Good Things List No.87: Deer Proofed Orchard, Drinking More Water, Book Reviews and More

Good things to do, buy, read, and watch – in this month’s list I’m sharing our new cost-effective orchard deer fencing, the simple set up helping me to drink more water, 8 books reviewed and what we watched.

Some links in this article are affiliate links and if you click on them I will receive a small commission at no cost to you.

August means different things to different people depending on your stage of life and where you live. For some it’s back-to-school, for others it’s a long-awaited summer holiday. Then there are the people just trying to sweat it out until fall, lol.

For us on the West Coast, our kids don’t usually return to school until after labor day – and our colleges don’t start until late September! So August has always been squeezing in the last of the summer activities and we will be spending a week at the Oregon coast (with any of our kids that can join us), as well as planning some more paddling time in our nearby lakes.

But the biggest thing that August always means to me here in the Willamette Valley is the beginning of the main summer produce harvest! The beans are going gangbusters (so pickles and this yummy shelf-stable salad need to be made and canned!), the zucchini are swelling (fritters!), and the tomatoes and peppers are finally ripening at a good pace (salsa!).

So you can imagine that I love a good August – as well as these good things, including a book that will be on my year-end best books list for sure!

Good Things List

Deer Fencing for the Orchard

A big project we finished this summer was to fence our small fruit orchard to protect the trees from deer but still allow them to grow naturally.

We previously had individual fencing circles around the young trees, but as they grew anything that stuck out of the circles were “pruned” by the deer and by year four one dwarf plum looked like a sad little column:

There were three other BIG reasons to free the trees from their cages:

• It was impossible to keep the area at the base of the trees free of weeds. These weeds not only looked bad, but competed with the tree roots for water and made it hard to water and fertilize.
• It was hard to harvest the fruit. I could get my hand in a little, but not all the way to the center of the trees.
• I couldn’t prune the trees without a lot of effort to try and remove the circles.

You may be thinking why we just didn’t wait until they grew and the deer couldn’t hurt them? Two of the trees are dwarf, meaning they won’t grow beyond 10 feet tall – never big enough that the deer wouldn’t take most of their leaves. And the others are all semi-dwarf and the lower foliage would be decimated by them as well.

It was SO nice to have this area free of the little cages when we were done! I weeded, pruned, and watered. Now that the area is secure, we planted some blueberry bushes we were given, as well as a couple mulberries.

It was a fairly simple process and didn’t cost too much (said tongue-in-cheek since these deer have made us spend a LOT more than we’ve ever spent in the past on our garden, lol). Once Brian got the posts in for the gate, he pounded in t-posts and we pulled the deer fencing around the posts, using zip ties to secure the netting to the posts.

Drinking More Water Without Plastic

You know all those big plastic-handled drinking cups everyone seems to be using? I just couldn’t get behind the idea of drinking all my water through a plastic straw and they all seem to be made of that (even the stainless bottles have plastic drinking areas/straws). Also the cost, but mainly the plastic.

But I did wonder if I’d remember to drink more water during the day if I saw a bottle or something always there to remind me. Then I realized I had lovely vintage mason jars that are pretty to look at AND I had zinc lids with holes for straws to fit them – AND stainless steel straws! They were just sitting in my cupboard that I’d bring out occasionally for guests.

So I started filling a quart jar up every morning, attaching the lid and straw with a goal to finish it (along with the other things I routinely drink – my first morning water, coffee and tea with collagen). I sometimes add a slice of lemon or lime and sometimes not.

And it worked! I’d see it and take a sip when I normally wouldn’t have drunk anything. It’s also a way that I can front load the water by drinking it more in the morning and early afternoon, since I try not to drink as much after dinner to not disrupt my sleep at night as much.

Do I care that it doesn’t have a handle? No. I don’t take it traveling – I have a steel water bottle for that. Do I love how it looks? Yes! I just can’t believe I didn’t think about this sooner.

July Books Read

The Singularity Trap, Dennis E. Taylor. This is Brian’s take on this sci-fi novel with an interesting premise (a space miner who needs money for his family encounters a foreign substance that starts taking him over): “Something happened {to our hero}…and then he went into a meeting.” Lol. Lots of talking, meetings, more talking, and yet more meetings.

Secrets, Robin Jones Gunn. This is the first in Gunn’s series called Glenbrook. We are introduced to the people of Glenbrooke (a fictional town set in the Willamette Valley near Portland, which is fun) through the newcomer, Jessica, a high school teacher who is trying to leave behind her past in California. It was a sweet and quick read with deeper spiritual and family themes.

