New orchid trellis.

I have been working on one of my many “Summer” projects. This one was to replace the shade trellis over Clyda's orchids. The old one was built with lumber I had on-hand and of course the termites loved it.

The new one is made with all pressure treated lumber which should last longer than I will.

The units are basically two 4x8 frames covered with nursery cloth and that is covered with 4x8 sheets of white plastic trellis. The trellis is needed as the racoons walk on top of the unit and fall through the nursery cloth if there is no support provided. The cloth is 6 feet wide so 2 feet of it hang down on the front to provide more shade.

Her are some photos.

 Posts set.

 Frames complete.

 Some termite damage!

 Completed project.

A short blog.

A short blog this morning.

A thunderstorm moved through about 6 AM and it has continued to rain this morning. The rain is really needed as the crops were suffering with the lack of.

My time here is winding down and it has been a busy one. I have met with most of the people on my list. Lunch today with a relative and then a visit to the Dorchester library.

Tomorrow morning I will check out and drive to my sisters for the last two days. Tomorrow is the surprise 25^th wedding anniversary for my nephew Chris and his wife Ann. Sunday all of my sister's kids will be at her house for the day.

Monday morning I will drive to West Bend and briefly visit a cousin and drop off a family history pack to her. Then it is on to the Milwaukee airport and home.

It has been a busy but good trip.

Oh, here is a photo of my rental car, a Chevy Spark. Not much luggage space but adequate for my needs.

I must be lazy.

I guess I must be lazy as I can't quite get up the energy to write a blog more often.

Although I have been busy with household stuff like cooking, watering the yard pulling weed, etc, and, oh yes, spending way too much time on the computer. That doesn't count does it?

I have been working on family history stuff in preparation for my upcoming trip to Wisconsin. It is like a disease, once you start with a known fact and dig up more information about a person, the more you want to know.

At one time I had so many papers scattered around it looked like a whirl wind had gone through the room. Now I have copied, corralled, and filed most of what I want to take with me.

It all has to fit in a small nylon briefcase along with my laptop, kindle, and shaving kit for the trip. It will be heavy but I don't feel comfortable putting it in my carry on bag but would rather have it right with me under my seat as it were.

I have been making appointments with friends and family members while I am in Wisconsin to maximize my time there. My list is rather long of those folks I want to see.

I have little else to contribute tonight so will close with some flower photos I took in our yard.

 Bougainvillea out the back patio.

 Agapanthus also out the back patio.

 Trumpet vine off the side pario.

Progress!

Yes, progress is being made.

Clyda no longer uses the walker and all the equipment borrowed from the Visiting Nurses Closet has been returned.

She has also stopped wearing the heavy nylon brace and is reduced to using a cane when she leaves the house. BIG progress. It has been 6 weeks tomorrow since the surgery and if it had not been for the ligament repair I am sure her recovery would have gone smoother.

Clyda has physical therapy 3 times a week which requires trips to the clinic for that.

Yesterday was the funeral for a neighbor from our cul de sac. She passed away during the night a few weeks ago from an aneurysm. It was a real shock as she was only 53. It is still hard to believe she is gone.

On Thursday we have another funeral to attend of an ex neighbor also. In fact he sold the house to the neighbor who just passed away.

On another subject: I have been working more family history and the more I do or I should say the more facts I collect the more confusing it becomes. For one family member I have so many different birth and death dates that I am not sure which is correct. I need a birth certificate and death certificate to prove what is correct. Still working on that.

We had a brief spattering of rain yesterday afternoon from some tropical disturbance south of us. I barely managed to wet the patio bricks.

In the mean time the drought goes on.

Clyda updare.

Clyda is progressing in her healing. She now only uses a cane when outside the house for her walks. She still has the knee brace and that may be for some time yet.

She has physical therapy 3 days a week at the clinic. So we are running back and forth to that.

I have done some backyard weeding after our recent rain last week. We only got about 7 tenths of an inch so it didn't soak in very much. It did help the lawn but not much else.

I have been looking at some of the genealogy data I have accumulated. I need to sit down and try to make some sense of it all. Looking at one small piece of information leads to another and another, until I get thoroughly lost. It is so much fun however.

I need to wash and wax the RV soon before all the old wax peels off. Maybe yet this week.

Update.

Much has happened in the last 2 weeks.

On Monday the 18^th Clyda had her left knee replaced. The surgeon also found that the Medial Collateral Ligament had been stretched at some point. He had to take 2 sutures in it and form some sort of a sheath around it. Also her knee cap was very worn. This complicated and lengthened the surgery.

However, she was released on Wednesday morning and has continued her recovery at home with the help of a Visiting Nurse Physical Therapist. She is up frequently and even takes walks down the street using her stroller of course. Progress is somewhat hampered by the very heavy knee brace she must wear to keep the knee stable until the ligament has a chance to heal.

Of course this means I am again the Chief Cook and Bottle washer as well as the Head Nurse. Actually things are progressing quit well. It's not as if we haven't been through this several times already.

Other than that, I have done very little around the house.

I have puttered around with my list of to-do's for the RV but it still has items to be attended to.

Clyda has an appointment with the surgeon on Tuesday so that may give us an indication of where things stand.

Update time.

Time for an update.

My 10 days at Rancheros Visitadores passed rather quickly. There were no significant problems and thanks to my co-workers who have both been there many years, we sailed through the encampment.

 

Our campsite.

 

Looking out the gate.

Looking up the road toward camp from the gate.

The first several days were very warm and nice but then the wind came up the last 4 days and we spent much of each day in heavy jackets. On Thursday night, the last night, it rained. This caused the road to become very slippery and big trailers full of horses couldn't climb the hills Friday morning to get out of camp. An alternate route was used but it too became impassable. By then the wind had dried the road somewhat so vehicles began leaving.

I didn't finish packing until almost noon which allowed my stuff to dry out. I finally left about 12:30 after closing the gates.

I drove to Pismo Beach and checked in at Pismo Beach Resort where Budd and Brenda had invited us to spend Mothers Day weekend again this year. Our neighbors Paul and Kathy arrived shortly also and Clyda had ridden up with them. Another couple we like, Joanne and Tony joined us later in the day.

The weather was sunny but the wind was cold so we spent much time between the RV's talking and playing games. We all took turns preparing and sharing meals and at night we played games in the club house. It was a great 5 days.

On Wednesday we drove to Lompoc and camped at the Elks Club while we visited our friends Larri and John. They live next to the parking lot so it is very convenient to stay there.

On Thursday morning we drove home and only unloaded a few things from the truck as it had started to rain and I also had a Company picnic to go to.

We managed to get the picnic in between rain showers. Lots of old fellow workers to chat with and lots missing who have passed on. The crew that put man on the moon is rapidly disappearing.

Today I unloaded more of the RV and put things away for another year.