Our Lonely Struggle

It’s just Joyce, me, Max the dog, the cats and the fowl keeping the barbarians at bay here on SA.  The neighbors left Wednesday on the first leg of their trip to Switzerland.  They left after Chris got off work and drove to Garland where they spent the day with the Wylies.  Friday they flew first to New York and from there to Zurich.  I’m sure by now they are safely in the welcoming arms of Omi and Opi.

Harley was euthanized Tuesday.  He was an old dog and was having more and more difficulty getting around.  Tuesday he couldn’t stand and Chris took him to the vet.  He had an appointment anyway and I guess the vet advised that it was time to put him down.  Since Chris had their car, I drove Kari and the girls to the vet so they could say their goodbyes.  He was, after all, a good old dog, a respected member of the family and deserved that last token of respect.  He is missed.

We’ve had a terrible time with ticks on the dogs for some time now but this summer they are especially bad.  Chris, and now that he’s not here, Joyce has to pick them off of Max daily.  Joyce fired up her iPad late last night and read up on them.  It seems that the wood chips Chris brought back from the chipping site and spread over the kennel ground is ideal to harbor the nasty sombitches and allow them to multiply.  This morning on the way to breakfast she told me she was on a mission to get rid of the wood chips and spray the kennel with insecticide.  I realized that would be a lot of work and at the very least she would wear herself out trying to get all that done.  That would jeopardize my well being.  Who would get my supper?  So I pitched in and we got the job done.   We raked the chips and loaded them in the pickup.  Later in the day after raking up twigs on the tree line left over from last week’s trimming, I hauled the load out to the chipping site and dumped them where they came from, ticks and all.

Joyce took me to dinner Wednesday evening for my birthday.  We got rained on just enough to dirty up our car which we had washed the previous Saturday.  We had some beautiful clouds around just about every evening this past week but never got the rain we so badly need.  We’ve lost the big spruce between the shop and 2005.  It’s heartbreaking to loose a nice tree that’s probably been around for 40 years or more, one no doubt the folks brought back as a seedling from New Mexico.  It may be good advice to always count your blessings but sometimes that is easier than at other times.