This fall in Mendota has been cold. Let me digress…it did not start off cold. It started off hot. Then…about two weeks ago, it turned cold. Where are those typically unseasonally warm November days in Southwest Virginia where the temperatures reach 70 degrees? I need to wash the mildew off of our fence and house. We do this after we experience a heavy frost which kills off the bugs, but we haven’t been able to catch a warm day.
I’m not complaining. We are retired, and we don’t really have to go out except to walk River. During the summer, I work hard for the 90-100 days we operate Adventure Mendota, but during the off season, it’s a different schedule.
Here’s Tuesday. “What do you want to do today?” asks Mike. Me, “I dunno. Maybe go see that Queen movie (Bohemian Rhapsody). ” We did. It was a trip back in time. I remember hearing Queen in my junior year in high school from Lisa Benfield’s radio in her bedroom. WQUT!! On Friday…”What do you want to do today?” asks Mike. Me, “How ’bout another movie?” And so we did. We went to see Instant Family which was also good.
It is fun to have your days planned by the marching of what you want to do vs. what you have to do. We still have to clean house, get groceries, cook, etc. but there is now time for things that interest us vs. things that we just have to do because it’s what we do.
Quilting. I’ve been working on my fall quilt again. I’m envisioning it on the bed now. Linen/burlap Euro shams, mermaid pillow shams (not actual mermaids, but long flowing ruffled linen), throw pillows, a pretty duvet and my quilt. But it is so darn big. Here’s where I am out of about 80 squares…I have gotten about 15 done.
Taking pictures help me keep the quilt on track. When I see the above picture, I realize I need more blues and green and some lighter print fabrics.
So that will be my marching orders for tomorrow. Get more fabric.
I was on Pinterest and I found this beautiful quilt. The pattern is called “broken dishes” and the quilter said she made it to get rid of her stash. She had a heck of a stash!! Her site is called saneandcrazyblogspot.com It’s a nice quilting site. She’s very creative.
I fell in love with all those fall colors, and best of all, it’s a bunch of triangles. I can’t sew much but I can sew triangles! I have a goal of making 10 blocks per week. With a little luck, I will have two quilt tops made by the end of the year! My other one is out for quilting. Here it is (below). It’s actually just a bunch of triangles.
Here’s my first two blocks of this current quilt in a very bad picture (below). They look lonely, but you have to start somewhere, right??? I’m trying to have the discipline to have a little pattern vs. just sewing a bunch of triangles in a row. I took the bad picture with my ipad on the floor late at night. I’m not going to sew any of these blocks together until I have all of them finished, and then I’ll arrange them for the best color grouping. I just have 70 more of these to go. And…even though I’ve only done two, I’ve already made a mistake. The one on the left should not have the same fabric in all four corners. Now…am I going to change it? I don’t know..I’m not going to fix it until the end. If it’s not real noticeable., I’ll leave it or maybe I’ll place it in a corner and I’ll make three others like it. Sort of like…”oh look…she’s a genius…she planned this.”
The table looks like this.
And this….
My interest in making a quilt started in Cary, North Carolina. The quilt shop is no longer there. It may now be called the Cary Quilting Company, but I’m not certain if it’s the same place. Cary has changed so much since we lived there. At any rate, a friend and I went twice to a quilting class. We dropped off after flying geese. It just wasn’t us. They did everything by hand and we were intimidated. These were die-hard hand quilters and we just wanted to have a quilt. I’ve been to a lot of quilting classes since then, and I’ve never stayed for more than one or two classes. Obviously, I have a commitment problem. But now there is You Tube, and I can make a “layer cake” with the best of them! It’s not really a cake. It’s a cutting procedure. Throwing around these quilting terms makes it all real!
I’m blogging about this because it helps me with my commitment problem! If I tell you I am doing it, I’m more likely to do it!!
When you are retired and have a little time or maybe a lot of time, it’s so easy just to drift. Days can go by and nothing gets done. I’m trying to live more purposefully — setting goals and doing them. My goals are pretty achievable but even so, they take effort. One was recovering my dining room chairs.
