Yard work...uffdah

Here is an update on the shed! 

Getting there!

I'm going to toss some good dirt down in the spot below as soon as they pick up those last pieces. Then I'll add some wild flower seeds to the soil. It will be interesting to see what pops up.

I can't mow that spot anyway and I hate week whacking.

Here is a shot of the old wash tub I saved from the crushed garage. It was NOT crushed! The scrap dudes got it out for me. That was the only thing I wanted from the garage.

I put this tub on the area I have to dig up every three years for a septic inspection.

I'll put showy begonias in the tub for some early bright colors.
 

One of the shops that sells, liquor, vape stuff, tobacco, fireworks, tools, clothes, and other odds and ends put up a little greenhouse this year.

I like their little store. I can get soil, mulch, and most of my garden needs within 3 miles from home. Their prices beat everyone else.

In our area, there seems to be an Amish greenhouse or a pop up greenhouse all over the countryside.

Forgive the shot of the crushed garage in the background. But it is THERE! My hopes are to have it demolished and graded out before spring is done! It will improve the view out my back door and bedroom 100%. 

With Hannah as the new helper extra-ordinaire, I have ended up needing to fence off the little gardens. 

She thinks they are great places to do her business or to dig for moles and voles.

I have light fencing that I cut up with wire cutters and surrounded the area. It does the job for now. 

I ordered some pretty fence pieces to put around the gardens to remind Miss Hannah to stay out of those areas.

I stopped in to check on the Country Clipper to see what the hold up was and...whoopsie! The guys hadn't done it yet. Mark looked shocked and his co-manager found the mower and came back saying somehow they never made up a work ticket. 

Well, I've done business with these guys for 30 years, so I just shrugged. Mark said I must be cussing them out when I mowed with the little mower.  I'm sure they have many customers that get all "Karen" on them. I'm not one of those. They'll have to me shortly.

After all, I did the mowing now twice with the little mower. I go at it for two to three hours at a time in the afternoon. I get it done and it looks nice. I think it takes about the same amount of gas to do it with either mower. 

However...

Gas prices jumped 20 cents over night here. I wonder if I will end up fencing off the yard in sections for some rotational grazing. Then I'd just mow the weeds they don't eat. Work less, mow less.

I hesitate to see what the gas without ethanol is going for. Last I got any, it was 5 1/2 bucks. 

I am planting mostly seeds this year. I'm trying to keep the costs for gardening down. 

After a long day working, I dragged out the camp cot and invited the 'kids' to chill out with me.

We ended up sleeping on the porch to test out how warm the sleeping bag would do for a chilly night. 

It did great along with two canine heaters.

Next week I'm going to try putting up the tent and maybe we'll try that out!

Gone to the dogs...and whatnot

 Well, sort of.

My neighbors on the top of the hill had a family vacation planned a while ago. They felt hesitant to ask me to care for their dogs while they were gone.

I've done this for them for the past few years. Their dogs are friendly, fun, and really quite easy to get along with. I enjoy my time taking them for a walk in the mornings and the afternoons. I don't mind feeding them and spending some time with them.

This is Tiyo. They adopted him in Africa and he is a mixed breed Baesenji which is a barkless dog. He does squeak when he is really excited.

Because of his thin coat, he loves hot summers, but doesn't care too much for rainy days or cold weather. 

However, he is a thoughtful dog who is pretty reserved but friendly once he gets to know you. He and I are pretty good pals.

He squeaks when he sees me.

Rupert is the classical mixed breed dog that is impossibly happy and exuberant all of the time. He literally bounces all of the time.

I did catch a shot of him being still. He seems to suffer from quite a few allergies, but that never seems to get him down. He just goes with the flow.

The gals are still grazing in their 'winter' pasture, but have started to eat a bit of hay. Apparently weeds are tastier in the fall?

This is the view of our place from my neighbor's woods at the end of their 5 acres. You can see their fence line in the shot below. We can't see each other's houses which makes it feel pretty isolated. Any other neighbors are at least 1/2 mile away.

The Whatnot...

Well, a friend of mine whose husband was also my husband's nurse is having their son's wedding at their farm on Saturday. I volunteered donate pumpkins from my pumpkin patch as well as help clean up the gardens. 

I actually had quite a bit of fun working at their place on Thursday.

I volunteered to come back on Friday and Saturday to help with setting things up for the wedding and my friend asked me to please bring my camera. Wink-wink.

I assume the groom and bride have a photographer so I would just be the one to get behind the scene candid shots as long as I am not interfering with a paid photographer.

My Grandson, Dennis, is coming in sometime Friday afternoon so we'll have some time together. 

