How Did I Ever

Write a daily blog that is?? I’m writing twice a week now and it’s all I can do to come up with anything halfway interesting. And who am I kidding–it may not be interesting to many people but the searchable blog sure solves lots of arguments in this household.😁When I met the Cowboy in 1994, I started keeping a journal–somehow I knew life with him wouldn’t be boring and I wanted to document that life. I still have all those journals in which I wrote every single day but it takes a while to read back through those to solve an argument.😆 In 2008 I started the blog TinTeePeeLogCabin and wrote daily until we stopped RVing and purchased the house in southeast Arizona. I began writing this blog in February, 2017 and it quickly morphed into just a twice weekly documenting of our lives. Thanks to those of you who have stuck with us!

On Thursday we loaded our car with protective gear and coolers headed for Billings on a cool, windy, rainy morning. Our first stop was for a rather large Walmart pickup order. All the pickup and delivery services have been overwhelmed during this Covid crisis and I won’t complain except to say that whoever picked my order must have been really stressed and overwhelmed! I had been sent a list of substitutions and out of stock items on my phone and knew one of the out of stock items couldn’t possibly be correct–I really wanted that item. Donning my protective gear I went in the door of Walmart, walked to the produce section, selected my cabbage and fresh radishes, used self checkout and walked out to the car. Done, no people contact!

On to Costco. The Montana governor has announced a phased re-opening of the state beginning Monday, April 27. The stay at home order issued on March 26 was set to expire Friday, April 24. We are thinking Costco decided to jump ahead in the process–no line to enter, way more than 50 people in store, and someone was still halfheartedly disinfecting the carts. A large percentage of the customers were wearing masks and attempting to social distance.

We found most of the stuff on our long, long list. No fresh chicken which was so strange–none, nothing. We came home with frozen chicken tenderloins–I haven’t purchased frozen chicken in so long I can’t remember the last time I did! No blocks of Parmesan cheese–weird–and of course no disinfecting wipes or gloves. They did have flour but only in 25 pound sacks and Costco was stocked with paper towels and toilet paper. I only needed paper towels. Our cart was bulging when we checked out and we were very glad to have with us that cash back reward check from our Costco Visa card.

We didn’t stop anywhere else, I had taken a snack with us as eating a take out meal in the car didn’t appeal to either of us. We dropped off the groceries we had purchased for Jim and Kathy then headed home to begin the long unloading process. On Friday I spent all morning vacuum sealing all the meat we purchased. I also made hamburger buns again–this time the buns were outstanding!

The knitting process was about to defeat me until I discovered something called “lifelines.” After watching the English rib knitting video one more time I accidentally watched it to the end where the very proper English woman said, “consider using a “lifeline” for this style of knitting as it’s a very hard pattern for fixing mistakes.” That’s an understatement if there ever was one! It’s impossible to fix an English rib knitting mistake–at least I wasn’t having any luck in trying to rip back and fix my mistakes. So I ripped back to the beginning for I can’t count how many times!!  What’s a lifeline?? Mr. Google to the rescue and my knitting now has lifelines!! Those lines of different colored yarn allow you to rip back to those strands and then thread your stitches back onto your needles. I’m inserting a lifeline often–I need all the lifelines I can get!😊

When we first moved into this house 18 years ago we fenced a small area and occasionally we would plant a garden–lettuce, radishes, carrots–things which might have a chance of producing in our short growing season. One year a few years ago we fenced an even bigger area and planted a large garden–tomatoes, peppers and even corn. We placed hoops over the more fragile plants–tomatoes and peppers, covering them with clear plastic each night. On about August 28 that year our temperature dropped below freezing and everything in the garden froze. That was my last garden.

We’ve decided to try the smaller garden again and Saturday we cleaned out all the debris and are waiting until the soil dries a bit more before tilling. I may plant some tomatoes in pots that can be rolled in and out of the garage each night–seems like a lot of work for little yield–doesn’t it!

Sunday morning I was making breakfast when the Cowboy who was wandering around outside on the deck stuck his head in the door and said, “get your camera.” We’ve never seen an eagle this close to our house–he was in a dead tree right off the deck. This was a quick shot taken through the window as we were afraid of spooking him. Right after I took the photo he flew.

My great niece Elizabeth has signed to play softball at the college she will be attending in the fall, majoring in nursing. Signing events should be full of fanfare–former coaches, friends and family are there to cheer you on. Not in the spring of 2020 thanks to Covid. It was a low key affair which her mother recorded and here’s one of the photos–Elizabeth is the one smiling, not sure what Leah is doing other than being Leah😍. We are so proud of you Elizabeth!

There was even a bit of farming going on Sunday afternoon–the Cowboy was harrowing our fields. My hairdresser called this afternoon. Hair salons may open tomorrow, Monday, April 27 and must adhere to certain restrictions. All stations must be at least six feet apart–now does that make any sense?? Your hairdresser is most certainly NOT six feet from you. Everyone must wear a mask–how is that going to work when someone is cutting your hair??? The four owners of the salon have rearranged their chairs and are the required six feet apart. They are each only taking one customer at a time–no getting your hair cut while another person’s color is processing. So–my haircut is for May 19–twenty two days from now–she’s gonna need a lawnmower!