Good things & a disaster

Friday, February 26

What a ho-hum day. My get-up-and-go got up and left when the sun never appeared this morning and it began raining mid-morning which was much earlier than anticipated. It was also much colder than anticipated so all my outdoor projects were dismissed and I sat in my chair wondering what I should do. I picked up my crochet hook and whipped out three or four dishcloths while trying to figure it out. I did manage to get a couple of my seed starting trays disinfected and ready for planting. I don’t know where the other trays are. They should’ve all been in the greenhouse/sunroom but they weren’t. CountryBoy thinks they are in the buggy carport. It was raining so I didn’t bother going to look. I need to be starting some seeds but it’s far too cold in the greenhouse/sunroom and the house is so dark that I don’t know where I can put the trays where they would get enough sunlight and be warm enough to germinate.

Over coffee this morning, CountryBoy and I talked about possible places to build the new grape arbor so that we can relocate the grapes. We made a materials list so we are one step closer in starting that project as soon as the weather cooperates.

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I think my lack of get-up-and-go was due to lack of sleep. LizzieBelle was antsy around 11:15 last night. It was so early in the night that I figured she would need to go out again so I opted to just stay downstairs. It looks like the couch will be my bed from now on because I really don’t want to traipse up and down the stairs several times a night carrying a 13 pound dog. It’s times like this when I get so aggravated that we can’t find anyone around here to do any work. Had the fella that came to look at the project last year followed through the downstairs bedroom could have been finished by now. Anyway, I digress – LizzieBell did indeed need to get up again at 5:15. We laid back down until 7 o’clock. The coffee helped clear the fog in my head but it wasn’t enough to repair my get-up-and-go.

You never know who’s gonna show up for dinner!

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For the first time in two weeks we have guests in the cabin again. That’s always a good thing!

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Farm news: 14 eggs plus I found two eggs in Mabel’s pen when I wished her a goodnight after locking the chickens up last night.

Saturday, February 27

It’s been a long time since I’ve woken up tired but these last few mornings have hit me like a ton of bricks. LizzieBelle was up three times last night to tinkle and/or poop. It’s not so much getting up several times a night it’s that it takes her a long time to settle down meaning relaxing enough, getting comfortable and falling back asleep. She’ll sit up for the longest time before finally laying down. I may have finally figured out her favorite spot at the end of the couch by my feet. I am going to put her there each time we come back inside and see if she settles down quicker. If so, she and I will get a lot more sleep at night.

Speaking of sleep, she slept in until10:30. She is usually up early and anxiously waiting on her breakfast but I think sleep deprivation won over hunger this morning!

In spite of lack of sleep I did manage to muster up some get-up-and-go today. Not a whole lot but more than yesterday. I did the laundry, gathered up a few things to give away, and finally got around to ‘waking up’ my houseplants from their winter slumber with a good watering full of plant food. Afterwards, I put the greenhouse plants back in the greenhouse since our temps are supposed to be warmer for the next couple of weeks. I’m still trying to figure out the best way to start my seeds and the best place to put them. The jury is still out on that.

After the rain stopped I squished my way across the backyard to pull up the metal stakes that supported last years tomatoes. I laid them around the asparagus bed so that I would know where the asparagus were when the time came to relocate them. CountryBoy and I also walked around and figured out where to put the grape arbor. It was the perfect time to figure it out while the ground was so saturated. Grapes love sunshine and water and in their soon-to-be new location they will get both. I’m excited about the arbor and our garden plans. Speaking of, I NEED to order the rest of the seeds and some heavy duty weed barrier tonight!

It felt good to be outside. The weather was perfect! I walked along the creek bank and pulled up some dead ragweed stalks. ugh – my Fall nemesis. CountryBoy thinks he might be able to bush hog the bank. I really hope so as it will make the grounds look much better and most of all it will cut down on the ragweed around the farm. I spent the rest of the day knitting some dish scrubbies.

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Farm news: 12 eggs

Sunday, February 28

Here it is the last day of the month already. It’s hard to believe how quickly it has flown by even though time seemed to stand still while everyone was iced in for almost two weeks.

LizzieBelle is doing so much better as far as the the coughing goes. She rarely has a coughing spell and when she does it doesn’t last very long. That’s a very good thing. She is eating, drinking and resting and we’re sort of getting into a groove and learning when she needs to go out. Basically, if she’s up wandering around or on the couch groaning a little bit we pick her up and carry her outside. She and I are still working on our nighttime routine but we managed to get a lot more sleep last night than the past several nights. We’re just so happy that her cough has subsided for the most part.

