BOOOOOORING!!!

You can tell it's spring.   All I have to write about is picking up debris around the farm, and mowing, and being tired all the time!!!!

My bathroom was colder this past winter, than it's EVER been.  Couldn't figure out why.  Sunday evening, I went around opening all the A.C. vents, so that it would be ready to turn on the Air Conditioner, in a few days.  I discovered the one in the bathroom ceiling had never been shut off last fall!!  No wonder there was a draft in there.

Monday, I had to go into town to buy some bags of mulch, so I picked up a little gal, Kathy, to come out and help for the day.   She's 19 and had just gotten her driver's license a few days before.  She doesn't get much chance to practice driving, so I pulled over, when we got out of town and stopped.  She looked at me like "Why did you pull off here?"  I just looked at her and said, "You're driving."   She went around and got under the wheel, and said "THIS IS AWSOME!!!"  She did a good job.

We picked up fallen limbs from the farm hedge EVERY SINGLE ONE!!!  We hauled them over to the pile of tree limbs that are not yet burned from the tree trimming I had done last January.   We stacked concrete blocks neatly, where the guys had moved a fuel tank, we stacked bin lids on the concrete pads between the grain bins.  We raked, we re-did the clematis arbors, by taking up the black ???? sheets that keep down grass and weeds, put lime on them, then put the black sheets back down and covered them with new redwood mulch.  I spread lime all around my house, while she pulled weeds from around my wishing well. 

During the late morning, we took a break and had a drink and a blueberry muffin.   Deciding we weren't hungry enough to eat lunch yet, we went back out to continue what we'd been doing.  SHE WORKED LIKE A HORSE!!!   WORE ME OUT!!!  

We stopped working about 2:30 and came in to eat lunch...sandwiches, chips and drinks.    I then got cleaned up, while she watched T.V., and then took her back to town, where I had a meeting to attend at 5:30.

Tuesday, I crawled on the mower, early in the morning, thinking "This'll be a BREEZE today.  I won't have to get off and pick up stuff to get it out of the way.  WROOONG!!!!  Got down under that hedge, and during the night two more big limbs had blown down.  

Wednesday, yesterday, I went to  town, to get a pink Mandevilla plant to put between two purple clematis on the trellis, and some more grass seed to sow around the house.  Bought some bird seed and hung my finch feeder just outside the kitchen window so I can watch them and the hummingbirds while I'm sitting at the table.

It was supposed to rain later in the evening, so when I got home, I planted the Mandavilla, and sowed the grass seed.  Just got finished and it started to rain.  Hope it helps that grass.  It's shady and hard to get it going.   I was just finishing up when cousins Larry and Cindy came by and we went to eat supper about 4 miles away.  I went to bed at 7:30.

This morning, I had blue buntings and yellow goldfinches eating outside my kitchen window.  Haven't seen any hummingbirds today, but they were there yesterday.

Today, I've folded some laundry and got the kitchen back in order.  Now I think I'll go make some new neck pillows.  I went to a garage sale last Saturday, where a fellow had just made new mattresses for his camper, and had some foam pieces left.  I'm going to use that and dacron to make new pillows.  Got some pretty fabric at JoAnn fabrics to cover it with.

Larry and Cindy are bringing their camper over Sunday afternoon, weather permitting.  I'll be glad to have someone back at the pond.   Makes all that work worthwhile!!!

O.K.  I'm outta here.  Granny

MY HOME PLACE FROM THE AIR

Nothing to talk about today, except the boring weather, but YOU'RE IN TROUBLE NOW!!!   MaggieTx,  BLB, SunnyC, and Wendybird and some others have taught me how to do pictures. 

O.K.   So I'll talk about the weather.   While I was typing that, they just broke into T.V. and Radio, warning us of  thunderstorms with rain, hail and 70mph winds.   JUST WHAT WE NEED!!!    NOT!!!!

    Part of my back lawn Jan 08

Part of my front lawn, trimming and cutting down trees in Jan. 08

O.K.   I have some more, but I have to figure out how to get them on here.  It keeps telling me to browse in a different place.   I have one that we took, when  I went up in the plane with my cousins, but it won't let me do it.   See ya later.     Granny

GOT IT ALL DONE IN ONE DAY!!!

