Rainy Day Notes

Gratitudes:
1. I'm so grateful for the rain today.
2. I'm grateful 4 of my Nasturtium seeds are sprouting!
3. I'm grateful I did my Bible study first thing in the morning today.
4. I'm grateful for the inspiration of God. Looking forward to more of that.
5. I'm grateful for a cup of coffee.
Plan for the day:
1. Clean off my art desk.
2. Stay inside and stay warm.
3. Finish another book.
4. Create a watercolor picture in my sketchbook.
5. Rearrange art supplies.
Currently reading:
1. Medieval Woman, by Ann Baer
2. Hornblower During the Crisis, by CS Forester
3. An Eye For Art, by the National Gallery of Art
4. The Healing Light, by Agnes Sanford
5. Purpose in Prayer, by EM Bounds
6. Foxe's Book of Martyrs, by John Foxe

Here's how my day is going:

I woke up early after only three and a half hours of sleep. That is good. I've been waking up too late during the past few weeks. I need to start getting up early, early, early again because springtime is here and I need to water the garden and work on my art in the soon-to-be shed before noon. I think in the afternoons this summer it will be too hot to work in the shed and I'll have to come back to the trailer where I have an air conditioner. All good.

You can tell I'm really looking forward to that shed, right? Only a few more weeks now until my building dates. I need to prepare the ground more... the site where I want the shed isn't quite level. Also I'd like to get some gravel to put under it.

I'm really so happy my Nasturtium seeds have started to sprout. I planted those with Aurora's help about two weeks ago. I dug the holes and she put in the seeds and covered them. We worked great together. I put them in the three wooden barrel planters I bought from Amazon. We put three seeds in the smallest, four in the medium sized planter, and then five in the largest. So far we've got four seedlings. Right now they're being pounded by rain.

My Garden Project 2023

Gratitudes:
1. I am grateful I'm finally getting some positive change to my yard. The wood mulch looks great!
2. I am grateful for putting Bible study first this morning. It always makes the day better.
3. I am grateful to have a new fountain pen journal.
4. I am grateful Jesus loves me.
5. I am grateful to have hope for a shed to be built here.
Plan for the day:
1. Gardening - continue installing wood mulch and new garden soil.
2. Boxes - continue breaking them down.
3. Come up with a plan for cutting away that elm tree growth.
4. Try moving the logs.
5. Take down the old greenhouse.
Currently reading:
1. The Power of Praying for Your Adult Children by Stormie Omartian
2. Lifting the Veil on the Lost Continent of Mu, by James & Jack Churchward
3. Clinging to Hope, by Charles R. Swindoll
4. Hornblower and the Atropos, by C.S. Forester
5. The Bible from 30,000 Feet, by Skip Heitzig
6. The Wind Off the Small Isles, by Mary Stewart

Here's how my day is going:

I'm very excited about the wood mulch! I've been looking forward to it for so long. To recap - I had a lot of annoying weeds in my side yard last year. This side yard is what I face when I walk out of my travel trailer (temporary home) each day. This year I want something nicer. I want to grow flowers and herbs.

This last Monday I drove to Medford and bought 20 bags of new organic potting soil plus 10 bags of brown wood mulch. I also got some concrete blocks and red concrete paving stones. The mulch is going down on the walkway in front of my washing machine. The potting soil will be distributed behind the trailer and nearby. These areas have been covered with cardboard most of the winter in preparation for this yard transformation and to keep us from slipping on mud. (I live in such a primitive situation right now.)

So yes, I'm excited I finally got to go get the gardening supplies I needed to complete the project. Of course, now that I have the soil and mulch I have to carry it out of the van and spread it on the ground. FYI I'm 70 years old now and very out of shape because almost all last year I had plantar fasciitis and couldn't walk without extreme foot pain. So working with these bags - moving them - is a big effort for me and I can do only a little bit at a time. It doesn't matter. I can complete this yard project in very short segments.

I have 1/2 acre here, and it all needs landscaping. All of it. However I recognize my limitations. I will have to do this work one tiny section at a time. It will take years - as many years as God gives me on this land. There will be no perfection but there will be slow progress and I'll have to be happy with that.

Gunshot in the Night

Tonight I'm here, still awake, at 1am - and out there somewhere was something that sounded exactly like a gunshot, and I have to wonder, why? What was being shot at? Why only one shot? Around here it could have been someone trying to scare a bear or mountain lion away. Seems like this same thing happened just a couple of nights ago.

