My first mow

Scarface with Cyrus by the door

Using a push mower is easy. Fill with gas and oil, pull the cord to start it up, and mow mow mow. 

I have been using the push mower up here in NY to do around the edges after The Husband mows my domain, inside the back fence. He mows the rest of the property however he pleases, or not, mostly paths thru the weeds.

Considering I still have no idea what the throttle and the choke are supposed to do, I think I did a pretty good job.

Feeling pretty confident that I knew what I was doing, I tried doing a bit more outside the fence under the apple trees. It became obvious that Hub was not mowing this area because the ground is not level. At one point when I was leaning a little too far to my left, I reacted by putting my foot out to correct that. Duh! This is how serious accidents occur—people feeling confident when they have no idea what they are doing. Had I tipped over, that would have been my last mow.

I will do better now that I have been granted the opportunity for a second mow.

Tonight I am trying to roast some of my homegrown garlic scapes to serve with chicken mozzarella tortellini (not homegrown, store-bought frozen). I’ll let you know how they come out.

https://katykeck.com/garlic-scapes-maple-achers/Farm Fresh Garlic Scapes - Behind the Scenes @ Maple Achers | Katy Keck

Health and happiness

The Husband was finally allowed to mow the jungle that was our backyard so that we could find Jessie again. In fact we are due for another mow, but this time I offered to do it after a little instruction on the John Deere. KP is great with a push mower, no clue how to use those magical riding mowers.

My skin has finally recovered from the poison ivy, and I took the last of the prednisone earlier this week. It would not allow me to sleep, and I have been on it for over a month. I need a switch to shut off my brain at night! My sleep habits are just starting to recover.

Jessie only had a donut head for less than a day, and she has recovered as well. Now I call her Scarface. I hope the hair grows back over the scars, but I'm not sure that it will.

Panoramic photos taken with the iPhone give a twisted view, but this one shows the full glory of our beautiful backyard. I told Husband a few weeks ago that I am perfectly happy here. We ended up in my happy place. I don't ever want to leave.

No mow May

You might have to hunt for the Jessie in this jungle. We mostly held off on mowing until after the daffodils were done blooming, and for all the other good reasons not to mow in May. This left us with quite the lush greenery given all the recent rain.

Poor Jessie had her own painful/itchy experience in the last few days—she must have angered a wasp or 10—and was stung several times on the top of her head, both ears, and either in her mouth or on her snout. 

I was able to treat her with my recent favorite Benadryl pills and cream, but didn't notice how bad her nose was until after she scratched the heck out of it.

Thus the big blue donut yesterday. She was NOT happy. She would not eat. Would not sleep. Would not talk to me for the almost full day that I made her suffer so.

I left in the afternoon to go to a concert with Tara, and came home bout 3 hours later to see she had removed the collar (I don't know how but she did). Thankfully it was on just long enough for the itchy nose to heal, at least to heal enough that she stopped trying to take off all her skin. 

After some heavy doses of prednisone for me, and one dose of donut-head for Jessie, we are both done with all the itchiness that was cast upon us.

Yay for that.

How not to spend your birthday

Posting the pretty picture instead of the ugly ones I have been sending to the nurse/doctor.

On a quick trip to New Jersey about 2 weeks ago, I managed to pull all the English ivy off of one of my sister's oak trees out front. I threw all the vines around the base of the tree and picked them up when I finished.

I noticed one little 3-leaf sprig of poison ivy under the big pile after I picked it up. I was not wearing gloves, but had long-sleeve jacket and long pants, so I figured I would be okay.

Came inside and washed my hands for a very long time and thought I was good.

It all went downhill from there. Apparently there was plenty of poison oil on the jacket and pants that I did not realize. Put pants in the suitcase and wore the jacket after I got home. Duh.

Since May 19 I have been fighting what started as a little rash on my arms only. I did a video visit (twice) with a Prime Care nurse who gave me a script for several things, including prednisone. She recommended Sarna lotion to stop the itch.

What I didn't think about, since the rash didn't start until the day after I got home, was that I also slept in my bed, and still had the jacket and pants unwashed, like me until the day after.

It's over 2 weeks since I was there. Once I realized what was going on, again I thought I was doing everything right. But no. Sarna lotion felt so good that I used it too often and burned my arms but good. Stopped the lotion and continued with Benadryl, and was doing really well until I accidentally wore that pair of pants yesterday. Not sure if they had been washed once with the jacket, but even so now I have spread this over my body. At least my legs are clear. Yay!

I would like to say I learned a lesson, but I didn't really. I did wash the sheets and affected clothing 4 or 5 times today. Not sure that that's a lesson.

Happy birthday to me.