Fun Easy Post with Pictures!

I took these photos back in early and mid summer as I laid out stepping tiles and planted grass in between and then got our fountain set up.  

I thought this would be a fun post to reflect back on how much I love spring and summer and how I still like fall, but as the leaves all get brown and fall off and it is all brown and gray outside, and then the darkness comes...yuck not so much.  LOL.  

This area of my yard is between the back porch and our deck where grass is sort of hard to grow because of the shade and because it is high traffic area.  Plus, I knew I wanted to put a fountain here, and I considered doing completely flagstones, but that was going to be too expensive and too harsh looking anyway.  I don't really want to do much landscaping here, because the leaves really get thick in here and it is so hard to rake out of all these corners.  So, I thought these pavers spread out would help with the traffic and minimize the effect of the non consistent grass growing.  Plus, it gives us a platform for the fountain and i just mow over it as if it were all grass.  I think I like it.  I put a groundcover over lining the deck, so it will fill in and i won't have to trim up by the deck, just let it grow.  I can't wait to see how it does next spring after it gets going.  This is the light green moneywort and it is very low maintenance.  Around the edge over next to the patio I am going to get large river rocks and just make a nice border, where i can rake or blow the leaves off easily and it will look nice since we don't have gutters on this side and the rain just drips.  

Oh, how far away spring feels...

 

Work, Work, Work

 So, I am doing ok at my new job.  Finally getting into a routine and developing some systems around how to do my job and be most efficient and effective.  The learning curve was the first couple weeks and now I am settling into a way of working that seems to be working pretty well.  I think I will even come to enjoy it, once I feel more confident. 

Although the money is nice (got my first paycheck), I hope that the mandatory 60 hours a week does not go on too long.  I mean, I have done 60 hour workweeks before - and NOT at home, but it is a lot and gets old after a few months.  We figure with the pandemic ramping up all over the country, we will probably have to continue this schedule through winter, and maybe through spring.

I had a treadmill that I found used.  I used it probably not even 20 miles and it went kaput.  So I ordered and received one from Sams.  It was very heavy in a huge box.  DH and I opened the box in the driveway and took out the pieces we could.  Then we dragged the bottom half of the huge box into the house and down the hallway to the spare guestroom.  DH spent about 3 hours yesterday putting it together.  Today was nice, so i did couple miles at lunch.  I am going to do 2 more miles on my new treadmill after work today.  I have been conditioning so well, hiking and such, i don't want to loose my strength I have built up.  Plus, I still need to lose about 15 pounds to be more comfortable in my clothes.  Good luck during a pandemic!

Anyway.  Just pretty much working and getting my routine down.  On my only day off that I did not have to go anywhere, Sunday.  I raked my front yard and tore down my raised veggie garden.  Then i had a nice long walk inthe sunshine and listened to my newest library book on tape.  Hillbilly Elegy by J.D. Vance.  The subtitle is "A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis".  He is a young man who grew up pretty poor in Appalachia with a mother who abused pain medication and a father he did not know who managed to get through law school and graduate from Yale Law.  It is really good.

Well, I hope all you out there stay safe and aren't running out of TP.  Our Sams was out on Sunday.  Here we go again!

Saturdays

I told my DH upon retirement 2.0 that I was going to work out a schedule so that I plan for chores and household tasks, time with my DH and our dogs/hobbies, relaxation and sleep equally.

So far, this us working well.  I get up and ho to the gymn 3 or 4 times a week, then I do shopping or house cleaning,  then afternoons we read, fix dinner, watch TV, etc.  We both agree that we want to enjoyvoyr weekends as always.   I might walk outside with the dogs versus the gymn...if I want to wear pjs all day and watch TV or read, I will.

Today I listened to my audio book while working outside.   Sometimes I listen to podcasts. I need to structure in more time for blogging - a nice dilemma.
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Today I ran errands,  then worked in the yard...taking, cutting down tomatoe plants, my peonies,  etc.  Mulched our raised beds.  Was pretty and sunny today.

