Egg-cellent Snacks.

 Egg-cellent Snacks.

 

Had boiled about a dozen eggs last night and just peeled and fed them to these two hungry hounds. Yeah, you KNOW that they are really hungry! But eggs that have been in the fridge over a couple of weeks are just perfect for feeding to the dogs—or to the hens, if necessary. Sometimes eggs are just the perfect food for hens if they need a bit of something during molting to get them back on their feed and put their feathers back on more quickly. Such is the magic of eggs that they help the hens who are not laying.

 

Want to ask for prayers for my grand nephew Dylan Wayne Pollard. He is in ICU with pancreatitis. Seems the young man is a diabetic, and his blood sugar went through the roof. Don’t think he realized he was a diabetic. Anyway, he needs our prayers to recover and get his act together—no alcohol whatsoever. His dad, Danny, is also the father of Jacob who has the juvenile scleroderma. That family definitely has some battles to face. Our prayers certainly cannot but help them.

 

My brother and his wife Jacqui are making chili today for their October Fest tonight at their church. Sterling is making red chili and Jacqui green chili—or maybe the other way around. Whatever. Indigestion for the evening. Yours truly had a Frito chili pie for brunch this morning and had the ensuing indigestion for the rest of the day. Figures, huh. And October Fest had nothing to do with it.

 

Sitting here sipping on a cup of hot lavender honey tea. Something about hot tea this time of the year is just perfect. No caffeine makes it easier to go to sleep at night, but still satisfies that desire for something as hot as fresh made coffee. And tonight may be another night of restlessness. Thompson spent the night barking about something—who knows what? It made sense the night before when the wind was blowin’ a gale, but last night was relatively calm—well, as calm as a breezy night can be on this hill above the lake.

 

Have not done much today other than folding and putting away some more laundry. That never seems to stop around here. Probably need to do the kitchen floor tomorrow. Such fun. Cleaned the living room floor late yesterday evening so it would be nice and ungritty today. These dogs are a mess—a sweet couple of messes, but messes nonetheless. Thompson has had the whines today for some reason. In and out, in and out. But at least he is not scratching and biting on himself. Guess the allergy bites and the different food may be working for him. OR whatever is in the grass is not as bad as before. Just not sure. Don’t want to give him anything expensive and weird like Apoquel, but want him to be comfortable.

 

Speaking of comfortable: sent off for a blanket on Amazon today. Have all kinds of “throws” that are fluffy and cuddly, but not one of them reach from my head to my feet or across the other way either. So, this one may cover me entirely and even leave room for a dog to cuddle up to me—Sylvia’s favorite place to be. Thinking that it is a good thing that only two dogs live here with the old woman.

Spent a few minutes rearranging a couple of things out in the hen house this morning. Put one of the “ladders” for the girls in a different place in the little coop so the girls could go wherever they wanted to go in there. Went out early this morning and found Athena down on a different roost because one of the Wyandottes had crowded her over. Kinda surprised that happened. Athena is not one to be pushed around. But who knows what happens when they start moving around in a new place to them? Hoping no feathers are pulled or beaks used as weapons for the next couple of weeks. Would really like this transition to be as painless as possible. Reaching up to get the Marans down off their perches may be rather interesting as they are up much higher than the places the Wyandottes have been staying. Ah well. Maybe it won’t be too hard to change them around.

 

May have to call my friend Roger to get him to move my basil bucket to the chicken house. Lance forgot it—just like his mom did. And it is really too heavy for me to pick up and carry. Have one small pot of lavender in the kitchen window, but it can stay there all winter if it has to. Really like that to stay in the kitchen anyway. It just smells SO good to put my fingers in the leaves. The rosemary, sage, and thyme have done well out in the “herb garden” out front, despite the freeze we had in February. The poor purple sage bush had to be trimmed back with bunches of dead ends on its branches, but it still did well all this summer. They are so pretty and are pretty good at predicting rain. They nearly always bloom before it rains.

 

Poured an inch of rain from the gauge out in the side lot. Need to go down and empty Donny’s rain gauge. Patty would never notice it one way or the other. She mostly just watches TV and whatever shows that appeal to her. Not that it matters. Yours truly just reads all the time and hardly ever even watches movies, much less the commercial stuff on TV. Michelle Malay calls me up every once in a while to inform me of the latest weather report when something is predicted for our area. She said that when the trees out her way get to moving around, she knows there is high winds because nothing else moves out that way. Her place is covered in black jack oaks or other trees. Don’t think she has any mesquites. Anyway, she helps me keep up with the weather and whatever can be expected from our part of the world.

 

Saw something that appealed to my sense of wonder the other day. The term “Bo Chord” means “book hoard” in Old English. That is what my house used to be—a repository for LOTS of books. The book currently on my Kindle talks about one woman who would spend her entire life in a library if she could. And then she and her cousin inherit their grandmother’s house and its library—wall to wall and ceiling to floor books! Can’t imagine! Life is not long enough to read all the books that make me want to sit down and read. Jennifer says that is what is so wonderful about those audio books. She can listen to them from that thing that hangs in her ear. She can even work and listen to a book at the same time as long as she is not doing computer work. Kinda neat!

 

This time of the afternoon the cars going by on the highway down below the hill make reflections on my living room wall. It always makes me think that someone is on our road. But that is seldom the case. Two trucks and the mailman have been out here today: one delivered a package to Patty and the other brought her oxygen bottles to her. The mailman just brought out the water bills. Oh well.

The sons of Mariellen Rose said that she seems to be improving slowly, so let’s keep praying for her. She is loved by her family, but she belongs to us as well. And Kathy Jarlberg has begun her chemo for the leukemia, but she gets to go home every week. Her husband is still her caretaker, so let us remember him—and all the others who care for those of us who need that extra help. It has to be one of the hardest jobs on earth—even more so than taking care of small babies or growing children. Dr. Ohman’s nurse told us the other day that she had just had triplets. They are now 12 weeks old, but she has a mostly sit-down job with the doctor. However, taking care of babies will wear a woman—or man—down very quickly. It is a 24/7 job—just like being a care giver for an older parent or one’s spouse. God has to bless young mothers and those who care for patients no matter the relationship.

 

Still have not gone out and rounded up all the things that blew in that gale the other day. Might do that tomorrow—maybe. Lazy ol’ woman. Lance wanted to throw the sunflower stalks in the back of the truck and haul them to the transfer station, but that place is so very nasty. It is a wonder that no one comes out of there with punctured tires at the very least. The last trip did not cause any damage to the tires, but the young man helping me did not clean his feet when he got back inside and got yuck all over the floor mat. Yes, that is being entirely too gripey, but such is an old woman.

 

Don’t have much on my mind tonight. You all will probably get tired of thinking about hens, dogs, Texas weather, and house cleaning stuff. Sorry. That is about all that seems to stick in my head these days. Don’t want to read about who shot who or why. Don’t want to know which senator prevented passage of which over-rated piece of stupid legislation. Don’t want to think about taxes on anyone. Just know that whatever happens in this world will be wiped out eventually. We can clean up the Pacific garbage patch, but unless we clean up our acts individually, the litter we create here in Texas nearly always ends up right out there in the ocean—killing fish and polluting whatever we might find to eat from that same water. We just have to be responsible individuals.

 

Our greatest responsibility is to love others as God loves us. And if we keep the book handy and read it as a reminder each day, we can know that His love is greater than all the horrible things that we may see or hear. But we have to make the choice to hear His words.

 

May you each find joy in gratitude. May nature surround you with its voice of life. May the seasons fill you with expectations of renewal. Rest well, my friends. You are loved.