It’s a weird year, here, in Ruskin. When we’ve been here at this time of the year in the past, the back field is well under way, with flowers and shoots of whatever it is that Randy’s planning to grow. The front field would start to look semi-productive, though Randy has been debating off and on what to put there, as well.
And then there’s the grass. None of it has been cut in weeks. Too look at a picture of the yard, you’d think this was an abandoned property with all the scraggly bits, tall shafts heavy with grain, and the countless dandelions gone to seed.
Allen’s near-death experiences were a significant factor in this: cutting the grass isn’t exactly a priority. And Jean’s new “lawn guy” was preoccupied with a major project of some kind. Add to that a whack of health issues for Randy (knee surgery combined with a cancer battle) and … well, you get what we see.
To be fair, it’s actually kind if pleasant. This is the rural life, after all, not a golf course.
I’ve been puttering around since we arrived. Save for ice cream today, I’ve barely left the house, let alone the property. I’ve done my usual retinue of flower photography, but little else. (Well, and laundry.) Monkey’s helped Jean with some overdue yard work, Choo Choo has spent nearly the entire two days doing homework, of all things.
Alex was up early this morning (but after me; I still can’t sleep on that wretched mattress) and on a mission to find geocaches. There was a local event (I’m still not really clear on what group was running it) and new caches started being released at 08:00. This caused mild panic because Alex wanted to get some First To Find (FTF) credits for her list, but she was caught with knowing that she would be out for a while and she needed to eat. By the time she’d gotten herself settled, the nearest one (a scant 2 km away) was found, and she was in danger of losing the one to the west.
When she returned near noon, there was yet another rant about how she hated caching in British Columbia because the clues aren’t clear, you need full rubber boots, the bugs, etc. I repeated that she only hated it because it wasn’t as easy as Alberta and that if we lived here, she’d be fine with it.
This was our last evening here … well, the last one for the kids and I, anyway. Alex is going to hang around a couple of more days, but the girls and I are out tomorrow at 03:00. Once again, they’re super keen on the early departure. I still don’t entirely know why they like it so much, though I won’t deny it’s easier to drive and we’ll be home earlier. And as we have to pick up Asia along the way, it’s good for everyone.
But I will need coffee…