I am grateful for my yard today.   I took a break from working on my last 10-12 feet of fence row, it feels like I strained some muscles pulling Friday.

Hope to do little more yard work tomorrow before it gets yucky and cold.

Expensive and exhaustive weekend

I am here at work this week doing Wed thru Friday, since my DH had dental surgery yesterday.  After he was finished, we got our smoothies and I took him home, fixed soup and some yummy zucchini bread for him (soft foods).  We were so concerned about how quickly our elderly male dog had deteriorated in past 3 days, we took him to vet.

She confirmed he was in congestive heart failure.  Had fluid in lungs, around heart/heart enlarged and in abdomen.  She suggested a medicine for us to see if we can get him to breathe easier and give us some time to accept we are in process of losing him - but more likely to be a more peaceful decline and little longer.  W/o medicine he was struggling to breathe.

That, plus dental surgery + several household problems - was an EXPENSIVE weekend.

Thursday night I got home from work in the city.  I took this cool picture of the moon and planet/star? with the train.

We caught up, I enjoyed a show to relax and then we went to bed.  I heard an owl outside, so I went to open the blinds so I could open the window and the blind broke the bracket.  We could have just replaced the one blind hardware - but they were the ugly thin (and yellowed) cheap looking kind - so we just went ahead and replaced all 3 windows plus door - yikes, cost like $370 and was a LOT of work for DH.  I mostly just handed tools and provided moral support.

Then next morning our dryer broke.  So we googled what might be wrong and DH watched a couple videos on You Tube and off to the appliance place we went!  We got the small part and DH put it it - viola!  Saved $1200 there!  So happy, we went ahead and went to a 'junk' festival in a pretty town about 30 miles away.  SO glad we went, we found a metal trellis that perfectly fit in between our garage and detached carport-turned-shop.  Looks very nice and prevents people from just creeping in there (I watch too many Dateline - type shows!). 

I got some more landscaping finished in my yard.  Some I was NOT planning.  We got over 6 inches of rain on Sunday, washed a bunch of my mulch out - so I will now gradually switch out the mulch to river rock.  Since it is pretty expensive, I will have to do it gradually and perhaps over time, the time saved not always having to replace mulch from a portion of our yard that has drainage it will pay for itself.  You can sort of see the water flow under deck from right and go out the far side.  I need better pictures.

Next day I was going to vacuum but my $600 Dyson (about 4-5 years old) just quit.  We tried getting it to start again, just not working.  So we bought a Shark this time.  Hope it works well and lasts a while!

Now I am tired and broke!  At least this is my last week of work for a while, which makes me have anxiety.  I just hope that my DH and my sweet boy do OK for 3 days without me. 

Another Whirlwind Weekend

Worked on another border area up next to my house, doing the same halfway buried brick type paver border.  Only this entire back border next to house, I am just doing decorative rock.  This area does not have gutters, so there is always an area where the water drips and beats down anything planted here.  Not sure why gutters never put here, but I am not spending the money to do that now. 

Also, this border will border on one side, the flagstone patio I am installing in between my deck and back porch foundation.  So, it will look neater and more uniform to include decorative rock here to border the small river rock I am putting around the flagstone for the shallow foundation edges that would make it hard to dig/plant.  I got 1/4 of the work finished yesterday.  My DH was good enough to run and get the 200 additional pavers for me.  I already had gotten 100 last week.  The pavers for all the border and the flagstones will cost less than $400.  The lava rock I got free I am leaving - not wild about it.  But hey it was free and coordinates nicely with the brick foundation trim on the house and the red dyed circle fire pit pad the prior home owners poured and we completed with circular stacked pavers around a metal ring for our big fire pit.

I love working in the yard and was disappointed I had to come to work today and could not keep working!  It was high 70's and pretty high humidity yesterday, but that is much better than the high 80's/low 90's we have had mostly lately.  Check out my cute little figs starting on my fig tree!