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I ended up not placing the last of our seed order last night so it was the first thing on today’s agenda. After an hour or so of finalizing the order – from seeds to weed barrier to seed starting stuff – I got online and placed our order. It actually worked out perfect because today was the only day that the seed company was accepting orders from home gardeners. Apparently there are certain days designated by the company for the home gardener and today happened to be one of the designated days. whew!

I think we’ve figured out a way to get the seeds started in the greenhouse and keep the soil warm. More on that when we get it set up.

So, little by little the bits and pieces of this year’s gardening season is coming together. Gardening is an ever-changing, learning process and each year we learn what works and what doesn’t. This year we are concentrating on starting healthy plants, relocating the grapes and asparagus, and hopefully getting the plethora of weeds under control by using the weed barrier. We’ll see what happens.

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We’ve had lots of inquiries about the cabin and many have resulted in bookings. I think those few days of sunshine we had earlier in the week spurred people’s desire to go somewhere. That’s a good thing!

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It has been raining all day which has resulted in quite a bit of flooding since the ground was already saturated from the ice and snow the week before. When I came home from working at the B&B the water in the creek was just barely under the bridge. It has been raining hard and steadily ever since. I’m wondering if the water will be over the bridge in the morning and if I’ll be able to go to work. It the water’s over the bridge I’ll be working from home. The month end billing will just have to wait another day. It’s been quite a month weatherwise!

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Farm news: 14 eggs

Monday, March 1

I stayed up far later than I should have reading a book that I just couldn’t put down last night. I had just told CountryBoy the day before that the main character has had one tragedy after another and that something good needed to happen soon or it was going to be a really depressing book. Well, last night things started turning around and I just couldn’t put it down. I’m currently reading ‘The Tea Rose’ by Jennifer Donnelly. It’s a super thick book and will take me a month of Sundays to finish it since I only read at bedtime. Although I made a pretty good dent in it last night!

It rained all night long. And all night long poor LizzieBelle walked through massive puddles out back just to do her business. We did sleep a little better. I put her bed at one end of the couch which she seemed to appreciate. However, she’s still restless when we come back in from a trip outside and I don’t know why. I’m wondering if I need to plug a little nightlight in. I’m thinking that her lack of vision and a dark room is unsettling to her. It’s worth a shot. Half of our sleepless night is due to getting her settled back in after going outside. Three to four times of that adds up.

With the amount of rain that fell yesterday our county is under a flood watch and those living in flood zones were told to evacuate. I have seen photos on Facebook that are horrendous. The Kentucky River that runs right through our town is expected to crest at 38.9 feet around 1 a.m. It is currently at 38.07 at the time of this journal entry which is 6:30 p.m. For reference, flood stage is at 21.0 feet. Our county and surrounding counties are in trouble. Many homes, farms, and businesses are under water. My heart is breaking. The devastation will be great and I’m not sure how well our little town or the people in it will bounce back on the heels of COVID. I’ve not heard of any fatalities and am praying that remains so.

Our creek had receded by the time I left for work so I headed into town. We decided I should take the main road into town rather than the back roads. I knew that I would need to take the usual detour closer to town where the road always floods any time we get a good amount of rain but I never made it that far. Here’s a look at some of the fields that were flooded…

I continued on and noticed that one of the properties was flooded far worse than I’ve ever seen. That should’ve been a warning. Just after I passed the property I came to a road closed sign and here’s why…

Only two more miles to the detour. Needless to say, I turned around and went back the way I came.

I drove past the house to try a different route only to come across another section of road that was closed. After driving for over an hour and having no other way to get to town I went back home and worked from there grateful that I was able to do so but feeling bad because a coworker ended up having to do the month end billing because the boss insisted it couldn’t wait another day. As far as I know it went well.

Meanwhile, we were without water for about 17 hours. I discovered it was off around 11:15 last night and it didn’t come back on until after 4 o’clock this afternoon. Thank goodness I had prepped the coffee the night before! We are under a Boil Water Advisory until further notice.

Throughout the day CountryBoy used buckets of collected rainwater to flush the toilet and then decided to set a bucket up over the well just in case the water remained off…

It looks pretty cool! The water in the well is at ground level now so one doesn’t have to lower the bucket very far to get water.

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These two…

… how cute is that?! Creamsicle and Sissy snuggling while taking a nap on this cold and breezy but rain-free day.

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Farm news: 18 eggs