Random Musings

At 9:00 this morning... This window has been "closed" this way since April.  I've had 3 layers of plastic taped over it, as well as the curtain closed over  this one window to help keep heat and air both in and out.   By 3pm this afternoon: We've had extra heavy curtains up every since the school was built to block some of the street lights at night (I can see my way to the bathroom without any light whatsoever!), but I've really enjoyed having the fresh sunlight shining in the room. Even when the curtains are open, it still gives the room a heavier and more closed look. I'm seriously rethinking my curtains before I go to the trouble of washing, re-installing the brackets, and hanging them.  There may be more change coming in this department...or not.

 I've yet to haul off the boards from the old hen house. A few on the ground are salvageable and after I get the garage cleaned out (Thurs or Fri?) I'll be ready to haul them off to the dump. I waited because my finger was messed up and it wasn't up to that yet, then life has been busy. I really don't want to go to the landfill on a Saturday as the lines are so long on the weekend, so if I have to wait until next week to borrow a pickup and go, that's okay with me. But hopefully soon... And I still need to finish the trim on the doors and the edging around back so the house will be totally finished. The window guys are coming tomorrow Thursday though (we had some window sills rot out and come apart in April, and the windows are FINALLY in) so I don't want to do anything that would require a shower or in-depth clean-up since they'll be working in our bedroom (and our bathroom connects to that - with no door - an accessibility thing). Today is the hopef...

First zucchini will be ready soon! Straw bales aren't as prolific as they've been in the past, but still doing well. Added 2 high wires to tie up tomatoes today. Still need to do a little pruning around the edges and bottoms. Our voluntary pumpkin is NOT liking this heat!!! 2nd tomato row- first and last plant aren't thriving like the others green beans...finally getting some blooms, so maybe we'll have some in a few weeks (and I'll add the plants the geese ate, while growing, aren't blooming yet) Our solitary pumpkin

Saturday we had the opportunity to attend the tiny home show at the fairgrounds. It cost way more than we anticipated and the lines were very long, but I enjoyed getting to see some of the options available. Evidently solar panels (in lieu of electricity) are very popular, though many people who live in small homes eventually add an electric pole and tie in to electricity due to the unpredictability of sunshine and the amount of power you might need during the course of a 2-3 day storm or unusual situations. One house a had both solar and electrical options so you could use whichever you needed at the time. As a child,  I thought it would be cool to sleep in a loft like the Wilder children did on Little House on the Prairie, and there are many homes I've visited with a loft that I thought made a nice sleeping or sitting area. But some of these lifts are so small you cannot sit up in them. There's enough length to lie down, but not enough height to sit up. That does not ap...

This week I spent most of my days with several (9-12, depending on the day) 1st-3rd graders. For years I've listened to this age group moan that all the kids get to go to camp but them. So last year I decided to do a day camp, except we couldn't pull it off. So this year - it happened. To be honest, I wasn't sure what to expect. But I think the kids loved it (one was sad to find out we weren't meeting again tomorrow!), or at least most parts of it. And it looks like we will do it again next year, though we'll change certain parts of it. Two days the sports segment couldn't happen do to a scheduling conflict, so we did field trips the first two days. We know to charge a little more next year, and schedule someone who is an excellent swimmer to be there at swim time. (Thankfully our church's summer intern was able to help out with that the last few days!) The pool we were using has a smaller shallow end than I remember, and it got a little crowded the firs...

3 weeks ago this Saturday Tim Beatty, Josh McLean, and myself began dismantling and rebuilding the large hen house. I already had all the doors off and had torn what was left of the netting we had for the pen's roof off. While Tim built the frames for the pen's new roof, Josh and I worked on gutting the rest of the house down to the frame. The parts that were rotten (like the bottom of the back board and edges of the floor) came off very easily. The parts that weren't (like the top of the back board and the center parts of the floor) did not. Josh tackled the floor while I removed the wire from the top of the roof and the back board. While using the sledgehammer to knock out the top of the back board, my little finger somehow got wedged between the 4x4 post, the board, and the sledgehammer. I washed and wrapped it, and changed the band-aids several times throughout the day, and did my best to do jobs that involved holding my arms up to keep the swelling down. By that night,...

The May election has come and gone. Mom's heart cath went well, though the follow-up with her specialist that was to happen this week has still not been schedule...evidently he's only seeing patients 4 days during the month of June and those are all booked...so her 2 week follow-up to change the medications based on test results won't happen until JULY. I'm more than ready for her to find a new doctor. On the upside the heart is healthy and previous conditions have not worsened or flared back up, so we are very thankful for the report we did receive. My nephew graduated from high school. I was so excited about going and possibly seeing old friends, and then the rains came. CHS was the only school in the county (I think) who did not move it inside. Had they moved it indoors, each senior would have been limited to 6 tickets, as opposed to no limit seating on the football field. Seniors held their ground and it was outside, come rain or shine. But due to the clouds, Bobb...