Oh...I’m not exactly sure! It is something we did way back when I was a Girl Scout on camping trips. We’d all grab our flashlights when we were supposed to be asleep in our tents and sneak off on a snickle hunt. I think it is what you do when you are too young to sneak off smoke...? 

Ok....then I will join you on this snickle hunt.......just making sure we weren’t looking for wookalars. Which are monsters! Lol

Ok, NO monsters! And no sneaking off for smokes either! We’d have each other to keep eyes on each other!

Ohhhh...I hear thunder. 
Oh boy. Normally I love thunder here as it is very rare. Right now we don’t need what precedes it. People talk about thunder here when it happens for a few days. Nothing like the storms I grew up with. Never have seen those this side of the Cascades. Nothing like Peggy’s lovely storms. 
Gonna make more pickled onions. Got some of those cute little cukes too. Mmmm. 
Will go say hi to John first. Good strong John. Still there he was last night. A year plus now. Wow.

Hi Lore,  waiting for septic guy.  Have dug and dug and have had it looking for the 2nd pipe thingy!!  Grrrrr...Just want to leave.  The Aardvark guy stood my up for 2 weeks, now this kid is taking his time.  Kinda irritable...Don’t know why!

Jackson spits out any lettuce so doubt if Whoopi will eat the watercress.  He would be glad to show her where he found the pelts and the gladly steal it from her.  I would not trust the predators out here with a dog the size of Whoopi!!!  Sorry girl!,

Yes I for sure am watching the Swift videos with the tribe!!!  They will freak!.  That is absolutely precious about Max watching the birds on the deck.  What a pleasant old soul perhaps.  
 

Are you doing night swimming on the piano?  Too cool!!  The night swimming was the best last night.  Got to ditch the skin cos water warmed up enough but still very cool.  I am savoring these last days of swimming.  You’re are just a pickling Queen!!!  How nice you are bringing them to work!  Keeping up the Michigan farm tradition!!  My faculty always could not wait for my apple tree harvest.  My secretary’s mom made this fab apple cake.  Dwarf trees do well here with care.

We watch lots of stuff on YouTube and play music.  We watched Jonathon Kahn a messianic rabbi...author /speaker and we have been watching a series called The Chosen....2 episodes a week.  I also had to share my fave Native American band, Broken Walls with one of the girls who hadn’t seen it.  Oh and we danced around.  We are a left-leaning out of the box.  This is my style however and grateful these gals are the same.

I hear the truck.  I must be nice.  Later my girls!!

Peggy

Tiny...Yay...I’m glad you would come to a potluck with us!

I understand your feelings about work people.  I always had lunch in my room cos a lot of teachers whine and complain.  I needed down time.  The potlucks weren’t bad cos I wud just get a plate and leave.  A few might come to my room on occasion.  Work is stressful enough without being around whiners. You are not a biotch for being selective!!!  Remember that!!  I am like that in other circles too.  Prefer staying at a distance.  There is NOTHING Wrong with that!

I abhor team building events.  Those are the worst!!!  My condolences to any and all you must endure.  Lol

 Lore and I are proud to be introverts!!!  I appear to be an extrovert but am not.  The 4 that come on Tues Tribe day regularly, include 2 I have sponsored for 6 years.  Let’s see the last book we studied was called “Unleashing healing power through spirit born emotions“. Heavy duty.  Took us a year.  We are reviewing it now.  So cool your husband is an introvert too and so good to you.  Proud of you girls who can actually have good relationships with your male partners!,

Hope u r having a better day today!!  Have a fab smoke free day.

Peggy

5-8-20

Hey Lovely Peggy,

So, I had a little midday lull at work and wrote you but see it’s not here. Oh boy. Well, home now and more relaxed anyway. So relaxed as a matter of fact I’m not sure I can walk much tonight! Pretty tired out. 
Yeah, the pickled stuff went over pretty good. Hadn’t thought about that being a Midwesty kind of thing to do but I guess it is a bit. Do you have apple trees? Getting to be that time of year! Mmm. I like most of them. We had a small orchard on our farm where I grew up. My Dad had learned as a boy from his Uncle to graft trees and we had a couple that had two different kinds of apples on them as a result. There was one that was a very old variety that I’ve not found or seen anywhere since. We called them “Snow Apples” though I don’t know that is their real name. They were kind of smallish, and the truest reddest red I’ve ever seen in an Apple. Had these teeny tiny white spots on them. The skin was so red and the flesh the whitest white, just like the pure driven snow. Very crisp inside and when you bit them the skin would bleed these trails into the white flesh following your teeth marks. Tiny little blackest black seeds...Best apple I’ve had to this day. I’ve often thought about making a trip back this time of year and driving out to that old homestead to see if the tree is still there. I do know it is still a dirt road going out there as one my sisters drove by last fall. You’d have to walk back into the orchard a bit to find that particular tree and she didn’t stop. Just drove by. We had our little pet cemetery at the back of the orchard. Have often wondered if all the little crosses and such that we marked graves with are still there and what the folks have thought over the years about it. We used to have these little sweet funerals. One of the older kids would read a passage from the Bible, we’d play music on these toy instruments, and of course always flowers. Lots of wild flowers. Yeah. Maybe some day I’ll make that trip. Maybe some things are better left as is too though. We lived about 9 miles out of the small town. My folks are buried in the cemetery in the town, as well as two of my brothers. I think someday I ought to make the trek to have some conversations there, and if I do I’ll go on out to the farm and wander around. Have to be this time of year though so I can see if I can get me a Snow Apple and grow a new tree. Yeah, Lorelei Appleseed. Could make that my new name! Just bring those seeds over here to Oregon and grow me some apples. 
Not sure where all that came from but it isn’t what I wrote initially! Think I mainly asked how the Septic turned out? 
My after work time used to be my favorite smoke time so I guess that’s what that was. Well, thoughts of long lost vintage apples better than a cigarette anyway, right? 
Hope you’re well and getting some laps in. Saw some real sunshine from the window at work today and everyone was commenting what a nice day it was, so maybe things getting back to normal. Had some folks coming in from the evacuation place worried they got the COVID, so a new can of worms open now I guess. Life rolls on. Oh boy.

