Easy Come, Easy Go............... Happy Father's Day, Brad

Some of you have heard me speak about how God seems to provide for us financially, especially when a crunch-time hits --- and most often it's a fairly small crunch-time thing, but nonetheless worrisome. A couple of weeks ago I had some discussion with the company holding our mortgage. Without going into lots of details, I'll just say that it turns out they had withheld excess dollars in escrow for the Amherst County taxes. They said it would take a couple of months to be sorted out, so I just put the entire thing out of my mind.

Today we got a nice check in the mail for the escrow overage that had been withheld. However, also today we found that water was not draining out of the kitchen sink, or for that matter any place in the house. The problem seemed to be that the sewer drain pipe going from the house to the septic tank was blocked. This had happened once before some years ago and it was determined that tree roots had breached the pipe.

So Brad called someone with experience in this area. Sure enough, they found a huge blockage in the drain pipe. But in the process of finding the problem they also discovered that the pipe was cracked and broken, and a section of it will need to be replaced. I won't go into all the smelly details of today's episode. To finish the job, some parts had to be obtained, plus a couple of different tools.

So guess what is happening here on Father's Day? Brad will be assisting in this repair work. Some old terra cotta piping will be removed and new PVC piping put into place. Oh boy!!

And the nice check we received in the mail is another example of "just-in-time" economics. Thank you, God, for giving us a way to pay for this unforeseen expense!

Spring sprucing

My book club met here this week. I wanted things to look good so we added some color through plants. Hope we have more company soon!

"Drinking porch."

Tried to snap with hummingbird on the feeder but was not quick enough.

 By the driveway entrance door.

 New vase on mantelpiece. Sunflowers, day lilies and red hot pokers.

Additions to the wild azalea garden.

And this morning the cows arrived!  Yay, it finally feels like summer is here. The grass is so tall it's hard to see the cows!

Walking to Hanshill

Brad loves to joke around with his students. This year on Earth Day he and one of his students got into a discussion about environmental consciousness and doing things to save energy. Brad teased the student about riding to school every day in a car driven by a parent so the parent makes two round-trip drives each day. He suggested the student might consider riding her bike to school instead --- you know, put your money where your mouth is. Even riding a school bus might be more environmentally sound.

So he and this student went round and round back and forth. Finally they came up with a challenge/agreement. If the student would ride her bike to school, then Brad would walk home from school.  The challenge was accepted, on both sides.

So yesterday, Monday June 4, was the day. Sure enough the student rode her bike. She left home at 5:45 a.m. and arrived at E. C. Glass at 6:52. I don't know the exact number of miles she rode but it was at least ten miles. The bike then sat in Brad's classroom for the day.

Here she's at Boonsboro Road and 501.

In the parking lot at E. C. Glass --- she made it!

   Ta da!  This exceptional young woman's name is Hope Wright!

At 11:47 a.m. Brad struck out on his hike to get home, heading down Memorial Avenue and Fifth Street. In the first hour he made it downtown, across the bridge, and about a half mile up River Road. When he got to Red and Dot's, he stopped and had two Gatorades. He sat on the porch and chatted with the proprietors.  Here he is walking along River Road maybe a half mile before Red  Dot's.

In this next shot he had made it up the long, arduous hill on King's Road and he is on a flat spot just before the house that has the cows.

He said the worst part of the walk, going up King's Road, was made immeasurably easier by a phone call he got as he was starting up the hill. The coach of the Glass lacrosse team, Coach Ranuska, called Brad to give him advance notice of something very exciting. He had just learned that two of our seniors had been chosen as All American lacrosse players from the state of Virginia. The players are Jimbo Moore and Joe Vincent. In addition Joe was chosen as the Regional player of the year. Brad said talking to Coach Ranuska and hearing this fabulous news made the walk a breeze -- he scarcely knew he was walking up that steep hill.

In this next shot he's on Elon Road with the railroad bridge off in the distance ahead.

Now I'm waiting at the Leftwich Road intersection --- he has just crossed the railroad bridge.

 FINALLY, he had made the turn onto Leftwich Road -- I'm sitting next to the mailboxes. Thank heavens nobody ran him over out there on the highway.

 Coming through our gate and onto our driveway.

Faith was barking about the person walking down our road toward the house. Finally she figured out that the person was a friendly face.  HOME AT LAST. The 7.4 mile trip was completed in two hours and 50 minutes. Good for you, Mr. Barth!!

This effort was not environmentally friendly, since the student's mom drove more miles than on a normal school day, and ditto for the Barths. I drove Brad to school in the morning, then went out three different times to check his progress on his walk. However, we hope that this was a memorable day for the student. At least it says something about Mr. Barth's word.  Go, old man!!

deer deterrent?

Deer are a never-ending problem around here, but especially in the vegetable garden. You will have a lovely row thriving one day, and the next it has been eaten away. Of course other varmints do this as well, especially groundhogs. But deer definitely cause problems.

For years Mama has insisted that a good deer deterrent is Octagon soap ( a form of bar soap that has been around for many years). You are supposed to cut a cake of soap into several pieces and then hang them around the garden fence to ward off the evil deer --- oops, I mean to keep the deer from coming into the garden. We microwave the whole bar for about 20 seconds. That softens it enough that it is manageable to cut and it does not flake.

Our method is to wrap the small sections of soap in netting and then use floral wire to attach the wrapped piece of soap to the barbed wire fence. Outside of the barbed wire fence is an electric fence. This approach is fairly effective in keeping out the deer. Of course it does nothing for ground-hugging animals like rabbits, groundhogs and skunks.  We cut up 8 bars of soap, each into six pieces.

