Grape arbor reveal & my first video

Sunday, March 14 – Tuesday, March 16

Day after day it seems to be the same-o, same-o day in, day out. I find it difficult to get motivated to write the same-o things day after day so here’s another brief summary of the past few days (it’s now Tuesday evening and I’m finally sitting behind the computer).

Early Sunday morning I worked some more on CountryBoy’s recliner. I had started cleaning the arms, seat and footrest using our small upholstery cleaner on Saturday. It appeared to be cleaning up fairly well but I would only know how well it cleaned up after it dried. CountryBoy thought it was good enough but I thought otherwise. of course! There were just a few spots that needed some more attention so it didn’t take long. He was really hoping it would clean up because that chair has sentimental value (I bought it for him for his birthday while we were working in Arizona and living in our fifth wheel), and he was afraid of getting the new sectional dirty especially this summer when he knew he would want to come inside to cool off and rest and more than likely he would be dirty from working outside. He also likes to take some cat naps in it since it reclines further back than the recliners in the new sectional. So, lucky for him it cleaned up so it gets to stay! I need to sew up the end of one of the arms and after that it will look pretty good.

We were finally able to go to church and then I changed clothes and went on in to work. From the moment I got there I was busy ironing sheets and a couple tablecloths. My hands were killing me by the time I got home from folding and stretching the sheets to iron them. I spent the evening reading instead of knitting or crocheting to give my hands a rest.

Monday morning it was all I could do to drag myself into work. It was raining and cold and I just wanted to sit in front of the warm fire and stay dry. The morning dragged by. Finally noon rolled around (which is our weekly deadline for ads) and my fellow ads coworker and I print out our ad schedules so that another coworker could get started figuring the pages. Around 12:15 an email came in for a rather large legal ad that had to go in this week’s Classified pages. I hurriedly ran back to the coworker figuring the pages and told him to ‘stop the presses’. The legal ad that came in was going to increase my Classified pages from one to two. Just a few minutes after that someone from the courthouse across the street walked in with a legal ad that needed to run this week. I emailed my fellow ads coworker (she’s working from home) and told her to hang on because this one was for her. I scanned and emailed her the ad and she was able to get it on her Classified page without any problem. THEN, I came back from lunch and TWO more legal ads came in via email. good grief! These were not time sensitive but now that I was at two Classified pages I was able to get both of them on there. Once all that was squared away the rest of the afternoon flew by. I came home and read some more still resting my hands. In fact, I finished the 544 page book I started a few weeks back. I was surprised it did not take me a month of Sundays, yay. Now to see if our library has the second book in this trilogy by Jennifer Donnelly.

I was only a wee bit more eager to go to work today but I still have to choose to not think about it and just get dressed and go. My heart truly is at home but one’s gotta do what one’s gotta do. It was going to be a warm sunny day so I was hoping we would get finished laying out the pages and have the approval early afternoon. We got the approval around 1:15 and I was outta there by 1:30. I had contacted our library this morning and they had the second book! They reserved it for me so I made a quick stop to pick it up and I was home by 2 o’clock. I’m still waiting to actually go inside our brand new library. They completed construction (renovating an existing building) just before the COVID outbreak and have yet to fully open. I can’t wait for the day when it’s open for normal business.

As soon as I got home I put on some shorts and a t-shirt, slipped on my flip-flops and headed outside. It was a sunny 71 degrees. CountryBoy came out to see what I was up to. He helped me relocate the beehive stand and we set up one of the hives and baited it with a few drops of Lemongrass essential oil on a cotton ball and some smeared on the entrance. It was recommended to set the hive near a tree line and facing South.

We set it along a ditch that has plenty of brush and a few small trees. We hope that some scout bees will discover a new home for their colony.

CountryBoy had finished up the grape arbor this morning so now that it was finished we started the task of relocating the grape vines. What a job that was! Deep down we knew it would be but mercy, the roots went sideways for several feet and then there was the tap root to deal with. We did have to cut some of the side roots and we’re hoping it will be OK.

It’s supposed to rain tomorrow so I’m really hoping the transplant takes. I think this is the perfect spot with lots of sunshine and plenty of moist soil. You can see the proximity of the beehive (the white box on the left) and the garden in the above photo. Pray for a swarm of bees to find it!

Instead of lattice or any other sort of design we chose to use hardware cloth on the sides of the arbor so that the little tendrils will have something to wrap themselves around.

It really turned out well and I like where it’s placed…

I’m toying with the idea of plowing and tilling up the grass in front of the arbor for a flower garden. The verdict is still out on that. I think I’ll see how much of the vegetable garden is left. Maybe I can get some flowers scattered in there at least for this year. I sure don’t want to bite off more than we can chew.

Once the grapevines were relocated I started taking apart the old grape arbor while CountryBoy started supper and washed some eggs. I was more than ready to have it gone.

I felt the backyard was too busy and that it competed with the now finished well.

ah, SO much better! The garden gate is still there but I’m going to leave it there until I figure out where it should go.

After taking photos of the arbor I found myself down by the creek. As I was enjoying the sound of the water, the wind, the birds, and one of our roosters, Popcorn, crowing I wanted to capture it on video so that you could enjoy the moment too. The creek and the sounds of the farm are always a soothing balm to the soul. Missy joined me and then Sissy showed up…

… such silly and fast kitties!

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Farm news: an average of 32 eggs each day

Wednesday, March 17

‘appy St. Paddy’s Day! I even remembered to wear green today, ha!

As I headed out to do the morning chores I quickly returned to the house and grabbed my camera. Here’s the scene that greeted me…

Top o’ the mornin’ to ya!

It ended up being a crazy sort of day. CountryBoy left bright and early this morning to play a round of golf. I think LizzieBelle sensed the morning routine had changed and she wandered all over the house. I kept an eye on her and found myself constantly picking her up and taking her outside thinking she needed to do her business. She would tinkle every time I carried her outside and then she finally pooped. She was still a little antsy afterwards but I put her in her bed and she eventually laid down but was still on alert. I was now going to be 30 minutes late for work. I decided to take my stuff to the truck all the while trying to figure out what I should do. Should I go in late? Should I just go? I snuck back in and she was finally sleeping so I quickly left. This was the first time we have left her by herself since her diagnosis and her loss of sight. I was worried but there wasn’t anything I could do. CountryBoy came home early afternoon and found she had tinkled on the floor but we know it couldn’t be helped with the diuretic she’s taking and he said she was whimpering a bit. Thankfully it’s not every day that her routine will be disrupted like it was today. My plans as soon as I publish this blog post is curling up next to her on the sectional for the rest of the evening.

Work was equally crazy and not just for me but for all the girls. I guess it was just one of those days. I spent the day treating stains. Three and half loads later I’m happy to say that most of the stains came out. The sheets with the stubborn stains that did not come out were retired. My stained sheet pile had grown so large that the shelves were starting to look a little bare. There were a few checkouts today so I washed the majority of those sheets as well and managed to get everything ironed. It was nice to see the shelves full of sheet sets again!

I spent far too much time trying to upload, edit and then export the video clips today. I needed a video editing software program; now that I found one I wanted to fade from one clip to the next but couldn’t figure out how to do so without spending time pouring over tutorials; I finally figured out how to export all the clips as one video but WordPress would not import it; after getting this far I was determined to find a way – we now have a YouTube channel which was the only way I could import it into WordPress. At any rate, I hope to become a little more proficient at videos so that I can share moments here and there with y’all.

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Farm news: 25 eggs