SEP-OCT UPDATE

Holly couldn't wait to try out her new quilt as soon as I had finished binding it.  I think it will be special for her as she helped with the expense and  the tying.

  I finished cutting the dress bag scraps that Sunshine had saved for me and they were laid out in various designs, stacked and ready to box to travel to Green Valley.

I've been making fleece blankets to donate to CAPSA before I leave and Jake loves to help me and has chosen the pattern he wants for his Christmas present.

Several weeks ago I spent a delightful afternoon with cousin John and his son Bryan who lives in Ohio and is now flying out every 2-3 months to help his dad out with "honey do" items around house and with John's finances and loss of his mother and his dad's adjustment to that loss.  I haven't seen him for 19 years and it was nice to see him again as John talks about him all the time.  I took them lots of fruits, vegetables from gardens and baked goods that are Johns favorites.

Holly has seen all the browns and greens that are falling all over our yard (just there for the taking) and knows that they could be doing their thing as they breakdown in a compost pile.  So she bought "Composting for Dummies" and found that composting doesn't have to be an elaborate thing as some people get into, but be as simple but effective as one likes.  So she began last week with a combination of leaves, paper, cardboard (browns) and has added our fruit and vegetable refuse (greens) to the mix.
She will turn it every so often and it will be great to add to garden next spring. I'm all for it and say "Good Going" HollySue!

We've had a great apple crop this year as all four trees grew quite a good yield.  A wet spring and delayed ripening of them produce delicious apples but they aren't as red as this ceramic one on kitchen cabinet.  But I've been canning and freezing some and giving lots away to neighbors and friends to enjoy.  There are still quite a few on the tree next to garage that haven't ripened enough yet, but should soon as we've been getting down to freezing temps these past 10 days.

I'm trying to practice the art of patience in waiting to have workmen come in and complete the jobs that are on their dockets at the Howells' home.   The front room is still a mess as the drywall water damage at front window has not been finished.  The stucco guy says he'll repair all the little stucco hole damage those pesky woodpeckers and magpies have caused at end of this month when he can work me in.  The side hill needs trimming, the fruit trees are sickly do various bad stuff caused by wet spring and they need to be sprayed, but that can't be done until all the leaves are off trees.  Then they need to be pruned as that hasn't been done for two years.

I've been feeling pretty good except for the days when I'm doing lots of physical work that requires turning my head up, down and around and the vertigo blast gets my attention.

I guess that'll do it for now......mom

Canadian Thanksgiving

Who needs Columbus Day when you can have another Thanksgiving dinner?

AUGUST UPDATE

What a busy month this has been - maybe that's why it has flown by.  This is my Hansen cousin John Ream who like my father would have been allowed to enter Great Grandfather Smith's huge library because he loves and appreciates good books.  When I took another meal up to him last week he showed me his new huge monitor that allows him to read his Kindle with two pages on the screen.  He was very excited about it.  This has been a very hard month for him as his dear wife, Virginia,  died  end of July from conditions associated with having Alzheimer's for about 20 years.  He's been her sole caregiver in giving over his life to that service.  In that computer room which he has named Ginger's Place he allowed me to view her  in a lovely silver urn along with flowers and other mementos of hers.  It has become a shrine because they spent many of these last years eating, talking, watching TV, reading to her, etc and I'm probably one of the few who have ever been in it.  I know I'm the only cousin who knows Virginia has passed on because he's a very private person and doesn't want a lot of hoop-la made of it.  We've gone way back together, as he helped to tend me when Kate was born, helped refer me to the right people for my job at Thiokol after grad from USU, our love of ancestors, literature, great music, both of us dealing with Alzheimer's care giving, etc and he loves all the goodies I make, bake and deliver to him from spring to winter.

The fellow who was going to put a new roof on house died two weeks ago.  He was such a nice guy so I'll have to find someone else now.  The guys are working on the rain gutters as I type will add two more rain spouts out back.  And yes Justin you and Jesse were correct about the corners needing lots of work.

I finally can see fairly well now, yea!  Best I can hope for with the issues in left eye, but it's sooooo much better than all summer long.  When I picked them up from  office I found out that a high school  friend had finally died of brain tumors after a long three year fight.  I don't take local paper so missed her obit and felt so badly that I'd missed her funeral.  Quite a few of the deco in this house are her works of art.

