Monthly Archives: January 2014

Human again

When I’m human again
Only human again
When the world once more making sense
I’ll unwind for a change

In a shack by the sea
I’ll sit back sipping tea
Let my early retirement commence
Far from fool made of wax
I’ll get down to brass tacks and relax

When I am human again.

 

With thanks for the lyrics from Beauty and the Beast, my sentiments are well stated.   I feel human again.

I got my first real shower since Wednesday.  Washed my hair and now I feel human again.

I’ve made a couple of miles round trip through the house on my walker, and can lift my sore leg up onto the bed unassisted.  That’s a biggie.

Got dressed  by myself except for the non skid socks.

Fixed my own lunch, with much protesting from Scott.  He wants to baby me, but I don’t need babying, I need someone really heartless over here doing therapy.  But that’s for tomorrow.  I think this knee is gonna be easier that the other one.  Keeping my fingers, my toes, my eyes and anything else I can cross, crossed.

 

Baby Shower # 1

We have three babies joining the Hight clan over the next three months.  My Leslie is the party planner extraordinaire, so she’s planned themed showers for each of the babies.  We had the first one at our house today.  The theme was a “moustache  Shower”.  She had napkins with moustaches, I made moustache cookies.  She had balloons with moustaches, and a game identifying the owners of some famous moustaches.  It was really cute.

 

The gift  table         DSC_1469

The drink table     DSC_1470

 

The Food

140119-Krista-Baby-Shower-10 140119-Krista-Baby-Shower-9 140119-Krista-Baby-Shower-8 140119-Krista-Baby-Shower-7 140119-Krista-Baby-Shower-6

The Honoree and the two other expectant moms        DSC_1472

 

 

The guests

 

 

 

DSC_1479

DSC_1473

 

Opening the gifts

140119-Krista-Baby-Shower-13140119-Krista-Baby-Shower-16140119-Krista-Baby-Shower-15140119-Krista-Baby-Shower-14

 

The moustache identifying game

   DSC_1474

 

Guys just don’t seem to get all that excited about going to a baby shower.

DSC_1480

The next shower has a Georgia Bulldogs theme.  That Leslie, always being creative!

 

Waiting……

Sometimes, I feel almost like a character in Hitchcock’s movie “The Birds”.  I go outside to fill the feeders and see dozens of birds sitting on the limbs, watching and waiting.  Sometimes I even have to shoo them away from the feeders to take them down and refill them.  And yes, some of the birds are crows, or ravens, like in the movie.  But they don’t wait long to swoop in and have a seat at the restaurant table.  I’m filling three feeders every day (one twice a day on these cold days) and a couple need refilling every other day.  So if you see some day that the Hight household has gone bankrupt, blame it on the birds!

The birds are out en mass, looking for food anywhere they can find it.  I have five feeders, each with a different kind of food.  Sunflower seeds in an area of the yard where I don’t mind if nothing ever grows there.  Sunflower seeds give of fa chemical that will often make the ground unusable for growing stuff.  That’s the price I pay for the cardinals, towhees, chickadees, nuthatches, and blue jays that visit the feeder.

Then there’s the mixed seed feeder (always get seed without Milo, as most of our native birds won’t eat this.   It is a cheap filler seed companies use so they can charge less per bag.  Better to pay a little more per bag than to see all those fat, brown Milo seeds scratched off the feeder and lying on the ground)  I have dozens of little brown birds, mourning doves, bluebirds, nuthatches, and woodpeckers who visit the mixed seeds.

I put safflower seeds in the feeder that I know the squirrels can manage to get into.  The squirrels just don’t like safflower seeds.  The Cardinals and finches, titmouse and sparrows like the safflower seeds.  They can be a little messy, when the birds sit at the feeder and shell the seeds.  But I’m willing to sweep away the husks to keep the feeder right outside the kitchen window.

My fourth feeder is the suet basket.  The woodpeckers and nuthatches, bluebirds and sapsuckers love suet.  It is a great source of fat and protein, which the birds need in cold weather.  Unfortunately, the squirrels also seem to like suet, so I’ve devised a baffle to keep them off the feeder.  That is, until they outsmart me.  Then it’s back to the drawing board for a new scheme to thwart them.

My favorite feeder is one I built of wood and glass.  It has wooden ends with entrance holes on each end, cut the size of the opening in the bluebird house.  The sides are two panes of glass.  I pour in some dried meal worms and the bluebirds flock around.  I had three males out there this morning waiting in line to be the next to have a snack.   I can sit and watch them inside the feeder through the glass sides, without disturbing them while they eat.  Two of them are so fat, they can barely squeeze through the opening.  I guess I’ll have to put an open tray of meal worms on the picnic table for them.  Bluebirds are my favorites.  They stay in the yard year round, and reuse the same birdhouse every year.  I often have three to four broods of baby bluebirds in  a year, if I mind them well and clean out the houses as soon as the babies fledge.

