Letting go

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honeybera
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Re: Letting go

Post by honeybera »

Crow wrote: Sun Apr 18, 2021 8:10 pm Look after yourself honeybera.
:mrgreen: I always do.

Like today: Ol' Bootsy and Spot do NOT get along! Boots is full of fast and bouncy play and would LOVE for ancient Spot to play with her. When Boots plays with her sister, the loose rules are fight and bite and chase and bark and tumble, but Spot in human years is nearly 112! And she is in no mood for a sporting romp with a puppy who wants to bite and bark at her, even in play!! :roll: And on top of this, Boots can escape THRU the fence slats or UNDER the gate into Spot's beloved sanctuary of peace and potty time (aka the garden), even at night, so we've been closing them up in the inside pen by closing the doggy door to the outside, but DS lets them out in the early morning. However even if the gate to the garden area is closed, right up underneath wriggles Boots. :( I'm afraid that if Spot is out there, she may really hurt Boots. She's aggressive with milder Mittens, too, but only like a sharp snarl and warning. With Boots, she's on top of her, teeth bared next to her throat! Not good. Not good at all!

SO...WHAT TO DO? Fix the fence so Boots can't get out. PERIOD. So I placed these smooth, round and very heavy river rocks I have UNDER the gate, plus the thru the slats routine didn't work for her b/c I think she grew just enough to fix that. So now Spot can go outside without the threat of being bombarded with an overly enthusiastic playful pup! And I can weed eat the yard in peace and safety. I'll let them back in when I plant or refurbish the soil in the pots, or even just sit down for a quick pet with them (although that doesn't last long since they're so squiggly! That's a combo of squirmy and wiggly!!!) - but their favorite task to "help" me with is getting the old weeds out of each large pot. I have this new savagely sharp Japanese "plow" sort of thing, both a long handled one and a short hand held one. They work GREAT, but I have to be careful with the two puppies. They see it as play (as they do EVERYTHING!!! :lol: ), but if I loosen the weeds up, some of which are deep in there pretty good, the girls will jump at the unearthed weeds and dig, dig, dig, then shake them like they would a rat, and toss them to the side. Talk about Yard Dogs! :mrgreen:

Since the weather here is already in the mid-80s and soon hitting the low 90s, it's time to PLANT. That's why I'm getting all the weeds out and putting in additional potting soil, fertilizer, worm castings, micronutrients, compost and so on.

===================(Monday)

SUCCESS! Left the doggy door open all night to the dog's yard with the gate to the garden (and my WOW) CLOSED and NO escape from Boots-dini over to the garden side through the fence slats or under the garden gate! I didn't put a potty pad in the inside pen, but apparently they used the doggy door to potty outside now. HALLELUJAH!! Also no barking at the neighbors at 1am either which was a BIG problem with our neighbors 15 yrs. ago with the other puppies (Ms. T, et al)! (I was awake and listened this time!) So...SUCCESS!

I also ordered two new cheap plastic outdoors chairs for the backyard (my old one is like 100 yrs. old, very weathered, and the plastic is getting weaker!) AND a couple of sweet bell pepper plants and one Early Girl tomato, all from Home Depot. DS picked them up for me on his way home from working a graveyard shift. Works for me! But I stayed up all night again :x and need my beauty sleep now. I've got to stop doing those "up all night, sleep all day" routines every time DS works graveyard since the 100ºF+ hot weather will be upon us before we know it and I'm going to need to be working in the garden in the morning "cool" (of 85ºF+) rather than the blistering HOT afternoons! :oops: But I can do that change of sleeping patterns...with effort. The incentive is certainly there! And the silly, rollicking pups romping around at my feet are even more incentive than the heat that's coming. But for today...SLEEP! I'll do the huge amount of planting, transferring, and planning in the dark tonight in the Hobby Room. That I don't mind in the slightest. And mornings out in the garden is fine, too.

OH! And I purchased some $20 "Mega Movers" over on the HSN - SO WE CAN MOVE THAT DARNED ROLL TOP DESK FINALLY and I can begin to clear out the Storage Room!!! I firmly believe that just DS and I can do the task by ourselves.

=======================(Monday late night)

Did I say SUCCESS?? Well, I shouldn't have! Bootsy managed to S-Q-U-E-E-Z-E through the tiny gap in the slats right next to the house. So I let her sit out in the garden area missing her sister to the point of yapping tearfully and then howling. My poor neighbors! I put her back to bed in the inside pen, but with the doggy door open, meaning she could still have come back into the garden area if she chose to. But she did NOT. Tomorrow I will patch that up with stronger stuff than DS could come up with tonight. That is one stubborn dog!!

OMG, it's after 11pm AGAIN, but this time I'm off to bed so I can get out there and work in the yard and play with both of my pups as well. They get the run of the entire yard including the garden during the daytime. Life in the backyard amazes them every day. It's all so new to them, every leaf, every bone, everything is a toy! But I need to weedeat everything first. Wow. :roll:

Off to bed...

Honeybera
honeybera
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Re: Letting go

Post by honeybera »

Planted my bare root Cha Cha chives today! In the hobby room. Put them under the grow lights. They look good. In a nice 2 gallon plastic pot.

