as if the first full day of the new MAGAt administration wasn’t going to be bad enough…

This is what greeted me when I got up this morning

and it continued to snow for another three hours or so. The rain gauge showed two inches but it seemed more like an inch and a half on the ground. I’ve seen enough snow down here in my lifetime to not have any desire to go out in it, only to refill the bird feeder and take the dog out who won’t go out in it without me. Later I’ll have to go across the street to feed the cats and try and entice them into the shed with food for the rest of the day and night. The only good thing is that the low has been revised upward from 12˚ to 19˚.

Snow here used to be a rare event and when we do get some it’s usually only an inch or two. My first experience with snow was when I was 10 in 1960 when we got a little over 4” of snow. I was home sick from school that day but my mother, after lots of begging and pleading, bundled me up and let me go out and play in it. The next time was about an inch in 1968, then another snowfall in 1973. I remember that one because I was still married to the Rat Bastard and we had been in Chicago visiting his family and convinced some friends of ours, who were sick of the snow and harsh winters of Chicago, to move back to Texas with us as we lived in a two bedroom house. On their second day here we burst into their bedroom waking them up. They couldn’t believe we woke them up to come look at 2” of snow when they had just moved to get away from snow. Snowed in 1989 and again in 1994 (these are the only years a search turned up between 1973 and 2004) but from 2004 and this year it has snowed six times; 2004, 2008, 2009, 2017, 2021, 2025; so it’s definitely getting more frequent.

I filled the bird feeder around 5 PM yesterday and I have filled it twice more already today. There’s been a big flock of brown headed cowbirds (at least I think that’s what they are) the first I have seen on the feeder this winter and the snow must really be confusing them reflecting in the glass because they keep flying into the window and the glass in the door. Besides the brown headed cowbirds the cardinals, sparrows, chickadees, titmice, house finches, goldfinches, white wing doves, little warblers, bluejays are all vying for space on the feeder. They’re all puffed up. A little warbler just fought off two much larger cardinals. 

well, just fuck all

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another boring post about the cold and kittens

Sitting here Wednesday morning waiting for it to get above freezing so I can go over and let the kittens out of the shed and so I can haul everything out and clean it up in there. There are 5 potted plants in there that my sister had moved in in anticipation of winter and while I put plastic bottles in 3 of them to prevent the kittens from using them as a toilet, they managed to do so anyway and dirt is spread out all around as well as kitty litter scattered from them using the litter box which they did mostly. We have two days of not freezing nights and then Friday night dipping back into the 20s. I have no idea if I’ll be able to get them back in for that one night or not. 

And so I went and opened the door to the shed wide and Momcat scooted out immediately and she was gone but the three kittens were very hesitant, like ‘what fresh hell is this’ but eventually they ventured out and back in and out as I was hauling the boxes and litter box out and two of the plants. Got my broom out of the shop and swept the shed out. My plan was to water the two pots thoroughly but the outdoor faucet is frozen so I’ll have to wait til it thaws out. Fed the kittens under the porch and then had to come back home for water which I took back over and put in their dish.

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Slept late this Friday morning, nearly 8:30 when I got up, Cat snuggled up on one side and Minnie under the covers on the other. First thing fill the cat’s food bowl, fill the bird feeder, fill the dog’s dry food bowl, take my meds, and finally get my first cup of coffee.

Lots of plans for today, or rather, lots of things I could do today…clear the big back yard of the fallen branches, of which there are a lot even though I’ve already collected 4 cart loads (including a big ass limb that dragged our internet cable to the ground but fortunately didn’t pull it loose), from the wind of the last cold front and haul them to the burn pile, take one more bucket of pecans from the small box I held back to get cracked because now I’m thinking I didn’t shell enough, make some spiced pecans from a recipe my neighbor Gary gave me, sort through one or two of the tubs of my sister’s christmas ornaments and decorations because I have an idea to make a mobile or two or three with them; the ornaments, not the decorations though those need to be sorted and offered to her daughters and grandkids, like the embroidered, sequined, and beaded christmas tree skirt that our mother made. Or I could finally hang the rest of my crystals and finish clearing off the small work table. We’ll see what actually gets accomplished.

Now, one more cold night tonight and I’m sure I can get the kittens in the shed again and then next week I try to trap the little girl cat and get her to the vet to get fixed.

