Saturday, April 9, 2011

Owwwww

Dear Reader:
I'd love to be my normally loquacious self this evening, but I'm just too damn tired. Instead, a summary of the week's events.

Last Saturday, we planted 2 almond trees in a "new" section of the orchard that is set aside for nut trees--an area we've been treating for a year or more with special cover crops to build the soil. We also planted last Saturday 2 quince trees, and 2 honeyberry bushes. Then we fixed the orange net fencing that's protecting our arborvitae that will eventually be a windbreak...no small task, considering the wind we had last Saturday. Then we discovered some astilbe and daffodils left from last autumn that hadn't been planted, so we placed them around the magnolias in the front lawn. All this was under the close supervision of a dog that is being fostered or raised by some folks down the road.

I did more manual labor than I had done since the miscarriage and all my health problems back in 2009, and I felt great afterward. No headaches, nothing but the usual aches from well-used muscles. It was fantastic!

On Sunday, we put the last coat of green on the bathroom and removed the painter's tape. Now all that remains is the painting of the trim...in all our spare time. Maybe it'll get done around Christmas. Dog visited again.

Over the week, everything became much greener. The daffodils in our yard still haven't bloomed, but they've come a lot closer. The hyacinth we planted in the fall have all sprouted and begun to open. The dog has decided that our place is THE place to be. We've been friendly toward her and don't mind that she's hanging around, because before, she was crossing the super-busy highway frequently. Now, a lot less crossing.

Thursday, we planted 2 paw paw trees to replace the ones that didn't make it from last year. Again, supervision from the dog.
Friday, the dog let me pet her and also let M pet her. We left to get groceries, and when we came back home, she was still lying in front of the garage, waiting for us to get home. She's a sweet girl.

Today, after the storms, we discovered that the bark has been stripped from one of the honeyberries we planted last week and that one of our newly planted paw paws had been pulled completely from the ground, along with its support post. And we've had some bark stripped from a few of the other trees in the past few weeks. Did a little research and think it's doggy-caused damage :( But the good news is that it's usually done by dogs who are teething and don't have toys...luckily, we have some dog toys that a friend gave us last summer for our cats. So we tossed them outside to avert the dog from stripping our trees any more. We're hoping it will work. If not, we're going to have to find a different solution.

After my friend, L, and her two daughters left from their visit today, M and I thought we'd plant some potatoes. But first we had to dig. He used the weed eater on one section of garden that needed tilled, and then I tilled it for potato planting while he used a nifty new tool to "double dig" the section of garden that the potatoes were in last year. (He found a potato that we missed in the fall...now we know that they will stay good in our soil over the winter.) We're both tired. Wrangling that freaking tiller, even in the soft (for here) soil for several hours--work a half hour, take a break for 20-40 minutes, with M--was harder than anything I've done physically since we put in 13- and 14-hour preparation and planting days in spring of 2009. I'm freaking beat.

I took tons of pictures last weekend and this week. Not posting any of them today. Too damn tired.

So, there you have it. Still loquacious to some, but sorely lacking on all the fun details.

If you haven't heard from me in a week or two, have a beer in my honor, because I've probably dropped dead of fatigue.

* Stringham high: Puppy companionship
* Stringham low: Damaged trees
* Stringham super-high: Me doing hard manual labor with no ill effects like headache, nausea, vomiting, passing out...just a WHOLE lot of curse words.

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