Weekend in Review: The Good Life

Ornery took the camera out of the closet Friday night and was playing around with it, and lo and behold, it worked!  Apparently the battery was dead--not sure why we never checked that. After much searching Saturday morning, we finally located the battery charger and we are in business again. Thank you, Lord.  I haven't used it yet, these photos are from the little one I had been using.

Saturday began with a divine cup of coffee.  I usually enjoy it, but that cup was just perfect; fresh coffee, I guess. Elizabeth texted me very early to say she wasn't coming. Ornery baked some banana bread which we had to wait for before we could get out and start our day. So, I enjoyed a wonderful warm shower to pass the time.  Sometimes I notice how really good my life is, and today was one of those times.  Every moment was precious and I spoke my gratitude many times throughout the day.

We had breakfast at Panera, then went to Lowe's to get a propane refill, Hibdon to get the tires on Big Red aired up, then to Reasors for food and straw. We unloaded all that and put most of it away, then went to Grogg's Green Barn to pick up some soil and soft rock phosphate for our container garden. On the way home we grabbed Chipotle to-go and ate it at home.  Then Ornery took a long nap from which it took a long time to wake up.

Next we tackled the projects in the back yard.  He drilled holes in the 1/2 drums, then we put straw, what little compost we had made since May, and the soil we bought into the containers.  We only bought five bags, but we knew it wouldn't fill them up and that we would have to add more before planting. At least this will be enough to break down the straw and finish decomposing the compost.

While he was working on drilling the holes, I finished cleaning up the holly we had cut down two weeks ago.  That corner looks SO much different than when we first moved in!

Then I dug a hole (quite a production in that hard clay soil!) for my new hydrangea and planted it. I added gypsum, vermiculite and some of the soft rock phosphate to the soil. I didn't know if the plant was going to revive--it had gotten really dried out and was very wilted, but Sunday morning, Ornery called me over to look at it and apparently it is very happy in its new home!

Then while Ornery removed the SUPER LONG hose from the hose cart and installed the new shorter one, I started trimming the pine tree. I pruned as many of the small branches as my loppers would allow and bagged all the trimmings. Together we finished it off, him with the electric chain saw and me gathering up all the pieces to bag while the new hose watered the very wilted, newly planted hydrangea.

This tree was a menace to walk under.  I am surprised it lasted as long as it did before trimming occurred, since Ornery had to mow around it all summer!

We also hung the old drill press on one of the posts of the pergola.  It looks really cute, and I think it will be nice with a flower pot sitting on the plate next summer and some petunias or something like that trailing down.  It is completely rusted, so there are no moving parts anymore.

We cleaned up all our messes and went inside just as the sun finished setting and the little sliver of a moon rose in the sky.  We were tired in a good way. It felt so good to get so many things crossed off our list!

Sunday morning we worked in the garage for a little while, Ornery cleaned up some of his tools and I finished off the last of the bowl/baskets he made.

Next, Ornery changed the filters on the a/c and hung the newly found paper towel holder in the utility room.

We listened to the sermon, then he went back out to the garage to begin a new project--a Christmas gift. While he worked on that, I sat down with my weekly planner and gave myself a very ambitious schedule of activities for the next several weeks.  It begins tomorrow with a long list of cooking projects. I have included all the craft projects I want to complete, all the gifts I need to make and all the things for the ornament exchange that still need to be finished. I also scheduled time for the editing project, which I hope to have delivered by the weekend prior to Thanksgiving.

I think between Christmas and New Year's I will just sleep. :)