Month: April 2020

To begin with, we had the drywall on the far end of the living room, so it would be separated from the guest bedroom which is beyond that wall. The other side of that wall is still not done. There were also a couple of pieces of drywall tacked up behind the wood stove so the heat wouldn’t catch the paper on the insulation on fire! One of those pieces came down, but the other we just left and nailed in better. So the pictures start with the “before” picture and end with the “after” picture and show a few in-between times. (Oh, sorry, there is an extra copy of the “after” picture second and I can’t delete pictures, for some reason. But you can see the before and after more clearly this way!)

It has been a very long wait, but my great room/kitchen area is finally drywalled and taped. It looks almost like a real house. I’ll post pictures later, but I wanted to get this posted on the day we finished the first coat of mud, so I’d have a reference point for the future. Plus I haven’t finished mopping all the spilled mud and drywall dust off the floors.

This was a very busy seven day break for Dad. We did that pasture on the first couple days of the weekend and then rested a day and headed right into 2 1/2 days of drywalling and mudding. He is definitely ready for a break!

Dad is also battling an infection that seems to have originated from a crown that fell out. He is on some new antibiotics now and he says he feels better than he has in quite a while. I think the dentist is going to work on it once the infection is gone. He (the dentist) looked at Dad’s charts and there was a small problem in that area that he’d been watching, so that may be what this is and not the crown at all. The biggest symptom, in addition to the swollen gland right under that tooth, is that he is very tired all the time. He may leave early tonight if he can’t make it all the way to morning. But that is far better, I think, than calling in sick for the entire night. And it isn’t like he can give this ailment to anyone.

We decided to move our pasture on Friday. We’ve been planning to do this for some time, but it is quite a project as it involves pulling up a couple dozen fence posts, dragging the fence to a new spot (and 125 feet of fence is heavier than you’d think!), and putting in some corner posts. But it was a beautiful afternoon so we decided to start and we just kept going into the evening and the next day as soon as the weather cleared and it is totally done. Great feeling to have that big project done. And the advantage is that I can go directly from the front door to the garden again!

This picture was taken from where our west porch will eventually be. We’ll be able to look at the goats, dog and chickens in the paddock (on the left) and the goats and dog in the pasture (beyond the garden), and watch things grow in the garden. Rotating to the right, we can see the hill.

The part in the foreground will be the lawn, but it is pretty much destroyed by the goats. Still, it is much better than it was, since they took care of all the raspberry bushes and small thorny trees and other unwanted vegetation. Now we just have to clean it up, till much of it and plant grass. And we have to get rid of the big junk pile in the middle of what will be the yard. We plan to start burning that very soon – it will take several days! But it is going to be a nice yard!

Here is a picture of the puzzle I just completed. I think it is really pretty!

This next picture shows just how many trees are blooming right now. And before this, there were others and after these are done, there will be still others. We have a LOT of blooming trees, so a lot of allergies!

Here is one of the trees on the mountains really starting to green up.

We got a LOT of rain last night – probably around 6 inches. The creeks were flooding over the roads when Bumpa came home this morning. And this is what Elsa looks like after a day in a muddy pen!

The animals were practicing social distancing today. First is Bullwinkle by himself in the pasture and then T Edison by himself in another part of the pasture.

Look at how the dirt pile is shrinking!

The strawberries are looking good. I keep pinching the blossoms off, so they will make bigger plants.

And a string of vegetable pictures. Spinach in a raised bed; peas growing up toward their trellis ropes; and Swiss chard (you have to really look!)

This is where our dandelions are in their season already – no more yellow ones.

Here are a couple apple trees we started a couple years ago from seeds from the apple we were eating. We were surprised when the first one actually grew, so we planted another and it grew, too.  We might set them out in the “orchard” this year, if we can figure out where that is going to be!

And, finally, a couple pictures of our hill. I was trying to tell Josiah how high it was in his letter today. The first picture is up higher, by the garden, so you can see the neighbor’s house on top of the hill. In the second picture, I’m way down at the lowest spot and you can just barely see a small bit of the neighbor’s roof, if you look very closely. (It is in the space to the left of the two biggest trees.)

That rose bush jumped to the top of the page – I guess it wanted to be first today.

We watched our church service on line rather early today, so we are just going about our business for the day now.

