My garden is coming along…….

but it needs to hurry up before the sun takes over the land and squashes my little seedlings. I will put up netting to protect them from the hungry birds. I have the netting but need to find out how to attach it so the wind doesn’t destroy or blow it away. The wind is something else, it can blow my heavy door to the studio closed despite have a heavy planter to hold it open. Charley knows to get out of the way when it’s windy, I think it’s down right dangerous because the door is very heavy. I’ve added two heavy bricks to a Home Depot bucket to keep the door open and so far that is working.

Want to see my garden? My neighbor is letting me use their water source as it’s closer to the garden then mine and we don’t pay for water here so it works out great for me and they will partake of the bounty when all these seedlings grow up. I’m not sure where whatever I planted is located so it will be a surprise because the wind stole my list before I got them labeled. I have a garden plan but it won’t be accurate so we’ll just have to wait and see what grows. I’ve only planted a few seeds of each because I’m not sure I have enough space for all the seeds I have, There’s a couple items there that I would not have planted kale and collards but I had the seeds so in the garden they went.

peas, beans, kale, collards, cabbage,carrots, turnips, spinach, peppers, beets,squash,cucumbers,corn lettuce, tomatoes, and lots of marigolds here and there because the bugs don’t like it I’ve read, hope its true. And flowers, lots of flowers in pots nasturtiums…I had them last year and they were beautiful, you know you can eat the flowers of this plant. I don’t have any roses, maybe later.

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I would tell you what is growing here but I lost my plan to the wind.

I finished making masks for now but I know we’ll need them for a long time so I’ll probably make more later. I went to Walmart with a bag full of masks. I was surprised to see more people than not had a mask on, last time I went there were few wearing a mask. When I saw some one without I mask I offered them one but finally just gave the bag to a checkouter so she could give one to whoever wasn’t wearing one. I figure the man on the street needed them now more than anyone but those not wearing one was usually a guy ( super guy?). My masks were mostly pretty and guys might not wear them. yeah, super guys think they are safe but the virus likes men more than women so you would think…………….

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Yesterday was amazing here in Caballo, sunny but with a cool breeze so I spent the day outside, it was stuffy in the RV but still pretty comfortable. I spend hours repainting a painting I wasn’t happy with.

Guess what! I drove by the Grape gallery in T or C and two of my paintings are in the window. Of course no one will be buying art for a while, probably a long while but it was nice to see my work there.

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Laundry in the time of quarantine

I hung (hanged?.) these at 8 pm and hopefully will take them in in the morning before anyone notices!

I don’t mind doing laundry by hand and my clothes are much cleaner and brighter than when I take them to a laundromat I may save myself about 25-30$ a month. Except for sheets and towels this is great as long as CJ doesn’t mind my hanging clothes in the tree, only at night or a short time during the day, may as well take advantage of the wind power.

Actually I’m using a soap I’d not used before but I ordered from Norwex. I got a sample of their Power plus laundry soap when I had the Norwax party and like it so much I ordered a box,my clothes look much whiter and the water was dirty after washing which said to me that the laundromat did a terrible job. Anyway I think that’s all I need, not that this soap is inexpensive it’s not, I’m still waiting for my delivery of my order and am using my generous sample.

The whole idea of the need to wash clothes after we wear them once is ridiculous and no one really cares what you wear if you are clean and not smelly, at least this is so where I live, the goal is to manage our lives with simplicity. tv and other ads convince us we need additives to our laundry soap and the goal of fresh smelling clothes that we must bUy their products . That’s why I don’t have a TV. The ads drove me mad.

Today was Sunday, I gave a second acupuncture treatment to CJ,for shoulder pain. I think we caught it in time to prevent a “ frozen shoulder “ problem that can last for months. She still complaints but I see it much improved from yesterday

Other than that I worked on sewing face masks, I like making them pretty and fun to wear. I was a nurse for many years and feel for those making sacrifices today. They never signed up for hazardous duty

Today is a beautiful day to plant a garden

The wind has been just breezes today, and the sun is shining and it’s in the high 70’s. Perfect day to work outside and finally get my vegetable seeds in the ground. I think I have too many seeds for the amount of space so flower seeds went into pots.If even half of the seeds produce I’ll have a magnificent garden right here in my small space. People in the park stop by and say, “you are making a garden?” in wonder because most RV parks are for people coming and going,not stopping and staying. this park has 20 spaces of which half like it here and plan to stay a long time, as I do, otherwise it would not make sense to start a garden.

seeds are in the ground!

I have a friend needing some serious medical care, she doesn’t have insurance so she won’t see a MD. I’mg going to try to help with my needles, so far we see a small improvement today will be her 3 treatment, then we’ll skip 2-3 days and do another series of 3 treatments, I haven’t given her much encouragement because I feel she needs to see an MD, what a situation to be in, not old enough to get Medicare, spouse of retired Marine without any benefits for her. Her legs are so swollen I’m not sure where to find correct placement of needles, but we are trying to do what we can, she is very cooperative and hopefull.the first day I saw her I felt she needed to be in a hospital but she says that will not happen.

