Landed In Oregon V

July 26, 2007


Two bedrooms painted and new flooring. Started putting stuff back. There is a trick about interior painting. The focus is on the paint: Color, texture, coordination, brand, and so on. One goes to one or two stores, looks a color charts. A store might even be able to download your room(s) and simulate different colors to see what looks best. But that is not what it really is all about. It is all about moving furniture, clothes, finding room elsewhere in the house for these things, cleaning up under the furniture that is now moved, removing hardware from the walls and doors, wall plugs, seeing repairs that are needed, seeing clothes that no longer fit, need repair, out of fashion. One paints. Then it all has to be moved back. Curtain brackets rehung, pictures rehung, door knobs fitted, wall plug covers reattached. If the curtains were not clean before, maybe now? Interior painting is not about painting. It is about home ecosystems. Even if one chooses to paint the same colors, this is all about radical change. If one does it, say, every five years, then it is usual and customary maintenance, but it is not ‘just painting.’

Watered trees above the creek this morning. The dawn redwood is feeling stress. I gave it about 5 gallons of water. I also watered the lower pasture. Looked good. Saw a couple of hens with young chicks -- about midway in size between a robin and a duck. Sharon said she also saw hens and chicks -- about a dozen. She said Cappy saw them, was curiously inquisitive, but a hen confronted him. He fled.

Also saw a doe and young buck. The drops from the apple tree seem to be attracting deer. The word is out. We have Fiona. Then we have an older, pregnant doe. There is a doe with a fawn, speckled with nubbin horns. Then, this morning, there is a doe with a yearling buck -- a spike. They come and go. Most of the time, none are here.

When I watered above the creek this morning, on the trail were places where deer had cleared the leaves and brush -- spots to lay down. The turkeys do it. Annie, the rabbit does it. Our cats do it. I have seen buffalo wallows in Montana. What is different is the site and materials. Our cats like to dust themselves on garage floors or drive ways -- a hard base. The turkeys prefer really soft ground -- under trees, for example. They create nest size wallows, but often don’t sit like a chicken. They stretch out, leaning against the side, one leg outstretched, wings akimbo. Annie digs troughs and tunnels. When hot she prefers fine powdery dirt to bathe in. It is all about bathing, powdering and scrubbing. One of the early armies -- Greeks, Romans, one of them -- didn’t use water to bath. They were same as the above.

7/30/07

Marine air the last two mornings. Lows in the fifties and highs in the eighties. Lots and lots of green tomatoes. The doe with the spike fawn has a three-point boyfriend. He has a fine bold rack, just coming out of velvet.

Cappy had a tear on right hind quarter. Sharon and I took him to the vet. He was there all day. The vet (she) sewed him up. He also got a crew cut. Tonight he is still dopey, afraid of us (which hurts) and still wanting balance. $ 220+. He ahs freaked out his brother, Manny.

August 1, 2007

Cappy had an off day. We have been keeping him in. Last night he decided he was well and wanted out of the laundry room. Have I mentioned Cappy’s meow? He shrieks. Kept me awake. Up at four. I couldn’t get him to slow down. Finally put him in the sun room. Mr. Manners is still freaked out by his brother. Hisses at him. Don’t know how brotherly love is going to be affected.

100 degrees today. Summer. Hot and dry. When we have clouds, the weatherman says, Dry clouds.

Sharon has plastic liter bottles she fills with water and freezes. When the temperature hits 90 we take one out to Annie. She has learned to cuddle right up to it.

Nubbin’s spots continue to fade. When he bounds across the lawn, he is emphatic, bounding apostrophe-cute.

August 3, 2007

We have had salad tomatoes for about a month. Harvested our first real thing today. They were supposed to be Brandywines. They don’t look like Brandywines...

August 5, 2007

I received a late birthday present on Friday. It was and I read The Deathly Hallows Friday and Saturday. And Sharon read it today. She’s fast!

We have had a couple of mornings in the mid-forties. When I watered trees this morning, they seemed to be doing okay. Some stress, but it looks like those in the lower pasture and near the Dawn Redwood will all make it.

I was running around on my tractor. We’ve had it may nine years. It is 12 horsepower. It is kind of a starting model. It equivalent now is about 17 horsepower. I remember, when we moved onto this property, I was going to be really organic. No need for a lawn tractor. I would do it all manually. Yep. That was good for about maybe six months. Now I am lusting for a 10 horsepower chipper.

Annie, the engineer, has dug below the workbench (and possibly under the foundation of the garage), about 18 inches. Wouldn’t be surprised to see the garage start sinking into the ground.

New water for Brat today.

Cappy’s wound is doing better -- only about a half inch spot to heal. I am not sure the brothers are getting along any better.