On the Homefront

We arrived home around 4:00 p.m. yesterday. The place was quite a shambles, the squirrels having partied hard while we were gone. I'll say more about that in a minute. Being without internet access for a day has me a couple of posts behind, and so I've been considering where to start this first morning back. I think I'll start with yesterday and then post a little retrospective of the Battery Point Lighthouse, Crescent City, and the quilt shop in Fort Bragg. How does that sound? Rhetorical, because that's how this is gonna go. Ya' folla?

First, I'm a day late posting the winner for this month's needle threader for the

and so I'll just take care of that right now. Mr. Random has spoken and the winner is:

#3--Lyndsey!

Pardon me for just a moment while I send Lyndsey an email. Okay, I'm back. (Did you miss me?) So anyway...here's what happened yesterday.

We drove and drove and drove...a little over 300 miles, mostly up Interstate 5, and so it was fairly easy driving. We were glad to be back in the land of mostly good roads and mostly sane driving. We saw a few barns along the way.

The most sure sign of home is when Mt. Hood comes into view.

The first thing we noticed upon arriving home was that the squirrels had chewed into the bin containing the black oil sunflower seed. They didn't do much damage here...aside from destroying the bin...

I did find a dead mouse in the bin, probably put there by the squirrels as some kind of joke. But right beside the bin is this little area where there is a hole in the concrete. The gas pipe connects to the house here, and ordinarily it's filled with gravel.

Not any more. The squirrels have decided this makes a handy place for them to set up housekeeping. With the bird seed so close at hand, who can blame them? Yes, we'll be putting out some "candy" for those buggers. They cannot be allowed to burrow around under the house. In the process of building their new digs (Ha!), they pulled out all the rocks and scattered them all over the breezeway. Be sure to notice the bits of blue plastic from the bird seed bin.

After hazing the mouse, they moved on to the peanut bin. I don't know how they got in there because it is a plastic garbage can with a tight-fitting lid. My personal theory is that the lid expanded because it was sitting in the sun, and they were able to pry it off that way. Whatever the case, they ate every single peanut, leaving all the shells behind. I picked through them down to the very bottom of the bin. I found only a few intact shells, but those didn't feel as if they had a peanut inside. There were also peanut shells strewn all over the breezeway. I imagine them wearing little sombreros and drinking margaritas while they partied hard into the night and day and night and day. With no cats around, they were free to do their worst. I'm sure nudity was involved. And orgies.

It would be funny except that those peanuts go for about $40 per 25 pound bag. I wonder if this is covered by our homeowners insurance. Yeah, probably not.

So after surveying the squirrel damage, I walked around the yard to see how things were doing. The grass is doing GREAT!!! It's grown to knee height while we've been gone, and our hayfever is in high gear. That will be Mike's first task...right after he fixes the computer back-up system that fried while we were gone. No idea. Both computers were turned off, so no damage to those, but who knows why the back-up failed. Also, the coffee maker quit. It too was unplugged. We might think we'd had a power surge, but with no electricity going to either of those systems, it's kind of a mystery. I'm sure the squirrels had something to do with it.

The two things I most worried about were my sunflower seedlings

and the echinacea I've been tending so lovingly for two straight years. Both were fine, and a couple of the echinacea are close to blooming.

You can see that the weeds have made a strong comeback after I judiciously pulled them in the week before we left. That will be my first task after unpacking my seriously good stuff (read that, "sh*t") from the trailer.

Most everything has bloomed, and we missed it. Seeing so many wildflowers makes up for having missed so much at home. Still, the iris are hard at it.

Checking in the greenhouse, the lettuce is doing well.

We lost another tomato plant while we were gone, which means there are five left from the original eleven I planted. Not a good year for the tomatoes, obviously. That's okay. I'll just get what I get and the remainder will come from the farmers. We could still pick up some starts, but I might just go with what I have. It's going to be a busy summer.

The cherry and plum trees were blooming when we left, and they are all leafed out now. I looked for a bit to see if I could find some plums. They're hard to find, but once you see them, then you see them all over. Now, if only they'll ripen before we leave on our next trip! Our neighbor usually gets these after we've left to travel somewhere, but she usually gives us some of the jam she makes from them.

Also, there are cherries on our Bing cherry tree...

and on the Black Tartarian. We almost never get any cherries. The raccoons take care of those.

The daylilies are just getting started. I'm happy not to have missed those.

The chive blossoms are going great guns, but they're a little past their prime. I probably won't do anything with these this year.

The lavender is just now getting started. I see Bees Knees cocktails in our immediate future.

Also, my favorite rhododendron is at its peak right now.

Just behind that is a beautiful red azalea.

But here's the most exciting news I have for you. I know many of you will groan, but just let me tell you, I have wanted to be called for jury duty my entire life and finally...it happened while we were gone. I'm set to report on July 6th. Yahoo!!!!! This is for Circuit Court, which is our highest court in Oregon. The next step after Circuit Court is appellate court. 

The only other time I was ever called for jury duty was in the month after Mike and I were married. We were moving from Vista, California, to Phoenix, Arizona, and so I was excused since I was no longer a resident of the state. Whoever among the gods decides on such things never deigned to call on me again. And, really, how can one be fully grown up having never served on a jury? As my friends, co-workers, and neighbors bemoaned being called, I'd just sit back and say, "PLEASE PICK ME!" Even Mike has been called numerous times. Me? Nada. Until now. My life is complete...or at least it will be when I use all the fabric from my stash. You see, I've determined that the best way to cheat death is to just keep buying more fabric. When the grim reaper comes around, he checks your fabric stash first. Just sayin'.

So once we'd weaned the piles of junk mail from our accumulated mail, I also found the second of the Girls' Getaway stitcheries. This one is the "Clawfoot Tub."

You might remember that the first of these was a camper panel. I snapped this one up practically before it was listed on the Crabapple Hill Studio website.

If I'm remembering correctly, there will be six in all.

And speaking of stitcheries, I've stitched the top portion of Beulah now. She's looking a little less scary now that I've added a little color to her.

And that's kind of where it stands for now. The next day or two will be spent unpacking and trying to get back to what passes for normal here at the Three Cats Ranch. I'll be picking up our CSA share this afternoon, and since we missed the first three shares, I'm looking forward to that. The kitties are back to their same kitty selves, as if we'd never left. Smitty is hard at it hunting down and putting the squirrels back in their places.

I'll finish up those final blog posts from the trip in the next day or two. It will give me something to talk about besides unpacking, which might possibly bore you to death. For now, it's good to be home. I'm looking forward to putting things in order again so I can get back to sewing.