Susan's fancy
Gardening in Zone 7 (working for food)
Wednesday, April 17, 2024
Day 3 - April 17, 2024
Monday, April 15, 2024
Greetings from Gatlinburg - April 15, 2004
OMG! Somebody come rescue me! I hate Gatlinburg!
We drove part of the way here yesterday. Spent the night in Cookeville. Left the hotel at 8 this morning. The Husband had a meeting in Gatlinburg today at noon. We should've had plenty of time to get here by noon, only we were on Central time, and did not consider that Gatlinburg is on Eastern time. We made it here at 11:54, Eastern time. I dropped him off at the convention center and went to our hotel. Of course, we couldn't check in yet, so I decided to drive around in search of something interesting.
Big mistake.
This is the most awful place in which to drive. Pedestrians everywhere. Bumper-to-bumper traffic (on a Monday!). Crazy intersections. I doubt I'll try that driving thing again. If you're looking for me, I'll be holed up in the hotel until we leave.
Sunday, April 14, 2024
Cabbage and Broccoli - April 14, 2024
Yesterday was a busy day, with much to do before we leave for our road trip.
Mid-morning, I called Nanny to see if she would foster-parent my tomato (and other) seedlings while we're gone. My plan was to take the seedlings to her back porch rather than asking her to tend to them here. She said she would be happy to do it but suggested that I wait until late evening to bring them to her, since there would be carpenters (family members) coming to work on her porch after lunch.
For most of the morning, I did laundry and gathered up clothes for the trip while The Husband cleaned his truck. After lunch, we both went to work in the yard, which we'd let grow tall for the sake of the bees. With the yardwork done, The Husband went to Nanny's to help the carpenters while I gathered up the seedlings to move to Nanny's.
I went ahead and planted the broccoli and cabbages in the garden while The Husband helped the carpenters. The seedlings should have been in the ground a month ago. I only planted about a dozen of them and have a bunch more that will probably croak, left unattended while we're gone, but I didn't want to ask Nanny to tend them since I don't plan on planting them. I'd like to drop them off at the community garden on our way out of town, but they are planted in plastic drawers that I would like to keep but would probably disappear if left at the garden for two weeks.
Somewhere between the laundry and the yardwork, I got out the kit that I'd bought from Hobby Lobby the previous day. It's a punch needle kit. I've never done that kind of craft. It looked easy in some videos I watched. After fooling with the kit for about an hour, I decided that punch needle is not a craft that should be done in a car, rolling at top speed down the interstate, even for an experienced puncher. So far, I have yet to produce a line of stitching that did not immediately pull out of the fabric. Once we get to our first destination, I will have time in the hotel room to try again while The Husband is at his meetings.
I am also taking my watercolor/drawing supplies. We will be in the mountains, and I just might be inspired, if I can work up the gumption to fire up the truck and battle my way through tourist town traffic to get somewhere with a view worth painting.
It will be time to plant the garden when we come home.
Friday, April 12, 2024
Errands - April 12, 2024
Yesterday, I called a halt to the inventory of the courthouse basement, having reached a point where I need some guidance. But there's now a fairly informative spreadsheet listing all the documents in Administration's storage rooms, and where they are, and people should be able to find what they need without much trouble.
This morning, after I sent the spreadsheet up the chain, I took my car back to the body shop to have them look at one of the front flasher lights. The car has been out of the shop for two weeks, but it wasn't until Monday morning, when I pulled up behind a shiny chrome bumper at Burger King, that I realized the light wasn't working. It only took them about 10 minutes to fix it.
After that, I went to Big Lots and loaded up a tote bag full of road snacks. $47 worth. Don't judge; we'll be on the road a lot, and they're moderately healthy snacks. ;)
After that, I went to the new Hobby Lobby to get some busy work for my hands while we're on the road. Got a "punch needle" kit. Only spent $15. I told the lady at the cash register, "This place may explode when I walk out of here having spent under $20." A lady coming in the store said, "Girl, I hear ya."
I'm taking my watercolor paints on the road trip, too, with visions of "plein air" painting dancing around in my head. It probably won't happen. We'll be staying smack in the middle of the towns we'll visit, and I hate driving in unfamiliar places. On the other hand, we've got time for a state park visit between towns, so it could happen.
Wednesday, April 10, 2024
Shoooo-WEEEE . . . - April 10, 2014
Sunday, April 7, 2024
Lavender Seeds Planted - April 7, 2024
About six weeks ago, I shook a package of lavender seeds onto a moist paper towel, sealed it in a ziploc bag, and put it in the refrigerator to "stratify" the seeds. Today, I planted the seeds in dirt in a tray on the patio.
Crossing my fingers that they come up.
Progress - April 7, 2024
Though I expected to be finished inventorying the records in the creepy courthouse basement room by the end of the week, I didn't make it. There were three file cabinets that contained one series of documents, but they were all mixed up. It seemed that when one file cabinet - A to Z - was full, they simply started a new A-Z file cabinet. On top of that, it seems that at some point someone had taken handfulls of files and simply stuffed them in the cabinets wherever they would fit. Thus, in order to make sense of what was there, I had to empty all three cabinets, alphabetize the contents, and put it all back in the cabinets in the correct order. After that, I made a spreadsheet list of the files. This took the better part of three days. By Friday afternoon, I'd finished inventorying only one of the three rooms. Hopefully, the next two won't take as long.
Each day, I came home TIRED. After a long winter of sitting on my rear end, I am out of shape, and the work - lifting heavy boxes and ledgers - made me ache. I would come home, shower off the mold and dust, and collapse until bedtime. We ate Easter dinner leftovers and frozen pizzas for supper every night because I was too tired to cook.
I should truly be finished with the courthouse basement by the end of the coming week. After that, I am not sure what to tackle next. Some of the county departments have their acts together with regard to records management, but others have been somewhat haphazard. One of them generates mountains of paper that have been stored in every available nook and cranny in the county. I don't know how I will make sense of this disaster. One box at a time, I reckon.
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The Grandson came over Friday night and will be here through Tuesday night. He is a good kid. He had a bumpy road after his parents divorced, but he has turned himself around, is making good grades and has a sensible plan for his future education. I am proud of him.
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Yesterday, the family on the hill convened to renovate Nanny's back porch. The ceiling and the rafters suffered water damage and had to be replaced. The Husband went to the lumber store yesterday morning to get the materials. Construction started just after lunch time and was almost finished by dinner time.
I did not participate in the construction. While The Husband went to get the lumber, I went to the grocery store - we were OUT of food in this house. When I got home, I put red beans & rice in the slow cooker and went down to Nanny's to help, but the menfolk had it under control. I ended up mowing Nanny's yard until supper time. I came home to get the beans & rice, and when I got back to Nanny's with the food, everyone was exhausted and preparing to leave. The four of us who stayed barely put a dent in the pot. The Husband and I may be eating beans & rice for the rest of the week.