Two weeks ago dear friends from A. F life drove up to Logan for lunch and four hours of talking as fast as we could to catch up.  I wasn't quite ready to drive to Heber City with old glasses and chest pain so they came up here.  Barbara, who joined our widow's club 5 months ago listened to some of the ways Hi and I dealt with loss of our mates.  Soooo good to see them again.

Then last week with new glasses, I drove to West Jordan to Sally's home and met Barbara there.   I programmed her address into my new car's navigation system and Maggie got me through heavy traffic just great.  These two were my closest friends during our missions together and we also talked as fast as we could for about 3.5 hours.  They're already talking about another get together in October.  We'll see......  We exchange recipes and patterns.

I've been wrapping many wedding gifts this summer for youngsters in the ward, cutting and arranging blocks for next quilts.  Holly got so excited about one of Sunshine's bag material that she asked if I would make her another quilt.  She's purchasing the needed items and will help me tie it when canning season is over.

After I left Sally's I met with Lance and Becky to do a session at the Jordan River temple.  It's been a long time since I've been with them and it was nice.  We ate dinner on their lovely  patio porch and enjoyed the cricket serenade with cute Zac and Leona (just had her 97th birthday.  I slept overnight so avoid heavy traffic back home.  The bed was so soft that I had  the best night's sleep in a long time - my bones loooooooooved it.  Sarah delivered a 5.10 oz baby girl (Indianna) after being on best rest for two weeks.  She came two weeks early and now she and Shad are living with Lance and Becky until Shad heads to Kuwait for a year.  Sarah and babe will stay with grandparents til he returns.

Holly said she texted that I'm up to 88 lbs this a.m.  So I guess eating and drinking  more salt and sugar diet is working.  I'm eating pretty much the things I've done for years, but adding the soy taco mix, and hummus, and ground nuts, bubble less smoothies, flat sugared root beer, Dr. Pepper, and more Ensure and adding powdered milk to anything plausible that I can think of.  I'm eating small peanut butter sandwiches made with dry peanut butter mix with just 4 grams fat is so fun to do again.  And some small bites of homemade candy or chocolates.  The costocronditis if still with me especially when Holly and I are canning.  I try not to overdue, but when I need to rest the pain eventually goes away which it didn't a month ago.  So hopefully I'm healing slowly but surely.  These salsa and marinara sauce recipes Holly and I are making come from our garden and a tomato farm in Mt. Sterling south of Logan.  They are delicious and meet both of our dietary needs (less oil, salt, sugar for her) etc.  She's taken over Dad's job of chopping peppers, onions, garlic, celery so it's nice to have help again.

The pears are falling and I need to do some cin pear jam- am getting low. and the apple are getting ripe.  Cucumbers are overflowing onto the grass and I'm done with dills so we're giving them away.  Have done lots of pickled beets and some for us to cook and eat and also giving many away as out crop was huge.  Our second planting of spinach is looking good and we both love eating a lot of it fresh from garden.  Kale is still there for my salads also.

well I thinks that's enough for today - making too many typos.

BTW - I got an email from Dan Courtney several weeks ago asking if I would be willing to give his accommodations a recommendation on our stay in La Jolla last summer.  I've been giving it some thought and knowing what some of your opinions might be have not responded yet.....
  

JULY update

Some of you haven't seen my new marlin blue car - rides much better than the Jeep, but since I've driven it only about 100 miles due to eyes and chest issues, how would I know????  HollySue thinks so.

I donated my wind torn flag to the local cub scout troop who gave it a respectful and touching burning ceremony.  I was in tears thinking how much dad did to preserve and protect its meaning to us.

The Howells climbers increased in last weeks when Katie, Drew, Derek and Brayden joined the previous members of Gloria, Brady, Brook, Sunshine and Justin in climbing up to famous Saddle Rock.  Hopefully this group will continue to expand and others make their try.