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Another day gone by and I did get the kittens in the shed easily and Momcat but Momcat wanted out so I let her out. I did get the sticks picked up, two cart loads full,

I got another bucket of pecans cracked, I made the ‘spiced’ pecans which aren’t spicy at all and I sort of don’t even like them (1 pound pecans, 1/2 stick butter, 3 T worcestershire sauce, and 3 tsp seasoned salt baked at 250˚ for 1 hour stirring every 15 minutes - picture pre-roasting),

I did get fishing line tied to the last 7 crystals but didn’t get them hung because I need more cup hooks and the small work table is still cluttered and the tubs of christmas stuff are still untouched.

Last night was the last night below freezing for the foreseeable future and today and tomorrow are going to be high 40˚s cold but after that we are going back to our normal winter weather, or what used to be our normal winter weather. Nothing blooming in the yard now. Everything is black, brown, or laying on the ground. I peeked under the covering to see if the mustard greens survived and they look good but won’t know about the cabbages until Monday when I uncover everything.

Cat’s new favorite place…warming up her butt on the mac mini.

Time to go release the kittens.

been busy preparing for the hard freeze

I’ve been more or less MIA since Wednesday. I say more or less because I did upload my last post on Saturday. Last Wednesday was such a clown show in the House it just grabbed all my attention and Thursday I’m always out of pocket because of SHARE which was a food delivery day from the regional food bank, our new Elder while putting boxes on the storage rack wants to make sure we know…

Friday I spent the day working on my post which I had intended to post that day but, oh well. Which brings us to the weekend. Friday afternoon, Saturday, and Sunday I spent getting ready for the arctic blast that is sitting on us right now. I pulled the big potted plants that would withstand a light freeze into the garage and put the big tarp up and across everything. I harvested the rest of the cauliflower, broccoli, 

most of the mustard greens and lettuce, and the two ready cabbages and covered the rest of the cabbages and mustard greens (we’ll see if they survive). I covered the ponytail palm, the bougainvillea, bird of paradise, the begonia, and the yesterday today and tomorrow, pruned back and covered the porterweed and the yellow angel trumpet, brought smaller pots of flowers and plants in the house, filled the bird feeder. 

This silly thing was blooming yesterday.

And worried about Momcat and the kittens. I had brought 3 boxes home from SHARE and put three ragged towels in them and put them and a basin with kitty litter in the shed behind Pam’s house but didn’t intend to lock them in until today as it was only supposed to get down to near freezing Sunday night. As I headed over to feed them around 4 I checked the weather and now it was going to get down to 29˚ Sunday night so I moved their food and water dishes from under the porch to inside the shed and they all went in to eat and I shut the door. It was 25˚ when I got up this morning. Well, damn. I hadn’t plugged in the small radiator heater Pam has in the shed for her plants because I didn’t think they would need it last night. 

I went over to check on them after breakfast and after the icy drizzle had stopped, hauling the heavy duty extension cord over with me and plugged it into the outdoor outlet on the back of the house and when I opened the door of the shed they were huddled in the boxes and the water in their dish was frozen. I put out more food, cleaned the litter box, plugged in the radiator and arranged the boxes around it (but not too close) because it’s going to be even colder tonight and colder still tomorrow night, like 18˚. Momcat immediately wanted out. Sorry Momcat, not til Wednesday. I’ll go back and check on them this afternoon.

I had brought in the prunings from the yellow trumpet flower yesterday, one of which had an open bloom, and put them in water to root like I did last year and last night as I was sitting at my computer the flower released it’s wonderful lemony scent.

There was another thing that happened last week besides the clown show in the House. Marc’s mother died Tuesday night. She had been in hospice care at home with her youngest son providing care which he has done for the last ten years or so, moving in and putting his life on hold when their mom started to decline. Al was with her when she passed. She was 92. We were hoping that this year would easier than last but it has started out with another death in the family and next week Marc has cataract surgery. I don’t suppose at this point in our lives that any future year is going to be eventless. 

But here’s one small success, Cat finally succeeded in snuggling up to Minnie.

girls, cracked pipe, and squirrel bafflement

So what was I planning to write when I sat down last and got hijacked by the hijinks? Just some miscellanea of the past week. I went over to my daughter's house Wednesday and Saturday for more visits with great grandgirl Paisleigh. 

Audra arrived on Friday and the little family is headed back to Arkansas today or maybe tomorrow but Mikey and Audra both have to be back at work on Tuesday. Jade also had come in on Thursday so her dad could add some weather stripping on the hardtop of her jeep she just bought and we spent time together Friday and Saturday until it was time for her to head back.

