Yes, had to "clean out" the woodshed again this morning....
...I was looking for this...
...the Weedwacker...
...thank goodness I'd saved the instructions and hadn't yet taken them down to the apartment. I'm now finding that's an issue. Although my intent has been to not take anything down there I think I'll need here, I've already determined I've taken the instructions for my cordless drill down by mistake. I purchased and used this trimmer once last August after I returned from spending July with my brother and his family in Tacoma. The grasses were chest high when I returned, and although we'd had a much wetter winter and spring in 2011, I don't want to let them get that high again this summer. Last year I had to assemble the thing and everything was going well until I decided the cutting string didn't look as if it were installed quite right on the spool, tried to straighten it out and ended up with this...
I did all the yard work when I was married, but don't remember ever using one of these trimmers. I guess we didn't have one. So I'm unfamiliar with the apparatus. Luckily I had purchased some additional spools of line, so I think I've installed one of those correctly although the instructions on the back of the spool package include one of those "Oh, by the way" instructional phrases I just hate....
"When replacing the spool make sure that you include spool spring when resembling (I'm sure that's supposed to be reassembling since we'll hope no user, short of a Dick Tracy character, resembles this weed whacker) the new spool. The spool spring sometimes sticks in the old spool and can be removed easily by slightly prying out with a small flat-headed screwdriver."
Oh, no. I have no idea what happened to the old spool. Maybe it got spit out in the yard when the above happened. Since the instruction booklet that came with the trimmer makes no mention of the spring, I'm going to see what happens. Right now I'm charging the battery.
While I had everything out of the woodshed, I pulled out this awful table of which I'd hoped I'd seen the last...
I had replaced it with a cute rattan table, which, I have to admit, was too low and now has been taken to the apartment, so this is going to get the royal brown paint treatment so it disappears into the wall here at the cabin.
I also got my snow tires tucked away. They were accumulating rainwater and were becoming a breeding ground for mosquitoes, which are bad enough with my help. I sure wish they had bagged each tire individually instead of putting two to a bag. With my bad arm it was a bit of a struggle to get these into the woodshed.
There were quite a few things in the woodshed that I wanted to take to down to the apartment, so those are now loaded into the car. I don't think I'm making a run down today, though. I didn't feel well yesterday...had another one of those days when I felt as if I were getting the flu..and was so glad I was no longer working and could just rest. I don't know whether it was the weather...we had clouds to the right of us and clouds to the left of us...
...and it felt as if the barometer was really down. The temperature dropped precipitously about mid-morning, I think it was, but we didn't get any rain. I do think they have been having very unsettled weather in Denver and environs, including tornadoes. Today I feel as if someone had been jumping up and down on my lower back. I suppose this could all be the residual effects of turning myself into a human torpedo, but it's been three weeks. I did make a follow-up appointment for next week, as advised by the urgent care doctor, just to see if there are any exercises I can do for this arm and I may mention the back pain. I suppose if the rest of my injuries are keeping pace with my black eye, I'm just not quite there yet...
Well I polished off my second library book yesterday while I was being lazy, so am heading down to get a couple of replacements and some ice for the cooler. It's almost 80F degrees today and very sunny. More later...Teddee
Good News. Vixen came to eat night before last and has been here twice a day since then. I can't tell if she's given birth.
She always has looked as if she were nursing, so that's no sign. Any weight I've been able to put on her seems to have disappeared. What a scrawny, beat-up baby.
Upon her return after her brief hiatus, she had been a little more flighty than usual. That first evening, she had Valentino, the male fox, with her and she seemed quite concerned that he not get any chicken. She started to leave to go back to the den with her one piece of chicken and when she saw me getting ready to throw out another piece, she circled back and grabbed that one too, so I can't decide whether she sees him as a helpmeet or competitor. I haven't seen him since, and this morning she was much more relaxed. In fact, she was quite funny.
After she ate her kibble and egg and took one piece of chicken back to the den, she returned. I'm trying to stretch this chicken out since I'm on the long forced march to the second Wednesday of June when I get my next Social Security check (can someone tell me why we can't get our checks on the same date, i.e., the 10th, each month, not the same day, i.e., the second Wednesday?), out of which I must save enough for July rent for the apartment in Boulder. Thank goodness I have enough in savings for June, which is due day after tomorrow. So I wasn't going to give her another piece of chicken until tonight. She finished the kibble and then sat, enjoying the sun on her face...
