Ahuva's Blog

We Haz Names (Maybe)

Good thing I didn’t start to write this post yesterday. 🙂 I *thought* we got the names for the kittens settled. But we may be rethinking that. First let me say that T. S. Eliot understood that the naming of cats IS a difficult matter. I’d been calling the kittens Thing 1 and Thing 2, nods to Dr. Seuss. I needed some way to refer to kittens I’d never seen (yeah, we had gotten some blurry photos but those did not convey any sense of personality).

When we got home and let them out of the carrier, we could finally see them in living color and action. Big kitten was quite active. She ate, drank, played and explored. Little kitten ate, explored, played a little but was nowhere near as strong or as agile as big kitten. We were concerned.

Eilah emerging from her favorite sleeping place – the carrier

Big kitten was total kitten. We looked at her calico markings and her 3 tan paws and her name popped out of the ether: Cinnamon! Sweet and strong and yummy. 🙂 Of course watching her in action I thought we could give her the sobriquet “Destroyer of Worlds”. 🙂 She was non-stop action. She and little kitten would play and Cinnamon was too strong for the little one, who cried out periodically. I suspect, having been watching little kitten too, that the cries were fury at not being able to escape, not pain. 🙂 We called Big Kitten “Cinnamon” and have had no reason to change it. That name works for her very well.

Everyone loves the cardboard castle cave

Little kitten however – we could not get any name we liked. We needed something fierce and bold and daring yet beautiful sounding. We have a tendency to look to mythology for names or to foreign languages (taking a description and seeing what the word for that description would be in Greek, French, Hebrew, Italian or whatever. We tried matching spices – Cinnamon and Cardamon. Nope. Athena, Scout, Pebbles, Yael, Dido, Clove, Yata (I think that would be the transliteration for Cat in Greek), Spice, Minerva, and so on. Nope. A lot of those are really good names but they didn’t fit that little spitfire. The words brave, daring, fearless, explorer, intrepid in other languages just did not work either. Sigh. French & Italian often sounded too similar to English. Hebrew has too many words using the letter “chet”, which is NOT a pretty sound. We came close with Dido but the D sound is too harsh and abrupt. *grin* We are VERY picky.

Cinnamon proves CD racks are not just for CDs

Finally on Tuesday afternoon, since I couldn’t find a suitable mythological goddess, I took the word itself and looked in other languages. Ah Hah!!!! Greek might have been okay but many human beings have the name Thea. We tend to shy away from names that people use (exception being flowers). In Hebrew “goddess” is Eilah. We liked that (yes, I know there are some people who told us they did not but my son, husband and I agreed that we liked it – and we are the council of 3). You’d pronounce this name the way you would the city in Israel – Eilat – except with an ‘h’ at the end instead of a ‘t’. If you’ve never heard of Eilat, try this: A – lah, with the accent on lah, not A. Or go to Google Translate for English to Hebrew and type in the word ‘goddess’ and listen to the pronunciation. Eilah it was, our little goddess.

We were quite concerned about little Thing 2 on Monday morning. She was sneezing, she didn’t look as active or strong as Cinnamon, and really was skinny. She did not look 100% healthy. I called the vet and got their new kitten appointment moved to Thursday. They gave me instructions to call sooner if she seemed to be doing worse. We sat there and watched her and it dawned on us that while we’d seen her eat and use the litter box, we never saw her drink. We tried taking her to the water but other than getting her face into it and making her sneeze more, it didn’t work.

I got an eye dropper, filled it, sat on the floor, cuddled her in my arms and used the eye dropper to get water to her mouth. She started sucking it down like there was no tomorrow. My husband kept refilling the dropper for me and I’d give it to the little one and she drank and drank and drank. Guess who didn’t know how to drink from a dish? We spent the rest of Monday giving her water from the dropper and having her watch Cinnamon while Cinnamon drank from the dish. By Tuesday afternoon Eilah was drinking water from the dish like a pro! 🙂

Cinnamon enjoying her claws (which were clipped at the vet)

By Wednesday morning Eilah was MUCH more active, was looking stronger and plumper. We now had 2 Destroyers of Worlds. The rough-and-tumble play was good with Eilah jumping on Cinnamon as much as Cinnamon tackled Eilah. The two of them raced about their room fulfilling every single kitten stereotype that has ever been.

Cinnamon in action – most of the pictures are blurry kitten. 🙂 they are both VERY fast

Thursday morning we brought them to the vet. They got entered into the system: 2 calico girls, born January 6, Cinnamon and Eilah. The vet and the vet in training and the receptionist were all in the room, cuddling kittens. 🙂 And then the vet started really investigating Eilah. What does “really investigating” mean? It means holding the kitten in one hand while holding the tail up in the air so her little butt can be seen clearly. Maybe clearly. Hmmm. Look at this. Um, does that look like a little girl tushie or is that a BOY tush???? Her markings are clearly calico, which is something like 99% female. Her butt is uncertain. We may be entirely trendy and have the first non-binary kitten.

The fact is we still don’t know if Eilah is a little girl kitty, or if perhaps we have a little boy kitty who may need to be named Twister or Tornado. 🙂 Our vet came up with Twister given Eilah’s behavior as she was getting investigated and getting dewormed. 🙂

So when you ask us have we named the kittens, YES, we have. Maybe. 🙂

We Haz Kittens!!!!

Our family has expanded by TWO! Two adorable little calico girls! We brought them home at 9:30 pm Sunday night. It’s now 3:30 pm Wednesday – 66 hours. I have over 160 photos and 11 videos. 🙂 (Hey – I know that’s low but I did have to sleep. 🙂 )

First kitten emerges. That’s the big kitten although neither of them seems to have any fear at all

I was astounded at how difficult it was for us to get 2 young female kittens. Why female? Because even though I loved both our male cats, my experience is that they sprayed even after being neutered, and they both fell ill at much younger ages than the females. The first male died from kidney disease at age 5, even though we gave him IV twice a day for several months. The second male ultimately died from diabetes, although we kept him alive for nearly 2.5 years after we’d been told he’d maybe last 6 months.