Friday afternoon I went over to the shop and while I had already looked inside to see if there were any exploded water pipes like last winter (none shattered) I had not yet turned on the water to see if there were any leaks through cracks I couldn't see. So that's what I did, turned on the outdoor shut off valve and then walked through the shop looking for water spraying out. All looked good but as I walked back towards the back door I could hear water gushing. Great. Went out to turn off the water again and that's where the water was coming from. Well, damn, it wasn't like I hadn't insulated and taped up that pipe coming out of the ground and into the shop because I had. It cracked anyway. And it's not like it cracked in a convenient place that would make it easy for me to cut out and replace that section of PVC, no no, it cracked in just about the worst place possible and it wasn't even the pipe but the collar that connects two sections of pipe about 1/2” above the shut off valve that Rocky had repaired last winter.

My plan is to get some FlexSeal paste and goop it up real good and cross my fingers that works, at least long enough for me to have the hose while I torch the burn pile. If that fails then I'll have to call Rocky.

I collected all the piles of debris from around the yard and tossed all that on the burn pile on Friday. Still have yet to cut down the banana trees so I guess I'll do that this next week. All the roses, the azaleas, and the camellia have lost all or nearly all their foliage, even the monster rose bush is nothing but branches and stems. The holly ferns (of which I have many) and the Boston ferns are all brown. They'll come back but it will take two years for them to fill out again and that's if we don't get another winter in the teens next year. The two yew trees are going through a major leaf drop which happened last night. I had just cleared the deck yesterday of oak leaves and today it is covered again with yew leaves as is the ground all around them. The big ponytail palm though is surprisingly intact. Some of the bottom leaves? fronds? have turned brown but all the necks that I can reach are firm.

Today I worked on my latest attempt to keep the squirrels off the bird feeder. The little bastards spill more than they eat and the ground underneath has a thick layer of millet and sunflower seed shells and uneaten sunflower seeds. The shepherd's crook it had been hanging on didn't allow me to attach the 'squirrel proof' hood on the pole underneath the bird feeder and we know that hanging it over the bird feeder from the wire did not prevent at least one squirrel from getting to it. So I bought a new straight pole that came in sections with a piece with arms that slid over the top and clamps down to hold it in place. Then I cut a piece of 1” x 6” and drilled a hole in the middle and pounded that onto the top of the pole and resting on the arms, cut small pieces of lathe and glued them onto the piece of 1” x 6” that hold the bird feeder in place so that it is stable but I can easily lift it off to fill it when needed.

Then I assembled the whole thing, clamping the squirrel hood onto the pole under the bird feeder.

So far so good.

endings and beginnings

More cleaning up in the yard new year's eve, more piles of debris, smaller ones. The easter lilies had started to come up before the freeze and all the biggest ones froze off but little ones survived and then the small ones, some froze while the ones right next to it didn't for no rhyme or reason that I could figure.

I was sitting at my computer later and I could hear Cat playing in the corner behind me when all of a sudden she started making the most horrible growly yowly sounds. I rushed over to her and she was writhing on the floor. Oh my god! What's wrong! I looked down at her front paw where an anole with a much shortened tail was clamped onto her toe. I reached down and pulled it off and Cat was immediately fine, and I let the thing go outside. Cat, the lion stalking its prey, completely undone by an anole.

With the first loud bang of fireworks Saturday night, Minnie took off headed for the closet in the bedroom. She was already trembly and a little bug eyed from the idiots shooting off their guns earlier (though they may have been hunters) and a few firecrackers. Lightning and thunder doesn't send her to the closet but fireworks do. I didn't see her again until she jumped in bed with me the next morning.

New Year's day I was going through some old posts from 2012 mostly looking for a specific post to backup a comment I was writing where I had documented a cardinal's nest from hatchling to fledgeling (9 days) and I realized I was a much more interesting and better writer back then. 2014 was the year I dedicated to the selfie, taking a selfie every Friday to acclimate myself to my aging wrinkling face. This year with every post I will attach a link to a previous post made on or around the same date. You know just to bore you twice. And so I jumped in the Way Back machine and picked this one from January 1, 2012.  I picked this one because it has a little story of my growing up but also because the second half I could have written today about the state of our polarized nation though I almost picked this one from January 1, 2011 just for the pictures of the sunset.  Oh wait, you get a twofer to begin. Read them or not.

