We
left for the farm around 8:00. Mike drove the old pick-up with gravel in the
bed to refresh the driveway and trailered the 4-wheeler he borrowed from son Clint.
I followed in the Jeep carrying a sewing machine and my dolls. Perhaps I should
have taken more. The day will come when I’ll wish I had.
The kitchen repair has been done and looks good, but the plumbing repair has yet to be scheduled. The delay is disappointing but par for the course, and we feel we have little recourse for complaint.
The
daffodils did not disappoint! I was so happy to see them in bloom. In fact, the
first ones are now passing, but the array was still lovely. The Crown Imperials
are also in bloom, and I saw some violets, too. (We won’t mention the dandelions.)
The strawberries have new growth. The rhubarb in the compound looks healthy, and the plant on the hillside is still alive.
Mike and I were both busy with chores in the morning. I unloaded the Jeep and put things away. In the forenoon, we raked up pine straw that had come to rest against the woodshed, loading it into the 4-wheeler trailer. Mike made at least four trips to the burn pile with pine straw and debris.
It
was a fairly nice day – 48 when we arrived and 60 in the afternoon – but I
could see passing storms to the south and sometimes dark clouds loomed close to
us. As I fixed lunch, there was a sudden roar like a train overhead – a
microburst. I struggled to close the kitchen door against it. A chair was blown
off the front porch and a box of yard lights and accessories was dumped in the
yard. I found the contents but the box was evidently long gone. And that was
that – no more wind. Undoubtedly a similar event broke the maple limbs last
fall.
After
lunch, I thought sure we were getting ready to leave for town, but instead Mike
commenced to pick up the bark in the grove – great thick slabs from the broken
snag. The smaller pieces he hauled to the burn pile while the bigger pieces
were stored at the woodshed to be burned this coming winter.
“We’ll quit when we’re tired,” Mike said.
“I’m tired now,” I said.
“So am I,” he agreed.
So we agreed to finish this work another time.
As we were finishing up, Bess invited me to go for a walk, so we went halfway down the lane and back. As I climbed into the Jeep, my Fitbit buzzed to congratulate me on reaching my 10,000-step goal for the day. It’s a doable goal, but I seldom reach it. KW
Dan and I are constantly amazed when we get tired. Naps are becoming commonplace around here. Guess maybe we are getting a little older? LOL! Hope your plumbing work happens soon.
ReplyDeleteI suggested that we not take on laborious jobs until we can stay there, and Mike agreed. Mike has a mindset to finish what he starts, and I feel we have to cut ourselves some slack.
ReplyDeleteI still push through naptime, but Brother Chuck is betting that in another ten years it will be a different story. Mother always took a nap after lunch every day as a part of her regimen. She would say, "Lie down and stretch right out. You need it."
It's good to finish before you are completely exhausted since there's always a little more to do when it comes to either the travel back to town and/or making dinner. We have had many of those work days where dinner had to be a pizza order because we could hardly stay upright for anything else.
ReplyDeleteYour farm yard looks bright and beautiful. I congratulate you and mother nature on the good results.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Chuck. I wish I could have many more flowers and a better vegetable garden. However, there are constraints and difficulties -- the deer, the rabbits, the rodents, the desire for a landscape that's easy to mow.
ReplyDelete