Spring vs Winter

May 13th - Thursday - Misty Rain

Sorry folks, I don't know what happens to the day, they go by so quickly, so will try to bring all up to date.

On Monday we made a quick trip to Camp Hill and stayed overnight at the home of Lou's daughter, Janet and her husband, Brion. This was like a breath of fresh air, as her yard, with the longer growing period and warmer temperatures was awash with color and different shades of greens, many different birds were visiting her many feeders. We left their home on Tuesday morning, had Lou's Saturn serviced and then drove to Carlisle to pick up Lou's three months supply of his medication and drove home, making a quick stop at Boscov's in Selingsgrove and lunch at Friendly' s.

We picked up Estee at Krista's and home and turned up the furnace, just in time to get pelted with snow/sleet and more high winds. DH suggested we jump back in the RV and do what Susie had suggested go back south and stay until the 4th of July and come home a visit for a couple of weeks and go back south!!

Wednesday we used the cold weather to our advantage and caught up on paper work, caught up on laundry, and had an early dinner and off to

deliver a birthday card and small gift to my sister-in-law. Always good to have a little chat with her. Joanne shared with me that she read our blog everynight before going to sleep, and we were glad that she enjoyed traveling with us this winter.

We were then off to the Green Home to visit with a dear friend, until it was time to go to our square dancing lesson. I should say that the lessons are really over and with all of the ones I missed this winter, I am really lost, so may give this up until next fall. Lou can dance with one of the many ladies that are always looking for a partner. What I have learned I enjoy, but I hate to goof up and spoil it for everyone else.

Thursday brought the day for our yearly physicals, so we were off to see Dr. Nespola, which is always a pleasant experience for both of us. We both hold Dr. Nespola in the highest esteem, a close friend and a wonderful physician. We had our blood work done and we were off to Gramma's Kitchen in Mansfield for a late breakfast and on to Walmart and Tractor Supply with a special stop on the way home, that we will talk about at another time.

We are hoping tomorrow that we can get the oil changed in the RV, and I can get the RV cleaned and then both of us work on getting the grass cut at Lou's house. A busy day all the way around and I just remembered, I need to get back to the hospital for another test also. Busy day ahead

By the way the pictures are of the sleet/snow that we had Tuesday night. What happened to spring???

Happy Mother's Day

May 9th - Sunday - Mother's Day - Cold, Snow flurries and very windy

Low 34 degrees - High 46 degrees

This Mother's Day dawned with the furnace coming on, tree limbs laying on the deck and the birds hunting for more peanut butter. As Lou and I looked out our bathroom window, we noted that the wind had blown boards off our white board fence that surrounds our property. We were away most of the afternoon and evening yesterday and when we returned home, found we had been without power for a number of hours.

I will back up a bit with the blog, as I missed several days. We spent Friday outside all day long. We went for our normal two mile walk and as we were starting our walk we noticed a bee nest on the sign next to where we park our car to walk. You can see from the picture that it is on both sides of the sign.

We finished the garden and indeed got all of the seeds into the ground, thankfully they are in the warm ground and not above to be frozen tonight. Lou used his weedeater while I was using mine and we made quick work of the banks out back and finished up around the house. After we finished all of that, Lou looked around and said that the yard would look better if it were cut again before the weekend, so while I cleaned up all of our tools and put things away, he cut the grass for the third time since we have returned. I had fixed dinner while we were preparing breakfast and had everything ready to go into the oven, so dinner was already for us when we both finished.

After dinner, I went back out and washed some windows on the outside, fed the birds and pulled out a few of our yard decorations. As it started to get dark, Lou went to his house to check the mail and take things to his sister's house. I quickly went through the house and dusted, ran the sweeper and cleaned bathrooms, and by the time he got back, we had time to sit down and enjoy a movie together.

Saturday morning, we got up to a clean organized home again, and decided with all of the wind we would walk a little later in town, as we had errands to do and wanted to do some visiting at the Green Home. By the time I had finished the laundry, hanging it all outside in the wind to dry, we enjoyed a late lunch and headed to town. I had eight huge garbage bags of clothes to donate to Goodwill, so we dropped them off and then to the Green Home to visit with Brion's father, what a delightful visit we had with him and stayed much longer than we had anticipated and by the time we left there, the specialty shops I had wanted to stop at were closed.

We stopped at Susie and Tim's house to drop off several items and chatted with them, and ended up staying and having dinner with them. It was so nice to have home cooking by someone different, she even made home-made Johnny Cake to go with her baked Goulash. All was a treat to Lou and I and we spent the evening talking with them and catching up on the happenings of a three month time slot.

