a slight variation from my norm

Growing up, I almost always read fiction. When I read fiction, if it's interesting, I read cover to cover, only stopping for what life demands (food, sleep, people, laundry, etc.) Non-fiction was something I read because school or work required it.   But the last five-six years I've found myself reading more and more non-fiction. I don't read it cover-to-cover like fiction. Some books I pick up and put down and start again later. As a result, I have more than one book going right now. I don't think I could have ever said that in my earlier years. Reading more than one book at a time was the most absurd thing I had ever heard. And yet, the last several years, that seems to be how most of my reading has been done.

Why am I talking about this? I've been encouraging one of my young nieces to read 5 minutes a day while on summer vacation. (HELLO Aunt Monica! This is SUMMER! NO SCHOOL!!!) I've not been successful yet. The last time I brought this subject up (last week), she turned the tables and asked "So what are you reading right now?" And I listed the three books I was working on. She said nothing for a few minutes before finally replying "You can't do that. You're only supposed to read one book at a time."  It sounded like something I would have said as a child/teen/young adult. (I told a kid to get down of the railing beside me in a restaurant recently, and realized I am now officially a bossy old woman. Not a very flattering conclusion to face.)

And to add to the insanity, I realized today that I have more than three books that I've started. I found The Love Dare and How to Change Your Church Without Killing It in the study today, both with bookmarks 1/3 of the way through. One of them has been sitting there for about 10 years. I forced myself to read another chapter, and for once in my life, I'm seriously contemplating throwing it away without finishing, something I have NEVER done...not ever. Meanwhile, First Ladies of the Presidency is still sitting in the living room, and I don't even recall how far I read in that book. And in the bedroom...still working on a book on Islam (2/3 of the way through), a historical book (about 1/2 way), and a book on dog-training (Ceaser's Way) that a dear friend just knew was going to help me, and I'm still only 1/3 of the way into it after a year. But at least it's picking up the pace.

We have SO many books here in the house, not read, that I'm forcing myself after a read to seriously evaluate whether I would ever a) read it again, b)loan it to a friend, c)use it as a reference.  If it doesn't meet one of those criteria, then it's gone. I've hauled a few bags of books out of the house this year as a result. And we've stayed away from book sales the last few months, so not quite as many are coming into the house as before. Oh.  I did order two church history books last week and started one at the kitchen table when I opened the mail. I've already finished the first chapter. :)  I don't think I'll revise my statement to my niece, though. If the sun hasn't rattled her brain yet, how many books I'm actually reading would.

onions

I can thank my husband for our garden this year. I seriously was contemplating NOT having one, when he hired a young man from church to come over this winter, rake up all the leaves in the yard....and heap them in the garden. I kid you not, my 36" wire around the perimeter's was 2/3 full...of leaves. And then this February, he had it tilled, not once, but twice. So I have the best soil I have ever had in the garden AND it was already tilled for me. How could I not plant a garden?  So I branched out. I've never had success with onions, but I had two in the house that started rooting, so I decided to give it a shot. Here's what I harvested from those two onion ends that rooted:

Not as big as the bulbs in the grocer store, but I'm pleased.

I bought some extra onion seeds, and the package said to wait until the tops of the onions flowered. Here's the ones from the onion ends that rooted. I thought they were actually kind of pretty. And the seed bulbs I bought? I harvested them today, with no flowers, because the the green stalks were wilting and dying...which is a sign of "get me out of the ground NOW"...I think.

and a close up of the bulbs. I wasn't expecting them to be bunched together!

Were it not for Peter Cottontail, hornworms (known around here as tobacco worms), and two chickens whose necks I could gladly ring, I would have some tomatoes and peas by now. But I don't. 

Meanwhile, if all goes well and the rabbit and chickens stay away from the pallet, squash should be ripe before the week is out. :)  Fried squash and onions anyone?

whirlwind

Bobby's youngest niece and nephew stayed over after their family left for four extra days, so we enjoyed the busyness that comes with having middle school/high school visitors in the area. And now that they're gone, we're playing catch up and moving on with our busy summer calendar - after a mandatory day out with a migraine yesterday, that is.

So, what's on our schedule these next few days?  Yard work. Housework. Kids party from our class at church. Quilting Class for me on Saturday morning. Manual reviews for upcoming election training. Clarinet practice (a group of us are finally going to play at church in a few weeks). And if time allows, start cleaning the porch railings for painting later this summer.

I hope you summer is as blissfully busy as ours! :)

and life moves on

Last week was my niece's first week out of school. She's a social kid (very unlike her aunt), and does not live in a subdivision. Her school is in the town where her mother teaches, so she doesn't live near any of her classmates. Her only cousins are college-age. It only took a few days, and she became very bored.  So bored that she was calling me twice a day (and I didn't count all her texts). Being the loving aunt that I am, I started sending her lists of things to do each day. By day three she quit calling and texting. Arrogant me could pat myself on the back and say "she's busy", but realistic me knows that she has simply found things to do and doesn't want to "read all that stuff" I keep sending her. She does want me to send her some sewing projects (as well as drive 13 hours one way to come get her). I think she had a good day with my parents yesterday (she learned to make small apple pies...flapjacks, some people call them) and saved the recipe in her phone "for later".

