The Never-ending Song

My latest blogs are all about the "battles" here at Joseph's Dream and I realize that is not what anyone expected or necessarily wanted to read.  You wanted dog stories, right? Well I promise I will get back to the real goods just as soon as I have a break from the community stuff.  I would much rather reminisce about dogs! In the meantime, if you want to read some dog thing I have written, my book, One Dog Night, can be purchased at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and ordered at your local book store. It is about a frosty night my Border collie, Daisy, and I spent on the ground.  Also there is quite a bit about my life with Daisy, a few competition tips and the like.  Small book-quick read. I hope you enjoy it.

April 29, 2019 This morning at coffee I produced the enclosed announcement sheets which I will be delivering door to door this afternoon.  I think this is the best way to try to get the hummingbird feeders restored.  People here are so afraid of being written up or reprimanded that they may not follow through.  I don't know how to better encourage them to stick together.  I can count on the usual few to be out there Wednesday morning putting out at least one feeder--some have said they might put two.  We really need to see the feeders blossoming in front of every building to be effective.  So as I hand these flyers out, I will attempt to make contact with at least one resident in each building and coax them to hang a feeder.  Management is playing it's own games.  About a year ago they had installed surveillance cameras in the office, maintenance room and community room.  What they do in the offices is fine, but almost everyone was flabbergasted when they became aware

We won the right to plant flowers in our small beds.  A height limit was part of the deal.  Basically I felt we won, and it has been nice on this gorgeous Spring weekend, to see ladies setting out blooming flowers. So now - the Hummingbirds. Some are saying since the management agreed to the flowers, they will not bother with  another request.  I don't believe that.  Somehow they are now taking notice of us.  It was suggested by management that we form a tenant's association.  I am all for that.  We tried it once before and never got past 3 meetings.  Out of 50 tenants, roll call at the last meeting showed the 4 elected  officers and 2 residents.  We have some new tenants.  Perhaps they will take an interest.  Everyone gives the impression that they want flowers. birds, what-ever.  No one wants to be, or even back, the person to get things done .I am willing to "fight"; however, I believe in the power of numbers. So anyway- Hummingbirds. I saw the first scout zoom

April 25, 2019 Yesterday I spent over two hours writing about strange animal friendships.  I  had even figured out how to attach pictures.  Right before I clicked on "publish", my computer apparently got hungry and gobbled up the entire page.  I tried everything I could think of and did not succeed in recovering the lost blog.  Needless to say I was not pleased.  Nor did I have the patience to start over.  What I really felt like doing was tossing my laptop out the window! Normally I am a fairly patient person.  Technology is not my finest hour however. Patience is something everyone could use more of.  It seems to me that each generation has had less and less patience.  My grandparents always appeared to have patience unending, especially my Grandma Smith, who was in a wheelchair ever since my Dad, her son and only child, was in High school.  She had been a promising soprano and pianist in her teens and was stricken with Rheumatoid Arthritis so young.  I never heard

April 23, 2019                                                    The Mysterious Power of Touch Not sure how it began, a small group of us female residents having coffee in the community room this morning, got onto the subject of touch. Janice (I am not using anyone's real name) started by telling about her recent visit to a massage therapist. How amazing it was that her muscles softened beneath those firm warm hands-how much more alive she felt when she left with a spring in her step. Donna joined in with a story about feeling lonely and a bit lost when she ventured into a new church after having moved here from a distance.  Although everyone was welcoming and friendly, it was when one lady put her arms around her and pulled her against her ample breast, patting her back, that Donna felt she was at home.Warm words are good, but how is it that a hug can say so much more?. I am a Yankee born.  We are not demonstrative.  I am an Episcopalian--we have the reputation of bein

April 22,2019 Please note  the e/m address posted (gmail) is not working.  If you wish to contact me, please use: story_teller_34@yahoo.com I have quite a bit more work to do on this blog site!                                                            Dandelions The grounds maintenance crew was here.  Some of the lawn area had grown into pretty healthy hay.  They came with enormous, snarling, mowers which were well up to the project they were set to. Even though the grass was still heavy and wet from the heavy showers of the past days, those grass gobblers chewed it off, storing it in their gigantic piggy-pack barrels. The young men controlling these behemoths wore ear protection, and well they might or for sure they would damage their eardrums after spending a  very brief time riding these giants of much horse power. Sylvia, my neighbor and I had been admiring the charming little golden blooms that dotted our lawn area.  The bright yellow flowers resemble miniature Car

Welcome happy morning age to age shall say Opening words to an Easter hymn we  members of the Junior choir sang in the Episcopal church in Burlington, Vermont when I was a teen. And who would not still, welcome a happy Easter morning.  This morning those words are especially appropriate for me. I was up a large part of last night with my dear old Hannah.  The evening had passed uneventfully for her.  My daughter , Terry, was here.  We had subs and an Easter treat she made and watched a movie.  Before leaving, Terry took Hannah outside for last chores.  I got ready for bed, gave Hannah her goodnight biscuit, which she gobbled down.  She went to her bed.  As I was crawling into my bed, she began to whine.  She came rapidly into the bedroom panting and trembling like a dry leaf in aNovember wind. Supposing she just had to go out one more time, I slipped back into the wheelchair, attached her leash, and out we went to a lovely crisp evening.  Large bright moon sailing through the