I crawled on the mower at 8:30 A.M. yesterday.  Seemed warm outside, so I wore a T-shirt, with a sweat shirt over that, and a light jacket, a ball cap to shade my eyes, sunglasses, and my big radio earphones.....also muffles out mower noise.  (Gotta have my talk radio to listen to)   I'd only been out a little while, when I decided it was too COLD!!  The wind was blowing down my neck and up my sleeves.  Came in and put two turtle neck dickeys on.  Still chilly, but not unbearable, and at least it wasn't blowin' down my neck any more. 

I'd been mowing about three hours, cussin' all the junk I had to either move or mow around, (well, I wasn't cussin' out loud....does that still count?) when I looked back across the pond and cousin Larry had come, and was over there moving sheets of tin off a shed door.  A storm had ruined it quite some time ago, but Dale and Alan had just finally gotten around to repairing it lately.  They'd piled it on the ground, and I couldn't get around it to mow.  Larry stacked it all on a rack.  Then there was a water wagon, a canoe, some kind of hitch with two wheels on it,  some old lumber and a ladder that came off one of the old trucks he'd hauled to the salvage yard, some tree limbs I'd moved and piled up last week, (this week the grass had grown up thru them again)  just this 'n that was stuck wherever it landed.  Anyway, he moved everything so I could trim up pretty good this time.  Crawled off the mower about 8 1/2 hours later.

While he was here, he asked if I wanted to go eat with him and Cindy last night.  I told him yes.   Good thing I said "Yes" when he asked me, because if I'd waited to decide till after I got off the mower, I SURE would have said "No."  I could hardly walk to the house, and drag myself through the bath tub, I was so tired.   Anyway, we went to the O.B.R. where I took WendyBird when she came to visit.  BBQ'd spare ribs, baked potato, green beans and salad,  last night.  Couldn't eat it all.  Brought home enough ribs for another meal.

So far today, I've only had my coffee, wrote some checks to pay bills, and have begun to make a list of chores to do outside.  The young daughter of one of the O.B.R. waitresses, will come tomorrow to help, if it doesn't rain.   Need to put the trellis back up, that blew down last winter, rake off old mulch, apply lime, re-mulch, to my clematis, then I think we'll go down around the pond and tidy up.  Need to pick up some limbs that fell off during the winter under the hedge-row.  BUT the weatherman is calling for rain, so we'll see.

Seems I have a one-track-mind this morning.  Nothing earth-shaking to talk about.  Catch you later.     Granny

MOWING  DAY  TOMORROW

Supposed to be in the 70s with no rain.   Hope I can get it all done in one day, because there's a little gal I met a while back, who's going to come, hopefully, the next day to help me rake off all the old mulch, put the lime on my clematis, then put new mulch back on, on top of the old.  

One trellis blew down in the storm too, so I want to fasten that back onto the metal posts.  We had it fastened with those plastic straps, and they weather badly, then break.  This time we're going to try aluminum wire.  On that one, I have two of the old fashioned purple clematis so I want to get a pink Mandavilla to go in the middle of them.  Blooms all summer and is really pretty.

My other big arch trellis, made from cattle panels, has 8 different hybrid clematis on it.  I think we have every kind there is.  My hubby liked them, so one year for Father's day, I got all 8 kinds, and he and Dale made this big arch for them.  Boy, when they're in bloom, THEY'RE BEAUTIFUL!!   If I EVER get this picture problem whipped, I'll put the picture of them on here.

I've been going through my pictures, and found a good one of my mower and me, but can't put it on anything without it letting God and EVERYBODY scroll through all my pictures when I send it.  WHAT AM I DOING WRONG?  I only want to send ONE!!!

I made a mistake on my last blog, when I said they made 2 to 3000 lbs of pork butts up, into garlic sausage.   Theresa told me they made up 7400 lbs.  That's  almost THREE AND A HALF TONS!!!!!

O.K.   Enough.   Bedtime.

BUSY TEN  DAYS..............

