Swag

After work I went into the garden just to check on things.  I am sad to say that the woodchucks have rebuilt their tunnel from one side of the fence to the other to get into the garden.  Anticipating that, there is netting there, but they are chewing through it.  I have decided that nothing else will be going into the ground until I have the time and energy to outsmart the culprits.  They ate all but one of the zinnia that I planted.  So far, they are leaving the marigold alone.  There are things that I am happy for from today though:

• Going into work this morning I didn't feel that well.  Knowing that it was most likely the heat and the tossing and turning (rather than sleeping) that I did, I went in anyway.  I'm glad I decided to make the effort.  One of the management came around to talk with the new hires to see how we are doing.  I asked him if he could check on my average rate of sorting.  It was only my fifth day, but I wanted to know where I stood.  The goal is to sort 300 items per hour.  My average is around 245.  
• He was so pleased with my progress that he gave me two swag bucks.  Employees can earn swag bucks by doing good work or good deeds, something that gets them noticed in a good way.  Swag bucks can be saved to spend on company swag like water bottles, day packs, towels, and other things that can be branded with the company logo.  I think I will wait to accumulate more before I spend much time looking at the swag.
• When I went outside for my break this morning the moon was still up.  I love watching the moon.

Moon.

☮

Currently reading: The Backyard Homestead, by Carleen Madigan.

Thank you for reading, stay safe.

Short

 The work days are ten hours long.  When I get home I am hot and tired.  I am going to look harder for things at work that are happy things.  Today there are a couple:

• Today I was placed in a different row.  It felt like a completion of training row.  The job I do for the first part of the day, sorting, I like better than the last part, picking.  
• I seem to have finished training for picking too.  I had some help today when the cart I was assigned had a deadline. Most of the people are friendly.
• My first paycheck came in the mail yesterday and I deposited it today after work.  It was mostly the bonus I got for having had my covid 19 vaccine before starting work.  
• Keziah is super fantastic and went to the grocery store for me today so I could shower and sleep.  I still need to sleep.

☮

Currently reading: The Backyard Homestead, by Carleen Madigan.

Thanks for reading, stay safe.

Heat is On

 Writing is hard.  Some days words flow from my fingers and others they do not.  With my new work schedule all my routines are strange.  So strange that it is 2:20 in the afternoon, I am writing before I go to sleep, and I feel like only half a day has gone by.  Things have happened though and I am happy to have these happy things to write about:

• Since I have not been able to completely close up the garden yet, I put a few of the plants into larger pots for now, rather than the ground.  They are also still inside the house, albeit the porch, so much closer to the elements.  I'm not sure when I will get to work on the fence again, things are rather busy right now.  Yay!  Some of the plants have more room to grow.  I also remembered to fertilize some of the plants.

Pumpkin.

• The area is under a heat advisory now.  Instead of meeting at a park, my friend, Amy, and I went to the mall to get in some solid stepping.  My step goal was reached, great conversation, and Amy reminded me of some very important SCA things that are coming up.
• With the heat advisory and sleep during the day, the portable AC is now in my room.

☮

Currently reading: The Backyard Homestead, by Carleen Madigan.

Thanks for reading.  Stay safe.

Memories and Mourning

 After spending the afternoon at the Celebration of Life for my uncle, Keziah and I went out for ice cream.  That is what one does in New England, we eat ice cream.  There is a particular ice cream stand, Hodgies, that is pretty popular in the area near where we were.  We went, even though it was in the opposite direction from home.  It was worth it.  Other things that are happy things for today:

• We got the trees that were cut down yesterday cleaned out of the garden.  That was one of the morning chores before the Celebration of Life.  I'm wondering if the garden will get too much light now.

This area still needs so much work... baby steps.

• We drove by a church on the way home.  It is under some kind of construction with scaffolding pretty much covering the front of it.  For some reason it struck me as beautiful.  There is a part of me that wants to go back there, take a picture from a better angle, and then turn that into a puzzle.

Scaffold Church.  😉

• There was a lovely sunset.

• It was very good to see family at the Celebration of Life.  It has been quite a while because of the pandemic.  The uncle that passed away was my father's twin and the last of that generation. 

The twins.

My uncle always had a smile ready to share.

☮

Currently reading: The Backyard Homestead, by Carleen Madigan.

Thank you for reading, stay safe.

New to Me Plant

 It is good to have a day off.  I've had three days of work and already I want to be home instead.  I'm sure that there is a lot that someone could read into that... Anyhow, Keziah and I spent some time clearing out the bittersweet, the trees the bittersweet killed, and the general area along the south fence.  There is more pick up to do tomorrow, some equipment had problems and our energy waned.  

