Whew!

A lot has happened since I started this thing and posted my first blog. My older brother had triple bypass surgery, and the day he came home from the hospital my younger brother went in for tests for chest pains. My younger brother had triple bypass surgery a couple of years ago.

My older daughter, who is pregnant and due Nov. 12, started bleeding and her legs were swollen. She is so fatigued that she sleeps 15 hours/day and had to quit her 15hr/wk job, which her employer was allowing her to do at home on the computer, because she just couldn't handle it. Now, though, her bleeding has stopped; and, because she's in bed so much, the swelling in her legs has disappeared. Her poor husband is working two jobs trying to make ends meet, but they are so very happy.

My younger daughter, who is also pregnant and due March 3, is doing well, but she has always had very bad varicose veins (which she had "stripped" a couple of years ago), and she is having trouble finding support hose that fit. I told her to wear her uniform pants instead of the skirt and get men's knee-high support hose. Oh, yes, this daughter is a LT in the U.S. Coast Guard.

Hurricane Ivan came through yesterday and wrecked havoc, but we are safe and didn't even lose power or internet access!

Well, enough for now. My company has arrived.

Daybreak Duties

Our fig tree has finally got some fruit on it, for the first time in I can't remember how many years we've had it. Trouble is, the stupid ants get to the fruit and inside it and all over it. My husband sprayed it with diatomaceous earth the other day, and that has helped some, but the best thing is to pick the fruit every day as they start to ripen. The tree is covered with fruit, some ripe and lots of it still small and green, so we get only a dozen or so ripe fruits in a day. Not enough to make preserves or a pie, but they sure do taste good. I don't think he likes them very much because of the ants. (I float the fruit in a bowl of water for a while to get the ants out.) They really taste good--a very fresh, sort of grape flavor with something else I can't put my finger on. They're small, though, but who cares?

I was up just a few minutes earlier than usual this morning. The sunrise is coming later and later, and the sunsets are coming earlier. I notice these things. My chickens thought I was crazy opening up their houses before I could see good out there, but the light rises quickly, so it wasn't really all that early. The mist was beginning to rise in the trees, and I heard a new bird off in the distance this morning. I've never heard it before, so I don't know what it is. It had a very pretty single-note call that it would repeat about 8 - 10 times, then be quiet for a minute and then call again. Tom thought it might be a grouse, but I have no idea. I'll have to look it up on the Internet. They have websites that have the bird calls, so, if I'm lucky, I can find out what it was.

We're expecting temperatures around 99F today, so I made sure the chickens' fonts were full of water this morning. I must look a sight with my bent up hat on, jeans, t-shirt, knee-boots, yellow over-sized gloves, packing water up the hill to my birds at daybreak with the early morning mist rising to the tree tops around me, and the morning birds waking up. I picked about a dozen fresh figs for breakfast this morning before I came in. I drop them in the basket I keep on my arm when I'm outside. Even though we're expecting a very hot day (yesterday was very hot, too), this morning is cool and fresh, so I have all the windows and doors open and the attic fan going to pull in that cool morning air.

My daughters are pregnant, my son is on his own and doing very well, there are vegetables and fruits in my yard, and life is good.