Here are two pictures of the planter in the courtyard. It is done at the far end, and even has some plants transplanted into it. But we need a couple more timbers to finish it completely.

The dirt pile is about half gone now.

Here is a closeup of the dumpy level I mentioned yesterday. It really looks like the antique that it is. My dad used it about 60 years ago when he built our house.

Bumpa is putting concrete over the blocks that will be under the ground because they are starting to deteriorate. It is a hard job, but he is a hard worker!

The dogs are doing fine.

The goats don’t seem to be getting along. Or maybe one of them made a bad smell…

This is the only kind of bunny you want to see in your garden!

And a few plant pictures for the day. I do love my plants!

Here are some pictures from yesterday and this morning. First, a picture of the courtyard with the dirt hauled into it and a picture of how much of the dirt pile we got hauled. I hauled 27 wheelbarrow loads of dirt and Bumpa hauled a couple, but mostly roto-tilled it to get all the clumps out.

I made Italian bread last night – four small loaves. We sometimes store them in the spaghetti jar, when we don’t have any spaghetti in it. Then this morning I made granola, which also has a jar. Notice the granola jar is full in the second picture, but the Italian bread is a lot smaller, because we had it for lunch, with lunch meat and cheese broiled on top.

Here is another picture of Bumpa hard at work. He is leveling the “Dumpy Level” that he uses to see what the slope of the ground is. We need to have the water run out of our courtyard, so we need to make sure our new dirt is sloping in the right direction.

Once we had yesterday’s dirt leveled, we started working on the planter box that will run along the fence in the courtyard. It is taking a while. The first picture was from around 10:00 and the second from lunch time. But we’ll get ‘er done! And finally a picture of a few violets that come up early in the spring. They grow right in pathways and if you step on them, they just grow back.

Here is a picture of the bird’s nest. You can’t see the bird, because she flew away when I bent over to take the picture. And you can’t see the eggs, because they are way back where it is dark. But you can see the nest. In the second picture, Bumpa has just moved the blocks holding the nest under the eaves, so they won’t get rained on. I had to move it from where it was, to dig my ditch, and the mama bird found it and is still sitting on it, so we figured it would be okay to move it a little bit again. We’ll see.

We worked on getting the ceiling light and ceiling fan in the master bath yesterday. Here is a picture of them in the ceiling. I know it isn’t exciting, but I love getting lights in each place we put them, because it makes the spaces brighter, and I LOVE bright spaces! The second picture shows all THREE light fixtures in the bathroom – ceiling light, light over the mirror, and light in the shower.

Here are some pictures of Elsa and T this morning. It is warmer than it has been, so T is out in the pen with Elsa already.

Here is a picture of the hostas poking through the dirt in the courtyard.

Here is a picture of the redbud tree just starting to blossom outside the master bathroom.

And here is a picture of some of the plants I started earlier. I put them outside every day that it is sunny and not too cold. Some will be flowers and the ones in the blue pots are tomatoes.

Bumpa bought milk yesterday, so I froze some of it, so it won’t go bad before we drink it all. It keeps in the freezer for longer, but not forever.

Every morning I lay out index cards of all the jobs I need to do that day. Here are my cards for today, but after I’ve done a few things. Notice the pitcher on the side is full of more cards with jobs I DON’T have to do today.

I’ve been doing some recording in my “recording studio,” which is just a corner of the guest room. I’ll send you a copy of my c.d. when I’m done.

Here are the guys having their breakfast.

Here is T waiting to get back inside. He looks a bit cold, doesn’t he?

Here is the ditch I dug the other day and then the pile of dirt that we need to put on that side of the house to slope away from the foundation.

And a couple pretty pictures – one of my tulips and creeping phlox and one of the scene from our parking lot, looking down the hill to the east.

Empty study shelves and VERY full storage room shelves. I still have that pile on the card table to sort, but not today!

I had to build a nice hot fire, because it is pretty cold outside today.

Then I lined up all my Bath and Body Works soap on the laundry room counter. Aren’t they pretty?

And I watered the plants I just planted. Some of them were planted a while ago, and they are doing well.

The rest of the day I’ll be working on moving all this stuff to the other storeroom, and sorting all the boxes while I do it. I won’t take as long as you might think!

Oh, and I updated my calendar.