New South garden – daffodils open
On Wednesday morning I was up at 6:30AM, got my post up and started back on the bills/budget. There were a few snafus that I had to straighten out and I finally quit at noon, too tired to do more well. I didn’t get much else done the rest of the day.
On Thursday morning I wasn’t up until 6:30AM. I checked e-mail and got the kitchen cleaned up. Then I went back to work on the bills/budget. I finished them around 11AM and got a shower.
My helper friend arrived before noon and I’d composed a long list for us to do.
He got the first 4 items done while I sat down for a while. Often showering is exhausting because I can’t breathe because of the high humidity. Next he brought up the huge bags for storing firewood from the cellar as we’d emptied the last ones.
A couple weeks ago I had gotten the barrels back from my friend when we visited and they had been in the back of the car ever since. We managed to cram the bags in also.
We drove up to the barn, unloaded the car, and brought out the lawn chairs stored there and got them into the truck. We came back to the house, unloaded them and took the truck back to the barn. We loaded the tamper into the car and came back to the house.
I think this is the earliest we’ve ever gotten the chairs out.
Next I collected all the cleaned birdfeeder paraphernalia and brought it outside to put away in the garden shed. Once that was done, we started moving stuff outside to get the cold frame covers out.
Next I cleaned out the cold frame as he brought the covers down and we got them on and tied down against the wind. Then we put everything back in the shed.
Then we went and got the 2 plum trees pruned into vase shapes. We put their cages back on.
In our travels around the yard we noticed some things had come up.
New South garden – Chiondoxa lucillae flowers
South garden – more daffodils opened
Another thing we got done was tamping down the ruts made by the wheelbarrows full of firewood all winter. That was the last outside thing on the list.
Swiss chard up
Inside, he started checking to see what seedlings were up and I started giving the first starting of mesclun its second haircut.
It was a good 12” high and very lush. I got one of my big stainless steel bowls and nearly filled it from the 2 trays.
He finished before I did because I had to keep stopping to write notes on what was up.
I sent him off on errands while I finished the mesclun, washed it and got it in the fridge. There’s enough there for 4 huge salads.
My son didn’t have to work, so he finished the raking along the driveway. Lots of stones end up in the lawn from plowing and it’s not cool when you hit them with the mowers.
I was pretty exhausted so I sat down and watched M.A.S.H. until bedtime. It was to be pretty warm, 50F, during the night so I just pulled shades and asked my son to light the wood stove later on after I’d gone to bed.
Friday is to be warm and partly sunny. My helper friend doesn’t come until mid afternoon. In looking ahead at the weather, next week is to be cold and cloudy. I start the window washing on the Saturday and need the screens washed by then. So Friday afternoon we will be washing the 43 screens.