The little cart that could.

When we were first married and moved into our house, which is where we have been ever since, I really thought I was a country girl.  Like straight up farm life.  I planted a garden, I made things grow that, quite frankly, my in-laws thought I could not do.  I remember the first year I planted peas - my father-in-law thought I was nuts because I planted in March.  But, I had a garden companion book, “Victory Garden”, and it said to plant peas on the ides of March. So, I was out there clearing snow off the garden to put my pea seeds in.  That’s right, I said seeds.  I was so hardcore that I didn’t use starts, I used seeds, right in the ground.

    

So, I had peas and they were great but few.  I had no idea how much to plant.  I was one of those novice gardeners that had way more zucchini than one household needed and not enough peas.  And, it was so much work!  My interest in gardening waned a bit after a few seasons of such hard work, my little children and just not enough time in the day.  My father-in-law gardened for many years and kept me in tomatoes, which was really all I cared about.  We had an occasional crop of pumpkins and flowers, particularly zinnias, but my gardening days were short lived.

However, I received a fancy garden catalog and drooled over a cart.  I really wanted this yard cart, not a wheelbarrow, not a wagon, but an Agri-Cart, because I was so agricultural you see.  I decided it would be the perfect Mother’s Day gift and ordered it for myself, announcing to husband and children they were off the hook.

 

I loved that cart from the minute I opened the big box to assemble it, with only a little help.  Hauling stuff around the yard I felt even more country than before.  I loaded it up with gardening tools and fertilizer, buckets for water and pushed that cart around my two acres with pride.  While I have moved away from vegetable gardening, I still have those needs for my flowers and trees.

 

I use a wheelbarrow a lot for chores because it’s usually out in the yard somewhere and I think of it as more rugged.  The cart has become a secondary, almost like a classic car stored in the barn for special appearances.  I would cringe when hubs would ask "Where's your cart?" not knowing what he had in store for her.  It has deteriorated a bit, and hubs has left it out in the rain a few times.  Which caused a finger wagging if there ever was one, let me tell you.  This is my cart and it is loved, and that pressed board construction just can’t take those wet conditions.  The paint is faded and the wood is swollen in parts, the tires are flat, but she is loved.  

This weekend, after promising her for several seasons that it would happen, I gave the cart a fresh coat of barn red paint, covering the national park green I used when I took it out of the box many years ago.  Since I was also putting a second coat of paint on our new shed, seemed like a good time to give my cart a shiny new color.  Now, if I could only find the bicycle pump to put air in those tires, this cart might have a chore or two left in her.  

No worries, it goes on the list.

Finished out last week with special visitors – two of the grandkids were here for their “spring break”.  It was a big treat for us, a big help to their folks and, at least I think, big fun for them.  Last year, along with their cousin, they started calling our house Camp GiGi at PaPa Lake, even have a little song to sing about it and we love it!

We have some work to finish on the shed we built late last summer.  There is a second coat of paint on the gable ends, a ramp to build to the double doors, trim work to go up and I may be winning the discussion on a gutter and downspout.  Or, at least a rain chain.  We started a bit of the landscaping that’s needed, but because we also need to tear out the deck and landscaping on two sides of the house we’re stealing materials from there.  Moving landscaping timber is also exposing the roots of the azalea that is to be moved and my twisted Harry Lauder bush.  So, the list grows and grows, the weather remains chilly and wet, and I want to begin on the house! But, I need to focus on the shed and moving those plants.

   

The moon garden awaits clearing of the fall and winter leaves and debris, and a protective coat on Esmerelda.  I tried last year and chose the wrong product so I am giving it another go this year before she moves out onto her throne, which is a stump.  She wintered in the shed so she should be nice and dry and maybe in better spirit to accept the protective layer, or at least I hope.  I noticed a nice clump of beautiful bright white Hellebore that I will divide, to move some to the moon garden. There's a lot of clean-up to be done in that area,  the winter was pretty rough on the trees over there.  

The fairy garden is underway, but, through landscaping a bit around the shed, we decided on a different spot for it and will move the old bird bath that is to be its home.  When the 4-year-old asked if we were buying gnomes or fairies to put in the garden his sister responded “No, because we want real ones to visit!”  The grandkids left before we could really get going, but, we are closer, and have all the supplies. My 7-year old-granddaughter, excited over using rocks from the driveway as little stepping stones in the fairy garden, drew out a map for their placement.  Ran up to me, even though she was sent on a different task, map in hand, with a very excited voice and a face full of anticipation, “I have an idea…”

The lake is waking up for the summer and our project list is long, and growing.  It’s going to bring a fair amount of craziness to our days.  The gloom of winter and early spring is lifting but the bright days of summer are not yet here.  Sunny days are a treat at this point and certainly not every day.  I hear there is even a threat of snow for tomorrow, for example, and I noted a fine coat of ice at the lakeshore on my morning walk.

Don’t rush, don’t rush, my beating heart tells me, but oh, the list, the list…

Flying into spring.

The sun is really doing its best at my lakeside home today.  Flowers are starting to bud out on the trees and yes, the allergies are popping up, too.  I have not been an allergy sufferer until the last year or so.  Not really sure why I am now but the nose, the sneezing and the cough, yay.