Two nights ago I forgot to bring in the cat food at sunset, and when I opened the kitchen door to get it, a little skunk was having his fill of easy free food. I judiciously shut the door and let him have at it. Later I went out to get the rest and tossed the food in the trash and washed the bowls. I have to stop doing that to myself. It makes me wonder where this skunk and his family live. I'm suspecting the thicket behind the shed. There are thick brambles and honeysuckle. Plenty of privacy for a skunk family, I suppose. I don't think they're under my mobile home because the skirting seems very effective and I had plumbing work done a week ago, and the plumber said nothing about seeing skunks under there. You would think he'd mention that if there were something like that to report.

I have a project going on in the side yard, in sector 7. That's just outside my living room windows. I want to cover all the old lawn with cardboard, and on that put new dirt to grow flowers in. I want a flower garden, not a lawn. The plan is great except there was no way to go shopping in Yreka this spring due to coronavirus so I didn't have enough dirt to make it work. I will continue to work on this over the course of the next few years and hope that eventually I'll have enough there that it will be absolutely beautiful in the springtime.

Gardening Day

Today is a great day to catch up on the lawn mowing. Yes, I'm still working on taxation issues, but once in a while I need to get up and go outside, and when I do, the lawn comes to mind. I've divided the property into 14 sectors and want to do one sector daily, repeating that in the last half of the month. However, because of the Fourth of July and book club and other activities I got off track. This morning I finally did the job on sectors 4 and 5 which are adjacent to my mobile home. Can't say I completed the job... there's still more to do there this afternoon - but great start! Goodbye to the Dandelion Forest!



Today, on the 9th of the month I should be doing the first backyard sector, but am not there yet. Also, not really worried about it. I can double up again tomorrow. This afternoon I want to finish sectors 4 and 5 and do something about sector 8. Confusing if you can't see it I guess... but means something to me. Sector 8 is between the shed and the mobile home. There are some terribly overgrown areas in this sector. All I can do is keep trying. Tomorrow I can finish sector 8 and move on to sectors 9 and 10 in the big backyard.



I took the photos last winter before the trees got their leaves.

My Daughter's Birthday

Today was my daughter's fifteenth birthday. She stayed home most of the time except for a short shopping trip and a drive up the mountain to check the snow level.

Thanks to Susan and Kyle for sending gifts to her!

I wanted to take her on a shopping trip to Oregon next month but she's decided she likes the idea of online shopping -- and staying home. We're many miles from any shopping centers. The nearest mall is a 3 hour drive away.

Now my son is asking me to take him to Yreka next month - to get gardening supplies. He's got a plan (on paper) for landscaping the front yard and already started implementing his side yard plan. It will look great here if he gets all this done this year. But because its raining this week not much is happening outside. He's been painting his bedroom instead.

Chicken Pox and Gardening

I have so much to do today - and am feeling sick. I've already been up and working since 2 am.

My son just got over chicken pox and my daughter is getting them - though since she had a shot we hope it won't be as severe a case.

I had them when I was very young. I don't remember being sick as much as I remember when my mother told me it was okay to go back outside and play again. We were living in a house on Mira Vista Drive in El Cerrito then - and I remember being able to go outside to play on the swing - and my mom cutting my fingernails - and her putting clothes on the line or taking them down... something like that.

It was a pretty yard with lots of flowers.

This morning I went outside and planted the rest of my flower seeds. We've already got some things coming up in the garden. Hopefully a lot of these seeds will grow too. We bought new topsoil for the flower bed this year. My son has worked hard to landscape the yard.

Wrecked Cars, Weeds, and Web Maintenance

Saturday - my son took me on a tour of the town to see old classic trucks he's scoped out, and one wrecked classic car... we recorded this with photos in our homeschooling weblog.

I'm trying to get some weeds out of the garden. I thought I'd have a nicely landscaped yard this year but the guy who was doing yard work for us got into a silly argument with our son, then our neighbor accused the guy of stealing food. Anyhow, he's disappeared from our section of town and my half-started yard needs help. I'm trying to spend time out there every day to "make progress" and I'm encouraging my boyfriend and son to do the same. They are helping. My son weeded around our front stepping stones this morning. Any little bit helps. So far we've planted sage, periwinkle, iris and rosemary in the front yard. The kids planted the vegetable garden and though there's some seedlings showing, I have no idea what they are.

I got a lot of work done on a web maintenance job tonight and am feeling good about it right now. My to-do list has gotten so long, its scary... and there's several high-priority items I need to get on right away. Guess I'd better get busy.