This Studebaker was our first hint.

Then these Caddys.

Then these yard ornaments.

I pulled off the drive and we got out to greet Brian, who was hanging with the horses.

The Carlsons rescue animals, care for them, give them a home and love.

This is the barn cat. Her name is Barn Cat.

This is Blue.

Brian built this big outbuilding about ten years ago, not for animals…..

…..for cars and car parts.

Don’t be fooled. This is not junk. Brian has an eBay business, selling car parts to people all over the world.

He spends much time here in his office (a separate building).

The dogs keep him company during the day while Carrie is at work.

Behind the outbuilding, more cars, more parts.

Carrie told me the make of this car, year included, and proudly explained that Brian could restore it in about a week. On a recent anniversary their entertainment was counting how many cars they own. 70!

The view from the entrance of their home.

After our tour of their property, we were offered cookies and coffee, and we sat at the table and talked. It’ll be fun to write their story.

Would you guess they were married in a cemetery?

That a dog (or any animal or plant) can survive for an entire year in our household is a tribute to the attention given by the other human here at 514. Mauri carefully measures her food, often “cooking” for her (meaning he fries up a little bacon in the wok and tosses in her food to flavor it). He takes her for outings to DQ or Wilco or the local pet store. The GPS in the “dogmobile” knows the clearest route to the McMinnville Dog Park.

For fun, here’s a growth comparison.

Darcy was still “Little Jane” when I took this picture.

Here she is now—considerably bigger! (I needed some excuse to post this funny pose.)

And just a few party pictures with Darcy’s mama.

And a good time was had by all.

This was my first exposure to vermiculture/vermicomposting. I carried my new-found interest to Mauri, who is always ready to share some new adventure with me. We went right out and bought a Can-O-Worms and a starter set of red wigglers.

I confess to being a casual (as opposed to ardent) recycler. But I really dug this particular form of recycling because I could witness the full circle of turning our garbage into “liquid gold,” which, added to our tomato plants, grew—more (eventual) garbage to feed to the worms.

One notable interruption in our ecosystem happened when, or I should say after I fed the worms a bag of vacuum dirt, something on the suggested menu. A couple of days later a horrid smell tipped me off to the massacre I discovered under the lid. It was a little late to remember I had used that powdered deodorizer stuff on the carpet. Before long, though, we were back in business with a fresh batch of wigglers, and I a little wiser.

After about three years we closed up our worm business but kept the container. For some reason, I haven’t yet isolated it, the worm interest resurfaced, and about the same time my friend Heather posted this! There at the bottom she offered anyone a starter set of composting worms. So…

I spread out all the parts and gave them a good hosing. To what purpose I don’t know, since it will contain dirt and be kept outdoors; it just felt right. Then we headed for Heather’s house.

It was so cool to see her operation. Nothing squeamish about these seasoned wormers.

…although I understood her need for the glove.

These light-shy worms quickly dove for cover.

Back at our backyard, we layered shredded newspaper, food scraps, coffee grounds, and worms!

And we are back in business!

We’ll stay in business too, as long as we keep producing coffee grounds, food scraps, and the like.

So, do you have a slop bucket under your sink?

You see, things are once again as they should be.

Returning home for my lunch hour, you no doubt guessed what I found.

Mauri comes home tomorrow—and I’m tellin’!

I let her sprawl next to me on the loveseat. I regularly scratch behind her ears, feed/water her, comb her fur, throw her the ball…

And this is how she thanks me for taking pity and letting her move about the bathroom instead of being cooped up in her kennel while I’m at work. You’ll notice she helped herself to a roll from the supply shelf. Tomorrow she’ll be in the doghouse, literally!

Looks like we made room for a fourth of a cow. Next time we’ll know.

…to try to identify that bird camouflaged in the grass to the right of the post.

I’m glad he didn’t wait around to see it in flight!

Here’s a real bird, shot through the window to our backyard. 

A hummingbird!

I remember our excitement at showing off our new pet to the returning “King of the House.”*

*I wrote on the back of the picture: July ’75; Paul is “King of the House”; Herman John BeeBee Carlson looks on.

As happens with papier mache alligators, ours eventually disappeared from the scene, and we’re left with one photograph to remind us of that time in our history.

Here’s the little princess, dressed for a ride in the family chariot to the Boston Market drive-thru. Her rosy cheeks resulted from a high-noontide backyard picnic, not a romp in her mama’s makeup.

On Saturday Marissa had a softball game, so Cass and I got to watch her team win, in part because of Marissa’s excellent hitting.

Mauri took his “good” camera to the retreat and was rewarded by many critter sightings, only two shown here.

We returned home to find ants living in the honeypot—not our favorite critter sighting. We buy only the best honey from our beekeeping friends and aren’t about to share, even with God’s creation. So Mauri gave the pot a fresh start and set it in water. We’ll see if those little darlings can swim the moat.

And at breakfast this morning, Mauri created this show-stopping grid with our game “Handful,” which you can only fully appreciate by trying it yourself.

We are daily thankful for our good life.