Tukkered Out

I have written, more than once, about how the Eeyore in me tends to look first to the down side of everything. For instance, when FD’s mother passed away in March, all I could see around me was a lot of chaos and overwhelming work to do. The house she lived in had not been deep cleaned in forty years. Most of her parents belongings, and the ministry work of her previous husband was stored in boxes on top of boxes all throughout the house and garage. She, like many people of her time, tended to hoard items and could not throw anything out because “she might need it later for something”.  And, because she was a doomsday prepper to some extent, cases of dried foods and 5-gallon buckets of grain were stacked to the ceiling in some areas. There were cases of home-canned fruits and vegetables, some of which had spoiled and spilled down onto the cases of food below them. Her last husband added to the hoarding with his own passion – infomercial shopping. Exercise equipment that had never been opened, hundreds of books that had never been read, kitchen items and gadgets that had never been used, man-gadget tools and, worst of all (to me), boxes and stacks of health supplements that filled the entire breakfast nook in the kitchen. Even the outside yard was neglected. It had once been a showcase property of iris and beautiful shrubs. But, unfortunately, nothing much had been done to groom anything over the years, except the small bit of tree trimming and removal of dead trees that FD and I had managed when we first moved here.

Vulture reminds me to “Glide and Soar”. Vultures are a cleanser of the earth.

Large numbers of vultures arrive in early spring and also in the autumn. On an outing to the orchard in March, I counted more than 130 at a time! This one was enjoying early morning sun in the woods just outside our back porch.

Given the circumstances, I might have allowed the Eeyore in me to become negative but, instead, I focused on what was happening all around me. Mostly, that the vultures had arrived as they do each spring. I was reminded each morning as they warmed their wings in the sun that FD and I were warming our own wings for a new beginning here on the ranch. As the vultures took flight each day, I took flight too, doing work that needed to be done here on the place, and doing a little deep cleaning at the other house when time allowed. We were still entertaining a few family members who had come to help go through things, while organizing and cleaning a bit along the way.  Little by little over the next three months, FD and I managed to get things in working order at the rock house (what we now call his grandparents house). There is still much to do though, and it may be years, and maybe until FD retires, to be able to fix things up as nicely as we would like. Still, we do not yet have a definite plan for the house.

Our niece Kati Jo came several days to help go through rooms. Here, she tackled a closet I was overwhelmed by. I found myself very thankful that we had so many helpers the first few weeks.

FD’s sister Julie came for several weeks to go through household items. It was good to have help with such an overwhelming task.

FD’s first task was to repair plumbing issues in the kitchen and bathrooms.

FD removed this cabinet almost immediately. I can’t imagine why this design might have been popular, but in the late 1940’s things were done differently.

In some rooms, it took a week to simply make a path through the rubbish in order to get what was stacked up all around. This is the result of two weeks worth of tossing. I was left with the bare bones of spoiled canned goods. To tackle this task we spent a small fortune on nitrile gloves and trash bags.

The office was the first room I tackled. It took weeks to go through and discard paperwork, magazines, books, and file cabinets full of “ministry” material. This was the most oppressive room in the house – everyone agreed. As I discarded boxes and bags of paperwork, the room felt as if it was breathing again!

I was fascinated any time I heard a scream in the house while we were going through household items. This fella was actually attached to a box top. Notice the little bugs that fed off of him are still intact too!

This specimen was found in the back of a drawer. Sissy Jo’s scream had me running again with my camera. This mouse had made a nice nest in a drawer full of paper goods.

This spring brought a lot of rain and flooding to our area. The orchard flourished with weeds more than six feet tall in areas. Trees gave way in the muck, toppling over, and the insects were out of control, as were the weeds. We tried to control the musk thistle again this year but it became too big of a project for us. Now the cockleburs are thriving at the slough, which is vast with water and wider than I’ve ever seen it. We are seeing more water fowl than we’ve ever noticed before. And around our home I have to admit I was happy not to have to drag a water hose around to my flower beds and gardens until this past week. The garden is overgrown with weeds and, instead of being overwhelmed or upset, I just wait for a day (maybe) when things slow down a bit and I can make a dent in the weeding, if for nothing more than around the few plants I managed to get in so late in the season. Sometimes, there is bi-weekly mowing to do. The rain upped my workload, but it was a beautiful thing to be drenched day after day in a “cleansing” of sorts, on this place.

With rain nearly every day, I wasn’t able to put my vegetable garden in until May. Usually by late March I have everything planted!

Bro-in-law Patric is a hard worker! Here he and FD removed fencing that we had to put up around FD’s mom’s garden when Daisy deer helped herself to a little too many vegetables.

FD and I often met each other coming and going as we worked to clean up some of the property from years of neglect.

My sister Lisa, and her partner Doug, came for a week to help with outdoor work. Lisa’s specialty is the burn pile. Doug and I could not keep the wood from downed and dead trees and tree trimmings coming fast enough! Lisa is very efficient at her work!

Mom’s chickens are now mine to care for. We are expanding the chicken pen and will eventually clean the barn out. For now, I’ve cleaned the roosting area and added straw to the floor to get us by until we can devote more time to the barn cleanup.

With all that was going on with cleanup of the rock house and the addition of more chickens, I made the decision to quit doing wildlife rehabilitation for the next year or two, maybe even until FD retired in a few more years. I knew with all there was to do with two houses now and all of the work involved in cleanup both at the house and yard, that it was time for a break. I solidified that decision by telling everyone that I was giving it up, and concentrating on working on the rock house, raising more chickens (our current flock is old and not giving us many eggs anymore), and trying to get back to work in the orchard. But Mother Nature had a different plan.

I had just received a mail order of twenty-two chicks, when the farm center in town called about twelve juvenile chickens that had arrived. I was not really ready for the “teenager” chicks yet, but it was exciting to think of having bountiful farm fresh eggs again, and being able to sell some to our neighbors and friends. Then, a call came about a little buck deer. In response, I offered to provide transport to Wildcare, since I had no plans to raise any wildlife this year. However, not two miles after picking up the little fella, he began mewing and my heart softened. And, instead of listening to my inner Eeyore, I allowed the vulture in me to “glide and soar”, leading me to turn the truck around and take the little buck home.  We call him Tukker.

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