Rearranging, repairs

Victoria and Mama – but mostly Victoria – did some rearranging in the living room yesterday. It was not much but it did displace the two Windsor chairs I had sitting against one wall. She moved the antique book case out of her room into the living room. Now I have a matched set in the room. Mama put one of the displaced chairs in the spare bedroom. The other is still waiting a seemlier setting. The table set in the corner of the living room has been forced further into the corner but it got to stay. Mama and I really need to get started on the building project of the additional living room I have planned. Although, there is not much chance of that happening soon. All in all, it was nothing too drastic but Mama dislikes changes that are not of her choosing.

Along those same lines, I moved several items out of the garage and cleared a very large space in the center. I made a conditional promise to Mama that I would have the garage ready to park a car in by winter. I do not know if I can get the shop completely done by the end of the year but that is my overarching goal. Today Mama is calling a friend to get an estimate on pouring a slab for that project. Since we did not get the blacktop laid in the carport/shop, we are going to get it done in concrete. Putting up the walls will be a quick and easy job since the roof and supports are already in place. It is only a matter of timing and cash. The space is still largely empty. All the items we had under the carport were moved to get it ready for asphalt, but since the paving company ran short of material, the asphalt is laid only to the very edge of the carport. The items pulled out are still where we put them. None of those items are of any real importance so sitting out will not hurt them greatly. It just leaves me with another cleanup project.

I made a couple quick repairs to Mama’s mower as soon as I got home yesterday so she could mow the yards. She has been anxious to get that done. The rains have been timed so that she had been held up for several days. Also, I had removed the air filter so I could match it up at the dealer and she had been waiting on me to get that replaced before she ran the mower. An additional issue with the mower is that one of the soft front tires on the mower is in bad shape. As I filled it, it leaked out as much air as I was able to pump in so I got a can of Fix-a-Flat and filled the tire with that so Mama could go ahead and mow. It will have to be replaced soon. I still have to change the oil and oil filter and put in the new spark plugs and gas filter to get the seasonal tune up done. I should be able to get that done while Mama and Vitoria are visiting Andrew and Brittany Thursday through Saturday. That is something I do not enjoy doing but it needs to get done and that mower is too important to us to let it go too much longer.

I did not catch anything last night though I set out the traps again. Mama was equally glad and worried. Glad that no more predators were captured. Worried that they still might be out there waiting to kill her brood. That is a well justified fear. Even the Banty chickens will not roost in their little house right now. The same night the coon ate the first chicken a little chick that Mama had in a special cage housed in the Banty enclosure disappeared; no blood, no feathers, cage locked and secure. They know what happened but they are being tight-beaked about it. My guess is that it was a snake, a large snake, but there is no real evidence of that. I just know Mama is feeling very frustrated about the losses she has suffered lately.

Life in the country, I suppose.