heat exhaustion

Yesterday was a wonderful day.

The sun was bright, the temps in the low 90’s.

I worked hard. I dug dirt. I mowed lawn. I irrigated the garden. 
I sweated and enjoyed the experience of it all.

When I went to bed I had the feeling of completion of a good day. 
But when I woke up I was nauseated and dizzy. Later I checked my blood pressure and it was abnormally low for me.

Classic signs of Heat Exhaustion. Not good stuff. It can be dangerous.

I spent the day moping around feeling a lot under par. Tonight, after several naps, a fist full of anti acids and a lot of water, I am feeling better, but still tired.

The symptoms are not new and the problem is well installed in my head. Some say that the “elderly” are particularly susceptible. I guess I am elderly now.

So, drink more water, stay out of the direct sun, and pace yourself.

David, were you listening to me?

I am in awe

This week I met an interesting lady.

She is 17 now, tall and pretty. She smiles easily, though her teeth are covered in stainless steel right now. When those come off she will have a fabulous smile.

I visited with her for a few minutes. I do not even remember her name, though I could find out if I wished.

She told me that she was taken from her mother early on, that in her first 12 years she had lived in that many foster homes. If she did not like the home, she would do something so totally evil that they would move her.

Then she was adopted at 12!

Those are not easy for anyone.

I wrote about her family a year ago. Her new parents are dedicated christian people, he was a school principle at one point, she a music teacher. They had two children. After they were gone they decided to adopt 4 more. When those were grown, they did it yet again.


These people are about my age: he is 70 now and she is 65.

The girl was a real mess when she was adopted, she assured me. The new parents had just returned on a long round the country trip, when she came into their lives. They packed up the motor home and did the whole thing again, a “you are important to us” message. I am told the girls came back different people.

She bubbles about her activities (she trains seeing eye dogs when they are puppies), She fusses about not being taken seriously in her church, but when I asked her she beamed.

“But you seem so wonderfully together now, is that true.”

“Oh yes” and she smiled again.

I do not know many details, but I am so I awe of the parents. The girl is in touch with her biological mother, but calls her by her first name, her true parents she insists are her adoptive ones.

What continues to amaze me is how much change can come about in a person when they are surrounded with unflinching love.

I was and still am in awe.

garden gate

My son in law has a steel fabrication business, so making this was not as Herculean as it would have been for me, but it still took a lOT of work. It is one of the first he has painted. I think it is pretty spectacular.
They garden along the river on the reservation, and there are lots of deer. The garden has to be behind a 10' high fence or you are just raising deer food!
That is Miriam and I in the background, doing an inspection of the orchard.

eating well

A gardener should eat well at least.

We have wonderful produce, but not always a huge variety all the time.

This time of year we have lots of lettuce, spinach, mesclun, radishes for very good salads (we eat a lot of them). Along with the greens I add nuts and seeds, olives and raisins and anything else that crosses my head. My salads are almost a meal by themselves.

But the list is not too much longer right now, with one exception. We have a good bit of asparagus. I steam it as a side dish usually, but then I read a piece about eating well from the garden the way a good italian might.

They suggested Asparagus, diced in small pieces and boiled in broth. Add that to just cooked pasta, squeeze in a bit of lime or lemon juice and add some parmesan cheese.

It was pretty good, so we have had that for the last two dinners. Miriam does not mind and cannot remember what we had any way, so it works well.

Before too long we will have creamed baby potatoes with fresh peas. That will be good enough to go on for a few days.

It will be good.

view from our camp site

Happiness is a privilege, not a right. Read the fine print. Jay Leno

Our average last frost is the middle of May, this year that was exactly right.

I put that tunnel over the top of my tomato/pepper/eggplant plants. It looked good, but we had frost two different times. I should have closed the ends when it frosted, but I was out of town the last time.

They will survive, though I did replace one that looked particularly bad, but it will set production back a week or two. I can live with that too.

Once I knocked the weeds down, the veggies looked pretty good. Carrots which can be difficult to get up (very small seeds that can’t be planted too deep and slow germination), but I have a very fine crop coming along.

Peas are coming along fine.

Yesterday I planted some corn, sweet, flour and pop. My neighbor has corn almost knee high. Hmm.

I do enjoy gardening, it keep me sane, if indeed I am. It is good for my psyche.

But, how long before caring for Miriam will make gardening a trial, then a pain and finally impossible? I tell my grandkids to not borrow trouble, to not think too much about things you have no control over, and I am not obsessed, but I do think about it.