 Brad is hanging a new little cake. I hope this remedy works!

Sideboard curtains

So, as I mentioned in my last post, I was planning to make new curtains for the sideboard on the eating porch. I used the old ones as my pattern, and I re-used the little rings that are sewn on the top to hang over the rod. I spray-painted them black.

Here's a close-up of the fabric.

 I set up the sewing machine on the eating porch and enjoyed listening to the birds while I worked. I wanted to finish them before Mama came to lunch last Sunday May 27. Sure enough I did finish them on Saturday.

Finished --- voila!

 They add a bit of color and some freshness to the sideboard. Come see them in person!

Spring planting

Sunday Brad and I went to early church. He wanted to have plenty of time to work in the garden. There had been so much rainfall over the past few weeks that the earth had been too muddy to plow. Finally, the conditions seemed right. So he went back and forth over the garden multiple times with the plow (borrowed from Elmer Loving). Once he was satisfied with that, he planted row crops. These included roma beans, butter beans, corn, okra, snap beans, black-eyed peas and kale. He also planted tomatoes, cucumbers, eggplant, and a few herbs. He followed up today by planting yellow squash, zucchini, and beets. For those of you who are familiar with our garden, you will note a couple of new additions this year. Don Davis says to try at least one new item each summer.

Here are some seedlings waiting to be planted.

While Brad worked in the garden, I worked in the house. For the third time this spring I cleaned the two porches. I even bought a new mop, and that helped with the porch floors.  Pollen has not been my friend. During this episode of cleaning I decided it was time to run items stored in the sideboard through the dishwasher. Then I opted to arrange things a bit differently than how it was done in the past. On my list this week is to make new curtains for the sideboard, although I'm asking myself do I really want them?

We bought this hanging plant at the community market a few weeks ago. We thought maybe the wren would find this to be a suitable spot to construct a nest, as opposed to the porch light fixture, but that has not been the case. I like how the leaves are green and white on the "front" side, but purple in the "back" side.

Speaking of birds, we have seen groups of baby birds at our feeders or in the yard the last few days. It's hard to believe that little fledglings have already matured so quickly. We've seen baby house finches, nuthatches, chickadees and, unfortunately, cowbirds!

In loving memory

One of the most faithful readers of my blog has been my dear friend Karen Rosenblatt. If you look at the names of those who are followers of the blog, she is listed as rogerrosenblatt. Roger is her husband. Vibrant and youthful Karen died suddenly and without any warning on Thursday May 10, at the tender age of 55. She had two sons: Joe is finishing his freshman year in college and Andy his junior year in high school. They called it "sudden cardiac arrest."

I met Karen when I was working for Verizon in the mid-1980s, teaching PBT (Programmer Basic Training).  We both worked in the Bell Atlantic computer training center (that was before the company name changed).  We liked each other and eventually became really good friends. Karen and I both went through separation and divorce around the same time. Karen was the person I tried to fix up with Brad in October 1987. Their first meeting was at a Halloween party in the townhouse development where I lived and Brad lived. She was not impressed and left the party early. A week later Brad and I had our first date and we got married about 6.5 months later. Karen eventually met Roger and they dated for a longer period of time. They got married in October of 1990 and I was the matron of honor. They always lived in the greater Baltimore area, most of the time in Ellicott City, Maryland, which adjoins Columbia.

One of my earlier memories of a time with Karen was on the day that the space shuttle Challenger exploded in January 1986. I was teaching a 3-month class in Richmond, and had relocated there for that period of time. Karen came down one day to relieve me and teach the class for me and she stayed maybe three days. Anyway, the day she came was the day the Challenger exploded. When she reached my workplace she told me that she'd been listening to the radio all the way down I-95 ---- there was continuous news coverage about the explosion.

In September of 1986 Karen and I enrolled in a class to learn how to play bridge, at Howard Community College. After the semester was over, she and I joined several ladies from the class to form a bridge-playing group. We played on the first and third Tuesday night of each month, rotating among homes of the 8 participants. The group continues to play today --- although "girls" have left and new ones have joined --- myself being a prime example of one who left, when we moved to Lynchburg in 2001.  It is interesting that the last time before she died the group played at Karen's house, on Tuesday, May 1. The next time they were scheduled to play was the day of Karen's funeral, May 15. The girls got together for a meal but did not play cards --- instead they had a time of remembrance and love of this person who was the youngest member of the intergenerational group.

My blog was a vehicle through which we reconnected and once again communicated often. Karen would e-mail or call me after a post and ask me follow-up questions. The latest question she had asked was for an explanation of the difference between a species daffodil and a cultivar. She was always interested in what was happening in the lives of my children. She sent a baby gift to Evie and a wedding gift to Eddie and Kelly (though not invited to the wedding).  The last time we spoke was on a Saturday morning about 3 weeks before she died. She called about 9:15 a.m. and we talked for about 30 minutes. I could write pages about Karen's thoughtfulness and the way she kept up with a myriad of friends. But since you did not know her, I won't do that. It is enough that those of us who knew her and were able to attend her funeral were able to share in so many Karen-specific stories as related by the priest and also by Karen's sister. Suffice it to say here, I loved her very much and I will miss her. She was such a behind-the-scenes cheerleader for everyone in her life, including me. Roger attended Lynchburg College. One day Karen and Roger were going to come to Lynchburg and see Hanshill. Now, that day will never come. I will miss the anticipation of that visit and I will miss knowing that Karen is reading my blog and that our friendship continues, despite the miles between us. God's blessings upon you, Karen, and your dear family.