long day and rummaging through more tubs

Monday I called two people and another on Tuesday for bids on cutting down, cutting up, and hauling away the hanging limbs on the two pecan trees. One Monday and the one on Tuesday came out the day I called. The second guy I called on Monday didn’t return my call until Wednesday afternoon after I had the work done Wednesday morning. He called again yesterday evening. Too late guy, should have returned my call on Monday.

The man I hired and his two helpers did an excellent job and very reasonable. The one limb hanging by a shred of bark came down quickly and was cut up in minutes. It probably took the about 30 minutes of discussion and moving the extension ladder around to finally decide how to approach the more dangerous dangling limbs on the other tree though Tuesday afternoon the two limbs that were detached but hung had fallen on their own.

When those two limbs came down with a whump I guess I jumped because John looked over at me and asked was I nervous; yup, little bit. This is what the trees look like now. I hope the one closest to the house will regenerate because I’d hate to lose it completely.

Wednesday was a long day. After the crew drove off with the trailer full of more than half my pecan tree 

I went ahead and emptied the truck onto the now really big burn pile (went wide instead of tall) and Marc went out to run some errands. I got a phone call later…car trouble, car wouldn’t start. After a series of phone calls between Marc, myself, Robin, and car mechanic grandson Mikey, Mikey’s domestic partner Audra showed up to jump the battery with the fancy little battery charger gizmo and then followed Marc home with Paisleigh and waited until Mikey got off work so I got a nice little visit with my great granddaughter. When Mikey got here he and Marc went off to get a new battery and he switched it out for us so, car fixed.

Earlier this week I was looking through more of the tubs in my sister’s shed and found more christmas ornaments, a fancy elf or fairy as the case may be, 

her antique plastic Mr. Snowman that you can put a light inside, 

a tub full of santas and nutcrackers, all of which will go to SHARE. I pulled out these crocheted and starched snowflakes that Pam made to see if anyone in blogland wants them.

Also found her soap making stuff and another tub full of her genealogy research…documents and pictures. Her younger daughter took all the binders of the family lines that were in the house right after Pam’s death and she’s coming to get the rest of the genealogy stuff today. The soap making stuff I’m going to post on the local chat page on FB free for the taking. 

Now that the weather has cooled off somewhat, key word here ‘somewhat’ since it’s still getting into low 90s during the day but the mornings are nice and cool, the shrimp plant, the white philippine lilies, the rangoon creeper, the morning glory bush, and the pink trumpet flower are all blooming but this post is already heavy on images so can wait until the next post.

more spring work and sorting christmas ornaments

I took care of two tasks Saturday…

I finally cut down the dead banana trees and hauled their carcasses to the edge of the Wild Space and tossed the sections as far as I could. I was surprised to see that last year’s pile had completely disintegrated. Here’s the before picture though I had already cut down the smaller ones on the left

and the after. Tired and sweaty when I was done.

The other thing I did was go through all Pam’s christmas ornaments with Robin taking pictures of groupings and then sent the pictures to the group chat of family members to see if anyone wanted any of it. Ended up with 10 groupings of which here are a few.

And the christmas tree skirt our mother made when we were small children. 

It’s old and has some stains on it and I’m sorry no one wants it. Of course Pam, our brother John, and I are the only ones who probably have any real memory of or association with it. I’m not quite sure what to do with it. I have no use for it, my brother doesn't want it. Our kids have their own stuff and our grandkids are not old enough to have any real desire for legacy stuff. So I guess I’ll take it to SHARE (along with all the ornaments no one wants) and perhaps someone will fall in love with it stains and all. 

Sunday I planted the yellow angel trumpet in the ground in the same place the big pot had been sitting. I intended to do that last spring but waited too late because after our prolonged spring which allowed me to get all the flower beds weeded and tidied and zinnias planted weather jumped straight to late summer. Here it is planted which doesn’t look very impressive as it freezes down to the roots every winter with these arctic blasts we’ve been getting even though I cover it and I’ve cut back all the dead stalks. 

You might remember that last fall it was at least 8’ tall.

I had to dig a big hole fighting and cutting out roots to accommodate the big root ball. This is the pot it was in (21"dia x 17"t)

and even though I dug away about a third of the dirt and roots it was still big enough and heavy enough that I couldn’t lift it but rolled it into the hole. Then I mixed about half and half the nice loose dirt from the pot with the thick clayey dirt from the hole and filled in around it. It had already sprouted some tiny new growth.

Jade is in town for a few days and she’s coming over today for us to do some repair and altering of some of her clothes.

a tour of a run down rabbit warren of a house

Friday Pam and I went to, I hate to call it an estate sale because it was more like walking through an old abandoned house that had been ransacked. It was the second time around for this place so I have no idea what it looked like or offered the first time because we didn't go then. There were some tables set out with dishes and mugs and a lot of very nice wood bowls

and other stuff but mostly it looked like this. This was the largest room in the house and this is about 1/3rd of the room.

