Finishing a Few Final Projects (4/8/26)

The day started with an absolutely stunning sunrise. I was slow getting out of bed, which meant I was going to be running late to work, but I looked outside and saw the sky. I hustled through getting ready for work and spent a few precious minutes wandering the backyard, taking pictures.

If I'm supposed to be on time to work, maybe God shouldn't reward my tardiness with such stunning artwork early in the morning.

I just love this view. Sunrise is one of my favorite times of day.

I arrived at work in great spirits (and technically, only one minute late), only to be felled by a stomach bug within twenty minutes of my arrival. After a couple of hours of running to the restroom every twenty minutes, I tagged out and went home. There are few things more aggravating than having a long to-do list for after work, cutting the work day short because of illness, and not being able to tackle the to-do list. If I have to cut a work day short, then I want to be able to either play or get my to-do list knocked out. Not sit around, miserable, waiting for the next trip to the bathroom. Finally, after a short nap, and with the demon purged, about 3:30 in the afternoon I was feeling well enough to get started on my list.

AnyTMI, I eventually began knocking things off the list. One of the things that needed to be completed was to finish the insect netting for my broccolini bed and get the drip line installed. Of course, that took much longer than anticipated (don't all "quick" projects take longer than anticipated?), but with the help of my cat scanner, Pongo, I was able to get it completed.

Also, have I mentioned how much I love this chicken tractor frame? Seriously, even though it's not being used as a chicken tractor any longer, the frame has more than paid for itself over the past year or so.

Pongo thoroughly checking my work.

Is it ugly? Yes. Does it work? Also, yes.

Now, with the exception of picking up another couple of round bales for the horses, my pre-trip, around-the-house, to-do list is complete. All that's left is my last day at work, some light cleaning, and packing.

Planting Time! (4/4/26)

Finally! 

I've been waiting impatiently for it to be time to start sowing outside. Because I'm a newish gardener, I follow the seed packet instructions as closely as possible. I looked up our average last frost date, and counted back to make sure I wasn't planting too early. Now, this winter has been ... let's say, mild ... so I probably would have been fine planting even earlier than the seed packets suggested, but I didn't want to risk it.

My original plan had been to use our old slow-feed net as a trellis for my peas to climb, but I decided not to cannibalize it so that Jay and I still had two feeders and nets for when we travel. We can put two round bales out, and then we shouldn't need anyone to replenish the hay supply while we're gone. With the slow-feed net out of the running, I had to come up with something else.

Luckily, L.E. had an old day bed in storage that she was looking to get rid of, so I scrounged up a piece of that and planted it in the pea patch. Because our winds are so brutal at times, I secured it with four pieces of rebar: two taller pieces on the north side of the trellis, where the wind typically comes from; and two smaller pieces on the south side of the trellis, in an effort to provide some structure when the wind inevitably kicks up. I like the end result - it looks like it's free-standing.

I'll admit, I rattle canned the rebar white so that it wouldn't
stick out like a sore thumb.

Because I don't have a ton of confidence in my newly greenish thumb, I do everything in my power to increase the odds of germination, including soaking my peas prior to planting. I planted three different varieties of snap peas: traditional green, one with purple flowers and green pods, and a third with purple flowers and purple pods (they're my favorite). I tried alternating them as I planted, but I think I didn't do a very good job in the middle, not that it'll matter once they start growing. 

Jelly jars did double duty as pea-soaking jars.

Last year, I planted my seeds on the south side of my trellis, and the wind really beat them up, so this year, I planted on the north (far) side so that when the wind kicks up (are you sensing a theme?) it'll blow the vines into the trellis, not away from it. I then woke up in the middle of the night in a panic that I planted the peas in the shade of the trellis and convinced myself that they weren't going to grow, because I put them in the shade. I couldn't very well go out in the middle of the night to make sure they weren't in the shade; I had to wait until the sun actually came up. (Good news: the peas get sun throughout the day.)

