What’s the Haps?

Here at TSH, it is time for fun, relaxation, and whatever feeling nurtured and ‘just being’ means to you.

This week after nearly a month of disheartening donations, we finally caught a bit of a break. Our dear friend Ann at the local Jerome Food Pantry requested Cheezy Potatoe Soup so armed with maybe 35-40 lbs. of potatoes, at least 5 lbs. both of celery and onions – KW pulled the short stick with onion duty, we set to chopping.

We haven’t experienced a real monsoon season in more than a few years but recently we were breaking records and always surprising oopsies are revealed.

The main water valve from the house-proper area to the upper pond, gardens, and Reunited Resurrected garden is located right at the base of the steps to the left of the lower pond. It serves a unique and invaluable function of providing and conversely shutting off water to all the rest of our property and that connection is over 25 years old . . . ahhhhhhh the joys of dealing with long-term and best-available and affordable fixes, eh?

We elected for Joshua to begin with the absolute worst of the windows knowing that there would be a bit of a learning curve even following our agreed protocol of scrape – sand – fill/repair – prime - paint.

Through the looking glass . . . Of all the beautiful and artful architectural features of my home, the large number of windows and perhaps most particularly the arched ones, figure prominently in the character of TSH.

Oh brother, is this a testimony to my phrase “If you are going to make a mess, make a good one!” Well, we surely succeeded. We have taken this opportunity to remove and refinish the gouges in the dining room floor created by ill-fitting chair and table leg booties with a little help from stilettos. The first step was to clear the room before sanding. Furniture ended up in the side yard and everywhere EXCEPT the dining room. As an aside, seeing my home like this makes me nearly apoplectic I tell you.

Recently the majority of the Hungarian voting populace just did exactly that! By an overwhelming majority, the former authoritarian prime minister/DICTATOR of Hungary was voted out-of-office as the Hungarian peoples’ voice clearly stated It’s Wrong!

Our two new bee baby colonies under the auspicious leaderships of Queen Stella and Queen Vanessa appear to be busy foraging, building stores and coming and going to beat the band with bulky pollen panties. A great portend for their healthy survival, for a great honey production, and hopefully ‘robbery’ of some exquisite honey later this year – fingers crossed.

Over the years you have heard me say (repeat) many things like, “My home chose me.” “I intend that my home continues magically along LONG after I’m gone.” “No one will ever sell this home. The next right person will see her and be as enamored as I was.” “I take the stewardship of my home, property, guests, and business very much to heart!”

A few months ago, we received a cold call from a woman inquiring about the Ukrainian flag that has been flying from our front porch since the wretched mess in the Ukraine began going on 4years ago. I explained that while I am Hungarian rather than Ukrainian I felt a Slavic kinship and more importantly, I believe that Right is Right and Wrong is Wrong.

And the beat goes on in maintaining this old ponderosa. We discovered. We scraped. We stuccoed.

Can you imagine how over-the-moon both Angie and George were to enjoy their JUST US wedding ceremony here at the Surgeon’s House? Whether it’s a small intimate wedding or vow renewal, the Surgeon’s House offers you the ideal venue. And And And, the added attraction of the affordability of this exquisite backdrop affords you the luxury of celebrating again, and more, elsewhere in a more relaxed fashion with whomever your hearts’ desire – one big YAY all around!

Now that the front porch has been regenerated with fill and a beautiful fresh coat of paint, we gave a gentle but good scrub to the faux mosaic. Soft brushes and touch as the rule of the day.

Just a quickie to show Alexis and Khristyanna during our blessed UNDECORATING effort which you can imagine is actually more daunting than the decorating!

We have been soooooooooooooo stinking spoiled by Katie and Mike at Painless Stitches redoing virtually ALL outside furniture that we had to ask for Round #2 on behalf of the dining room chair seat cushions.

The gang was all HERE and we made pretty snappy work of regaling TSH for another Forevermore holiday season. Our Donna from Livermore had the inspiration for the new element to the 2025 season with the introduction of battalions and legions of angels that seemed to have surrounded us all in profusion this year.

Recently our angels were really looking out for us in the Reunited Resurrected garden when we were alerted to smoke streaming out of the back retaining wall ivy – yipes! The Jerome Fire Dept arrived in a flash and although there were no flames the smoke was significant.

Can you even fathom that it is November already so everyone knows what that means at TSH . . . preparations have begun for our FOURTH annual Forevermore holiday celebration and decorating extravaganza.

Miss P is typically NEVER out of words but this is an exception. We have been investing energy and resources of all dimensions in this massive outdoor reno and it is nothing short of phenomenal.

We picked up our new metal from Roger at Valley Fabrication and Joshua went right to town cutting, welding, and designing Cousin Cousine’s new ballet bar. We hope she likes it and begins to ‘marginally’ cooperate in following it. Who am I kidding, as if wisteria can be trained – ha!

TSH commitment to supporting the food bank by weekly cooking for the community was put to the acid test this week when Food Bank Ann reported that we were down to nearly NONE of our containers and that donations had been sparse this week.