Priorities. Hey – it was a long ride from Port Jefferson to NJ!

So even though our prior female cats were all VERY neurotic, with the exception of BC, we decided we wanted females. We wanted them young enough that perhaps BC would not see them as threats. Small enough BC could “take them” if need be to maintain peace in her house. *grin* I was split evenly between thinking that BC would actually be glad of company (remember she was adopted into a household with 3 adult cats and an adult dog) and that she would hate any creature that came because we are HER people.

Our first effort looked as if it would work. It was a rescue operation perhaps 45 minutes away. They had several foster homes with females. Very unfortunately the woman running the program died unexpectedly, throwing that operation into a bit of chaos.

Big Kitten loves her pickle. She LOVES to play.

Next we tried several other rescues and local shelters. Everyone had adult cats or young cats older than 3 months or one female or male kittens or…. you get the idea. We heard of 2 litters belonging to friends of friends – all spoken for.

Pretty sure that is the big kitten heading into the maze (yes, they do have names but that’s the NEXT post)

My husband started on Craig’s list. Despite telling the search to stay within 25 miles, he ended up responding to an ad in Westfield. There IS a Westfield in NJ and it IS within 25 miles. But this was Westfield, MAINE. And it was one female and one male. The gentleman offered to drive partway to meet us. Even if we met halfway that was a minimum of 5 hours each way. That is a bit much. We were not quite that desperate.

Big kitten loves the cardboard castle. See little kitten to the back right – she was more subdued the first night.

I was actually a little desperate. I have bought a shih tzu puppy. YAY!!!!! She will be coming home to us the first week in May. I really wanted to bring the kittens in first, get them and BC settled, and then bring in the puppy. I was resolved that we could not bring in kittens and puppy at the same time. So a little desperate.

My husband found 2 female kittens in NY. You know we go into NYC all the time – we just call that either The City or New York. But NY is a BIG state. These 2 perfect kittens – born Jan 6, calico girls – were in Port Jefferson, NY – about 3.5 hours from us. *big in-drawn breath* Oooookay. We WILL drive up on Monday to get the kittens. 7 hours round trip.

There is nothing about BC’s body language (or lack of sound) that indicated any distress.

Fortunately for us, not so happy for the owners of the mother cat, the husband’s father is in the hospital in NJ. The wife had said that he might be driving down to see his father and he could bring the kittens with him and we could meet him. On Saturday afternoon we got a call that he was indeed coming to NJ – northern NJ, but still, a far cry from driving to Port Jefferson and back. The only problem for us was that we had theater tickets in the City, so we couldn’t meet him until after dinner (allowing for theater then train home then driving north). That was okay with him. WHEW!!!!

Check out the kitten room (formerly an office). Notice especially the multi-level maze my husband built for them. 🙂

We’d been preparing the kitten room (my husband’s office) for days, I’d picked up a new carrier, kitten food, my husband built a cardboard maze for them. We were set! It was Easter on Sunday. Everyone and their sister were on the highways. There was a bigger than usual backup trying to get past where Rt 80, the NJ Turnpike, and Rt 46 all meet, but we made it. Then it was on to Rt 4, which is definitely a road from hell. I’d not driven it in decades – I used to have to go up that way for business. It was worse than I remembered.

In my defense I can say that I was tired (long day of travel to/from the city), lots of traffic on the turnpike, I was hungry (we hadn’t eaten since breakfast), the signage on Rt 4 is terrible – both because many signs are faded and there are dozens of them all on one pole – and it was now dark with all the glare from those blankety-blank LED headlights. Yes, I was stressed.

We pulled up to the address and the husband was sitting there in his car. *laughing* It was like a drug connection. We got out of our car with our carrier and he opened up the back seat of his car. He scooped up one little ball of fur and plopped it in and then the second ball of fur went plop into our carrier. Done! We got back in our car and headed home. With a little spat when the sign was saying turn left and my car GPS was saying right turn. I HATE that. I pulled over and rested a moment, snarling at my husband “NO, I do NOT want you to drive”. What? That isn’t how you rest?

Big kitten still reacting to seeing BC, little kitten unconcerned

We made it home and upstairs. We filled the water dish and the food dish and the litter box. We opened the carrier and waited. A little head emerged. Kitten!!!! Then another little head! Kitten!!!! The wife had said she thought one of the kittens had allergies because it was sneezing. One of the kittens was WAY smaller than the other – half the size. And sneezing periodically. It was a bit worrisome. I had already scheduled their new kitten vet appointment, but it wasn’t for another 2 weeks. I decided that I’d call in the morning and see if we couldn’t get the little one in sooner.

Little kitten. Took us FOREVER to settle on a name. 🙂 This one has no fear. Lots of determination.

The kittens explored the room, had no fear, ate food, batted at toys. The little one climbed into my lap, climbed up my arm, nestled onto my shoulder and purred in my ear. ❤ The bigger one was typical kitten – play play play.

Some pictures need no words ❤ (big kitten – notice the tan paws)

BC came up to look. BC and bigger kitten saw each other first. *laughing* Bigger kitten did the kitty arch-back, fluff tail, sideway-stepping maneuver. BC lashed her tail a little. No hissing, no growls, no spitting. BC is easily 3x the size of big kitten, maybe 5x the size of little kitten. 🙂 BC did not look all that concerned. She was lying down on her side, watching. 🙂 This might work after all.

Our son is very concerned for BC. I keep reassuring him. NOTHING has changed for BC except she can’t go into the office. She can look, but there are screens in the way. She slept with us, woke us up in the morning, got fed first, got her litter box cleaned, hung out with me while I did the crossword puzzles, watched TV with my husband, watched the kittens through the screen from the upstairs hall. Trust me – BC is not being neglected. She seems curious, but not angry. If anything she seems cautious, despite being so much larger. *grin* Life has gotten interesting. 🙂

I see them but I’m not sure why I’m seeing them

Sprouting More Sprout Houses

As I said the other day, the pole beans were almost growing out of their little sprout house. I picked up 2 different sized peat pots and more seed potting soil. I wanted to re-pot the tomatoes, sunflowers, and the pole beans. The lettuce is nowhere near ready although I’m astounded at how much they’ve grown in 3 days. They’ve already begun making new leaves (look in the middle).

