There is Nothing New Under the Sun.....

I'm catching up here in the country on my daily - or nightly - journal entries.

Just as at home in the city - there's always a lot to do in the country.

Louis Dean has been tweaking his fence and I have been doing some painting - as in repainting the white walls and trim that looks like it's  been 10 years at least since it was first painted and it's really only been 3! NO MORE watering the paint down, Louis Dean!

This is our beloved Rufus.

He is just about completely blind now and seldom comes down to the camper/cabin anymore.

Breaks my heart.

We went down to Dean and Sherry's house for dinner Tuesday night.

We nearly always have pepper poppers!

Sherry and I could eat all of them between just the two of us.

There was pulled pork sandwiches provided by Dean and deviled eggs and peppers by Sherry.

I brought cheese and crackers, veggies and Ranch, chips and onion dip,plus the cakes Summer made with sliced straberries and Cool Whip.

Dinner was great and we ate out on their front deck.

We opened up the mead - or honey wine - Dean and Sherry had made after we finished eating.

The bottle on the left is blackberry mead made with our good honey from 2019.

The green bottle is blackberry wine made with the bitterweed honey.

And THIS is bitterweed!

Sherry has kept a lot of it mowed down this year.

Now that the flow has ended - which means the spring flowers are all pretty much dried up and brown now - or at least it is here in North Texas - the bitterweed that's abundant here - will provide honey for the bees to live on this winter.

The sunset from the deck.

LOVE being in the country.

Then we went in and laid out our plans for harvesting honey and taking care of the bees.

Our honey harvest will be July 18th.

We must pull the frames and extract the honey from all 3 hives in one long day.

We will need to get up early!

Wednesday slipped by without a journal entry to document it.

We had a good campfire that night.

We also had a scare concering our Chandy Girl.....Lousi Dean's granddaughter.

It was Tuesday afternoon when we learned she was really sick and would be tested for Covid 19 the next morning. By the time we got this pic, Chandy had been admitted to the hospital.

It turned out that she tested negative for flu, strep and Covid!

Bronchitis and tonsillitis was the diagnosis. 

Praise God!

She is now at home and feeling better.

Just a few more weeks until Baby Jax will be here!

By Wednesday night I had painted the camper door area white!

Love the red, white and blue!

Today - Thursday - I decided to add some red to the steps.

Yes! I like it!

This afternoon I worked on Christmas in July!

I already have a canvas of this hanging in my den but it will be a birthday gift to my friend, Kimmy.

She really loved it so I am giving it to her and painting another version for me.

Using palette knife and deeper colors......I am loving painting this.

I stopped painting in time to attend a 6:30 July Zoom meeting of the Texas Bee Supply Company.

Great meeting and very informative.

Answered many of our questions from Tuesday!

Tonight I made a wine cooler of watermelon wine, Sav Blanc and some flavored water from HEB.

Delicious!

Summer yellow squash from Dean's garden......sliced squash, onion, baby carrots...topped with crushed butter cracker crumbs and seasonings and sprinkled with olive oil....topped with shredded Mozzarella cheese. Yes.....

It went with Great Northern beans spooned over cornbread and served with fresh onion slices.

I soaked those beans all night Tuesday. Then I cooked them all day long on Wednesday.

They did not get done until midnight!

So we ate them this night - Thursday!

I keep my Country Diary up to date by writing in it every morning about the day before.

I realized recently that I have not written much about Covid 19. 

Perhaps I have been in denial  - or at least as far as my writing goes.

I have other journals I write in ....and have filled dozens over the years. 

Still ....not much at all about the reality of the times we are living in right now.

The here and now. The mundane. The relationships we have. All that I have recorded and documented.

 I have touched on Covid in my online journal entries but not overly much.

Yesterday I started writing about it in a journal I have not written a word in the last 10 years.

It will startle the reader of the future who may happen upon it. 

I tell of becoming a MeeMaw to quadruplets....and many other experiences.

I admit to being scared recently.

I saw a photo that showed the Covid 19 across our country using red circles.

It completely unnerved me for a few days.

It looked like a bad case of measles that completely covered the body of the United States.

I am grateful to be a Christian and I know that God is in control no matter how scared I am and how bad things look. Then, during my prayer time the other morning, the time that I stay silent and just be and listen.....a scripture came to my mind.....

The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun.

Ecclesiastes 1:9

After coffee and reading that morning, Louis Dean and I looked up the Pandemic of 1918.

We read some of the diaries that were written back then.

Written by people such as you and I.

We read the history of that time. I wondered how it could have been a pandemic way back then.

World War I.

Soldiers going back and forth across the oceans and crowded living conditions.

As I read, Louis Dean said, "It sounds like you are reading about today."

Louis Dean's grandparents died of the flu in 1918.

He was born in 1936 so he never knew them.

For some reason, it helped me know that our 'new normal' will not always be our 'normal.'

We will get past this. It will come to pass. It has not come to stay.

Still, we must be vigilent in keeping ourselves and others safe.

We wear our facemasks. We keep our distance and we self quarantine when we have been around others who have been out and about.

It's not easy and it's not convenient.

But it's what we must do at this time.

And it won't last forever.

I have determined to document my daily life in my private journals - including the ways Covid 19 has impacted the way we live. Who knows?? We who keep hand weitten diaries and journals may give hope to future generations in times to come when they read of our experiences.

Never underestimate the power of the written word.