Recent Entries to this Blog More small pleasures
Posted: 29 Sep 2023
Ain't no cure
Posted: 05 May 2023
Men, and women
Posted: 01 Mar 2023
Small Pleasures
Posted: 19 Jan 2023
Place names in Texas
Posted: 06 Sep 2022

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marlingardener's Blog

Farm living and laughing


Men, and women

Category: Serendipity | Posted: Wed Mar 01, 2023 4:09 pm

I love my husband dearly, and he is a good, generous, hard working and adorable man. But he does have a few areas that could use a little improvement.
He won't put a saucer or even a napkin under a sandwich he is having mid-afternoon.
He talks to the TV, mostly saying "Oh, shut up". TV commentators, sports casters, and weather forecasters talk too much.
Sitting at the kitchen or dining room table. He pulls a chair out, sits down, and when finished gets up and leaves. The chair sits, not back to the table, but half-way into the room.
He thinks I know what he is talking about without any preamble or description. "Well, I finished that in the workshop." What did you finish, pray tell?
Now, women. Although I am a paragon of domesticity and virtue, there are a few things that I'm sure drive my husband crazy, but he is too polite to mention.
I eat mixed nuts or cashews one at a time.
I run around with the little handheld vacuum chasing crumbs (see above about sandwiches).
If something isn't functioning as it should, I just shrug my shoulders and let it sit there.
I go around shutting off lamps and lights. Guess who left the lights on?
After slightly over 50 years of marriage, we have learned to live with each other's little quirks, and wouldn't have it any other way!



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Small Pleasures

Category: Serendipity | Posted: Thu Jan 19, 2023 6:53 pm

We have so many pleasures here--most of them small, but they make us happy.
One pleasure is feeding and watching the wild birds come in to drink and eat. We have a woodpecker who visits almost every day on one or two of the trees in the backyard. He also comes to the platform feeder. We listen for his distinctive call in the morning while going out to feed the chickens.
Another pleasure is our elderly hens. They love their treats (oyster crackers) in the morning (it gets them away from the coop door so a human can get in) and cluck and gurgle while eating the treats. We order oyster crackers by the case!
We enjoy the sunrises and trying to predict what the weather will be that day. We are more accurate than the local meteorologists. Predicting the weather must be the most difficult job in the world--no one can do it!
A very large pleasure is petting the cat in the morning, giving her treats (do you notice there is a repeat on treats here?) and seeing her settle down in a sunspot to nap. We get to work and the cat naps. All is right in the world, according to the cat!



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Place names in Texas

Category: Serendipity | Posted: Tue Sep 06, 2022 2:19 pm

Texas is peppered with small towns, many with, shall we say, unique names.
Near us there is a two street town called Elk. Elk are not indigenous to Texas.
There is another itty-bitty town called Blanket. Blankets are occasionally needed in Texas, so that name makes a bit more sense.
Then there are the hopeful names. Eden, which isn't. Utopia, which definitely isn't. A less hopeful name is Hell. Probably an apt name.
There are some very obvious names, too. Del Rio (Spanish for "of the river). Since it is located smack dab on the Rio Grande, no one had to think long and hard to come up with that name.
Some towns are named after people. Otto, near us, perhaps named after Von Bismark? And Fredricksburg, named after the German baron who reduced the excess population by shipping them to Texas.
Road trips around Texas are made more interesting just by reading the roadside signs. "6 miles to Hell." That'll make you think.


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Speaking with the elderly

Category: Serendipity | Posted: Sat Feb 26, 2022 4:50 pm

My husband and I are in our 70's, and we are the youngest people on our road. Covid has been a blessing in disguise, because we not longer have to have conversations face-to-face. However, it can be very interesting on the phone.
We have learned these tricks and techniques:
#1 Prime the pump. Oldsters often do not tune in until halfway through a conversation, and you have to repeat yourself ad infinitum. Start slow and don't say anything important until you have the listener's attention. Careful, never do this when you have something else to do soon, or plan to have dinner on time.
#2 Enunciate. "Would you like some bread" gets the reply, "I haven't read that." Don't get frustrated, just speak slowly and very, very clearly.
#3 Say goodbye loudly. After a somewhat prolonged conversation you are entitled to get on with your life. But be sure the listener hears you sign off, or you will immediately get a call saying "we were cut off!"
#4 Get younger friends. This speaks for itself.