I started with the sunflowers – they seemed the sturdiest and easiest to move. I’d seen a great video of a gardening hack. Put soil in the new pot, then press the old smaller pot into the soil to make a depression. Pull the old pot out, then place the root ball and seedling into the depression. Worked like a charm!!! I’d put the sunflowers in 3 oz paper cups and they work well for making that depression. The sunflowers also had several roots so they held their dirt well.

Next I tackled the pole beans. I confess that when I first looked at them I wasn’t 100% certain which end was up. 🙂 I read the directions that came with them and figured out those white/green blobs were incipient leaves (I hope). They were a little more difficult than the sunflowers and not as developed. I put them in the smaller sized peat pots.

The tomatoes were the most difficult. They were small, the bottoms of their peat pots were wet but the tops were dry. I decided to remove the bottoms but leave the seedlings in their peat pots and hope that it wouldn’t inhibit their growth too much. I was doing alright with that approach until I removed a bottom and then couldn’t find the seedling. I thought maybe I’d taken one of the pots that had no seedling. I took the next little pot and went to remove the bottom and the seedling started coming out the bottom! It had attached to the bottom and when I pulled the bottom away the seedling came right on down and out. Oops!! I potted it without its original peat pot. I realized that was probably what happened to the prior seedling – it was now somewhere in the dirt supply. Unbelievably as I kept working on re-potting the tomatoes I found the missing seedling! It went into a pot too. 🙂 One of the little tomato pots that looked as if nothing had happened actually had something beginning to form. I took that and put it in a pot. That pot got placed back into the kitchen bay window – much more light there.

Now I had to figure out where to put all these pots. I don’t have that much room with sunlight. And I DO have BC who likes to chew on my palm trees. She also chews on the grass her Daddy grows for her fresh every 2 weeks. Yes, she is very indulged. 🙂 But I did not want her chewing or investigating the seedlings. She’s up on the bay window in the breakfast room whenever I am in there eating. My plan is that by putting the tray of pots raised up, with a saran wrap tent over the tray, BC will not be able to get to the plants. Okay, if she really wanted to she could get to the plants but I think it won’t be worth her effort. And I don’t think she likes saran wrap. It’s only a few weeks until I can move plants outside so maybe this will work. 🙂

tomatoes closet to window as they are the smallest, then the pole beans – which need poles still, and then the sunflowers

We’re Going to Need a Bigger Pot

Wow. Those pole beans grow FAST!!! I’m not prepared for them. And look at the sunflower seeds – they need to be re-potted as well. I’m going to have to go out today and get more biodegradable pots to move these guys. Probably more potting soil as well.

close up view of the pole beans – definitely need pots!

I can’t really put them outside until MAY, and it’s not even April. But you know that once I empty out space in my little seed tray I’m going to put in MORE seeds. 🙂

look at the sunflowers popping up, and one tomato. i decided I might as well give the “re-grow your lettuce” a try since it’s so early in the season. 🙂

I do wonder if perhaps I could start work on the outside beds before May. Everything seems to be coming up early and strong. I know that here the “safe day” is mid-May but everything has been so mild this year I’m wondering if I could risk earlier planting.

On the other hand all of the articles I read about non-toxic gardening are urging me to NOT clear the debris from the flower beds until I’m ready to plant. The reasoning is that if it’s not warm enough for the seeds and seedlings, the various insects and small animal life need the dead leaves as refuge. Trust me when I say my back yard is a HUGE refuge. 🙂

rose bush with new growth (yeah, not a great shot). but look at the nettles taking over

Last fall I cut back my climbing rose bush (I believe it’s a Don Juan variety) severely. We planted that nearly 40 years ago I think – soon after we moved in. Last year it started having some very odd leaves, as if it was mutating. *shiver* It’s also prone to various leaf issues, it had got very straggly, and it’s twined with the clematis. I still have dead (orphaned) branches stuck in the clematis. It’s going to be interesting to remove them without damaging the clematis or getting cut up by thorns.

new branch on the rose. more are further up.

Pruning the rose bush back does not seem to have hurt it. You can see all the new shoots coming up! So I’m quite hopeful it will do well.

Andromeda bush and forsythia on the front corner of the house

It’s interesting how the same plant can be so different. I’m assuming that I have 2 different varieties of Andromeda bush since their flowers differ. I no longer remember how old they are, or which got planted first.

Andromeda bush. There is a lilac bush behind it and a hydrangea in there as well – or there was

I do know that I need to figure out something more attractive around the a/c unit and dryer vent. I don’t really love that look. Also the wall behind the a/c unit now appears to leak in very heavy rain. I’m wondering if it’s due to all the plant life there being torn up when the a/c was put in a year and a half ago.

I’m hoping to find clover plants or get some clover seeds for the lawn. I KNOW the little creatures (rabbits, groundhogs, whatever) like clover and since I plan to keep them out of the flower beds I feel I should have something nutritious for them.

I thought I might have a lot of clover coming up but it turns out it is bittercress (cardamine parviflora). Like the nettles, which are taking over my property, I have no idea if the local fauna will eat the bittercress. I know some varieties of bitter cress are edible and used in salads, but I don’t know if that means this variety is edible or palatable for animals. There’s still time to learn!

Obligatory cat photo. BC is in need of a pedicure. 🙂

On The Road Again

I’d only been home from Israel for 2 weeks when I hopped in the car and headed south. My good friend Saundra lives in North Carolina, a long ways from here. We used to meet daily in SecondLife but those days are over for us both. Yes, that makes me sad. Several years ago, pre-Covid, we met up in Alexandria, VA – about halfway for both of us. We started trying to reconnect about 2 years ago (post-Covid). It took us all this time to find 2 possible weekends we both had free and could get away. March 2 was our weekend!

