I Promised A Tale...

of my weekend work but it's Monday and I think I've  forgotten.  I know I started with a walk, my camera died.  I piled some fallen limbs in the pasture.  I listened to the highland crew rumbling vehicles and cringed at the raping of the land.  I placed rocks in washed places and picked up flint chips. 

Eight AM on a Sunday, here comes another truck and they park at the gate where the horses have gathered.  I head that way to see if there's a problem.  No problem, waiting on equipment.  I asked,  coming
through the pasture? Yep.  Do you guys know how much it rained?  Nope.  The piece has tracks, no problem.  Well, I mentioned the last time they crossed that pasture when they were told to go another way, how they bogged down two vehicles and almost got the dozer stuck too (remember the pictures).  I was not heard.

Track equipment is wonderful for one thing...it does travel where wheels will not, but it also tears the land apart!  This is disturbing land that has probably never been tracked that deep.  Sometimes they even leave track piles on the county road that a car cannot cross.  Hush, Gail, you were gonna tell them about all the work you accomplished, remember, no griping allowed.

I headed to the creek to breathe deep and enjoy the quiet of my early Sunday morning, uh, not this week, that was another time BEFORE the crew.

The water cress is blooming so most of it is very hot to eat now but still good in a salad.  Conditions have been wonderful for it to grow and I add removing the water cress from the spring branches to my growing list of things to do.

I have been letting my horses out to graze in the yard and the spring valley since the grass is so wonderful.  They have been naughty.  They rolled in the freshly planted, things coming up already garden.  Charme walked over apple trees in the orchard and broke limbs off young trees just to scratch her belly.  Okay, guys, your freedom shall be limited now.

Opened the alternate pasture, remembered two sections were cut out of the web wire to get a tractor through to haul out logs for posts (a month ago).  Okay, here's your job, go get two cattle panels carry them to this section and Southern engineer the hole in the fence.  I get the Polaris and carefully balance a twelve foot panel across the bed and drive over all the lumps left by machinery, barely fit through the gate and finally get within forty feet of the fence...and the panel falls off.  I carry it the rest of the way, piece of cake, brace and tie it to a metal post and head out for the other panel.

The horses are grazing in their new section peacefully until I head back in with the second panel.  You could see the idea hit Charme, I swear there was a light bulb above her head.  She starts trotting to the hole in the fence.  I am hollering whoa, don't you dare, come back here, all this while I am reaching backwards with one arm where I won't lose this panel and bouncing toward the hole in the fence. Charme finally listened but I got that hateful look that she sometimes gives me when things don't go her way.

I am almost to the fence and same spot, the panel slides, I remember to let go as my shoulder is wrenched from its socket and also remember to stop the ranger.  So I am doing good here.  Carry this panel too, hook it into the other panel and it lacks six inches before it reaches the next post!  Go back to the ranger looking for wire, anything to fill that hole, found some wire, nothing to cut it.  I am not making twenty five trips back to the shop to get this done.  I am making do, Southern engineering all the way.  I found a hachet and a hammer and proceed to cut the wire.  It works and I weave my magic with the wire and the panels.

Whew, I am finished, no one has escaped and it is just noon!

I'm In The Can

After all our wonderful blessings, I feel guilty about fussing but here goes...Maybe if I say it out loud and get some suggestions from y'all, I can get my s--- together and straighten up.

Most time not spent at my paying job is spent outside trying to get this farm back together after the tornado and years of neglect.

Yesterday, my clothes dryer died and the washer was in its last throes. Tired of repairing it, we loaded up and headed to Sears. I walked in and said I want the best bargain, least buttons and largest capacity you have. Ten minutes later, we were loading up. Hubby said that is the way I like to shop.

Next stop was farm supply, only for a strap to tie the W/D in since Den was not comfortable with the tie he had. We went in for one tie down thingy. It took forever. First we had to look at all of them, read all of them, then wander around to see if there were anymore. Got to check out and Den asked about chainsaw chains and found they made them in the store. So he heads to the back AGAIN. I sidestep into the horse area...now most of you, knowing me, would look for me there. I mean, think if there was one place in a farm supply store that I would most likely be, most of you would pick horse stuff, right? Not my hubby, after a long wait, I peeked out of the horse corner and saw him going up and down the isles looking. I stepped out and he mouthed, I've been looking for you...well, if you knew your wife of thirty-six years, you would know she is in the horse section. Not even to mention, the last three trips to farm supply, he ran me out of the horse section.

We headed home, unhooked the old, rehooked the new. The old ones are still here in the room.
That was not even what I was going to gripe about!

I need inspiration to get my inside life in order.

I have a beautiful red cedar picnic table that Daddy made. It is just outside the dining room for overflow and serves a dual purpose as a folding table for laundry. It is full of folded piles of clothes.

My kitchen, which has been the deer jerky factory for days, is butt deep in dishes and mess. There is enough dirt in the floor to grow a good sized garden. I have named my spiders. Hate to get rid of them, they keep the mice down.

My bathrooms are growing mushrooms.

My dining room table is the catch all and is piled to the ceiling.

My sheets were changed sometime after Halloween.
...And here's the scary part...I DO NOT CARE!

Help, I need inspiration, I need direction, I need a maid!

I used to be superwoman but at fifty-four that seems to be fading. With a full time job and spending all my daylight hours outside, I have no inclination to attack the inside.

Comments please, millions of them, I need help or my family may perish in a avalanche of filth.