The Patriot
Yesterday turned out to be quite productive and fulfilling. We ran out to breakfast, with no real goal for the day. Walked through Home Depot, but they were annoyingly out of 1/2" conduit, which I needed for my flag pole project, so we went across to Menards where they had what I needed... though I thought I grabbed 5, but I only grabbed 4 for some dumb reason.
We got home and I wanted to get these evergreen fertilizer stakes into the ground under all of our trees and shrubs that could use them. The Sparrow used up a whole pack back in Spring just on the yew hedge and only had a few left for the hollies. I used two more packages, which I think was 32 stakes total. We will probably need to buy more again and do another round in the fall perhaps as it does appear to be helping with growth.
Once I finished that I very spontaneously decided we were going to work on the New Orleans Oak bed. We built this bed in late summer/fall of 2022 I believe. It's basically just a wide, round circle around the massive oak trunk, ten or so feet out. We planted it up with a lot of shade tolerant things like ferns, hosta, lungwort, astilbe and heuchera. But, it has become more and more apparent the side facing the house gets beaten by the sun in the afternoon. Some of the stuff on that side really looked like it was suffering.
Not to mention the opposite side of the bed was not symmetrical. Since our initial plantings were sporadic and such, things did not get placed quite as evenly as they should have, so most everything needed to be re-centered and spaced properly on that side. Once we moved the stuff getting too much sun and aligned it all properly we went shopping around out own yard for more things, which I found to be quite fun.
I've written before about how we have this area up by the road that we just plant stuff in as a sort of holding zone. Bargain rack plants and a ton of hostas from the backyard I moved last year just to fill in that area so it wasn't just dirt and weeds. It has turned out great, the hostas are flourishing up there and filling in nicely. There's a Japanese maple from my old house, still tiny but quite happy there. A bunch of random ferns, both bargain rack and from behind my mom's back fence when she was just going to cover over the entire area last year. And many of those plants originally from my apartment in Boystown that I'd given her when I moved in 2012. There's several very large, mature helleborus that survived the transplanting from my mom's. And four bargain brunnera that have gotten huge. Oh, and one lone lady's mantel that struggled for ten years at my mom's house, having barely had five leaves a season then, that's now blooming and lush.
Everything up there based on what I dug up to move yesterday has great root systems. It's all very healthy and happy. So we were able to take several items from there and move them under the oak. We really filled in the far side well, almost to the point of connecting with the plantings on the right and left sides. I just felt bad about taking from that area up front, because it was so well filled in, but that's the point of that stuff. We only put it there till we had a proper place for it.
On the sunnier side we moved and divided some coreopsis, some of the asiatic lilies behind the vegetable garden that were here when we moved in. And two dianthus. The coreopsis and dianthus are from the flag pole bed, which has also flourished and been in beautiful bloom since Spring. That area too was intended just to hold stuff until we had proper garden beds, but it looks great too. I feel exceptionally satisfied overall with what we accomplished. And there's still room to do more, which I think we should try to do this year so that next Spring that oak bed can really shine with established plants.
After that the Sparrow went to workout and I decided to work on my flag poles. It was a fairly easy task, using the one actual one I purchased as a template. I had several PVC flag poles from our many Trump parades, as it took several attempts over those months to figure out the right length and size to fly flags from the Jeep. In the end I was able to make six new poles, with elbows and caps left to be able to make three more. I think I will do that too.
We had two American flags downstairs my mom had given me over the years because she kept buying flags too large for her porch. One was a real nice cloth one, but the other was a cheaper one with a sleeve instead of grommets, so I am going to need to find a second, nice cloth one as I wanted to flank the driveway with those flags. I will hopefully do that today on lunch.
The other four poles, and the three additional ones I want to make, are/will be lining the front of the property near the road. I ordered a couple new Revolutionary War flags and had a couple already. Currently my "Join or Die" flag is out there. The Appeal To Heaven flag, which apparently caused some controversy recently with liberals who know nothing about the history of the country they hate so much. The red and white striped Sons of Liberty flag. I also have the Fort Moultrie Liberty flag, which is still in the garage. And I ordered the 13 starred, blue Washington Headquarters flag which should be arriving this week.