I also mixed up a nice batch of enriched seedling soil and will plant the tomatoes, peppers, squashes (especially the Smooth Criminal - whatta name! :lol: ), and some bush beans tomorrow. I'm going to get the weedeating done (not much left to do really) and move some big pots around on top of straw first strewn underneath as weed control. I'm going to (for this year only) plant most of my veggies over here in the garden to allow just a few things to grow in the dog's yard with my rambunctious puppies. Safer that way. Nothing in the nightshade family will be around the dogs unsupervised, like tomatoes and peppers. I'll cover them with a small cloche for now and ring the pot with petunias (they overwintered!). Should look pretty. And the hummers like petunias. It'll be right outside my WOW. Easy to see. Next up are the sunflowers. All this is going next to my back fence, approx. 22 ft. from my house.

Oh, and I trimmed up my 2 Meyer Lemon trees and now (amazingly with the neglect I've done to them) they look like they're professionally pruned! They're right outside my WOW and such a delight to see them, covered in white lemon blossoms and dark green leaves and full of honeybees! Sweet lemons are coming!! I've just got to water them (and everything else) very well all summer long. Last year's crop got eaten up by something (like maybe rats?? :x ), but since getting the puppies I've only seen one rat, and that was running along on the back fence, so maybe some lemons this year? 8-)

So now it's 10pm and time for bed. I'm not sleepy quite yet, but I'll get there. There's no reason in the world that dictates me to be unhappy or shame filled. That choice is up to me. I am so lucky!! I can finally see that I make some good choices and enjoy self-given permission to do so! :mrgreen:

Honeybera

DANG-IT! I forgot to send this last night. However, I have to add this: I HAVE DISCOVERED THE WONDERFUL WORLD OF DAYLILIES!!!! I just found out that they can be in Zone 9 (my zone)!!!! SO HAPPY about that!! I plan to research them a LOT more...later though. I found a couple absolutes: Betsy Ross (vibrant RED) and Stella Doro, a bright YELLOW (just to start!) and it's all due to daylilies being DOG FRIENDLY (not poisonous to curious puppies :roll:) and also wildly attractive to hummers! OMG, I'm in hog heaven!!! And to top it all off THEY'RE HISTORICAL!! AND THEY GROW IN ZONE 9! (NOT in FIERY HOT zones 10-13...NOOOO! Only in Zone 9 and colder! So no frost worries next Dec., not with the daylilies, that's for sure! :mrgreen: ) I'll probably order some soon, like tomorrow because otherwise I'll stay up all night fiddling around with NINE PAGES of these gorgeous flowers in a rainbow of colors. WOW!!! :o :shock: ---> 8-) Sorting through all those pages should be a treat, not a chore.

I even found a very inexpensive website (smokeysgardens dot com) with (like I said) NINE LONG PAGES of row after row of the prettiest daylilies EVER! I can't believe my good luck. A couple of the plants I got last August (two Iochroma [eye-oh-CRO-mah] 'Princess' [pink]) I'm finding out now are poisonous to dogs. :roll: They grow up to 12' high, too, and even 10ft of that in the first year! I have the "side gate" shutting off the area over under my kitchen windows and family room/fireplace, and I may just plant them over there to cool the house some: Semi-shade/a few hrs. of afternoon sun, so I guess that's a perfect spot for them. :mrgreen: And they are absolutely hummer friendly, but not for my precious pups. I already have a Rose of Sharon tree (or two) plus a HUGE red Salvia just under my kitchen sink window and the hummers just love them both.

OK, it's now midnight o'clock! Way past time for bed. :cry: But I just had to share what I've found tonight! :mrgreen:

===============Forgot again...senior moments??? :lol:
Chessgirl
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Re: Letting go

Post by Chessgirl »

I have always wanted to grow sunflowers! Interested to know how those turn out. Meyers lemon trees are just lovely. Love hearing about all the work you’ve been doing. The pups sound delightful too! Wish I could come over for a visit! Truly sounds magical over there!
Chessgirl
honeybera
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Re: Letting go

Post by honeybera »

Chessgirl wrote: Fri Apr 23, 2021 1:17 am I have always wanted to grow sunflowers! Interested to know how those turn out. Meyers lemon trees are just lovely. Love hearing about all the work you’ve been doing. The pups sound delightful too! Wish I could come over for a visit! Truly sounds magical over there!
Hey Chessgirl! :mrgreen:

I have all sorts of sunflower seeds, but haven't planted even one yet. Soon though - real soon! Some are shorter, some are REALLY tall! I can't wait to see how they turn out, too. The Meyer lemon trees are just covered in blossoms and/or TINY little lemons and I'm watering them thoroughly about every 3rd day. I've been amazingly consistent about doing it, too, which is probably why they're thriving. My Rubinette apple had distinct little green apple leaves coming out on the previously bare stick, which is decidedly contributing to some happy feelings. How they can ship a tree like that from one coast to another, all the way across an entire continent in a box, NO DIRT AND NO WATER, and once it's stuck into some dirt, lovely leaves begin to grow on it. WOW. That absolutely amazes me!