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Rodeo

Category: Serendipity | Posted: Sat Mar 27, 2021 3:21 pm

I have never been a fan of sports. If I'm going to sweat, I want to have sweated for a purpose, not a trophy.
However, I have become a fan of rodeo. Most of the events are based on ranch needs. Well, perhaps bull riding isn't, but team roping, tie down, bronc riding, are.
I also love the names of the participants. Where else can you see big Stetsons worn by men called Ty, Cooper, Boudreaux,and Cole?
The boys from Brazil isn't a B-grade movie, it's a whole influx of Brazilian bull riders. Many were mentored by (in my opinion) the greatest bull rider from Brazil, Adriano Morais. When he pulled a bull rope, the bull's eyes bugged out! Need I say he had biceps that would put a tree trunk to shame?
The PBR (Professional Bull Riders) sponsors events all across the country. Who knew rodeo would be popular in Bangor, Maine? There is even an international event featuring teams from Mexico, Canada, USA, and, of course, Brazil.
Finally, I have found a sport that I understand--you stay on and you win, you fall off and you lose. I don't plan to participate. I did sit on a bucking bull once, but he was named Buzzy, which is not quite fearsome.

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They's from around here

Category: Serendipity | Posted: Wed Mar 04, 2020 4:08 pm

After 20 plus years in Texas, I am still amazed by some Texans.
For example, our plumber, a man in his 40's whom I would happily adopt if he were available (having a plumber in the family is so much better than having a surgeon since everyone often needs a plumber, and probably needs a surgeon just once). He scared the beejeebers out of us a couple of years ago by saying he was going to retire and go live in Cabo San Lucas. Imagining how wet we'd be with a leak while he came up from Cabo made us very anxious.
Then last year he decided to run for county sheriff. Sheriffs occasionally get involved in gunfire, and are on call 24 hours a day. If he were involved in a 48 hour standoff, we would drown with a leak! I don't want to think of him crawling out of a hospital bed with a bullet imbedded in him to come fix our leak. I'd expect it, but I don't want to think about it.
Our plumber came to install a new dishwasher and brought his helper with him. While the helper was crawling around on the floor hooking up the water hose to the new dishwasher, he was telling me about his career plans. He said he wasn't a plumber, but a pipe fitter (way to install confidence in a customer!). He didn't think he wanted to plumb because there was so much time in bathrooms, around septic tanks, and other yucky places. He had heard the county gave contracts to pick up the bodies from car wrecks and take the remains to the coroner or funeral home. This is the man who thought bathrooms were yucky?
And then there was the man who wanted to buy some of our honey so he could put a dish of it out in his garden to attract bees to pollinate his plants. I asked him if he had thought this through. Bees eat honey. A dish of honey would attract the bees to the dish and they would ignore his plants--no pollen gathering because they didn't need to make the effort. He didn't get it. So, I asked him if I gave him a pound of raw hamburger, a bun, and an onion, or gave him a Big Mac already prepared, which would he choose. He finally understood. Then he asked what he could do to attract bees. I stopped short of suggesting he smear himself with sugar water and run through the garden.
I won't mention the couple who, at 10 p.m., were parked on the road and searching the berm with a flashlight because "she dropped something out of the truck." We didn't ask when this event happened. Probably last week and they just got around to searching.
They's from around here, and they seem to find us.

This blog entry has been viewed 251 times


Annual Christmas letter response

Category: Serendipity | Posted: Sun Dec 23, 2018 8:47 pm

The only thing I don't like about Christmas is receiving 2 1/2 page letters from folks we haven't seen nor heard from in a year. If I find a Christmas card that has the message "I don't care" I'll buy a box of those.
Each year I threaten to write my own letter, and my husband keeps me away from the post box until I calm down.
But, here is what I would like to write:

Dear occupant/close friend/relative,
We are doing fine now that the plague has subsided. We still have side effects like crawling instead of walking, and howling at the moon upon occasion.

Financially, we are still above water. We find that living off the land and eating out of hub caps saves a lot of money. Thank heavens for road kill!