We started looking in Alexandria again but quickly decided to move elsewhere. Alexandria had a parade scheduled for that Saturday and neither of us felt like dealing with parade crowds. I had a lot of hotel points I could use so I started searching out from there to see where there were hotels. 🙂 I guess that’s one way to do it, right? We settled on Fairfax, VA. We’d meet there on Saturday and check out on Monday.

We started looking for things to do in the area and found several possibilities. A lot would depend on the weather . March can either be winter or spring, wet or dry. We thought we might also meet up with some of Saundra’s other friends in the area, have a real “girls’ weekend”.

those stones jutting out have some of the last bits of the old mill house

Saturday morning dawned, but it was a bit hard to tell. It was gray and rainy and icky (that’s a technical weather term). No matter – it looked as if by the time we both reached Fairfax the weather should clear. Always look on the positive side, right?

I’d forgotten that to get to Fairfax I had to drive Rt 95 to Washington, DC and then Rt 495 around it. I drive into NYC a lot. I used to drive in NJ on the NJ Turnpike at rush hour, a lot. I used to drive up to Armonk, NY on 87/287 at rush hour, a lot. I’d consider myself fairly inured to traffic.

I’d forgotten the misery and agony that is 95 into Baltimore and DC and the living hell that is 495. Especially in the rain. With accidents. I’ll skip to the end of this saga and tell you that Saundra and I both swore that next time we will meet in WESTERN VA, not anywhere that needs us to drive 95 and 495 (it was as bad driving north as it was driving south). Thank goodness the drive home was NOT on the weekend, NOT at rush hour, and NOT in the rain.

We pulled into the hotel within 10 minutes of each other. Now we’d not only not seen each other in years we’d not talked in years either. An occasional FB message saying hello, but no more than that. We were still solid. *laughing* We sat on the beds and talked and talked and talked and talked. We talked for close to 3.5 hours when we decided that maybe we should go get dinner, since neither of us had stopped for lunch. Isn’t this kind of friendship wonderful – where it doesn’t matter how long it’s been you pick up as if it had only been 10 minutes.

We tried to go to an Italian restaurant in Fairfax but we spent over 20 minutes trying to find a parking space. This after the drive-for-forever on the way to get to the hotel. We both lost patience and did a restaurant search and settled on a sushi restaurant – one block from our hotel!!! *laughing* Yeah, we could have left the car and walked. Dinner was delicious and we both indulged in cocktails. We both have some strong dietary preferences (in my case) and needs (in her case). The restaurant staff were helpful, obliging and very very careful with what they brought to the table. I would definitely give them a shout out but I can’t remember the name. Saundra was navigating. 🙂

We had a tentative schedule for the next day: Mosaic farmers’ market in the morning, Home Depot for a project I was doing, and then a antique/flea market. We got very lucky and found a parking spot right next to the market! The farmers market was lovely, small and manageable. We both picked up some produce and I got some fresh milled flour as well. We dropped our things in the truck and headed over to Home Depot, which was just across the highway.

I – sigh, not sure what the right verb is to use here – plan? want? think? – maybe am going to refinish the stairs in our house. We removed the very stained and smelly carpet 11 years ago. Although we refinished the landing as part of the renovation, I did not have them do anything with the stairs. My plan (hope) is that I will re-stain the stairs myself.

this picture was taken moments before the photo below. the hill blocked the sun where we were,

To do that project I need to sand the stairs. I’d been told by someone who refinished furniture as a hobby that there is liquid sander, which would spare me the dust and the investment in buying a sander. Saundra, who is also very adept at doing these types of projects, agreed with the liquid sander approach. I got the liquid, 2 different intensity sanding tools, and a tool to remove whatever comes up from the liquid sander. 🙂 Notice my technical terminology here. We also both went overboard in the garden section buying seeds and bulbs.

but the sun was still shining on the hills to the west

From Home Depot we headed to the flea market. I spent a lot of time taking photos of Roseville pottery and sending them to my sister, an avid collector. Lucky for both of us she never responded so I made it out of there without any Roseville. I did however pick up a small wood and slate end table for the living room. It needs a bit of glue on one leg but I think that’s within my current skill set. I need to buy the glue however.

We were left with a LOT of day ahead of us. Our plans to meet the other women had fallen through. We decided to head to Occuquan, which is located on the Occuquan River. It’s a cute little town with historical sites and a lot of renovation/revitalization happening. Saundra used to own a boat that was docked here so it was a bit of old home week for her.

We had a great time wandering about and taking photos, as you can tell from this post. 🙂 Yeah, my blog is becoming a photo blog with the text merely a way to separate photos. 🙂 I spend a lot of my time taking pictures of water and trees and Occuquan obliged. Saundra and I stood at the furthest point of the park trying to figure out if we were really seeing 2 dams on the river. Yes, we were. *grin* Apparently one was built in 1950 and the second in 1957. The picture in the link shows them clearly, and you can even see the very thin line that is the foot bridge we were on.

13 Moons is in the white building to the left; the stone building is severely damaged by fire

There was a cool magic store, 13 Moons, located in part of an historic building. I can’t find the name of that building, which is no longer open as it was severely damaged by fire. Among the many cool things about 13 Moons (besides the lovely staff, the 3 cats, and the fascinating merchandise) is the fact that it is located on a stream, that comes out under it.

I opted for the full picture of the stream coming out, instead of the closeup of the figurehead with the water

The stream is also IN the store as the back wall of the store is rock embedded in the hillside. A very cool experience all told.

that is the wall of the store – the wet rock of the hillside.

We wandered about the park in Occuquan, reading all the signs, looking at the sites, crossing the bridge and back again, having a small snack in The Secret Garden Cafe. There is a lot of history tucked into this little town. The Mill, the Wharves, the Civil War, tobacco, grain, and of course the river itself.

It looks as if some very upscale apartments/condos are being built along the river. We had very mixed feelings about this. On the plus side the renderings look great, and it will definitely bring revenue into the town. On the downside it doesn’t look as if it will have much of the historic ambiance that is there now. It also looks as if part of it will be built over some of the remains of historic sites. It’s always a double-edged sword, isn’t it.