Some of my struggles last year were because of watering. In an effort not to run up a big water bill, I tried watering "just enough" and stunted my garden because of it. This year, I decided to copy L.E. and install soaker hoses in all of my beds. I only accomplished installing three of the six that I need, but I'll get the rest put in when we return from Scotland.

I'm attempting to grow broccolini this year. It's one of my favorite veggies, and it never occurred to me to try to grow it until I saw an ad for seeds. They were stupid expensive as far as seeds go (over $5 for 20 seeds), so they'd better grow! L.E. warned me that members of the broccoli family are prone to pests, so I decided to cover our old chicken tractor with insect mesh to protect the broccolini. I didn't have quite enough netting to completely cover it, so I ordered more. The broccolini will be protected before they begin to sprout. Additionally, I read that onions are a good pest deterrent and companion plant, so I put some onion in with the broccolini.

This chicken tractor frame has been so useful!

My gothic garden has to go in in stages, but I did get to plant the poppies. And, under Maggie's new sweet pea trellis, I planted some creeping thyme seeds. Those seeds are so microscopic that I was afraid they'd blow away, so I covered them with greenhouse plastic and weighed them down with heavy old window anchors.

Inside the cinder blocks, I planted sweet peas.

I've done what I can as far as planting before we leave, and I'm hopeful I'll come back to some babies peeking up through the soil.

Big Trip Coming Up

When Jay and I went to Italy in 2022, we had hoped to be able to take a "big" trip across the pond on even years and a smaller, closer trip on odd years. That hasn't quite worked out, with job changes and such, but we're both in good, stable jobs again and ready to get back on track.

Our "rules" for travel are:

• we only visit places that we've either never been to, or that only one of us has been. 
• For example, we've both visited Rome (before we were married), so Rome's off the table. 
• He'd visited Fussen, Germany a couple of times before we were married, but I hadn't, so Fussen was a go. Now that we've both been, Fussen is no longer an option.
• we can re-visit a country that we've both been to, but we can't stay in a place that we've already been.
• We loved Costa Rica and want to return, but the Guanacaste Provenance is off the table. Same with Italy (the exception with Italy is that if we're ever able to buy property there, it would be in Radicofani).
• we alternate choosing destinations.
• We both agreed on our Italy trip, because it combined places we both wanted to see. Jay chose to spend a couple of days in Germany (see Fussen, above), and I wanted to go back to the Tuscan region of Italy. Our desires aligned and we were able to do both.
• This year's trip is to Scotland, my choice. The next trip is to the Swiss alps, Jay's choice.

The reason we put those rules in place is because there's a lot of the world to see, and it's easy to keep going back to familiar places. Our travel time and budget is limited, so we have to be strategic in how we do it. 

In just a few days, we'll be boarding the plane for Scotland, and we're both incredibly excited. Scotland was never really on Jay's list, but as we started planning and researching, he got more and more excited. I found a free countdown app that I've been using for the past few years. As soon as our tickets are bought, I put the leave date/time in the app and let it do the counting down for me. It's fun to watch it go from year(s) to months, to weeks, then days, etc.

This countdown app has some
fun "random" options.

With just four days to go, we're in the "what have we missed, what else needs to be done?" stage. After a year of planning and waiting, the trip is right around the corner. One of the best things about sharing property with L.E. is that we each have built-in house/horse/cat/garden sitters. L.E. will let the cats in and out, make sure the horses are safe, and water my garden while we're gone. When she goes on trips, I do the same for her. It works out perfectly. This year, we've made it even easier. Jay and I will put out two round bales in slow feed nets, so she won't even have to worry about putting hay out for the horses.

Our trip is going to be a combination of city and countryside. We'll start in Edinburgh for a few days, then head out of the city to Glencoe for a few days, then Portree on the Isle of Sky. Even though I'm not much of a city girl, I am looking forward to our time in Edinburgh. We've got reservations for potion making at the Department of Magic, bag making at the Islander, and the thing Jay is most excited about, and was the first thing he booked, afternoon tea at the Signet Library.

