A Tree Falls in the South (my apologies to A Tree Grows in Brooklyn)

A few weeks ago we had a storm blow through.  We actually got some rain, which was much needed, but there was also some wind damage in a few counties.  We were the lucky ones once again, with no damage to our home and electricity the next day in the sweltering heat. 

We did, however, lose a pine tree along the edge of our woods.  It hasn't been cleaned up yet because Mr. GV hasn't been able to wield a chainsaw until recently.  (More on that to come.) 

I might collect some of the pine cones, make sure they are not buggy, and use them to decorate with this fall.

My Sweet Boy

We were hoping and praying for the best, but it wasn't to be.  Instead of a ruptured disc, they found a tumor on Max's spinal cord when they did the CT.  It was on the top cervical vertebrae, and as such, not operable.  He had been in a tremendous amount of pain before, and so his daddy and I made the decision to have him euthanized.  It was the right thing to do, the only thing really.  But my heart is still broken into a million pieces today. 

He was with us for 11 years and 4 months, from the day he walked up to our house, begging.  His ribs were sticking out, and he was starved for both food and love.  I of course fed him and my husband agreed he could stay as long as he wasn't let into the house. 

A few days later my husband was out of town for a couple nights and the weather turned cold again.  I couldn't leave him out in the cold alone, so I let the dog in.  He had seemed to get along well enough with our cocker spaniel, who was inside, so I thought it would be OK.  I let him in, he jumped onto our bed, laid his head on my husband's pillow, put his paw over on me, closed his eyes, and let out a big sigh.  And we both knew then that he was home. 

He proved to be the most gentle and loving dog I have ever had the privilege of having in my life.  He was friendly to every single human he ever laid eyes on.  Oh yes, he might bark at you if you were coming up his driveway or onto his porch, but once you were inside he knew you were a friend and he was all over you for petting and playing. 

He was a huge cuddler.  Head on the lap, laying on you, sitting beside you in a big chair, leaning on you---he was very fond of the lean. 

 For the first while when he came to us, he was a shoe collector.  I believe he chewed up a couple at the beginning (along with our bedpost) but after that he just collected.  We would come home and find him on the couch with his collection after we had been gone.  Later he converted to socks.  If you left your dirty socks out on the floor, expect to find at least one of them missing.  My mom can attest to that fact.  He would hide them---between couch cushions, under dog beds, under pillows or the bed covers. 

He enjoyed playing in the snow.  After we adopted Macy (referred to as 'Max's puppy' for a while) he had a running buddy.  Snow or not, they would fly off the deck and into the yard and take off running, but the cold snow made them particularly playful.

I could write a book listing all the good things about Max.  He was a wonderful companion, a loving dog, smart, and just so gentle.  He had the softest ears that he loved for you to rub, and the sweetest little brown eyelashes.  Although I know the pain will dim as time goes on, our love never will, that is for certain.  Love you old boy. 

MAX

June 1999-August 20, 2011

"If there are no dogs in Heaven,
then when I die I want to go
where they went."

Will Rogers, 1897-1935

Waiting

I am currently in the waiting room of the vet hospital. Max is having a test now and if all goes well will have surgery in the next couple of hours. Right now the thinking is a bad disc in his neck although because of his age (12) there is of course concern that there could be a tumor. We have been fighting this for a while and hoping surgery would not be necessary, but he is in so much pain, something has to be done. The hospital is about 2 1/2 hours from home, so I feel certain I will be staying in town overnight. Plus there was very little sleep last night at our home, so it wouldn't really be smart for me to drive back.

I'm typing this on my phone, so please excuse any typos. Now back to my regularly scheduled worrying.

In my garden lately

The compost bed has been growing like crazy, which as you can imagine makes me chuckle.  Matter of fact, it's doing better than the beds we actually planted.  Here you see melon plants growing, with tons of blooms.  The type of melon plants are TBD. 

Speaking of melons, Mr. GV had his first ever golden honeydew, and he loved it.  And then the peel and seeds went into the compost.  So here we have a whole bunch of little seedlings.  We'll see if they do anything this late in the year. 

Peas!  Purple hulls I believe.  I have absolutely no memory of throwing out any peas in the compost so I am stumped by this one.  They are growing wonderfully though.  The wasps and bees love the blooms and we happily coexist when I am watering the plants.  I am picking them and leaving them to dry, so I just pick the few that are dry every time I am out there. 

 

This tomato took ages to turn from green to red.  I mean weeks.  I can't believe it wasn't all rotten inside.  I have had maybe 3 tomatoes total from 6 plants.  They put on blooms but just didn't do anything.  I need to read more on growing tomatoes and see what amendments I should put in the soil next year. 

 On the other hand, this one cucumber plant is growing very well.  The vine is taking up half the bed, and if every single bloom/baby cucumber were to turn into a grown-up cucumber, I would get over 40 cukes from this one plant!  I've already harvested several.  I'll be making them into refrigerator pickles. 

 Here's a couple of recent harvests.  The broccoli is finally, finally just about finished for the years.

 One bell pepper plant is doing really well too.  I'll be cutting and freezing these to add to chili and the like this winter. 