Friday and Saturday there was a huge bike rally in our area of the state, so DH and I took off and had fun Friday and Sat.  Friday we took my convertible to the vendor area and walked around looking.  We bought me a good knife for cutting my apples from a local young man trying to get his start as a knife-smith.  We had a sign on the convertible and some guy asked about my car I am trying to sell - cross your fingers he really is interested.

Sat after we mowed the yard (I pulled so many weeds, my hands got tired!) we got the bikes out and rode to a car show and walked around and looked.  It was fun.  Then we stopped and had pizza on the way home. 

Sunday I rode to the city with my sister and we helped my Granny in her new place get pictures, mirror, curtains and shower curtains hung.  We are a little concerned that this retirement place has a conventional tub (?!) and a low toilet, but at least there are things you can do to raise the seat up on the toilet.  All in all, my aunt did a good job moving her mother.  Sis and i just helped with the finish work, then drove home 4 hours!

Then Monday landscaping and yoga.  I was so tired after yoga, I was asleep in like 5 minutes - 8:40 or so.  For my 2nd to the last 3:30am wake up Tuesday and 4 hour drive to work in the city.  One more week after this one!

Hope all you out there have a great week!  Happy October!

Rainy Spring Day

I was going to do some more working in the yard today.  But it is rainy.  Yesterday was warm and sunny, beautiful!  Moved 3 rather large azaleas with DH help.  Despite his bad back.  HOpe they survive.  Not planning to work outside, but the weather dictated I get outside!  Also was frustrated about a couple of minor things with my DH.  Felt good to take it out with a shovel and digging some holes!

Did my first organized hike/walk with a hiking group I joined.  I am SO GLAD I DID!  Loved the women, there were 4 of us.  Loved the potential.  They walk a lot and go out to eat, day trips to the city to go to Trader Joe's and Costco, even travel.  We hiked a 6 miles on the pavement.  Not hard for them, but was a challenge for me.  Much of it was up pretty steep incline.  I had over 18k steps that day!  Sunday.

My birthday was Saturday.  I did hot yoga in am, then took a nap.  Put my favorite top on and waited for the possibilities.  My good friend was supposed to drive down, but she told me Thursday had to postpone one week.  My other good friend, local.  Was out of town.  Did DH or in laws have plans to take me out for my birthday...evidently not!  To be fair, I do carry a pretty busy schedule and did not indicate to DH that I wanted to go out for dinner.  So, I improvised and opened a can of soup.  Viola.

But seriously I have had some minor annoyances that have interfered with my serenity that I will blog about soon.  I also plan to blog at my 6 month of retirement milestone.  Just perfect timing with some of my thoughts of doubt lately...stay tunes.  Nothing serious.

I continue to worry about some family members and good friends with serious problems.  Mine - not so much.  One of the ones I continue to worry about is my DH.  He has persisten anemia that is worrying me.  I will just keep putting it in God's hands.

What about you all?  Anything you want to talk about?  My neck and back and moved into my shoulder and now my lower back.  Geez.  I am going to check out our small town chiro tomorrow.

See you all later!

Whew I am Pooped

I wasn't able to meet my childhood friend's mom for lunch as her car still being worked on.

So I drove to other side of the county and walked a beautiful park loop around a lake with my niece.

Then I go home and worked on a wild fence row we have.  Our lot is an acre lot and one entire long side of rectangle is all overgrown with weeds, small trees and vines.  Eventually I want to fence the whole acre.  So I need to clear this grown up perimeter.   It is hard to maintain the fence row all grown up, it's unsightly, plus it's full of tick, chigger and flea habitat.

On top of the vegetation,  actually below, lol...there is an old fence row of rocks I have painstakingly started to excavate and move.

This will be a year or two long project.  But I am in no hurry.  I need to save up for the cost of fencing   I will save having to pay someone else labor.  I may seek quotes in someone helping me cut some of the trees.  I cut a couple with a hand saw, but I have no chainsaw and have no business getting one.

Today was beautiful, in the 60s.  Gonna be getting colder though for a week or so.   Welcome to late winter/spring in the south.  In our old city it was 30 today...no thanks.