 While some of family were here the weather really cooperated for our activities.  And so did the raspberries!  They were are the peak of their production and it really was great to have so much help bringing in the crops.  They also helped make many bottles of jam to take home for "lickin good eatin" during next year.  Berries are just about done now only some of another variety are still producing for cereal, yogurt and raspberry pies for

friends.  The apricot tree was loaded with millions of blossoms when I returned in April, but then most were frozen.  So Holly got a few down for me yesterday and I found a few more this morning to eat with my yogurt so there will be not apricot jam, or nectar bottled this year.  I will not choose to give last year's supply away to every Tom, Dick and Harry from now on.

Holly and I are eating a lot of our home grown spinach, kale, her cherry tomatoes and her peas.

Grand kids and siblings helped Holy with her beautification project under the deck.  We'd donated most of the "farm treasurers" that dad and I used as decor in that area, but they were rusting and looking bad and we found others who had a nice use for them and hauled them away, yea!  We need a truck.


She had a challenging week (last) as she was back on the days testing team working with the new organic line of fish.  She had to get up at 5:00 most mornings, but one day it was 3:00 a.m. and she was spent everyday she came home.  Her friends want her to join them on days when the product is perfected and ready to go into production.  Not sure what she'll do yet but they'll have to twist her arm for sure I think.

I've had to deal with all sorts of techno problems last and this week which has been stressing me out big time.
MSN issues with possible hacking, changing passwords, which affected my iPhone connecting to computer, routers competing with each other causing Holly and I problems, printer issues and downloading photos easily like I used to.    Iieeeeeeeeoowwww,  I'm ready to go back to 2 party phone lines, Royal typewriters, and snail mail.........

When Justin and Jesse got on roof to check out how rest of the gutters were compared to the short one I cleaned out they found some were filled with sludge and leaves and some were not.  They covered the area under the Japanese maple and trimmed the branches with metal covers.  That tree is going to get a severe haircut this fall.  But Justin reported that the tiles were wearing and in crevices did not look good at all.  So I called Roger to get name of his roofer and Steve came over and check it out last week.

I guess I shouldn't have purchased that new car as roof is in bad shape.  It was guaranteed for 15 years and its coming up on 19 years soon. He said I was fortunate as this house really gets the brunt of storms and weather compared to where others are situated.  Six vents are bad as well.  He was up there a long time measuring it as it's a very large roof, but this was the house dad and I planned and built.  Next time I'll build a much smaller one, ha!

I'm awaiting the gutter/window man now to see what shape the gutters are in.  There was also some living room wall damage near curved top window that needs repair asap.

I'm so thankful for all the help this crew gave Holly and me on "Mom's Honey Do List" while I did lots of resting, reading and recovery work in the lounge chair.  HollySue was so nice to order one of these cute Tees for sibs and me - surprised me.

Got my new lenses -far sight is fabulous - can see better than in a looooooong time, but still trying to get used to the bi and trifocals.

Thanks for all your reminders and encouragement about drinking more (just had a drink) and I've started to keep cups and several glasses of various liquids out and around to remind me to do it.

Have good days and bad days with chest and still can't lift or pull or walk quickly without pain and shortness of breath.  Have docs appt next week and am going to see about finding a new doctor a well.

Glad that Haedyn is recovering well.  Too bad he and I can't share blood - his flows too fast and mine flows too slowly.....

JUNE UPDATE

What a very busy month this has been for me filled with so many fun as well as challenging things to do.  No wonder I go to Green Valley in winter.  It's much more restful down there.

I was so happy to attend Taegan's award ceremony several weeks ago.  She was chosen the most outstanding student in her Social Studies class.  I also got to view the great article she wrote after she interviewed me and used some great photos of his military life and experiences in Vietnam.  Good Going Tae!

Congratulations to Taryn on her graduation from Empire High School with honors.  She'll be representing the district at a medical conference in Boston at the end of this month.  She'll be attending UA this fall and has been working hard to obtain various scholarships for a free ride.  She's just about there.  Good Going Taryn.  Her mom had a big surprise party for her afterwards and I even had some of the delicious and professionally decorated cake that one of Sunshines's friends created for the occasion.

Our desert has turned into the rain forest as we've had over 5" of rain in May and  caused more flooding in fruit room so Holly put ladder up and I cleaned out the sludge of dirt and leaves (she has vertigo on ladders).  Then a terrible dusty wind storm went through yesterday afternoon causing all sorts of havoc with trees felled and two boating accidents on Bear Lake with loss of a doctor and three children's lives  So sad to hear and makes the four hours of our power outage a very minor inconvenience.  I must say our lawn looks gorgeous and Holly loves the new lawn mower I bought after that piece of junk that Ryan used for three years.