They are finally done. Mike actually did them but I take full credit as I pushed him along. Those Queen Ann style chairs are not in style. They probably won’t be again for a long time, but I don’t care. I actually am quite fond of them!
So this is off my list.
Some good things from today:
Attended Washington County Chamber meeting. Great program by Major Ashbrook and Sheriff Newman of the Washington County Sheriff’s office.
I am taking my quilt next Friday to turn over to the long arm quilt person, but I am currently organizing and working on my stash of fabric. Today I cut a lot of 7 inch squares. I’m planning on starting a small quilt throw for the bedroom in the coming weeks. I don’t have to buy any fabric as I have so much left over from my quilt.
Last, I’m so thrilled I have slip covers. The cats spewed on TWO chairs. Instead of getting aggravated at them, I’m just thankful that I can wash these and put them right back on. Yay!! It’s all about the perception. But…as I go to bed tonight, I’ve got chairs that will need to be put back together. Here’s how they currently look:
Yep…I’m thankful. Maybe not overly thankful but still thankful!
From March of 2018 until August 13, 2018, folks driving to and from Mendota saw a little dog if they came and went on Nordyke Road. The little dog was so cute. It was hard to imagine that it did not have a home, but it did not. For a bit, Creed Dye fed the little dog, and I believe he called it Brownie. Unfortunately, Creed died on June 12. He was 96. Creed’s neighbor Sherry Fleenor attempted to feed the little dog when she saw it. The trouble was that it would not allow itself to be touched. Skittish was the word I kept hearing. I tried repeatedly to catch it; and began, along with many others, giving it food. If I had went to Chick-Filet for the Adventure Mendota staff, I’d be short one chicken sandwich when I arrived at base camp, as I’d leave it for the dog if I saw it along the road.
Its eyes spoke to many of us, and we all wanted to catch it and give it a better life. I let it be known via Facebook that should anyone catch the little dog, I would take it. Whatever anyone has heard about Mike and me, one thing that can be said is that we take good care of our animals, so I hoped they’d respond. I just knew the dog was meant for me. As the summer progressed, the dog grew thinner. It got ticks on it. I gave up and started leaving Mendota from another direction just so I would not have the heartbreak of seeing the little dog.
On August 13, a neighbor named Marilyn borrowed a humane trap from Happy Tails; and lo and behold, she caught the little dog! She took it to Broadwater Animal Hospital for a flea treatment, de-worming and a rabies vaccine. She learned the dog was a female. Then..she called me. “Are you the person who said they’d take the little dog on Nordyke?” I replied yes!! This little girl blew in like a hurricane on the back of Marilyn’s truck.
Here is the wonderful Marilyn who saved her. When the little dog arrived, she ate a rotisserie chicken, a doggy ice cream and two bowls of Blue Buffalo kibbles. She was very hungry.
We knew nothing about the little dog so we placed her in a 20 x 18 enclosure and tarped it for shade and bedded it with fresh straw. Marilyn’s partner Jeff, with help from Mike, cut a hole in the barn and we placed a large cage inside so that she could go into the barn during the evening or if she wanted to hide. We ran a fan out to keep it cool and placed two chairs inside so that I could go spend time with her and attempt to bond so that we could take her to my vet and move her into the house. I made 6-8 trips out there each day with ice water, treats, etc.
Marilyn, my sister, my niece’s daughter, Mike, Gerald and Nancy and others would slip into the enclosure and read and talk to the dog. A special friend who had been involved in her capture named Peggy came and visited. The little dog loved this time with all of her new friends and enjoyed the treats. She’d climb all over Marilyn and me nibbling on chicken that we’d place on our chests, legs, stomachs, etc.
I thought of the lesson I was learning from this little dog. I wanted her to trust me because I had such good plans for her. Does that sound familiar?
Jeremiah 29:11New International Version (NIV)
11 For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.
I started thinking of her as my Jeremiah dog. How could I expect her to trust me if I did not thoroughly trust in God myself. I was certain she and I would be learning trust together.
I thought she’d run away. She never attempted. I started to call her Miss Minnie, a shortened version of Miss Mendota, but her name became MiMi and it stuck.
