Long weekend events

I took off an extra day last week. Since Friday was a holiday I took off Thursday also- hoping to get some work done on Victoria’s house. It did not turn out that way. Insurance let me know on Wednesday afternoon that they wanted more cosmetic repairs done before they would write a policy so that was on my mind for Thursday morning, until I found out how sick Mama was.

She woke us with some stomach issues and it rapidly got worse. All day Thursday she got out of bed only to stagger to the bathroom. I stayed close so I could keep an eye on her and worked around the house on small projects; one of which was a new door for her coop, another was putting on the front door knob that we had bought some months ago. She ate nothing that day and I ate very little since my stomach was little touchy also.

Friday she was only a little better so I worked in the garden and on the load of used wood I still have on the flatbed trailer. I built a couple boxes that became home to our strawberries and asparagus (we have only a few of those) and planted vegetables along the outside edge of the garden area.

We are able to tell for sure that the two trees that survived in the garden area are both pear trees. We can see the fruit forming in abundance. I pruned both of them back pretty severely over the winter and hoped they would be better for it. I cannot be certain it helped them but they will give us some fruit this year in spite of the abuse.

By Saturday morning Mama was feeling fairly well and could move about with little nausea or dizziness so I felt confident to go with Victoria and work on her house to satisfy the new requests of the insurance company. All in all, we accomplished the task in a little over two hours. I will submit the pictures today for further consideration. I hope we get this done.

While we were at Victoria’s house the lady that delivers the mail stopped us and asked if we would put up a mailbox. She has been holding mail for that address and would like to get it to the recipient as soon as possible. So we went to Decatur and got what was needed and planted a mailbox for the house. We will check it today – for the very first time. Hopefully it will not become the focus of people who go about smashing mailboxes.

Saturday afternoon as I was rounding the corner of the house to give some old lunchmeat to the big dogs I saw something out of the corner of my eye that looked a bit strange. I thought it was only a small branch that had fallen in the flowerbed but it seemed to move. As I looked in a more focused manner I noticed that it was a cotton-mouth snake.

What I saw moving was the head as it followed my every move keeping its mouth fully open and ready to strike. I killed it with a shovel we had nearby. Once I brought it to the dog’s attention they were on high alert even though it had been mere inches from Sasha’s head when I killed it. I suppose it is that time of year again.

Brittany and Andrew came over Saturday evening and after we ate a dinner of charcoaled meats and salad we went out to plant the landscape plants Mama had been collecting for weeks. It took us less than three hours to get everything in the ground. Overnight it rained heavily and wet everything thoroughly. It was great timing.

The rain was welcome even though it brought back the swamp to the back yard.