Poor Chaos.

Song of the day: “Not as we” by Alanis Morrisette, it was in my head when I woke this morning and hasn’t left since.

The past couple of days were all about yard work, I fear. It’s heavy work, it’s grubby work and more than a little tiring. I swear, last night I was so friggin’ tired, I was actually nauseous with it by the end of the day. Not surprising, really, considering that it had been an incredibly long day.

First of all, we spent the majority of it digging up the lower terrace (turning the earth, technically, but still it comes down to the same thing) and putting in small plants. I personally turned 9 square meters, which I could definitely feel in my shoulders by the end of the evening.
But anyway, we put in cauliflower, red cabbage, onion, and broccoli in…just to see what is going to work best in this particular area. Oh, and we put in red beets seeds and a few pepper plants. Hah.

Once that was done, I headed on up to grandpa’s bungalow, where the younger sibs and I could resume working on the little wall. While we were at it, big brother, grandpa and mom left for town to get a new toilet. Apparently, little sister went to the bathroom the night before and somehow managed to break the bowl, poor sis was all startled. Since they were going out anyway, we decided that they check out some other veggie plants as well for today’s planting.

But anyway, the sibs and I were just about finishing up with the day’s efforts on the knee high wall, when suddenly Knight II gets a bug up his behind, or something and literally attacks Chaos (Basset Hound) and rips a two and a half inch hole in the poor Basset’s forehead. Though Chaos took it like the macho he is, he did have considerable pain and when I looked at the damage, I could see his skull beneath it, yikes.

So, I called big brother and told him they had to come home so I could take Chaos to the vet to get stitched up. Big brother agreed, and then proceeded to take two hours before he finally got home, because the road he took had been shut down and they had to go cross country to get through. *sigh*
This meant that little sister and I didn’t arrive at the vet’s until an hour before closing time, which in turn meant that we had to kill an hour while they did their thing with Chaos. Then, when we got back to pick him up, the parking place in front of the clinic was occupied, and we had to park a good fifty yards away, in a different street.

91 bucks later, with 84 pounds of sleeping dog in my arms (he was still KO, of course) we made our way back to the car, where I literally had to wedge the Basset against the side of the car while middle sister opened the door.
He now has seven stitches on his gorgeous face, along with a drain against the swelling, and looking as if he's afraid he's lost his good looks forever. So vain, my Chaos. *sigh*

I did try to do some writing later in the evening, when I finally had some food, had settled down with Chaos comfortable on a pillow and the other dogs somewhat at ease, but I was just too tired to get a lot done.
I finally just decided to head for a bed a bit early and pass out for the remainder of the night, ‘cause I wasn’t worth a dime for the duration of the evening. Chaos’s sedative had worn off enough for him to walk up the mountain, rather than me carrying him, so there was a small plus in that at least. Of course, I didn’t want to risk him toppling off the bed, seeing as he was still woozy, so I tucked him under a blanket on a pillow and let him sleep it off while I “passed out” for the night.

Today started rather beautifully. There was a clear blue sky and a fresh eastern breeze that turned chilly within two hours of awakening. There was laundry of course, when is there not, and then it was up to the bungalows to get our tenant down to my porch, where she would be able to sit out of the wind and in the sun. She did the walk down herself, so, yay, we were both so proud, and she was nice and warm.

That done, I headed down with the new plants, and spend the first part of the day putting in tomatoes, and then turning more earth for strawberries, peppermint and some more veggies in the absolute lowest part of the garden. A nice little triangle, boxed in by rocky drywall, which we gathered from all over the yard to prevent disasters from happening.

Next it was up to the kitchen to make dinner, mashed potatoes with baked red cabbage and cheese through it…it was delicious, thank you very much, even though I didn’t get to eat until much later, darn it…and then wheeling our tenant back up to her place for the evening.

Rain started by then. Clouds had already rolled in ‘round noon, but the rain didn’t start until six, or something. We were about to head in too, when a phone call from a friend had us jump in the car to drive on over. Apparently, a natural rock face gave way over the family home due to the extended amount of rain these past few weeks, and the eucalypti growing on top were threatening to tip onto the house. This meant that both brothers and I were resigned to spending a couple of hours in the full rain (I hadn’t been that wet and cold outside the shower, in years, I tell ya) chopping down the trees and lugging them away from the house.

There was coffee afterwards, putting the cut trees into the car…we could have them, seeing as we “came to the rescue” hah…and headed back home. Everything was so darn wet, and the car so fogged up that I wasn’t able to see properly, making the turn into our driver sweep, which meant that I swiped the railing at the top, damaging both door handles on the passenger side of the car, darn it.

Scared the crap out of me when I heard the squeak of metal against metal. I have made that turn so many times, and yet somehow I calculated it wrong. That POs me, if for no other reason than that we need to buy replacement handles. Grrr.

Once the car was unloaded and the coats discarded, we went into the house at sundown.
The dogs were ecstatic when we got inside, of course, and after a much-needed hot shower, it was time to have dinner and sit down behind the computer to check the messages and whatnot.

As to writing, the thing I should have been doing for forty minutes already, I’m still fitting in the second scene, before I can begin writing again. Seriously, this fitting in bit is driving me bonkers. I shiver at the thought of starting the edit by mid-March.