MiMi was about four years old. Her teeth were worn down from chewing on something. We surmised she may have been tied up at one time. I hope not. She weighed about 35 pounds.
Marilyn and I fell completely in love with MiMi. Mike was reserved until he could have a better understanding of how she and River would do. Mike brought River out to the enclosure to test the waters. They were fine! Mimi was scheduled for her surgery just over three weeks from the day that we got her. We had wanted to see if we could leash her; then my vet was on vacation, etc. During all of this time, she never allowed me to pet her unless I cornered her although she did show affection in allowing us to touch her nose, wagging her tail when she saw us, etc.
We could not leash her but we could not wait for that to happen to get her to the vet. I wanted her out of that enclosure and into the house. I bought a crate at Pet Smart and started putting bits of chicken in it to lure her in. We did this for a few days and then, on surgery day, Marilyn popped her bottom in the crate as she went in for the chicken. She went for her spay surgery and to possibly address her teats which hung down like pears. The surgery was difficult. Mimi had tumors in/surrounding her little breasts and infection surrounding the tumors. We determined not to send the tumors off for a biopsy as, with her mental state of not allowing us to touch or leash her–how would I transport her back and forth for chemo if it were cancer? Dr. Dotson suggested waiting, and if it was cancer, it would return and by that time, we’d probably have MiMi tamed enough to be much easier to transport. So..that was our game plan. She came home. Our first night we slept in the garage; however, by the second night, MiMi did not want to sleep in the garage. I believe she was claustrophobic. Fortunately, the next morning, she walked into the house. She was feeling much better and she liked the house. She moved in with complete assurance. She slept near River and stayed near him. Here they are beside my bed.
She started behaving more like a pet than the “little Nordyke dog” that had ran the road for six months. We caught her surfing the counter. We didn’t correct her. We wanted no set backs on her rising self confidence. In fact, we thought it was hilarious.
Marilyn used the name “velcro dog” to describe the relationship MiMi and I were developing as she stayed right with me. I was so pleased. Because so many people had seen MiMi on Nordyke, I kept everyone updated on her progress on Facebook. It was turning out to be a “feel good” story, and we were all enjoying it.
However, two weeks after the surgery, she asked to go outside and she hid; Mike went to check on her and found blood seeping from one of her teats. It was a Wednesday. I texted Dr. Dotson immediately and he told me to bring her in. He performed surgery the next morning. Following her surgery, which was comprised of a complete mastectomy and areas which had mastitis/continued infection, he was cautiously optimistic–only because she had survived the surgery. However, when I asked when she’d be coming home, he said it would not be until after the weekend. I was crestfallen. I stayed by the phone and texted back and forth with worried him to death him all weekend. There was a neighborhood barbecue at my friend’s house. I did not want to go while MiMi was in danger. I was restless all weekend waiting.
I went to see her. In typical MiMi fashion she did not want to be touched and she ignored me. She was mad at me. I made this little update for everyone. At the time, I thought my little one would be coming home and this was just part of her recovery.
On Monday, I spoke with Dr. Dotson and we talked about Thursday as a potential “go home” day. He had been concerned on Saturday because she wasn’t eating, and then she seemed to get her appetite back. We were both excited. She had had a bowel movement and she was sitting on the chair in Dr. Dotson’s office. Progress! We thought MiMi would definitely be coming home soon!
However, Tuesday, things didn’t go well. She quit eating. He took some blood and sent it off to determine what was amiss. He did x-rays. His hope was it was the medication which seemed possible.
On Wednesday I visited and I asked Marilyn to come as well. MiMi did not look well. She allowed me to pet her. Her ears were so soft. I snuggled and kissed her. She allowed it. This was not her normal nature.
The next morning, Dr. Dotson called early. MiMi had died during the night. He asked to do an autopsy and I agreed; however, when he got the bloodwork, he discovered what had occurred — acute rental failure. Her kidneys shut down. He was distraught. I was heartbroken. He had kept her in his office the entire time she had been there, and he told me how he had become attached to her as she walked about his office and sniffed of him.