This time of year, it's warmer outside than inside the cabin when I first get up, so I had the cabin door open. She came in...
...and grabbed this cloth...
with which I had been removing sanding dust from the top part of the secretary that I'd been working on yesterday...
...and carried it out into the yard. Then, while I was taking some close-ups of some of the wild chives...
...and wild iris in the yard...
...I had left my coffee mug on the picnic table bench...
...she trotted over, put her front feet up on the bench, stuck her nose down in the mug, took a sip and came up with that same expression on her face little children have after their first taste of coffee. No, of course, I wasn't quick enough to get that shot. I gave her some unsalted chicken broth that I'd cooked down after I cooked this whole chicken I bought at B&F for 99 cents a pound, the cheapest thing I could find, especially for her. That seemed to satisfy her. The next time I checked, she had left.
She brings me so much pleasure. Teddee
P.S. Eye is improving although these close-ups of 68-year-old skin, sans makeup, are really discouraging....A facial? Botox? Reconstructive surgery? And I haven't deliberately sunbathed since I was in my 20s and both my moisturizer and makeup base contain sun block! Too much time in Arizona and the high Rockies! The knob on my forehead is numb. I'm hoping that will go away. And my cheekbone is still sore, but not nearly as sore as it was even yesterday. Arm is still a major source of pain. Pain pills at night are a godsend. I am sleeping long and hard.
A year ago I was just starting to move the last of the wood from a cord I'd had dumped here...
I had had the wood dumped on a huge tarp that I then tried to wrap over the top of the woodpile. The effort to keep the wood dry was a failure. The tarp held the water from the melted snow inside so the bottom layer of wood was lying in standing water and the tarp left a really obvious "crop circle" and I was convinced this piece of ground would never recover.
The bare outlines of the "crop circle" remain, but I think I would need a hovercraft to shoot a photo making it obvious to the reader. I tried standing on a step stool and playing with the exposure and color to no avail, but the point I'm trying to make is that what I thought had killed out everything simply allowed the wild iris and sage to thrive. Yesterday I noticed the first wild iris were blooming...
...and the sage is also abundant...
So I'm hoping my recent fall will, if not leave me stronger, at least leave me no weaker!
I decided I'd keep an "eye diary." Here are the three photos I've taken, the latest this morning. The first photo was taken on Tuesday, May 21, the day I fell...
The photo below was taken yesterday, May 26. Sometime between the fall and here, the points of impact became more apparent than they were right after it happened, but the bruise under my brow is starting to turn yellow, a good sign...
Here's today, May 27...The bruise is spreading, I suppose as the blood settles, but my cheekbone isn't as puffy.
People who know me well know I recommend sports cream for a variety of "off label" uses, I learned many decades ago that I could rub it on my forehead for sinus headaches. I've most recently been using Walgreens Cool 'n Heat...
and I've been, gently, rubbing this on my impact spots. I figure it increases circulation and that can't be bad. You do have to take some precautions. I don't recommend smearing this all over your forehead and then jumping in a hot shower so that it runs down in your eyes. I've also been rubbing this on my right arm, but have to admit that whatever ails my arm is not responding to my home remedy.
Today my horoscope...do you read yours? I read mine and if I like it I pay attention. If I don't think it makes any sense I ignore it...and I think this was actually for yesterday since the one I receive in my e-mail seems to come a day late...said,
Your first impulse will be to ignore it and bravely go on. Don't. Epic sagas aren't written about someone who was cranky from the flu. Go home. Tend to yourself.
Since I had commented in an earlier blog this week that the pain from this arm injury makes me feel at the end of the day as if I had the flu, I decided this horoscope was right on!
Our winds have been up, gusting 30 mph to 40 mph...blew this heavier tarp...and the rocks I had used to weigh it down...off the table last night...
and it looks as if this is going to continue until Tuesday, which makes me tired anyway, so I think I'm waiting until tomorrow to take a load down to the apartment. It got down to 34F degrees last night according to NOAA and is supposed to hit 31F degrees tonight. With that wind, it was cold in the cabin last night. I'm unable to keep my electric blanket and other covers in place because of this arm injury so was half uncovered most of the night I think. It will be nice to get through this and hopefully come out stronger....Teddee