Typically, Jay books us Airbnbs whenever we travel, and we've gotten to stay at some absolutely incredible places. I know a lot of people are anti-Airbnb, but we've never had a bad experience. However, this time, he chose to book us at actual B&Bs, which made Mom happy as an owner of a B&B herself. The reasoning is that we want to go hiking, and the hosts will have a lot of ideas and pointers for best hikes, something we've learned over the 28 years that Mom has run the lodge.

In Glencoe, we'll be staying at the Fern Villa Guest House. I guess it's technically "near" Glencoe, not in it, but the pictures are amazing. And when we're in Portree, on the Isle of Sky, we'll be staying at the Viewfield House, which is super fancy-looking. Outside of Mom's lodge, I've only stayed in one other  B&B, on my last trip to the UK. I'm looking forward to the experience of staying at others. We all know Mom's B&B gives a rustic experience with fantastic breakfast. From the pictures, I feel like the Viewfield House gives a hunting lodge vibe. 

Needless to say, posting will be nonexistent while we're away, followed by a flurry of posts once we return.

Easter Egg Coloring

Last night, the Ashinator hosted us for Easter egg coloring. The intent was to color eggs with the Gremlin, but that didn't happen.

Digger and the Gremlin were at my house, waiting for me to get off work, and the Gremlin was struggling. He was tired, cranky, and just wanted to go home. As time got closer to leave for Ashinator's, he got progressively crankier, which, in turn, made Digger stressed and cranky. Gremlin insisted the he just wanted to go home. Tuesdays are parenting switch days, so Digger and Gremlin's mom meet at his speech therapists for the hand-off. She drops him off, Gremlin does his therapy, then they both head to my house for our usual Tuesday night family dinners. By the time it was getting time to leave for Ashinator's he hadn't been home yet.

Seeing Digger's growing frustration, and Gremlin's crankiness, I told them they weren't obligated to go. The Bionic Cowgirl was headed over there, I was headed over there, but if they didn't want to go, I wasn't going to force them.

Of course, this sent Ashinator through the roof. She'd been planning this for a couple of weeks, and we were all looking forward to it. I completely understood. I also completely understood that when Gremlin gets cranky, Digger gets stressed, and no one has a good time. AND, I could understand Gremlin not wanting to get in the car and drive another 20 minutes to go to another place that wasn't home.

Let's face it, there are times when I'm tired, overstimulated, and just want to go home. Most of the time, I feel obligated and I go anyway, and I'm miserable. Though, honestly, there are times when I'm happy I forced myself to go do something when I don't want to, the majority of the time I'm just counting the minutes until it's acceptable for me to leave.

Egg coloring was supposed to be fun activity for Gremlin, and he might have had a blast if we'd forced him to go. Ashinator and Mr. Ashinator are two of his very favorite people in the world. He knew that's where we were going, and he still wanted to go home, which, to me, was very telling.

I don't know, maybe I should have forced the issue, and not given Digger the green light to go home. He was willing to go and force Gremlin to go, but I started wondering why I would force them to do something that neither of them had any desire to do. It wasn't work, school, or a doctor's appointment. In the grand scheme of things, it was something the adults wanted to do with Gremlin. 

Also, I wish that someone had given me grace to pass on activities like this once in a while when my kids were little, instead of feeling forced because it was expected of me. 

Am I sad he didn't want to participate? Of course! 

But it turned out just fine. The five of us had a good time, and colored eggs without them. We were able to just sit and hang out, five adults, doing an activity that we have fond memories of doing as children, using Grandma Nita's old coffee cups that have held our egg dye for decades. It was nice to be able to hang out with my adult kids without it being kid-centric, and I'm actually okay with the decision to let Digger and Gremlin bail out last minute. Their loss.