So does watching my nutty puppies! Boots found a walnut today that had fallen off Pedro (my Pedro walnut tree in the dog's yard), and when I tried to grab it, she snatched it away and tried to hide it in my tomato pot. She seemed to have eaten a small part of the inner nut, too. When I got it, I threw it away. It was not rotten, but I'd read that if they do rot, they become toxic to dogs...and Boots is such a little pup still, only 13 wks. old! But I checked on her at about 1 am and she seems fine, albeit a little quiet...for Boots anyway. She's usually such a wiggle worm, but tonight she allowed me to just sit quietly and cuddle with her. That's a first! She's alert and perky and all, but just somewhat subdued. Mittens is not as bold and adventurous as Boots is (usually), but she looks like a show dog! The way she stands looks like she's about to win Grand Champion! :lol: She is perfection! I got lucky with these two. They look like a matched set...until you get to know them. Mittens also had her ears erect already while Boots' ears are still buttoned. Each holds their own in a fight and each has their own methods of getting their way. Too funny, those two!!

Spot may outlive us all! She just keeps on keeping on. Bless her! She sleeps on a MyPillow® dog bed under my desk, but she prefers one of those throw rugs from Costco, so I'm going to change that out for her tomorrow.

I wish you could come over, too, or at least see pics posted, but that's just not in the cards! I'll keep you posted on the sunflowers. I've decided to just get two types of daylilies for now to see how they handle this place and the intense heat in the summer: the popular 2½" bloom Stella Doro (golden yellow) and the stunning 5" blossom Betsy Ross (deep mahogany red with a yellow throat - for the hummers). Two plants of each (4 in all). If they can stand the heat, if they need more shade or more sun, all will be decided as the summer rolls on. I'll put them into pots so I can move them around the yard accordingly. They ship in May sometime and come bare root...naturally, so I'm going to deliberately dawdle in my order for a few days since I may want one or two more and the shipping is one flat rate per order. Apparently, some folks are REALLY into these flowers! Example: The American Daylily Society!! DOT ORG!! :roll: I kid you not! So I decided to start small and slowly since there is a LOT to learn. Yellow and red. Period. (For now.) Or not. ;) :lol:

We got the moving rollers for the roll top desk today. DS and I really took a hard look at the desk and how to move it, and I think we're really making some slight progress. He wants to sell it out of the front room, which is fine by me, and once it's out of the Storage Room (just our 3rd bedroom), I can begin to clean that room OUT!! I have been telling him that the desk breaks into two pieces for easy (or easier) moving; that is one HEAVY desk!! And over the last 20 yrs, it's sunk into the carpet, which is still pristine underneath it. But I can see that the "desk-moving-fiasco" end is near, and that's one heck of a relief!

Sun is up! :shock: "Time for bed?" Yeah...hours ago!!

Honeybera

(Forgot to post it again this morning! Starting to worry about me! :roll: :lol: j/k)
honeybera
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Re: Letting go

Post by honeybera »

I'm beginning to worry myself somewhat. I don't seem to be able to get my rear end outside into the garden! :roll: It's not that I don't want to do anything out there! I do - I really DO! But I sit and watch the hours go by, saying that "I'll get out there after..." whatever it is that I'm doing, watching TV usually. I can SEE the foxtails as they grow HUGE. I can SEE my lemon tree that needs severe pruning or it will just up and die. I can SEE the cloudy water in the hummer's feeder. Today I even watched my plants out there begin to droop due to a lack of water...as I binge-watched The Handmaid's Tale instead on WatchAThon for FREE! But true to form, all my plants are ok, but not due much to me. More to a big feeling of guilt did I FINALLY get my behind out there and watered EVERYTHING! :( (And I'm awfully glad that I did...but this has got to stop!)

My garden humbles me. You should see what I found out there after 5 days of NO WATER and 80ºF temps! STRAWBERRIES! BROCCOLI! And my little stick of a Rubinette apple tree is thriving with little shoots of tiny, bright green leaf clumps coming out all over it!! You know the larger baskets of strawberries one can get in the grocery store? I could fill one of those with these HUGE red ripe ORGANIC strawberries in four 3ft x 18" planters. Two of the broccoli plants have very distinct 3-4" broccoli heads on them and should be ready to eat in a day or two. Even my little 2qt. pot of Nadapeno peppers withstood the heat and lack of water. (I was SO PLEASED by that!) With peppers, heat is one thing, lack of water is quite another!

I've got to get over this procrastination! These are not stressful or physically challenging tasks, to be sure! I KNOW that all I have to do is get up and get out there. Once I'm out there, I start to putter around and get things done. I will figure this out, this resistance to getting out there. It's not unpleasant to me to work out there; in fact, I enjoy it. But it's the getting out there in the first place. I just keep avoiding something that is pleasant to me and I can't figure out why I'm doing that. I sit in my computer chair for hours and hours, day after day, until my tailbone aches as I see the foxtails waving in the breeze. Do I really NOT want to do it? Do I hate gardening?? I think not! But then why? Lately, I don't even want to cook dinner! And if I could eat fast food without doing myself a mischief, I WOULD!

