Yea! We have water at the barn, sort of….

Today was a nice peaceful, warm day, well at least the middle of it was. When I went down to the barn to feed, I checked the water in the barn, and was dismayed to find that there was still no water. This was after I spent about three hours on the phone talking to nurses, relatives, etc. I was actually upset with the nurse on duty in the ER, because she was the first person who would not give me any information over the phone. My powers of persuasion totally failed me. I didn’t push it because she really didn’t have any more information than I already had. Mother was going to be moved to Observation, and I knew that once there I could get all the information I needed.

Back to the barn, where I fed all the inside barn horses and proceeded to the outside horses. I went to check to see how much water was in the tanks, and lo and behold, I heard the trickle of water. It was the most beautiful sound I had heard in days.  I was able to fill the pasture tank, but I only filled Marina, and Lance’s buckets half full because the pressure was so low. There are a lot of lines at the barn, and our well can only produce so much water at a time. It’s in the wrong spot as we have two large underground rivers on either side of our property, either of which is capable of producing all the water we need, and then some. Of course that also meant that I wouldn’t be able to take a shower, but what the heck, I had a shower yesterday, and when we first got water at the house I had eight days with no shower. One day is totally no biggie.

I got all the animals fed, and was actually sweating with only a sweater on. We were having an actual heat wave. It was such a beautiful feeling to actually be sweating. Hey after days of below freezing temperatures I have a right to get giddy about a beautiful, clear, warm morning. I quickly got dressed, and off I went to town. First stop was the bank where I was trying to get some on line ID’s and passwords fixed. Come to find out the person I was working with was on a totally different page than I. No damage was done to my on line banking, but I still didn’t have my problem fixed. That’s about right, everything seems to not be going my way lately.

Next stop the post office to renew our box, get a package, and pick up the mail. Naturally I forgot to pick up the mail. The grocery is right down the street, so on I went for fruit, and nuts. This grocery has the best fruit in the area, so whenever I am close I stop. The last time I stopped, unfortunately I saw this beautiful orchid. I haven’t grown orchids in years, and I couldn’t help myself. I’ve always had problems getting them to bloom again so I stopped to talk to the florist.  There just happened to be a woman there who is an orchid collector. I was in second heaven. She showed me photos of some of her orchids, even minis. I didn’t know there were miniature orchids. She gave me a lot of information, things that I had never heard, or read of.

I left singing a happy tune. I went next store for some floral Styrofoam for my orchid, naturally no luck there. Next I tried Ace hardware that has everything, well almost everything. There’s no foam there either. I continue to my ultimate stop Walgreen’s. There are a couple of florists somewhere on the way, but I don’t see them. Just before you get to Walgreen’s, there is a nursery (one of the places I am forbidden to go to). I walk in, and immediately moan & groan, there are so many pretties. A young girl asks if she can help, and I inform her I’m not supposed to look at anything (as I wander among the beautiful plants, and planters), and ask if she has the foam I need. She says no, but the Dollar Tree has it. Just about that time I spy two orchids. The one lost its buds, but there are green shoots coming up. I can't help myself I ask how much. I wait (dreading the answer) while she pulls the orchid out of the pot it’s in, and replies $39.95. My heart sinks, as we are so tight on money I can’t afford to spend that much on a luxury. Then another girl comes over, and she says “with a 75% discount” My heart fairly leaps as I say “you mean there’s a 75% discount on these?”  Yes was the reply. I can afford that, and not feel guilty about spending the money. I ask about the second orchid she has, as its buds are still soft and green. She told me it was the same color as the one I wanted, so I just got the one for a little over $10. Now that's a bargin. I think it's the same orchid I bought previously, but what the heck for $10 I don't care.

Triumphant I continue on my way to the dollar store. Of course there are two Dollar stores, and the one I go to first is the wrong one.  I go to the next dollar store, and find the foam I need. By now I am feeling that all is right in the world, go down the street for my prescription, and head on home, stopping only for gas.

The boys (Taggit, and Bear), and Bree greet me, and clamor to see what I brought home. I tell them there’s nothing for them, but their tails wag as if I had brought them wonderful treats. It’s only about 3:00 pm so I have time to take my orchids out of their containers, and put them in bowls sitting on the foam exactly as the lovely lady told me. Of course the wood is totally dry, and makes a mess all over everything when I take it out of its container just as Rudy calls. We talk several times a day, and he wants to get an update on mother. I reluctantly put my orchid down, and talk to Rudy. Not that I don’t want to talk to him, I do, I’m just excited about my orchids.

