back to work

 

Went back to work Monday, at the Mountaineer power plant in New Haven, WV. I'm working nights, 5+ days a week, ten-hour days. We start at 6PM and work till 4AM. Since it's about 3 hours from home I got a hotel room in Galipolis OH, half an hour from the job. Last night we got rained out before "lunch" (which is at 11PM), so I came home. I have to leave about 2:30 this afternoon to head back to work.

The way a rain-out works on this job - first of all, we're working in a building ...sort of. There is no roof and no walls; it's all steel beams & grating & stairs, so when it rains it's assumed we're smart enough to get out of the rain & go to the break trailers. If there is lightning we are not to return to work until it has NOT lightninged for half an hour. If we show up for work and it's raining and they send us home right away, we get two hours' "show-up" pay. If we work (get out our tools and work), like we did last night, and THEN we get rained out, they pay us a minimum of four hours.

My lovely night off :) consisted of a three-hour drive in pouring rain... then I got home & th'Mr fixed me several drinks, I brushed kitties, I slept in our own bed, woke up around 10AM and went outside to see what was wrong with the tiller --the belt had slipped loose-- fixed that, pulled some ripe radishes YUM, and now I have a couple more hours before I have to leave. There's a good chance we'll get rained out again tonight. If it's right away I'll probably come straight home again, but if it's later, like it was last night, I may just go to the hotel (that's a lot of driving, back and forth). I do like getting to come home unexpectedly!

Text Heute, Bilder Morgen.

Heute habe ich den Tagelang gearbeitet.

[Lately- spAEtestens?] lese ich Flylady.com, und in der letzen Woche ist das Haus auch sauberer und [neater - mehr ordentlich?] geworden. So also, frUEh Morgens putzte ich in der KUEche und im Bad, und dan hab' ich mein Computer-tisch [desk?] gut geordnet. Sollte zwei Minuten dauern (Flylady's "hot spot" exercise) aber in zwanzig Minuten war ich fast damit [through - durch? fertig?].

Heute habe ich auch angefangen mehr Wasser den tagedurch zu trinken. Das ist auch so ein Flylady Ding. Na, dan war ich mit dem [desk - Tisch] fertig und ging zu'm Haufen im Ofen-zimmer (wo der Holz-ofen ist, und auch meine NAEhmaschine) und hab den Haufen aufgehoben. Das meiste war [tools - schraubenzieher usw.] von, oder fUEr, meine Arbeit (Electriker). Die habe ich alle zur Garage genommen, und die werden den ein anderen Tag weiter weg-getan. Das war ein riesen-Haufen und hat UEberhaubt nicht lange gedauert. Danke, Flylady!

Na, dan war's Mittag, und ich machte aus Zeitschrift ein einfaches Muster fUEr eine... ... ...na so was! FrUEher kennte ich das Wort, was ist das den... was man trAEgt zur Hausarbeit. 'Ne Schirze! SchUErtze? Die habe ich ausgeschnitten und genAEht, sieht ganz vernUEmftig aus, aber wenn ich sie trage seh ich dick aus. Ist aber bestimmt nicht nur die SchUErze.

Taschen hat sie. Die Taschen war'n schOEn wenn ich die WAEsche spAEter reinbrachte, na, da hat' ich ein Korb, aber die [clothespins - Klammern? WAEsche-klammern?]die gingen mir in den Taschen. Heute war auch das erste mal dies Jahr das ich die Leine benutzte.

Dan machte ich Abendessen, was bei uns meistens mehr wie Mittag ist und dan Mittags haben wir Suppe oder 'ne Stulle oder Salat... wir hatten heute Abend so ungefAEhr Reste: von Sonnabend's Truthan (drippings - das Fett?) hab ich wieder Sahne (gravy?) gemacht, und dazu hatten wir Kartoffeln, Champignons, und [stuffing/dressing ?] Da is vielleicht noch eine Stulle-wert Fleisch und dan mach ich 'ne schOEne Suppe mit den KOErper. Wenichstens hoffe es wird schOEn.

Dann hat der Mann Rasen gemAEht und ich zog Unkraut. Aber nicht das alle Unkraut, sonst hAEtte ich kein Rasen! Der LOEwenzahn ist noch hUEbsch, da mach ich nur die ausgeblUEteten ab und lasste die schOEnen, dem "Purple Deadnettle" zog ich auch die langen BlUEten ab (wenn's zu lang wird, wird's gemAEht, und dan hab ich keine Wildblumen). Man, da sind eine menge Veilchen! SUEss sehen die aus. Ich fand auch ein Halbdutzent Sonnenblumen (ganz kleine) im Rasen, da legte ich Steine rum, das die hoffentlich nicht gemAEht werden.

In der NAEhe der Vogel-fUEtterer zog ich unkraut, das [ragweed] und [garlic mustard] und andere, und so 'nen kleinen Spatz hUEpfte mir ganz nah, so ein Meter weg. Der war UEberhaubt nicht nervOEs. Ganz jung war er bestimmt. Ich hoffe, er ist mit dem Katzen [more cautious - passt besser aus].

