Grass, Weeds, Drywall and Roots

The Ridge
So, Friday, May 31^st (end of the month already?) Bill was awake and up at 6:30. I rolled over for another half hour, not having to get up until I was really ready. When I opened my blind, I smiled. Sunshine. It just does something to me, seeing the sun after such a long absence. I don’t think I’m alone with these feelings and although we shouldn’t let our ‘moods’ be governed by the weather, it does affect most of us.

Bill outside prepping my weed eater

 I had a tea with Bill and read a few blogs before bundling against the 42F and going for a walk. I hadn’t been for quite a few days, not a purposed planned walk, I mean. I’ve been getting over 3 - 4 miles in for the last few days which is always good. Today, it felt good to walk down the country road again and by the time I got to my destination of the turbine road, I was seeing multiple Great White Trilliums. The trillium was officially adopted as Ontario's floral emblem.

The sun started hazy like this and remained this way all day

I walked down into the ditch and up the other side to snap some pictures. Beautiful! The two I dug up last year have not flowered and may not this, their first, year after transplant. They are growing though and look healthy. Maybe next year! When I returned, Bill was close to finishing cutting the front field. I de-layered as I was now warmed up considerably. In my work duds, I did some weed trimming. Bill had filled it with gas and ran it a bit so I would be able to get it started.

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My weed eater is a light weight but today I found it a difficult/tiring chore so didn’t do as much as I’d hoped before putting it away. I don’t trust myself around my newly planted flowers so left it at that. Seems everywhere I went, Chippy #1 or #2 was there. He is so adorable and just sits and looks at me. I came inside and motioned to Bill, who had moved back to this area, that I was starting breakfast. It was 9:30 and I knew he’d be soon gnawing his arm off.

This is the only primrose that looked half decent today

When it was ready, I just stuck my head out the door and saw him watching from the back field. That was easy! No sooner did we sit down and start eating, when I saw the Rona truck coming up the driveway. His drywall was here. For $15 to deliver it from Hanover, he saved himself a bit of extra labour. Getting Rob’s trailer, driving to load it, unloading it at home and returning the trailer takes time and he couldn’t do all that for that.i

I walked past Bill cutting the front 

One of the delivery guys asked about our house and laughed as he told us that he was just this morning talking about doing the same thing! So, a conversation ensued, our rv card was handed out and a lot of his questions got answered before the 3 of them offloaded Bill’s order. It all went into the Hangar and now the rest is up to Bill. He has a job ahead of him. I’m sure he’ll get started at it sooner than later. There were some lingering blackflies, which weren’t around when I was trimming, but we still think they are on their way ‘out’.

Blurry but you get the 'picture'
These were pink and white

I warmed up Bill’s breakfast when they left and I did dishes while he went back out to finish cutting. It is always a job well done and a great feeling to have it completed. The property looks great again! With the grass cut up on the berm, I can see my garden from inside the Suite. After finishing the grass, Bill wanted to so a little bit in the Hangar with the drywall. I knew that meant, he wanted to do a lot but that’s no problem, he can always weed trim another day.

Rona arrived in decent time this morning

The last two sheets going in
Lukas in the truck and 2 Bill's moving the drywall

The next thing I wanted to do is go out and fill my watering can and water the new plants from yesterday. The primrose is looking pretty pathetic and I sure hope they’ll bounce back with a drink. I’d hate to think I’ve killed Pat’s flowers already! So, with the hose still hooked up to the rain barrel, I stretched it out around my flower garden so it is on an incline. Remember we have no pressure. That worked although the sprinkler hose head did not. This meant running up and down to turn the nozzle off at the barrel. Good exercise to say the least.

There he is again, he just wants to hang out, I think

I filled it 3 or 4 times, carting it around to my flowers and then up to the garden a couple of times. All things should be happy now. The black flies weren’t bothering me which was odd as they were sure down by the Hangar earlier. When I finished, I came inside and took care of another type of roots. My gray was showing again so with a full day away with the girls tomorrow I wanted to clean them up. Bill worked away while I took care of that inside.

this is the creation of the 90 second bread

ready to be grilled

 When he comes in and sees me like that, with my hair bunched up in a plastic hair cap, I always give him my best smile and a pose. “Do you love your wife now?” 😊 He knows the end result is worth it so just grins with a silly face. After rinsing, the colour is a shade or two or three darker than my sun bleached blonde but it is nice for a change. I walked down to the lane as Bill said the mail lady stopped at our box. I took my zoom lens in the hopes of capturing some live nature.

Guess who?

No such luck on the nature, well, nothing close anyway. The skittish turtles don’t give me an opportunity to show them in their best light. Slip sliding away they submerge their little selves as soon as they hear footsteps. Plop, plop, plop. 