Last night I ordered a replacement for my double-sided Gadsden flag, which is always hanging on the light pole next to the driveway. It is so beat up the two sides have separated from the center ply and it's constantly flipping backward on itself. And then I also got the John Paul Jones Serapis flag and The Don't Tread On Me Navy Jack flag.
I am quite sure, and it was a bit intentional on my part I admit, that some of these flags will be utterly offensive to any liberals who happen by, including (and the most intentional reason for me), our Communist bitch neighbor.
I also put out a few other of our Fourth decorations including these fun staked star decorations (red, which and blue) that we got at Hobby Lobby. I really want to go back there and see if they still have any left on sale. I did not yet put out my Betsy Ross flag though. I got that for incredibly cheap when I first moved into my other house. I don't even remember from where, but I can no longer find it anymore. It's one of these tea stained looking flags, but has fringe around it. It looks VERY nice and had I known I'd never be able to find it again, I would have ordered two. I don't like keeping it outside because I don't want it to get damaged by weather or the sun. But, it has to go out for the Fourth at some point.
In other news, the Boss's aunt died yesterday. She was one of his two relatives I was sending postcards too, so kind of sad. And bad for him, because he was closing on his house down the road this week. I cannot imagine there'd be any other day the wake or funeral would occur except Thursday, his closing date.
When we were driving back from the store yesterday morning I rescued two turtles crossing the road. The one was a big snapping turtle, and I'd never seen them snap before but he was vicious. The Sparrow had to get out of the Jeep and distract him so I could grab him from behind. I ran across the road and put him in the direction he was going, toward the lake. All while this old guy in one of the houses, who'd been sitting on his porch, was watching. Not sure if he thought we were looking in his mailbox or what.
Seconds later a few houses closer to home there was a smaller box turtle right in the center of the road. And there were two cars coming behind us, so I had to pull off and jump out fast to grab this one and get her in the lawn in the direction she was heading. It felt like a couple good deeds. Especially considering what fucking assholes most people are, who seem to intentionally hit all these creatures in the roads. This is not hyperbole, the Sparrow has seen turtles alive on the sides of the road, turned around and come back within less than a minute to help them and found them crushed, still on the side of the road where cars don't even drive. So someone intentionally targeted the thing.
I hope whoever that particular person was, they suffer for years before dying horribly.
I should note we did not discuss the pregnancy news yesterday at all. It felt like we were going out of our way not to talk about it. The other thing that happened Saturday was a thing I told the Sparrow was going to weeks prior. We have our little stupid tradition of hanging out down the road *if* we decide to do anything for the Fourth. And I said that I did not want to get roped into anyone else's plans. I wanted us to have a very casual, UNPLANNED, Fourth celebration. Whatever we chose to do. But I did not want to be making plans or going anywhere else. We do shit all the time with other people, this was the one day I did not want to compromise on. It's stupid, I know. But I just want to do what I want to do. I've been forced to socialize more than I am comfortable with for weeks now. Doing what everyone else wants to do. This time, *I* am doing what *I* want to do, and whether or not anyone joins me is their choice.
Well, OF COURSE, the BIL starts asking what we are doing for the holiday and then suggesting "maybe" we go to this new place or that place and turning his nose up at the mention of going to the same old bar. Why it has become an obligation that we *must* hang out on this holiday is beyond me. The Sparrow has to work on the 5th anyway, so if we did go out it'd be the 3rd, which he may hopefully get out early on. Personally, I'd like to spend the Fourth being outside with the flags on the Jeep. Maybe driving around and ducking some other Jeeps. Going out into the cornfields for a bit. We used to go driving all the time for fun in the summer and we just don't ever do it anymore. The cost of gas is a factor, but not enough of a reason not to enjoy the activity once in a while.
I feel like time is flying today already. I've barely even done anything work related, though I do have a task to do that the Meat Packer CFO waited until 6:30 Saturday morning to message about. He had all week, but waited till then to say something, as I was pulling out of the driveway to my haircut. Typical.
