Slight Detour: A Fine Spring Day

The winter did a number on our board fences this year. Pressure from heavy, frozen snow even broke a couple of boards on the barnyard fence.

All that snow for all that time weathered away a good portion of the paint.

So, I have a major project this year, and yesterday’s lovely sunny day gave me a chance to get started.

I went to North 40 farm store and bought a couple of gallons of white barn paint, and when morning chores were completed and dogs safely in their run, the brush, the paint and I headed toward the barn.

The painting (or whitewashing as Tom Sawyer put it) began with a makeshift, decorative stretch of fencing I put together a few years back with cedar boards used to help hold in shavings in those large bales my sisters purchase from mills.

Nice thing about those purchases is all the boards, of varying quality but all pretty much the same length.

Family members have used them for a variety of projects, and I think Barbara and Laurie still have a good supply on hand.

Anyway, yesterday’s paint job began with a challenge. The lilac bush my best outlaw Rose Marie gave me back in 2006 has grown to an impressive size, and those branches kinda get in the way of a paint brush, as does the rest of the garden plot, which includes bulb plants and lots of beautiful oregano.

So, I adjusted my strategy, which also had included standing almost on my head to paint those lower boards. A lawn chair from the barn made all the difference and even added pleasure to the paint job.

I could get upclose and personal while remaining upright and seated. What a novel idea for whitewashing. Wonder if Tom ever thought of that.

The new approach also enabled me some extra enjoyment of vociferous crows chatting in the woods and from treetops around the place. Of course, several gaggles of geese announced their presence while flying over.

Anyway during all that enjoyment, two portions of fence received new coats of paint AND with a better eye to the missed spots than ever before.

So, I have a start on what’s gonna be an ongoing project, lasting into the summer and maybe fall, depending on the weather.

It’s raining and ugly again today, and those radio folks out there in the barn seem to get a kick out of telling us that the showers will continue through the night, into tomorrow and probably through the rest of the week.

Glad I bounced around a lot yesterday enjoying the sun and taking advantage of almost dry conditions, including snapping a few photos of the resident deer bouncing around in our fields and some neighborhood pastures while out for a short afternoon drive.

It may be another week or two before the opportunity to enjoy another lovely spring day like yesterday comes again.

And, from the looks of Lily, she may wait another week before foaling. She was due on her birthday four days ago, but still no signs of imminent motherhood.

She seems happy, albeit uncomfortable, and the experts say that some mares can go for a full year, which in Lily’s case, could be as late as April 24.