Right now, my dishes are all done, sink and sideboards are all clean, but I don't know what to eat tonight. Am I just bored?? I am WAY too lucky (even in these times!) to consider myself bored. I don't feel bored when watching TV or working in the yard or playing with the pups (who are too cute AND smart to be believed!!), but I don't know what it could be. I'll keep at it. I believe that tonight I'll make the last pork steak w/mixed veggies (fried together) and a bowl of soup (pre-frozen - just defrost it and add some seasonings) and a bacon-tomato sandwich - and strawberry pudding for dessert! YUM! Mouth is watering.

Tomorrow (since it's dark out now) here is my plan: get my shoes on as early as possible and load the weedeater's battery onto it. I don't have to weedeat (it's a mind trick - if I get that far, I'll weedeat). But IF I do, it'll be those foxtails over by the Eureka lemon tree. I need to plant my tomatoes, too...AND the Smooth Criminal squash and zucchini and a patty pan (such an easy task!). It's going to be up in the 90s very soon. I need to get going, BUT TOMORROW, I only have to get my shoes on, slap the battery into the weedeater, and step out the door (of my WOW). That's it!

BTW, my new pups are going to make GREAT "yard dogs" (aka companions in the yard). Spot can't stand the pups, especially Boots, because they want to PLAY with her and she is having NONE of it!!! She snaps at them and lunges at them with bared fangs and I'm afraid she might really hurt one of them. So as it stands, with all of my gates and fences and inside doors, we will just keep them apart. It shouldn't be too bad. We're better set up than we used to be in 2005 when the last litter of puppies was here, that's for sure!!

==========================(Friday am)

I haven't weedeaten the yard yet, but I plan to this morning before I sleep. Yesterday I took out two HUGE sacks of garbage and loaded them into the cans and rolled them out to the street for pickup because DS got called into work at the last minute and forgot to roll out the garbage and bring out the backyard garbage, so he texted me and had me do it. I haven't had to do that in years, ever since I retired 7 yrs. ago. I hadn't realized just how out of shape I am! Luckily, DS did remember to load up the black can with house garbage, but forgot to roll it out to the street.

Playing with the pups in the backyard yesterday I began to realize just how bad the weeds are in the places I neglect to see from my WOW. A quick weedeating will do the trick and allow me to garden with the pups there. I hate to weedeat with those super-quick puppies running around. But once it's done, I like to let them out to be the sweet, loving puppies that they are. And they LOVE to dig! But it's ok because I already purchased my wire cloches to go over the tops of my new plants in the pots. Anywhere that's dirt, but not "in a pot" and without a cloche, is fair game as far as I'm concerned. Let them dig to their hearts content! I haven't seen any rats since they've been here! And the pups are growing like crazy! I think they'll be slightly bigger dogs than I'm used to, like 12-15 lbs., but they'll still fit through the doggy door. They're already super protective of both me and DS and this home, too. Boots saw her reflection in the WOW the other night, squared off, and began barking at and "fighting" with that reflection dog! :lol: I like to see that! She is by far the most curious, bold, and assertive, but Mittens is brighter and more manipulative. They both sit with a hand command, but Mittens also understand the "wait" hand command and will hold that "sit" until I'm ready to give the treat. SMART dogs!

It should be near 90ºF today and for the next few days of a windy heat wave, so the tomatoes and peppers and squashes are going in right after the weedeating. But bills first and then weedeating...and then The Handmaid's Tale (for FREE) later tonight. I've already binge-watched the first two seasons. Wild show!! :roll:

Honeybera
honeybera
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Re: Letting go

Post by honeybera »

I come to you tonight saddened because the pups tore up my broccoli pots! AND dug deeply into the Rubinette apple pot as well. :cry: I can't just let them wander around unsupervised in my garden area anymore. Not now at least. I'm planning to go to Home Depot, buy some Hardware Cloth (it's really galvanized steel mesh in a roll) and some wire cutters, and cut out circles of this wire mesh to fit my Smart Pots. Then when I plant something, I can bury one of these circles in the Smart pot, and if they intend to dig in the soft soil (as Ratties are wont to do) and destroy my plant du jour, they will only dig down a little way before hitting this wire. It won't hurt them, but will feel icky on their paws and claws. Not pleasant to dig in, that's for sure. I sure do hope it works.

They weren't trying to hurt me or my broccoli and apple tree. They are Ratties. Ratties D-I-G!!! And my girls are no exception. I wouldn't want them to be. But my heart just broke to see my broccoli all smashed like that and a BIG hole dug deep into the Rubinette pot! I think it can all be fixed up...or at least I hope it can. The apple will be fine, but that broccoli...I don't know. It was awful! Every time I put my hand in the broccoli pot to swoosh them away, they thought I was playing and jumped right back into the pot, further crushing the big broccoli leaves! Plus they got a bit rough and snagged my "elderly thin skin" and made me bleed on one hand and the other arm. I had a pocketful of doggy treats, so I walked over to the dog's yard gate and threw in the treats, allowing them to follow the treats in, shut the gate, and that's that. We all need some training. :roll: Where's the Dog Whisperer when you need him? (Oh yeah! On YouTube!) :P

Tomorrow I'll fill the Rubinette pot's hole. I'll patch up the broccoli as best I can. I'll finish my weedeating and begin to plant my tomatoes. Also my Smooth Criminal squash in a pot just behind the SunGolds. Perfect view from my WOW. I refuse to let this get me down. I don't wish to be cruel to my new pups for doing something that comes so naturally to them. But I also don't have to be a victim, either, and allow myself to not have my things the way I want them to be. So please think happy, positive thoughts about my under-soil wire circle solutions by just making it slightly unpleasant for the pups to destroy all my hard work. I think that is fair.

