Ask and ye shall receive

 I'm bad, and I know it. I glean all the while from building sites. I ask to speak to the site foreman and then I ask if I can help myself to their thrown out stuff. When I was gathering for my train set and other projects, I gleaned wood 4"x4"s, 2"x1's and all sorts, now doing the pond and waterfalls, I'm gleaning rubble where they're clearing for the subdivisions. I've also been asking for old carpeting for my pond, having been told over the weekend to line the pond with carpeting BEFORE putting the underlay, and liner, for added protection.

So, today began with us stopping by the local new subdivision being built and asking if we could take their rocks. They were quite happy, and have no problems with Mark taking his tractor over to get them. They were really nice, it saves them money in needing it hauling away, and saves us money that we'd be having to spend in order to buy rocks as we get on with the project.

Then we stopped by to pick up a rug from a lady on Facebook, which will become part of our pond underside. 

Later I have to pick up some pallets that will be going in one of the greenhouses that my hubby and grandson are going to be putting up for me this weekend. My container gardening is doing really well this year, my potatoes and tomatoes are flourishing, and my peas and beans are now starting (since I planted them late having thought I'd already started them off when I'd started the tomatoes and potatoes. Not sure how that happened).

It's definitely been a good day thus far.

It's Monday!

 Am I the only person who likes Mondays?

To me they are a fresh start. A chance to rework things that I maybe didn't do as well the week before, or to do things that were supposed to get done and somehow didn't. A fresh chance to evaluate what's important (or not) in the plans that I have for the week, and to plan or re-plan those that I give the most importance to.

I like them even better now that hubby doesn't work them because it means he can also lie-in on a Monday morning instead of having to heed the 5am alarm and head out the door by 5.30am. That only happens Wednesdays and Thursdays now, since he's semi-retired and gone to part-time. 

Mondays, we try to plan for his medical stuff, his chiropractor and his allergy shots, and I try to do mine for Tuesdays. The dogs aren't as happy that he's home more, as they like to come in on the bed when he's not here, and if he's here there's just not enough room for the 3 of them and both of us. Maybe if they were chihuahuas but with 2 40lb-ers and 1 70lb-er, yeah, that doesn't work. Plus they don't behanve as well when he's on the bed, they don't settle as well and try to walk over him all the while. Not conducive to relaxation, whereas right now, with him at his allergist, they are just sprawled and sleeping.

In a mo, they'll follow me into the kitchen as I have to wash their blankets and disinfect their crates. Takes me awhile as I sit to do it and have to use a grabby thingie to pull the blankets out, bones and their ice cream containers. Yeah, these boys aren't spoiled, not at all.

I'll leave you all and wish you an awesome Monday and a brilliant week.

I've been such a bad girl!

I'm not sure why (all of a sudden) I'm a big spender but I think it goes back to my stay in the hospital a couple of weeks ago. I realised my own mortality wasn't such a distant thing any more, and that - if I wanted to do or have things - I'd better get started asap because time was not on my side. Water calms me, as most of you know, and I can't always go to natural water places to settle myself when my blood pressure acts up, or my A Fib starts. So, I made a decision to make a water garden down in our back field. 

Temu and Amazon were happy to process my card, and a pond liner, pond underlay, solar aerator, and plant cuttings started arriving by Fed Ex, UPS and USPS fairly quickly.

My attempts to share the vision, that's in my mind, with my hubby (unfortunately) wasn't very easy. I tried to sketch what I was thinking ... a 2 year old could have done a better job. However, a pond tour, anabled me to show him some examples of what I was looking at, and some that weren't what I wanted at all. 

I want nature, a couple of waterfalls into a pond, stones and rocks, plants, my own Zen garden without the more angular regularity that those tend to have.

In my mind, "my" water garden begins with a half moon shape at the top, with a waterfall in the center surrounded by fragrant bushes and plants under a white weeping willow tree. The waterfall will come off a piece of slate, with rocks in the middle so that there are actually 2 "waterfalls" from one fixture. Facing it, the one to my right will go at about a 22 degree angle and cascade over 2 other slate "ledges". The other will be allowed to freefall onto some rocks below and then into the main pond.

The right triple cascade will fall into a pond that is slightly higher than the main one, so that this smaller pond then also has water falling into the lower bigger one.

I've been looking into plants to put at different levels to keep the water clean and oxygenated, and hubby wants some fish so they'll be in the bigger pond. 