Keziah cutting things down.

So much bittersweet at her feet!

Bye-bye tree!

Having help today made a huge difference with what got done.  Other things I am happy for today:

• Since the zinnia I planted yesterday didn't get eaten by the various rodents that seem to think I am planting for them, I planted a couple more and one of the marigold plants.

• I discovered a new-to-me clover today.  I didn't realize they came in yellow.

According to Lens this is large hop clover.

• The crab apples seem to be doing alright.  We did a bunch of pruning of the trees earlier in the spring as well as removing some bittersweet and Norway maple.

Lens identified this as a crab apple.

• ANother thing I did earlier in the spring was to clear out the area between the garden and the sumac trees/grape vines to make a pathway.  To the other side of the sumac and grape vines are tiger daylilies.  I imagine that many years ago this looked much different and not the jungle it is now.  

There are many, many daylilies.

☮

Currently reading: The Backyard Homestead, by Carleen Madigan.

Thank you for reading, stay safe.

Pretty Weeds

 For my first day of work off, I slept in.  Isn't that what one is 'supposed' to do on a day off?  I spent part of the morning either being mildly productive or avoiding being productive.  Another classic day off strategy.  After lunch I made my way out to the garden.  Here I was very productive doing things that I wanted to do, but that weren't the high parts of my priority list.  It was a good day.  Here are other happy things from today:

• I planted something.  There is a small section of the garden that I pulled roots from, strained dirt back into, and needed to finish putting dirt back into.  I found even more roots that I missed the first time through, but got the dirt back in.  I had a zinnia that looked close to gone that is now planted there.  Maybe tomorrow I will get some more into that area.  

Poor lonely zinnia.
I hope it makes it.

• Some of the tiger daylilies that are by the common milkweed have opened.

Tiger daylilies with common milkweed behind.

• Yesterday I weed whacked in the garden and today I pulled weeds.  A few weeks ago I had noticed that the woodchucks, or some other critter, had eaten the greens off the radish plants.  While pulling weeds I found that some of the radish bottoms were still okay and I pulled them to eat.  Yay! A small harvest.

Radishes.

Midway into weeding.
The garden needs more of my attention.

• There is a trip that I am planning with some friends at the end of August.  I sent out an email this morning in preparation.  This trip is to check the contents of our SCA trailer in Pennsylvania and I am more excited to go than I probably should be for this task.
• It was just Zed and I for dinner and Zed had errands.  He picked up dinner at Subway-I am very full and it is good.
• Here are some pictures that I took today of some plants on the property.

The butterfly weeds.

Butterfly weed up close.
No butterflies on it when I looked.

Common milkweed up close.
It is so pretty.
I can see the relationship between this and the butterfly weed.

Yarrow.

Black-eyed Susan.

Raspberry, it may be a black raspberry
not yet ripe.

☮

Currently reading: The Backyard Homestead Seasonal Planner, by Ann Larkin Hansen.

Thanks for reading, stay safe.

So Very Tired

 On work days, I was trying to write this blog early in the day and publish it at night before going to work.  Last night I forgot to publish.  Oops.  I'll try to do better in the future.  The last few days I have been exhausted with my muscles in a heightened level of achiness.  The discomfort is less than I have had with another job and less than climbing Mount Washington.  Other things I am happy for today:

• The moon was mostly full and lit things up when I stepped outside to go to work.

• I've missed the garden.  There is still so much to do there.  Before dinner I mowed and wacked away some of the weeds so that in the morning, I can work there a bit.
• I'm not sure what it is, but I find the milkweed blooming to be very pretty. 

Milkweed and some lilies,
probably tiger lilies.

☮

Currently reading: The Backyard Homestead, by Carleen Madigan.

Thank you for reading, stay safe.

Oops, Forgot to Publish This On Wednesday

 Only one more day to my work week-unless there is overtime.  Since I am still very slow at the job, I might not be asked.  Today there was a major computer problem which caused way too much downtime for me.  But you know what?  I made it through and will go back tomorrow to try again.  Other things I am happy for today:

• The moon was shining when I left for work this morning.

Early morning moon.

• While outside at work, waiting for some equipment to free up, there were a pair of hawks circling overhead.
• Gideon welcomed me home today with hugs and we talked about a library book before I went to sleep.

☮

Currently reading: The Backyard Homestead, by Carleen Madigan.

Thanks for reading, stay safe.