Gotta walk Max. Think it’s clear enough that Whoopi can come along now too!

Im super jealous of your fancy apple eating. I do love apples, except the red delicious, I've never been a fan of those. Osiris the dog is allergic to dust mites and three types of grass so we are constantly cleaning and dusting. So that's what I've been doing today. Not fun but my husband and I visit and joke around while we are doing it so I guess it's not a total loss. It's definitely autumn here, the shadows are getting longer and pumpkin spice flavored crap is everywhere. Our dogs get a little pumpkin scoop in their food and the grocery store s here have been sold out. Had to buy pumpkin online, sheesh! At least it's cheaper. I've been decorating the estate (hahaha my house) with autumn decor. One of my friends is super crafty and makes all kinds of stuff. She loves the fall and I reap the benefits. This time of year heard me up for the holidays and I will definitely be tempted to smoke. I'm going to take it easy this year and lay low. My smobriety is my number one priority. It's going to be tough so prepare for some sos posts, but I'm committed and will do my best to keep clean. I know it's all s mindset but every time I've relapsed I have done it between Thanksgiving and Christmas. I've got to formulate a plan to get through this crap.

Don’t you have a good variety of apples there Tiny? There are some different ones here than what I grew up with. I’m with you on the Red Delicious thing; I don’t care for them either. Pretty soon I will go do what we call the “Fruit Loop”. It is a drive out I-84 to Hood River (gorgeous by the way) and the you take state road South on the other, or East side of Mt Hood and loop around through all the orchards and wineries. It’s a lovely day trip. May wait for Daughter to come home as she usually likes it as there are Alpaca and Llama farms we stop at. Such sweet animals. Those big eyes and long lush to die for lashes!  
Still waiting to see if I will take Max over to Eastern OR to his momma. She may come here she said. She wants me to go with her to look for Riley. Of course I dread that as does she. Her neighbor found the remaining cows, what was left, but said nothing resembling a dog. Ok, I gotta stop about that now. Good news is the fire near there is close to 25% contained. We have some rain expected in a day or two and that will help. It was pretty smoky this morning and woke me as I had the window open to sleep. It cleared up quite a bit by noon and we had actual sun and I was able to run. Could feel it some but not as bad as a couple days ago. Then I worked in the garden a bit. Stuck my finger quite good on my young Agave and it is quite swollen and red and hot now, so it may need some treatment. Bugger. 
Hoping to find out tomorrow which direction I’m going to venture. If friend comes here maybe I’ll take her to the Coast for the day. I’m sure she would like that and it would be really good for her right now. She loves the Ocean almost as much as I do, but will say if she had to pick she’d take the Mountains. 
Sounds like you’re doing a bit better. I sure hope so! Don’t worry about the Follydays coming. We will get you through it. Just one day at a time is all it takes. I’m certainly not looking forward to them either, so we will middle through them together and keep each other motivated, ok?

Will get you a Starfish pic soon! 
Starfish, Starfish, Starfish, Agave, Starfish, Starfish...

There! I mixed it up a bit for you to bring you a smile!

Oh boy. Definitely more birds here now with the fires eating up their homes. Thought I was actually going to get to sleep a bit earlier than last night, but, about 2 minutes after turning off the light a Screech Owl is going off in that Doug Fir behind me, which is the side the bedroom is on. Been in the spare room for close to two weeks as Pat is coughing too much through the night from the bad air. Am finding that I kind of like this room though. Daughter decided a couple months ago she wanted to move into the basement so I made what was her room upstairs into my spare room and Kombucha making space. Pat is happy as all the critters are now in here with me. Of course they are all asleep!! Lol.

Oh, forgot to tell you...yes, Nightswimming on piano. You are lucky as you get to actually GO  night swimming. I am stuck inland and muddling through the water on the ivories. It is relaxing and joyful in a different way. Will have to wait for water night swimming till next year now though unless I get back out there really soon, and that might be risky now even, so shouldn’t go it alone. 
Have fun with your Tribe day, most lovely and grounded Peggy.