Outside plants, I've checked into whether plumeria will grow here in SC and it will, but when temps fall below 40 degrees it has to be brought inside. I've ordered 3 different plumeria cuttings, and will eventually plant them in terra cotta type pots that will be at home among the rocks and flowers, and still look natural, but can then be brought indoors in cooler temps. I also the white weeping willow cutting coming, and that will start indoors and then be centered at the back so that it offers shade over the lowest pond.

Our trip to the stone yard the other day gave me an insight into what my rocks are going to cost me but it will just be a work in progress for as long as it takes (to be able to afford them!).

I'm garnering inspiration from pics of other people's ponds, talking with people who already have ponds, and books and resources online. I just wish I could draw so that I could show my hubby what I envisage. As it is, he and his trusty tractor will be doing most of the work and I'll be acting foreman. It will be beautiful once it's done though. For now, he's just started digging ...

 

Plantings and Plannings

For the past week or so, my life has been filled with cuttings and plantings, some rescues that I hope will make it (I hate when stores give up on plants and just stop watering them at all, poor things). Cuttings, we've been getting roses and honeysuckle, and I'll be doing some more gardenia as soon as I have space. I have to be careful with all my water-filled containers as the dogs like to get into stuff, and I'd be really mad (and have a BIG mess to clean up) if they managed to mess with my cuttings. Rescues, we've saved 2 lavender bushes and a lavender tree, got them planted in tubs, well-watered in but able to drain well. The other plant, I can't remember what it is, but it has leaves like gardenia and flowers red, so should look pretty. For now, it's happy having been watered, repotted, and given space for its poor roots to grow.

Today, I've also planted some snap peas and beans ... I only realised a couple of days ago that I'd forgotten to do so this year! I do love my peas and beans straight off the vine, they rarely make it in the house, we just eat them as we pick them.

My potatoes, in the potato grow sacks, are doing good. I have them on a low-level table, so they'll be easy to harvest once they are ready. The tomatoes are flowering, they are doing wonderfully.

So ... plannings. Well, hubby is charging the batteries on my old ridearound which was bigger and heavier than the one we take with us that breaks down into 4 parts to make it portable. The older one is definitely more rugged, and I used to go down the field in it years ago ... and that's the goal now. Get it back to running order so that I can go down the field again. Why? Because I hve decided to build a pond down there, with water features, so that I have my own tranquil place, rather than having to drive to my streams and villages for the sensory relaxation. Temu is my friend, and I'll be getting much of my supplies from them for it, pond liners, plant baskets, aerators, etc. I'm going to start collecting rocks, pebbles and stones now, so that once I can afford everything, I'll hae the wherewithal to make it look natural. 

Also, I'll have plants in amongst the rocks so that there's a nice fragrant aura around as well as some pretty colours, plus I'll have some water plants to help keep the water clear and oxygenated.

I've decided that, one of our side gigs, with hubby being semi-retired, will be for me to get plants and trees growing and sell some. We're planning on vining roses, gardenia and honeysuckle through the fencing down the field, to surround it in fragrance but also to block in the fence with them as a natural barrier to stop the dogs from trying to get out.

We're waiting on our first beehive arriving, and I've ordered special paint that is non-toxic to bees, so that we can get it painted and set up ready for getting our first bees. All of the flowers will provide plenty of pollen for them, and the pond will give them a natural non-chemicalled source of water.

I'm also thinking of trellis in one of the corners of the field, and then getting grape vines to intertwine up it, like I had in Florida many many moons ago.

I need to set up a couple of greenhouses down there as well, with some shelves/tables in to use for propagating, and hopefully the dogs will not be able to interfere with them then. And get about 5 100 feet hoses, to attach to the back faucet on the house, so that I can water everything. I'll have to learn irrigation as I go.

I'm excited. 

Sometimes I think I'm crazy

... Others, I know I am.

Like this morning.  

I'm lying down, relaxing, having just paid bills, bills and more bills ... and feeling GOOD about paying them!  There has to be something wrong with me that I'm feeling satisfied giving money away, no? I guess maybe it's just that I am thankful that I have the money to pay them? The opposite being that - if I didn't - I'd be stressed and worrying about how to do that (and trust me, for many years, it was that way). I've just learned to be more efficient with it, I suppose.  

First Week of Semi-Retirement Over

This week was hubby's first of his semi-retirement. He was going to retire, and then they offered him part-time, 2 days a week, so he took it. Those extra days of sleeping in do seem to be making him less stressed, which is good, and it's not as if all he's doing is sleeping. Just that I want him to be able to sleep as much as his body needs. Between the Long Covid and the Leukaemia, his body is almost permanently fatigued. This way, it's getting the rest it needs.