Our last stop in Occuquan was down by the public wharf. There is a little park there and piers for fishing. Good views of the river and of the boats. After we exhausted all the things we could see on Mill Street in Occuquan, we decided that it was getting time for dinner. We decided to treat ourselves to some fine dining at a steak house. 🙂 Yeah, we’re worth it.

We agreed that in the morning we’d have breakfast at the hotel (included in the stay) and then get on the road. We had TWO activities that we knew we had to do before we said goodbye.

The first was to take a photo of ourselves in the hotel elevator. Neither one of us could figure out WHY there was a sign in the elevator that said “selfie” on it. We decided not to argue with the elevator and so we made sure to take a selfie before we left.

sorry – we blocked the dog, who’s wearing glasses and apparently reading a paper.

The MOST important task we had to accomplish Monday morning was to have Saundra fill my car with gas. *laughing* Hey – I’m from NJ, the only state in the union where you are NOT allowed to pump your own gas. Jersey Girls Don’t Pump Gas!

Hey – I’m just recording the gas, Saundra’s pumping it. Jersey Girls DON’T pump gas. 🙂

Morning Ritual

It takes 2 to solve the crossword puzzles each morning. Little does BC know that we have just put down a deposit on a puppy, and we are in discussions for 2 kittens. Clue: 11 letter word for “not needed/wanted”.

Spring Came Early

We had a very mild winter this year. If that makes you happy, you can thank me. 🙂 I did a lot of prep work for a fierce winter, which didn’t happen. Sometime after Thanksgiving I was reading an article about preparing the garden for winter. The article also mentioned what to do if you have large containers with plants that you hope to winter-over. The article suggested wrapping the pots in bubble wrap to help slow down or prevent the soil from freezing. The bubble wrap gives an air cushion that helps protect the soil. I wrapped all of the pots on my porch.

curry plant, sage, dusty miller, herbs along the far rail – see the rosemary sticking up? next to oregano

You can see from the photos that the plants are doing great. It looks as if almost all of the herbs have wintered over, even the rosemary. Of course I could be wrong about the rosemary. Every year we get to March and I think – oh wow! the rosemary made it. And then we hit April and the rosemary is dead. 🙂 We’ll have to see what happens this year.

look at how great the chives are already (and the other herbs – thyme, marjoram)

I also got ‘smart’ about my bay leaves. I put them in a smaller pot that I could fit on the kitchen bay window. So far it looks as if my bay leaves have made it. The daffodils are blooming everywhere this year. I had a few crocuses too but many of those are old and I probably need to plant new bulbs.

the parsley made it all the way through the winter. of course the planter needs some touchup but the herbs are good!

Either our local library has gotten very community-minded and stretching its out-reach programs like crazy, or I’ve only become aware of all the community programs there (again – part of that whole “now that I’m retired the world seems different” thing). Or both. 🙂 But besides getting lots and lots of books via the library, instead of buying them, I’m also finding many programs about gardening and other interesting topics.

Our town has a farmers market every Friday during the spring/summer/fall. They’ve added some winter hours as well. I noticed that the library had a tent this week for folks to learn about seed germination and make your own “sprout house” to grow at home. Sounds great to me!!! I’ve got 10 packets of seeds sitting on the dining room table WAITING for me to get them in some soil to GROW! I keep telling them that it’s only the first half of March – it’s not time. But the seeds and I want to start NOW.

I headed over to the market on Friday to learn about my own “sprout house”. *laughing* This program was aimed for a slightly younger crowd. *grin* They very kindly allowed me to participate (as she said – I AM part of the community *grin*). I loved the whole concept.

As you can see they had drawn houses on paper. They had crayons and pencils for coloring the houses and surrounding environment. They had pole beans for our sprouts. First you cut out the inside of the house (or do that after you color, whichever) and color the house and garden. Then you wet down the paper towel and place it in the ziploc bag.

Next you put 5 bean seeds along the paper towel and attach the baggie to the paper. Don’t zip the baggie closed because you’ll need to water the beans periodically!!!

Take your sprout house home and hang it in a sunny window. *grin* LOVE IT!

Of course once I did that the craving to put other seeds in real dirt became overwhelming. I had some seed soil handy and I had biodegradable pots. I took one of my seed trays, added dirt and let my husband pick which seed packet I’d open. He picked the Better Boy tomatoes.

It wasn’t enough. Of course it wasn’t. I made 3 more seed pots and put in 3 sunflower seeds. Maybe this year I’ll be able to save them from the groundhogs.

I could probably squish in a few more seedlings, right?

My husband and I have discussed improvements to Ahuva Net. Last year’s Ahuva Net 3.0 was very successful, but still not all that convenient along the front walk. I have some ideas about how to improve that netting this year, with oversight by the structural engineer. 🙂 I also ordered several garden clips over the winter which I think will improve attaching the deer netting to the poles. We shall see.

my nettles have fled their original gardens on the east and south and have taken over the western garden. can I move them to the lawn as food for groundhogs, bunnies, chipmunks, deer and whoever else comes to dine?

We Built A Bed

It’s a real bed. And we built it all by ourselves!

This being retired existence has been leading us to all sorts of new adventures. I can pick up and go when I want to, time to fix things I’d normally ignore, and activities we’d not really attempt prior to having so much time.

where we were at the start of this project. notice there is still cardboard under the box springs. smh

Our latest attempt and success was building a bed. You may or may not have noticed that I never finished blogging the renovation of the second floor. That’s because in many ways we never finished the renovation. Yes, the construction crews are all gone. But the 2nd floor is not “finished” because we never replaced all the furniture we tossed out, nor have we rehung all the art.

Amazing how much dirt can collect even if the box springs are directly on the floor. Okay – on huge pieces of cardboard on the floor.

Quite honestly I lost interest in the whole project. It took much longer than I’d imagined, and too much else was happening in my life at the same time the crews packed up and left. We’re not very fussy. We had a place to sleep. We had TWO bathrooms. Our clothes were stored accessibly. Move on.