New Job

Surviving my first day at the new job is my first happy thing of the day.  Until I have a better routine, or I am not completely exhausted, the days I work will most likely be short blog posts.  Here are other happy things for today:

• I did in fact get almost seven hours of sleep before going to work this morning and was awake for my ten hour shift.  Since my sleep leading up to this was slim, I was concerned.  Yay, sleep!
• Before leaving work I had over my 10,000 a day step goal.  
• During my last break, I walked out to the car and it was daytime.  The air was sweet.
• When I left work for home, there was a mild breeze and the sky dripped on me in a most refreshing way.
• I think once I am used to it, I will enjoy the work.  It is very active and that is one of the things I was hoping for.  Right now, I am feeling the muscle aches.  So far, they aren't as bad as I expected, but I took some ibuprofen anyway.
• Zed greeted me with hugs when I got home.  Keziah was asleep.

☮

Currently reading: The Backyard Homestead Seasonal Planner, by Ann Larkin Hansen.

Thank you for reading, stay safe.

Monday Mow Day

 Tonight I start my new job.  Hopefully I will remember all the things I need to remember.  Early this morning I took care of choosing benefits and ordering shoes for work.  It is good to have that basically done.  I may have Keziah and Zed look over it all for me in the next few days.  Other things I am happy for today:

• Keziah and Zed have been away since Thursday for their eleventh wedding anniversary.  They are home.  They shared the stories of their adventures and Gideon shared his stories with them.  Beautiful family moments.
• I woke up when I wanted to this morning.  This has been hard.
• For me to continue to reach my 10,000 steps a day goal I need to have that goal reached by the time I sleep before work.  My alarm will go off at 11:30 PM and that is too late to try to finish up the step count.  To achieve that today, I mowed the lawn.  
• The grass was tall and there were some pretty flowers that are now gone.  I used Google Lens to identify them.

Blue Toadflax.

I've seen this in other parts of the yard,
but forgot what it was, meadow hawkweed.

There was a bunch of the toadflax.

☮

Currently reading: The Backyard Homestead, by Carleen Madigan.

Thank you for reading, stay safe.

Happy Father's Day

 On Tuesday at 1:20 AM I start a new job in a warehouse.  Glamorous, huh?  I think it ticks all my boxes for a job at this point in my life.  One of those is that I want a job that doesn't come home with me in a bad way.  I'm not feeling successful with changing my sleep pattern.  I have done quite a bit of virtual learning yesterday and today.  All those not quite connected sentences are just to say that I have just over a day left and there isn't much more I can do to prepare, other than sleep.  Things I am happy for today:

• Winston, the orange tabby, playing on the cat tree.

Just lounging there while attacking a feather.

• Clear skies with the moon saying hello to the afternoon.

•  The SCA is a medieval recreational non-profit educational organization.  Keziah and I are Baron and Baroness to our local SCA group here in New Hampshire. This position is appointed by the Royalty after the local group has voted for who they believe will best do the job.  The initial appointment lasts three years.  This can be extended with a vote of confidence by the local officers.  Today was the meeting where this vote took place.  I am happy to relay that we will remain in this position for a total of six years.  I am also happy that one of the officers thought to ask if we wanted to remain in this position.  

☮

Currently reading: The Backyard Homestead, by Carleen Madigan.

Thank you for sharing my happy moments, stay safe.

Juneteenth

 The preparations I have been trying to do for starting the new job have not been going as well as I had hoped.  I know it will all be fine, but I also know I should have tried harder to sleep today.  Most of the day was very restful, and that was good.  I just didn't sleep.  Other things I am happy for today:

• Getting out for a walk with my friend, Amy.  She has been off visiting her daughter's family in Virginia.  
• There were two woodchucks in the garden today.  The happy part of this is that I learned more places that the fence needs to be more fortified.  Where this little critter is, did not seem to be one of them.

Woodchuck/groundhog.

• Lens helped me identify a butterfly on the vetch.

Silver-spotted Skipper.

• The milkweed that I let grow in the yard (shh, don't tell the lawn/weed police) is blooming.  This, as well as the butterfly weed in the front of the house, are supposed to attract monarch butterflies.  

Common milkweed.

☮

Currently reading: The Backyard Homestead, by Carleen Madigan.

Thank you for reading, stay safe.

Friday at the Park

 Today my early morning was used cleaning my room up a little.  There is more to go, but a few things that I had forgotten were in there cluttering are out.  The best part is that I did this sorting and going up and downstairs without waking anyone else in the house.  Other things I am happy for today:

• Walking with a friend and her grandchild.  We were on the trail a little after eight this morning.  The more leisurely pace with a four year old was just what I needed today.
• There was a small section of trail littered with white flowers.  Looking up, these flowers had fallen from a catalpa tree.  My friend's grandchild carried a flower a little way along our walk.  When I was a young girl, the neighbor's house had a large catalpa tree in the yard that I loved to look at in the spring.