On a completely unrelated note, today marks Mr. GV's and my 24th anniversary of being a couple.  We were together as a couple for 7 years before marrying, through most of my high school years and all of college.  I had a crush on him from the time I was 12, which turned into a serious crush by the time I was 14, and we became best friends about that time too. Every now and then I think about the girl I was, and the boy he was, and get a wave of those 'first love' feelings in my gut.  Anyone who's been in a long-term relationship knows the feelings change over time, from infatuation-type love to a long-lasting committment type of love.  But that first blush of love, that pit you feel in your stomach, that swelling ache in your heart, that 'wow I can't believe he loves me' feeling--it still comes around from time to time, to remind you why you fell in love in the first place. 

A visit from cousins

Recently my cousin and two of her children (also my cousins of course) came to visit and stay the night with my mom.  My mom's house is on the way to the campus where the third child was graduating with her master's degree, so it was a convenient, fun stopover.

Little N is an almost-2 1/2 year old, and he's a sweetie pie.  He enjoyed playing with J's toys and reading J's books.  (Shh....don't tell J---you know how those 3 year olds don't like to share!) 

N is not very verbal yet, but that doesn't keep him from laughing and giggling.  We had a great time playing "Where's N?" while he hid under his blanket. 

 Here he is playing with his great-aunt, (my mom). 

And here's sweet M, who is 7 and smart as can be.  Her sister finished college, both her B.A. and M.A., with a 4.0, and I can see this one following right behind her.

 There was lots of running, playing, and giggling.  We all went out to dinner and then stopped by the cemetery where family is buried.  M got to see where her great-grandparents are buried, and she was interested in learning that both sides of my family are buried there too.

Oh, M is also a cheerleader, so we had to take some pictures of her doing some stunts.  My birthday was coming up the next day so both M and N drew me a picture, which I proudly hung on my fridge.  :) 

Eventually it was bedtime for the little one, and Great-Aunt enjoyed having a little one to rock to sleep again. 

Here is myself and my cousin L.  We grew up together, even though she lived a couple hours away.  Our mothers are sisters, and I know we will always be close, even if we don't get together that often. She was maid of honor at my wedding, and I was matron of honor at hers.  We have a nearly 40-year shared history, and that's something you don't forget. 

Birthday time

I had a birthday a while back, and Mr. GV and my mom made sure it was a well-fed one!  :) 

I slept in to find a big breakfast made for me.  We don't normally cook a breakfast-type meal, so this was a real treat.

First off, fruit that Mr. GV cut up.

And then there was this feast--tofu scramble, sausage, and walnut-battered French toast with yummy syrup and cinnamon. 

In the afternoon we headed to my mom's house, where Mr. GV did more cooking---cake and ice cream, both from scratch.  (Funny note--I told J on Skype that Mr. GV was making me a cake from scratch.  He said "Ewww......from scratch!"  Apparently he didn't know that little phrase yet, and thought the cake-making involved scratching.  lol  The mind of a 3 year old!) 

Of course there has to be a picture of mom peeling potatoes! 

Mr. GV making the frosting for the cake. 

My birthday supper---lima beans, crowder peas, corn, stewed potatoes, kraut, and cornbread.  We had a couple of riblets but decided not to heat those up. 

My yummy cake!

Spumoni ice cream with chocolate chips, cherries, and pistachios. 

It was a very nice day, and I have a couple more things to look forward to--a massage, courtesy of a gift certificate from Mr. GV, and a play put on by a local animal rescue group, which is a gift from my mom. 

 I also heard from both my sisters, my bil, and my nephew that day, plus an aunt, an uncle who shares my birthday, and my mother-in-law. 

We brought both pups with us, and Miss Macy was tuckered out and ready to go home by this point.

Bit o' shopping

A couple of weeks ago we ventured to a city for the main reason of seeing "Green Lantern."  There were a few other fringe benefits to going to this particular city, though. 

We shopped at a couple of Asian stores that we haven't been to in a few years.  Here's Mr. GV checking out one of the items. 

We checked out a Goodwill, where we wound up with 3 books between us, and browsed around a bookstore, where Mr. GV found a cord he wanted for his Ipod.  And right before the movie we had dinner at a favorite Indian restaurant of ours.  We were there not long after they opened, so we had our pick of seating (we chose traditional) and we had the place to ourselves most of the time.

Yum--samosas!

We each chose a dish, but knew we would be sharing.  I decided on aloo gobhi,

 while Mr. GV picked chana masala. 

Here's what we wound up buying between two Asian stores.  There's different kinds of noodles, seaweed, and dried mushrooms. 

I need to figure out a dish to make with these.  I'm thinking of them as a kind of dumpling.  They would probably be good with just a tasty broth and some chopped cooked veggies.  Hmmmmm....

On My Mind

On my mind today is what I should sprout next.  I recently sprouted some mung beans we had in our cabinet forever.  It was my first time sprouting, and was oh so easy!  Next time I will only sprout a couple tablespoons at a time though, because I wound up throwing several of these sprouts in the compost. 

This is a Friday feature from Rhonda at Down to Earth.

Things acquired

We did acquire some items while at Summerfest. We each got a T-shirt and I got a lovely basket, the kind you see at the natural foods stores, handmade in a fair trade business somewhere in Africa. They usually have leather on the handle and obviously I'm not buying that, so I was delighted when I was able to purchase a cruelty-free basket this year.

We had to make our way to the bookstore of course. :)

 And I got a couple pieces of jewelry that I'm thrilled to have.  The second one is actually a necklace but sometimes I like to wear it as a bracelet too.

I think we should stay home for a while...

Gabby sez:  You not go anywhere for a while, you unnerstand?