Na, Morgen mach ich Links und Bilder, aber nun mach ich Schluss. Ich habe noch nich mein email angesehen Heute, UEberhaubt nicht, und halb-zehn Nachts ist es hier!

Consider the lilies

 

According to the hummingbird migration map, it is time to set out the feeders. So yesterday I did that. Here's the huge sugar bowl, sugar left over from last year, with a two-cup (about 1/2 liter) measuring cup standing next to it.



Once the bugs (that's what we call the hummingbirds) show up, it's astonishing how fast that sugar bowl empties. I usually make a mix of 4 cups water to one cup sugar, but when they're travelling or when the weather's still cold I make it stronger ...three cups water to one cup sugar. I've set out four feeders, two on the front porch and two on the back.

front porch:



back porch:



Ants enjoy the sugar water too, so I try to remember always to put a dab of dish soap where the hanger touches the wall. I think lard will work too; I'll try that if I remember to. Here are some pictures of a previous years' bug invasion:









Memory. I have a big fat hole in my memory. Things slip out at an alarming rate. For instance, yesterday morning I was overjoyed to notice both clematis vines were up and leafing out.





It's been years since they did that at the same time, and I don't think I've ever seen them bloom simultaneously. So I weeded around them, and around the sides of the cellar. At one point I uncovered a big fat earthworm, and suddenly some birds in the tree behind me made all sorts of excited noise. I think I heard one of them say, "Dibs!"

I didn't pull all the weeds; I never do. This is called Purple Deadnettle,



...and I leave it for a while because this neat website mentioned that since Purple Deadnettle blooms so early, it's often the only food nectar-eating bugs can find. I leave dandelions here and there too.



Honeybees took a severe beating in this part of the country a few years ago. Some kind of mite infested the hives and killed a huge percentage of the population. I'm always thrilled to see honeybees on our land. See the pollen sacs on his hind legs?



When I worked my way around the cellar to the side the less-often blooming clematis is, I started having a vague memory of ...did I replace that plant? Sure enough, there's a marker, there's a bit of wire on the plant stem.



And then, to add insult, today while cleaning out the van (it's getting a new home) I found the receipt for a clematis, at Lowe's, in March of 2008. Srsly, the memory lapses are getting downright scary.

Today I cleaned along the south fence, near the catnip. I wondered if I'd already done that once, and was now uprooting my flower seedlings.   SIGH...   Planted some red sunflowers and yellow daisies in spots, and made a big row of Canterbury Bells --which is a biennual, so it may not bloom this year at all-- and Bells of Ireland near the catnip cage. The catnip is caged, because if it weren't the cats would kill it with kindness. Hey! There's a new catnip plant in the cage with the old one! And are those a bunch of catnip babies??



Here is the horseradish one of Bob's cousins gave me:



Butterfly bush beginning to get new leaves:



Pampas grass getting new blades:



Echinacea:



Black-eyed Susans:



Lastly finally (it looks redundant, I know, but I don't mean it that way) we replaced the old security light on the garage. The old wire was stuck fast inside the pipe, and the pipe pieces are rusted together so tightly that although I hosed it down with WD-40 a week ago, I still couldn't budge it with a big pipe wrench today. Bob stood on the workbench in the garage pulling, while I was on the extension ladder pushing, and finally we did get new wire in the old pipe. Now the light is hung, and as it is now dark, it is lit.

9 April

12:31 AM 4/10/2009

When I was twenty, or twenty-one, I fell and twisted my ankle, or rather the top of my foot. Larry (my son's father) and I were play-wrestling, and we just landed wrong. We didn't know any better and foolishly soaked my foot in hot water that night. The next day it was swollen huge and very sore. Called for an ambulance (?!?) --I guess we thought it was broken, and anyway, we didn't have any way to get to the hospital other than by bus, and I couldn't walk-- and I remember the EMTs carried me down the narrow stairs sitting on a kitchen chair.

Now, many years later, every now and then the top of my foot rebels, hurts like hell, and I limp for a few days. I think it happens when I first start working in the yarden in the springtime, sitting on my heels, barefoot. Whatever causes it, I seem to try out an ace bandage on it every year, then realize that just makes it worse and take a pain killer instead. Eventually the soreness goes away and the limp with it.

***



Today, after two days of cold nights the temperature climbed back into the mid fifties and I again brought the potted plants from the stove room out to the back porch. Tomorrow we're supposed to get "severe" storms from 1PM to 6PM (according to weather.com's hour-by-hour forecast), so I may bring the pots inside one more time, or at least slide them further onto the porch, out of the rain.



Today Bob ran the tiller over the garden again --he makes it look so easy, just walking beside it with one hand on the handle, while whenever I till I fight it as if it's a jet ski and I'm keeping it from sinking-- while I dug roots and rocks out of the space south of the cellar and planted my asparagus rootstock there. Finally we have an asparagus bed! Hopefully tomorrow's storm watch is exaggerated and they won't be floating away mid-afternoon.



I also turned the entire compost pile and put a couple pieces of particle board up against the woodshed uprights, so I don't have to be quite so careful where I sling the compost when I'm turning it. Maybe this year I'll finally add some manure to the pile to make it really "cook." It's not really a compost pile at all without manure, is it?



