I’m very blessed. Three dogs with very different personalities, healthy dogs, Faye my partner companion and friend, snug little home, a lovely backyard. I give thanks.
Tag: Faye
Dancing dog
Achilles has danced for his meals for as long as I have owned him. Because he goes straight up and not onto me or Faye, I allow it. It’s quite endearing. Stella is content to wait at ground (or deck) level.
Journey
It’s been a hectic week-plus. Faye put in over 100 hours of work in eleven days. In addition to my contributions to household management I needed to keep the garden alive and try to keep up the many, many other talents she so enthusiastically and ably contributes to keeping our home running and in such fine shape. My appreciation of all you do, sweetie, is doubly, triply reinforced during these times. Life is a journey and along the way it’s important to stop, look around, see, smell, hear, and appreciate all that we are given.
Now that Fayes’ done working I’ll pick up the pace of my blogging a little.
Done
My marvellous, tireless, spirited wife has finished planting. One hundred plus hours in nine days. Faye is taking a well earned sleep-in this morning.
Blessed
I’m going to be quite busy for a few weeks. Faye has begun working for a farmer, plantiing Brussels sprouts and peppers. This isn’t the first year she has planted. Long hours, long days, made longer by our late-arriving spring and wet May. The farmer planned to begin three weeks ago and because of our very wet weather only started the day before yesterday. There’s a lot of catching up to do.
Yesterday Faye went to work before 0700 and returned about 2100. Today will be the same as will the next two or three weeks. I am awed by her toughness, her endurance, her willingness to do this very hard work. It would be perfectly understandable if after such a long day Faye unintentionally became short, snippy, snappy, mean – she does not.
At these times I’m very forcefully reminded of all that she does to keep our home going. Feed and walk the dogs, cook, bake, shop, put out the trash and recycling, laundry, dishes. Most especially our garden. We have an amazing vegetable garden and Faye’s done the overshelming majorty of the planning, prepping, digging, seed starting, planting, maintaining.
For the next few weeks I will attempt to fill in and do all of these things. This time reminds me how incredibly lucky, blessed, I am that my partner is kind, generous, thoughtful, and the most amazing dynamo.
Thank you.
Dessert is served
Faye got on a baking jag recently and this was the result. What we haven’t eaten has been frozen for future enjoyment. I’m so blessed to eat so well.
Dinner on the deck
This was last Saturday’s dinner. Salad, smoked chicken wings, creamy potato salad made with smoked potatoes, grilled asparagus – the first of the season! – and a beer. Dessert – courtesy of my girlfriend, who also happens to be my wife – rhubarb custard pie featuring home made crust and our own rhubarb.
Garden fencing up
In previous years we fenced off a small portion of the yard for our vegetable garden, using chicken wire. That served the purpose yet was usatusfactory for several reasons. This year we decided to greatly expand our garden and concomitantly use a less flimsy barrier. We agreed to fence off the entire portion of the yard 8′ in from the east chain link fence. This not only encloses our current and expanded garden, it allows for future expansion and protects our compost piles from three marauding dogs named Achilles, Kendal, and Stella.
We bought a 100′ roll of 16 gauge rabbit fencing with a 2″ x 2″ opening size and a few more 4′ steel posts. We put the posts up using orange tape as a rough straight line.
Then I unrolled the fence. We will have two gates, one allowing quick access to the compost piles and one quick access from the house into the garden and the staging area (background, near the shed).
We used one zip tie per post to ‘tack’ it into place while I wired the fence to each post. Faye keeps working in the raised bed as I get the fence up.
Kendal is unimpressed with our work.
Fence is up!
We have more work to do. It includes taking the slack out of the fence, installing permanent gates, roto-tilling after the ground dries a little more, mulching, and relocating the clothes line.
Angles
We came across an abandoned, empty barn recently. Faye wanted me to stop, and she got out to take photos, including this one full of juxtaposed angles, lines, light and shadow.
On deck
Faye and I came home Sunday afternoon to 20-plus degree temperatures so we made the time to enjoy a Mill Street beer on the deck. We resolved to spend at least a little time outside every month of the year and make a portrait and this one was easy. Stella’s ears and forehead sneaked into the frame. Good thing we did this – we had about 4cm of snow last night and the current temperature is 1, if that.
previouslytexan 