Suummertime

     I live in the Missouri Ozarks in southwest Missouri. When it is hot and muggy it is hot and muggy. We have been promised rain for the month of June and it has not materialized, much. A dampening here and there, but not much else.

    It is again hot and muggy this mornin'.

    We have planted tomatoes and cucumbers and they are doing pretty well. We fight with the critters to keep them growing. Deer love our tomatoes and flowers, and the bunnies like our cucumbers. We have tried fencing them, but you must fence to the ground and to the sky, and then not close to the fence.
We are now going to try red pepper. The problem with that of course, is that the rain, when it comes, will wash it away. Ah, the problems of the gentleman farmer!

    We have discovered that the deer won't eat, or haven't yet, hens and chicks, the plant. I have an old cast iron boiler in my front yard that we fill with flowers each spring, and usually the deer go, " SALAD BUFFET" and clean it out. We have now had the hens and chicks in there for over a year and they have left it alone.

   If I have flowers and weeds in the same bed, why don't the deer the weeds? They very deftly go around them and eat my irises or tulips. They love tulips. The rabbits love yarrow. I have tried both several times. We will try tulips again this fall. If we string fishing line around and over our flowers that seems to keep the deer away. However, you have to do it early in the season, and as we take it down each year, we sometimes miss the early part of the year. Therefore, losing some plants to the ever vigilant deer.

    We love flowers and the animals, so guess we will just have to live with each other the best way we can.


    

Husbands

     That title is a bit misleading, because I only have one and only one. That is all I can handle, I think.

     I have a terrific husband. He does all kinds of things that other women tell me they would like their husbands to do. He does the laundry. Carries out the trash.  Does dishes. Cooks. And takes care of me.

     Now, let's look at some of this. On the surface it looks really cool. It is. But he wants to do it his way.Anyone see a problem with that? I do.

    For over forty years I was the cooker, cleaner and dishwasher,well, after the kids were grown. So, if he now takes over all of that, and only because he wants to, not because I can no longer do it, where does that leave me, exactly?

   Supposedly, it leaves me free and easy. I have no idea how to feel about that. I do nothing really well and then I can also do a lot, really well. But to do nothing all the time is boring and not very edifying.

   This also comes under the heading of " retirement".  He likes to be near me and with me, which is nice and I love it. Love it. But, back to self esteem and hubby doing my job, I guess I have to say that I had to find another job. So, I do the housecleaning, you know, ye ol' toilet and beds and spring cleaning. I like it.

    I have also taken up doing some writing, which you all know about.

    Back to the " he does everything", and the ladies who want their hubbies to do it too, let me just say, that if you want that to happen, you will have to let him do it his way, and not redo everything he does, or I can guarantee he will never do it again.

   Thanks to my wonderful man and thanks to all of you who read this.  Have a great day.