Journal: April Gets Rolling

Thursday April 3, 2003

Guess I fell asleep before I finished Tuesday’s ramblings—oh well. The point is, it was a terrific visit and we can’t wait for Leslie’s family to attend “Camp Tina” again as the kids have started to call it. I think it would be more fair to call it Camp Joslyn, but what can you do with kids…

Friday April 4, 2003

I have GOT to stop being distracted away from my journal so easily! Really do have things to put on paper for future memory jogging. It’s pretty obvious to me that even at age 38 my memory capabilities are terrible—imagine how little I’ll be able to recall of all these wonderful events when old & gray.

At the moment it’s 7:33am and I’m in the recliner in the sunroom with the dogs. They’ve done their breakfast and potty thing, and would like to go back to bed, but I may just keep them up with me out of spite. It’s gray and a little rainy outside, a big change from the last few days. Average temps are supposed to be in the 50’s & 60’s, but Wed-Thurs it was in the 70’s!

In fact, it was enough to convince us to take our first motorcycle ride in Ohio, and we took off yesterday @ 1:30pm for a tour. Went through Marion, then looped home through Bucyrus & Galion.

Ready to Ride!

As noted before, the bird sounds volume is way up. They’re frantically making nests in the trees, shed and barn. The starlings seem intent on cramming into a nook in the metal doorway to the shed. Wackos. The robins have started using their battle cry—piercing and aggressive; I assume territory has been staked out. The tiny birds are doing their best to make a dent in the green birdfeeder. It holds a lot of seed, so it’ll take awhile.

7:55am  Pav is standing & staring at me, his version of demanding something. I’m pretty sure I’ll cave in and let him back inside to his warm bed. (It’s almost 60* out here—nobody’s suffering…) Vince is huddled under a blanket, and Tessa goes in & out through the propped open door. When she is inside the sunroom, she spends her time looking outside. (Pav just heaved a giant sigh and flopped down) Across the field, Sam the horse seems agitated. Probably springtime jitters. He really wants to mingle with the neighboring horse herd, but that darn fence prohibits. They all seem restless this morning. They maybe got spoiled by the recent sunshine like I did, and are trying to adjust to ‘normal’ spring weather.

Before and after the motorcycle ride yesterday, David & I continued our yard work. I was weeding and transplanting things out of the front beds, and David was edging the pond, preparing for plastic lining and plants.  (8:10am Pav stood up & is pressing his nose against the glass—I’m going to give in. Maybe I’ll have a little breakfast, too)

Prepping pond for plastic lining

Flower bed next to corral fence.

The international symbol for Spring!

Not bad, but a lot of improvements to be made.

Always a pleasant little corner

9:00am  Noticed the hot tub was still up to temp, so after I let the dogs into their bedroom I took a dip! Pretty relaxing, an a.m. hot tubbing while watching the birds at the feeder. After that, had to go downstairs to the freezer to get my breakfast burritos, and remembered that once again I’d forgotten to thaw the chicken for today’s slow cook plans. I wonder if I can just stick that frozen lump in the crockpot and cross my fingers? Nope, I decided to microwave defrost, and it’s humming away now in the background. I took a chance that leaving the wrapper on the bird is a good idea—I wonder if it will explode…

Anyhoo, David’s up now, and the dogs are moving around, slurping water all over the kitchen floor, surprise surprise. Now Pav is staring at me so I can let him out. His Royal Highness is getting an early start today… Our plans are to go “to town” today and pick up supplies. I’d better get busy on a sundries list—a different kind of writing. More later—still have to catch up on past events.


End of Entry

Milestone! (But who's counting...)

Happy Holidays Give Way to Sad News

For Christmas, the zebra finch family received a new bag of choice seeds, and a special cage-mounted, transparent feed station. The station gives them a clear view of their surroundings, and I can see them much better. More importantly, however, the feed station is designed to reduce (ads claim 'eliminate' but no) seed hull scatter from their messy crunch-extract-flick eating habits.

All four birds at the buffet (two kept moving during the photo shoot)

Andre II, Corky & Brut bellied up to the seed bar

And then there were three...

Just two days after these pictures were taken, I found one of the male finches deceased. He had found a resting place on top of the basket of growing grass I keep in the cage, and looked to have gone peacefully. There was slight damage on one of his wings, but we decided it was probably from the other birds "checking into" why he wasn't moving, not from a fight, because against all odds (3 males, one female...) there have been no observed incidents.
I'm still not sure who to mourn, though. They look so much alike in maturity; I can only tell them apart by their songs, and there hasn't been much for them to sing about the last few days. I'm fairly certain Corky is still with us, because I think I heard his awful "toby, toby, toby" call yesterday. Brut has always been timid and quiet, so I will wait to hear either his gentle peeps or Deuce's nifty, complex composition.

Journal: March into April

Tuesday April 1, 2003

Headed out this morning to Mt Gilead to the SWCD (Morrow County Soil & Water Conservation District) to order up some cheap trees they’re offering. Signed up for various evergreens and decorative trees—they’ll be available in @ 2 weeks.
It’s been a week since I last wrote, and I just bought this notebook today, so I’ll have to do my best to remember all the stuff we’ve done.