Honeybera

PS - In my online research tonight, I got another idea, and one that is much less complicated and quicker to do: put down cut up and sized for each pot thick pieces of cardboard. I have lots of it in the garage. I can at least try that and see if it works and deters the pups from digging in my pots. To have them dig anywhere else is fine with me, but just my pots and raised beds are off limits. I could also lay some large cobblestones or bricks that I have laying around the yard in the pots which would serve the same purpose. I have a lot of spare rocks and bricks here already. Why not make them useful? And if it doesn't work perfectly, I can just keep on trying things. I love my pups and I love my garden. There's got to be an answer. Also being online tonight I realized that this is not a strictly Honeybera problem. I am not alone. This is an incredibly common problem, especially with puppies and even more especially with terriers. So I need to brainstorm until I get a working answer. ♥♥♥
dancingfish
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Re: Letting go

Post by dancingfish »

Aw Honeybera, sorry to hear those lively pups found their way into your broccoli and apple pots! It does feel sad when something we've worked to bring to life and flourish gets damaged accidentally. It is just an accident though, and I'm very sure you'll find a way that suits you, your puppies, and your garden so they can all live happily together. :) It's just how we learn - things happen, we make changes so different things happen in future, hopefully. Or try again if whatever it is we tried didn't work... I'm still having a bit of fun and games to stop birds digging up and destroying some of my little plants!

If you sometimes need to sit inside and not "do", maybe that is just what you, your mind, heart and body, need for you right at that point. It can be frustrating when we want to do things, such as tend plants that can't wait too long, but I found fighting that resistance doesn't tend to help. Sitting quietly with you, in moments of gentleness, as you listen to what you need and take care of it however suits you best. We don't have to do everything all the time, nor do it perfectly either. And whatever you *do* choose - that's good enough. :) Best wishes to you dear honeybera!
honeybera
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Re: Letting go

Post by honeybera »

dancingfish wrote: Mon May 03, 2021 9:19 am Aw Honeybera, sorry to hear those lively pups found their way into your broccoli and apple pots! It does feel sad when something we've worked to bring to life and flourish gets damaged accidentally. It is just an accident though, and I'm very sure you'll find a way that suits you, your puppies, and your garden so they can all live happily together. :) It's just how we learn - things happen, we make changes so different things happen in future, hopefully. Or try again if whatever it is we tried didn't work...
Hey, dear dancingfish! :mrgreen: I was so disappointed by all that damage that I (naturally) became depressed yesterday and fixed up nothing. I did bring the pups into the house and both DS and I played with them and sort of trained them and let them run inside. I had to put old Spot away in my room and away from the pups. Every time they slip past me and interact with Spot, she attacks them. She's also acting ridiculously "puppy like", going into an arthritic play stance and running down the hallway quickly...poor dear. She need not compete. There is no competition. She's my good old girl and always will be.

But the pups are incredibly cute and bouncy and need some of that amazing energy burned off and run off during the day so they can sleep happily at night, so until I fix the yard somewhat, in the house and in the dog's yard is where it's going to happen. This breed also needs a lot of interaction with their human owners. If I allowed them in my room, they would be perfectly happy in my bed (not allowed!) or under my bed where they've drug all of Spot's gnaw bones (that Spot has no interest in), but Spot is always in her bed right next to my bed in my room and she instantly attacks the pups who only want to play (albeit roughly) with her like they play with each other. So I have been putting Spot out in my hallway whenever I let the pups into my room...and she scratches at my door to be let back in incessantly! Truly a dilemma of gates and fences and which is opened and which is closed and who is where. :roll:

So today I slept until 4pm, pulled back the blackout curtains from my WOW, and to my horror, ALL of my plants have blown over in the "red flag wind storm" that just hit us (and will be hitting us for the next several days along with 90ºF+ temps). I mean they FELL (one entire TRAY of rare hummingbird-favored plants!) onto the ground. Out further, all plants are on their sides, including my one surviving SunGold tomato. I can't even see my battered petunias. "Life is unfair"? :cry: Yes, I guess it can be. But WTF? I've dealt with MD when I was just a helpless infant, a little toddler, a sensitive preteen and teenager, and a confused young adult while she pulled all the strings of my being. I can surely survive some upended plants and some adorable little dogs. In fact, I do believe that I'll don my garden clogs, hat, and gloves and go on the attack myself out there. I'll let you know what I find. (This is the attitude that always infuriated MD! HA!! "WHY CAN'T I BREAK YOUR SPIRIT!!??", she'd always say. Well, nuts to her!! :P )

============================(One hour and 45 min later)