It's times like this that I hate living far away. I know that if I lived closer she'd drive me crazy with the chickens, would not want to help in the garden, and would not be the least bit interested in a summer book club or trips to the library no matter how much I enticed her, but it would still be fun to be a little bit more part of her life.

Meanwhile we're enjoying the last few days of having relatives here from Tennessee and enjoying what little time we have. And then it will be catch-up time with yardwork and housework...those things that never end but at some point must be done. And life moves on.

summer whirlwind

My agenda for this week: cleaning house
One unusual event: neighbors (yes! we actually have some now!) are coming over for supper Friday
Good news: one of those things I should have said "No" to but didn't was cancelled. :)
Bad news: I'm having neck/shoulder problems again
Garden update: harvested first onions yesterday; chickens (two in particular) are flying over the fence and digging up plants...grr!!
Chicken update: had our first snake of the year in the pen last week; biddies are all feathered and should be ready to mix with the adults by the end of next month
What I'm reading: Counter Culture and Secret Missions of the Civil War
Quilt projects:  hahahaha...whatever I pick up at the moment. There's at least four projects out on my sewing/cutting tables at the moment.

school updates

Last night neighboring property owners attended a meeting about the new elementary school. Construction starts February 2016 and hopefully ends April 2017. If designated year-round, school would start July 2017. If traditional, then it would start August 2017. When will the road be paved? Probably after construction. :/  Here's the sketch of the school (currently being built in Raleigh). Our location would have it flipped the other direction. The large section is three stories, the school should hold 800 students, and there is nowhere on the site plan for mobile units to go. 

This is the property layout. Top left sketch area is the bus parking site which will also connect to the future middle school. Road at the bottom of the page is the driving entrance to the school, and is a few feet from our driveway.

See the dotted line along the bottom of the green (near the bottom of the page)?  That's where our property line is...the shrub/tree line, the edge of our chicken pen, the far fenced area of my garden, etc.  See the little beige spot beside the parking entrance? That's a sidewalk the town of Garner is requesting/requiring and it circles along the back of the school property. So in essence, the public will have a walkway along the far side of our property. So we have definitely required a fence. I'm not crazy about a chain link fence at all, but I do agree with Bobby that there has to be something besides our natural barrier on the property line. If for no other reason, but we need something to keep the chickens on our side of the yard. We may have to add a small section once they finalize the road stuff to keep them from darting out into traffic.

And here's last week status updates on South Garner High School. Since these were taken, they've started on the football stadium, but I've never driven around the block to see the stadium light poles (which I hear have been installed).

The view from Hebron Church Rd. Brick is now going up on the classroom bldg.

And the view of the classroom bldg from Clifford Rd. You can't tell it very well in this shot, but the bottom brick is a deep red, and the four bricked sections going to the top are more of a tan brick.

And the view from my sister in law's house, who lives on Clifford. Their driveway isn't  too far from where the turn lane for the buses will go. I have a feeling they are one of the three houses that will be most impacted by the school. (The other two are located on New Bethel Church Rd.)

And we're hearing more talk of more subdivisions in our area. Things are definitely changing.

a sand dropper

As a child I was always mesmerized by hour glasses (and always puzzled by how they could measure a minute but were still called hour glasses). Something about watching the sand drop, sometimes rushing through as if it couldn't move fast enough, and others where you felt you could almost count each grain as it dropped. Sounds like life, doesn't it?

Spring time for me means being outdoor more than I normally am. (ie, I actually breathe more outdoor air than feeding the animals, cleaning out the chicken pen, and walking to my car)  There's yardwork, as in cutting grass, trimwork (weedeating, pulling weeds, cleaning the porches and trimming shrubs...all of which I hate and doesn't get done that often), and gardening.

This week I took on a task that needed to be done (and for the record, is still not finished).

I didn't prune the grapevines this winter. And this is what they looked like. And because they had grown up/down so much, it was next to impossible to cut the weeds underneath, resulting in a shrub growing up around one vine and briers growing the midst of another. It never ceases to amaze me how quickly nature and its roughness quickly overtakes whatever is in its path. It truly requires constant vigilance to keep it at bay.  So Tuesday night we started the arduous process of trimming branches from the trunk of the vine and the overhang that would prevent the push mower from mowing underneath. We cut round one trunk and started the overhang on the second side. I spent about an hour (it seemed a lot longer) working again yesterday.  And one row is now completed (the bronze muscadines; the purple will have to wait until Friday):

Meanwhile, our riding lawn mower is in the shop. One of our new neighbors graciously offered yesterday to come and cut our grass for us until it was repaired. Many people offer to do things like that, but I think he's one of those people that would actually do it and not just offer.

So this has been one of my many sand usurpers this week.