Shoved the box springs and mattress into my office/old bedroom. Notice now there are TWO windows on that wall.

This means, therefore, that for months we’d been living with our old box springs and mattress on the floor of the room that was supposed to be my office. I was using our old bedroom as my office. It was semi-organized, but nothing that I’d consider long-term.

My job was to set up the prep area, deal with the cardboard and other garbage and PROTECT THE FLOORS!!!

Several weeks ago I woke up one morning and thought “Why should we move out of this room into our old bedroom? This room is cozy, we need nothing in our bedroom but our bed and dressers and maybe a nightstand or two. I LOVE using our old bedroom as my office. Not only is it my office but I can iron up there, lots of sunlight from the 3 windows, we have put the inflatable mattress there for guests. Why should we take up that big space when we don’t need it?” My husband agreed. After all he has had the 3rd bedroom as his office for 40 years. 🙂 Once we made this decision, it was time to get some furniture.

We started the initial prep work sitting down with lots of light. This is the point where I, too, was trusted with screwdriver and parts.

Our original thought for furniture was a very high-end platform bed with mattress. It was going to cost us over $5000. That’s a lot of money considering we’d never slept on a platform bed and had no idea if we were going to like it. Not to mention that we don’t really agree on the type of mattress we should have. He likes soft, sink into the bed kind of feeling. I like to feel there’s some support there.

We could only go so far downstairs. We had to build it upstairs because of the tight corners on the stairs.

We’ve gotten very good at talking out possibilities and plans. We opted for a $200 platform bed that we’d assemble. We’d toss the box springs, throw our existing mattress and mattress topper on the platform and see how it all worked out. We’d get a new mattress once we decided if the platform bed was working.

I figured that for that low a cost that if we hated it, or it fell apart, or something else was “wrong”, we had not invested too much money or time in it. I also have a lot of concern about trying to get “real” furniture up our stairs and around the corner of the hallway. It’s a very, very tight fit.

I ordered online (Home Depot, if you’re wondering) and the bed came within the week. We LOVED the instructions – how often do you hear someone say THAT??? All the hardware was packaged separately by type (yes, I know that’s not “green” but it is VERY helpful for novice carpenters). The instructions not only had pictures but had close-up pictures so you could really see the direction of the hardware in the wood.

bed slats! i did not have the strength to do all the attachments – I needed help on my side. but we did it.

As you can see from the pictures, my husband did the vast majority of the assembling. I did assist, playing whatever one calls the “scullery maid” role for carpentry. 🙂 He did a GREAT job (took about 4 hours), not a single fight/disagreement, and we LOVE the bed. 🙂

We’ve been using the mattress and topper, but this week we’re going to do without the topper and see how it feels. We’ll probably need a new mattress – this one is 9 years old. (Can you believe that someone on our “buy nothing” group took the box springs???) Next up – dressers. 🙂 And then we rehang some art!!!!!

Last Day

It was a wonderful 3 weeks but it did have to end. Yael had to leave us Wednesday morning – she was called to another assignment. Wednesday night was our night to receive our certificates and pins in recognition of our service. Once again the way this ritual was done at Uvda topped the prior weeks. Although Yael was not there, most of the managers were there as part of the ceremony. Danielle from the armory and Noya & Nikita from the inventory duty joined Asaf. It was both light-hearted and moving.

The next morning was our barracks inspection – making sure we left things clean and orderly. 🙂 We were not going to have time for a “morning shift” because of the long ride back to Tel Aviv. We were treated to a different experience – Command Sergeant Major Oren Na’im (yes, I’m totally guessing at the transliteration of his last name), base commander, spoke with us before we got on the bus. He apologized for not having spent much time with us that week but explained that he had been taking folk through some of the areas attacked on October 7. Much of the information he related – for instance the detailed plans the attackers had – was distressing and alarming. He was quite blunt and honest in sharing his opinions with us. I think the most sobering was his skepticism that there could be peace anytime soon. Paraphrasing his words: “… when we are weak, they attack. When we are strong, they bide their time. … But the minute we start to think that we are “friends”, we become vulnerable. …“

Oren answered many questions – or at least the ones that had answers. *rueful smile* Then he good-naturedly posed with just about everyone in the group. 🙂 Finally it was time to get on the bus and travel back north to Tel Aviv and Savidor Station, back through the beautiful Negev.

Our original plans did not include us staying overnight Thursday in Tel Aviv. We had a 1:00 am flight out of Ben Gurion Friday morning. That meant getting to the airport by 10:00 pm Thursday. We thought we’d store our luggage at Savidor, hang out in Tel Aviv through dinner, then take the train to the airport. While I was on my second stint in the armory Wednesday afternoon I got an email saying our flight was delayed until 7:00 am Friday morning. That’s a very different schedule for planning.

Uvda dorm: English & Hebrew, French, French, English, LOTS of languages

We decided we needed to find a hotel for Thursday night. We could either stay in the same area we’d been for the prior 3 weekends, or stay close to the airport and then taxi back to the city. Either way involved taxis and back & forth-ing. We opted to stay again in the Embassy Hotel on Shalom Aleichem street (taxi: 60 NIS, no haggling. *laugh*) As before the hotel allowed us to check in before “official” check-in time. That was a constant everywhere we stayed and we were extremely grateful every time.