Did I tell you I got a new beautiful leather reclining chair for my studio? The people that live here are so fine! The chair was extra for this neighbor because of some reason and they had half of the two love seat and so they gave it to me. Now I have a comfortable place where I (and others but not Charley) can sit and keep my feet up I could probably sleep here!

I made some more face masks today, I’ll just keep making them because I think we’ll need them for a long time and after the first flush of help tires we will still need them so I still have some fabric so I’ll keep making them, I feel like it hasn’t really arrived here close to where I live, we can not let down our defenses too early.

Haven’t taken a bath in my soaking tub yet but I cleaned it out and refilled it and soon I will jump in, I figure I can use it 3 times or so and then water my garden with the water.

I bought this Primo water dispenser, well first I bought the container for the water but when I brought it home and set it in my studio I wondered why this bottle didn’t have a spout, only a carrying handle. I’m such a dummy, the bottle goes with the whole water system not to be used apart very easily. So I went back and bought the rest of the program. A little pricey for me but now I have hot and cold water in my studio. I thought it would be a good thing for me to have because I sit here for hours without drinking water and with my sensitive system I need to drink more water and am a lazy old lady not going to get a drink when I know I should.

So, am I drinking more water yet?

I think I have been complacent with this corona virus because I only personally know of 2 cases and they are in Panama. I just read another friends description of how difficult life is in Panama with people going hungry and the government is enforcing some strict rules of when you can get groceries with severe consequences if you don’t follow the rules. I hope my family there is safe and have what they need, food, water, medications and stay well during this most difficult time we are living.

So while I can plant a garden, learn new things and not suffer any consequences in my small world I know people are suffering everywhere, everywhere and we can only hope our leaders and we are doing what needs to be done to lessen the impact and get over this disaster soon.

amen

How’s Everybody Doing?

We’re fine here,

keeping busy,

making face masks

taking some online classes .

Great Courses had a sale, I’m taking a Spanish class to improve my understanding of the rules, by the way, the Prof says the ch or ll are not used in the Spanish alphabet. That surprised me and wonder when that happened but I guess he would know. Anyway the class is good but I guess I should have taken the Spanish 2 class, so far I know everything he talks about, but that in itself reassures and gives me a sense of accomplishment. After living in Panama for 30 years my Spanish should be much better.Conversationally I do okay but have trouble writing which is silly because if you know the alphabet and the word spelling is not usually a problem, unlike as in English, I probably have a few “typos” right here.

The guitar class is good except I think my fingers must be dyslexic, I can’t get my fingers where they are supposed to go, so I bought this hand support called the rock it barr that you wear on your hand to help you find cords. I haven’t understood it yet, will need to order their book I guess.

I’m also taking a painting class on line, also from the Great Courses, but since I started sewing face masks all my classes have been put aside. I can work on them anytime.

I like making these masks, reminds me of when I was sewing my pursettas, I had a lot of fabric left that I’ve been able to put to good use. I dropped off a bag of masks today at the hospital in T or C and was in Walmart to get some sewing stuff and gave a few masks to people I saw who were not wearing one, they were happy to get them quite a few were wearing them, more than the last time I was in there. (I only go when I have a good reason.)

So far New Mexico incidence of the virus is still low and people think because of that and the fact that we are somewhat isolated especially where I live ,that they don’t have to follow recommendations. I think that’s foolish, maybe it just hasn’t got ten here yet, it doesn’t seem to be slowing down much and is appearing in new places.

face masks

Last time I went to Walmart I must have felt deprived of sugar because I bought so much junk! I even bought a Pepperridge farm chocolate cake which I ate all of it over just 2 days, didn’t share it, just ate it all! Mini donuts, blueberry muffins, little boxes of pie, and 2 packages of oreos cookies. …family size! I write this here to shame myself! Totally unusual behavior, I rarely buy junk food and here I had all this food to eat all by myself! Well I haven’t eaten it all yet, just the cake is gone, it was so good, I love those Pepperridge farm cakes but rarely ever buy them. I am ashamed of myself, need to get control of my wants and pay most attention to my needs…and walk.

I planned to plant my seeds for my garden but it’s so windy I ‘ll try again tomorrow, I have lots of seed to plant, if all these seeds grow it will be amazing garden, I have flower seeds in pots and I’m excited to see many are already peeking up, I hope the weather holds as it is right now for a while because except for the wind, we’re having beautiful days in the 70’s.

My MAC lost my photo album, how does this happen? Fortunately my photos on my ipad and phone are there so I’m able to start over AGAin, hate that all my photos were organized so I could find what I wanted easily, now I have to start over again. I want to get that photo thing they are advertising all over FB, seems like a good item, to not lose your photos.

Not being able to go to do laundromat up the road, I’m doing my laundry in the sink, the other day I washed some blouses put them on hangers and hung them on plant hangers outside for an hour til they were almost dry. Have to be kind of sneeky, doubt my landlord would appreciate me putting up a line to hang my laundry.

I hope you are well, take good care of yourself and your loved ones………..