Tuesday Miscellany

Just assorted shots from around the place this morning. 

It's feeling a bit laid-back on this Tuesday after several days of running a rigidly tight schedule, just to pack everything in to each day. 

Today, happily, there's nothing on the schedule-----yet, anyway.  

So, I'm looking forward to taking my time moseying about with chores and other projects. 

Today marks two weeks since Mr. Festus went to the vet hospital for his regular diabetic monitoring.  He has not had a shot since then, and, as you can see, he's looking pretty good for his age of 14. 

He's feeling good, he spends a lot of time out and about, he's not drinking a lot of water and his boxes are pretty dry.  So, it's looking like he may have conquered his disease. 

In other not-so-good news, except for berries, our fruit supply here at the Lovestead is gonna be pretty minimal this year.  I think I can count the apples on one tree and the plums on four other trees with one hand---if I'm lucky.

Haven't found any one two of the yellow plum trees and very few on the others. 

The tree with apples in the photo is usually loaded down with big fruit and lots of it. This year, I think we may pick six rather pathetic apples. 

The other tree has a few more, but I'm afraid the endless supply for the horses of past years will not happen. 

The good news is that sweet peas are growing and smelling delightful as are the dill stems in various spots around the place.  

I've decided that I'd like to focus more on locating aromatic flowers and herbs in key locations, so that when I walk past or ride by on the lawnmower, I can enjoy the pure delight of inhaling each wonderful smell of sweet peas, petunias, dill, garlic and oregano. 

Other good news happened yesterday afternoon when my dear friend and classmate Maurine and her husband Karl came by for a visit.  

I think we were truly in "old-friend Heaven," as we talked about our kids, shared a few horse stories, compared notes about living on farms and exchanged a few stories about individual life events.  

Probably one of the best topics came when Maurine said she had no idea that her dad harvested our dad's grain.  We agreed that they were probably friends cuz they were both cowboys. 

Harold had done some cowboying on a big ranch in Montana, while Blaine was doing the same in Wyoming. 

As we talked on, we learned that both of our dads rolled their own smokes.  

While reminiscing about those cigarettes, Karl sat mimicking precisely each action involved in rolling tobacco in cigarette papers, with one stage involving the teeth to pull the Bull Durham bag string cuz the fingers on both hands were already busy.

Harold always kept listeners mesmerized with his story telling and art of rolling his own smokes. 

Both talents were well-honed, to say the least.  

"I watched my grandfather," Karl said. 

We also talked about the old A+W Root Beer days when the drive-in restaurant was located about where Taco Bell is now on HWY 95. 

Maurine's folks, who had spent years as dairy farmers, bought the place and operated it for a number of years in the '60s and early '70s. 

Apparently, Blaine Marks wasn't too good at directing ice cream into cones, and Maurine, as a teen-aged car hop, often felt embarrassed taking those misshapen cones out to the customers.

"They're okay," her dad would insist, so off she'd go. 

She also remembered stories of when her dad would be in the back preparing a couple of dozen hamburgers and things would get hectic.

Little sister Rose, more than once took hamburgers outside to customers only to have to bring them back cuz Blaine forgot to slap the burger in the bun. 

It was truly a great afternoon of visiting and even inducting Karl and Maurine into the Lodgepole Society.  

We let the Scotch pine tree in the front yard serve as the setting for their induction, since the magnificent double-trunked lodgepole has been lying on its sides for a few years. 

The Society, however, goes on and servers as a wonderful tangible reminder of friends, old and new, who have come and spent some memorable and treasured times with us.

And so, on this breezy, soon-to-get-hot morning, I guess I'll hurry up and get on with the day of laid-back fun. 

Happy Tuesday.  

Maurine Marks Wheatley and hubby Karl, now living in Charlotte, N.C.  Nice folks.

BTW:  In 1962, Karl graduated from Preston High School in Southern Idaho .  He served as his class president and stood at the same lectern used in the Napoleon Dynamite movie. 

Karl told me that his class bought a new lectern for the school so the movie version could go in a museum in Preston.