The felling of this beautiful silver maple wasn't caused by a wind storm but by environment.  It's been dying slow but sure for many years like all the other silver maples here in Providence.  Many have their opinions why, but nothing definitive.  So I had it taken down along with several other  large bushes and stumps ground out.  Holly and I were sure we had identified all the sprinkler heads so wouldn't have damage, but one of the hoses could'n't withstand that whirling blade and I had to have it repaired.

Amy made the mistake of coming over to ask us if we would watch her home while they were on 10-day cruise and we asked her to help Holly move dad's old potting bench down to patio where she has made a darling entrance to her place.  Holly has been fired up to get things in better shape as we both want it beautiful

 here without so much upkeep.  We're making good progress and she can tell when I'm done and sends me in the house.

She was selected to be on the team to develop the new organic line of fish that P. Farm wan'ts to introduce so she has been working days and getting up at 4:30 - 5:00 is not her cup of tea.

These are my Lewis cousins who love coming to my home for lunch following decorating the graves in Logan and Providence cemeteries.  It poured rain and some couldn't come due to family weddings, grads, or illness, but they all loved the delicious wraps that Holly was in charge of.  I was shocked at Bob's appearance and demeanor.  He's changed so much, aged a lot, shuffles around like a 100 year old man and I felt

badly that he's been damaged so much.  He and Kate have sold their P.C. cabin, their home near St. Geo, his motorcycle and expensive car.  Sharlyn came and after a fun family history jeopardy game put together by Lance she told us all about the woes in her and daughter Lisa's lives.

 When I went to Paradise to put flowers on Henry and Zella's grave I passed their former house with new addition that owner Brent Pulsipher put on.  I'd like to take a look inside when it's all completed.


Took a fabulous raspberry dessert to Uncle Del and Carol.  They are in mid 80's and he's not doing well with congestive heart failure which took Grandpa Henry.  They were surely glad to see me and they are the last of dad's older relatives in Paradise.

My right eye is looking great (yea), so says Dr. Young at my midday checkup today and he'll make a slit, (yipes) in the left eye when I return from keeping a blurry closeup eye on my CO blondes next week while Katie's at Girls Camp.

Some of you have heard via Facebook that I've gifted and am selling my beloved Pacifica to Taryn to drive to UA and wanted to know what I replaced it with.  Well, this is a beautiful slightly used silver Jeep Cherokee which came with all the safety items that a woman with deteriorating vision could want.  However, after 2.5 weeks I knew that it was not for a gal who weighed 87 lbs as it has a smaller wheel base made for sturdier bodies.  Holly said she would buy it but "Dave" would yell at her so she's made the good decision to stick to her debt free plan.  I've traded it in for another car that might suit my needs,  but had better drive it for 2.5 weeks before I trade it in..........

Providence Update

How do you like our beautiful April spring?  This was from 10 days ago and we awakened to more mountain snow this morning.  We've had lots of rain in between which has been great for Holly and my gardening projects.

Last week I transplanted about 20-25 large strawberry plants from a friend's overgrown yard and Holly prepared an extended version of my tiny spinach area in herb garden since she and I consume a lot of spinach.

The day after yard man sprayed all the lawns for weeds and give nutrients - it rained hard for most of day and night (so much for that spraying job).   Yesterday was beautiful.


  Holly took over and went to town (er... rather to the garden).  She worked for hours raking leaves, transplanting errant canes and made them into soldier rows in the north garden.  Then she placed many of the huge leaves in between all the rows. I tackled the roses, iris, grass outside it's specified areas.  She cleaned off area in north side garden that I had landscaper remove all those huge fitzers last year, turned the dirt, and then transplanted the rhubarb plants to a better place to get watered by the sprinklers instead of Gloria pulling the hose every few days.  They LOVE water.  We transplanted iris around the ugly utility box several days before the rains began.

