This Was Not on the To Do List
Hot and sore with too much to do for the amount of brain power at my disposal. Not entirely uncommon this time of year, but it's been a hell of a week in general. The funeral was interesting, as expected, but fell on the positive side of that equation rather than negative. My opinions on her children haven't changed, but that's neither here nor there.
Expenses, primarily business related, have been high and therefore stressful. This past week we, as in the business, purchased a "property", as in the contents of a house and 3 out buildings. The stuff will be distributed between private sales, eBay, consignment auction, flea markets (mostly via someone else - selling a truckload at a flat fee then they handle it from there, but we'll do the high end flea market/antique shows as usual), dumpsters, and quite a bit will be sold as scrap metal. Typically this kind of thing is an estate issue, where the kids are dealing with the last parent passing away, they've pulled out what they want, and everything that's left needs to go away so they can either move someone else in or put it up for sale. Sometimes an auction/estate sale will happen, but in this case, they've already had the auctioneer tell them that it doesn't have enough of the kind of item he would need for it to be worth his time. Hardly surprising - scrap metal does not an auction make.
The power was out. We had flashlights, of course, and there was light through the windows, so it didn't really slow down the business part, just made the photos more challenging.
The house in this case was pretty easy. D, his mom, and his aunt cleared it out in two days. I'd gone along for the initial meeting/inspection/price settlement, but I tap out when things start moving and dust mites are being thrown around. This did not mean I was sitting at home eating bonbons, unfortunately.
This summer, D's aunt has been handling the mowing for our property and my MiL's as well as her own. She has a zero turn radius mower, a retirement, and likes to mow. We don't have a working tractor (D's getting to it, really, he swears- oh look! shiny!) so it's been working out well. The tractor being temperamental at the best of times and requiring a sacrifice to the elder gods in order to start, usually a different sacrifice every time, has meant mowing is usually D's chore. He doesn't like doing it, so he'd put it off until well after it had driven me crazy. Well, D's aunt was planning on mowing on Friday, but we purchased the property on Thursday, and she was needed to help with that. Saturday she was busy all day with an event, and rain was supposed to move in at any time and stick around for a few days, so I ended up doing the mowing for our property and my MiL's with the aforementioned shiny mower.
For the record, before I start whining, I would actually love to have one. I would love to be able to do the damn yard work myself, for that matter, but it's a sweet mower. Now for the whining: 6 hours later, it turns out you need to train up to that level of mowing insanity.
As far as property sizes go, we have 3 acres total + the additional 1 acre next door and my MiL has... maybe 5 acres that isn't field? Ours did take a while but wasn't terrible, just sheds and gardens and a greenhouse and patches of wildlife habitat and whatnot to go around. Next door is surprisingly rough ground under that grass considering it's been yard for quite a while now and there are rocks to watch out for along with all the branches and twigs from the tree trimming D's been doing. There's also a steep-ish hill along the side that leads up to the highway, so that was fun. THEN there's my MiL's and, oh my god, I didn't appreciate how ridiculous the size of her yard was until I had to mow it. The hilarious part is that it's back to the side of the house where no one goes, it's just this crazy expanse of grass, with just enough trees to make it annoying, and then a bunch of stuff at the back - like large equipment - to mow around. SO MUCH LAWN.
Anyway, mowing. Lots and lots of jouncing and hot sun. I ended up with a backache, one spot on my spine that feels bruised, and a hell of a sunburn, primarily on my left thigh and right ankle area. Which is interacting nicely with the scratches (thorn bushes + shorts = bad idea), poison ivy, and not-poison-ivy rash (small patch on my ankle - there were weeds, so who knows) that I already had. OW, DAMNIT. I was totally fried late yesterday afternoon, which of course meant I had a meeting to attend. Then I started having cramps this morning just to round things out.
