| Online: | |
| Visits: | |
| Stories: |
| Story Views | |
| Now: | |
| Last Hour: | |
| Last 24 Hours: | |
| Total: | |
Stinging Pests & Place Gratitude
I'm flaring. The shocking thing is that I lasted this long. I'm pretty satisfied with my body's performance, all things considered. I think I'm gonna go down for a while after how I've pushed myself. But I made all the deadlines I couldn't miss, so I'll call this one a win.
I put most of the bedroom together myself (not dealing with heavy things like mattresses or the heavy mirror that goes on my dresser, but still…) I've got half the kitchen (the food and cooking side) organized. Its so awesome and weird to have a full-fledged kitchen. It feels enormous! There's room for ALL of my equipment and I have my preserves and pickles on display on their very own set of shelves! Likewise the bathrooms. There are deep shelves for towels and linens and I'm not used to this. Anyways– where was I? Oh yeah. So the point is I was able to run around and let my inner Irma (see post: ) do her thing and I think she was in 7th heaven!
Its been cloudy with periodic breaks and showers and barely 60 for 3 days– until today. Now its in the upper 70s with perfect blue skies and bright sun. Needless to say, this brings out the insects. We have a ferocious wasp problem. We've got yellow jackets aplenty as well. I was cleaning the litter box and found a wasp hanging out– can you imagine how badly that could have gone? One of my cats could have been stung multiple times trying to do their business and ended up traumatized and refusing to use their facilities! Thankfully I caught it in time– but I'll be keeping an eye out for sure on that count. We've got 3 traps already and knocked down every nest (SO many different kinds!) we could find– but several are way up in tiny spaces in roofs and we'll end up having to spray something in those nooks and crannies. The only thing that's good about the wasps is that they're eating all the spiders I'm allergic to! Houses left neglected in rural areas get inundated fairly quickly by insects, and we expected this, although the only place worse for stinging bugs was that brick house in Ohio I dubbed 'Stinger Hill'! Hopefully, we can go outside and hang out and enjoy it soon, once we get the pest populations under control.
We are SO totally putting bird, bat, and owl houses all over the freaking place as soon as we can! I've noticed we have some very pretty swift or swallow type birds, white with black detailing and pretty shimmery green wings (well, the males have the green, its gray for the females.) They seem to hang out with the hummingbirds, who are also busy. I had a female hummingbird come right up to my head to check me out. They're eating bugs like mad– sadly they don't eat the bigger stinging bugs, but I'm happy to see them helping us with the rest. Gotta encourage them! Which is why we're doing our best to eschew poison where possible– we want to avoid harming predators up further on the food chain. We need them to help us keep our garden healthy once we start our plantings!
Otherwise, we're replacing the built-in microwave, the kitchen faucet (in fact, Gerick is doing that right now), and we already got a brand new water heater (HUGE). Most of the upgrades are cheap because we got a special insurance that covers all those costs for household systems and appliances, which we thought was a good idea for our first year here– already its almost paid for itself! I wan't sure it was worth it, and it probably won't be next year, but for sure it was a smart move to begin with.
I can't believe its nearly May! The warm weather is helping to bring it on home to my mind, though. I've been listening to the radio for hours at a time– we get great reception up here– which is something I haven't done in years, but right now we have no internet, no TV, and only simple cell phone service. Its put me in a strange mood.
As things get put away and life becomes ever more functional, I'm finding myself settling in fairly quickly. I wanted to go back to White Gables one more time to look around and say my final adieu (and check to make sure my husband didn't forget anything!) but I don't think I'll get that chance. This was a hard move. But then, White Gables was the first home that felt like a home I'd been in since Dragonfly Ridge (1999- 2003) and the cabin on Whisper-Rush Road (2005- 2007.) In some ways, though, it was the very first true home in my life or at least since living on the beach at age 5 and in a tiny town when I was 7. (Keep in mind I've probably moved over 30 times…)
White Gables was in the country, which is the only place I can live and be happy, and I had my first big, all organic companion-planted gardens, my first chickens, my first time trying out the co-housing concept. I had friends from work around frequently, I learned I was good at property management… Lots of firsts or 'first in a long time' and I was mastering them all and fairly easily. I took to country life like a duck to water. My husband grew up in small town rural Ohio, but I spent most of my life in working-class rentals in older suburban neighborhoods– being in open country with trees, horses, cows, hawks and coyotes was a revelation. Maybe its weird to be grateful to a place, but that's how I feel about my last home. Its changing and it won't be what it was, but while we were there it was good.
Now we move on to a situation I anticipate being even better. Lots of work ahead, but we're not tackling it alone, and that makes a big difference. I'm hopeful and feeling good about life going my way right now. Lots of changes and adjustments, but I'm glad to be here and no longer WAITING to be here!
Source: http://lucretiasheart.livejournal.com/1127294.html
