May 25, 2016 Daily Life, Ramblings and Musings, Uncategorized
Because I was, so to speak, knee-deep (not really, but it sounds better that way) in cow manure and compost and nice, fragrant earth, preparing beds for planting roses on one side, and planting peas and carrot seed in prepared beds on the other side of our hilly front yard. Last week, I’d planted bush beans and pole-beans in two prepared beds, but things got in the way, and I didn’t get to do more.
Preparing beds for planting vegetables is more back-breaking work than I’d realized. I mean I’ve done it only a few times before (my husband did it most of the time while I was teaching in school), and I’d forgotten how hard it is to turn the earth, to hoe and dig, and pull up deep-rooted weeds that spread under the top beds and add good, organic compost.
Until this year, I’ve tended to water, weed and harvest things from our garden , but hadn’t done the other hard work that is so pleasurable to do, and also so time-consuming. And of course, I planted lots of bulbs and small flowering plants and such in the fall, but somehow, that didn’t make me feel as tired as this work did (and that was tiring enough!)
This year, the garden is my responsibility from start to finish, it seems to me.
I love it.
This is my long explanation for why I haven’t done any real writing today. Well, another added reason was that I spent much of last night dealing with Holly, who had become violently sick from her vaccinations yesterday. After four or five hours of broken sleep, lots of cleanup and disinfecting, tending to sick dog, reassuring her, doing laundry, and so on, I was a wreck this morning. Then, the vet called (we’d left a message yesterday night), and said we could come in with Holly and have her looked at at 10:30 a.m.
I drove my poor, dehydrated darling to the vet, where I found she’d lost a whole pound in a single night. They gave her fluids, gave her anti-nausea meds, and she came home quite cheerfully. All fine for the rest of the day. I made her squishy rice with potato and apple, and added chicken broth to it. She ate like one starved. Later, she ate rice with yogurt at three separate times. I think she’s totally back to normal, although she did not touch her dry dog-food. The amount of worry and stress that my sick dog can generate in me surprises me. I fretted over her as if she were a baby of mine (well, she is).
Then came all that gardening I mentioned above. The sun beat down on me today, and I felt somewhat light-headed from all the work, the heat, the lack of sleep, and from my earlier worry about my dog. A big jar of lemonade, and a watermelon popsicle, and a long, soothing shower later, I was somewhat restored.
After that, we had to get ready to go and fete my husband’s brother’s son (okay, our nephew) who had just graduated from college. My father-in-law and step mom-in-law had generously offered to host us all to celebrate our nephew’s graduation. There were ten of us at the venue (my family, my brother-in-law’s family, my nephew’s maternal grandmother, and my father-in-law and his wife). It was a lovely evening, despite a long wait outside the restaurant, because all of us showed up a little late, and our table was taken. Still, it afforded us time to chat and be heard, which was harder once we were inside the restaurant. The food was good, and we managed to hear each other above the din. After a nice evening, we headed home to our ecstatic dog.
Once home, we hung out and listened to John Lee Hooker, Howlin’ Wolf and others singing the blues. Then, we sang 16th century madrigals as we do almost every night, and sent our daughter off to bed.
I still have chores, so many chores. I am tired.
But happy.
All is well.
I have nothing profound to say, for I’m profoundly tired.
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Tags: #DogWoes, #Family, #Gardening, #Graduation