Snakes in the Hay

I have now lost 6 of the 8 pounds that I gained on vacation.  JP insinuated that my thyroid is overactive again, but I insisted that it is because I have been working so hard!  Not only am I working out on the elliptical 4-5 mornings a week, I am also spending several hours outside daily doing things like weed-whacking, digging, hauling, pushing the mower, or otherwise expending a great deal of energy.

Dad and I have been working on the gray water drainage issue for most of the week.  Tuesday we went out to buy pipes and supplies, and Wednesday we installed all of the drain pipes and began filling the ditch.  There were several yards of ditch that had to be filled in by hand before Dad could begin filling it with the tractor.  Yesterday he was smoothing things out with the tractor, getting it ready to seed with grass, when the tractor died.

For some strange reason, both of the girls are disappointed  that the ditch that has run through in front of the house for nearly 2 years is now missing.  L thought it was a good way to stop our sleds from going all the way down the hill.  Mom kept falling in it when she was trying to walk the path that circles Poplar Ridge.  Dad and I were unable to drive our normal routes on the ATV or tractor.  This is no longer a problem!

I made a call to the tractor place down in WV yesterday.  Lo and behold, they sent out 2 guys, who showed up last night, and were able to fix the problem (and another one, too!) in a matter of 20 minutes!  Hooray for workers who show up ahead of schedule!




Here is how things look after the ditch was filled in.
The tractor down at the bottom will die in just
few more hours.

This morning I went out to begin seeding the area.  The approximately 30 lbs of meadow grass seed that I had in the barn, only went about half way down the hill...disappointing.  There has been an old, round bale of hay sitting in the garden for 2 years, mouldering away.  I loaded it by hand, bit by bit, in the the trailer, which I then hauled to the site to spread over the seed.  The bale was full of ants, who got into my gloves and shoes, and bit my ankles and wrists. 

After spreading several armfuls, I noticed a tiny head poking out of the hay...the garden snake!  I'm ok with snakes, but I didn't like the idea of reaching blindly into the hay and coming across him.  He didn't like the idea of me reaching in and grabbing him either, so he slithered deeper and deeper into the trailer load.  I started pulling out armfuls with the garden rake, and finally uncovered him enough to gently lift him out with the rake and take him back to the garden.

I used up my moldy bale of hay, so Dad encouraged me to use the one out behind his wood pile.  I started loading my trailer with armfuls of hay from that bale, wondering what the chances could be of there being a snake there as well. 

The chances were really good, as it turns out!  Before long, a small, triangular head poked out, and then turned around to slide deeper into the bale.  I found a long stick with which to pull off layers of hay from the bale without actually touching it.  It wasn't until I came back to get a second trailer load full of hay that I finally uncovered this snake.  I quickly scooped him up under my stick, and relocated him to the nearby woods.

Luckily I did not run across any more snakes in this bale, but I used the stick the entire time...just in case!

So, 3 hours later, I had seeded roughly half of the area, hauled 4 trailer loads of hay and spread them over roughly 1/3 of the area, and I was completely pooped.  I still managed to can 13 quarts of beans this afternoon, and shell 2 pints of peas.

This, my friends, is why I am losing the weight!

On an entirely different subject, I have not managed to get into my flower beds yet this year to weed or mulch.  The big bed has a lot of weeds, but otherwise looks pretty good...very full and colorful.  This is sort of the look I was going for -  English garden style, and so full that there is no room for weeds and no need to mulch!

 

 Oh, and more good news:  Kali gets her stitches out tomorrow.  There are a bunch of them, as she was cut stem to stern.  She has been off pain meds for about 4 or 5 days, and has also finished up her antibiotics and Pepcid prescriptions.  Our next plan is to get her a paying job so that she can cover her Vet bills!

Exterior Decorating

The girls and I made mosaic bird baths over the past week. We got the idea from Family Fun Magazine (of course). You can get directions for it here. I think they turned out very well!

Here is L's,



and J's,



and mine.



In addition to the bird baths in my flower garden, the girls have put in numerous pigs. Now the cats sleep in there too. (At least they are no longer pooping in it...they use my new flower bed for the toilet now.)



J has been creating colorful designs in front of the garage in chalk. This sun was my favorite part this time.

