The Heat Was On (Burnin'), Rising to the Top, Huh!

I've been meaning to write this post for the past week, but things have been crazy bust for me latley. In a good way, though.

Not last Monday, but the Monday before, our friend, Burne asked us and another friend to help him and his sister to do a prairie burn on about 30 acres of their land.

I love fire and I've dine some prairie burns before, but never one that was so big.

We did get to ride on funky vehicles and stand-up and ride in the back of pick-ups and tractor type things. It all felt so 1970's, and it was so fun.

Burne's sister started the first fire. I got to wear the water back pack. It was pretty heavy, but I would just try to reposition it when the straps dug in too much.

I pretended it was a jet pack, but it didn't give me powers of flight. Awwwww.

Burne had me watch the side of the fire. It was better than the back part, because all the smoke was taking over the boys at the back part of the fire.

At one point, I got some "civil emergency" notice on my phone. At first I thought that someone had reported the fire and that the rural fire department was on its way and warning others, but it turns out, that it was some kind of mistake. Don't worry, it's just a civil emergency warning. That's one hell of a mistake...

Finally, Burne and our other friend showed up to trade me out and move me to the next task...

...Starting the back fire. The back fire was better, because the smoke blew away from us.

As the sun set, the fire got bigger and more dramatic.

Personally, this little pyro was happy to start fires. It was a little scary, when the fire got so high, but man do I love to watch shit burn.

My friend Burne took this photo of John using a leaf blower to contain the fire. How bad-ass looking is this?

It was such a great night, and according to this picture that Burne took the next morning, it looks like it did what it was supposed to do - burn down the old weeds to help the soil and make way for the indigenous plants to grow in the space and make the critters and birds happy. I love conservation and making the world a happier and more beautiful place. You know what they say, leave the planet better than when you came into it.

Yes, You're Lovely, With Your Smile So Warm.

This weekend was a crazy, busy, mix of many of my favorite things.

Stinky and I left at 8 am on Saturday morning for Des Moines. We were going to meet Coadster and Coadster's soon to be mother-in-law, sister-in-law and aunt-in-law to go wedding dress shopping. At one point on the ride, Stinky asked, "So, are you going to cry when you see Coadster in a wedding dress? To which I answered, "Well, I'm perimenopausal, so I might just cry seeing her wear jeans..."

We had a nice 2 hour drive listening to cheesy 80's CD's and singing along at the tops of our lungs.

Coadster got her dress at a woman's house where they had great deals. Apparently, there's some thing where no one is supposed to see the bride in her dress before the wedding. So, I'm just posting one of the dresses she didn't pick. I guess wedding dresses are much smaller than other clothes, so Coadster, who normally wears a size 2, had to get dresses that were a size 4. And I'm sure I'd have to get a size 24...

She ended up getting two dresses. One is bigger and fancier with a long train and the other was shorter and more casual and she might just wear it to the reception, because it will be more comfortable to dance in. They had a deal where she got the 2nd dress for half price and both dressed together were about $1,000. From what people say, that's pretty reasonable, but would have no idea, since my entire wedding probably cost that much.

Coadster is no Bridezilla in any way shape or form, so she had her dresses picked out in less than an hour and we were on our way.

I got to see my Bailey girl grandpuppy, which was so nice. I gave her hugs and kisses and she always thinks I am going to play red dot with her, because I do when she's at my house. It makes it hard to take her photo, since once I pull out my phone, she thinks it's a laser and immediately looks at the ground. Silly puppy.

After the dress shopping, we all went out for lunch and then stopped at Trader Joe's since we don't have one in our college town yet.

It was a great day and then I got home and did some raking and yard work, which always makes me happy.

Then after I ate dinner and John and I watched a movie, he went to bed and stayed up a while and read "The Hobbit" for the first time since the 1970's.

On Sunday we went on a nice, if very windy bike ride to Lone Tree and back. From my photos, you might think that we always stop at convenience stores on bike rides...And you'd be right. But it's only because that's where they keep the Gatorade and the caffeine in any small town.

We ended our ride at the new Big Grove for dinner and beer. Stinky met us and it was so nice and the food was great.

After dinner, we rode home and it was nice enough out to hang out on the porch and talk with our friend, Burne until it got dark. We were supposed to help him with a prairie burn at his farm, but it was too windy. So, it was postponed until Monday evening.

Tune in tomorrow when I post impressive photos from said fire.

This Was a Pizza Hut. Now It's All Covered With Daisies. You Got It, You Got It.

Oh my god! Remember when I told you I was going to try and plant Gerbera daisy seedlings, but I was nervous about it because they were so hard to germinate? Well, lookee there. I have about 25 of the 100 seeds sprouting and they just started a couple of days ago, so there could be more!