Look at how it changes as we drive north through the Negev

We didn’t need to worry about laundry this time – just needed to “play”. Neither of us was that hungry. We’d had a rest stop at Mitzpe Ramon on the way north and we’d gotten noshes there. We decided to head back to Carmel market to see if there were any other last-minute purchases to be had. It was a nice day, we knew the way, we enjoyed feeling so at home. 🙂

We got to Carmel and Debbie stopped at a booth to look at the kipot – she was still trying to fulfill requests from folks back home. As I gazed at the various items one of the mezuzot JUMPED out at me. 🙂 It was so me. Rose-colored glass with a wood-grained pattern wrapping around. I NEEDED it. 🙂 As usual we had a lovely conversation with the proprietor, explaining why we were there, that our trip was just ending, how much we had loved the experience. He gifted me a small token as a thank you – I guess for both our volunteering and my not-small purchase. 🙂

So stark and beautiful. And different from the 2 above

We wandered a little more in the market. Debbie had lost her sweatshirt somewhere in Uvda and was looking for an inexpensive replacement, and I was looking for fresh bread for us for a snack. We were both successful. As we still had lots of time I decided that I wanted to go back to Dizengoff Square and have a drink and people watch. Apparently I’m not the only one enchanted by the Dizengoff atmosphere. There is a word to describe the whole hanging out there, eating & drinking & shopping: lehizdengafe. 🙂 So we strolled there and lehizdengafed. 🙂

We wandered back to the hotel to drop off our purchases and begin the re-packing for the flight home. We decided we didn’t want to fuss about dinner. We wanted something ‘known’ and close. We went back to the Thai restaurant – Chooka – where we’d had lunch 2 weeks prior. Then back to the hotel where we finished packing. left 2 items behind – deliberately. *laughing* I’d been planning since before I left NJ to leave behind the pillow I’d been using. I also left my plastic raincoat, which had come in VERY handy. It’s hard to re-pack those disposable plastic rain coats anywhere near as tight as they are before you use them. Considering I’d spent all of $2.50 on it in the dollar store, I thought that perhaps the hotel staff might appreciate a free raincoat. Or if not – they could throw it out. But I wasn’t going to try to pack it.

Yeah, I might be in the right place at the right time but I still don’t look like a native from Tel Aviv

Finally we managed to close the luggage and get to sleep. We set our alarms for 3:00 am. The taxi was called for 3:30 am. The alarms went off, we dressed and dragged ourselves downstairs – no taxi. It turns out that the front desk had called the taxi for 3:30 PM (15:30) and NOT 3:00 AM!!!! The good news is that at that hour of the morning a taxi comes quickly, even if not booked in advance. We got to the airport, checked in, and settled down to wait.

sculpture on top of Dizengoff Shopping Mall

We’d changed our seats again when we checked in from the hotel the day before. I moved forward and to a middle seat because I planned to take a sleeping pill and sleep. I didn’t want anyone waking me up to get out of the way. I figured the moment I hit my seat I’d take the pill. It is a 12 hour flight home and I was fairly certain the sleeping pill would NOT last 12 hours. 🙂

Animal sculptures on the raised walkway above Dizengoff

As we were sitting there waiting to board, I noticed a gentleman in the boarding line. I thought: “that looks a lot like Ken”, my former co-worker and fellow NJ townsman. OMG – it WAS Ken. *laughing* He has family in Israel. He’d flown out on Tuesday to see them, flying home Friday to be home before Shabbos. He hadn’t been there in 10 years and here he was, on my flight. We had a good laugh and he disappeared into the plane.

Debbie and I boarded – no weirdness this flight about my seat being different than expected. I was still laughing about seeing Ken. As Deb and I went down the aisle I said the only that would be funnier would be if I was sitting next to him. You know of course what happened – I WAS sitting next to Ken. 🙂 He’d been hoping for an empty seat but he got me. *grin* I tried to be a very considerate not-empty seat. I fell asleep as soon as I could. And when I needed to get up I inconvenienced the woman to my right. Truly funny. We offered to drive Ken home with us but we had luggage to collect and he did not, so he stayed with his original plans.

Photos of hostages lining the walkways at Ben Gurion

Our luggage came to the carousel almost as soon as we did. We grabbed our bags, called my husband (who was waiting in the lot) and headed out to meet the car. We were home. It was an amazing wonderful gratifying healing trip. When we were home we got a What’sApp message from one of our Uvda volunteer-mates, Jay:

“I wanted to share an experience that I had last night. I was invited for Shabbat dinner at an Israeli family’s home (friend of a US friend). The daughter is currently serving a third year of service. When she heard that I am volunteering here, she immediately asked, “with Sar-El?” I said yes. She then proceeded to describe to her family that they have Sar-El volunteers on their base most weeks and how meaningful it is to the soldiers. She was struggling to find words, and a bit confounded by, why it means so much to them. But she was fighting back tears as she was telling her family. Her reaction mirrored the reactions of the soldiers with whom we worked this past week. It reinforced my sense that our presence here is meaningful to those other than ourselves.”

Clock at Ben Gurion – look carefully – the numbers are swimmers

Everyone we met seemed to be both confounded and overwhelmed with gratitude for the people who came to volunteer. My good friend Tami was also in Israel our first week. We had dinner with her this past weekend and I regaled them with all my stories. She said to me very earnestly: “Everyone I told about you being here was thrilled and touched. I hope you can feel the LOVE that they are all sending you.” On a lighter note she and Joseph laughed like crazy about my descriptions of the bases: “nothing has changed in 50 years”. 🙂

Go. If you can’t go, support SAR-EL. If you don’t want to support SAR-EL and their support of the military, support another group that is out there supporting the farms and the business and the health organizations. And to my new Israeli friends and to the ones I’ve yet to meet: We love you, we are with you, you are not alone.