A while later I texted my daughter to see when would be a good time to come visit my grandson Mikey and great grandbaby Paisleigh who are here for a visit with Audra coming in on Wednesday when she texted back that they were on the way to my house now. A few minutes later grandgirl Robin, Mikey and Paisleigh drove up. Paisleigh is a little over a year now and this is the first time I've seen her since they moved to Arkansas last summer. She didn't remember me of course but it didn't take long for her to warm up.

After their visit I thought I would go over and turn the water on at the shop and check for cracked pipes but then decided I didn't want to do that so I thought I would cut back the shell ginger on the east side of the house but decided I didn't want to do that either so I sat on the deck and read the rest of the day. Last night the two new buds opened and this morning I see that two more of the buds have flowers descending. If they open, that will make 7 flowers that opened after I cut the branches.

unexpected flowers and beginning the clean up

It turns out there were three buds with flowers descending on the pruned yellow trumpet flower branches I brought in and the first two opened fully Wednesday night and their lovely lemony scent filled the room. And then Friday morning I woke to find that two more buds had flowers descending and it looks as if at least one stalk in the water is starting to send out little root buds. The third flower opened last night.

Earlier in the week I moved the bigger plants in pots that I brought in just for this cold spell back outside and uncovered everything I had covered and while all the foliage is brown and ugly everything seems to still be green at (and below) ground level, even the tender porterweed. The one exception is the ponytail palm which I think at this point will stay green! The foliage looks good, maybe only a little damage, but as near as I can tell, all the 'necks' are firm.

Our son came out to visit Wednesday, our first time to see each other in the flesh since covid hit. Good to see him and hug him. He hadn't seen the remodeling of the house after the flood and then we went over and visited with Pam who is back from Albuquerque. Later I started cutting back all the dead plant life, so far just the ginger and firespike and all the mushy goo from bulbs of all kinds. Our crazy weather, after 5 days of arctic freeze we're now having a week of high temps in the 70˚s. Big Mama has survived once again and she was out on her sunning spot.

Nothing much going on around here, I always consider the time between Christmas and New Year's to be a lost week where no one does anything and nothing gets done, the recuperative week after several weeks of festive activity. Not that we engage in festive activities but the rest of the world that does.

I spent the day yesterday cutting back dead growth leaving piles of debris for later retrieval as I move around this half acre and that's my plan for today as well. Might even torch the burn pile. It'll take several more days to get it all. I'll leave the banana trees for last as they will be a days effort all by themselves and that's not even counting the ones over in the shop yard.

Well, I'd best get out there and get to it.

 

falling over brown stuff

I trust everyone who celebrates Christmas had a loving festive holiday. We had our usual quiet day though the twins, Jade and Autumn, came by for a visit while they're in town.

They left today, headed back to Austin as Autumn has to be back at work tomorrow. She's already gotten a promotion and raise. Jade, whose official residence is in Dallas with her great aunt, works from home so as long as she has her work computer with her she can do so anywhere. And now that she has a car, that's her (used) jeep in the picture, she's not tied to Dallas as long as her department continues to work from home. Still no car for Autumn but she has her moped which had been malfunctioning so she's been ubering to work and taking the bus home but now it seems to be fixed finally so I gave her my heavy coat since she didn't have one. She had to move, again, on the 23^rd. Her living situation is in constant flux, has moved three times since she graduated last May, but the apartment she's subletting now for the next 6 months is closer to her work and will give her some time to find permanent housing. My grandson, Audra, and my great grandgirl are supposed to be coming in later this week from Arkansas. And my sister returns from Albuquerque tomorrow.

I've basically been hunkered down in the house for the last three days though I did have to go out for birdseed. I usually buy a giant bag at Costco which is heavy on the sunflower seeds and light on the millet and that's what I ran out of. The seed I got Saturday looked to have a good proportion but in reality, it's heavy on the millet and the birds don't seem to like it as much. They like the pecans I've been putting out though. I put them out for the squirrels to keep them off the bird feeder but the blue jays have helped themselves.

