We've done okay this week, and as I look ahead, if we can muster up the patience for the next three days, a long-awaited hint of real spring might just give us a break.
This has hardly been a pretty week to be hanging around Sandpoint. Have I maybe hinted at that before?????
All those local Spring Break escapees had the right idea to get out of Dodge.
I've thought frequently about our neighbors who flew to Kuaui last Saturday and how good it must feel for them to have left the farm animals behind and welcomed the warmth and the sun of Paradise for several days on end.
Twould have been nice, but, happily, we have managed to come up with enough rainy and snowy-day activities and brief getaways to keep the grump level down to a minimum.
Today Bill and Willie are probably gonna completely erase any grump symptoms they may have, as they just took off for the St. Joe River on a fishing outing.
The weather is not great on this first Friday of April (spitting snow and blowing a bit), but this week is Willie's spring break and today looked like the best possibility for a day-long excursion of enjoying their favorite sport.
So, they're on their way. In the meantime, I'm planning to continue my defiance mode where I don't care if it's raining or snowing---I'll clean out flower beds anyway.
It's been a bit difficult this spring because of whatever my continuing right shoulder owie happens to be, but the job is getting done, albeit at a slower pace than usual.
Last week my neighbor and "yard-beautiful" competitor Janice and I talked about the rigors of old age and beautifying---not ourselves but our yards.
It definitely could get more challenging as the years wear on, but both of us agree that we have that inner urge to have our little rural sanctuaries looking as nice as possible as long as possible. If it takes a little longer to ensure that wish, it will get done.
I do have an additional challenge this year besides aching muscles. It's black and white and has four legs, two of which have become very indiscriminate on where they like to dig up holes.
Seems Liam has branched out from the trees and just picks any ol' place to dig a hole whenever he feels the urge to put those front paws into rapid action.
So far, I haven't caught him in the act. I just find the holes, and when you consider that the mice did a real number on the entire lawn area this year, I don't need Liam's added excavation skills.
Still, I've discovered that with his continuing maturity, he wants to be my helper, and when I'm out working in the flower beds or on some other yard project, Liam is there, just as he is when I'm doing barn chores.
It's kinda neat to have him as a sidekick. Occasionally, my patience does wear thin, however, with the 35th or so time he wants me to kick the ball from the most recent pile of raked-up leaves, limbs and dead grass.
Piles of leaves and dead grass do not stay in neat piles when one has to kick a ball out of the middle.
He also insists on flinging his balls into the middle of the above-ground flower beds wherever I happen to be working, and if I don't throw it fast enough, I have both a dog and a ball in the middle of my work.
These are minor annoyances compared to the satisfaction I'm feeling these days knowing that at last young Liam is becoming more and more trusted as he plays outside. We've come a long way from the near heart-attacks of a year or so ago when he'd suddenly disappear and the search was on.
Anyway, yard work will continue today, and I'm hoping to have all flower beds clean and ready for hundreds of daffodils to burst out whenever we get the next warm spell.
I heard on the radio this morning that the Flower Farm down Selle Road is advertising pansies, so I may just have to take a trip down there and add a touch of color to the pots and beds.
All these little victories are leading to good times ahead. Slowly but surely, grump stage here at the Lovestead may go back into hibernation until the beginning of the next winter.
Happy Friday.
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