May 9, 2014 More Spring Showers

Western spring beauties growing in
front of our "welcome" rock.

Vacancy!  Wrens wanted!

Wednesday 5/7.  Today would have been my Dad's 93rd birthday.  It doesn't even compute that he has been gone for 26 years.  

We left for Down There at 9:00 am, the first stop being for my latte.  Then on to the store for Mother's Day cards.  How did that sneak up so quickly?!!  Had to write and address them at the post office.  That is the day that I miss my Mom the most, but I fill that empty space by sending cards to her two best friends, my Aunt Nene, JB's Mom, and our daughter-in-law.  So then it was on to dump the garbage and pick up the mail.  We stopped by Larry's & Elsie's to get the sweatshirt and vest I forgot and let their dogs have some time outside.  We were home before 1:00 pm.

After lunch I drove Miss Kitty up to the south ridge for a load of wood.  About half for the cradle and half for the wood shed.  The sun was so nice and warm, but clouds were moving across the sky and it was quite chilly when they passed in front of it.  Our high for the day was 60.

That time again to tilt the solar panels.  All the way up this time.

Thursday 5/8. It was 43 with a light overcast this morning and 100% chance of rain in the forecast for this evening.

I read the new Back Home magazine with breakfast.  They have a hilarious article entitled "Ranch Sitting."  Glad I didn't read it before I house sat.  Not sure I would want to take care of a place that had horses, goats, sheep or cows.  Dogs, cats and chickens are quite enough, thank you.

I used Miss Kitty to bring down another load of wood by the tall pine tree on the south ridge.  At least half of the wood went to the wood cradle, which is getting very full.  Will have to cut it on the next nice day.  JB spent time in the shop cleaning up and getting it organized.  He also went up to the south ridge to spray the tent caterpillars that have appeared on some bushes up there.  Seems awfully early for them, but then it seems early for everything this Spring. 

I hung the clothes outside to dry, even though it was jeans and they probably wouldn't be dry by the time I had to bring them in.  And I was right.  The overcast became heavier and the predicted rain arrived a little before 2:30 pm.  A fire in the wood stove sure takes the drab and dreary out of a rainy afternoon.  The rain always smells good, but some times, like today, it smells absolutely delightful.

I have decided that this year's budget just will not support building the large shed for Miss Kitty, MAX and the tractor.  So we will concentrate on the little projects, like stairs to the side door, stairs extending half the width of the porch, and railing for the deck.  We will use as many logs as we can for starting the frame of the shed from the trees we need to cut down.  There are many that need to be thinned and two standing dead that we know of.

JB has our new computer all ready to use, so now I just have to learn how to do that.  Something I keep putting off.

We watched the last two episodes of season three of Justified this evening, tomorrow we will finish Homeland, season two.  Don't think we will buy that one again, but definitely Justified.

Friday 5/9. It is 37, clear and windy this morning.  Have to remember to stack our two chairs on the porch at night since I moved one closer to the edge.  The wind had blown it off.

Thought for the day: One of the healthiest ways to gamble is with a spade and a package of seeds. Dan Bennett