The house itself was a wonder and I don't necessarily mean in a good way. It looked like it started out as three rooms and was added onto higgledy piggledy, like a rabbit warren which I would have found to be fun if it all didn't look like it was put together with scrap picked up here and there. Many of the rooms had windows that looked into other rooms where a new room had been added on later. There were two long halls, perpendicular to each other and in our memory driving back home we counted at least 15 rooms, 16 if you include what looked like it might have been an enclosed attached small garage (can't remember if it was open at one end or not), 7 of which seemed to be bedrooms. We wondered if it had been a rooming house, either that or they had a lot of children. The old paneling in places looked like bits and pieces put up whichever way, another part of the house looked like the walls were wood planks, ceilings at least 10' with rows of storage space all the way to the ceiling in every room. One little bathroom and one of the rooms had hot and cold water lines so I assume there was a washer in there and as old and ratty as that house was, the water lines were PEX which I found oddly too modern.

From the biggest room you could get to this hall.

Off this hall were three bedrooms and at the end it opened into a mud room/pantry/store room (below) which is where I was standing when I took the picture above looking back towards the entrance to the kitchen and the first room.

The bedrooms all looked like this with a mountain of clothes? linens? blankets? fabric? who can tell? except for the biggest one at the end of the other hall which was mostly empty.

The other end of the first hall opened into a vestibule with the bathroom off to the right and the kitchen to the left. 

From the kitchen you could get to the dining room or maybe the original living room. 

It had a door to a bedroom on one wall and a short hall off another wall with a small room on the left full of boxes of fabric? and ending at the closed in garage like room which had a big box full of loose lace trims among other junk. Also from the kitchen was a doorway into another small room that I have no idea what it's function was but it led to the second hall with 2 rooms off to the right, the first of which had the PEX water pipes, a room at the end, and on the left closets (full of clothes) and a doorway to a bedroom behind the one you got to from the dining room.

There were also two run down small out buildings full of junk and trash and when we got there a woman was pulling dozens of square glass canisters with metal lids out of one of them. Another couple was digging up narcissus bulbs and iris rhizomes so Pam and I went behind them and pulled up the rest that had been loosened that they didn't take. I did find one item, a lazy susan that was very stiff and wouldn't turn but just needed to be taken apart and the ball bearings cleaned up and now it works fine.

Last night another cold front started blowing in with high NW winds and lows in the 30˚s and today's predicted high in the 40˚s. The last two days started out cool in the morning but warmed up nicely so I got some weeding done and got the narcissus and iris planted temporarily until I figure out where I really want them.

they don't look very happy right now

busy day, more progress, dinner

Thursday at SHARE was so busy! Last week we were supposed to get our food delivery from the food bank in Victoria but they somehow neglected to put our order on the truck. Anyway, it arrived Thursday and while I was packing all the bread into the chest freezer we started getting food clients. I was like 4 orders behind before I even started refilling the baskets and it just kept going. We had something like 19 clients and most were big families. I guess stopping the enhanced unemployment early in our state (just one of the many mean spirited things our governor does) has had an effect on people's ability to buy food.

First thing Thursday morning I got a text from the metal fabricating guy that yes, he had a drop off, the pieces were cut, he filed the edges to get rid of burs and they were ready to pick up. So I stopped by and got them on my way home from SHARE. Took them over to the shop after lunch, put the glass on for a quick peek, and I'm very happy with the look. Then I cleaned up the second trumpet flower mold and got my volume measure and put it aside until I get these two drowned feather pieces mounted and photographed and sent off to the gallery. After that I cleaned up the mold making table. And then I laid down for a half hour or so until time to leave for yoga class. A full busy day.

Friday Pam and I went to an estate sale 70% of which was holiday oriented. These people loved to decorate for holidays, and bake cakes for same. There were indoor and outdoor decorations for Christmas and Halloween, of course (these two had the lion's share of decor), but also Thanksgiving, St. Patrick's Day, Valentines day (it just occurred to me I didn't see anything specifically for Easter). And wreaths, lots of big gauzy wreaths and a few other oddball items.

not even all the cake pans

about a fourth of the outdoor decorations...maybe

Then I worked on the aluminum squares sanding the outer perimeters about 2” all the way around to give them an even finely textured look.

And then since it was my turn to cook dinner (I'm taking over two nights a week) that's what I did. I had half a link of already cooked venison and pork sausage from the night before so I sliced that up, peeled and boiled about a pound of potatoes and par boiled them long enough to cube them up, chopped an onion and garlic cloves, and sliced up half a head of cabbage. Sautéed the onions and garlic in olive oil and butter, added the potatoes and continued to cook them until done and browned, added the sausage to warm it up, and then 2 T water and the cabbage and stir and cover, stirring occasionally, until the cabbage is cooked to taste. Doesn't take long.