When we returned home we found a cold house, and a dog that was glad to see someone. We put in a Netflix movie, had a fire in the fireplace and enjoyed "Tuesdays with Moory." An enjoyable day and evening all the way around.

Today Lou and I went to church, of which we had a good attendance, and a wonderful sermon on Lydia, from Acts 16. Our pastor had chosen hymns that are old favorites of the congregation, the first one being Lou's, In the Garden, and the last one being one of mine, It is Well with my Soul. We had coffee hour after church, then Lou took me out to dinner. We chose Babb's Creek Inn and enjoyed a fine dinner and drove home in a flurry of snow! Wonder what next Sunday will bring?

Beautiful Day in the Country

May 6th - Thursday Thundershowers last pm w/ 1/2 inch rain - Sunny and very breezy today - High 68 degrees

After several phone calls this am we were finally off for our walk. Today we did three miles and covered some territory that we haven't walked before, I had missed two days due to my cold, so I was ready to sit by the time we got back home.

I sat long enough to change from my walking shoes to my work shoes. We were back at the garden again; however, after the rain last night it was too wet to plant and Lou wanted to finish the fence around the garden. He had an appointment at 2:00 this afternoon, so we didn't get finished.

While he was gone I started the push mower, (Shawn your little fix worked just fine thanks again for you work)and cut as much of the area that Lou couldn't cut with the riding mower, we still have some pretty wet spots around the barn. After I finished that I got the hated weed eater out and started around the many fence posts and the building and on to the bank. I worked until 5:00 when Lou came home and it will take me at least another three hours to finish up around the barn area before I can start on what we have around the house. As people travel by our home, they don't realize how much area we have behind our house and down the steps leading to the barn and tack room. Sure looks good when it is all finished.

Last fall Lou and I decided we would break up some of the large rocks that we mow around, to make mowing a bit easier. Kris and I had tackled some of them the year after my late husband died, but it was a pretty hard job and then I worked on splitting some of them up also. This spring Lou has decided to do something constructive with them. We have had wood chucks move in this spring so he is breaking up rocks and stuffing the holes full and if they did out we are going to bomb them. I could write a book on my adventures with the varmints here on our little farmette. In fact, Dr. Nespola drew me a couple pictures depicting some of my adventures. A single woman living by herself learns how to do many things in many different ways some of which I do not care to repeat. Estee has been a good companion on some of these adventures.

It was a wonderful day to dry laundry and I had my lines full, they all smelled so good tonight and we are anxious to crawl into the fresh sheets tonight.

Janet and Brion had given us a beautiful burgundy gourd bird house at Christmas time, so today, I used my trusty step ladder that Krista bought for me and climbed up the weeping cherry tree and hung the new bird house. We will be able to watch it from the kitchen window. So far we have a bird house full of blue bird eggs, a robin nest in the barn, tree swallows in a house, chickadee building in a house and phoebes near the tack room. Still haven't seen the wrens. All are interesting to watch, and I try to post my findings with Nest Watch at Cornell.

An Outside Day

May 5th - Wednesday - Sunny (summertime?) 80's

Lou and I are beginning to think that we needed to come home a little sooner, there is so much that is screaming for attention, we hardly know where to start or stop.

I went out early with the intent of finishing up the 50 some rose bushes that we have. We both love them, but they take a lot of time and work. We had the old wood cut off, but they needed to be fertilized and all of the cuts needed to be glued, and I finally have the job finished, even noted some tiny bugs on them that need to be sprayed. I then finished spraying Roundup on weeds that are not needed. I went through three gallons of that.

I had dug up some flowers that I wanted to take to Lou's house, as the rabbits ate everything that he planted last year. So we made a quick trip over there, and of course, it always takes longer than one would think, but all of them are in the ground and watered, so hopefully they will do well. I like to keep blooming flowers in the bed by the garage, so when the kids come to use the house, it is a friendly greeting, as their mother always had many flowers.

Lou once again tackled the garden, after the two mile walk. He has the soil worked up so nicely it looks like a bed of ashes, we were finishing up the white fence that goes around it when we noted the time, and realized we had to shower, eat and get to our square dance class by 6:30 pm.

By the time we got to our class it had already started. I was really dreading the class, as I have been away for 12 classes, so thought I would forget all that I had learned, but I was surprised, I did well, and was pushed through a couple of the new things, that I didn't know. I do so enjoy it when I don't get mixed up. It was so good to see the folks that I had gotten acquainted with again. I wasn't able to talk much, as I still don't have much of a voice. Hopefully, this antibiotic will help with that.

Now if it rains tomorrow, I can get my house cleaned up a bit and attend to some phone calls that need to be made, and then we need to get the RV cleaned out and ready to go again. Seems like we have a sunny list and a rainy day list.