to protect it. I’m glad I have a picture of the bananas, in case that is all I get. Because it is a jungle, and we all have to eat.

Proof that there were bananas in my yard.

Another Interesting Day

July 8, 2014July 8, 2014 Shirleyjdietz1 Comment

It’s July already and I’m having another interesting day. Thankfully, this one had nothing to do with me visiting a doctor’s office or my health, but it does have a medical component to it. Remember hearing about the old days when doctors made house calls? Well, guess what? My daughter, the veterinarian, still does (read about her here). She traveled 275 miles to see this client.

We had a restful Fourth of July weekend visiting Doctor Julia ( ) in Jacksonville at her home. Then yesterday the Doc, the grand dog Tess, the husband and I all traveled south to our home. Julia still has lots of friends here and a couple of them breed Dalmatians – the dogs with all the spots. There was a litter of puppies due to go to their new homes this week and they needed their health certificates. I always love watching the Doc work so I volunteered to go along and help. I’m a nurse and a good animal holder.

It was kind of like being at try-outs for a remake of “101 Dalmatians”. There were 10 of the cutest, roly, poly, wiggly pups waiting to be brought out, one by one, and checked out from head to toe. And the process is not all that different from what I’ve recently been through, although I wasn’t checked for worms (yet). Listen to heart and lungs, check ears and mouth, temp, stool sample, vaccines and de-wormer, toenail clip… an assembly line that amounted to a good morning’s work.

The Doc at the poop station checking for parasites... — The Doc at the poop station checking for parasites…

Doc, I'm seeing spots before my eyes... — Doc, I’m seeing spots before my eyes…

Honor

June 14, 2014 Shirleyjdietz6 Comments

Today I will think of all the spent hours of your life that translated into food for my body, clothing to cover me and as much security as you knew how to create. Today I will consider that you started out as a teenage man with little instruction in family life, except that you grew up in a family yourself. I will think about the times you changed your path and the uncertainty you must have felt as you searched for a better way to provide. I will think about why you would fall asleep in your chair at the end of all those long days – not from laziness or drunkenness or escapism, but because you were physically exhausted.

I will realize that as a human you probably experienced sadness, frustration, anger (oh yeah), despair and doubt and yet you never bothered us children with any of it. We had little knowledge of your struggles because you were a man and we were self absorbed children. You taught us how to work alongside of you, but you always worked harder and longer. And yet I can remember that you sang in the barn, and whistled and tried to yodel. You modeled that it was possible, and desirable to enjoy work. You gave me the idea that sometimes when trouble seems overwhelming the best thing to do is just go out and work at something. Sometimes the trouble loses interest and goes away unfulfilled. And at any rate, working is better than worrying.

As you’ve grown older with so many limitations ganging up on you, your persistence to do what you can inspires me (and scares me, but, hey… how can a nearly blind man on a rider mower cause any trouble?) I see you teaching lessons of humility (when Mom is right and you are wrong), lessons of love (when you rub Mom’s feet and wash the dishes), lessons of trust (when you put those unsolvable things in God’s hands). And you still whistle now and then and have Pandora playing on your cell phone, announcing your presence as you go. I honor you for all of that.

Today I will grieve that as a society we have almost lost the concept of honoring our fathers for anything. Temptations are everywhere, expectations are high, psychology focuses on faults and there is nothing that cannot be blamed on a father. I will remember how hard it is to be the head of anything, particularly a family. I will be thankful for you – that you have not run away, that you are my dad, my father.

Things I Put Off: Episode 2

June 6, 2014 Shirleyjdietz2 Comments

Busy people (like me) are able to procrastinate in ~~pretty nearly~~ every area of life. Cutting back on my work schedule allows me the opportunity to look for these “put off” things and experience the wonderful satisfaction of getting them done after months of having them on the “to do” list. If you have never gone through this cycle you are missing out.

Having made great headway scheduling my “every 7 year” physical exam, this morning I turned to the oneacrewoods, which has been… well, neglected at best. If you don’t love nature, gardening, dirt and sweat go read somewhere else right now because you won’t understand.

It’s the compost bin. The compost bin is where you can put all your vegetable scraps, lawn clippings, leaves, etc… in the hope of making new, rich soil. Presumably you are making this soil to put somewhere else where the ground needs improvement. However, if you never do anything but put stuff in the bin, there is not much point in doing it. Ideally it should be fluffed up, turned over and watered once in a while too but I never get around to that. And because I have such a big yard I actually have two compost bins to play with. Lately they have been looking full. I can’t remember that last time I emptied them. It’s a nasty job.

Did you know that cockroaches fly? Did you know that some of them are actually white like albinos? They love, love, love compost piles and when disturbed they take off in flying, jumping swarms to find some new place to hide (up a pant leg, under a shirt collar, in hair, aaaghh!) I have absolutely no cockroaches in my house and I think it’s because I provide this much more favorable place for them to live. I think of it as pest control.

I chopped and shoveled through both my bins (after the roaches left) and there was some pretty good soil in there. I added it to my small garden area which is fallow – fancy word for nothing growing in it – because we are already in the hot season here. Lots of things do grow in this season but not many traditional vegetables. I’m preparing for September when it cools off. One more thing off my list, and truly, it was so beautiful outside this morning that I didn’t even mind the roaches, much.