I have had several dogs that I’ve loved completely. They’ve been nothing but joy for me. They lived to be 14, 15 and 16. They lived such good lives. When they passed, I grieved, but nothing like the feeling of loss I had for MiMi. They lived so well, yet she didn’t have a chance. I had so wanted to give MiMi this kind of life — one of no worries, of boundless love, lots of food, etc. I wanted to gain her trust and love. It was not meant to be.
I had MiMi cremated, and yesterday I brought her remains home. I wanted her to live in the house with me and she will until such time that Mike or I go, whomever goes first. She will be buried with one of us.
I am so grateful for the friends that reached out to me following MiMi’s death. A few sent flowers and this meant so much. Their kind words underscored MiMi’s importance in my life. It underscored that she was more than “just that Nordyke dog.” She was valuable. She was precious. She had purpose.
MiMi. Loved and cherished by me and so many others during the time she was with us. August 13, 2018 – October 4, 2018.
Are you a someone who stops and moves box turtles across the road or are you a person who aims your wheel at them for the crunch like Pat Conroy’s Great Santini did? If you are the first, you are my friend. If you are the other, well…shame on you!
This summer, a group of Virginia Naturalists kayaked at Adventure Mendota. Katie Cordle put the group together. We were busy when they left so I did not know that someone left with them. It was a wounded turtle. The turtle had a “place”…an infection.. near its ear and it was severely dehydrated. They found it on our property. Box turtles may live longer than humans. An adult male with the date 1874 carved on it was found in Rockingham County in August 1985 (Daily News Record, Harrisonburg), indicating an age of >111 years. They have some predators but their primary danger is humans — automobiles on the roads. Without Katie’s intervention, this turtle would most likely have died.
About a month after the kayak trip, Katie called and told me about the turtle. She had sought help from someone who knew exactly how to treat the turtle, and now it was healthy and ready to return to the wild. She wanted to return it near where she got it. She brought it out and held it carefully.
She pointed out the “E” on its shell.
I love the tender-hearted Katie who has an affection for turtles (and all living creatures). She was careful where she wanted to return it. She sought a shady place where the grass might still be a little damp so that it could hydrate.
And she did just that.
So the next time you see a box turtle in the road, please try and not crunch it. If you can, stop and move it. Keep it in the same direction it was headed if at all possible.
My sweet little rescue dog died last night. She captivated everyone, and now she is gone. I can’t even think about this so I am trying to stay busy.
I put the border on my quilt top and it is ready to go. I talked about the quilt last week here. The colors are so pretty and I love the designs on the fabrics . All of the fabric came from fat quarters — most purchased at the Virginia Highlands Quilt Shop. Kim, the owner, is wonderful. In the picture below, there are lots of flowers, but I also see some red shoes, lemon slices and sheet music. There’s also a cat sleeping by the quilt.
Let’s see what is on this side of the quilt top…the bright blue has beach flip flops, there are orange cats, and there is some Alice in Wonderland fabric.
Here’s another…lots of flowers, some cursive writing, more flip flops…this time on white…and peppermint candy.
And finally…there’s that sheet music again, some gold and black butterflies and lots of flowers. Everything is bound by by the back and white border. I believe that the fabric did not repeat more than once. That was my goal. Some fabric did not repeat at all.
I’ve pressed the quilt and folded it along with the backing (paw prints) and the black and white stripe which will bind the quilt. It is ready to go to the quilter. This will be machined quilted by a long-arm quilter.
This was on my list of something I wanted to do. I’ve checked it off. It will be January/February 2019 when I get the completed quilt back.
I will put this in the RiverCliff Cottage AirB&B. It will be durable and I think guests might enjoy looking at the different fabrics. I hope so anyway.
I’ve been looking at blogs that are for retirees. Most are centered on the finances of retiring. So few are centered on the living of being retired. As I am retired, I want to be productive and I want to see the results of my efforts. This quilt is a good example of something I did not have the time for when I was working. Now, I do. And I’ll have a pretty quilt!!