Her dad would have been so proud of her, having a plan, doing the jobs in proper order and cleaning up all the tools and putting away (just like all my kids do when they're finished with a job).  Sometimes she'd send me for a tool and it took me awhile to find it as I hadn't studied her filing system in that wonderfully organized garage.  She  surely loved using the new shovel and rake that Lance/Becky gave me for Christmas

Tomorrow we're going to visit Andersen's to choose the new plants, ground cover, and lots of vegetables to plant to beautify and nutrify.

I've been to one dental appt - another one on Tue.  Saw my eye surgeon and have the have another surgery on both eyes.  Am scheduled for a colonoscopy in May but don't have to have an endoscopy now.

Here's a photo of good AF friend Barb Hammond after we met for lunch in Tucson three weeks ago.  Her husband Bill was dad's assistant on Guam and she and I traveled the Orient shopping for jewels and junk.  We spent time comparing our aging ailments which is par for the course of active adults.

That's it for now, loooooooove, mom

GREEN VALLEY UPDATE - MARCH

Taegan is doing a report for school of her papa who served in Vietnam.  She interviewed me and wanted some photos of him in his uniform.  Thanks to Holly, I sent her this cute one along with three others and look forward to seeing her report.

Three more agave cacti in front and two in back are shooting out their stems and then they will die.  My neighbors and those who do their walking along Pato are keeping watch on their progress.

Nice neighbors Jack and Dick took down the old fence rails that former owners had erected to "borrow" this community property land to use as their own.  It's getting too much work for me to maintain and keep up so by returning this land to the HOA their people will do it for me.  Last week the landscapers came and thinned out the overgrown cacti, dug out other  dead ones and killed a rat and removed two nests under two clumps of these agave's. No wonder Jeri's succulent plants were constantly missing from her cute plant stands.

They were nice to save all the small starts which I transplanted out back and in ports along my front sidewalk.  Now when those three out front die sometime this year I'll have some replacements for them.

Lance is recovering slowly but surely from shoulder surgery, but will have to wear a sling for several months.  This is Issac with him and I'm delighted to pass on the good new about Shad and Sarah being pregnant again.  They had those two previous miscarriages and things are looking good for this baby.  She's due in Aug and Shad will be leaving for Kuwait in Oct.  They have been living in Grand Junction, CO.  Also Eric and Cindy are due in November so the Hansen family is growing.

.

Mike who has 28 years of computer exp has spent at least 7 hours helping me get my computer working better after Geeks restored my previous crashes and didn't put them under me as the administrator (he's not a fan, but I did tell him how one found the work I had lost on mom's history last summer).  Hopefully this week he can set me up with an image point on my hard drive so I can recover any possible retrievals.  (heaven forbid)

Yesterday Brooke and family came down and spent the afternoon with me with a colorful narrative of their fabulous trip to the UK.  I hadn't seen them for quite awhile and it was a fun afternoon especially with yummy strawberry shortcake and souvenirs they brought.

With highs in the 90's now I'm walking earlier and earlier everyday.  The 2.92 miles I put in this morning starting at 7:30 was the best ever as I felt good the entire way.  My goal is to reach 3.0 miles before I leave on the 12th.  Brady is also feeling the best ever as he takes time out each day to get his exercises in.  I want to stay  as healthy as I can to see my grandchildren grow into fabulous adults.

GR EEN VALLEY UPDATE

When I spent a Sunday afternoon with Brooke and family I was delighted to see how beautifully Ffiona presented the meal to all.  Brooke prepared it and she presented.  It was delicious and I brought 3/4's of it home to enjoy during week.  Maybe culinary arts are in her future.

However, something I want out  my future are the critters who thought (without the landladies permission) to take up residency under my beautiful flowering bush on my back patio.  They had used the three huge rocks that previous owners and placed there for decoration to build a huge hut using all sorts of debris and materials. This photo was taken after the crash. I was too astounded to take one when I first discovered it.   A naturalist would have been amazed and given them high marks, but not moi.  When I took a large tool and crashed it down nothing ran out and attacked me (of course I didn't do it at night when they are out and about).  After I had filled garbage can with this stuff and continued clipping the very long branches I saw another one on the right side of this area. (My poor eyes didn't see this-one either). I nearly had a conniption fit.  I tackled that one after the garbage can had been emptied  the next day and again nothing ran out  to defend his fort.

Hyun spent his day off helping move these huge  boulders to various parts of yard and he continued to rake debris trying to leave colored rocks where they were meant to be.  He's got big muscles that his grandmama lacks.