Speaking of trees, the poplars we mail-ordered (root stock) arrived via USPS last week. 21 “shade” poplars, 11 “screen” poplars, 6 red maples, and 25 strawberry plants. The first spot to plant was the east side of the pond in the chute that will eventually be part of the back yard. 

March 26, 2003

Former owner had two "chutes" going out to
the two fields from the barn, for stallion/mare purposes.

The chute was very rutted from erosion,
so we filled it in with bricks from the basement demo.

After I measured and marked 11 spots, David brought in the big tractor and used the post hole digger to make the holes. It was a great way to break up the clay dirt and get past the hard packed surface, plus he looked so cute on his tractor!

He's smiling because he's not digging by hand...

Nicely done

3/26/03  Trees planted and mulched.

I planted the 11 “screen” poplars and mulched. The next day we planted @ 15 ‘shade’ poplars and 4 red maples in the west field. 1 red maple went in north of the pond, just over the berm. After receiving the poplar order, we used a rainy day to fill out the order form for the same nursery and made decisions on shrubs, grasses, trees and some bulbs. Can’t wait til we get some greenery around the pond.

David’s water pumping ploy did a great job to get the pond’s water level high, but when he shut it off for a few days, the level dropped quite a bit. Neighbor [D]  told David there are no intentional drains or holes in the pond; David decided to reverse the pump and pump water OUT of the pond until it’s low enough that we can line the sides with plastic.

Oh, the SWCD also has a fish stocking program for pond owners, so we’ll decide how many of what to get and sign up for that (bluegill, bass, etc). Once we get this water level thing figured out it will be fun to have fish swimming around. We’re looking forward to Alex & Matt fish from the pier—catch and release, of course.

Other outside activities have included David fencing, me starting to clear the garden area, David cleaning up the Gold Wing, me removing old horse manure from the “new” section of back yard by the stream—I can’t keep track of it all. Oh, right, David built a gate in the fence into the west field, and a bridge to get across the creek.

Fantastic improvement!

It’s so fun to have easy access to that field without going down the road or climbing through the fence & wading across.Today I started raking some plant gunk from the waterway because it’s getting really choked off. Pretty physically demanding, but I enjoy the challenge.

Right, I said I would recap Dad & Elsie’s visit. They arrived late March 9 (David’s birthday—he and I had porterhouse steaks at the Brown Derby, and he got an oil massage from me the night before, and a subscription to “This Old House” magazine) after having stopped by to see Lars & have dinner with him. They stayed until Tuesday of the following week, and worked nonstop in between.

Dad was working with David downstairs on the drywall and Elsie was a sewing maniac. She made a valance for the GBR window, shortened the side panels, made a table runner and 4 pillows. Everything looks so nice. She also made 2 tractor seat covers for David—a project she probably wishes she hadn’t volunteered for once the problems started…

The basement stove chimney looks great after David re-bricked it
and put up drywall.

David drywalling, mudding & taping in the basement GBR

3/10/03  Dad helps with some mudding & taping

3/12/03  Dad makes a helpful mess!

Pavoratti, it isn't polite to eavesdrop!

It was fun making dinners in, and trying out some new recipes. We only ate out once, at the Malabar Inn on Saturday. Lars came up to see us all, and went out to eat with us. It was a relaxed, low key visit with him, and he & Dad spent time looking at Dad’s computer (maps or something).

On Sunday, Leslie’s family was scheduled to come over, and they arrived @ 3pm. Leslie brought cheese stuffed shells, Elsie made meat lasagna, and I made veggie lasagna in the slow cooker. I had forgotten to buy bread, so Leslie saved me by bringing 2 fresh loaves from a bakery near her house. Before dinner, the kids had fun running around outside, playing near the pond, playing in the barn, and of course, playing in the hot tub (David had reduced the temp to 96*). Everyone got along great, and Leslie says Dad has hardly changed since seeing him at her wedding 10 years ago. 

3/16/03 Emily doesn't seem to share Matt's enthusisam for the view...

No, definitely not.

Nice to hot tub after a hard day's play.

Dad & Elsie really liked the *guest bedroom, and it was nice to see it being used. They also seemed to get a kick out of the morning “room service” on the custom painted tray (to match the room!).

[2013 Addendum to Journal: After all the guests left, but before the activity on March 25 [March Madness), we managed to squeeze in few more projects.]

There was a power pole in the backyard outside the sunroom, with a ghastly streetlight at the top.

We cut it down!

David ran electricity to the large shed by digging a trench, installing, and burying cables.

The area outside the sunroom was a mess of weeds and uneven ground,
so we began the process of clearing, leveling, and preparing for gravel.

Removed grass in a spot near the back door
to create a temporary garden area

3/20/03  Finally finished my counted cross-stitch pattern

*guest bedroom: Not sure why I didn't have pictures of the upstairs bedroom, but maybe it wasn't completed yet

End of Entry

Which Came First...

...the Chicken or the Egg?

Maybe they both showed up at the same time...

One of our hens sculpted this