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We made it to Saturday with Christine's elephants not showing. Perhaps some of the issue was the resonance with her Mom's death the Saturday after Thanksgiving, but part of the trigger was definitely due to the obstruction as we drove into the parking lot of the tiny repurposed general store in the mill town of Bynum to pick up our preordered Yule tree. Someone with a huge black pickup had parked in such a way as to make passing in our Ranger pickup challenging.
I think Christine has stories in her mind about poverty -- intellectual, spiritual, financial -- in rural North Carolina, stories informed by perhaps visiting churches with her father years and years ago. Or perhaps from her mother's stories about growing up on a small North Carolina farm during the Depression. She experiences something so different than i do. I just rode through small Carolina towns en route from here to there growing up, curious, looking at the different structures, guessing when they were built, wondering who lived there. I was sheltered in a way i think Christine was not; i didn't have the Klan in the back of my head. I think Christine's father might have been involved in anti-Klan activities that seeped into Christine's awareness enough for her to be aware of some unnamed hate and evil.
The way the pickup truck, as well as its shiny black mass, spoke of entitlement, which is a trigger, and then being in the small town -- that seemed a compounding trigger. The volunteers helping pass out the trees hovered over us, wanting to help trim the base for us -- well, even that bugged me a little. Give me a moment to make a selection!
I should be thankful for the days we had where she was in good spirits. And she turned around by some point on Sunday, so yay.
The Moravian star is installed on the front porch, the tree is up and lit. I am not particularly motivated to decorate the tree until i see how much Marlowe makes of it. Nor am i particularly enthused about our doll-like angel tree toppers this year. I splurged on Etsy and bought a tin trumpeting angel from a shop that imports from Haiti. The copper and verdigris hand crafted angel from Arizona was a close second, but a bit more dear than an unnecessary splurge needs to be.
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We did have some cat wet our bed Saturday evening: i fear it was elderly Edward. I hope the diabetes is still under control. Stripping the bed motivated getting the feather comforter out. I'm definitely not having success these days regulating my body temperature. I can't say the feather comforter makes it worse: even before the change, I wake 4 am-ish to toss off all the blankets and toss and turn before falling back asleep to be cold when my alarm goes off.
--== ∞ ==--
I made some progress outside. The chipper fixed itself: i took off the cord starter but didn't open up the assembly because it seemed that the axle it is to turn wouldn't spin. Bolted it back on and it worked. Perplexing. Got the several trees we'd cut down plus an autumn olive plus branches pruned from the driveway chipped. The goal is to build up a little terrace on the driveway island for next summer's vegetables and the few clumps of native grasses that have taken. (I might dig them up and move them some day.) I'm not sure how much mulch the sorghum can push through. The sorghum is a broom straw variety with showy heads that grows about 12' (3 m) tall. I'd planted it in an arc along the circle of the tear-drop shaped island, defining the circle by dividing it from the part that has a cluster of trees and points downhill towards the road. They came up again this year, and i can't imagine self seeding being so precise. I rolled some pine logs to define the same part of the arc just downhill from the sorghum and then began filling in with the wood chips. I have noticed that the sorghum does have adventitious roots: maybe it will do OK with the chips pilled up against the stems.
The power company had cleared the easement along the roadway earlier this month, and so i went out and raked up the debris more or less, which was surprisingly strenuous work. The uphill side, west of the driveway's intersection with the road, i planted with https://www.prairiemoon.com/pretty-darn-quick-pdq-prairie-seed-mix-prairie-moon-nursery.html, while the downhill eastern section had areas where there can be standing water so https://www.prairiemoon.com/detention-basin-mix.html . I don't know that all the species are native to the county or North Carolina, but given the free grading and clearing of brush, i wanted to get what i could planted.
I think Christine has stories in her mind about poverty -- intellectual, spiritual, financial -- in rural North Carolina, stories informed by perhaps visiting churches with her father years and years ago. Or perhaps from her mother's stories about growing up on a small North Carolina farm during the Depression. She experiences something so different than i do. I just rode through small Carolina towns en route from here to there growing up, curious, looking at the different structures, guessing when they were built, wondering who lived there. I was sheltered in a way i think Christine was not; i didn't have the Klan in the back of my head. I think Christine's father might have been involved in anti-Klan activities that seeped into Christine's awareness enough for her to be aware of some unnamed hate and evil.
The way the pickup truck, as well as its shiny black mass, spoke of entitlement, which is a trigger, and then being in the small town -- that seemed a compounding trigger. The volunteers helping pass out the trees hovered over us, wanting to help trim the base for us -- well, even that bugged me a little. Give me a moment to make a selection!
I should be thankful for the days we had where she was in good spirits. And she turned around by some point on Sunday, so yay.
The Moravian star is installed on the front porch, the tree is up and lit. I am not particularly motivated to decorate the tree until i see how much Marlowe makes of it. Nor am i particularly enthused about our doll-like angel tree toppers this year. I splurged on Etsy and bought a tin trumpeting angel from a shop that imports from Haiti. The copper and verdigris hand crafted angel from Arizona was a close second, but a bit more dear than an unnecessary splurge needs to be.
--== ∞ ==--
We did have some cat wet our bed Saturday evening: i fear it was elderly Edward. I hope the diabetes is still under control. Stripping the bed motivated getting the feather comforter out. I'm definitely not having success these days regulating my body temperature. I can't say the feather comforter makes it worse: even before the change, I wake 4 am-ish to toss off all the blankets and toss and turn before falling back asleep to be cold when my alarm goes off.
--== ∞ ==--
I made some progress outside. The chipper fixed itself: i took off the cord starter but didn't open up the assembly because it seemed that the axle it is to turn wouldn't spin. Bolted it back on and it worked. Perplexing. Got the several trees we'd cut down plus an autumn olive plus branches pruned from the driveway chipped. The goal is to build up a little terrace on the driveway island for next summer's vegetables and the few clumps of native grasses that have taken. (I might dig them up and move them some day.) I'm not sure how much mulch the sorghum can push through. The sorghum is a broom straw variety with showy heads that grows about 12' (3 m) tall. I'd planted it in an arc along the circle of the tear-drop shaped island, defining the circle by dividing it from the part that has a cluster of trees and points downhill towards the road. They came up again this year, and i can't imagine self seeding being so precise. I rolled some pine logs to define the same part of the arc just downhill from the sorghum and then began filling in with the wood chips. I have noticed that the sorghum does have adventitious roots: maybe it will do OK with the chips pilled up against the stems.
The power company had cleared the easement along the roadway earlier this month, and so i went out and raked up the debris more or less, which was surprisingly strenuous work. The uphill side, west of the driveway's intersection with the road, i planted with https://www.prairiemoon.com/pretty-darn-quick-pdq-prairie-seed-mix-prairie-moon-nursery.html, while the downhill eastern section had areas where there can be standing water so https://www.prairiemoon.com/detention-basin-mix.html . I don't know that all the species are native to the county or North Carolina, but given the free grading and clearing of brush, i wanted to get what i could planted.