These are too far from me to be bothered - good!

No luck with anything good at the mailbox either. It wasn’t worth her time stopping nor my time walking down. No, we don’t want Culligan service for crying out loud! I enjoyed the walk all the same and stopped to see how Bill was doing.

And these bigger guys show no fear either

I sat outside for a while and worked on today’s free online jigsaw puzzle and the crossword from the paper. It was a challenge outside in the bright light and finally moved inside to put the last 8 pieces in of the jigsaw. It took me 24 minutes and I know I could have completed it sooner had I been indoors. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it. While inside, I decided to try the 90-second keto bread recipe I’ve seen posted a few times. Not that I was hungry, just curious.

I had luck with the crossword this week

With 5 ingredients and 3 minutes, I had a slice of bread. It looks like bread, smells like bread but I held off tasting it until I was ready. It is suggested that if you want a grilled cheese sandwich, this is how you can have one on the keto diet/lifestyle. So, I buttered the halved slices and loaded shredded cheese on top. I will fry it up and let you know. Just not now, I had a handful of walnuts instead.

a Downy Woodpecker?

It was around 2 when Bill texted me to bring him a cold Zero Coke. So, I poured that into a glass of ice, cut him a couple of slices of cheese and took them down. I’ve said before that no grass grows under his feet. He already had a few of the bottom pieces of drywall installed! What a guy! When I returned to the Suite, I poured myself a Diet 7Up and called out the door to him that I was available if he needed me to hold up the top pieces.

This redwing blackbird had something to say

Sitting here, I can feel the muscles I used with my weed eater this morning. At least I didn’t overdo it and all should be well in the morning. Tomorrow is going to be a fun day. The girls, Pat, Donna, Gayle and I are heading into London to our friend’s clothing exchange. A time to reunite with our London friends. We are all looking forward to it and will take the 4 huge bags from the last one here in Hanover. They didn’t come to that one.

Bill cuts the drywall before we move it

Around 3 I went out to see how Bill was doing and he was soon about to text me for some help. We needed to move the 12’ sheets of drywall from one side to the other so he could work on the back wall. With his large rolling cart/table in the middle, it was a matter of shifting it accordingly. Because of their length and the tight fit, he cut 7 1/2” of the end of each one to the required length before we slid them out one side and back in the other side. We finished by lifting the last one up on the bench to make it easier to lift into position when he's ready.

Here you can see the 5 sheets we had to move

Bill had pulled everything out of the Hangar before Rona arrived so the drywall would fit. As we worked, I could see the sky also getting darker by the minute so I checked my phone to see if rain was expected. It was 3:30 by now, we were half way done and the rain was coming at 4. It wouldn’t be much of a shower as the sun was returning at 5. Not wanting to hurry with his cutting, Bill carried on at a steady pace.

This is what Bill did after breakfast
nice work!

We were just nicely inside the Suite at 4 and the rain arrived. Not enough to really get anything too wet but at least his stuff avoided the possibility. I sat and read my book with Clemson while Bill had a shower. He fed Clemson around 4:30 and we relaxed until 5 when I encouraged Bill to start the barbecue. We had pulled 2 New York strip steak out of the freezer. I doubted I could eat a whole one but they were frozen together.

the neat patchwork quilt of our front field all cut

Inside, I fried some mushrooms in butter, steamed broccoli for me and corn for Bill. We were eating a yummy meal soon after. With dishes taken care of, we drove into Durham to clean the Laundromat. I would normally go in the morning but with my trip to London, that won’t be happening. There are 8 older dryers that need a special wrench to open the lint traps. Traps is a great word for it. My goodness, they were long overdue.

Jamie suggested every 2 weeks and we’d not done them for 3 simply because it isn’t something I will do on my own. No way could I do those plus everything else in a reasonable amount of time. The place was busy but we worked around everyone as best we could before putting things away and heading out. It was an hour and half with both of us so I’m glad Bill was able to help me out. We topped up Ptooties and made a withdrawal at the RBC before hi-tailing it for home.

From our back corner window, I can see my vegetable garden now

I had bought Chapman’s Black Cherry ice cream and that sounded good to both of us. First, I hopped in the shower and then dished some up as a treat. We hadn’t had ice cream for a very long time. I finished my blog post and then sat for a while with Bill and Clemson before calling it a night. 

And the hazy sun was with us as we left Durham

We have had a busy but enjoyable day. It was perfect weather reaching 68F/20C and we didn’t once have a complete sun. It always had a bit of cloud or haze blocking the view but that was just fine. I hope you had a great day too.

And it wouldn't be fitting ending with anyone other than Chippy
Good night all!

Thank you for stopping in today. Your comments are always appreciated.