10/11/06

  The little black Momma kitty we first saw a month or so ago was back, this time with a friend. Possibly he was the father of her babies – he was definitely a “he”, anyway!   He got a little too close, and Momma Kitty let him know she needed her space. I finished mostly with the closet in the spud’s bedroom Friday night – just had the walls to wipe down – and so Saturday when we got to the house I finished completely with the one closet, and then cleaned the cedar closet, which wasn’t too bad, since it was just a couple of shelves and a dirty, messy floor. I scrubbed the floor a few times, and then told Fred I was ready to do whatever he needed me to do. What he suggested I do – since we’d talked about it the night before – was start priming the trim and doors in the spud’s bedroom. I’ve never painted anything before in my life and so we decided that priming was a good place to start. I think I must be the slowest painter on earth, because it took me the entire day to do the baseboards, the trim around the closets, the trim around the windows, and all three doors. (In my defense, those doors are a bitch – they have inset sections where it’s hard to get the paint into the inset part.) I left the inside of the big closet for Sunday, knocked off a little early, and went in to play with Maddy and document the adventures of Spiderman Vs. Malevolent Madeleine while Fred kept working on the guest bedroom. This tractor in the front yard of the house next door (the brother of the woman who sold us the house lives there; the tractor is the one Fred almost bought from the owners, but decided not to) get a LOT of attention. At least four times a day we’ll look out the window to see people – always men, what a shock – looking over the tractor. Hasn’t sold yet, though. Sunday when we got to the house, Fred went into the guest bedroom, and I started priming the inside of the big closet (not the cedar closet – we’re leaving that as a cedar closet, of course). Would you freaking believe it took me ALL DAY to prime the inside of that damn closet, and when we left, I still had a section of wall left to do? I did make the time pass a little faster by talking to my sister on my cell phone, and I said to her “Life would be a whole lot easier for me if I had a cell phone that was Bluetooth compatible and I could wear a headset and talk to you. I could just paint and talk to you all day!” I did manage to balance the cell phone on my shoulder and paint while I talked to her, but yeah – would have been easier with a headset. All weekend long I had been saying “When I get (whatever) done, I’m going to go out, walk the yard, pick up all the bricks and chunks of concrete, and mow the lawn!” Saturday I said “When I’m done priming this room and the closet!”, not having any idea it was going to take all day just to do the room. Sunday I said “When I’m done priming the closet!”, not having any idea it was going to take all day just to do the closet. Monday I said “When I’m done with this section of the closet!”, and so I finally got to go outside and start walking around the yard, picking up bricks, chunks of concrete, and various other pieces of (not literal) crap. Luckily I didn’t have to pick up each piece of concrete or brick or whatever and carry it over to the pile I’d started on the driveway, because Fred and I had to go to Tract0r Supply Saturday (or maybe Sunday? It’s all a blur.) and while we were there, we bought a wagon. We bought it for the size and price, NOT the color. Really! So I’d fill up the wagon – or fill it up enough that it got to be too heavy to pull easily – and then go dump it out on the driveway. I spent about an hour doing that in the side yard, and finally I had to give up. Because the side yard is located under two very large trees, and what are trees doing right about now? Yeah. Dropping leaves. So although I was getting a lot of stuff picked up, I couldn’t see under the leaves and couldn’t be sure I was getting all the rocks and concrete up. Fred came out to tell me to come in and check out the light he’d just finished putting up in the guest bedroom, and I roped him into taking me to the Co-Op to buy a rake. While we were there, we bought a shovel as well, because we thought it would come in handy in the future. Back at the house, he went back inside, and I started raking the side yard. I found a fucking TON of rocks and concrete chunks and tossed them into the bucket I’d found amongst the crap piled by the side door (the one without steps). I also picked up the bigger branches I came across, because I didn’t particularly want to run over them in the riding lawnmower. I don’t know how long it took me to rake the leaves from the side yard into a pile, maybe two hours, but rather than picking the leaves up and bagging them, I took Fred’s suggestion and started running over the leaves with the riding lawnmower. We have a grass catcher on the back of the riding