Okay, whining over. I'm actually doing fine, just a bit achy. Aloe vera only works for me for about a minute and then just feels like it's trapping heat in, so I iced the worst sunburn bits over the course of the evening and they responded nicely. I had to go to town this morning, and that moving around stretched out the sore muscles. The tired lingered until an afternoon nap, but now I'm back to vaguely overwhelmed by the list of things that aren't happening because I'm typing up this post and sloth like due to the lack of a/c in my "office" (aka the living room).
Far, far more importantly: the garden. Despite the temperature it is inside currently, it's been very, very cool overall. This has slowed growth by quite a bit, most notably for the basil, peppers, and green beans. The tomatoes took longer to recover from the spring rains because of it, but they're generally doing fine now.
From the rear corner on the driveway side: the tomato patch.
From the rear, far side (near the ditch line and towards the additional property): sunflowers, then onions with a short row of cilantro, then the beans.
The reason I grow cherry tomatoes. WHOOO. WE HAVE RIPENING.
The Green Zebra tomatoes are laden. A few have succumbed to bottom rot, but not too many.
Big Rainbow - this plant is doing okay, although its neighbor has had a hard time. They're at the lowest corner, though, so they had a bit more of a challenge than the plants further back.
The Black Trifele - also at the front corner - are just plain showing off.
Gilbertie are lanky, sprawling, hot messes of tomato plants. They're just ridiculous.
Two of the three Pruden's Purple were lost to water wilt due to the spring weather and, as I said, one of the Big Rainbow plants is struggling, but the rest seem to have recovered from the stress pretty well and it's looking like a decent tomato year.
Then there's the peppers. The healthy ones are a whole... one foot high. It's pitiful; the poor things may as well be freezing.
The basil is... well, growing. Just slowly. On the other side of the beans (which we're not discussing), the cilantro likes the cooler weather, so is doing just fine.
Meanwhile, onions. Who are hopefully thinking about forming bulbs under there.
No, really, the Gilbertie. They're like the class clown that's secretly the class salutatorian. They're like Jim Kirk plants. idek.
Garden Security Patrol
Keeping Watch
There could be bunnies ANYWHERE.
♥
Crossposted to Dreamwidth where there are
comments. Comment here or there. ♥ Blue :)
Expenses, primarily business related, have been high and therefore stressful. This past week we, as in the business, purchased a "property", as in the contents of a house and 3 out buildings. The stuff will be distributed between private sales, eBay, consignment auction, flea markets (mostly via someone else - selling a truckload at a flat fee then they handle it from there, but we'll do the high end flea market/antique shows as usual), dumpsters, and quite a bit will be sold as scrap metal. Typically this kind of thing is an estate issue, where the kids are dealing with the last parent passing away, they've pulled out what they want, and everything that's left needs to go away so they can either move someone else in or put it up for sale. Sometimes an auction/estate sale will happen, but in this case, they've already had the auctioneer tell them that it doesn't have enough of the kind of item he would need for it to be worth his time. Hardly surprising - scrap metal does not an auction make.
The power was out. We had flashlights, of course, and there was light through the windows, so it didn't really slow down the business part, just made the photos more challenging.
The house in this case was pretty easy. D, his mom, and his aunt cleared it out in two days. I'd gone along for the initial meeting/inspection/price settlement, but I tap out when things start moving and dust mites are being thrown around. This did not mean I was sitting at home eating bonbons, unfortunately.
This summer, D's aunt has been handling the mowing for our property and my MiL's as well as her own. She has a zero turn radius mower, a retirement, and likes to mow. We don't have a working tractor (D's getting to it, really, he swears- oh look! shiny!) so it's been working out well. The tractor being temperamental at the best of times and requiring a sacrifice to the elder gods in order to start, usually a different sacrifice every time, has meant mowing is usually D's chore. He doesn't like doing it, so he'd put it off until well after it had driven me crazy. Well, D's aunt was planning on mowing on Friday, but we purchased the property on Thursday, and she was needed to help with that. Saturday she was busy all day with an event, and rain was supposed to move in at any time and stick around for a few days, so I ended up doing the mowing for our property and my MiL's with the aforementioned shiny mower.