Plenty of damage out there...ginger, firespike, shrimp plant, night blooming jasmine, 

confederate roses, banana trees, 

morning glory bush, yellow bells, purple orchid tree, rock rose, Mexican bird of paradise, Rangoon creeper, pink desert willow vine, Mexican petunias, toad lily, salvia, plumbago, turk's cap, white and purple Philippine lily, hummingbird bush, and lantana all frozen to the ground. Leopard plant, crinums, spider lilies, agapanthus, amaryllis, society garlic, swamp lily, some easter lily and daylily foliage all mush. Roses and azaleas damaged. 

Orange cosmos, 

marigolds, and my little broccoli/cabbage/cauliflower plants are dead. I think it will all come back (well, not the dead ones) as it has the past two winters after days of a hard freeze, except for the annuals for which I have seed. Tomorrow it should be warm enough to uncover everything out in the yard and pull back the big tarp in the garage and see what there is to see. Today was warm enough but still one more night below freezing.

It's not all dismal. Apparently two of the 10 buds on the the yellow angel trumpet branches I cut off and put in water were far enough along that the flowers have descended. It remains to be seen if they actually open.

I finally got motivated Sunday and today to do my home yoga routine, even threw in some extra stuff and Minnie got a walk for the first time since last Thursday so we are slowly warming up and thawing out.

Tomorrow is Marcmas! Time marches on and birthdays add up. He'll be 71.

 

the frozen south

I thought, this time I am going to be completely prepared in advance. By Wednesday afternoon everything was pruned and covered. I was especially happy with how I had covered the enormous ponytail palm. It was only a year's growth like last winter but I have everlasting hope that this year I will save the foliage. It's planted on the south side of a concrete wall about 4' high and I always anchor the tarp along the top of the wall and down from there and then all around the bottom thinking the concrete will exude any residual heat from the day. About 5 PM Thursday I called Robin, who is house/cat sitting for my sister while she's gone, to look out the window and see if the ponytail was still covered as this front is blowing in with high winds. Yes, she says, oh wait, it's sliding off now. Well fuck. Grabbed my coat and my ropes and headed over to recover the ponytail. Robin came out to help and now that baby is covered and cinched up like a whore in a corset. But goddamn that wind was cold.

So, yeah, this arctic front, mumble mumble fucking people and global warming, is a bitch. We do not ordinarily have winters that get this cold and yet this is the third one in a row. Hey! You people up there in the frozen north, close the fucking door!

My desk with the vase of cuttings to root, my sister's gardenia bonsai, and the three yellow angel trumpet branches that had the most buds on them, maybe one or two will still open (wishful thinking there).

It dropped down to 16˚ but not until early this morning. The wind is still blowing with gusts up to 25 mph. Cat was convinced she wanted to go outside but has finally stopped bugging me. There's a 12” icicle hanging from the edge of the birdbath which is frozen solid, the turtle pond is only partially covered with ice so the birds still have access to water and I imagine Big Mama is hunkered down by the pump motor which creates some heat, and the bird feeder is almost empty so I'm going to have to brave the outdoors in a little while.

We were fairly busy at SHARE Thursday and the temp was climbing to 60˚. When it was time to leave at 1 PM and I drove around back to get the cardboard from the day to take it to the recycling center which I do every Thursday, the wind had shifted and there was a slight chill in it. I planned to go to the library on my way home but wasn't quite finished with my current book, had about 20 more pages, so I had taken it in with me and in between having to refill baskets I managed to finish so now I'm set with two books.

I took pictures of some of the personal hygiene items that were donated last week. These two pictures comprise only about half of what was donated. There was a smaller full box next to these and also doesn't count the amount that has already been brought in and organized in boxes in the back room.

I moved the bird feeder back under the hood hanging from the wire strung between trees. I watched a squirrel in this tree or that tree or the shepherd's crook or the edge of the roof or on the elephant plant stand trying to figure out how to get to the bird feeder. Eventually it or another started walking the wire. I chased it off. Several times. They are little pigs and spill more of the sunflower seeds on the ground than they eat. I have a tiny forest of sunflower sprouts under the shepherd's crook. Or did. I imagine they're frozen like everything else outside now. I finally took pity on her and put out a dish of pecans and one of cracked corn at the bottom of the tallow tree she was sitting in last. You might ask where the pecans came from since I've been moaning that I haven't gotten a single one from my trees for three years now. Someone donated a 2 year old sealed bag of pecan halves to SHARE but we can't give out food that is beyond its sell or use by date so I brought them home and threw them in the freezer thinking I would test one and see if it was edible and then forgot about them until today.

Oh, I see a squirrel in the tallow eating a pecan so I guess she found them.

