OH, THE WORK THAT WE WILL DO!

As I was drifting off to sleep Sunday night, Mike said, “I hope this goes all right,” speaking of the big project to replace stuff in the farmhouse. We’ve just been through a devastating water debacle. How could anything that doesn’t go right be any worse than what has already transpired? And so far, it hasn’t.

Early Monday morning, we finished loading the pick-up – already packed except for the the cooler, produce, and last-minute stuff. Mike left on his motorcycle to travel to the farm by way of Nezperce, while Bess and I left in the Dakota to travel the traditional river route. I drove. We avoided construction in Lewiston by taking Downriver Road, but we were stuck on Red Wolf Bridge for at least 20 minutes while a crew worked at the intersection. They finished the job and left, and then the traffic moved. Now, why did they do that little job at a peak traffic time?

The trip up the river went well despite the six-mile stretch of construction between Peck and Orofino (one-lane road). However, I lucked out and made it through without having to stop. At Orofino I messaged Mike to let him know about the delays. Gilbert Grade is rough, but I met the grader on a narrow curve as he was coming down. Whew! We managed to pass each other.

Since the last time we were here, the contractor has visited to caulk the shower and hang the closet doors in our bedroom. Our priority was to make that room usable, so we worked together to get it done.

Before noon, I noticed deer in the far field. I counted ten, and likely there were more. And as I stood on the porch taking pictures, a hummingbird buzzed me. I had no idea where the feeder was, but I found it and quickly boiled nectar. Even though we did not feed them last summer, we have quite a lot of hummers, and they are thirsty!

The TV set was stored on the sun porch through the hot summer of 2018. I didn’t think that was a good idea, but I didn’t like the suggested alternatives either. The fact that it came on when we set it up was a relief, but the screen announced that we had no signal. Not knowing how to solve that problem at the moment, we moved on. Mike was less philosophical when he couldn’t get his computer going. I had no problem logging onto wifi with my laptop.

We also took time to have some fun. Mike hung a chair swing he found at Grocery Outlet. I opened a box of new dishes and ran them through the dishwasher.

Hallie and grand-dog Primo arrived about 4:00. We all took a turn around the pond, and then Hallie did some preliminary work on the kitchen cupboards, insisting that after hours of driving from Seattle, she needed to move around.

As suppertime approached, I turned on the oven to warm my pre-made lasagna. I had checked the oven earlier, but I guess my investigation didn’t go deep enough. As it pre-heated, the stench was horrible! We had no choice but to turn it off and let it cool so that Mike could clean under the bottom panel. We saw signs of mice, but not an actual body, though we are convinced of their presence.

So, after a late supper, I showed Hallie the problem with the TV set. As she and Mike played with the remote, the system leapt to life. They don’t know  what they did. One problem solved! KW