Some day things will change, but in the meantime I will enjoy my garden and the veggies and fruit that comes from it.

Yesterday I wanted to make a salad that involved some boiled eggs over baby spinach. I put the eggs to boil, set the timer and asked Miriam to turn it off at the right time.

I came in a bit later and there were two egg salad sandwiches sitting on the deck. That is OK, but it is not what I told her and it is not what I had in mind, so we ate baby spinach salad with an egg salad sandwich (along with pasta and asparagus soup).

That kind of change I can endure for a LONG time.

back

We got Brianna graduated.

I had a birthday, a pretty low key on that one, and now I am a year older and not a bit wiser.

We did not come straight home but stopped in the mountains of north east Oregon overnight. I like family, I like friends, and I like to be alone with my Miriam. This time we camped with special friends that we met along the way. It was good to see them again.

Back to the garden and a week’s hard work, then we leave for Jessica’s graduation. Lots of running around here.

Julian Bridget

laura (and I think i have told this one before!)

Many years ago we met Laura.

She was 7, as I remember. We were both temporary Texans, they from New York State, to Texas by way of Idaho and Southern California. We straight from Idaho.

Her dad (another of those David’s in my life) was a hospital nutritionist, whose parent company loaned him around a lot. Mom was a nurse. We all became good friends, Grandpa and Grandma, Laura and her brother Scott. He was too young to remember us much.

Laura’s birthday is a few days from mine. I have long forgotten the exact day, which is the way it is, but when it is my birthday I send her an email, via her parents.

“Laura, wherever you are, have a happy Birthday -- Grandpa Dave.” Sometimes mom would answer and tell me where Laura was, sometimes Dad would and sometimes I would get no answer.

Last year I sent the usual message, and months later I was looking through my computer and I had two email addresses for Dad David. Hmm. I think I used the abandoned one, so I resent the message, apologizing for being late.

Mom Corinne wrote this wonderful letter telling me that Laura was married, was due to have a baby very soon, that she was in Michigan at the Seminary with her about to be pastor husband. When he finished at the Seminary they were moving to Florida, where he had a job.

And she sent me Laura’s email address. So I wrote and Laura wrote back and sent pictures when Julian Bridget was born and again later. She was a beautiful baby, and I am not one to swoon over newborns.

I explained to Miriam that Laura’s baby was our first great great grand child, since she called us grandpa when she was 7 and she just had a baby, we were great grandparents.

So, once again. Happy Birthday Laura. Best to you and your little one and your dear husband..

Congratulations Brianna

Sunday Brianna graduates from middle school.
Her school had 4 students, the oldest graduated a few years ago, and she is the only one in her class: she is a home schooler. She has been well taught.
Brianna is one of the chosen ones, She came into our lives not by birth, but by choice, and I am ever so glad she did.
You will do well, Bri.

Congratulations Stefanie

Congratulations Stefanie.
Saturday she graduates from RIT with high honors. I am very impressed.
I met Stef on an Alzheimer's site. She needed a grandpa. I said sure. That was 3 years ago.
I am proud to know her.

These are good ladies.

our ducks

We have a year round stream running through our property.

It is not huge, but any time of year is wider than I could ever jump over. In the summer the water is deeper and wider from irrigation runoff.

For a number of years we have had a pair of mallard ducks living on that stream. Sometimes there is two pair. I don’t know if they are the same pair or if they are the same two, even. Nature is not quite as clean and comfortable as we might wish.

Any way, each spring the hens lay a nest of eggs. I don’t know where, but they pull it off. Right now the chicks are swimming up and down the stream with Mother’s careful guidance.

The problem is that there are muskrat in the stream. The neighbors all have dogs and we have feral cats. When I mowed the lawn the other day, I found some little feathers. A cat had killed a bird of some sort.

Of course the cats, who look peaceful and even pretty, are a menace to all birds. We used to have a flock of quail that hung around our back acre. Not any more. We have squirrels, and I have never seen the cats and the squirrels go at each other. I am always amazed when the pair pull off the parenting ritual, and they do it every year.

I guess the upside is that we don’t have mice.

old feeder

This is an intriguing old bird feeder that was in the back yard of Linda's Portland house when she bought it.
Look at the joinery, the colors and the details.
Probably a factory job, but hard to know for sure.
Next time I go to portland I'll take some wood and tools and repair the roof.