Author: Liz

Posted on

Cool August night

YES!!

And rain, too!

August started with a whoosh of a cold front and then an afternoon, night and all day today gentle rain.

Hoo…I say HOO-RAH!

The forecast high today was 65F but it only made it to 60. I am ecstatic and dressed in fleece shirt and boots and long pants. AND, I even turned the heat on for just 15 minutes to take the chill and damp off…for Bob, you know :) !!

Rainy day Bob…

Rainy day Bear…

Rainy day me…

It’s ok. I was happy to sit at my desk and plug along at work while Bob and Bear snored.

In the wishful thinking department:

We started August cool and rainy
On Monday Bear and I saw a Cinnamon Bear on the game trail! ( we usually only see bears Spring and Fall)
Also on Monday, squirrels were working in the yard gathering stuff
There are a LOT of butterflies

Maybe it will be an early Fall …. maybe the yellow jackets will take the hint and do their Fall thing NOW!

A girl can hope….ok, a middle-aged woman can hope! I know Bear and Bob hope too!

Mr. Bob’s ear news… it is STILL going on. Last week we got an all clear from Dr. Clark via visual exam. To be on the safe side we continued the meds through Saturday. By Tuesday, Bob had the wobbles.

RATS.

DOUBLE-TRIPLE RATS!!!

We picked up more medication today and have calls in to 2 specialist clinics. We will travel either to Missoula or Great Falls or both this coming week.

On the plus side, Dr. Clark told me today that his gut feeling is that things look worse than they are. He was referring to my worry over Bob’s wobbly symptoms vs all other tests and as he said, his own intuition based on years of experience. As much as I try not to and KNOW that it does Bob no good to worry, it was so good to hear this. Bob is eating and drinking normally, normal output, he sticks to his normal routine and does not seem in pain.

So.

Onward!

The other good news is that originally, I was to pick up the newly washed and waxed Wild Thing today. That would have meant driving a fresh clean motorhome in the rain…on roads that had been dusty – resulting in yucky, muddy splashes. BUT…, the person working on WT called in sick and now she is to be ready next Tuesday AND staying in a nice garage bay at the body shop all this time. Another HOO-RAH! She should be home in time to load and head to whichever clinic(s) we need to go to.

It might not be exactly the getaway I had in mind, but we will get away and hopefully move toward full resolution of Bob’s ear infection. Dr. Clark does feel that is all it is…just bad, resistant bug or bugs. There is nothing to indicate anything worse.

The lastest wobbly Bob video…recorded for the veterinary diagnostic purposes.

Posted on

We might, we just might…

Inside most of today…again.

It has been cooler and tomorrow we are to get a cold front and rain to continue through the weekend.

But, the Yellow Jackets still plague us and will continue until a killing freeze kills them off.

Wild Thing…

…she is off getting washed and waxed.

And when she returns, we just might load up and go.

Posted on

Something old, something new

No, NOT another wedding for me :) …although just because I’ve failed 3 times, that does NOT mean I wouldn’t try a 4th!

Never, Never, Never give up!! – I think Winston Churchill said that.

I digress.

It is almost the end of July and that means it is almost birthday month!!! – YEA!!!

And after birthday month is September and if I live that long it will mean that I have survived yet another Summer.

I digress yet again – back to birthday month and something old, something new.

I ordered a kind of birthday present for me…from Etsy. …from a seller in Bulgaria. A very nice seller who sent me a wonderful note about being glad I was giving this item a home.

A new camera!

Actually, it is an old camera: a 35mm film camera.

My first “real” camera was a Minolta that my father bought me for my 16th birthday. I remember the story being that he found it in a used “bin” at a camera store. My brother, who is ALWAYS right, tells me that my father got it at a silent auction.

Whatever.

The Minolta that I was given was old(er) even then, but I remember it as wonderful and I have photos from it that are spectacular – in my opinion – and given what I know now.

I don’t think that this camera is the same as what I had but there are definite similarities.

When I saw the listing on Etsy, I just bought it.

Two of the food bloggers I follow shoot film and I’ve been thinking about film and wondering how I would do with film, knowing what I know now and understanding the timing issues as well as the shooting and processing issues.

We shall see.

I have 4 rolls of high speed color film zipping their way to me as I write.

A local photo store still develops film.

I will post the good, the bad and the ugly…hopefully the good will prevail.

As I waited for the camera and researched processing options and thought about the food bloggers and about things in my own life I’ve been thinking about… it occurred to me that this fits a theme I’ve been mulling: a “slowing down” theme. I’ve been simplifying and slowing down for years now, but lately…probably because it is Summer and I always think about changing things in the Summer (because I very much DISLIKE Summer!!!) – I thought about what it might mean to shoot film.

Film is slower in that I will shoot a roll of 36 photos before I take the film to a lab and wait 7-10 days for its return. And since I am paying for EACH, it is a vastly different exercise than digital which costs nothing but my time to take and review 50-100 images. And I am very good and very speedy at reviewing and deleting!

So…what will the film shooting mean to what I choose to shoot? And obviously, if any of the film images become part of a blog post, they will be somewhere in the 2-4 week time frame post shooting.

Slowing down.

I am not giving up digital – I LOVE digital, but I am certainly interested to see how shooting film turns out.

Something old, something new.

Posted on

Yellow Jackets

I should probably have titled this post: How to drown Yellow Jackets.

No, I am not sorry!!!

Yellow Jackets reportedly have a role to play in gardens…

Unfortunately, they tend to turn aggressive mid-Summer through early Fall, i.e. until the first killing frost.

This year, a hot summer following a mild winter, the yellow jackets have been plentiful.

Stepping outside and/or walking in the woods…constant buzzing!

Bob, Bear and I are on the defensive…

BBQ chicken suspended over soapy water = drowned yellow jackets.

4-6 mason jars…in the yard and in the fringes of the woods…

And then…AND THEN!!! – blog reader Steph emailed me about Bounce fabric softener sheets being a yellow jacket repelling force!

Bear and I made a quick trip to town to get the most fragrant Bounce sheets we could find. They had us sneezing all the way home.

And they cleared the front porch of yellow jackets.

Go Bounce!

Thank you Steph from OR!!!

Posted on

More light and shadow

This afternoon.

Bob.

Light and shadow.

*** 8 days, maybe more…90-93F. The nights cool to upper 50/low 60’s. BUT, we are having a Yellow Jacket year… I have traps made of meat hanging from skewers over soapy water in mason jars and have been drowning over 100 yellow jackets daily. I fear for the boys being stung – especially Bob, so we’ve all been inside except for a couple of hours in the morning. Bear and I go out – carefully – at noon and dinner and then at 9-10 ish p.m. And I take Bear for some Jeep excursion when I can break during the day. Hurry up, Fall!!