I have been reviewing my landscaping budget and I’ve gotten close to blowing it already on a few new additions to the “things” I like to add for interest.  A special pot, which this year is a cement head and I’m CRAZY for it, a glass stake that I picked up last week when shopping with a favorite nephew and his mom.

   

I am not a fairy garden kinda gal but I did buy, with the help of one of my grandsons, some miniature things to start one in an old bird bath.  I’m excited about it because I know they will be.  We will work on it later this week when two of them are here for a spring break visit.
 

Trying to hold back from getting ahead of the weather, I have fertilized flowering trees and shrubs and added good top soil into some of the beds and under those trees.  I enjoy the dirt part but it doesn’t bring quite the same show as adding flowers and plants.  I rake and I move piles of leaves, sticks and twigs so that I can be ready but I am probably a good 4 weeks, if not 5 from really getting to plant.  There are some things I might be able to transplant if I’m very good…I want to try to move a healthy big azalea that is named Mildred, which was my mom’s first name ~ and she hated, but it’s called Mildred and I want to save it.  I have been carefully surveying spots it might go, if I get up the nerve…but it has to go as it is in the way of the upcoming remodeling.

 

The remodeling.  I cannot wait to get started! We are on the schedule and while it is going to start a bit later in the spring than I would have hoped, we are going to start.   I have talked paint color and siding, and windows till I am blue.  I have design ideas flooding my brain and I spend hours, too many hours, looking at websites and flipping through magazines.  I think of something I want to include or at least consider and my list is long, so very long.

 

As I was pulling in to the driveway after a quick run uptown I noticed a new spot to landscape, to upgrade.   More items on my list and more money to the budget.  Fasten that seatbelt, ladies and gentlemen, the captain has turned on the light. 

Tuna? Again? Not if I can help it!

I enjoy this retirement phase.  It can be relaxing ~ it’s nice to not have much of a schedule to meet so I can be a bit more “ready on a dime” and just take off and do, no timeclock to punch, doors to unlock or lights to turn on.

   

Now, the other shoe drops…I find if I don’t schedule myself and keep an eye on the clock I get NOTHING done.  I am experimenting with a bit of a daily schedule now because I can get lost on any one of a number of different things in my day.  From hitting the snooze button one or two more times, to walking the dog and finding a nice spot to sit a spell, to pulling weeds.  Even cleaning off the stove for crying out loud! I can get tied up and not move on to the next thing I really wanted to accomplish.

My day requires 3 or 4 hours or so in computer work (okay, not fully retired, still do a bit of virtual customer support) and it works out pretty well as long as I am not distracted by checking Facebook, my email, or working on photos or my budget or catching up on the news, or binge watching something on Netflix … my day, once open, is suddenly gone.  I didn’t get done those things I need to do like grocery shop, or clean the kitchen, laundry or take a darn shower.  I am a procrastinator you see and can get lost.  I can’t tell you how many times I have stood at the pantry trying to figure out a meal because I didn’t make it to the grocery store, and couldn’t tell you what I did that day. 

So scheduling it is.  Today is Tuesday and it’s blue hair day at the grocery store - my peeps.  I’ve allowed two hours to tackle that job, to get my discount and to have a pantry full of goodies.  If I don’t get there, well, tuna casserole sounds good, again.  

Not that kind of spring fever!

Ever had one of those weeks that was chock full of both great and not so great? That was my week. 

It started last weekend when I brought 3 of the 4 grandchildren home with me for a visit, after going to Indianapolis for the granddaughter’s talent show, which was great.   We had great fun, not so great weather but we managed to make the most of the one nice afternoon and paid the grandkids to pick up sticks.   There are millions down in the yard from the winds and winter, as you know.  We said “This is what we’re gonna do…” and they were sold.  A little monetary reward and a trip to the dollar store, which one grandson kept calling the money store (I wish), and we had ourselves a great day. 

We also had one grandchild with a 24-hour flu bug.  A very surprised look on his face, let me tell you, as he sent hot chocolate and toast onto the kitchen floor.  It is not the first time a grandkid has been sick while here so we dealt with it, like the champs we are.  He soon felt better, just the one incident, and we were back to fun.  We met parents the next day and had a nice Sunday evening ourselves, started the week as normal as pie.  

That flu bug though…it was quick and aggressive and made the rest of this week not so great.  I was sick first, and a message mid-morning to hubs brought back “I’m coming home”.  Oh, no, sillies, not to take care of me but because he was not feeling so great himself.  Rather than wait it out to see if he really were sick, he was preemptive and came home…good idea. I nodded my head to him in greeting as he laid in his recliner.  So, here we both were, sick.  I really was out but was a bit miffed, I admit, to not be allowed to wallow in solitude.  I laid in the guest bed or the couch for the next day…having abandoned our king size bed for him.  

Along about 2 a.m. as I laid on the couch, for someplace different, here he came, shuffling out of our bedroom and down the stairs, presumably to lay on the bed downstairs.  Okay, I thought, I’m not thrilled about that bed getting all buggy-buggy but there’s laundry solutions for that I suppose, crashed back to sleep.  Around 4 a.m. I made my way back to the guest bed, my haven, and HE WAS IN IT!   