I decided to opt for a new theme for this website. If you blog, you’ll generally purchase or find a free template to use. This is a free WordPress theme/template called Twenty Twelve. I actually had someone else create my old site. I didn’t want to do that because I want to make some changes to this on my on. It means I”ll have to learn how to do a few things. I can do it. Tonight I created the header graphic and inserted it. It wasn’t hard and I can change it easily.
Next up, I want to change the position of the header. I want it to be at the top of the page instead of below the page titles. This will require learning how to change the Style Sheet (CSS). I’ll work on that later this week.
I want the site to be cheerful yet simple, and I love polka dots. My mother called polka dots “poky dots” and I was mortified whenever I heard this come out of her mouth. Now, I get a good laugh and a fond remembrance of my wonderful mother. So…I went with a polka dot background, and I’m inserting them here.
I started this blog in 2012. I was leaving my job and I thought I was reinventing myself. Maybe I thought I’d be a world famous blogger. I am not sure. Whatever my intent, I did enjoy it, and I met a lot of people. Then I took a turn, and I became a small business owner. Never did I realize that by taking that step, I’d discover a confidence that lived inside of me. In 2015, when I made that step, I stopped writing in this blog — with the exception of a few entries here and there. Truthfully, I didn’t like the way it looked. I didn’t like what I thought it would be. While I had the desire to write things down, I didn’t like doing in on the fluffy site that I’d loved just a few years before. It no longer felt like me. I’d changed.
We closed our 4th season with our small business this year, and I’m not going to waste the 8 months or so we have before we reopen. I want to accomplish some things. I decided to start with my blog. I wanted a new look…so tonight…I wiped out the old and I started with a basic theme which, maybe I’ll customize a bit. It’s not pretty but that will force me to learn new things to attempt to make it look better. I’d like to change the name, too, but I am not going to do so as I’ve got that website domain prepaid.
I’m going to enjoy redoing this website, and I”m going to enjoy writing in it.
I realized that there are almost no sites where people talk about aging in the sense that we all age. We just do it. There’s mommy bloggers, health bloggers, book bloggers, home dec/DIY bloggers, fashion bloggers, etc, but I seldom see anyone who is my age. I don’t want to talk about aging either, but I want to be a person that didn’t stop at a certain age. It’s not a dirty word. When a person stops growing and changing, they stop. My hope it that when you call me on the phone, I don’t focus on our birthdays or my health and your health, but instead, we talk about the books we’ve read, the movies we’ve seen, the places we plan to visit, what we learned this week or the room that we plan to paint.
It is Memorial Day and since the river was not suitable for kayaking, Mike and I had “Garden Day!” It started at 7:00 am. Like all “Garden Days” we have, it began with a trip to Home Depot or Lowe’s. We go more to Home Depot than we do Lowe’s since Lowe’s moved from Exit 7. We had to get some mulch for the back yard.
My back yard has been a source of great enjoyment or great neglect depending on what I’m doing during the summer. This summer I believe, even though we’ll be kayaking ALOT, it will be a source of great enjoyment! Here’s what I’ve been doing.
I cleaned my fence a few weeks ago. It was filthy with mildew. I did a blog post about how I do that a few years ago; and surprisingly, a lot of people–oh okay one or two– have sent me emails thanking me. I am serious. Really!!! Apparently, there are people who do not live in an area where they must fight mildew each spring and are not as experienced as we Mendotians!! Here’s the post called “Cleaning Your Vinyl Fence.”
Since I’ve never mastered weedeating, Mike came behind me yesterday and weedeated the border garden area. It left me with sort of a blank slate. I’m intermingling green beans, green peppers, tomatoes and cucumbers in this back yard. The cukes are going in a pot on the stairs. And flowers everywhere.
One of the problems with our back yard is that it is fenced in for the pets so it has to meet their needs first. It keeps skunks out, and it provides us an easy way to let River out to use the “facilities.” The funny thing is that he will not poop in this yard. He refuses. Dr. D’Amato’s place which is just up the road? Now, there’s a good place to poop!!
While I want it to meet their needs, I also want it to look nice. Here’s one of the problem areas. River has dug himself a bit swath to lie in during the evening when he goes outside to sleep. He loves to sleep for a few hours out in the back yard.
