My son in law called yesterday to tell me that they we cutting these old giants up for scrap.
I suppose that is the thing to do, they are not very useful.
But, we tend to cut up anything we don't think is "useful."
Now I am glad I took time to photograph these relics of an earlier age.

spring pruning

Spring is pruning time.

On a small holding like mine, there is no shortage of plants that need to be pruned.

We have about 20 fruit trees, some fairly decent shade trees and too many weed trees that were here when we arrived 35 years ago.

A while back I planted some good old fashioned Oregon Blackberries along the long row of brambles. The plants are vigorous and the tendrils are long. Each part of the plant is covered in long very sharp thorns. When I prune them I get out my heavier than normal welding gloves.

Some years I prune light and some years heavier. This was a heavy year. If I let them get too large I get a lot of very small fruit and berries.

This year we cut down a very dead Paper Bark Birch. It was a beautiful tree, but one that does not do well in this area. Even the cut up hunks are pretty.

There are a few shade trees I would like to take out, but it takes so long while for them to grow into the empty space, that I am reluctant to proceed.

It has been good to be outside again. I as much a devotee of the outdoors as I am of good weather. Coward. So when the temps warm up a bit (50º can be warm) and there is not much wind I venture out with tools in hand!

I easily become a weather coward.

We were walking around in the local wildlife refuge and this little guy posed for his portrait!

garden seeds

For some time gardening has been on the decline.

At the same time there has been a consolidation of the seed houses. Vermont Bean is now located in Wisconsin. One company owns a dozen or so of the venerable seed houses from Randolph Wisconsin.

Cooks Garden, the wonderful source for hundreds of lettuce and salad varieties is not in New England any longer, but is a part of the Burpee group. The list goes on and on.

But at the same time I have discovered regional seed houses I did not know existed. This year I bought seeds from Victory Seeds from Oregon, a company that specializes in heirloom varieties. Those are the kinds, usually open pollinated (not hybrids) from which you can save seeds. They may also be the varieties that grandma grew in her garden in Nebraska.

Territorial Seeds is another good Oregon seed house.

With the opening of the Easter block, some houses have a good variety of heirloom seeds from that source, some of have been grown for generations.

My favorite eating tomato is Brandywine, a variety that was developed by the Amish a hundred and fifty years ago.

The heirlooms often do not bear as big a crop, and they are not ripe at the same time, and they are usually way too delicate to ship a couple of thousand miles, which is to say they are ideal for the home gardner.

Gardening is always an experiment. I grew some turnips last year, but did not find they added a whole lot to my soups and stews.

I grew 4 or 5 kinds of beans hoping for a good crop of dry beans for soups, but did not get a good crop, so this year I will change my method a bit and give it another try.

My potato crop was superb, mostly, but way more than we could possibly eat in a winter. I'll grow a fewer.

As I said, gardening is an experiment.

terry

Terry called yesterday.

He is my back neighbor. We look after each other's places when one of us is out of town. He has a key to my house. I trust him.

He had just bought a one way ticket to San Diego. He did not know when he would be back. His only grandson was in the hospital in critical condition.

The little guy is about 6 months old. Terry and Mary are in their middle 50's and this is their first and only grandchild.

The boy was having seizures and they did not know what was causing the problem, but he is in the finest children's hospital in the area, and he is getting good care. We hope and pray that will be what he needs.

So, as I work outside I look over at Terry's houses, just over the grape arbor.

There is nothing I can do.

There is nothing harder than having a child who is seriously ill, I am sure. I have not been in that position, but one of my daughters has and is.

Jessica May, her middle name from one of my grandmothers.
Love those freckles Jess!

Jess in Peru

I have a granddaughter in Peru.

She is 16, the apple of her fathers (and grandfathers) eye and she is on a help project in the back country of Peru. She will be there a week and a half or so.

That is a long way from home and we are all a bit nervous (the child's mom especially)! But she will be fine and will come back with a bucket of stories of places and things. With any degree of luck she will also gain an appreciation of how privileged we are here in the US of A.

I have been on a few similar trips, though my trips were to Mexico and Belize. I have seen kids transformed by seeing the poverty and yet the happiness of the people. It hard for us to put those two ideas in one sentence, but that is what I observed.

The limiting factor is language. You can talk through an interpreter, but I so often wished I could just sit down and visit with the people as easily as we do it here. My spanish is so limited.

Jessica is a good girl, she will do well and we are all very proud of her. It is a bit scary as well, not for her danger as much as the realization that she is on the edge of being a full fledged adult.

Grandpa is not ready for that quite yet, but Jess is!

Leo. RIP

Yesterday we lost Leo.

He had been sick for only a couple of months and had lost half of his weight at one point. Then he gained a bit back and then lost that.

His life might have been prolonged a bit, but at considerable expense and his illness seems to have had several complications, possibly including cancer, so the chances of his recovering to be his bouncy self was slim indeed.

Leo was affectionate and loving. The whole family fell in love with him. We all grieve his loss.

We never before had a pet who was so loved as him. He spread joy wherever he went.

He was only 6, and Miriam and I will miss him deeply.

so far good

In spite of the reviews, I decided to install the washer/dryer.

Everything looked good. There was no extra rust, there was no signs that the cases had been opened up. Maybe it would work well after all.

Miriam had a total fit. I told her that I was not sure I was going to keep the new pair (true at that moment) and that I had to see if they worked before I could sell them.

Well, maybe, but she kept on complaining and not being happy and calling me various name!

So we took the old washer (which she bought new and really liked) and put it in the downstairs bedroom, so we “could put it back after the test.”

We hooked up the “new” ones and ran a cycle.

No drips, no runs, no problems.

In fact they worked very well. Daughter 1 and 3 have similar sets, they love them. Quiet, 1/3 the water, half the soap, what is not to like, I thought.

Tonight, when we sat down to rest, she asked what I was going to do with the old washer (the old dryer is toast). I said we were going to sell it and she said that was OK with her.

“All is well that ends well” is the old saying.

Hmmm

Craig

Miriam's dryer quit.

She bought a new pair back when she was working.

The dryer died awhile back and we replaced with another of about the same vintage. But that one is sounding like a VW, just before parts start flying.

So I did what people who are on a tight budget do, I looked at Craig's List. I never met Craig, though I do understand he is a very wealthy (now) computer geek who lives somewhere in San Francisco.

I found a good selection of used washers and dryers, but was drawn to one in particular. Called the seller, made a deal and drove 50 miles to get the set. Nuts, right?

It is a front loader. Daughter one has one, says it is fabulous. Since it loads from the front they sell a stands to set them on, and that sounded good, so I did some search about how high to make one. Along the way I did a bit of looking at the reviews of this particular washer. Oops.

It was like you might expect from a Yugo. We have owned this brand since we begin buying new, but as one reviewer said: “They aren't made like they used to be made.”

Of 10 possible points, the average reviewer gave the machine about a 2. Ouch. A few said it was wonderful that they could not live without it, but a whole lot more said this version was somewhat less than horrible.

But now I own one. Do I have the wonder or the dog.

I guess we will find out.

I think there is a lesson here somewhere.