Saturday morning Dennis is going fishing with Rich's fishing pal, Steve at 6am. I don't know how long they will be fishing, but I can always give Dennis the location I'm at and he can join me [after he does chores!].

I am absolutely thrilled to be helping my friends with such an important day in their lives and their son's life.

I texted my grandson and told him to bring a nice set of clothes as he may end up attending a wedding Saturday evening.

My Whatnot's can sure get interesting!

The rest of that day ... and Sunday

It was a dreary cold windy morning... I traveled along the Kickapoo River and its backwater ponds. People would say it wasn't a beautiful warm spring day and maybe they would have avoided hiking. But I don't mind most weather. 

I will say I won't hike in storms. But drizzle, overcast, cold, breezy? That all works for me. I can even find interesting things to explore in poor weather.

The photo below is one of the ponds I haven't been able to get to before. I had some considerable brush busting to get down to the edge of the pond. Unfortunately, with the harsh wind, no waterfowl or even turtles were out.

The sky started breaking up when I got to the Kickapoo River. This river often turns back on itself and has been dubbed The Crooked River. Kickapoo means 'wander here and there', it fits this river perfectly. It is mostly a quiet unassuming river.

However it can become a raging river when there is heavy rain. The river often expands and floods extremely quickly because it resides in a steep valley.

Canoeing and kayaking along this river is a great past time. I would love to kayak it again.

By the time I wandered down to this spot where Camp G used to be, the sun was starting to show itself. 

This is not far from where I found a tiny skull in the grasses. Most likely a young 'possum skull. It reminds us about the hardships of life.

Back at the ponds with the sunshine out, I spotted some more ducks. I moved to a wet trail with a lot of cover on the eastern pond and got a shot of this duck. May...be a Blue Wing Teal? I'm not up on my waterfowl, but that is what I found when I looked it up.

More of these at another pond???

I stopped once more at a well hidden little pond to see if the turtles had come out to enjoy the sunshine.

They did! I was so tickled!

By now it was early afternoon and bicyclists, dog walkers, and a few teenage type humans were wandering down the blacktop path. I was standing there watching the turtles and listening to the waterfowl in the next pond over when the kids walked by and gave me a funny look.

You know, that look when they see an older person staring off at something that they can't see and they give you the roll of the eyes.

I smiled thinking maybe one day they too can slow down and just look to see what they can see.

I'd found so many cool things while just wandering slowly on my long hike.

I now know where to go back to photograph hundreds of Cinnamon Ferns...

Below is something called 'Old Man's Beard' which is actually a type of wild clematis. A plant I never knew existed. It actually is considered an invasive species and I don't know much about it. It's scientific name is Clematis vitalba.  I'll have to see if I can find these while they are blooming.

On the way back to where I parked, I took a back route around a bluff to  see the magnificent wintergreen tree root that grows horizontal along the bluff.

 

Seen from below, this looks odd and very cool.

Below the tree is a really neat fern that stays green all winter long. It is called a Rock Polypody [common name].

Along the bluff are little nooks and crannies that tell stories of eons of erosion and water.

My Lego Minifigures would fit inside those tiny tooth like features. Jason wasn't with me to tell me the why or how they were formed. But I just think of them as great little hideouts for gnomes, trolls, fairies, and spirits. 

Why not?

And that was that. I made my way back to the parking lot and past kids with their parents getting ready for an afternoon stroll now that the sun was shining.

My feet were tired, I was relaxed and happy. I was ready to go back home. The only thing that was a negative was that I was aware of all of the things I felt I was missing.

However, I also realized how lucky I was to have this time.

And now on to Sunday's fun! Digging and prepping, raking, transplanting, and picking up more gravel.

All in a day

It started out on a whim before dawn. I don't even know why I decided to just grab my Nikon and head up the hill. I expected to be disappointed because it looked like the clouds were going to fill up the sky and we would have a dreary morning.

The surprise wasn't the pretty colors in the east, it was the stunning colors emerging in the south and west.

I stood there for a long time taking photos as the colors and hues kept changing.

And when I got home just before 6, the day was starting. I watered and checked the mules. Moved Lil' Richard and Sven to some nice grazing spots, and came inside to check on Charlie and Rich.

Both were sound asleep so I picked green beans as the sun peeked over the tree tops. I got soaked with the morning dew but had a pretty good haul of green and yellow beans. I found some ripe tomatoes, pulled most of the onions, and sat on the porch to wash everything and prep it.

I got an email from my CrossFit Coach telling me that my WOD [workout of the day] was a 5K! Now understand, many of my workout friends can't run due to needing a new hip, a new knee, or even other assorted issues. We are not all Olympic athletes. So a cardio workout is taylored for them. They get to ride a stationary bike or use a rower. 