For the record, before I start whining, I would actually love to have one. I would love to be able to do the damn yard work myself, for that matter, but it's a sweet mower. Now for the whining: 6 hours later, it turns out you need to train up to that level of mowing insanity.
As far as property sizes go, we have 3 acres total + the additional 1 acre next door and my MiL has... maybe 5 acres that isn't field? Ours did take a while but wasn't terrible, just sheds and gardens and a greenhouse and patches of wildlife habitat and whatnot to go around. Next door is surprisingly rough ground under that grass considering it's been yard for quite a while now and there are rocks to watch out for along with all the branches and twigs from the tree trimming D's been doing. There's also a steep-ish hill along the side that leads up to the highway, so that was fun. THEN there's my MiL's and, oh my god, I didn't appreciate how ridiculous the size of her yard was until I had to mow it. The hilarious part is that it's back to the side of the house where no one goes, it's just this crazy expanse of grass, with just enough trees to make it annoying, and then a bunch of stuff at the back - like large equipment - to mow around. SO MUCH LAWN.
Anyway, mowing. Lots and lots of jouncing and hot sun. I ended up with a backache, one spot on my spine that feels bruised, and a hell of a sunburn, primarily on my left thigh and right ankle area. Which is interacting nicely with the scratches (thorn bushes + shorts = bad idea), poison ivy, and not-poison-ivy rash (small patch on my ankle - there were weeds, so who knows) that I already had. OW, DAMNIT. I was totally fried late yesterday afternoon, which of course meant I had a meeting to attend. Then I started having cramps this morning just to round things out.
Okay, whining over. I'm actually doing fine, just a bit achy. Aloe vera only works for me for about a minute and then just feels like it's trapping heat in, so I iced the worst sunburn bits over the course of the evening and they responded nicely. I had to go to town this morning, and that moving around stretched out the sore muscles. The tired lingered until an afternoon nap, but now I'm back to vaguely overwhelmed by the list of things that aren't happening because I'm typing up this post and sloth like due to the lack of a/c in my "office" (aka the living room).
Far, far more importantly: the garden. Despite the temperature it is inside currently, it's been very, very cool overall. This has slowed growth by quite a bit, most notably for the basil, peppers, and green beans. The tomatoes took longer to recover from the spring rains because of it, but they're generally doing fine now.
From the rear corner on the driveway side: the tomato patch.
From the rear, far side (near the ditch line and towards the additional property): sunflowers, then onions with a short row of cilantro, then the beans.
The reason I grow cherry tomatoes. WHOOO. WE HAVE RIPENING.
The Green Zebra tomatoes are laden. A few have succumbed to bottom rot, but not too many.
Big Rainbow - this plant is doing okay, although its neighbor has had a hard time. They're at the lowest corner, though, so they had a bit more of a challenge than the plants further back.
The Black Trifele - also at the front corner - are just plain showing off.
Gilbertie are lanky, sprawling, hot messes of tomato plants. They're just ridiculous.
Two of the three Pruden's Purple were lost to water wilt due to the spring weather and, as I said, one of the Big Rainbow plants is struggling, but the rest seem to have recovered from the stress pretty well and it's looking like a decent tomato year.
Then there's the peppers. The healthy ones are a whole... one foot high. It's pitiful; the poor things may as well be freezing.
The basil is... well, growing. Just slowly. On the other side of the beans (which we're not discussing), the cilantro likes the cooler weather, so is doing just fine.
Meanwhile, onions. Who are hopefully thinking about forming bulbs under there.
No, really, the Gilbertie. They're like the class clown that's secretly the class salutatorian. They're like Jim Kirk plants. idek.
Garden Security Patrol
Keeping Watch
There could be bunnies ANYWHERE.
♥
Crossposted to Dreamwidth where there are
comments. Comment here or there. ♥ Blue :)