This Year

This year…….even though my three children will not be at my Thanksgiving table I feel blessed with the company, a full gathering of intelligent people who will provide stimulating conversation and appreciative noises about the food.

This year……even though I still do not have a job despite applying to over 30 in the past year I feel blessed because we still have enough with a warm well maintained shelter and food for sustenance.

This year….even though we have aging bodies and diminishing vision and hearing I feel blessed because we are able to move and do and enjoy life fully.

This year…..even though we live in a time of divisiveness where it seems to be more important to be the loudest one making a point I feel blessed because we have the freedom of speech and we can wait until the windbags finish their rant and then speak softly and sanely to those who can listen.

This year……even though people who can afford to make better choices are eating chemicals that cause them to get sick and then having to spend time and money trying to get well I feel blessed because I woke up to this about five years ago and the “six month experiment” has worked and we do feel better than we did then.

This year……even though I rarely see people walking the walk I feel blessed because I surround myself with people who make the effort.

Thank you for being part of my life.

Advertisement

Typical Fall Weather

Several years ago when I told people I planned to move to Oregon many wondered why I would want to move to a place where it rains all the time.  Well, based on The Willamette Valley, which is one of Oregon’s many diverse eco-systems, the area has what is called a Mediterranean climate.  It has warm dry summers and cool wet winters.  When we compared the typical rainfalls and summer/winter temperatures it was very similar to where we were living.

The winter rains start sometime in October generally and today is a good example of a typical “winter weather” day.  When I left my house to drive to the farm it was raining, but as I headed south, the skies seemed to be lighter.  I was hoping the rain would stay to the north.

I was working inside the high tunnel at first, packaging up vegetables ordered for the Monday delivery, but then the farmer needed me to clean the leeks. Leeks get dirty any time, but when a leek with a diameter of 1.5 inches has a 5 inch mud ball, it takes a while to clear.  So, I grab a chair, a couple of bins, a clipper, and a hose and get to work. I was out there cleaning for about an hour and in that time the weather did this:

FIRST the clouds rolled in from the northwest.But as the rain started, the sun was shining from the southeast.So I then enjoyed a typical rainy Oregon day event.

You just have to know how to dodge the drops!