Catalpa tree.

• We sat and rested on one side of Dorr's Pond and I noticed a beaver swimming among the lily pads.

In this picture, look for the ripples from the wake.
The beaver is among the lily pads creating the wake.

• There was a momma duck with three little ones swimming in the stream leaving the pond.  Sometimes it is just wonderful to see these things through the eyes of a child.

The momma is much easier to see than the little ones.  
I'm not sure what causes the orange foam.

• After the park I went and visited with my aunt.  When we saw each other on Monday she had mentioned that there were a lot of paperwhite flowers (Narcissus) in her yard and I asked if I could have some.  She asked me to come down and get them so now I have a clump of bulbs to plant, but maybe not until the end of summer.  

☮

Currently reading: The Backyard Homestead, by Carleen Madigan.

Thank you for visiting, stay safe.

All About the Gideon

 Keziah and Zed are off celebrating their eleventh year anniversary this weekend.  Gideon is having an adventure weekend with different family members.  Today, with me, was adventure prep.  We went to the store and got the last few things he needs, like bug spray, for the weekend.  It was our own little shopping adventure.  Other happy things for today:

• Gideon was a super helper this morning when we worked on sewing up more of the garden fence to the deer netting.  
• Gideon was a super good sport when we tried to set up a Minecraft game by getting the two computers to talk to each other and we failed.  
• Gideon was also awesome and quiet while I slept this afternoon.  I hope I am ready to work nights starting Tuesday!
• In the late afternoon I went out and deadheaded the rose bushes and pulled some weeds.  I also found fresh blossoms.  

Butterfly Bush.

Butterfly Bush, close up.

Yellow daylily.

Orange daylily.

Roses.

A rose.

More roses.  Yes, everything smells like roses.

• Nanni watched me prune the roses through the porch window.

Nanni.

🌹 ☮ 🌹

Currently reading: The Backyard Homestead, by Carleen Madigan.

Thanks for reading!  Stay safe.

Wednesday

 According to Blogger, the FollowByEmail widget by Feedburner will be discontinued in July.  Anyone who currently receives the blog by email will need to go to the feed to read this blog.  I keep trying to learn more but so far my attempts are coming up empty.  That is not a happy thing, but here are a couple from today: 

• Summer is almost here and there are so many green things!  Some of them were pulled today.  That is what happens when plants grow in places that other plants are wanted.  The following plants were identified using Google Lens.

Houndstongue-gone!

Pokeweed-gone!

• Fairly certain that the east side of the fence is now done.  By done I mean that the netting we put to heighten the low garden fence is now sewn onto the garden fence or pinned to the ground.  The north part is done except for a gate and some of both the other two sides are done, just not all.  It is getting there.
• Breakfast for dinner today, made by Keziah, was scrambled eggs and cream of wheat.  Love breakfast for dinner!

☮

Currently reading: The Backyard Homestead, by Carleen Madigan.

Thank you for reading, stay safe.

It's Pickin' Time!

 Changing my sleep schedule isn't going as well as I had hoped.  There is still time.  Instead of me waking up Zed this morning, he woke me up.  It was a good morning though.  Everyone but Zed, who had to work, went and picked strawberries at a local farm.  Gideon has been eagerly anticipating strawberry picking for a few weeks.  We still had guests and the five of us picked around 28 pounds of strawberries.  The picking was great!  

Our friends headed back to Pennsylvania after lunch with their strawberries.  When we got home I picked five more from our little strawberry patch.  Fresh strawberries and the following are my happy things for today:

• As I prepare for this new overnight job, the time after lunch is when I hope to have my best sleep time.  I went to bed later than I had hoped and woke earlier than I had hoped.  What woke me?  A thunderstorm rolled in this afternoon.  It was loud and very close.  I opened the blinds and watched the sky darken.  Soon there were little pit pats on the leaves of the tree outside my window.  It only took a few minutes before the pit pats were a dull roar as the rain streamed down.  The sky started to lighten and soon the storm was gone.  
• The afternoon was sunny after that and I was able to find a rainbow.

It is so hard to capture rainbows.

• For dessert, we had strawberry shortcake with some of those fresh picked strawberries.  Yum!

🍓 ☮ 🍓

Currently reading: The Backyard Homestead, by Carleen Madigan.

Thank you for reading, stay safe.