So..for me to have anything back there that looks decent, it’s going to have to have a trellis protecting it or be in a pot. I’ve got green beans planted out there … an heirloom pole bean that will grow up the bamboo trellis I made. I don’t put mulch around seedlings. Behind the green beans, I planted cosmos and a few zinnias. I think the small bamboo trellis’ will be enough to deter River from messing around over there.
I’ve even got the Foxglove protected by topiary things. River would love to roll on these. Not happenin’ little buddy!
Got these labels to put in the ground. This reminds me what is a weed and what is flower, and it also lets me know if someone decides to dig around and move stuff. River isn’t my only digger. I have cats. Z is for Zinnia. PB is for Pole Bean. C is for Cosmos.
See how well they work?
Lots of hanging baskets this year. This is a bleeding heart. $10.99 at Cecil’s Market! I think I’m going to have to figure out a way to repot this thing.
I went back in the barn and found a bunch of baskets that I bought TEN YEARS ago. The one in the picture below that is in the center is one of them. I planted Black Eyed Susie seedlings in them. They’ll be pretty this summer. 4
Here’s the seedlings…soon they will climb all over that basket with happy yellow flowers with brown eyes.
I’ve got a lot of New Guinea Impatiens. I’ve been finding the best selection at Walmart. These are planted right outside my steps and apparently snails don’t bother them. It’s a good thing because there are a zillion snails out on the patio at night. I used to stomp them, but a physician friend gave me a new perspective and I allowed them to live; but then this year, because they ate my basil, I went back to stomping them.
And here are the succulents I’ve repotted. I am selling these at Adventure Mendota for $2.50 per pot. I think Mike thinks no one will buy them. Bet he’s wrong. I’ve got about 20. So when I’m $50 richer, he’ll be sorry!
And I love these little pot stands I found at Walmart for under $4 each. They will keep the pesky snails away from my pots. Those green plants you see below are Mandevilla that I over wintered. They look healthy but where the heck are the blooms? They’d better get busy are they will find themselves in the compost pile. Did ya hear that ya lazy girls!?!
Hope you and your family are having a great Memorial Day!!
I’m part of a five-person team rolling out KIVA – crowd sourced lending with zero interest — in Southwest Virginia. I woke up this morning and I am 52 percent toward my goal of raising $9,000. For any of you that have contributed (not donated–KIVA is a loan so you will be repaid), thank you.
It has been a real adventure. Look at my hair at the podium. It was so hot. I was sweating. This was at the 2018 Southwest Virginia Economic Forum at UVA Wise.
Helping any of the five KIVA participants in Southwest Virginia is helping Southwest Virginia as we reinvent our economy. If this works, and I believe it will — although I’d recommend a smaller loan than $9,000.00 — we’ll have a tool that will enable a small loan for someone who might not otherwise be able to get that loan. Perhaps they are needing a commercial mixer for their cupcake business ran from their home; maybe they need a new piece of equipment for a home cleaning business, etc. Lenders to KIVA are people who are interested in finding a way to make the world a better place.
Everyone should be able to earn a decent living. KIVA is just another tool in our toolbox.
I fell in love with all those fall colors, and best of all, it’s a bunch of triangles. I can’t sew much but I can sew triangles! I have a goal of making 10 blocks per week. With a little luck, I will have two quilt tops made by the end of the year! My other one is out for quilting. Here it is (below). It’s actually just a bunch of triangles.
So this is off my list.
Marilyn, my sister, my niece’s daughter, Mike, Gerald and Nancy and others would slip into the enclosure and read and talk to the dog. A special friend who had been involved in her capture named Peggy came and visited. The little dog loved this time with all of her new friends and enjoyed the treats. She’d climb all over Marilyn and me nibbling on chicken that we’d place on our chests, legs, stomachs, etc.
However, Tuesday, things didn’t go well. She quit eating. He took some blood and sent it off to determine what was amiss. He did x-rays. His hope was it was the medication which seemed possible.
I love the tender-hearted Katie who has an affection for turtles (and all living creatures). She was careful where she wanted to return it. She sought a shady place where the grass might still be a little damp so that it could hydrate.