But nothing interesting to write about. 
I'm not exactly sure what all I've done....didn't write it on the calendar this time, but......
`
1.  Cousin's day was on the 17th.  We three met at the Cracker Barrel for an early lunch.  Then not being able to think of anything exciting to do, we went to a couple of thrift stores...Good Will, and another one run by a big church in the area.  I got some cassette tapes with piano music on them....six, in fact.  Two had never had the cellophane off them.  Then, it was such a nice warm day, we went to look at the flower plants for beddings.
 
2.  On Friday, the 18th, I called my daughter-in-law's parents and said I'd like to come for the day. They live about 100 miles away, and talked me in to staying until Sunday afternoon.  I always have a good time with them.   We went to their church on Saturday night, then with some of their church friends, out to supper at Culvers, then over to their daughter's to pick out some hand-made greeting cards.  I LOVE her work.   Back home by dark, on Sunday evening.  (Yeah, WendyBird, I know what you're thinking, but I'll be back in the area soon, and I'll give you a call.)
 
3.  On Monday the 21st, I mowed EVERYWHERE, here, for the first time this year.  Almost 8 hours.  Couldn't breathe that night because of a stuffed up nose, so I got up, took some allergy tablets and used the Asteline spray on my nose, before I could get to sleep.  While I was up, I took a pain pill and muscle relaxer for my arms and shoulders, back to bed and didn't get up the next morning till 9 A.M.

4.  Did NOTHING all morning that day.  In the afternoon, since Lorie will never take anything for those greeting cards, I decided to make some I knew how to make out of six-one-dollar bills, folded as a lady's pretty blouse, with sequins and lace ruffles.  That day and Wednesday, I completed 6.  That will be the last I ever make, I'm sure.  It takes SOOOOO LONG!!!  I'm going to put some new currency INSIDE Lorie's card, and send it to her, when she gets my others finished.

5.  Wednesday afternoon I went to pick up ten pounds of garlic sausage, from the local American Legion.  About 3 times a year, they make it to sell, (like two to three thousand pounds of pork butts, at a time)  so I bought some for the coming-up-Memorial Day Pond Party, brought it home, made patties, so it would be ready to slap on the grill, and put it in the freezer downstairs.  Two days later, I went down there to get out some breakfast cakes I had frozen and when I opened the freezer door, it filled the WHOLE BASEMENT WITH THE SMELL OF GARLIC!!!!  Have I ever told you I live in amongst LOTSAITALIANS!!!??????   And they DO know how to make good garlic sausage!!!    (-;

6.  On Thursday the 24th, I decided I probably should get my hummingbird feeder filled and hung.  It hadn't been out more than 3 or 4 hours, till here comes my first male Ruby Throat.   He visited several more times that day, and I haven't seen one since.  Don't know if he was just passing through, or if I haven't been looking out the kitchen window at the right time.

7.  So, that brings me up to this past weekend.  Missouri Friend Sandy, was in the area, so she came late Saturday night, and stayed till this morning.   We went to church yesterday morning, then out with the usual crowd for lunch at the Cracker Barrel, getting home at about 3 P.M.   This morning, she packed up to go back to Columbia.  Every TIME she comes, I find something she's forgotten.....a blouse, an earring, her medicine holder.......BUT TODAY YOU'D NEVER BELIEVE!!!! 
When she left, I went to the bedroom's end of the house, just to pick up and thrown towels & etc. in the washer.  On her dresser, she'd left a Kleenex, so I started to pick it up and realized it wasn't empty.   NO, NOT WHAT YOU'RE THINKING!!!   I went back into the kitchen and called her on her cell phone. 
Hello.
Hey Sandy, run your tongue over the roof of your mouth.
WHAT!?!?!
Run your tongue over the roof of your mouth.
OH MY GOSH, I'M TURNING AROUND.   I FORGOT MY PARTIAL!!!!
She'd only gotten about a mile and a half away, so she came back, giggling all the way through the garage.

So......If my friend Sandy ever comes to visit you, Look for her teeth when she leaves, or a sock, or a ring, or a toothbrush, or her medicine holder or her??????????????????????????????????????????