We need to get our 4th of July postcards done this week. And I have a stack of cards to send to that elderly program. I really dragged my feet on it and only got about half done, but I am out of time now. I also need to do a bunch of running around at lunch. More than will fit in a standard lunchtime. It's also the last week of the month, so the checking account is running dry. Never enough time, never enough money.
We got home and I wanted to get these evergreen fertilizer stakes into the ground under all of our trees and shrubs that could use them. The Sparrow used up a whole pack back in Spring just on the yew hedge and only had a few left for the hollies. I used two more packages, which I think was 32 stakes total. We will probably need to buy more again and do another round in the fall perhaps as it does appear to be helping with growth.
Once I finished that I very spontaneously decided we were going to work on the New Orleans Oak bed. We built this bed in late summer/fall of 2022 I believe. It's basically just a wide, round circle around the massive oak trunk, ten or so feet out. We planted it up with a lot of shade tolerant things like ferns, hosta, lungwort, astilbe and heuchera. But, it has become more and more apparent the side facing the house gets beaten by the sun in the afternoon. Some of the stuff on that side really looked like it was suffering.
Not to mention the opposite side of the bed was not symmetrical. Since our initial plantings were sporadic and such, things did not get placed quite as evenly as they should have, so most everything needed to be re-centered and spaced properly on that side. Once we moved the stuff getting too much sun and aligned it all properly we went shopping around out own yard for more things, which I found to be quite fun.
I've written before about how we have this area up by the road that we just plant stuff in as a sort of holding zone. Bargain rack plants and a ton of hostas from the backyard I moved last year just to fill in that area so it wasn't just dirt and weeds. It has turned out great, the hostas are flourishing up there and filling in nicely. There's a Japanese maple from my old house, still tiny but quite happy there. A bunch of random ferns, both bargain rack and from behind my mom's back fence when she was just going to cover over the entire area last year. And many of those plants originally from my apartment in Boystown that I'd given her when I moved in 2012. There's several very large, mature helleborus that survived the transplanting from my mom's. And four bargain brunnera that have gotten huge. Oh, and one lone lady's mantel that struggled for ten years at my mom's house, having barely had five leaves a season then, that's now blooming and lush.
Everything up there based on what I dug up to move yesterday has great root systems. It's all very healthy and happy. So we were able to take several items from there and move them under the oak. We really filled in the far side well, almost to the point of connecting with the plantings on the right and left sides. I just felt bad about taking from that area up front, because it was so well filled in, but that's the point of that stuff. We only put it there till we had a proper place for it.
On the sunnier side we moved and divided some coreopsis, some of the asiatic lilies behind the vegetable garden that were here when we moved in. And two dianthus. The coreopsis and dianthus are from the flag pole bed, which has also flourished and been in beautiful bloom since Spring. That area too was intended just to hold stuff until we had proper garden beds, but it looks great too. I feel exceptionally satisfied overall with what we accomplished. And there's still room to do more, which I think we should try to do this year so that next Spring that oak bed can really shine with established plants.
After that the Sparrow went to workout and I decided to work on my flag poles. It was a fairly easy task, using the one actual one I purchased as a template. I had several PVC flag poles from our many Trump parades, as it took several attempts over those months to figure out the right length and size to fly flags from the Jeep. In the end I was able to make six new poles, with elbows and caps left to be able to make three more. I think I will do that too.
We had two American flags downstairs my mom had given me over the years because she kept buying flags too large for her porch. One was a real nice cloth one, but the other was a cheaper one with a sleeve instead of grommets, so I am going to need to find a second, nice cloth one as I wanted to flank the driveway with those flags. I will hopefully do that today on lunch.
The other four poles, and the three additional ones I want to make, are/will be lining the front of the property near the road. I ordered a couple new Revolutionary War flags and had a couple already. Currently my "Join or Die" flag is out there. The Appeal To Heaven flag, which apparently caused some controversy recently with liberals who know nothing about the history of the country they hate so much. The red and white striped Sons of Liberty flag. I also have the Fort Moultrie Liberty flag, which is still in the garage. And I ordered the 13 starred, blue Washington Headquarters flag which should be arriving this week.
Last night I ordered a replacement for my double-sided Gadsden flag, which is always hanging on the light pole next to the driveway. It is so beat up the two sides have separated from the center ply and it's constantly flipping backward on itself. And then I also got the John Paul Jones Serapis flag and The Don't Tread On Me Navy Jack flag.
