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| In the beginning. . . |
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| . . . and in the end. |
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| 8:30 am Thursday. . . |
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| . . . and 5:30 pm Thursday. |
Wednesday 4/13. It was 34 and mostly clear this morning, but clouds moved in by mid-day and our high was only 49.
I woke up with a very sore right leg that I must have strained yesterday while tearing down and re-stacking the wood in the shed. I have learned that the best thing for sore limbs or arthritic fingers is to just work through the pain and soreness until they feel better. Of course, some ibuprofen always helps, too.
Randy called this morning and we had a nice long chat. He has already split and stacked a couple cords of wood this month!
I started stacking the kindling that JB had brought to the woodshed. There were two large piles of it as I had worked Monday and Tuesday bringing more up the west slope. Then we drove the Wrangler down the road to see if I would be able to get Down There on Friday. There were only a few patches of snow and they were no problem, so I should be able to go as planned. We did see a lot of white trillium along our road and a couple plants on our driveway. Many more blooms than in other years. Also some patches of bluebells which I don't recall seeing before.
Monday I had given the girls a planter that we had in the garden and was now
growing grass and other greens. They loved it! There are actually three such planters, so today I gave them another one and they went just as crazy over it.
In reading our homesteading magazines, I often get overwhelmed with all the things we could do Up Here. I simply have to weed out what we cannot do or don't really want to do, and go on from there. One project that we have wanted to do from the beginning is build a root cellar. Larry and Elsie have a hill behind their house into which they dug a place to put one, but the only such slopes we have that are close to the house are inaccessible by any machine to do such a job. And we are too old to do it by hand. I have seen some above-ground cellars in our magazines, one made of old tires and dirt that we may try.
I have decided to make the last day of each month my Pity Party Day. Whenever I get upset over something I cannot control or small irritations that won't go away, I will put them on a list and then let them go until the last day of the month. I have heard such other solutions such as writing a list and giving it to God to deal with, but I want to know that there will be a time when I can wail and gnash my teeth. When I can complain and get emotional about such frustrations. This way I can put it all off to one day and just enjoy the rest of each month. Friends and family should know not to call on that day. . . However, I am quite certain that most items on my list will have resolved themselves by then or I simply won't care anymore.
Thursday 4/16. Mother Nature has a rather perverse sense of humor that came to the forefront this morning. Having posted the photos of our wild flowers yesterday morning, today we awoke to a temp of 32 and 2-1/2" of snow on the ground. My eyes, having just become used to the vibrant spring green, now had to contend with bright white again. The trees dropped their snow bombs for the rest of the day and we mostly stayed inside. Well, it is still spring in the mountains so we never know from one day to the next what we will get. It looks like the snow went down to about 3000 ft and everyone else got rain. So much for no mud season. . . Also, there was only rain in the forecast. I think the folks at NOAA are smoking too much of the legalized pot.
I called Sandy to tell her of our weather and we had a nice chat. Then a little later Jane, from North Carolina, called and we, too, had a nice chat.
I gave JB a long-overdue haircut today. He may have to start getting them Down There as my arthritic hands just aren't as capable as they used to be. I can still cut my own hair quite nicely as it is a lot easier to do.
The sky tried its darnedest to turn blue, but the clouds and fog moved in and we were soon back to January. It wasn't until about 4:00 pm that we saw blue sky and sunshine again. Our high for the day was just 40.
One of my best talents is making things disappear. I will put something away saying, "I'll put it here and we'll know right where it is." Most of those items are found three years later, and quite by accident. Like last week when we took the bench for the swing off the porch and over to the frame on which it hangs. No clue as to where the S-hooks for it are. Or I will set something down before I get to where it belongs and then spend hours searching for it. Then there is my very short short-term memory. . .
Prices for standard syne wave inverters have come way down from what they were eight years ago when we purchased our modified syne wave inverter. So JB is researching the various models to find the perfect one for us. That will be our major investment for the year. Once we have it, we will not have to use the generator for the well pump or the washing machine, therefore using less propane and more free solar power.
The girls gave us two eggs today and spent most of their day inside also.
Friday 4/15. It is 34 with clear skies this morning. Going to be a cold ride down the mountain.
Thought for the day: There are two things that one must get used to or one will find life unendurable: the damages of time and the injustices of men. Nicolas Chamfort
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