Tuesday April 16, 2024
Dear Diary,
I woke up at 3 am. It felt great to have slept 7.5 hours of sleep straight through. I started thinking about Solo and his cough. I looked up kennel cough and the symptoms were exactly what he had. I wasn’t sure where he would have gotten it from since our dogs don’t have it and I haven’t boarded any other dogs in months. Then I read it can be brought on by stress and he was definitely stressed when he was here. I was glad to read that it’s rarely life threatening and usually clears up in a couple weeks. I read about a lot of ways to make the dog more comfortable and help them recover easier. I made a mental note to call Solo’s owner later in the morning and share with her what I had found.
I attempted to go back to sleep but it wasn’t happening so I wrote my blog until 6 am. Angel woke up and we made our beds. Angel went into the house while I let out the chickens, ducks and geese. Boy did we have a lot of chickens now. 32 in total. I went in the house and fed the dogs, made my tea and a smoothie. Christopher was working next door at his mom’s today and we decided Angel could go with him rather than go with me.
At 7 am I headed to town. My first house went good. My client is leaving to go north at the end of May so I will have an opening every other Tuesday morning at 7:30 am for the summer. She pays me half pay for the summer to hold her spot for when she gets back. I appreciate her generosity in doing that. I would hold her spot for her regardless. I am grateful to have such wonderful, thoughtful clients.
Before heading to my next house I called Solo’s owner and left her a message about what I had researched concerning kennel cough. I also called my friend Debbie who had fostered Solo for a while and we had a good conversation about him and kennel cough.
I continued on to my next house and touched it up. The house has been empty because my client became ill a few months ago and is currently living in Houston with his children. His children asked me to continue cleaning every other week to keep the house nice. I messaged my clients son to see how my client is doing and the prognosis wasn’t good. My client will not ever be coming back home. I was sad to hear that even though I already had guessed as much. He always treated me well and even paid me when I went on vacation and I couldn’t be there to clean for him. I sent him a card a while back thanking him for his kindness and wishing him a full recovery. I will probably never see him again. 😞
I had the option to go clean my next 2 houses and walk Zona and get done earlier OR go to flex-n-flow yoga class first, then clean my next 2 houses and walk Zona. I had a wild edible presentation I was doing that evening for the rotary club and I would need a couple of hours after work to get ready for it, so getting home earlier would give me more time to prepare. I decided it would all work out and chose to go to flex-n-flow. I was glad I went. I was sore from cleaning 5 houses yesterday and I was still feeling tired from it. After the flex-n-flow class I felt like a new person. My body had needed to stretch and I even got in a 5 minute nap during the corpse-pose at the end of class.
On the way to my next house, I stopped at Moon Brew and got a tea. They had their salads on sale for half price, so I bought 2 of them. While cleaning my next house, I received a text canceling the last house I had scheduled. My client wasn’t feeling well and we rescheduled for tomorrow. Yay! I knew it would all work out if I went to flex-n-flow. I would now get home in plenty of time to get ready for my wild edible presentation.
I finished cleaning and went to walk Zona. My friend Margie lives a couple of house away from Zona. I noticed her car was there, so I stopped by to see if she wanted to join me on our walk. She was happy to and we enjoyed each other’s company while we walked. It was a nice day for a walk, the weather was perfect and as always Zona was well behaved and happy.
After walking Zona, I stopped at the bank and the grocery store before heading home. When I arrived home, I greeted Christopher and Angel. Then I immediately got on my side-x-side and drove around gathered wild edible plants. I wanted to do the presentation on less commonly know wild edibles. Most people know about dewberries and mulberries and mustang grapes. I gathered greenbriar (sawbriar), lambs quarter, yaupon, wild lettuce, loblolly, wild garlic (wild onion), elm, cedar berries and horse mint (beebalm). I also gathered American beauty berry even though the berries are not ripe until the fall, the oil in the leaves can be used as a mosquito repellent. Non-edibles I gathered were virginia creeper and poison ivy (the poison ivy I harvested wearing gloves and I placed it in a ziplock bag) to show how they looked similar but only one causes a horrible rash.
Satisfied that I had a good number of plants to talk about. I took a bath, scrubbing my entire body down with soap in case I had accidentally touched poison ivy. Then I put all the plants in the truck and headed to do my presentation. I was really excited. I love talking about plants.
The meeting was held at Moon Brew and I was the first presenter. It was great fun talking about all the plants I had brought and I sent samples around the room for people to taste. The greenbriar is my personal favorite. In the spring they send out baby shoots that taste like asparagus. Angel and I could munch on them all day long. They are so yummy.
I enjoyed listening to the other presentations and it was announced at the end of the meeting that I offer live tours identifying wild edible plants. When I arrived home, I put away the chickens, ducks and geese. The new chickens had figured out where to go at night for the most part other than a few that roosted in the porch rafters in front of the banana hut.
We all gathered in the banana hut for story time. I read aloud one chapter from Stormy, Misty’s Foal. Then Christopher said goodnight and went into the house. Angel stayed to sleep on the trundle bed next to me. I read to Angel, 3 chapters from The National Park Mystery Series. We fell asleep at around 10 pm listening to a Little House on the Prairie audiobook.
Thank you for reading my blog and being a part of my life. I dearly appreciate you.
Love,
Victoria
P.S. The blog post was inspired by the Holy Spirit.