Straw in the country is important. Heck, it’s what keeps our chickens warm. My brother stacked a few bales on the west side of the coop to keep the wind out. He uses it for nesting material in their boxes.
There’s a whole theory of no weed gardening based on piles of straw. It helps keep down weeds around flowers or trees. It breaks down to mulch.
Ah, but here there are too many rodents that eat your plants before you even get started. So mostly you need to build rodent safe raised box gardens. That takes money we don’t have. Lumber isn’t cheap. Maybe someday we’ll get to try it.
Not my picture but we are surrounded by fields like this.
Drinking straws have gone back to paper to be good to the earth
Your Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is “sum.” Use the letters “sum” in a word in your post or use the word “sum.” Enjoy!
Summer used to be my favorite season. To sum it up: swimming. I would be in the water 24/7 if I could. From the time of my first lesson, I think I was 11 or 12, I knew my inner spirit was a mermaid.
I challenged myself to swim from one end of the pool to the other in one breath.
Though I took the diving challenges, low board or high, I hated the time it took me out of the water. Although overcoming my fear of heights was tough, once mastered, I gave it up to be in the pool.
In seventh grade I was able to take lifesaving and be a part of a swim team. I didn’t get to finish the course. Nor did I get to continue the competitions. I suffered a severe case of swimmer’s ear that put me to bed the rest of the summer. It wasn’t the earache that caused the most pain. I cried daily for what I was missing. I’ve since learned how to keep my ears dry between swims.
Summer also meant camp and camping. Every year my folks took the family on 3-week vacations. To save money it was always camping. Our favorite system was to go to Sequoia, Yosemite, and Bass Lake. Swimming in the lakes made me happy.
As a teen, Sunshine Superman played as we had many trips to the beach.
I found I loved the beach as much as the pool. Salt water. Sand. Bodysurfing. It became my favorite spot. But laps are too long in the ocean! And swimming under water wasn’t as much fun.
Living in the small community with no pools has been hard. Beaches are too far away. It is Lake County but we’ve yet to see the lakes. And they seem more for fishing than swimming. The one I plan to investigate this summer is actually a reservoir. But we’re told there are leeches. Ugh!
Another sad issue with summer now is the fires. Breathing becomes an issue.
But this summer is starting with the possibility of a really fun road trip. And maybe a swim? Our fears are fires and or snow. I know! But tonight we have to drip. A freeze. June!!!
But I plan on challenging summer this year. Please bring water and fresh air!
Early in the morning and late in the evening smoke envelopes our Valley. The visibility is about 2 miles. Two fires in Oregon are still blazing. Thankfully they aren’t near us. I feel sorry for those in the vicinity of the Bedrock fire, Eugene, I think, and the Flat fire in Brookings. I hope those citizens are feeling okay.
I wish for my friends there, to be enveloped in love, good health, and hugs.
After sealing one of my dragon diamond paintings, I found a need to do something while listening to my newest Libby. I remembered a few years before we moved I had gathered plastic bags. I took the time to fold them so they would be ready to start cutting the strips. Today seemed like a good day to get some plarn going. Here’s my process.
Here’s the plastic bag folded.
Cut off handles.
And bottom.
A stack of bags detopped and debottomed.
Tops and bottoms heading for the trash.
Lined up folded bags under strip cutter. I run the rotary blade up an inch apart.
This creates a bunch of flat loops ready to link up.
Loop one opened
Create this knot by placing loop B over loop A. Reach under the conjunction. Pull end of loop B under loop A and through the middle of loop B. Now gently pull. This creates a little knot.
Keep looping and soon there is a ball of plarn to knit or crochet
I still have a lot of bags to process into plarn. Unlike when I first started recycling plastic bags, when bags needed to be recycled, now there are fewer bags due to laws. So I’m planning to be more conservative with what I have.
I’ll let you know how I decide to use my new plarn.
For a little old lady puppy, Kali breaks my heart with cute. For some reason, she looks like a little hand puppet as she climbs into bed at night.
A gift my hubby bought both of us. Not the expensive, does everything Fitbit, but it does keep track of the basics. Now I just need to get used to wearing it. And then it needs to be warmer than 32 outside so walks won’t hurt.
This weekend we might get rain. I’m thinking wellies, raincoat and umbrella and rain dance of thankfulness.Hopeful.
I didn’t feel the blues because it was either Monday or sort of rainy. But with my cataracts, my wonderful husband agreed to help me find my medical insurance today.
We started with this book:
Yeah, useless.
Our tiny hamlet doesn’t have anything for older people. No flu shots without albumin, no vaccines. To get those, we need to spend $50 for something free. And indeed, finding helpful insurance has been stressful and sad. We finally settled on something… I think. Meanwhile, I need only green spray paint to recycle/reuse this piece of *&#$+*for the trees wasted.
The mustachioed sky is nothing like a pistachioed sky which sounds more delicious. Instead it seemed the sky didn’t want us to relax with clouds. More than 22 lightning strikes were counted. Though it sounds like all were taken care of quickly. The day was cooler with spits of rain so I can’t complain. Even Kali was happy to go outside as the mist was so light she could barely feel it. Oh, and that fresh clean smell that brings such peace. But can it be trusted?
Thank you, Linda G. Hill. Here’s her prompt instructions:
Your Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is “the last photo you took.” Take the last photo you snapped. What’s the first word that comes to mind when you look at it? That word is your prompt. Enjoy!
Yesterday (actually today but I plan to schedule this for tomorrow) my daughter drove me home. It was so nice to spend the extra time together. We listened to these podcasts:
Sorry for the bad quality shot but I felt that would be the easiest way to look up the podcasts. Type the second line in the Google.
The following is as we entered the heavy smoke of the Bootleg Fire. Sorry about the chatter and podcasts in the background.
I feel badly that my daughter has to drive home alone and go back through that smoke. But then there are people who live there some of my writers group live there. Send prayers and healthy thoughts.
Working on my series: Haven.
Doodler (zendoodle.com)
Music major: voice and piano
Mom of four great adults
Reiki II practitioner
I have been on disability/retired for 10 years now from depression, anxiety and fibromyalgia.
Where ancient wisdom meets modern technology. Stories that illuminate the wonders of science, culture, and life — crafted with human creativity and a touch of AI magic.
Darswords 
You must be logged in to post a comment.