I overslept this morning. It was a silly thing, really. I woke about an hour before I was supposed to and suddenly “remembered” that I forgot to set my alarm last night. So, or course I reach over to turn the switch and fall back to sleep, confident that the small device will wake me right on the dot.
Two hours later, I startle awake by the noise of the dogs and see that I’m a full hour late and fuzzier than I like to be. I could use the sleep however, so on the overall it is not a bad thing. The weather is rather disappointing when I wake. There’s a cold western wind and clouds rush across the sky at full speed, giving only glimpses of the sun.
I get down to the house to do the usual chores, including another big batch of laundry. We’re almost through the dirty pile, which fills the drying lines to full capacity, but at least the harsh winds dried yesterday’s batches to satisfaction. With grandpa’s help I manage to get the folding and hanging done in less than an hour.
Editing doesn’t go too well today, big brother and I get distracted a lot while we try to go over the pages that should be done, and in the end we give up and decide to go outside to the top of our mountain to take stock of present projects and those that still need to be done, while walking the dogs at the same time.
With grandpa, we stand on a spot overlooking the whole valley that stretches out towards the sea, and even thought it really is too windy for comfort…the sun is out by this time, but it can’t compete with the wind…we go over everything that’s going on. After half an hour or so I head inside to see how the younger sibs are doing with the pizza they intend to make for today’s and tomorrow’s dinner.
They’ve set quite a chore for themselves, and I leave them to it while I take out the supplies to do some of the much needed cleaning throughout the house.
Over the past few weeks dust and dirt has gathered everywhere, and while little brother works on the pizza dough, little sister and I tackle the kitchen shelves and cabinets.
Mom has a hankering to go out for a bit, so after some discussion it is decided that big brother will break today’s plans and accompany her to town, while we stay at home to work on our tasks of choice.
We are interrupted in the midst of cleaning out the fridge, when we hear that the dogs (they’re going bonkers over the departure of the car) have broken through the middle fence and are now making a racket up by the main gate.
I head on up to chase them all down, while middle sister starts rolling rocks on the section of the fencing they broke through, again. Once I reach the gate snapping orders at the pack to get their butts inside, I am just barely in time to see the rear end of a black Cocker Spaniel disappear behind a bush, way up the mountain, right where the main road is. Gawd, I nearly have a heart attack!
I shout at middle sister to get the other sibs up to deal with the main pack, and start searching for the key to open the gate when little brother comes running up to ask what’s up. I tell him about the Cocker…it could be any of the nine that we have of that particular breed…and find the key by the time he has climbed the wall and is running up the drive sweep in pursuit of the small dog that has disappeared fully from sight.
I’ve just opened the gate, just barely managing to slip through it without a quartet of dogs following me, when I see him up there on the road with a black bundle of fur in his arms.
Shoving back Mosha…she’s most persistent in following me…I slam the gate shut behind me and call out to ask which one it is. Out of breath he only shrugs, some of them are hard to recognize, but by then he is close enough for me to recognize Sonya, big brother’s Spaniel. Obviously the little idiot thought to follow her master.
While little brother enters the property, I do a quick search of the surrounding area to make sure that no other dogs have managed to slip through the fences, and once I’m convinced that all are once again safely inside, I too return to the house where we spend a solid half hour counting pack-member heads until we’re sure that all are accounted for. Phew! That took at least a year off my life.
We get back to cleaning. Everything in the kitchen gets wiped clean and by the time the youngest sibs start on the covering of the pizzas, I take my bucket with soap and cleaning cloths to the sitting area to tackle the dirt there. In the mean time, middle sister decides to give all her efforts to the pantry, which was starting to look like a pigsty, hah.
I am forced to halt my efforts in cleaning for a bit when I come upon one of the cabinets that is slowly falling apart, and get tools to fortify the structure before disaster strikes and it crashes. It takes little effort, really. A few holes in strategic places, some screws, and voila, it’s whole again. It should hold for at least another year…I hope. It is really hard to tell with dogs that feel no compunction to ram into furniture while they’re playing.
Big brother, grandpa and mom return from their trip. Underway they got another batch of rocks, so I cease the chore of cleaning for about half an hour to head on up to the car to help haul them out.
The cleaning spree takes several hours, spider webs, dead insects (the little buggers always give the spirit around lights) are everywhere but in the end everything is looking decidedly better, which is when dinner is ready and we all pounce to devour the offering with considerable gusto. It is delicious and I’m so darn stuffed afterwards that it takes me a solid hour to process the meal.
There are a few more chores throughout the evening. One of them being: picking ticks off the dogs …the friggin little parasites are everywhere again…before the evening comes to an end and I head on up to my cabin.
Though we didn’t do all that much compared to the last few weeks, we’re still pretty bushed by now, and I for one am up for some shuteye.
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