He's not being lazy, by any means. Today he's out mowing down the field, in preparation for building a berm alongside our fence. Just one of many long term projects ahead, including replacing the old barn, and the old trailer. Generally tidying up, neatening and organizing outside ... as well as the ptojects of remodelling inside. He loves the tractor and all its implements, it probably ranks as the best gift he ever received, surpassing even his flying lesson/ride in a WWII training plane.

The storms this week stopped some of the outdoor activities ... it was torrential, thunder and lightning, tornado watches, scary stuff. I ended up in the living room for some of the night as I worried I'd wake him up with my tossing and turning. I am deathly scared of thunderstorms, and have been since I was young, way before moving here where there's the possibility of tornadoes in them. That's just given me something else to worry about!

It's been a fairly good week though, so here's to the next.

Life

Today began with a light shower and now the sunshine has dried everything up. It's really nice out there, not too hot, I have the doors and windows open and just a ceiling fan to move the air a bit.

Brunel, Lightning and Rover are splayed out on the bed, legs twitching as they run in their dreams. They snore too! It's good having happy boys. Rover loves it here but he does miss his mum and human siblings. He loves it when they are over and he can chase after Daniel (he's Daniel's dog).

Things have been going ok. 3 weeks into the higher dose of my blood pressure patches and I'm staying more stable than previously. I'd explained to my doctor that I just have so much going on at the moment, and have been running on stress for the past few months since hubby's accident at the dog park, the running around for appointments, his surgery and recovery, my granddaughter having to move because of the burst water and sewer pipes making the property she rented uninhabitable, then her having a shed brought here for her stuff and us having to get ours moved in order to get it situated. I mean, I get WHY my BP was erratic, and I dealt with it with my emergency med regimen, but the doc decided she'd rather me be more stable without having to resort to that.

House projects are still going on. I have a man coming out tomorrow evening to look at our soffitt at the front of the house, and give me a quote for replacing it, and then Monday morning, I have a man from Duke Power coming out to sort out putting up an area light down in the field, to hopefully keep the coyotes at bay, or at least let me see when they are out so that I don't let Brunel, Lightning and Rover out. It's worrisome, in the dark, when the 2 big ones come back and Lightning isn't with them, and just taking his own sweet time coming in, after they've been let out to go potty. An area light will take off some of the stress of worrying about that.

At my last doctor visit I'd lost a pound. I told her, I know I'm a stress eater and (in all honesty) I'd expected the scales to have headed the other way, so even that solitary pound was a nice surprise.

I've been working on building my stamina back up and my times with my pedalling. A couple of years ago, I was averaging a couple of hours a daty, and then I was sick for a couple of weeks and just struggled to get back into it. I was barely able to do 10 minutes, twice a day. I felt like I was being lazy but I just had no "oomph". Now, my problem is my bum going numb, so my sessions are 20-30 minutes and I try to do at least 2 a day and often now do 3 or 4, plus I have the Teeter that I do as well, so I'm happy to be getting fitter again. It doesn't help me with my mobility, I don't stand well unsupported, and walk only with my walker, or holding onto things, but it stops muscles from atrophying and is good for my heart and lungs. I'll take that and be happy with it!

Hubby starts working part-time in 2 weeks, instead of retiring. I have plenty of "honey-dos" to keep him busy, plus am looking forward to him being able to sleep in until his body is ready to wake up. Between the long Covid and the leukaemia, he is constantly tired. Weekends, he sleeps until 10 or 11 some mornings, as long as I leave him to. Sleep is good for him, and he ain't no spring chicken any more, no more than I am. 

I've been busy getting my container gardening going. I now have 3 tubs of toamtoes, 1 tub of mixed peppers, and cucumbers and cantaloupes started. My rosemary is outgrowing the planter it's in, so we are going to plant it out so's it can spread. I also need to start taking gardenia and rose cuttings again and getting new bushes started for along the fenceline. Plus, we need to get something sorted down at the back of the field so that we can get a beehive and some bees. Everything takes time and effort though and sometimes hubby and I are like the decrepit leading the decrepit with all our aches, pains and ailments. At least, amongst the seriousness, we can laugh at our fallabilities. 

So this is where we are at, at the moment. We can't complain, we are well blessed, and there are so many who suffer a lot more than we do. Enjoy your day.