Homestead Happenings
We are now on the other side of Mud Season, the wave of silty mud is waning, much like the amount of blue paint protruding from beneath the coating of mud on my poor car. I wish it was a coating of chocolate or a protective shell like that of a turtle, but instead my car is ensconced in a crumb coat-like veneer of mud. I think I will have to give Constance Elantra a re-birthing ceremony, when I can actually wash her that is, and yes, I named my car.
Anyway, sorry I veered off of the narrative road there, I think I am feeling sorry for my poor automobile. She'll be cleansed of the road detritus soon enough, my yard however, is a much larger cleansing project. Part of having land is the upkeep of it, and every year I have to rake my park as I call it. I mean, I love the hundred plus year old massive Ponderosa pines and the campgroundesque-like scenery the yard provides, but dang the Rakening is getting a touch harder with each passing year.
I mean, I am gradually turning a lot of the yard into gravel gardens and low upkeep spaces, but I still have at least 8 solid days of raking ahead of me. Not that I am complaining, I love raking actually, it's great for the arms and shoulders, not to mention that I get to have a lot of fun messing around with the dogs while I do it.
Take Flabbins (AKA Lani) for instance. This creature loves to drag branches out of the woods and place them onto areas that I already have raked. She then Flabbinses, which is my term for her joyful rolling around like an over-cooked pasta noodle. I think it's her way of showing that she cares, or that she is just laughing at her stupid human trying to clean Nature's carpet. Either way I feel a bit....mocked...
Flabbins though, she's a minor interruption compared to Feffis (Crazy Cora). She goes on repeat action mode and tries to bite the rake tines. Every. Single. Rake. Swipe. It's great really, because it teaches me patience and accuracy, for I really have to focus to hit the ground with each swipe and not my dogs irritatingly snapping maw.
The dogs though, they are mostly interested in their day jobs of being cat contentment disruption terrorists, which of course I hardly notice as I usually rake with my headphones on. Today, I listened to the Lex Fridman Podcast, he had on Cal Newport, and nothing makes a tedious task less tedious than listening to two geniuses talk about the concepts of Deep Work and productivity. Plus, the weather was absolutely smashing!
A couple hours and multiple rake load trips to the fire pit in, I felt a rumbling approaching. My brother had showed up. He strolled toward me and the firepit with a half rack of liquid refreshment and a shoot the bovine fecal matter look of intent on his visage. I grabbed some chairs.
So, in the end, I might not have gotten as much raking done as I intended, but honestly, the pine needles and branches will be there tomorrow, and sometimes it is just nice to sit around a smoldering pine needle fire, shoot the breeze, and listen to your Holstein steer calf bellow that he'd really like some hay, right meow.
And as most of the time, all of the images in this post were taken on the author's now in slightly smoke-scented flavor iPhone.
Hard work and well rewarded with the liquid refreshments! 🍻 Nice one...
Congrats on being currated by @curangel and @nikv! I was lucky to be chosen by @curangel as well, so i am taking the time to read and upvote all others chosen to say thanks.
Oh thank you! @ablaze, and what an awesome idea😊
That's way more raking than I would be able to do with my uncooperative back and right shoulder...
Still, It is a rather good looking location you have there. 😊
Oof, don't you wish you could trade out uncooperative parts? More than a few years ago I helped run my friend's feed store and I thought I was She-ra. By that I mean I would grab two fifty pounds sacks of feed to load at once. My left shoulder reminds me of that youthful silliness on occasion lol.
And thank you! I do so love my little patch of stewardship, even if it takes me half the year to keep it squared away. Hope the back and shoulder are cooperating today!
I have raking in my future too...
My sore shoulders salute you! lol!
We've had unseasonably warm weather, so I've gotten a jump start on it...
Meh, Ponderosas. There's one at my place that's coming out soon.
They are invasive aliens here and it was planted way too close to the houses and is now wrecking walls. I just spent days cleaning a carpet of needles from a walkway that was untouched for years.
Good luck with your shoulders. Mine don't love raking, thanks to old injuries
LOL! Our invasive pine is the Lodgepole, AKA Jackpine, AKA Doghair as my Grandpa refers to it. It's everywhere. About a fifteen years ago I had most of the pine removed from my property, so other than a handful of gigantic Bull pine (Ponderosas), most of the trees on my farm are lovely firs. Well, the back ten has a bunch of baby Jack pines, but I'm thinning them out.
And I don't blame you for taking that one out, planting a Ponderosa next to your home is like asking for shoulder strain, the needles never end!
Hope you are having a no pain from old injuries lovely kind of day:)
Thanks, my shoulders are currently good. Old injuries are a good excuse to avoid chores like mopping haha
The weird thing about our property is that, although we live in the woods, there are very few trees around our actual yard, and there's very little shade....or raking. The nearest trees are not pines, but shorter-needled larches or firs. Sometimes I rake the entire yard anyway, just because it looks nice afterwards. I got in some practice at my sister's house this past week, so I ought to be all warmed up and psyched up to tackle our place now. We'll see.
There is something so pleasing about a freshly raked space. Maybe I need a rock garden, then again I don't know if I need even more raking to do lol! Glad to hear that you got to hang out at your sis's house this past week, escapes are good even if you did a bunch of labor.:)
I like to feel useful while I am there, not just taking up space and eating food. Ha ha!