March 21, 2016 Spring & Sewing

The curtain for my kitchen
shelves. . .

. . . and the bathroom ones

Getting our porch back.

Friday 3/18. I know that many of our daily doings are the same as anyone living most anywhere, but I write about them in order to give the full picture of our life Up Here.  We may be more active than many retirees, but then I think we would be regardless of where we lived.  If not, I am sure I would go completely bonkers.

Our lives may not seem as interesting to read about compared to our first couple years Up Here, but this blog is a way of keeping in touch with our family and friends.  And, even more than that, it is a journal of our lives, a part of our history that I hope our grandchildren will one day read.  It is very difficult to live so far away from them.  We hear about their lives a few times each week when talking to our son, but they don't really know us.

Today I took the last of the wood off the porch and got one armload from the wood shed.  Cleaned off that area of the porch where, after winter finally leaves, I may just spend most of my spring days.  I also dragged some of the branches that fell in the past few months over to the wood cradle.

JB got on the tractor before lunch and cleared out a lot of the snow with the bucket that he couldn't move yesterday with Miss Kitty.

A light overcast formed overhead and to the south, but the sun was able to shine through it most of the day.  Our high was 39.  Bare circles beneath the trees have widened considerably with the sunny days, even though the temps have remained low.

Despite the gore of Bone Tomahawk, there were a couple lines from it that I really liked: "Life on the frontier is hard.  Not because of the weather, the Indians or the isolation, but because of idiots like you!", spoken to the posse by the woman they were rescuing, "You say goodbye to my wife and I'll say hello to yours." spoken by one character who was dying to another.  It was actually a pretty good movie.  I just couldn't take the gore and torture.

Last night we watched Groundhog Day and both really enjoyed it.  JB says he has never seen it before, but it is one of my all-time favorites.  Wouldn't it be nice if we could all have so many chances to "get it right."  This evening we watched Sicario, which was very good, although I got a bit irritated at the main character.  Since we had been watching several TV series over the winter, we have accumulated several movies that we haven't seen.

Saturday 3/19. The spring equinox began with a temp of 30 and mostly overcast skies, but the clouds soon dissolved and we had a sunny day with a high of 44.  

On our morning walk, the snow on the south ridge sparkled brilliantly as though some heavenly being had spilled glitter all over.  An eagle circled low, and must have decided Dinga and Jesse were too big to bother with, as he glided off to the west.  There were lots of small birds out celebrating the day, too.  And it really must be spring, as my irises are popping out of the ground!

As nice as it was outside, while JB was out on the tractor again after lunch, I finally got out the sewing machine that JB's Mom gave me.  I have wanted to make curtains for the kitchen and bathroom shelves for some time now, and today was the day.  It seems as though running a sewing machine is much like riding a bike - muscle memory.  And, with just four straight seams, curtains were the simplest project to start with.  They turned out great!

I started another book yesterday by Carla Neggers, The Angel.  Not exactly a bodice-ripping novel of passion, just a good romantic adventure where you know there will be a happy ending.  Exactly what I needed.

This evening we watched Mad Max": Fury Road.  What a wild ride!

Sunday 3/30. It was 38 with a heavy overcast this morning and rain predicted for the next few days.  A very grey day, but a nice lazy Sunday with a few sprinkles and a high of 44.

The girls gave us one egg, as they did yesterday.

We watched The Intern this evening and both really enjoyed it.  But we forgot to turn on the short-wave radio, so Elsie ended up calling on the phone, very concerned that we hadn't answered the radio.  We had a nice chat though.  They got a lot more rain than we did yesterday, which seems rather odd.  Also, it sounds like there is a very nasty strain of flu going around.

Monday 3/21. It is 36 and partly cloudy this morning.  Didn't get the rain that was forecast for last night.

Thought for the day: I have had a life of many troubles, many of which never happened.  Unknown