On snowy days, I try to toss a handful of seeds on the ground for those ground feeding birds who can’t find food under the snow.

One of the nice things about bird feeding is that there is always something to sit and admire while they feed.  There are birds that will eat only certain seeds, birds that prefer one kind of feeder over another, and ground feeding birds to clean up the mess under the hanging feeders.

This afternoon, I’ll take a piece of deadwood and drill 1 inch holes, stuff the holes with peanut butter and hang it from a tree limb.  The woodpeckers and nuthatches will probably be knocking on the door to thank me!

If you are weary of being inside, put up a bird feeder.  You’ll enjoy hours of pleasure watching them.  And don’t forget to have a bird ID book handy.  It makes it all the more fun when you actually know what kind of bird you are seeing.  The girls gave me a gadget a couple of years ago that is a small scanner that will scan bar codes in my ID book.  It will play the sound of the birds’ calls, so I can start to recognize the calls and know what kind of birds are in the yard at any given time, even when I don’t see them.  There are several great books that can help you get started with bird feeding, naming the kinds of birds each kind of food will attract. You’re never too old or too young to become a birdwatcher.  In fact, Brandi’s first word was bird, uttered while we sat at the window watching the birds at the feeder.  Not exactly what a mama wants to hear first, but at least I knew she was listening and learning.

DSC_0014

Let it snow, let it snow….if it must

The beehive is snugly enshrouded with an insulated blanket and a reducer on the opening to reduce the cold air getting inside.  I’m sure the bees will appreciate that if it gets as cold as predicted.  The dogs are snuggled on their blankets in Scott’s office, and I’m about to put some supper in the oven.

While I built a beehive insulation box, Scott covered all the outside faucets with insulation and plastic.  We went to all the hardware places today and the insulated faucet were all sold out.  Home Depot had people coming from D’ville and surrounding areas, and the last ones were sold by 10:00 this morning.  So we improvised and made our own.  Lowe’s said they were getting in a truck tonight, but we weren’t sure they were getting any faucet covers.  Better safe than sorry.  I sure didn’t want to be out there after dark trying to cover the faucets.  Note to self:  go get some faucet covers as soon as possible for the next cold snap!

I have three delicious books checked out from the library, as well as my Sunday School lesson to study, so the brain won’t shut down if the snow comes.

And I still have a bazillion things to sew if I get tired of reading.

There’s a big pot of homemade chicken  noodle soup, a large bowl of homemade chicken salad, and plenty of bread and milk, fixings for more soup-vegetable and clam chowder, if needed. .  So we can weather any storm that comes our way.  We even have some firewood stocked up.

For the sake of those who are homeless, or who have homes that don’t hold heat well, I would wish away this cold coming our way.  With each snowflake that falls, I’ll be praying for everyone to stay safe and warm inside their homes.  I am so thankful for all my blessings.

Christmas revisited

It’s always a guessing game as to what Brandi is gonna want for Christmas.  One year, she had fabric delivered and I covered all her outdoor furniture cushions.

This year, she came with her suitcase stuffed full of her bedroom curtains.  She wanted the shirred curtains made into Roman shades, as the curtains seemed to dwarf her small bedroom.  She checked with a local seamstress out there, and the lady wanted $2000 to make the 4 shades from the curtains.  So her Christmas present from me was once again a sewing project.  We spent a bit of time together in the basement, which was a treat.

She sent me a photo of the first shade when she got it hung, and I must say it looks good.  I was a little intimidated working just from her measurements-not that I don’t trust her to do it right, but my daddy always said measure twice, cut once.

So Brandi has decided that this was the most expensive gift I’ve ever given her.  We’ll see what next year brings!

I returned a couple of things I had bought Leslie.  I think that I’ll use the money to buy plants to landscape the slope in the backyard of the house they are hoping to buy.  It’s a beautiful , with a slope that runs down to a small creek at the foot of the hill.  I’m thinking some silverbells, leucothe, sparkleberry, and native azaleas on the slope for spring blooms, some sourwood along the woods line for the gorgeous blooms in  and late summer and some witch hazel for those beautiful spidery blooms in November.  Along the stream bank, I’ll plant lots of rescued ferns.  All this after we remove the privet hedge and the English Ivy.  Yuck!  It will be a showplace if/when we ever get it done.  It’s going to be a long term project, but one I’m just itching to get started on.