Welcome Lull

 

I was reminded of one of the perks of farm life this morning when I looked down at these ripe clover heads. 

It's sweet clover, and when you pull out the individual stems from the blossom, you can suck on the bottom and get a taste of the plant's sweet nectar. 

I didn't take time for a sample this morning but have enjoyed many sweet clover moments before.  

It's just as good as licking a chunk from a salt block, riding on the back of a hay wagon or drinking cold water from the barnyard hose.

I enjoyed reflecting this morning while snapping a picture of the clover. There haven't been many idle moments in the last week, but today life should slow down for a bit. 

There's plenty to do, but the urgency of being somewhere at a certain time or getting a bunch of stuff done to be somewhere has subsided. 

Today I can do important work rather than urgent work.  

Some involves getting back to my story assignment while other tasks involve picking up where I left off in the blueberry patch (lot more berries than I had anticipated), the plum tree, the beans, tomatoes and cucumbers. 

I can take some time to go find Lily's fly mask, and I can spend more quality time with all the beloveds. 

Bill is heading off to Smith Creek once again with his fishing gear and with some leftovers from last night's Arabian club potluck.  

Thanks, Denise.  I saw a couple of chicken wings and that pasta salad you gifted us in the assortment of goodies he's taking with him. 

Yesterday was a two-meeting day.  In one case, the meeting, by ZOOM, featured the last hurrah for a board on which I served for about five years. 

The group, from Montana, Idaho and Eastern Washington,  made decisions on generous amounts of money to give away and to whom. 

Even local entities here in Sandpoint benefitted greatly over the years from our decisions and from the generosity of the benefactor, who decided to go a different direction. 

And, so, we all listened to the final wrap and toasted each other as well as the benefactor. 

At last evening's horse meeting, of course, horse activities were discussed.  Foster participated not only in the potluck but also as a quiet listener.  The little guy loves his social life. 

This morning, I'm looking forward to a comparatively quiet day before taking on the next barrage of activities---some known, some unpredictable. 

I love the urgency and hustle bustle of "things to do, places to go" from time to time, but a calm, quiet day is looking very appealing. 

Below, I've included the latest saga from the Gooby Ranch over in Montana. 

Mary Ann is gonna have to start looking at Dick's gift horses in the mouth. 

Happy Wednesday. 

 

Gooby Ranch Report 

 Mary Ann bought me a battery-powered chainsaw for Father’s Day.  That was really nice of her.  She charged the battery and took the saw out to the pile of logs to see how it worked.  I was going to go out with her but it was my nap time. 

When I woke up, I went out to see what was going on and Mary Ann had sawed wood till the battery was out of power and she was hooking it up to the charger.  She said she really liked the chainsaw. 

Every day for a couple weeks Mary Ann spent over an hour sawing wood.  After a few days I sharpened the chainsaw chain and Mary Ann was really proud of me for doing that. 

I offered to saw some logs but Mary Ann said “No,” I might get hurt.  She didn’t want me out by the logs since one would probably roll on me.  Thanks to Mary Ann I got to watch another movie.

A couple of days later Mary Ann went out to saw wood.  I looked over the available movies and none of them turned me on so I decided to go out and do a work improvement study of Mary Ann’s wood sawing.  I did a bunch of time in motion studies while Mary Ann was sawing saw. 

After watching her for over an hour the only suggestion I came up with was for her to do more lifting with her legs while she is sawing and it would take less time to cut a piece of wood.  Mary Ann incorporated my suggestion and was really proud of me for helping save her time.

For Mother’s Day I got Mary Ann a maul and wedge to split the wood.  I was going to go out and use it to split wood.  When Mary Ann saw what I was going to do, she told me that it was her present so she was the wood splitter, not me.

From now on if we need a tool that requires a lot of work, I’m getting it for Mary Ann’s birthday or Mother’s Day.