The Correspondent, Virginia Evans. This is a short book comprised only of letters, emails and texts (called an epistolary novel). I’ve really enjoyed other books like this (the classic A Woman Of Independent Means still ranks up high on my all-time best list) and this was no exception. The letter writer is 73 at the beginning and we see her life past and present as well as the future as the novel goes on, all through letters from her and to her. It was such a lovely way to spend time thinking about her choices as well as life in general, friendship, and forgiveness. I’m sure it would be good to read in book form, but the audiobook was really exceptional as they had different actors read the letters so you got to know the voices of the writers which helped keep them straight as well as give them character on their own. Definitely will be on my year-end best list!

Run for the Hills, Kevin Wilson. I thought this author’s Nothing To See Here was clever and funny/tender, so I put this title – his current book – on hold at the library. And while there are quirky people, humor, and a fun road trip where interesting things happen, I just never connected with any of the characters. At all. It’s about half-siblings who are just discovering each other and want to find the dad who abandoned them so they set out on a road trip to find him. When they do find him it’s awkward and anticlimactic. I’m not sure what I was expecting, but maybe a little more heart?

Back After This, Linda Holmes. I remember enjoying Evvie Drake Gets Her Life Back by this author, but I didn’t really connect with this book much at all. There was a lot about podcasting and sound editing that I didn’t care about. But the plot of going on a 20 hand-picked dates after being coached was interesting, as was the accidental love that happened along the way. However, it ended right when the hero and heroine talk out their problems, but before they actually work them out. And then there’s an epilogue of a year later, which I hoped would let us know how they worked them out. But it was vague and told us about everyone else – including the rescue dog, but not couple.

If It Bleeds, Stephen King. This is a compilation of four short stories and novellas – Mr. Harrigan’s Phone, The Life of Chuck, If It Bleeds, and Rat – that was published in 2020 (interestingly, The Life of Chuck is a movie out this summer starring Tom Hiddleston, Mr. Harrigan’s Phone was produced by Netflix in 2022 starring Donald Sutherland, and Rat was acquired by Ben Stiller to be produced at some point). Brian and I listened to this together and the narrators all did great jobs with the classic King dialog and settings. These are interesting stories that aren’t horror, but are more mysteries and only one has any type of gore. The were all interesting – King is an amazing writer – but our favorite was the title novella, If It Bleeds, that “starred” Holly Gibney, one of Kind’s recurring characters. You just come to love her and respect her and you see more of her life in this. We are going to listen to more of Holly’s stories, I think, after this.

The Heart of Winter, Jonathan Evison. I wrote this in my newsletter when I was in the middle of the book: “It tells the 70 year love story of Ruth and Abe Winter with all life’s ups and downs. Sweet and heartbreaking at times – all the feels.” Then I read the rest of the book and came away with no feels, sadly. There was the non-ending (alway a negative for me – I think it’s an author cop-out), but also the feeling that the love between the couple was always a bit one-sided even after many years. Plus the fact that while we are privy to the thoughts and aches/pain of people aging, it is not very sympathetic – this guy was an “old coot” who didn’t want to change or listen to anyone else and it was frustrating at times to listen to him rant at younger people. Even when his decisions resulted in terrible things he didn’t seem humbled or anything. The older couple didn’t seem to have close relationships with their children, which honestly seemed to mirror their relationship with each other. Just an odd book for me, in the end.

Every Summer After, Carley Fortune. I haven’t read this author before and after seeing her books (this is her fourth) on most “summer beach reads” book lists, I put this title (her debut) on hold at the library. She does perfectly capture the feeling of teenagers spending the summers at a lake – the sun, water, time to do anything you’d like. While it is a coming-of-age story and a look back on teenage years, it’s also a plot that hinges on a contrivance that always wears thin for me: lack of communication. I’m always like, “if they built their relationship on always being able to tell each other anything, why all of a sudden do they stop – for years?” It doesn’t strike as real life – but that’s just me. Many years have to pass, but they do finally work it out, so points for a happy ending! (Note: this is open door).

Watching

F1: theaters, Apple TV+. Brian and I loved this – it was super fun with a decent plot and racing we could follow even though we don’t know much about F1 racing. Our daughter had recommended it as a movie dads would love, but I surprised myself by enjoying it, too.

Superman: Theaters. This movie was just okay – still a fun movie, but full of cartoon fights where Superman was losing (!) that went on too long.

That’s it for another addition of the Good Things List!

If you’d like to see more of what I’m enjoying, you can check out all the Good Things Lists here. I’d love to know what you think – if you’ve tried any of these or what you’d recommend. Leave a comment below with your thoughts!

Disclosure: affiliate links in this article will earn commission based on sales, but it doesn’t change your price. Click here to read my full disclaimer and advertising disclosure.