Get'n it done and the Outhouse

Get 'er done.

I wondered why my  shoulders and elbow hurt so much this past week or so. Duh! Raking gravel out of the yard and putting it in piles to put it back on the driveway after the snowstorms are finished for the season might be a reason!

For understanding, I've had both shoulders and one elbow surgically 'worked' on years ago. So when I aggravate them they let me know. I tend to forget about those places until I do my spring clean up each year and they remind me.

I considered just not doing more, but common sense is never my best decisions in these circumstances.

Besides, I'd let the growth around the outhouse go wild last spring so it seemed to be a good idea to clean it up this spring.

The poor outhouse is beginning to list to the back where I think the concrete has started to sink into the ground. I suppose after being in this spot for over 40 years it has a right to begin to fail. It really isn't used as an outhouse any more. I clean it out each spring and usually put gardening tools inside it.

I think I'll give it one more year and then knock it down and clean it up next fall or spring. Once I fill the hole underneath it, I'll add flowers to the dirt.

In its glory days, the grandkids loved to use it. And it was rather pretty.

It was the center piece for flowers at one point in time. 

And it was handy as we had a hitching rail around it for saddling mules and heading out for rides. With poo on your boots, you could empty your bladder without running into the house and making a mess.

Now it is surrounded by Bee Balm, Peonies, Irises, and Hostas. It looks rather dull and awful right now, but everything looks listless and brownish in March. 

The area pictured below will be crowded with perennials later this spring. In fact I need to clean some out. Once I had large rocks circling the outhouse garden as a border, but I moved the rocks away. It is easier to mow close to the flowers than to constantly try and keep the rocks tidy.

24 years ago, it was a nice place to sit and watch the world with a cup of coffee. In 2007, when we had no electricity for 7 days and no flushing toilet, this was our saving grace.

I wish I could save it. But I don't think it is worth it.

I spent some time reminiscing about the outhouse as I cleaned gravel out of the yard and deposited the old garden debris in the pasture. It has served its purpose and given us so much joy and laughter over the years. The walls inside the outhouse are filled with poems and sayings that kids wrote while visiting.

The walls inside are made out of melamine board. The cup of markers in the outhouse  for writing on the wall are still there!

 [Yes, it needs cleaning! Those Asian Beetles love to enter here in the fall!]

Poor thing. Wish I could save it. One more year...

The outhouse has years of story telling funnies. The year we had guests from Missouri and they shut a kitten inside the outhouse by accident. We had 14 people here and many used the outhouse.

The kitten fell into the hole and scrambled out again covered in you know what. 

It absolutely made a nasty mess inside the outhouse. Use your imagination!

Grands playing hide n go seek would use it. 

The time the Jehovah's witnesses pulled up in the yard with my husband contemplating life while sitting there with the door open....

I hope to surround it with magnificent flowers this year. The front of it will have a mass of bee balm and I am hoping to get sunflowers on its left [west side]. 

Poor thing. It looks neglected and 

unloved.

After seeing the old photo of the Hollyhocks, I'm thinking of making a spot for them again. I did love the colors of the Hollyhocks.

Hollyhocks, Morning Glories, Zinnias, Sunflowers, Bachelor Buttons, Cosmos, ... hmmm, what else can I add? Maybe some Joe Pye Weed?

I quit after hours of also picking gravel up from the yard.  I may take a rest from raking today and do some digging.

Got some favorite flowers you like to grow?

 

Eagle Watching

I did all of my errands Thursday morning that included picking up groceries, Charlie Food, and visiting the meat locker.

Phew. My purchases were expensive. It was a $200 day.  I noted that most gas stations were again in the process of changing their prices. This week it has floated up .10 a gallon and dropped .10 a gallon. 

It rained hard off and on all day with thunderstorms in the early morning and then again midday. The temperatures spiked with humid, muggy, and warm conditions at 68 degrees just before dark. 

I was worried about the sudden drop of temperatures to 28 overnight and how it would effect Mica our elderly grey mule who is prone to colic when there are wild temperature swings. 

However this morning, all of the equine kids are running, bucking, and farting. Fred, the eldest is pretty stoic. He is giving evil ears to anyone who bumps into him.

This is their typical winter morning routine anyway. Run, buck, and chase each other at dawn. 

All is good with the equine. The youngest mule is out chasing crows in the winter pasture. I wish I had that kind of energy at 6am!

Yesterday afternoon we had a visitor. We often get eagles flying or roosting in trees not too far way but this one was not far out the back door. The eagle carefully preened itself just before the storms hit. 

I grabbed my camera and stepped out into the yard and tried to take photos of it. It was hard to figure out what settings to use. The eagle appeared as a dark blob against a very bright grey sky.

Thankfully I have learned a few tricks over the years. I shoot RAW with my Oly -- [now called OM] -- and sometimes it can help save some of the information that the camera sees. In this case, I brightened the exposure and the shadows. 
The eagle at this point was just hanging out and preening.

Eventually the other birds noticed the eagle and a few Blue Jays decided to harass him. He was rather non-pulsed over it. I didn't catch it, but the eagle snapped at the Blue Jay when he got too close.

The Jay eventually sat in another tree and called out the eagle's presence to everyone else.

I had to move inside and shoot through the glass door when the rains came down hard.

Here, the eagle just looks ticked off at the pounding rain. When it let up, he/she just shook.

Soon the crows started to annoy the eagle. I've seen crows actually chase eagles before so I was really curious as to what would happen.

The eagle literally ignored them and they didn't actually dive bomb him at all. I figured the eagle would take off and fly away.

After hanging out for three hours, the eagle spread its wings and...

took off.

I'd waited for hours for this opportunity to 'shoot' him/her taking off. He landed in another tree close by and I was able to move to the porch and take one last shot as he left the second tree.

I was so tickled to have been able to watch this eagle from the comfort of my back door. And to observe him for hours. 

It was the highlight of the day.