DONE!! I must admit that I'm PROUD of myself! I did NOT know what I'd find out there!! And come to find out, it wasn't as bad as I thought it might be. I checked all damage, reset all pots that had blown over in an upright position (shocked that it wasn't worse!! :shock: , refilled the hole in the Rubinette dirt-filled tub with just my hands, finished weeding out the two pear trees (with 5 tiny pears on each one), FINISHED :mrgreen: weeding my squash/pepper SmartPots (while gently batting away two rambunctious, tumbling puppies - yeah, I let them in, BUT supervised!!!), and then I WATERED!!!! Everything was SO THIRSTY!! Some plants I gave a drink, watered something else, and then gave the first ones a SECOND drink! All plants were limp. Some were strewn on the ground due to the high winds. But all were still alive and salvageable! Had I not gone out right then, had I left them for another night, who knows what would have happened?

But I'm not going to think about that. It did not happen, so no need to dwell on it. The pups got their run, but heard a loud, "STOP THAT!!" from me whenever necessary, followed up by a pet and a "GOOD GIRL!!!" when they had stopped whatever nonsense they'd been doing. They need to be somewhat disciplined to not puppy bite and what is off limits and what is not. BTW, the root of the word discipline is:
The word “discipline” is from the Latin word disciplina meaning “instruction and training”. It's derived from the root word discere — “to learn.” - focus3 dot com
I wore my heavy gardening gloves outside today, but still when they bite or nip my hands or arms, I still "yike" and withdraw my hand, and lo and behold, they quit nipping at me. And tonight I'm not bleeding! SUCCESS! But having been through what I have when I was young, I don't want to alienate them due to being rough or mean with them. I just want to TEACH them to not make me bleed and not to dig in my pots. I can see that I need self discipline to teach them gently, but firmly. And they really do appear to want to please me and to self discipline their little puppy hearts to NOT chew that broccoli leaf - or even me. They are learning that I will withdraw or have an angry tone when they do, and they do stop.

I'm also going to give each one some training time each day ALONE with me so that they don't start to play with each other and ignore me and ESPECIALLY compete for the treat du jour. It's hard to train Mittens to sit and "wait" for her treat while Boots is nuzzling my hand to get to Mitten's treat first, and then turning like a flash and biting Mitten's ear and nipping her tail and the fight is on. :roll: So...one at a time tonight begins. And with the freeze-dried rabbit treats, the favorite (HANDS DOWN!) so far!!! I'm conflicted over giving them rabbit or lamb, but isn't beef or chicken just as bad? I'm no vegetarian, but cute little bunnies? :roll:

(It's almost dark out there and I just saw a hummer at my WOW, hovering for a few minutes. I took in the dirty [cloudy] feeders three days ago to clean them and refill with fresh nectar, but...well, you know me. :oops: They're both still sitting on my bathroom floor, in the way and underfoot. Not kidding: I think that hummer was trying to tell me something, like AHEM! FEED ME! :lol: I think I'd better listen! They come right up to me outside and hover like that about 12" away from me, either at eye level or near my muumuu'd stomach. And they know where I live! LMAO!! I'll have them back out there by tomorrow morning! <giving a snappy salute!>)

============================(wee hours on Tuesday am)

When I came back into the house earlier, what greeted me for all my yard work and watering was the BIG mess Spot had made of my room! She knocked over my CLOSED fertilizer bags (and there are many) and lots of my garden tools, gloves, and my hat that I keep by my WOW for easy access until I get the garage clean. She's never even touched them before. I still have to pick it up before bed since that's also blocking my path to the bathroom and sometimes on those trips I'm pretty groggy. I wonder if she's mad at me for some doggy idea that she has brewing.

I also have to whip up the hummer nectar, too, but DS has used my big 8 cup measuring cup for some reason, so I'm going to have to use the 4 cup one for now (and probably in the future, too, since 8 cups is really too much).

========================(late evening Tuesday)

OMG! I just learned that Day Lilies are INVASIVE!! :roll: Good grief! I haven't ordered them yet, and I'm glad I didn't. We already have the whippy weeds (aka Morning Glory vines) trying to overtake my trees from my next door neighbor's place by climbing over the fence and slithering all over my yard! I don't need to ADD anything to it! They are gorgeous AND dog- and hummingbird-friendly. But they're also INVASIVE!

I spent tonight posting some keto recipes and tips over on the favorite recipes forum. Mashed Fauxtatoes, how to make gravy from pan drippings, and a nice EASY cheese-cauliflower casserole. Really rich and yummy stuff!

Off to bed now...

Honeybera
honeybera
Member
Posts: 1327
Joined: Fri Sep 26, 2014 8:32 am

Re: Letting go

Post by honeybera »

dancingfish wrote: Mon May 03, 2021 9:19 am Or try again if whatever it is we tried didn't work... I'm still having a bit of fun and games to stop birds digging up and destroying some of my little plants!

