Living

with Jim and Gayle

May, 2026

Jim hired a guy to thatch and aerate our lawn.


Last year, I designed and Jim implemented "fences" to keep the ball from rolling between the back courts and the front courts in our neighborhood pickleball courts.  I had him make the holders out of high-density foam.  Those didn't hold up.  This year, he designed and built really nice wooden supports.


We did lots of work on my garden.

We got a load of compost for it.


After I planted my garden, we had 31mph winds.  It was really hard on my plants, stripping the pepper plants of their leaves.  It whipped the cucumber plants around and broke their necks.


We put a new fence around the garden.


Most things seem to be growing well.


Jim had hand surgery this month to fix the trigger finger in his middle finger and straighten out his little finger which had curled almost into itself.


Bo kept a close eye on Jim when he first came home.


The stitches are now out.  Parts of it are infected so he has to take an antibiotic.  It looks pretty nasty.



My friend, Joan, who died last September was an avid knitter with lots of yarn.  Her estate finally settled this month.  Most of her estate went to Tri-City Chaplaincy (TCC), a wonderful organization who did the hospice care for her husband Scott, and then for her.  TCC was clearing out the house.  I decided to get the yarn.   It took us a week to sort it and get it organized.  A lot was without labels or partial skeins.  There was also a lot of older, cheap yarn from when she first started knitting.  Also, a vast number of "project" boxes.  All of this we donated to various charities, like the Domestic Violence Services where Joan had previously donated items.  We finally got the yarn organized down to a manageable amount.  It will be my new "job" selling it.
Before we got it organized, it took up a lot of the garage.  Now it is only partially taking up one side of the garage.



Three of the killdeer eggs hatched.  The family left for about a week but then returned with the babies.  Quickly the adults decided to nest in our rocks again.  While we understand their urge, they are really a problem.  They drive Bo crazy with all their dead bird antics.  He can't be out in his yard because he barks.  I bought a mylar balloon and staked it where they are trying to nest.  Hopefully that will encourage them to seek a different nesting site.