Fun at the Armory

I was going to title this “Bullets & Guns” but I decided that might be asking for trouble. I learned my lesson about titles way back in my first few weeks of this blog when I was describing introducing my sister to Second Life and titled the post ‘Seducing My Sister’. I can’t begin to tell you what a complete and utter mistake THAT was. Ugh. Double Ugh. So ‘Fun at the Armory’ it is. 🙂

Oh. Em. Gee. I’d never TOUCHED a real fire arm until Tuesday, Feb 6. Wow. My sister posted to FB about her experience at the armory the previous day. I was taken aback at how many of her (and my) friends were all “ooo – I couldn’t bring myself to touch a gun. ooo – nothing I would do” and so on ad nauseam. Really folks? I do not have an issue with guns. I have an issue with idiots who own and mistreat guns. I don’t have an issue with owning guns but I don’t believe anyone needs to own an assault rifle. Okay, got that out of the way.

lining up my 29 bullets and keeping them from rolling with magazines

I was extremely excited to spend time at the armory. I knew Debbie had such fun being enlightened the day before. Interestingly enough she spent all her time taking apart, cleaning and reassembling rifles. Our team began our day with bullets. I had no idea there was so much to learn about bullets. 🙂 I also discovered that I LOVE playing with bullets. *laughing* When I was very young and had no reason to spend money on anything, yet I still had an allowance and earned extra $ by doing various chores, I used to sit on my bed and sort the coins. It wasn’t about the amount of the money – it was about sorting and stacking and bringing order. I do so love bringing order to the chaos around me. I think I may even have posted here in the past that my true spirit animal is a Border Collie. 🙂

Disclaimer: Anything I state about bullets or guns after this point is DEFINITELY only my understanding of what I learned, and may not have any relationship to actual reality. 🙂 I was trying to absorb new terminology as quickly as I could but there was simply so much that I could not retain. Ask Bernie: He must have told me six times minimum that it’s called a ‘charging tray’ and for some reason I kept remembering only the word “table” – which referred only to our work area and NOT the gun. *grin* We all looked to Bernie for help and explanations. Danielle was our manager in the armory but she was doing other work as well as overseeing us. Asaf worked with us a bit but he said he’d not been handling a rifle for quite some time. *grin* Danielle had fun teasing him as he got a refresher lesson.

charging tray or charging handle. 🙂 NOT table. I also missed the joke about why the firing pin is called the Shabbos pin

We started by sorting bullets. My understanding of what we were doing was sorting them by year. There is a number etched on the base of a bullet and we used that to toss bullets into the appropriate bin. I think that everything we handled was for the training ranges. I don’t believe we were handling anything that was going to active zones. At one point we were sorting bullets that were either “tov” (good) or “lo tov” (not good). I trusted Elise as my backup on that. What makes a bullet lo tov? Appearance primarily. These bullets had all been unloaded from magazines. Some had gotten wet, or some other method of damage. I’d collect a pile of bullets I thought were tov and then I’d pass that group to Elise to confirm. 🙂 Shiny = tov, not shiny = lo tov. *grin*

you need glasses to see the tiny print on the bottom of the bullets. loading the magazine

After we sorted LOTS of bullets that first morning Danielle brought out empty magazines and taught us how to load the bullets into the magazines. I still don’t know why magazines hold 30 bullets but we only load 29. I’m sure someone explained it but like many things – I didn’t retain that. I got VERY good, however, at stuffing bullets into a magazine. Like so many manual tasks, once you got the rhythm it became easier to do it correctly than to do it wrong. I know I was good at it because I could tell by how many I loaded in comparison to the others at the table. Danielle checked everything we did, by the way, before adding it to the ‘done’ pile. After the first one (too many bullets) I didn’t have any rejects. Yay me! We learned how to test the fullness -push down and if only half the top bullet shows it is good. Danielle and Bernie could also tell just by the weight when they picked up the magazine. They are good, those two.

While we were sitting there loading that first morning, chatting and laughing and enjoying the experience, Asaf came and tapped me on the shoulder. He said “Someone is calling you.” I looked up and saw a line of trainees waiting at the window for Danielle to sign out guns to them. It was Inna’s group!!! I saw Inna and got up to go talk to her. 🙂 I can’t begin to tell you how gratifying and joyous it was to feel as if I had a friend and belonged. She and the other trainees asked what we were doing and I explained what we’d been told. We chatted some more about what they were doing and where they’d be going next. Her smile lit up my entire morning.

In the afternoon we found ourselves back sorting bullets, instead of heading directly to rifle cleaning. Apparently we’d loaded bullets into the wrong magazines (not OUR fault – and that’s all I’m saying about that). We needed to UNLOAD all the magazines and then reload into the new magazines. We figured out a process for that. Bernie (and Danielle at times) would unload a magazine into a paper cup. They were very fast. Then Elise, Marion and I would take that paper cup and load a new magazine. By doing it that way we no longer had to count the bullets – we knew we had 29. Sel and Barbara preferred to unload and load directly. The best part of this unexpected task was being serenaded by Asaf and his guitar. A soldier who was actually off-duty joined us for a bit (I don’t know his name, don’t know why he was there). Of course he unloaded/loaded faster than any of us. But the best part of his presence was how he sang along with Asaf, and then even took the guitar for awhile. 🙂 There was such joy, so much celebration. It was fantastic.

FINALLY it was gun time. I WAS apprehensive but not because I didn’t want to “touch a weapon”. Pffft. It was the idea that if I did not do it properly someone else might suffer. There were 6 of us around the tables taking apart, cleaning, and reassembling the rifles. I was very slow at first, so many steps to remember in the proper order. I confess that every time I went to put the bolt carrier back I did it backwards first. The good news about that is that it won’t fit backwards. I’d mentally smack myself and do it correctly. 🙂 I never had Danielle reject a part for not being sufficiently clean. Once I finally got the bolt carrier in properly I reassembled the gun properly and she never had to ‘fix’ my rifle. Slow but steady. I was MUCH better with bullets. 🙂

my first rifle 🙂 notice the cam pin and the shabbos pin resting in the charging tray

There is no question but that working in the armory was the highlight for most of the team. For many of us it was the first time we’d ever held a gun, much less a rifle (although many of us definitely had fire arms experience). It was also much more ‘real’ and different than working in the warehouses, sorting inventory. 🙂 We worked outside when we were doing the bullet work, and that was much better than breathing warehouse air. I don’t know if Debbie’s team got serenaded but certainly for our group it was great fun. Everyone (I think) got a second spin at the armory on the third day. We were only 15 volunteers at that point (3 had left early to go elsewhere to organize a huge barbecue for soldiers) so half of us did the armory in the morning and the others in the afternoon. There is no question: working in the armory felt as ‘real’ as packing medical supply kits felt up at Tel Hashomer. We were doing something necessary and valuable. That’s so much of why the SAR-EL experience is so rewarding.