A NEW DAY, A SUNNY NEW DAY AT THAT

 It's a beautiful sunny day and a cool morning at that.  Yesterday I had to pick up large branches and sticks from my yard before I could even think of mowing my grass.  I have one of those grabber things so that I don't have to bend over, but it doesn't work well with smaller branches, so I had to bend down a lot.  Also there were some very large branches that I had to drag to the back of my yard and stack on a pile of old branches.  I had to make two separate trips with the large branches that had fallen from my near dead Ash Tree.  The Emerald Ashbore Beetles are killing my Ash Tree, so I have several large dead branches that drop when the wind blows.  

All the bending over took a toll on my back, but I didn't notice it until I tried to get off of my riding mower yesterday to move another large branch that I had missed.  At that point I knew that I would be laid up for a couple of days with my aching back.  It's tough getting old.  You just can't do what you used to take for granted and do it easily and pain free.  There are consequences now, for every action there is a reaction and not a pleasant one either.

So Rick has gone to work without me this morning.....and maybe even tomorrow morning.  I just don't feel like my back will be ready to work tomorrow.  I'm hoping that the new house won't be ready to sweep out and clean up until Wednesday.  Today Rick had to do a little weed-eating for one of the bosses.  That's something that I don't want to get into, but I was going to water the shrubbery, rose bushes and plants while he was weed-eating.  The seeded lawn in this particular house looks dead too, so sprinklers might be a good idea to put out today.  But I really do think that this yard will have to be re-seeded.  The hot July sun took a toll on this yard.

On another note....We thought something major was happening to my car (picture above) because we kept hearing a scraping noise each time we turned the wheels, but if you look closely between the tire and tire-well you can see the culprit.  A large piece of broken tree branch had gotten lodged in the wheel-well.  What a relief to find out that all we had to do was to pull that branch out and the car would be fine.   I was already seeing dollar signs in my head for an expensive repair.  I'm glad that we found the problem before I made a fool of myself and took it in to the dealer for repairs.

Also, here are pictures that I got yesterday of one of my daughters, granddaughter and great-granddaughter.

I also have a picture of Megan and Lyv with their masks, but I'll have to send it in from my cell phone in the next post.

 

Bigger Backyard

Trimmed the lower branches from my two giant pine trees and have gained around 50 feet of backyard to mow.  I'm bad in judging distances, but this cleanup will make mowing much easier and less challenging.   Love the new look cause it looks like a park back there.  I might get another small picnic table to set back there.  One of those plastic ones that are easy to move.  Jimmy always wanted some seats back there, but we just never got around to it.  I'm sure he's looking down and smiling with approval at the improvements we've made.

Today I've been hauling brush from the front yard.  I trimmed the rhododendron that lines my front walkway, and I picked up large heavy decorative scalloped bricks that were once lining a bed of roses, that are no longer there.  Moving those will also make mowing much easier and there will be less weed-eating to do.

I'm resting right now because those bricks were heavy, and it's hot outside.  I needed a break inside where it's cool before I go unload the bricks where all bricks go around here.........way in the back with all of the other bricks and concrete blocks.  I was getting quite a collection of bricks and concrete blocks, so my neighbor asked me if he could have some of them and I did what Jimmy would have done,  I told him to take what he needed.

There are two stumps to watch out for, so as suggested by Rick, I took a can of red spray paint and sprayed the stumps so that no one tears up their lawn mowers, including myself, by mowing over them.  

Well, my break is over and I'm off to finish unloading those heavy decorative bricks.  They're pretty, long and curved and are scalloped along the tops.  I'm also planning on taking the iron digger and taking up another circle of rocks around the telephone pole that used to be where Jimmy had his hollyhocks.  This will also make mowing easier and cut down on the weed eating. 

Just ordinary everyday stuff

Today was spent doing yard work. We mowed the grass, pulled some weeds and Jimmy trimmed some lower branches from the Sycamore Tree and he also weed-eated the whole yard. I did a little house cleaning as well and that's unusual for me on such a beautiful sunny day. We usually save those house cleaning chores, like vacuuming or mopping the floors, for the rainy days when we have to be inside anyway.

My cat Princess Pinky moved her kittens again yesterday, this time to the living room so we could all enjoy them. They'll be 4 weeks old in a few days and will soon begin to start eating some dry kitten food. They're just beginning to play and can barely keep their balance and are still very wobbly on their feet. We've never had 5 (very cute & cuddly) baby kittens in the house before. We once let one mean mother cat keep two kittens in here and it was a disaster. She beat up Jybow & Princess P every time they looked at her or her kittens or she caught them asleep, so we vowed never to do that again...but here we are with five kittens. The difference here is that Princess Pinky is being very nice to Jybow and Jybow is allowed to look at her babies anytime she wants. The problem is that Jybow was trained so well to stay away from kittens that she won't go near them and only sneaks peeks at them from a distance....a very far distance.

Hopalong aka Catzilla needs a dental appointment with the vet. Today as I was sitting with her at the picnic table I noticed that her bottom right tooth was sticking straight out of her mouth. Jimmy tried to wiggle it, but the cat quickly pulled away so the tooth is still attached. I'm hoping that she'll just finish the job herself and lose it during the night. I'm going to give it a couple of days before I make an appointment with the vet. No sense paying a big vet bill when the tooth might just fall out on its own.

So how was your day? Anything unusual or exciting happen? I know it has to be more exciting than my day. The only exciting thing that happened to me today was that my cell phone rang while I was near the riding mower and when I moved away to answer it, I stepped in a big gooey glop of mud and missed the call. It was funny and gave me something to laugh at, but not nearly as much as the phone call did.