A week ago Friday --that would be May 4th-- th'Mr had a post-shock Dr appointment in Maysville, and from there we continued on to Muncie, for a months-overdue visit to family. We stayed with his Dad and made visits to his [mine!] sister, niece, one of the nephews, back to Sis', back to niece, across the street to neighbors, and then Tuesday morning 240 miles back home.
The truck (Moby Dodge) with it's new rebuilt motor got 13mpg on its first full tank of gas. Gasp. I hope this improves. The second tank was 15mpg (still nowhere near the 21mpg the old motor got) and last night the engine was making seizing-up noises that indicate there's probably a new fuel pump in the near future, which HOPEFULLY will improve the mileage again. I'm almost out of money; guess it's time to go back to work.
Dad's neighbor (as always) loaded me down with plants from his intricately landscaped yard; I've got most of them in the ground now but have forgotten what all but the comfrey and catnip are. The catnip I put in the south corner of the fenced part of the yard, with a milk crate over it. The next morning the milk crate was a foot away, overturned, and the catnip had chew marks all over it. I re-covered it. our friends A & J are due in sometime this week, J said she'd also bring me a healthy catnip plant since I can't seem to grow it here (could it be that anything less than a field of catnip can't win against nine cats?).
Sis again reminded us of a used book store she'd reminded us of before, many times (I don't remember that at all) and finally we went there, and came out with two large paper sacks of books, spending $100 and some change. The clerk said, "tell your sister 'thank you' for me!"
We also bought a split bench seat and two mirrors out of a wrecked '95 Dodge, and had the seat installed, all for $180.-
Thursday, the day before we left for Muncie, I'd finally sewn and installed a seat cover for his old bench seat. I know we needed a new seat, and badly, but still I grumbled till I found out that the three-day-old cover did fit the new seat too.
Friday afternoon (fast-forwarding now to May 11th) I freaked to see poison ivy growing around my hammock and near the front porch --I'm quite allergic-- so Friday evening th'Mr and I spent busy with loppers and RoundUp (anyone who knows me even slightly knows I hate to use poisons; RoundUp is an extreme step for me), finally dealing with the poison ivy that's been swarming the pines in the driveway. As long as it confined itself to the driveway I was content to let it live, but by my hammock? That's just plain rude.
We got so involved in the yardwork that I missed the Friday night knit-together.
Yesterday afternoon I cleaned along the front fence, around the roses, butterfly bush (which looks dead - did the late spring frost kill it?), forsythia and irises, then th'Mr and I got another wheelbarrow load of dirt from the neighbor's horse pasture and I put around the roses & so forth. It looks really nice now, quite different.
The roses have begun blooming. It looks like my pruning (which scared the hell out of me - am I going to kill these hundred-year-old rose bushes with my inexperience?) actually did them some good. I'm so pleased.
When we returned from Muncie I bought myself a new toy... a rotary blade mower. I've always wanted one of these, and it's already proven itself handy for getting in the tight spots the rider just isn't convenient for. The Chicago Trib predicts $5/gallon gas before the summer is over. This thing uses no gas whatsoever. And it's fun.
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