April 20, 2019       Weather We were under severe thunder storm warnings most of yesterday.  Even tornado warnings for a while.  Nothing bad happened here--just some brief wind and rain.  However, only a few miles away a tornado touched down and tore a house to shreds.  Since I had my computer unplugged, I picked up a pencil and piece of paper and wrote a poem.                          Ode to Weather Weather, ahh weather, how wild you can be Wind whipping the grass and bending the tree. Dark cloud like a water balloon passes by Dumping it's rain on the earth from the sky. Thermometers drop, the air freezes the nose When mountains of snow in the driveway grows. From out of a black cloud a funnel shape drops Sucking up cars and some random roof tops. Lightening strike snaps while trees tremble in fear, The boom of thunder proclaiming it near White puffy clouds on a blue counterpane Soft gentle breezes to dry up the rain. Bird songs are trilling, insects are humming

April 16, 2019     Leave-taking Everyone who has had a pet, be it large or small, knows the time will come when that loved animal will take his leave.  Our greatest hope, as we watch him growing older, arthritic, not eating well, getting thin despite the best food we can offer, and possibly losing control of bowel or bladder function, is that you will wake one morning to discover that Pepper or Fluffy has slipped off to another land in his sleep.  Thus sparing you from making that dreaded call to the Vet.  It seems it seldom happens that way.  I have had many animals and only once did his leave-taking happen that way. Not because i did not wait long enough.  Perhaps in at least one case I waited too long and caused Zairah to suffer.  Knowing when to let go is so hard.  Some animals actually do seem to tell you when they have had enough.  But many are stoic--suffer in silence. Before this sounds like a dirge, I want to tell a couple of stories where there were happy endings. This

April 16, 2019    When a song ends--or does it? Yesterday evening an elderly neighbor lady came to visit.  She left her rollator outside saying it was hard for her to negotiate through the doorway.  Two steps in and suddenly she was flinging her arms about,  grabbing for something which was not there.  She fell face first into my rocking chair.  Her arm protected her face from making contact, but her knees hit the floor HARD.  The floor here is a thin carpet over a cement slab.  When she caught her breath, she got up unaided. I got an ice pack and applied to her banged knee.  The worst damage done was to her self esteem.  This is a woman who had a farm, who carried 100 lb. bags of grain on her shoulder from truck to barn, who leaped up on   a horse bare-back and galloped across a field, who raised a family and faced a not always friendly world with strength and courage.  She could not understand how it was that she could fall.  She wondered aloud why we exist when our usefulness i

April 13, 2019   Vermont Reading Jon Katz' blogs about the sheep shearing  going on today on his farm and his special blog on Vermonters has me recalling my years on our Vermont dairy farm.  We did not have sheep.  I don't remember there being many sheep in Vermont at that time  - certainly not in our vicinity. But the Vermont people remain the same.  The newer arrivals who have settled in Vermont are apparently cut from the same cloth as the "natives".  Salt of the earth, my grandmother would call them. My Dad's farm, Indian Brook Farm, was composed of 190 rolling acres in the town of Colchester, about 10 miles north of Burlington. We had 50 head of cattle more or less, mostly Holsteins, with two Jerseys for "house milk".  Holsteins are the black and white cows and Jerseys are brown or fawn. (This last for those unfamiliar with cows.)  For a while the creameries, where we took our milk every morning in large metal cans, paid a premium for milk

SheApril 11, 2019        Meet SusieQ My cat's name is Susie Q.  Not very original I know.  It was given to the solid gray female kitten that was dropped off in front of my home, out in the country.  She was about 9 months old and in heat. So now we know why she was abandoned!  She was definitely a house cat as she has never jumped up on a table or kitchen counter and she knew what a cat box was for.  A bit shy at first, she hid in the azalea bushes by my back door, meowing plaintively.  When I spoke coaxingly to her, she backed up to the bush and shook her tail.  So I thought she was a male.  I was, at the time, unaware that female cats exhibit this same behavior under certain circumstances.  Once inside it became obvious what the meowing was about.  I advertised and put up some posters with her picture just in case she was lost, all the while knowing what had most likely happened.  She had a sweet disposition.  Loved the dog and my aged Siamese male kitty, Nikamew.  I wonder

April 9, 2019 Here we are again, Hannah and I, for a second try at this new adventure. First I want to thank Jon Katz and Patty Musgrove for their unceasing patience and encouragement in getting this blog going.  The Army of Good took a different and unprecedented turn to accomplish this effort.  Thanks also to all who responded to Jon's request to help me.  So many good people.  There is hope for this suffering world after all. Hannah, the dog in my photo, is an aging Brittany who is my Service dog.  She came to be my companion a year ago when I lost my beloved Border collie who had been with me for 10 years. Hannah had been hit by a truck and had multiple injuries.  She was taken to a veterinary hospital and treated.  Although they advertised, the hospital was never contacted by her owner. She was thought to be around 10 years old, so perhaps her owner was not able to pay the very large medical bill and just let her go unclaimed. This was not an abused or abandoned dog.

Today I set out on a new adventure.  I only wonder why I waited so long?  I am 84 years old. Widowed, mother of four children of whom I am very proud.  Grandmother of four bright grandchildren making their mark in this confusing world of today.  Great Grandmother of two charming little boys. I am a retired Veterinary Technician-a job I hated becoming too old to participate in.  I was a licensed Wildlife Rehabilitator in the state of New York.  Farmer's daughter (dairy farm in Vermont) 4-her and later a 4-H leader when my children were of age to be members.. I am the author of one book , One Dog Night, published last year and currently available on Amazon, Barnes and Noble or through your local bookstore.  I have been writing since I was 10 years old. I have had animals around me all my life -cows, goats, horses, hens..-always a dog and a cat. With me now are Hannah, an 11 year old Brittany and Susie, a 6 year old  female kitty. In this blog I will write about my life with