Now, I don’t know how any of you would feel about this but I was seriously ticked.  First, in the throes of my being sick, I abandoned our bed, made it up, sprayed it with Lysol, fluffed his pillow so when he got home, if he were indeed sick too, he would have a comfortable spot.  I eked out a small, narrow cocoon in the guest bed to rest my weary head.  My germs, my spot and here he was.  I dragged my bone tired body to our bedroom to find the bed with sheets and blankets tossed and turned, and not at all what I left for him.  I smoothed out sheets, grumbling the entire time, set the blanket back in place, thanked him begrudgingly for not using my pillow or that would have been the end I fear, and crashed for another few hours.

Fast forward to the afternoon, now we’re both doing pretty good.  We had some toast and ramen.  I had some work to do in the office and soon heard the washing machine.  He was stripping beds.  The kid’s bunkbeds, because they needed to be, our bed, cause well, you know, and the extra bed downstairs.   He explains he is doing our bed first, in case either of us should need it and then will work on the rest later. 

Okay, fine.  I am a grouch and you are a good guy.  Again. 

Signs of life!

Spring is springing! I would not say sprung, but darn close, so springing!

Little dog and I took a long walk around the property this morning because, well, there's a lot to see and a LOT to think about.  I have three distinct areas that I will be landscaping this year and it is generating a very long list.

Last year, I moved a sculpture (known around here as Esmerelda) my son-in-law did in college to an area in the woods that hasn't gotten a lot of light over the years.  The snow storm at the end of February and the resulting limb and tree removal has opened up that space a bit so more light will come in.  Years ago, I was treated to a visit to a lovely home here in my town and the owners had a "moon garden" - all the flowers in this small section were white, and in pretty bright sun through out the day.   I have wanted to do something like that beautiful spot for a long time.  Problem is, there aren't a LOT of white flowers that do great in the shade. Now I have a bit more sun, and with my beautiful white statue, I have a start.  I have been researching white shade loving flowers and plants and will be scouring local nurseries for just the right thing.  I have a list and a checkbook.  I'm ready.

Secondly, there's the space around the new shed.  It needs some help ya'll.  It's in a pretty spot and surrounded by trees, so also quite shady.   I really liked it until the week of the snow.  The tree trimming done in the middle of the night took out two pretty big dogwood trees. I'm seriously ticked off. However,  I also have to reign it back in and think, okay, IF this is the utility easement and you want them to take care of it...those were their trees.  UGH.  While I wish they would have talked with me first, it is their easement.  I don't understand trees they left standing, and butchered up pretty badly,  and there will be more conversation, perhaps with their forester even.  Back to the landscaping! The shed needs some help and that's going to be a bit of my focus this year.

Finally comes removing plants and shrubs from areas that will be abandoned during our spring remodeling.  Yes, people, it's happening.  There will be a new room, a new screened porch and some new deckspace.  I have three established shrubs that I am going to move and a handful of plants.  The shed area will be prepared early this spring to receive these plants.  That's going to be happening as soon as the ground loosens up a bit more.  I'm nervous, I'll be honest, as these are good sized shrubs.  I love them and hope to keep them.

I've got a fair amount going on as you can see and I hope having this to focus on will keep me from losing my mind as we start the remodeling project.  Somewhere to escape to for me, while workers are here and hubs is tied up managing the reconstruction.  We are starting a little bit later than I had hoped but the plans are solid so we will be underway shortly. 

Hang tight! Things might get bumpy!

Worth it, so worth it.

Hubs and I have been very lucky in the past few years to travel to a warm climate in the middle of winter for a business trip of sorts. Some say monkey business but that’s another story! It’s been glorious to be able to attend these week long get-aways and I will miss them when our time to fully retire comes.  I think I have two more trips left before hubs is completely done with working, if our plan holds true.
 

This year we came home to 17” of snow; a utility company repair for power outage and a small limb that hit the back windshield of my car just right and shattered it, with a plate size hole.  We didn’t discover it until hubs cleaned off my car, which was several days after it happened.  The glass repair company came to the house on a lovely, icy day and replaced it and I am as good as gold as they say.

The utility restoration project also left me with a crumbled fake landscape rock and a busted well head.  Now, in reporting this damage to the utility company, which I believe occurred when they had big trucks in the yard, I tried to explain to the woman in the customer service department the wiring was exposed.  She could not get past downed wires.  I tried to explain many times that no, I do not have a downed wire, no I have not lost power, no it is not affecting my neighbors.  Just me…ya ran over my well head, exposed the wires to the elements and now I have no water.  Maybe a short or a blown fuse, but, I have power.  I do not have water.  Finally, I just agreed that yes, I have a power outage and wires are exposed.  I think that utility guy is going to be a bit annoyed when he arrives to inspect my emergency and finds out what is really going on here, but I hope he is more amused than annoyed.

Vacations are fun, for sure.  Sometimes the week after is more stressful than the weeks leading up to it! Only 51 more weeks until my next warm weather get-away, but, who’s counting?