I am quite sure, and it was a bit intentional on my part I admit, that some of these flags will be utterly offensive to any liberals who happen by, including (and the most intentional reason for me), our Communist bitch neighbor.
I also put out a few other of our Fourth decorations including these fun staked star decorations (red, which and blue) that we got at Hobby Lobby. I really want to go back there and see if they still have any left on sale. I did not yet put out my Betsy Ross flag though. I got that for incredibly cheap when I first moved into my other house. I don't even remember from where, but I can no longer find it anymore. It's one of these tea stained looking flags, but has fringe around it. It looks VERY nice and had I known I'd never be able to find it again, I would have ordered two. I don't like keeping it outside because I don't want it to get damaged by weather or the sun. But, it has to go out for the Fourth at some point.
In other news, the Boss's aunt died yesterday. She was one of his two relatives I was sending postcards too, so kind of sad. And bad for him, because he was closing on his house down the road this week. I cannot imagine there'd be any other day the wake or funeral would occur except Thursday, his closing date.
When we were driving back from the store yesterday morning I rescued two turtles crossing the road. The one was a big snapping turtle, and I'd never seen them snap before but he was vicious. The Sparrow had to get out of the Jeep and distract him so I could grab him from behind. I ran across the road and put him in the direction he was going, toward the lake. All while this old guy in one of the houses, who'd been sitting on his porch, was watching. Not sure if he thought we were looking in his mailbox or what.
Seconds later a few houses closer to home there was a smaller box turtle right in the center of the road. And there were two cars coming behind us, so I had to pull off and jump out fast to grab this one and get her in the lawn in the direction she was heading. It felt like a couple good deeds. Especially considering what fucking assholes most people are, who seem to intentionally hit all these creatures in the roads. This is not hyperbole, the Sparrow has seen turtles alive on the sides of the road, turned around and come back within less than a minute to help them and found them crushed, still on the side of the road where cars don't even drive. So someone intentionally targeted the thing.
I hope whoever that particular person was, they suffer for years before dying horribly.
I should note we did not discuss the pregnancy news yesterday at all. It felt like we were going out of our way not to talk about it. The other thing that happened Saturday was a thing I told the Sparrow was going to weeks prior. We have our little stupid tradition of hanging out down the road *if* we decide to do anything for the Fourth. And I said that I did not want to get roped into anyone else's plans. I wanted us to have a very casual, UNPLANNED, Fourth celebration. Whatever we chose to do. But I did not want to be making plans or going anywhere else. We do shit all the time with other people, this was the one day I did not want to compromise on. It's stupid, I know. But I just want to do what I want to do. I've been forced to socialize more than I am comfortable with for weeks now. Doing what everyone else wants to do. This time, *I* am doing what *I* want to do, and whether or not anyone joins me is their choice.
Well, OF COURSE, the BIL starts asking what we are doing for the holiday and then suggesting "maybe" we go to this new place or that place and turning his nose up at the mention of going to the same old bar. Why it has become an obligation that we *must* hang out on this holiday is beyond me. The Sparrow has to work on the 5th anyway, so if we did go out it'd be the 3rd, which he may hopefully get out early on. Personally, I'd like to spend the Fourth being outside with the flags on the Jeep. Maybe driving around and ducking some other Jeeps. Going out into the cornfields for a bit. We used to go driving all the time for fun in the summer and we just don't ever do it anymore. The cost of gas is a factor, but not enough of a reason not to enjoy the activity once in a while.
I feel like time is flying today already. I've barely even done anything work related, though I do have a task to do that the Meat Packer CFO waited until 6:30 Saturday morning to message about. He had all week, but waited till then to say something, as I was pulling out of the driveway to my haircut. Typical.
We need to get our 4th of July postcards done this week. And I have a stack of cards to send to that elderly program. I really dragged my feet on it and only got about half done, but I am out of time now. I also need to do a bunch of running around at lunch. More than will fit in a standard lunchtime. It's also the last week of the month, so the checking account is running dry. Never enough time, never enough money.