If you sometimes need to sit inside and not "do", maybe that is just what you, your mind, heart and body, need for you right at that point. It can be frustrating when we want to do things, such as tend plants that can't wait too long, but I found fighting that resistance doesn't tend to help. Sitting quietly with you, in moments of gentleness, as you listen to what you need and take care of it however suits you best. We don't have to do everything all the time, nor do it perfectly either. And whatever you *do* choose - that's good enough. :) Best wishes to you dear honeybera!
First off...if you haven't yet, try bird netting draped over the plants/trees. Or if your plants are small enough, make a little cloche out of chicken wire maybe? Arch the cloche over the top of the plants: sunlight can easily get in, as can water, but pesky birds cannot. Neither can rodents or the neighbor's cat, etc. It's a happy solution, harmless to other living creatures, but ♥life-saving for your plants♥. For wonderful, clear directions, just Google how to make a wire cloche.

For the rest of it: MD was a real ball-busting PERFECTIONIST! Even at 74, I still have to consciously decide to allow myself to "be good to myself" and maybe grant a wish or two that I (and I alone) desire for myself. Before I bought my current home and was still living in "The Projects" in abject poverty, I put up two things in my bedroom, one of which I still have up in my room here (it survived it all, right along with me): a framed set of 5 pictures of me when I was little and a little sign that read "Be Good to Yourself". The set of professionally taken pictures was my 16th birthday gift from my beloved Grandma, and I thought that the gift was odd at the time. Baby pictures of me for my 16th birthday? But Grandma knew. The reason I put them up on my wall as an adult was so that I could SEE myself from that young age and take it in SOUL DEEP that I was NOT ugly, never had been ugly, but was actually a very pretty little girl. To this day when I look at the child who I know was being beaten with any "weapon" within reach and to whom cruel mind games and vicious gaslighting was occurring, I say to myself, "Who would do that to such an angelic little girl?"

The little sign was a reminder to make good choices for myself as often as I could as I healed up from the old treatment. Looking back now, I can see my progress, my fight, my battle back and these were the things I made available to SEE every day. Reminders. It seems that my entire life was being emotionally wounded deeply, but then how I fought back. One foot in front of the other. "A blind man in a dark room looking for a black cat that wasn't there." That summed it up perfectly.

I'm in a much, MUCH better place now!! I can clearly SEE whose FAULT this was and just how little I had to do with it! As they say in the 12-step programs, "SCREW GUILT!" It's actually rather a kindness that she's passed now. I used to pray to just outlast her here on this earth, and yet in my own heart was still bitter, raging anger, but not anymore. It really is all up to me now. She's done her best to break me, and maybe she has bent me a little, but never a break! That fact drove her nuts! I came in to her home once and had driven over straight from work, maybe in the late 1990s, in full bus driver's uniform with my One Million Mile Safe Driver Award on my arm above my badge...and she still spoke to me like I was still on Welfare and getting food stamps! I mean, I was standing there IN FULL UNIFORM, she KNEW that I was working and had been for years, but she ignored the obvious deliberately. She was definitely marching a few blocks behind the parade!! :roll: She HAD to keep the lie alive that I was still destitute and impoverished, that she was "better than" me, so she chose to ignore the fact that I was there in my uniform, a working woman with a Union job, making good money and taking care of my kids.

When I did buy my house, she refused to come over and see it. Then a couple of years later, she had my brother sell his ranch, buy their ranch with his money made on his ranch, and she and my father moved into a house here in town that had 1000 sq. ft. more than my house and was less than a mile away from me and my house! And she talked to me on the phone incessantly, drawing me in, asking me what I was "going to do with my place"? And then she did exactly that to HER place and invited me over so she could gloat. Well, I didn't go over for YEARS after that, but N got me to go over. I did for his sake. But then she felt that she'd won and began to play my kids against each other, praising my daughter and belittling my son (DS), asking them to work for her, doing chores "to help her". Oh good lord! BLAH, BLAH, BLAH!! She's dead, and I'm improving day after day! Why even bother with her and the dreadful memories?

I'm going to finish watching a Christopher Walken movie (that guy is so weird that he's fascinating) and since the sun just came up while I was going on about MD, I think I'll finish the movie and do some yard work before going to bed.

Thanks dancingfish! I always love to hear from you. I'm sorry that it took me so long to answer you. And sorry I got so carried away with MD and all those old memories. I guess I have to sort through them just like all the stuff in this house. Clutter everywhere! LOL :mrgreen:

Honeybera
honeybera
Member
Posts: 1327
Joined: Fri Sep 26, 2014 8:32 am

Re: Letting go

Post by honeybera »

Tonight I worked inside in the hobby room after thoroughly watering the garden area outside earlier. I transplanted my Early Girl tomato and SEVERAL peppers into larger pots. I could see that I was going to lose them otherwise. When I did, I found that DS had slopped water all over several of my seed packets, soaking them clear through. I stood them up and turned on the ceiling fan and now they're all dried out and make noise when I shake them. I hope they'll be ok. Organic NON-GMO seeds are getting hard to come by and are pricey!! (Inflation??)