lawnmower, so it would be easier to run over the piles of leaves, then drive out to the back forty and dump them, right? Right. I ended up making six or seven trips to the back forty to dump the grasscatcher bags, and then it got to the point where all I was doing was blowing the chopped-up leaves and crap around the yard. But there was more crap in the yard then I wanted to have there, and so what I ended up doing was raking everything into a pile, then using the shovel to dump it all into the grasscatcher bags, drove the lawnmower back to the pile I’d started, dump everything, then back to the side yard for more raking and shoveling. It was some serious hard fucking labor, folks. You have NO IDEA how good it felt, though, to be shoveling and doing some real physical labor for the first time in I don’t know how long. I think I made about ten more trips back to the pile before Fred came out and told me he was about ready to leave. The pile, with my glove atop it to give you some idea of the size. I think I made another three or four trips after I snapped this picture. The side yard. Yeah, I didn’t get much done in five hours of working my ass off, did I? You’d be more impressed if I’d snapped a “before” picture, I assure you. And keep in mind all those bricks and chunks of crap in the picture up higher in the entry were from this one little piece of yard. I don’t have a clue what we’re going to do with this section of yard. It’s located under trees that block the sun – is there some kind of grass that doesn’t need much sun to grow? Any suggestions will be much welcomed, guys! Happy Robyn on the lawnmower. But there’s no horn on my lawnmower! Fred’s tractor has a horn! How come HE gets a horn and I don’t? What if I need to get someone’s attention while I’m on the lawnmower? The tools of my trade. That rake held up really well for all the stress I put it under, considering it cost less than $6. By the time Fred came out to tell me it was time to go, I was starting to feel a bit lightheaded from the unaccustomed physical labor and definitely ready to go. Monday night while we were laying in bed I started scheming about how I could sneak out to the house and do some work in the yard on Tuesday while Fred was at work. I didn’t – after that long weekend, we both needed a break from working on the house – but I was seriously tempted! Tonight I’m going to do some work in the yard, and then probably start priming the baseboards in Fred’s bedroom, and the closet as well. I’ve about convinced him that we should take the doors off and put them on a dropcloth downstairs, where I can prime and paint them. I think it would be one hell of a lot easier to paint them that way, rather than having to do it while they’re standing. It’d also make it a lot easier to prime and paint around the doorway, for sure. This appears to be the bottom of a cut-off barrel, filled with water. I’m not sure what its purpose was – maybe to water the chickens? In any case, it’s going to go. Fred says this is another Katydid. It’s a lot less creepy than the one from last week, that’s for sure. There are several of these huge mushrooms in the yard between the garage and the street. When I first saw them, I had no idea they were mushrooms, they’re so big. I don’t know why, but I thought they were ostrich eggs someone had tossed in the yard. I’m a dork. The only things turning a lovely shade of red on the property is the TON of poison ivy. Too bad it’s so evil, ’cause it sure is pretty. (And if that’s not poison ivy, someone tell me what it is. I was told it’s poison ivy, and since I couldn’t identify the stuff with a three week course on it, I went with it.) Saw, found in the yard. Hey! We needed a saw like that! Swiss Army knife. I brought it home to clean it up and see what kind of shape it’s in, but now I don’t know where the hell it is. Somewhere a Barbie is going without her camouflage pants, the damn hussy. Yesterday, Miss Maddy Mack weighed in at 1 pound, 4 ounces. She’s starting to eat hard kitten food when it’s mixed up with the soft stuff – and sometimes on its own – and when we were at the Smallville house over the weekend, I looked over to see her drinking water out of the water bowl! Clearly she’s a genius. She’s getting feistier by the day and can pretty much hold her own with the older cats, so I’ve been letting her stay out for longer periods of time. She likes to spend the evenings sleeping on me. She’s such a pretty princess. Also, she can kick Spiderman’s butt! What more can you hope for from a kitten? I adore – ADORE – this picture. She was squeaking at me because I kept holding the mouse just out of reach.   More pictures (and there are some good ones!) are hither.    

* * * Sugarbutt loves you. * * * Previously 2005: Did you feel the earth shake too? 2004: No entry. 2003: No entry. 2002: No entry. 2001: No entry. 2000: My breasts are strawberry scented. 1999: I was ambitious today.]]>