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I can't predict when I have the time to post a new blog, but check occasionally. I'm going to try at least weekly.

Sunday, May 6, 2012

In the jungle, the mighty jungle...

Song of the day: “Bruises” by Chairlift. Incredibly cute song, only a tad annoying since the part “for youhoooohooo” is the most prominent in ones memory. Hah.

So yeah, I’m incredibly short on time. We’re heading out tomorrow for the second to last workday on that fence. Setting the gates this time, so plenty to do, plenty to do. Let’s hope we don’t need to dig the holes again. And that everything held. *snort* That’s my panicky side talking. Since we did a sturdy job, I don’t see how it could have gone wrong unless someone willingly wrecked it. Hah.

But anyway, let’s get you up to date so that we can all continue with our lives. *wink*
Yesterday:

A busy day, of course. Nothing new about that, is there? Best thing of yesterday was definitely the morning workout. Yay. Did a solid hour and a half despite the miserly rain that came down. I pounded, kicked and punched. Pumped, bounced and tread, working up a nice sweat (like this morning too, as a matter of fact. What can I say, I had some catching up to do) before starting on the day (same as this morning again, hah).

I totally forgot to say that the day before we put the new water tank in place. It was quite a hassle actually, since the dratted thing was so big that we couldn’t get it through the carport and the smaller gates. We contemplated taking it along the perimeter of the garden, and then lift it over the fence where we’ll need it, but finally decided against it. There’s a short path on that side, but it would be too dangerous to navigate with that massive “bucket”. Finally decided to carry it through the big gate and then OVER the small gate beside the old RV. We were a funny sight for sure. Cousin Ed, me, grandpa and big brother, rotating our way through, that tank as high as we could possibly hold it.

That done, the tank had to be hosed clean, and then gradually lowering it to the new platform big brother finished the other day. It fit like a glove, thank you very much. While cousin Ed and I were busy elsewhere, grandpa and big brother installed all the tubing, making the tank completely ready for yesterday. And boy, were they on time!

Did do laundry, but since the air was damp and the rain was coming down (most of the night as well) there wasn’t all that much to fold. By the time we finished feeding the dogs for the day, the rain started for real and after breakfast cousin Ed and I decided to get to work on 60 pounds of lemons that had to be squeezed into juice. Yep. Got a cheap batch the other day which meant we had to make lemonade to save them properly. Took most of the day, all of it spent in the carport cutting, squeezing (by hand too, since the poor little machine couldn’t hack it) and putting it in pots and bottles. Had about eight pots of lemon juice and five bottles of lemonade. Success!

While cousin Ed and I were doing that big brother and grandpa did more in the bungalow’s kitchen. It’s coming along nicely now. Looking grand with the beautiful wooden shelving behind it.

By the time the rain finally let up for a bit, all reservoirs were filled. YAY! No kidding. The new tank was filled to full capacity, the main basin as well, and of course the small pool. This means that we’ve earned ourselves a solid two weeks extra of free water this summer. Ergo, free, homegrown, utterly ecologically grown veggies. Double Yay!

Since the rain stopped we rushed down to the yard to harvest veggies for dog food and broccoli for ourselves. Jeez, everything was soaking wet, me included by the time we were done. Sweater was wet up to my elbows, pants up to my knees…as were my shoes. Hah. I would have changed clothes then, if we didn’t still need cut everything. Instead, eating mac&cheese big brother prepared, we finished preparing the dog food, at which time the sky slowly started to clear. So nice of Mother Nature that she stopped pouring the moment we had everything filled. Hah.

Managed a nine page edit by the end of the day, despite having moments of being cross-eyed with exhaustion. Went well enough, only ten pages away from being one third of the way. I’m not displeased with how the last edit’s changes turned out. I think it’s working so far.

Strangely enough squeezing lemons wasn’t good for my shoulder. The darn thing has been whining somewhat fierce ever since that. Same goes for the foot, but what the heck. Nothing new there. Hah

Was only a little late getting to bed, but managed getting up right on the dot for that workout. Yay.
Again laundry, but a lot was still wet despite the air having cleared throughout the night. The weather has definitely improved overnight. In fact, we had a wonderfully warm sun today.

After the usual chores, coffee and breakfast, I headed down into the yard to check the tomato plants for bugs (plenty of those again, blasted creatures) and then clear some of the terraced under the house. The malva and reed just got too big this winter, and we really needed to clear at least a pat. Then I suddenly saw myself standing in front of this dense forestry (the place where some odd eight years ago there used to be a path) blinking at the sound of Gandalf in my head, saying “thou shall not pass”. Hah. Seriously, the bushes, vines, papyrus and weeds were basically challenging me. So I took the big cutters, a scythes, and got to work.

I hacked, I cut, I sliced and by some sort of miracle, after several hours of work had a semblance of a path. It was really rather amazing. One moment you’re looking at a vast jungle, and the next (naturally I had “the lying sleeps tonight” in my head during this particular chore. Hah) there was an actual path to navigate as Ed and I started dragging branching and such away. It was wonderful work to do, in particular since the poplar, the oleanders and such protected the path and us from the sun. It was wonderfully cool in there.
Gawd, some of those vines were as thick as my index finger, by the way. I can’t believe how big it’s all become down there. I’m thinking that working on paving that path, and then making the stairs to the individual terraces is going to be a blessing once summer starts. It’ll actually be cool un there.

That done, we headed up to where grandpa had made us some pancakes for a snack and heard that mom and the younger sibs had a good day at the market. Then of course we got a call, that made it necessary for us to head on out with the car and do a pick up. Got a nice donation batch, so it was worth our wile. Still, it would have been better if we didn’t have that, seeing as we still had to prepare for tomorrow’s work day.

While unloading the car, we also loaded up. The three gates on the imperial. A load of sand in the back. Bags of cement in the backseat and of course a whole set of tools that we’re going to need. Luckily grandpa and big brother could do most of this while I got started on the blog. Hey. I’m about done, and only took an hour to write it. Yay.

Okay, gotta go. Need to have an early night, and I would like to do a few edits still.



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