But for right now I have a sideboard full of nicely transplanted plants ready to go outside tomorrow. All these plants can handle and even thrive in intense heat, and the heat is coming! It's in the 90s already! So there are several things to do as soon as I get up: get the hay hooks out for the bales of straw, dump the bale in my 3-in-1 hauler, weedeat that entire side of the yard and pull the loaded up bale across the yard and into position, spread the straw all over the place, refurbish the soil with fertilizers and micronutrients in a whole bunch of Smart Pots, and pull the pots over on top of the straw. THEN they're ready for planting! And I can see plainly that I need to be watering every day or at least every other day.

===============================(next day)

Severe foot cramps today! :cry: Having some health problems and it hurts too much to walk. I stood for a bit too long yesterday watering and then standing on my hobby room floor transplanting so many plants. During the hours spent standing on my hobby room floor (cement covered in linoleum), I had transplanted one very healthy commercially grown pepper plant that DS picked up for me at Home Depot and it looked GREAT - until tonight. I went to get a thermos full of filtered water and noticed some very wilted leaves! It was my pepper plant, broken in half, just snapped off clean! It had to be DS. I set the top half off to the side, heartbroken. Wednesday was one of DS's friend's birthday, so we called him and sang him Happy Birthday to You. He commented that DS has a "sweet mom". And he does. Even after speaking firmly to DS's boss twice about giving him less hours (at DS's request), he said the same thing, "Wow, you have a really nice mom." So I'm hearing that I'm a really nice person to my DS, but why on earth would DS break off my plant? I set the pepper plant broken top off to the side and plan to just try to revive my plant as much as is humanly possible. But WHY?? :cry:

And now my feet hurt and are too swollen to put on my shoes! Luckily, I made a nice meatball and zucchini casserole last night and only had to hobble into the kitchen tonight to get my dinner - no prep. DS had actually put a cover on it (I'd forgotten to do that) and had picked up some puppy poop from the front room. Guilt? Maybe. IDK. I'll just let it slide I guess. This time at least.

What I had planned for today I can just do tomorrow when my feet don't hurt as badly. No worries. Hopefully this isn't a week long flare. It hurts so badly it wakes me up. First off tomorrow (God willing!), do the last of the significant weedeating, then see if I have the strength to lift and load up and then pull a full bale of straw (and some composted chicken manure bags) across the yard, sprinkle it across the yard within view of my WOW, and then move and refurbish the potting soil in my tubs. In those tubs, I will plant all my squash plants. I just got the tiny little wire cutters and chicken wire in this teensy weensy little box so that I can bury bits of small cuts of chicken wire just under the potting soil so if the pups decide to dig in that lovely soft and smelly soil, they'll hook into those wire bits and hopefully stop, but there's always Home Depot for more. I'm also going to dig up some soil over in the dog's yard where they can dig to their heart's content. Have at it, my dear pups! Just NOT in my freshly planted pots!!

I also have my cloches and the one is working GREAT in my raised bed #2 - over my Nadapeño peppers! They're still in a one gallon pot, but they are doing ok even watering them only once every three days on average. AMAZING! So I'm going to try refurbishing/refreshing the entire raised bed, plant the Nadapeños, and place all the peppers and Early Girl tomato underneath the BIG cloches, but still remaining in their new one gallon pots. I can water and care for them as they acclimate to the conditions out there. I'll plant them in there later.

#1 task tomorrow: get the hay hooks out of the garage and lay them on the straw bales, then get the weedeater and get to town on those weeds! Then strew the straw all over the WOW/garden area for my Smart Pots to go onto and, one by one, plant my squash seeds in the moved pots! This whole project may take a few days to do, especially with the chicken wire inserts. I can place a small cloche over the top of each pot, too, temporarily. That should do it. Smooth Criminal (an easy picking yellow zucchini, but just the name of it is great! :lol: ), one green zucchini (or maybe two? Black Beauty and Fordhook?), and two different patty pans, one orange and one green/white. So 4-5 SQUASH pots within view of my WOW. I wonder when I can get my freeze dryer set up? Hm.

Climbing into bed so I can have the time to do all of this!

Honeybera

PS - STILL didn't send this! :roll: My feet are still painful, as are my hands (arthritis) and my lower back, but I managed to slip my garden clogs on and go out to a) water thoroughly and b) give the pups a chance to RUN, RUN, and RUN all over the garden some more, but under supervision!! :lol: EVERYTHING is a toy! I spent a bundle on Chewy toys, but it's like the toddler that likes the box better than the toy you spent tons of money and time on! LOL I give poor old walking-skeleton Spot cat food in small cans now because I used to use it as a topper and now it's about all she'll even eat. I noticed that Boots and Mittens (mostly Mittens) had found an old empty can that had a smell due to the tiny bit of food dried inside it and made a dandy noise when batted and scooted across the vinyl plank floor in the family room. Ignored are all the plush toys, squeaky toys, and toys that crinkle. That old can is a true favorite toy to fight over! Also popular as a tug toy is any weed that I pull up and toss aside. Or an old walnut. Or digging in an old Smart Pot. FUN, FUN, FUN!! Chasing a sister is also great sport, as is wrestling or climbing up my legs! But they really need the exercise to tire themselves out! Otherwise, they'll go outside at about 2am and bark and fight with each other. :roll: Not good! They're sleeping like babies now.

And I will be soon, too. :mrgreen: I'll send this NOW. :mrgreen:
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