Our family continues to be outstanding. Our nephew Rimshot made his first soccer goal this season, and considering that he is only 18 and has played soccer since he was seven, we're pretty darn proud.
Sunbeam is out of jail and starting a new career. Her job seems to involve standing on street corners, but at least she's getting a lot of fresh air.
And of course we wouldn't want to forget Grandpa John. Since we found his dentures he has been putting on weight and spitting a lot less. Sometimes blessings come in plastic.

We wish you all the same blessed and prosperous year we enjoyed in 2018, and if you want to visit our GoFundMe page, just call and we'll give you the link.


This blog entry has been viewed 394 times


Small town hair salons

Category: Serendipity | Posted: Sat Jun 30, 2018 5:55 pm

I love small town hair salons. You know your stylist's name, she knows you, your pets, your interests. You know the name of her kids, their progress in school, her pets names, and what her preferences are in bread and cookies.

The salon I go to has a sofa and coffee table for waiting in comfort. The table usually has a bag or two of tomatoes, squash, cucumbers, beans, etc. from clients' gardens. Free for the taking--just help yourself! One of the ladies makes the most marvelous refrigerator pickles, and sets jars out for folks to take home and enjoy.

I take extra eggs in once a week, and ladies bring egg cartons for me to re-use. They are also very careful to return any plastic containers that had soup, marinara sauce, any frozen goody, and have even purchased and given me small containers for herb butters.

A small town hair salon is more than a place to get a cut and set. It's a place to connect with other ladies, exchange recipes, news (not gossip!) and just feel welcome and happy!


This blog entry has been viewed 265 times


Exercise machine

Category: Serendipity | Posted: Tue Jan 03, 2017 7:16 pm

My husband decided we needed to exercise more. We live on a farm, how much more exercise do we need?

However, he ordered a "cardio something or other machine" which gave him a really good workout assembling the thing. After he got it put together, we found that the difficulty adjustments were stuck on six, the most difficult. His vocabulary and heart rate increased as he got the thing adjusted so we could actually walk, pedal and not pass out.

We can walk, or choose to sit on a totally too small seat and pedal. There is a little screen that tells you how fast you are walking/pedaling. Thank you--I'm gasping and don't care that I'm just one step up from "coasting".

I got on the thing (hereafter referred to as "the devil's delight) and decided there were a couple of amenities lacking. There is no snack tray, and no place to attach one. Also, the cup holder is missing. I contacted the manufacturer about adding this features. I haven't heard back from them yet.

There was a cute DVD that came with the devil's delight, showing you how to use it. The two ladies and the one gentleman on the DVD were obviously very fit and must have been in a sub-artic studio while filming because no one was sweating. I perspire just looking at the machine.

The DVD suggested that you start out slowly and build up. The suggestion was three days a week on the devil's delight. My suggestion is that you stand next to it for 10 minutes, and consider if you really want to do this. I do not.

However, my husband is so thrilled with the thought of both of us becoming so fit that I can't disappoint him. If you don't hear from me for a while, it may be that instead of standing beside the devil's delight I actually got on the thing and can't figure how to get off!

This blog entry has been viewed 405 times


A Cane is a Useful Thing

Category: Serendipity | Posted: Sat Sep 24, 2016 3:17 pm

A few days ago I pulled a muscle in my back, and started to use a cane to keep me from whimpering each time I went up or down stairs.
In addition to the pain relief, I found other uses for a good, sturdy cane.
First, a cane gets you sympathy. "Oh, let me open the door for you" or "Let me lift that" or (and this from my husband) "I'll load/unload the dishwasher, make the bed, and how would you like take-out for lunch?".
Secondly, a cane comes in real handy when faced with stray dogs and obstreperous children. You don't have to actually hit the dog or brat, just wave the cane about a bit and they get the idea.
And then,it is a fashion statement of a sort. We had a big mesquite tree come down a few years ago, and my husband made a few canes from some of the more interesting branches. People have asked me where I got that unique cane--there may be a cottage industry brewing here.
I healed and am cane-less, but I may start carrying one just in case I want sympathy, help, or attention!

This blog entry has been viewed 294 times




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