Yea!  That's looking much etter..........................but this guy, or couple, or family were determined that they couldn't be evicted that easily and when I checked the area several days later there was a huge hole again on right side going under the dirt toward the fittings of the house.  Now I was really getting miffed! 
 So I found a tool with a hook on the end that opened up the awning above and got down and couldn't believe the nest under there that Hyun and I had missed.  It included a huge nest with shredded materials and fibers plus all the rest of the tree pods twigs, leaves etc. and cacti debris they could find.  Then I pulled out two huge pack rats deader than door nails. Yuck!!!!

Before I prepared lunch for us, Hyun also helped blow  all dust, leaves, dirt, etc out of garage after we moved lots of boxes I've been storing in there.  Nice neighbor let him borrow his blower and it's so good to have that done.  We get so much of that dirt and dust here in the desert - wonder why?????  And I'm sure many of you will be shocked - but I've decided that my box fetish has to go. I'll keep those that I use for moving back and forth, but without all  

your dad's stuff and not using as many large boxes for shipping to all of you I'm cleaning out.

Back to the critter problem.  After I cleaned up the dead rats and all their stuff and continued to wonder how many were feeling at home on my property.  So I put out two large containers of delicious rat "food" to see if there were any takers.  Next morning when I checked both were completely empty.  I went in the house and made an appointment with exterminator I use for termites.  He checked the low rise condo out and agreed that putting some bricks and pavers that Hyun had moved behind patio would be good to dissuade them from thinking this was usable property for their summer home.  So I spent the rest of morning cleaning out the nesting hole, filling it with old bricks and rocks and leveled out the rocks and dirt so I could place one side of the pavers under neath the siding to secure them from being lifted up.  Guy left a large container filled with rat elixir and will check each week to see how much is missing.  The next morning when I checked,  Renaldo Rat had returned and tried to dig down to the blocked up nest using another route.  No other evidence of  his gathered debris was around the tunneling.  Will see what the exterminator finds on Tue.

Hope you'll share this saga with my grandchildren so they'll know of my adventures...

GREEN VALLEY UPDATE

Hi y'all, and congrats to many of our family who are celebrating birthdays this month.  Brayden's was on 6th, Katelyn's on 10th, Brady on the 12th, Taryn on the 24th and Dylan on the 28th.  Then also extended family  are Dustin on 2nd, uncle Bob on 19th and Lance on 23.  Hope it's a good time for all of you.

Bob was hit harder this time with stroke than last summer, but he's into P.T. now and looks like he's having a bit of lunch break.  Left side of body still compromised and Kate says it's going to be a long road ahead.  Let's keep him in our prayers.

Here's the infamous tree in neighbor Barbara's back yard that is causing lots of contention in neighborhood.  I've been asked to be the arbitrator between Cindy and Barb to resolve the issue since I'm friendly with both of them and they have hated each other every since I've been coming to G.V.  I' not sure if even Henry Kissinger could resolve this issue, but we'll see what happens.

And that reminds me that I wanted to resend this photo to those who didn't get it.  I'm tired to replanting cactus that we've planted since living here.  For some reason they haven't survived while others have.  But three weeks or so ago I rode to Tubac (tourist trap of Mexican products for those who don't want to shop across the border) but of course these are priced for American shoppers.  Jack and Jeri were headed to Mexico to get some meds (still much better prices) and since I hadn't brought my passport they dropped me off in Tubac so I could by this darling red rose and quail to fill in for he missing cacti.  Hopefully they will be easier to maintain.

Met high school friend, Ann, for annual lunch at Sweet Tomatoes after shopping; baking for neighborhood and missionaries;  taking many computer classes;  and walking over 2.5 a day at brisk pace are keeping me busy---------

----along with my sewing and quilting projects.  My neighbors want to be involved and help me find good deals at White Elephant, Good Will and estate sales in area and donate those so they can feel good also about sharing with the needy here.


Congrats to Rebecca for landing the job she was hoping for at Rowan's Washington Elementary School.  With her experience and work ethic she showed at the preschool her boys attended, I know she'll be a great asset to each and every classroom she'll be involved with...and the hours and school schedules will coincide with her boys.  Good Going Rebs!