Been too long

 So When I brought up my blog, I saw tht my last post was April 25th. Talk about a slacker!
Now that I am retired I find lots of  thigs to do otherr than write here.
Lots.
Solitaire.
Candy Crush.
Facebook.
You know, IMPRTANT stuff.
I do a lot of work outside though. Lately, we felled and cut up, split and stacked six small alder trees around the house. They were leaning over the house, and besides depositid stuff on the roof and patio, they cut off a lot of light.
I have not yet finished grinding up the leaves and branches with the chipper. It is more work grinding up the limbs than it is doing the rest of it.
One thing that has gone extremely well is the berry picking. For the uninitiated, that means trailing wild blackberries. Not the invasive Himalyan Blackberry that adorns every vacant lot. Those are mediocre. The trailig wild blacberries are much more scarce. Since we didn't get ere until the end of June last year, I only got in on the end of the season, and was hard pressed to get enough to make a batch of jam.
This year I went out erly, when the vines were in bloom and walked the area to spot areas that showed blooms. Then I kept an eye out for the first berries to ripen. By the middle of June I had my first gallon of berries, whch I immediately turned into jam..
There is nothing like some toast with butter and wild blackberry jam.M y very favorite. I went out picking every other day for the month od June and half of July. By now the season peak has passed, and I have another couple of gallons of berries in the freezer.
My mom's 90th birthday is in November, and I figure I will bring her a batch of jam for her birthday. She will appreciate the work that went into the picking and processing of the berries. It's not loke you can go to the store and buy some sugar free wild blackberry freezer jam.
Things have been a little hectic around here lately. Mrs A developed an infected tooth. Her regular dentist was, of course, on vacation, but the dental assistant came in to take a set of pictures of the tooth, gave her a prescription for an antibiotic and set up an appoontment for the next week. This was a week a go Monday, with the appointment the next week. By thursday she was in major pain, so I called around and fund a dentist willing to take her in on an emergency. He looked at it, and sent her to another dentist to take a panaoramic picture. He didn't like what he saw, so he sent her to another dentist for a root canal. Mrs A wanted to get the tooth pulled, but they opened up the tooth and squirted in some antibiotic and told her to come back on Monday. On Monday, they did a root canal, gave her some antibiotics and pain pills. It just got worse.
We went back in on Wednesday because she was in such pain. We were sent to yet another dentist, an oral surgeon.
He pulled the tooth. More antobiotics and pain killers.
She has been miserable for about two weeks now, but I think she has turned the corner. The oral surgeon was real concerned aout how she didn't seem to be responding to the antibiotics, told her that the next step would be a trip to the hospital if she doesn't get better.
Never a dull moment.