We finish talking, and back I go to my orchids. I find bowls I like, cut the foam in half, and place the first orchid on the foam held down with the sticks holding the blossom. I wanted to water them before I put them in their new home. Well that didn’t work, and everything fell apart. Ok, so I soak the foam, and the wood, place the orchid on the foam, and push the wood back into the roots of the orchid. I do the same with the second orchid I bought. Its blossom stem broke off, which is fine since it wouldn’t have done anything anyway. I can’t keep them where I wanted (in the computer room where I spend most of my time) because they need sleep time, so one goes in the dining area, and the other in my bedroom. We have very little direct light in the house, and most of it is western light. That’s no good, I was informed by the orchid lady, it has to be morning light. The bedroom has morning, and the dining area, while having western light, has blinds closed to protect the birds from the heat, and cold of being close to the window. It should be ok. Of course later I put both orchids back in the computer room where I spend most of my time. What's the fun of having them if you never see them?

It’s now time to go feed. I didn’t know it then, but I was to be rudely brought back to the reality of running a ranch. I take the gator, and head to the barn. As I approach the water main I just repaired, I see a little river of water from my repair job down the road. I inwardly groan, as I was so careful to make sure that there would be no leaks. I go on to the barn, and find that the barn water didn’t turn off completely when I left in the morning. Another mess to clean up. I hit the shut off handle a couple of times with my foot, and the flow of water finally stops. I take the bucket that is overflowing, and dump the water in Lance’s bucket. Water is not to be wasted in the desert. I feed the barn horses, sweep out the water on the barn floor, and proceed to feed the rest of the horses. First I go down to the pump house to turn off the water, grab my bag of supplies, and return to the water main. Off comes the cover, and I inspect my plumbing job. There’s plenty of water, but I see no water seeping through the insulation of my repair job. Out of the corner of my eye, I see water flowing from the ground. We have no natural springs here. I get my shovel and start digging. I find the pipes, which are barely 6” under ground. No wonder they freeze, they should be at least 3’ underground. Of course it’s much easier to dig out 6” of dirt so I’m not too upset. I clean out the mud and water to expose the offending pipe. I see no cracks or breaks. There is however a 45-degree coupling, and the glue has deteriorated allowing the water to seep out.

I return to the house, as I can’t fix it now. The sun has set anyway, and it will soon be dark. I don’t believe there is a coupling like the one I need in Rudy’s plumbing box. I come back to the house, and start making phone calls. My aunt Gail left a message wanting to talk to me about Mother. First I call Gail, and we talk for a while. It’s time to call the hospital, and they inform me that there was nothing unusual in the CT scan from last night. I talk to mother and she is all over the place in her conversation. Father calls in the middle of the conversation, and I tell him Mother is making absolutely no sense. He got one number for the hospital wrong so I give him the correct number. He will call Mother in about 10 minutes so I can finish talking to her. I talk to Mother a little longer, hang up, and Robert (my brother) calls. We talk about Mother, and I tell him what the CT scan shows, which is absolutely nothing. I am frustrated because there is definitely something more than normal aging going on here.

When I finish with Robert, Rudy calls. He too believes that something is definitely wrong with Mother. We talk for a while, until he starts to fade. Now I too am beginning to fade, as it is now nearly midnight. At least the middle of the day was relaxing, and fun. I love plants, gardening, the whole nine yards. Here gardening is out. The land is caleche, and rock. If you manage to get plants growing the deer, and elk eat it so I haven’t done any gardening. Well that’s not entirely true. When we first moved here I tried planting some fruit trees, which promptly died, that is all except the pear tree, which the deer ate. I didn’t have any indoor plants, until Rudy went to the hospital, and the village sent him a philodendron. Now in addition to that I have a hibiscus, and my two orchids. My promised green house has yet to come to fruition. I pray that the orchids do well, and someday perhaps I will have more plants. Currently that seems an impossible dream, but if we don’t dream we have nothing to aspire to. I prefer to dream, and pray that one of these, day’s God will take pity on me, and let at least a few more of my dreams come to fruition. Who knows, someday we may even win the lottery. Of course I would have to buy lottery tickets for that to come true, but it could happen.