High Button Shoe
July
Good morning! Yup! It's me! I know...you have been wondering where I was. What's it been? About 6-7 weeks since I wrote last. And I know you were just checking your mail every hour or so to see if I had written!! As I have told you in the past, I wait all year for May and June to arrive. I probably could have done something better with my time this year rather than waiting. Probably the most outstanding thing, other than days on end of rain, was during one of the frequent thunderstorms we experienced, our computer took a full jolt of lightning. We lost the phones for 4 days. This of course, was during SBC's phone strike. (Perfect timing on their part! I took this as a revenge to me, for all the calls of the past year trying to get our phone/computer mess straightened out.) It zapped the motor for the well, which I found out about, when I was in the shower all lathered up with soap and the water quit. Ronnie had been working out of town for a few weeks, and I tell you anything that can go wrong when he is gone, does! Looking at the electric box in the basement, to me, is like looking at a plate of spaghetti. How one person can be so totally ignorant of the workings of things is beyond me. However, I am. The lightning strike also took our shop alarms, about 1/2 of the lights in the shop and our house, the compu switch thingie that goes to the fax machine. And I am still finding even now things that don't work.With the almost daily rain, the 600#s of fertilizer, and the turkey poop, the grass was growing as it does in May, by leaps and bounds. As I told you earlier Ron had my mowers all fixed up and ready to go and I was really looking forward to mowing, as I love that chore. I also love neat mowed lawns. Ours are large lawns on both sides of the road. Then factor in my cleaning up down by the barn etc, I spend a lot of time mowing. He is working up north. I crawl up on the rider mower, anticipating the first smell of fresh cut grass of the season, absolutely giddy about being outdoors for the day, drive it half way across the back yard, when billows of black smoke fog out both sides of the mower. That was the start of the next 3 weeks of trying to get the mower fixed. Buy an NAME brand mower from a NAME business like Quality Farm and Fleet, which has since gone out of business here, and expect to get parts. NOT. 3 belts later, with limited time (maybe one hour on each) I have the mower back in good working condition. In the meantime, I was mowing little sections of these huge lawns with the push mower! HUGE reminder that I had eaten way too much chocolate and licorice twizzlers during the winter..... I huffed and puffed mowing every time it wasn't raining. Note to self: Trips with BrunieMae ( www.saltboxfarm.com) this summer will have to be with the twizzlers and her in the back of the cab, so I can't reach them....Also during this time, I caught some infection/virus/bug? and was sick for 3 weeks. I had a hacking cough that came clear from my toes, developed a sinus infection, couldn't get my breath, and started wheezing. 3 weeks, 3 prescriptions. May was NOT my month!! June here still has lots of rain, I now unplug EVERYTHING during even the slightest storm. We have a new computer, which I am just learning on. You know the old computer and me had just gotten to be friends. This one is an upgrade, and taxes my non-technical brain some. Beulah and Brian uploaded all the stuff for me. No, I can't even read the manual, let alone program this thing..THANKFULLY, I had written down on paper, the names and addresses of you about 2 months ago. One of those, you don't really know why you did that, but now you surely are glad you did... things. Otherwise, all the address and names would have been lost. So I spent one day manually typing you all back into the address book.This all being done, with a pickled medicated brain, so if you are receiving this and had asked to be removed, please ask again. You are from an old list....From May 1 to June 9th, the radio comments that we received 14 inches of rain. 40 days, 14 inches. They say it is 6 months of moisture for us. While it puts many of us who actually function from the sun, in a less productive mode, what it is doing to the farmers is devastating for this year. Corn, if they could even get it in, is only about 6-8 inches high. We are trying to bale hay. We can't get enough dry days in a row to get it baled. Ronnie is looking suspiciously like wanting me to go out and rake it, so it will be ready to bale when he gets home from work. Yegads!Update of turkeys. We don't have the big wild 'herd' that we used to. Down from the 65 or so to about 10-12 each day. Less turkey poop! This group is more wary of us and while they are here in the yards, they don't come up on the deck to peck at the window and let me know they want food! We haven't seen any babies yet. Baby turkeys are the most fun. Also, just to drive myself nuts, I bought several rosemary plants. I know. WHAT was I thinking?? It's like do you NEVER learn?? So I will keep you posted on the rosemary in the next few months. I know you wait breathlessly for each report on that....Well, what I really wrote you for, besides to explain my lengthy absence in writing, is to tell you that with the return of computer service, we are back on ranting raven for the July issue. www.rantingraven.com we are at http://www.rantingraven.com/Exhibit95.php The new listings won't be up UNTIL Thursday July 1. Also, they must be experiencing some difficulties as Beulah is not able to upload the pictures, and I can't bring the raven up. So bear with them. However, you can, as a member of my mailing list, see the new listings today! Ha! Got to be some advantages, right? Click on this http://www.highbuttonshoe.net/itemson.htm and it will show you what will be on ranting raven. You get early notice and can order early!We have made some major changes in the shop and they will show up soon in the step into the shop icon. We sold some big cupboards, which really changes the room settings, and we have several new antique smalls to show, along with some new things I am making. My plan, with the purchase of a digital camera and jet ink printer, is to make greeting cards from the pictures of our displays and product along with garden etc. Of course, I have to figure out how to use the camera. So far, I have focused a glazed over stare at the camera manual for an lengthy amount of time, and put it away temporarily until my brain clears, and the printer is still in the box, unopened.BUT I am determined. Don't expect the cards next week!As for the rest of the summer, I am enjoying each day. I still spend too much time on the porch with coffee watching my herbs grow. I am drying grass clippings in the sun, when I can, for future projects. I have scavenged and pilfered Ron's hay windrows for some good looking hay and dried it, also for a future project. I have to watch constantly for snakes. I saw one this spring. And as I told you last year, ENJOY, when the 4th of July comes around, if you blink twice, Labor Day is only a blink away.So check out the raven, and our website. New things will be showing up.....Thanks for asking to be a part of the farm, and wondering where I have been......In fond regard,Miss Clotilda