***

I'm a hundred pages into a Rosamund Pilcher novel. I like her books as a change from my usual reading - whatever that is! Nothing much happens, life just goes on, quite interestingly and comfortingly. Conflicts get resolved. All is calm. Reading Pilcher is soothing.

Fotos von Gestern

 
Kalt war's Montag Morgen, und die Pflantzen die im Topf waren, übernachteten im Haus.



Montag Nachmittag war es aber warm genug den Rasenmäher zu benutzen. Dies ist nicht mein Garten (oder Hof), aber doch das Land hinter der Scheune, wo es ein bisschen eben ist, dan fangen die Gebirge an. Im Hochsommer haben wir dort viele wilde Beeren (und auch ab-und-zu Bären), die sind Brombeeren und haben gemeine Stacheln. Das gibt ein Stachel-gewildernis da kann man nicht durch, und so weil der Rasen noch nicht gemäht wird, hab ich die trockene Stacheln schön glatt gemacht.

Im ersten Bild ist mein Mann -- er nam Gestern sein ersten längeren Spatziergang seit die zwei Operationen früher im Monat.





Hier ist er schon wieder, und auch die alte Scheune.





Hier ist mein Hof, oder wohl mein Vorgarten.



Dies ist die Forsythie, die blüht so schön im Frühling. Das zweite photo ist der selbe Busch zwölf Tage früher.





Und schon wieder, aber dies mal das ganze Gesträuch, am 30.März und am 18.März.





Und die kleinen Jonquille; die Osterglöckchen blühen aber noch nicht.







bis Später...

a week later I am manic with spring weather

I might have gotten more done if I'd got an earlier start, but I played on the computer (and cleaned the house - washed a load of linens, cleaned the litter boxes, cleaned the kitchen and bathroom, swept floors, cooked a pot of lentil soup) till about eleven, then went to work outside. First I cleaned off the back porch. In the winter we keep the glider along the fence and stack firewood against the wall of the house. That's the kitchen wall. In the summertime the glider sits against the wall, out of the sun. I swept a bunch of leaves off the porch, rearranged the "furniture" and hauled the leaves to the compost pile.



I think our house looked especially pretty today. The red front porch is a bit startling, isn't it? We think the hummingbirds like it, and that's why we have so many every summer.



The forsythia is getting ready to bloom. I think some of its flowers will be open tomorrow. In a week it'll be glorious.



Someone built a nest in it last year.



I spent most of the afternoon pulling weeds and roots from along one section of the fence. I guess I got about a third   a quarter between a fifth and a sixth of the front fence done.



These jonquils are getting ready to bloom - I hope my digging around them hasn't disrupted their cycle too badly! Bad timing on my part.



I pulled lots of weeds and roots up, then layered sheets of newspaper and covered those with three bags of "garden soil" I'd bought at Lowe's. Up tight against the fence I planted sunflower seeds left over from last year. Under the rose I planted radish seeds, also left over from last year. Radishes like cooler weather, so that'll be okay. I think I'll spread two more bags of soil to the left of the rose bush. Then I'll plant a wildflower mix. I could easily use a hundred dollars' worth of soil just along the outside of the front fence, but, hmmm, we'll see.



Lots of work still to do. I'd like to clean the entire fence line, but I say that every year. This year -so far- I'm not working, so maybe I'll have time???



After all that work out front I went out back and started tilling the vegetable garden. I knew I wouldn't do it all, but I did want to get started. We had thunder in February, and th'Mr says that means we'll have a frost in May, so he doesn't want to plant a garden till the middle of May. In the meanwhile I'll take the opportunity to till it real well.



Can you see, there are onions up! These we planted last year. I wonder if they'll be edible this year?



Here's our tiller, much nicer than the 1968-model 8HP front-tine beast I brought with me from Tennessee eight years ago.



The mint I dug up last summer from a sidewalk in downtown Charleston WV overwintered in a pot. Today it moved to its new home, between two pine trees in our driveway. My hope is the way mint spreads, this will battle the poison ivy (and win!).



The brush pile got bigger today; th'Mr picked up some of the branches still littering the driveway (left over from last month's ice storm). Today was his first time driving since the surgeries, also his first time doing anything real physical (picking up branches). It's worn him out and at 10PM he is fast asleep. I'd like to burn this pile soon, before birds build nests in it. If we haven't picked up everything we can always start a new pile.



Before I went inside I filled all the bird feeders. Everything was empty. Here on the old clothes line are two seed feeders, a suet feeder and one thistle seed sock. By the garage are two more suet feeders and another seed feeder; by the back porch are three suet feeders and one hummingbird bottle (just hung that one yesterday), in the front yard are two big seed feeders, and on the front porch one thistle sock and two more suet feeders.



Can't wait for summer; I have to start seeds indoors too. On the left, in the clay pot niece Callin made for me when she was ten, is dianthus (we called that phlox when I was little). The other two pots contain asclepsia (butterfly weed) and euphorbia (gopher purge).