If it wasn't so damn cold it would be a gorgeous day outside.

I've got dinner thawing out, stuffed cabbage casserole left over from a previous day's cooking so I think I'm going to spend the rest of the day on the couch with a book, Minnie on one side, Cat on the other, until it's time to heat it up.

 

preparations, white knuckles, J6 referrals

Minnie and Cat getting closer.

I got up Sunday morning and checked the weather app hoping hoping hoping that the low of 21˚ on Thursday night had been revised upward. It had been revised all right but not upward. Now the predicted low for Thursday is 15˚!!! And 19˚ Friday night, 31˚ Saturday night so I spent the day pruning back the pink angel trumpet and the begonia and brought them and my tall cactus/succulent in the house, pruned the tops of the wedding bouquet plumerias so the big tarp would cover them in the garage, took cuttings of the firespike and morning glory bush which will freeze to the ground but I don't know if they'll come back, moved the two potted altheas into the garage, moved the big pot of walking iris in the house, snugged the white orchid tree up against the house protected on the north and west side, cut back the porterweed and bougainvillea in preparation for being covered both of which probably won't survive the teens anyway as well as the bird of paradise and gardenia which I will also cover. I'll have to cut the yellow trumpet flower back hard to cover it and it's just now covered with buds. I'll have to cover the ponytail palm too but I don't expect the foliage to survive the teens and twenties. It will be the third year in a row that its growth gets frozen down to the bulb. We're looking at 36 – 48 continuous hours well below freezing. The ginger, the shrimp plant which just started blooming, the leopard plant, the confederate roses, the crinums, the banana trees, the morning glory bush, the firespike, the yellow bells will all freeze to the ground. Some of those may not come back and I'm afraid this might just kill my azaleas. It took them til this summer to really recover from the arctic blast two winters ago and my sweet little Japanese azalea is so small.

I'll cover it but not the rest of the azaleas because I just don't have the material to cover everything. Hopefully it will finally kill off the white fly on my camellia that has resisted my efforts just so long as my camellia doesn't die as well.

I know my readers up north are probably rolling their eyes since they deal with temperatures like this and worse every winter plus snow and ice but I live on the coastal plain of Texas. It's not supposed to get this cold here. Just looked at the revised forecast...now four nights: 15˚, 19˚, 19˚, 25˚.

I did all that yesterday so that I can start getting things covered Tuesday and Wednesday. Today rain was predicted and I needed to take my sister to the airport this morning, an hour there and an hour back, for her flight to spend the holiday with her daughter in Albuquerque. It sprinkled/drizzled a little bit on the way there but mostly no rain at all and for the first half hour on the way back, but the last half hour was through a near zero visibility hard rain white knuckle drive. Seriously, if the vehicle in front of me was white, I basically couldn't see it unless they tapped their brakes and then I could see the tail lights. Fortunately I made it home without incident.

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The last J6 committee hearing was today and they reviewed their previous findings which findings they felt were enough for criminal referrals of Trump and unnamed 'others' (possibly Eastman, Meadows, Giuliani, and Clark) to the DOJ for:

1. Obstruction of an Official Proceeding - Title 18 Section 1512

2. Conspiracy to Defraud the United States – Title 18 Section 371

3. Conspiracy to Make a False Statement – Title 18 Section 1001

4. “Incite”, “Assist” or “Aid or Comfort” an Insurrection – Title 18 Section 2383

Unfortunately a referral doesn't mean the DOJ will follow up with an investigation and indictment but we have high hopes that this DOJ will proceed on the recommendations of the J6 Committee. In addition to these criminal referrals, the J6 Committee recommended 4 House members, including McCarthy, to the House ethics committee for refusing to honor subpoenas. That will likely go nowhere once the new House is sworn in since republicans have a slim majority. And of course the usual House republicans and the MAGAts over at the cesspool Twitter has become are going nuts.

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Well, I totally messed up my 'finished with my task' post. I meant to juxtapose the starting picture (which is really first day progress picture because, well, me who always forgets to take a before picture) with the finished picture. So I know we are all tired of seeing these pictures but I'm going to post the two anyway because I want to see them together. You don't have to look at them or comment on them. You can see the hackberry tree in both pictures that I still need to cut down.

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Alright, tomorrow is grocery shop day and my night to fix dinner which I think I'm going to make a lentil stew and in between those tasks I'll start covering stuff.