Friday morning both helpers arrived and I set my general helper to starting the seeds and my helper friend tackled the huge mess in the old mud room. It was all the stuff from the cellar that needed to go out to the trash shed.
I had gotten all the prep work done before they got here at 8AM. I planned to work on plant notes in the morning.
In the process of taking the stuff to the shed my helper friend found a crocus growing over the bank. I don’t throw out bulbs, except snowdrops. And if it was left there it would get buried. So my general helper and I went out and rescued it.
I had a space in the New West garden right at the corner so we put it there. It didn’t seem to mind being dug up as it was opening its flowers at 1PM in the brief sunlight.
I set about working on plant notes while my general helper worked on seeds. My helper friend got all the stuff into the shed and then starting breaking up the blocks of salt so they could go into a jar.
My general helper finished all 6 trays and the dining room window was full. Two that like cooler starting temps went on the porch. I will have to leave the porch door open to keep the temp in range. Then she started cleaning up. My helper friend had moved all the stuff from setting up on Thursday back to the cellar and was running the vacuum around to clean up the messes we’d made.
I got a message from Tom. He wanted as good a photo of the alternator as I could get as he was off to the junk yard to find a new one.
When I got up to the barn, these 2 were sitting in the window looking very cute and cozy. Lily didn’t want to turn her head for the photo. Check the ears as she ignores me.
She finally looks part around to see what I’m doing.
And then consents to look at me after all my entreaties. I had my husband’s phone for the photos of the alternator and it doesn’t take very good ones. I don’t use it much, except for slipping down into the bowels of a truck for photos.
Back at the house, the kitchen was finally restored to rights, the floors were cleanish, and they headed out.
I made lunch and got ready to go browsing at collectibles with my friend.
We thought we’d found the store and went in to browse. It was much smaller than I thought it would be and had a few interesting items. My friend had found some sealed games and had to decide between 3 of them. She likes games that are in tins, not cardboard boxes, and 2 of these were. While she was deciding I came across an old apple picker in very good shape for $5.
So we went up to pay and the owner was only taking cash. She didn’t have any cash and I only had enough for my picker. So I got that and put it in the car. I’d mentioned I thought the store was small and he said the one we’d been looking for was diagonally across the street and they both had the same street number, 26.
So we headed over there.
I had checked the prices at their online store and knew they were too expensive for me. But if they’d been more reasonably priced I’d have bought the set of 4 coaster trays behind the cows. That and a cardinal points house decoration we all I saw that interested me.
My friend found a lot of things while I sat and looked at the rooster décor. My husband had been adamant that I not bring home rooster décor, only hen. It’s really hard to find hen stuff!
Once she had paid for her things we went across the street to an ATM and got cash to go pay for the game she’d wanted. When we got back to my house, I left the picker on the back seat, so I couldn’t get a photo, but the above is like it. Now I just need the apple tree to produce enough apples to use it…
Tom came out with the alternator. Mine is the oily one on the left. He got it in, found the coolant leak and fixed that and the truck is ready for Saturday.
When I went up to do chores at dusk, there had to be 100 or more robins near the barn on the back 40. I zoomed to the house for the camera and managed to get this shot (not great) before most took flight. They went way down along the tree line.
Back at the house with camera in hand, I noticed the daffodils had made it up through the snow again along the First Fence garden.
On Saturday my brother and I hoe out the trash shed and go to the dump in the truck. I plan to spend the rest of the day working on plant notes.