I guess the Gerbera Seeds are super fragile and you need to make sure you get them from a good place and plant them as quickly as possible. I got the seeds on Friday and planted them on Saturday. Also, they need good soil and lots of warmth and light. I mixed some light, fluffy black dirt with about half peat moss and soaked it all in warm water before I planted the seeds. The seeds need to be planted almost at the top with very little soil on them because they need lots of light to germinate. Before I got the seeds, I asked John if he was cool with using some of our joint account money on a grow light. He was not only cool with that, he researched them and ordered one and set it all up for me. We have it timed to light from 6 am to 6 pm every day and it seems to be working very well. Of course, I have no idea what color any of the flowers will be, but it will be fun to find out...As long as I don't screw them all up before I can get them planted outside in May.

Countin' Flowers on the Wall. That Don't Bother Me at All

I've been working on a series of paintings lately. Of course, I'm not a good painter. I just like to play with color and put some of the scary things swirling around in my head on to a canvass. I didn't used to paint or draw much because I worried that I wasn't that good, and I didn't want people to think that I thought that I was. I had been ignoring what my mom always told me, "Who cares what anyone thinks!" I got older and the beauty part of being in your 50's is that you finally do not give a damn what anyone else might think about you. So, I draw and paint now and it never comes out like I envision it in my brain and I'm not that great at it, but the more I do it, the better I get and I love playing with paint. Now, I am painting a series of flowers on 20x 20 canvasses with acrylics. The first one I finished last week and it is called Chicory.

I started the second one on Tuesday. I loved the first background I painted for it, but it was ultimately too light.

So I went over it with some darker grays and I like it too. I'll show you the finished product whenever I get it done.

We'll see how long the next one takes...

Four in the Morning, Yawning, Crapped-Out, Longing My Life Away

So, hey. It's been a while since I've really written here. How have you all been?

This last month has been riddled with migraines for me. I went 2 whole weeks with some kind of migraine. Some days were bearable, and some days I was on my meds and my head was a'spinnin'. Of course, the month before, I didn't have a migraine at all and that was the longest I had gone without a migraine since high school. So, I guess all I can do is ride the roller coaster and hope for the best.

I know I haven't been talking about my girly issues much either and I can only assume you are all missing that conversation (ahem). But whatever, I am having problems with ridiculously tight muscles and cramping of my legs all the way down to my feet, making running not so much fun. I know it's all part of my falling estrogen levels taking away much needed lubrication in my muscles and at some point, when I'm on the other side of all this bullshit, they might get better, but for now, I have to keep my runs nice and short. And on the days when my muscles are too tight to run at all, I go for nice walks.

The cats are doing well. They are happiest while sleeping in nests of soft, fleece, blankets.

Since the weather has still been so nice, we've been able to ride bikes every weekend since the middle of March. I feel pretty damn lucky.

I'm still making as much good food as I can, but not doing great on my sugar consumption. I know I blame everything on hormones (or lack thereof) but I don't know if I've craved bad food the way I have for the past year since I was in high school. If you know of where I could buy me some self-restraint, please let me know.

I am happily working on my new and improved, now taking up the whole front yard garden.

I have my seedlings planted and most of them have sprouted. I'm still waiting on the tomatoes and the gerbera daisies. I've heard that Gerbera daisies are almost impossible to grow from seed. I bought 100 seeds for $5 and I figure if I get even one of those to grow, I'll be even with what it costs to buy one plant and if I can't get any to grow...Well, I've wasted 5 bucks on worse things.

We've watched plenty of cheesy movies lately. John bought a copy of "Bringing Up Baby" and we're binge watching the "William and Mary" BBC show.

I am still doing pretty good on toning down my alcohol consumption. Here you can see where my root beer is being poured. Please note above where I said I'm still having big problems with sugar.

So, I'm going to keep on digging and working and playing and eating and watching and reading and spanking my cats and hope to be feeling better as soon as my hormones right themselves.

Here's hoping for a nice, warm, happy, feeling great Spring for all of us.

Ha Ha Ha, Bless Your Soul. You Really Think You're in Control

My cats are always crazy.

This is how yesterday, a full moon, Daylight Savings Time, mid-March, snowy, Monday panned-out for me:

First, as a joke, (because I am hilarious) I told my co-worker to sign for a package as Mickey Mouse, which she did, and then our boss reminded us that if said document got lost, they would look and see who signed for it and if someone else in the office saw that it was Mickey Mouse, we might get in trouble. I swear I was just joking. I can't help it if someone foolishly takes me seriously.

Second, I went an entire day at work and at home with my shirt on inside-out and no one told me. Maybe the just assumed that disheveled was the look I was going for?

Anyway, I hope your yesterday was a little better than mine...

When She Talks, I Hear the Revolution

Just wishing you all a Happy International Women's Day and here's hoping that we get away from this horribly misogynistic president and Republican controlled congress, so that things will be better in our country for women and everyone in general. I want all other governments to be better with women's rights as well. We have a very long row to hoe, but we just have to keep resisting, persisting and fighting for our rights.