Walkabout, Workabout, Wornout

 On Friday, Apr. 27^th, we woke up together around 6 am and yet remained snuggled under the covers for another 30 minutes. Even skinny little Clemson stayed tucked in with his Daddy. He needs to now to keep warm! Rising around 6:30, we had our first tea and coffee together while perusing blog posts and comments. Seems like our friends are enjoying the spring weather too.

Nice morning for a walk

Today is going to be a non-busy day and that is kind of nice. Well, no commitments, let me say that. We have lots to do around the property but those things are pleasant things as we are setting up life here on the Ridge for the season. With a couple of cold days coming for the weekend, we need to be judgmental of what we pull out. Until the threat of wet flurries has passed completely, I mean.

Yay, I had company for my walk

Bill and I slipped outside while Clemson was sound asleep on the chair and we walked out the lane, down to the corner of North Line and Baptist Church Road. Instead of turning onto the paved road, we crossed and stayed on gravel. Last summer/fall before we left I posted pictures of a foundation that was built for a new house. We wanted to see if it was completed and it looks like it is although maybe no one is living in it yet. The satellite dish is up though so they looked after priorities!

The new house is very modest

This gravel road west of our place is wet in spots
this is looking west

Heading back home, heading east

What a beautiful morning! It is 50F/10C and sunny skies. We could get some rain later tonight so will enjoy the outdoors as much as we can. Bill had some repairs on the back cap of the Suite, something he noticed after we parked. That was his first priority for today. You can read about it in his next posting here.

It was 9 o’clock when Bill said he was needing to eat something so rather than him grabbing a bowl of cereal or toast, I made us an omelette. I toasted his bun and prepared the sandwich before calling him in from the window. I fried a tortilla, placed my omelette on it with cheese and added black olives and tomatoes before placing the second tortilla on top. Yum, I love this breakfast. By the time it is all put together, I realize that I have enough for two meals so eat half and put the other one off for tomorrow.

Can't post without a morning pond picture

Bill washed the dishes and I dried and put them away. He likes washing best so that is the process that works for us. It takes mere minutes and then we both can move on to what we want to do sooner. Clemson has moved to the sunshine by the south window but is shivering a lot. He can’t be cold but who are we to know? He did lose a lot of fur yesterday so the change has maybe put him on edge. Poor little fellow, we’ll do what we can so not to put him in that position again.

Looking up at our spot from the corral point

On Tuesday after moving up the hill, we emptied some things out of the storage shed. One of the things Bill brought out was my bird bath which we usually kept over by the Restroom. No reason, really, but it was seldom used no matter where I placed it. I tended to be dumping it to clean it more often than from usage. Not wanting to get rid of it, I'll put my thinking cap on.

He is so cute and was so excited to have it all to himself

The feeder isn't actually on a slant
I was on a slant leaning on the inside window ledge
He is sitting down in the water now

 I decided to use it as a bird feeder instead. It is only plastic composite so I needed to put a large rock in it to hold it from tipping over. It won’t be perfect because for now the seed does not have any protection from the rain but I’ll work on that. After the rainy day we had on Wednesday, of course, it filled up pretty quickly and covered the bird seed. This morning I was thrilled to see the little chickadees and sparrows drinking and/or eating out of it anyway! 

Such a tiny little fellow

It was around 11 when Bill and I took some trimming tools, a rake and Rob’s chainsaw down to the area across from our corral. We both had gloves, which would be necessary as we were on a mission to pull all the junk out from the trees, brush and weeds. In the middle of summer, it is difficult to see what ‘junk’ we are talking about but in the spring and fall when we are here, it is very obvious.

The top picture is the before
The next two are after a couple of small trees and many spindly red vines were cut down, a truck cargo box comes out in two very large pieces (I helped pull these out Vroom vroom!)
the bottom left picture shows the bike with a tree growing through it (a book title?)
middle, shows the bike with the frame broke after we pulled with the truck
right picture, Black Beauty did her job and pulled the bike out

This stuff has been here since before Gerry bought the property and we’d like to clean it up. It is of no benefit to us except for what we can get for the scrap metal. The rest we will haul off to the dump. Gerry didn’t know the stuff was there but we do so we want to get rid of it. Besides, when it comes to pulling things out of places, Bill and Black Beauty are all in! I even got to have a hand at it, behind the wheel!

Top left, Bill uses the chainsaw - woops! the right one is a duplicate of Bill trying to situate the second half
of the cargo box
Middle left, still working at it with the chain
The right one is the stump left after we got the bike out
Bottom left, after we were done for the day
Bottom right, a pile of some of the metal

We worked hard and steady for over an hour before stopping to take a break for another coffee for Bill and I had water. We carried on a few minutes later, breaks over! and worked for another couple of hours. There was a kid’s bicycle that was just tossed in there but unfortunately tree trunks had grown up through it and around it making it almost impossible to get out. Well, not for Bill. A few trees lost their lives today but a few of those few were dead or dying anyway. Everything got stacked in piles, wood, garbage and metal before we called it a day. What a great day’s work!

We took a much needed break

It was 2:30 when I decided we needed a snack so cut up some cheddar cheese and had a few crackers and a drink. The boys moved inside for a snooze and I read outside for half hour. The sun was so warm when it was out but it turned cool instantly with the wind when it disappeared behind a cloud. My Fitbit vibrated so I closed my book and went for a walk to the end of the lane.

Clemson wouldn't budge from his sunny spot

Back inside at 3 o’clock, I didn’t want to disturb Bill so will wait until he wakes up. I’ve promised him a foot treatment and have been too exhausted after supper for the past two nights. Today is a good time before I sit in my recliner. We have one more meal’s worth of leftover lasagna and when I asked Bill if he wanted a change tonight, he opted to clean it up. He knows we have both worked hard today and doesn’t want either of us to have to prepare a meal.

We watched some tv and noticed that Fred and Ethel (our resident geese needed names) had returned. All day we didn’t hear them or see them until I went for my afternoon walk. I saw them across the road in the farmer’s puddle of water. Maybe he took her out to lunch or something. Sitting inside, we saw them fly over to return to our pond so I’m sure we’ll be hearing them later.

Bill hung our new flat today

I did Bill’s heels and pampered his feet with some softening lotion so he is a happy camper. Literally. At 5 o’clock the sky had darkened, the temperature dropped from 15C/59F when the sun was out to 7C/45F and the rain started. Bill made a slow dash to the sheds to close the doors and to plug us in to power again. We need the microwave again. Pretty soon we will be turning our Blue Flame heater on. The Suite is cooling down.

And once I moved inside, he found another cozy corner

I made up a salad after downloading the day’s pictures and began warming the lasagna at 6. This has been a wonderful day. It feels good to get out there and get dirty! There is a lot more cleanup in that area, lots of dead trees that have fallen over the years. We’ll get them pulled out as there are going to be a few good days yet before someone turns the temperature up and it is too hot to work.

When we uncovered Goose our Spruce tree, we also
uncovered our Red Maple that we got from George and Suzie last year
Hey, you two! Look at the new buds!

I hope your day was a good one too. Have a great evening! 

Fred and Ethel playing in the muck across the road

Thank you for stopping by today! I love to hear from you and will respond to every post in time.