Checking off the Chores

Chores? I hate chores--let's do something fun!

(I wrote this up last Monday, but forgot to post it!)

The weekend was lovely, weather wise. Saturday in particular was just gorgeous. Low humidity, a strong breeze and sunshine. Sunday morning the humidity was thick as pea soup and rain moved through off and on most of the day.

Between mowing and garden planting I've been working on a few other projects. I think ya'll will be proud of me. Remember the drama last fall when I had to re-stack the spider infested woodpile? Well.....I just finished up straightening and stacking the still substantial wood pile, and here it is just June! Woot! I'm very pleased that I actually did something way before it had to be done. Of course the garage/hay barn is a totally different story and needs cleaned, like yesterday. I do have a small pile of over sized or odd sized pieces of wood that I need to take the electric chainsaw to. I haven't actually ever used the electric chainsaw before, but I thought this would make a nice little project to learn on.


I also got my very messy, piled up breezeway swept and sort of de-cluttered. It's hard to totally make it look nice, since I have bags and boxes of wool stacked along the walls, in the wood box, and on the bench. It does look better though.

There is some headway being made on washing dog/cat bedding from the winter. Truthfully I had washed much of this before, prepared to pack away for the summer, then along came a cool spell, and I took pity on the critters and put them back in their various houses and beds. Another job on the list is cleaning out Boone's house. It's not really a dog house, but a shed. It started out as a sheep shed, then I added a floor and now it's Boone's house. I pack it with straw in the winter and his big fluffy bed, blankets and several pillows. Now all that needs to be taken out and washed. The fluffy bed and pillows will go back in and I'll put rug mats on the floor. A bug bomb will need to be set off, and his window opened. Yes, he has a window....

Patio Garden

My little 'patio' garden seems to be doing well. You can see the picture of it here. The three tomato plants are ones I bought--my seedlings are in the ground on the other side of the house. Of course these are about six times bigger than my home growns.. but oh, well.... I think the one on the left is a cherry tomato, the one in the middle a 'patio tomato' (which I thought was a variety of cherry but evidently is not) and the one on the right, a 'black tomato'. I bought it at the Fiber Fair, and that is about the only description it had. It might have said Russian Black but I'm not sure. It will be interesting to see how it turns out. Immediately behind the tomatoes is a wire rack/tub kinda thing I bought at a yard sale. Not sure what it was for--maybe something out of a store? I lined it with wool and filled it with dirt and have planted squash and some lettuce and spinach in it. We will see how that works! To the right of the picture you can see the sawhorses and the edge of the cattle panel that I use for a skirting table for the wool. And yes, that is an old toilet stool in the back there. I mean what do you do with them? It did have some lovely pineapple mint in it, but it died this winter. I'm thinking maybe basil or flowers this year.

Cloverfield

I'm planning on turning the sheep out in the upper pasture Monday night for awhile, so Boone and I went out to walk the pasture. Ariel just didn't think she was up to it, and ended up going back to the house. The warmer weather is very hard on her. We checked fences, with Boone really hoping that the neighbor dogs would make an appearance so he could threaten them (they didn't) . I only found one thistle to chop, so that was an improvement. The field isn't very thick, but does have lots and lots of clover. The overall growth is about four inches so it might hold the sheep for about four weeks. It'll be pushing it, but if we get rain, it might hold out. They will be thrilled though, as it is chock full of clover, hops, vines, tender weeds and sprouts. A sheepie smorgasbord.

This week I hope to get the rest of the flowers and seeds planted and mow one of the paddocks. Maybe get started on that garage too...

Have a great week.

Now this is more like it! Fun chores!