We have had busy week. At the end of every day, we have said “We killed it today”. I returned for Iowa late on Monday. We were up early on Tuesday for Tools for Schools on Tuesday followed by a Zoom call for “business”, a session with personal trainer and then to The Garden to mow and weed whack. Weed whacking is soooo much easier with an electric weed wicker. Not as heavy or noisy. As I was weedwacking on Tuesday and Wednesday, I discovered that we are covered up in poison ivy this year. Craig is out on a search and destroy mission for the poison ivy right now.
I started having an unusual rash over the weekend but it has intensified and is on several areas of by body now. Intermittently very itching but no blisters. I always had gloves, long sleeves, long pants and high socks on when outside so I am not sure it is poison ivy.
When I got back Craig told me he had traded a big garden tiller which he had never used for a wood chipper so we can make our own mulch out of the abundance of wood we have. Her name is Carol Ann (named by previous owner). While I thought I was on the fence about being a gardener, it is looking like I am headed that direction — figuring out how to have as little to do as possible in the summer when it is hot and buggy.
Fortunately I had not gotten around to doing weeding around the shed as I might have been tempted to think this was the weeds I had been removing from other areas. Surprise.
We went to another songwriter round on Thursday in a different venue and all singers were enjoyable. We are working towards Craig participating in these rounds.
And I have been diligent about practicing my bass guitar. Miguel thought I was doing very well during my second lesson and I have advanced to practicing scales.
Yesterday we worked for 8 hours on driveway maintenance. A gravel drive running down hill develops ruts. We did a lot of work in December and the ruts we had now were much fewer and smaller. First you have to use the leaf blower to get the old leaves and grass out off of the surface and out of the ruts. Then Craig uses Katie to distribute mounds of gravel on the areas with the ruts. Then the gravel is spread out over the rutted areas with a garden rake followed by running the earth compactor over the entire area which is about 2-3 city blocks long. With the new tractor (Katie) and our very own earth compactor it is much easer to do than when Craig was working with his antique tractor Gilda.
Gilda will be put up for sale this week. Craig has invested countless hours in keeping her running and she works well for a 50 plus year old tractor. Hopefully she will find a good home.
Tamara Unleashed 