Another busy Saturday, a busy week ahead

Friday evening Mama and I went to Lowe’s and Tractor Supply. To Lowe’s for lumber and to Tractor Supply for chicks. At Lowe’s I passed on the lumber I had intended to buy and purchased a backup style of wood for the cabinet I was working on. We also bought mulch and potting soil and some plants for Mama’s flower beds. I was not sure what work I would be able to get done on Saturday, but we had plenty of materials to get started. Tractor Supply was a bust as far as buying chicks was concerned. They had sold out the day they got chicks last week. Mama will try again this week.

After making some final measurements for the shelves I want to install in a cedar wardrobe Mama and I have had for many years, I started cutting the shelving boards to length. My original intent was to make the shelves out of particle board, but the sheet of particle board was so heavy that I did not think I could manage it by myself through the process of loading, unloading and then handling it for the several cuts I would be required to make for the shelving cuts. In my best days handling an eighty-pound piece of particle board was a struggle. At this point in my life, it is a two-person job.

So, I bought the same material I have used in making the parts for the beehives. Pine boards that are a true 1x6, treated and planed smooth on all edges. I cut those boards and used my biscuit joiner to get either two or three boards joined for the depth I needed for the shelving. That took some time, but I got all the shelves made by lunchtime. Today I will take them out of the clamps and stain them before mounting them in the cabinet. I have yet to install the cleats that I will mount the shelves on, but that should be a simple process – albeit time consuming. Nevertheless, Mama should have her cedar wardrobe repurposed into a craft cabinet late this week.

While I was waiting on the assembled shelves to dry, I got out the pole saw attachment for the multifunction weed eater I bought last summer, and I tried it out. I had to make several adjustments and even refit the bar to get it to function properly, but after an hour I had it working. It worked surprisingly well; however, it is a fixed length. I cannot extend it, so I had to make due with what it offered. To get to some of the branches I was trimming at the garden – to allow more morning sun onto the raised bed – I was required to use a ladder. I had to be careful to keep the branches from striking the garden shed roof as I trimmed them off, so positioning was important, especially when using the ladder. It was while I was trimming a large branch in the garden which overhung the raised bed that I got into a bit of trouble.

I tried to position the ladder to keep myself clear of the path I expected the branch to take as it fell but I miscalculated. As I finished cutting through the branch and I began to fall, I hesitated before I made the final cut. I was pretty sure I was okay where I had set up to make the cut. As I cut through the final portion to sever the branch at the tree, its outermost parts began to contact the ground and as the heaviest portion of the branch broke loose, it bounced back and hit me squarely in the chest. I had the pole saw in my right hand, so I used my left hand to lift the branch off my chest and redirect it to the ground. As I did, it sprang back just enough to hit me very hard in my left thigh. That blow caused the ladder to start leaning and I had to hop off the ladder – pole saw still in hand. I had to take a few minutes to recuperate after that incident. My chest and my leg are both still bruised and hurting. I was praising the Lord that the branch did not hit me in the face or head. That would have been far worse. At least I was positioned to avoid that type of strike. I still have two branches to trim out, but I will require help to get those removed.

Since I was moving slowly after my incident, I worked on filling containers for Mama to plant vegetables in. I hauled compost from around the area where we confine the residue from the coops as we clean them to put into the containers and filled the last several inches with the potting soil we had bought. That turned out well and hopefully this week we will get the plants set out that Mama plans to grow in those pots. Using pots for certain vegetable plants has worked out very well in the past, versus planting those plants in the garden. Mama and I also planted beans and butternut squash seeds in the garden.

Late this morning, Mama will drive to Oklahoma City to meet Brittany. They will caravan to the farm from there. Brittany is staying with us for a week so Mama can help her with the girls as she continues to recuperate from surgery she had a couple week ago. Andrew is spending the week away from home in training. So, this should be a fun week for us, plenty of activity as we enjoy the little ones in our home.

I will be teaching a class tomorrow.