I'm not going back into a gym situation at this time. I am still Virtual.

I was so tickled to have an ALL run/jog workout, that I stopped everything I was doing and changed to go run.

I had to take my smart phone as I'd never really measured out what 3.1 miles would be if I ran it on foot! 

And I ran it. Well, perhaps I looked like an old lady shuffling down a gravel road. However I felt like I was Nike, the goddess of speed, strength, and victory flying over the road with my Covidhair blowing in the breeze.

My phone kept track of my route, my time per mile, and gave me an accurate run.

[my running route includes wide open spaces with no humans in sight]

All that aside.

When I finished, I still felt energized.

So much so that after freezing and putting produce in the dehydrator, I went out and found a willing mule.

Okay, maybe Siera wasn't willing at first.

But she proved again what an incredible animal she is. We rode nearly 4 miles around the neighbor's wild wood. Here we stop to watch a doe and her twins run through the woods below us.

My mules wear a bell. This way I never walk up on top of a deer or other form of wildlife. It works well. It isn't obtrusive and I think the bell makes a nice sound.

After getting back home, Siera got a treat.

Some grain and some yard grazing.

This after a ride pretty much assures that she will meet me at the gate next time too.

After supper, I caught up Mica. I haven't ridden her in over a year.

We went for a sunset ride along the backroads that I'd gone running on.

When I went to bed that night, I felt so calm and complete.

Something powerful reawakened me on that 5k. I hadn't run in years. I had tried to start up again, but never really did well. It just felt good. 

More Covid Diary Thoughts

Morning shots from yesterday, the 13th. I went out to look for Comet Neowise. I did see it!

I was not successful at photographing it, but I did enjoy a long predawn quiet of watching the sky and the fog change with the light.

Up at 4am because...well, because I had to blanch a LOT of green beans and get them ready for the dehydrator. 

I'm in that mode now. The saving produce mode. Pick carrots and green beans as soon as there is enough light. Wash them and trim them on the porch before noon and then set them in the fridge for the next morning.

~~~~~~~~~~

I ran out of freezer bags on Friday and thought since I had to run to the post office to pick up our new mattress I'd ordered, I'd run into WallyWorld and grab some freezer bags.

Imagine my surprise that the shelves were barren. Not only were there no bags of any sort, there were no 'Seal A Meal' items either.

Then of course there were the tourists, or the weekenders. More than one mom with Little Vectors and no masks walking about the store. 

I stopped in my tracks. What has this Covid-19 done to me? I stared at the kids as if I could make them go away and with carefree mask-less attitudes. Was I right? Was I wrong? Was I an idiot? Was I paranoid? Why did I see her and her own kids as dangerous.

6 months ago, I wouldn't have had a second thought.

I grabbed two other items I was looking for and vowed never to return to any store on a Saturday morning.

Ok. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Pick the veggies.

Wash the veggies.

Cut them up....

Dehydrate them! 

The cukes went into a refrigerator sweet pickle salad of onions and cukes.

To tell you the truth, I sort of have a love/hate relationship with doing vegetables. I know I will enjoy them in the winter. I sort of resent having to take up a good part of my day caring for them.

I'd much rather plant flowers and mess around with them.

But as my husband likes to point out.

You can't eat pretty flowers.

But, you can put pretty flowers with your unusual dried veggies and do a Still Life photo of them, right?

Just for information. 

That pint jar [vacuum sealed] of green beans hold about 22 servings of green beans for 2 people. I generally mix my dried veggies up in a jar like the carrots and green beans and open them when it is soup making time in the winter.

I toss a handful of dried veggies in the crockpot along with the broth and in about 6 hours, I have some incredible tasting soup.

I am careful to plan ahead and use up the dehydrated veggies during the winter months. Apparently they don't last forever in this state.

Another thought to consider is the storage. I can store more vegetables in a dehydrated state than I can in a freezer.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Last Covid thoughts for today.

My Grandmother lived through the 1918 Pandemic and WWI. After that she had to deal with Prohibition. The Depression. WWII and raising a family with rations.

I get it now.

I get why Grandpa and she never let one tiny thing go to waste. Why Grandpa would bring home items from the dump. Why he kept every tin can and used it for things like seed starters or earth worm containers when we went fishing.

Why they even kept balls of twine or string. Or...even old bed coils. How they picked up old windows and built a green house...why not even a ratty old shirt got tossed...it could be used for a wash cloth, or...woven into a rag rug.

My grandparents were the original 'up-cycle' folks.

Life has changed.

I used to run to the store just on a whim. I was used to finding what I wanted when I wanted it.

My whole thought on humanity has changed.

...and it

is very 

un--nerving.

What has happened to us?