Wet Weekend

We got a fair amount of rain this weekend. Luckily, most of it came during the night, allowing me to work on my flower beds during the day. The weeds came out easily since the soil was moist. Why is it though, that nicer grass grows in my flower bed than in the yard? After the weeding was completed, I mulched it well with wood mulch, and then it rained some more!



The Morning Glories are coming up in my new flower bed. They look like tiny dragonflies hovering over the soil.



We also spent the weekend rehab-ing a turtle who got run over by the lawn mower Friday night. He got a small section, about a centimeter in diameter, scalped from the top of his shell. It was bleeding quite a bit when JP brought it in. I washed it well and applied antibiotic ointment and some paper tape. After that, we created a turtle paradise in the old kiddie pool we swiped from our friends' trash pile. Unfortunately, until this morning, we have not found anything that he likes to eat, so he is going free later on to fend for himself. (He seems to enjoy the black raspberries that I picked while on a walk with the dog this morning.)

We took my parents and grandmother out for dinner on Saturday evening to celebrate an early Father's Day and late Mother's Day (my parents were in Africa in May, so we didn't get to eat out with them then.) We ate at a very nice Italian restaurant along the river in WV. The food was delicious, and the roaming Accordion Player stopped by our table for quite a while to play The Pennsylvania Polka, The Chicken Dance, and several other songs.

Yesterday, when we reheated our left-overs, we discovered in part why the food was so delicious, close to a stick of melted butter was left over in the container and on our plates!



Last week, the girls and I hosted a fancy tea party for my mom and grandmother. There were a lot of laughs at our 4 generation tea, and a lot of uninvited guests.

Greening

I am finally posting from the NEW computer, and I used Photo Shop for the first time to edit photos, so the whole process is taking more than twice as long as normal. Whew!


Today was a beautiful day...apparently the last one we will have for a while. A winter mix of weather is headed our way, with snow forecast for Thanksgiving. L believes that as soon as it snows, her birthday is not far behind!


I wanted to post a few pictures of the lawn before it gets buried in snow. It is GREENING up nicely. There will be several bare spots and a bunch of holes thanks to the cattle, but the landscaper has promised to re-evaluate things in the Spring and fix them. Here is a shot of the front yard, taken from the driveway.




This picture shows our yard in the background, but in the foreground you can see Dad sealing the seams on his first floor decking. The OSB is painted a light GREEN to protect it from the weather. After some rain, Mom and Dad were able to see a few leaks in the basement. That did not stop them from unloading the PODS and the storage shed into there. Their basement/garage is much more organized than ours was when we moved. Hopefully it is more rodent proof as well!




This is their GREEN garage door. Dad made this door to fit the walk-through doorway. The doors and windows to be used on their house come in another shipment in the Spring.




Finally, a shot of Kali. She was to the vet on Thursday, and now weighs in at 13#. She is head and shoulders above Daisy Dog at this point! She likes to lie on clothes, so she slept on the dirty laundry for quite a while yesterday until I got around to putting it in the washer. Laundry is one of those things that just doesn't quit these days. That and the dishes and cleaning...

Lawn

If you look really closely, you can see our new yard growing!

While I Was Away...

...my parents were busy!


Dad got the cork flooring laid in our breezeway before we left last weekend, but had not finished the floor trim. My mom painted it, and it was completely installed when we returned. This view is from the garage toward the house...



...and this is from the house toward the garage. It is a tiny, odd shaped space.



The fields front and back of the house, as well as the grass along the driveway was neatly cut. We admired it on the drive from the road up the hill. Dad was busy on the tractor, not only cutting all the grass, but leveling a spot for our new pair of compost bins, which he built out of recycled pallets.



He said that he scared out quite a number of field mice during the mowing, and the neighborhood Red Tailed Hawk noticed. He has been ridding the field of some of the mice over the past week.



Rudy is my new best friend. This is him this morning in the rain...I'm not sure what the display of feathers is all about (probably just saying he loves me back).



The landscapers finally made it out. I have been waiting (rather impatiently) for the lawn to be sown since August. The "Rock Hound" went around, loosening the soil and picking up rocks. The piles you see are the rocks and roots that he picked up...not sure what we do with those!



Nothing more happened with Mom and Dad's house last week. They had planned to pour the basement floor, but the rain prevented that from happening. The logs for their house are to be delivered tomorrow, so they will be busy in the SNOW unloading and doing inventory.