Today head to Lowe's and/or Home Depot to get a small piece of 1/4” plywood, peruse the adhesives and pick one, and get a strip of french cleat/z-bar to finish mounting the two feather pieces for the show for hanging.

a respite from the heat but not from the work that needs doing

I got all the Georgia peaches given away or put up, all the blueberries put up, tomato sauce made and put up. Adding all that to all the dewberries and corn that got put up and there isn't enough room in the freezer to slide a piece of paper in there so Thursday I made a trip to Lowe's for a small chest freezer cause now I have a big bag of potatoes I need to do something with. And then I didn't buy one because...covid-19. Who knew that besides toilet paper people were buying up freezers fast and furious! The guy in the appliance department at Lowe's says they get trucks in Monday and Wednesday mornings and on those days people start lining up soon after they open to be able to buy whatever small chest freezers that happen to be on the truck. There are no floor models, they aren't allowed to put anything on order because they can't guarantee an ETA, people get pissed, want their money back, yell at the managers. There were two Chinese models that I had never heard of but declined to get one of those. The guy said he didn't expect things to get back to some semblance of normal til mid July. I'll wait. Because I have the freezer compartment in our old refrigerator from the city house that's over at the shop that I can utilize in the meantime. It was nasty inside though since it's been unplugged for months so I spent yesterday afternoon cleaning the inside.

After those two brutally hot days we woke up Wednesday morning to delightfully cool air and low humidity so I got out there with the trimmer and did the yard and then around the gate to the shop yard and then around the rose bush and the banana trees and yellow bells and started on another area when I ran out of gas the second time and that was enough for the day. Today I trimmed all the way across the front of the shop (it was all about knee high) and started around the bunker but soon ran out of gas, me and the trimmer, and one tank of gas was all I had in me today (and of course no before picture because...me) (and I have once again amazed impressed the boys) but it looks really good now. I need to get out there and poison the fence line again, maybe later today, maybe tomorrow.

There's a sidewalk under there that I have yet to completely uncover.

Also Thursday Pam and I finally ventured out to an estate sale. This is the third in person one (the first one after she started up was virtual). It wasn't too crowded and 90% of the people were wearing masks but not the woman who runs them or any of her employees. It amazes me that people think the virus is over especially since we've had 32 new cases in our county in less than the past two weeks when it took months to get the first 50 or so. Anyway, we didn't stay long as there really wasn't anything of interest. From there we tried to get the freezer with no luck and then, because we were very close, we went to Caldwell's nursery where I picked up a couple of rudbeckias and Pam got the other half of my birthday present, the thing that goes in the Talavera pot she gave me, which is a yesterday, today, and tomorrow since none of the ones I tried to bring from the city house when we sold that property survived.

And the buds on the fig tree have turned into leaves and three new buds have appeared.

So what did I do this morning before I used the trimmer? Went and got more Fredericksburg peaches, though I did just get the small basket. They're small this year and have kind of a mottled and thick skin but I had one for lunch and it was the best peach I've eaten so far. So what did I do after lunch? Went and bought more tomatoes from a guy in Boling who comes to the Farmer's Market here on Saturday morning but I wanted first pick and since he also sells out of his house, I went there. Very pretty too. The tomatoes, not the house. Though the house is nice enough.

Tomorrow I deal with tomatoes. These and the ones in the refrigerator from last weekend and the ones my neighbor brought me a couple of days ago will get processed for freezing for use later in the year.

a nice surprise, spring, and a most despicable person

I successfully made my returns, got the board and the 3-light fixture. They gave me a handful of cash at one end of the store and I handed almost all of it back to them at the other end of the store.

I have a small collection (6) of antique glass shades that I've picked up from antique stores and estate sales from time to time. Three of them are on the ceiling fan in the living room

  

and the other three have been sitting on a shelf waiting for me to grind down the small rim some so that they would fit in the ceiling fan in the back bedroom but when I got home with the new fixture I wondered if they would fit and they did!

  

So the plan now is to use them in the bathroom and return the other three shades. Other than that, Rocky showed up Monday and got the last pencil tile up edging the outside edge of the wall tile, took down the 4-light fixture, and primered all three doors so some progress but baby steps.

So it's spring, has been for weeks, that little nose dive into the 20˚s notwithstanding. The birds have beed active and a wren built a nest in one of my birdhouses. She startled me when she burst out of it when I got too near. I think I mentioned that I cut all the dead fronds? leaves? off the banana trees about mid-February and new growth was starting to emerge which was summarily burned by the freeze that followed.

halfway through

done

I uncovered this little tree frog

and this one jumped onto the ladder

So the coronavirus is still expanding exponentially and what is top on Trump's and his ignorant (because no way will Trump appoint anyone for anything that he thinks is smarter than he is) sycophantic ass kissing administration's plan for combating it? A billion dollar financial relief package for those most in need like laborers and other workers who can't afford to miss a day much less two weeks of work, hospitals and healthcare workers? Oh hell no. He wants to give this financial aid to industries that have had a decade of record profits and can weather this downturn just fine, thankyouverymuch. Because Trump's only concern is buoying up the stock market which he sees as essential to his reelection. People getting sick? People dying? People who are one or two paychecks away from homelessness? Fuck them. And stop reporting new cases and deaths, stop warning people, stop canceling events cause you are making Trump look bad. Sanders and Biden have canceled rallies, Trump refuses to because then he'll have to admit that the pandemic is really happening. Does it make me a bad person to want all those Magats to get sick from his rallies? I don't want anyone to die but I wouldn't mind if they got sick.

If we can't get any real justice at least we could get some poetic justice.

Edit: Well, I see this morning that Trump did cancel his two upcoming rallies.