Saturday, May 31st….Tomorrow into June already!!!

This is what we waited for all winter long as the cold winds blew and drove snowflakes into every part of your life that needed shoveled out later. I remember shoveling paths to the car so you could get in without getting snow in your shoes & on your clothes while thinking….. Ohhhhh, how I long for summer, when you can sit on the porch, sip coffee, smell the summer smells and see the animals in the yard, then feel the warm sun on your face. Well, now it’s here……AND sliding by at a pace close to that of a speeding jet plane fleeting across the skyline……soon to be gone into fall and then winter again. Enough of this dastardly pessimism… we have all summer long to enjoy first….. Optimism……Yes!! Don’t worry, be happy!!

The barn is coming along and again we find ourselves ahead of schedule (I think……I hope!!!) with the things we need to do to be ready for the framing & roofing guys from Jersey. We have the board and batten materials to do the outside walls on the lower level, but need the T-111 siding for the top, flooring for the top and the 2x4’s for the framing on the top. All the roofing materials are here, including rafter materials, hangers, perlins, steel roofing, trim and ridge caps. At this point, I need to do exact positioning of the floor joist beams, plate them there and cut the ends flush. We will then be ready to put the steps up into the stairwell opening and start the flooring of the loft and office. After getting to that point, we might start framing out the loft and office walls. We will check with the Jersey boys first though.

Today is supposed to be a rain day and it’s starting to look like one. I hate to give up a day, but we need the rain to bring the water table back up to normal. Our pond is about 12” lower than usual. It is also not good for the fish when the water stops flowing, because they have a hard time with the diminished oxygen level in the water. We will have to pull cords and run a pump to create bubbles and help replace the oxygen usually created by moving water. Last year, we had a problem with the fish coming to the house and carrying buckets of water back to the pond, which they filled out of the garden hose, just so they would have some water in their pond. Thatwas when we were in the middle of the drought and the pond was almost 24" lower than normal. The fish really start to look pale (loose their coloring & stripes along their sides) when the oxygen level drops in the water. They also get very sluggish……as would I, if I were asphyxiated too! I’msure a good day of rain would take care of all this and return everything to a healthy, happy, natural state.

Yesterday Sweet Vicki got a little eager to do too much and had some back and leg pain last evening. I was constantly telling her about not overdoing it and that helped to stifle some of her activities, but she is a little head strong and very independent and will do as she will do! I think she now knows and understands that the mind continues to want to go when the body just can’t do it. It reminds me of a little kid, prancing along, saying “come on, come on, lets hurry” while the decrepit old man limps along, puffing, trying to move faster as he says “ok, I’m hurrying”. The actual agenda’s are too far apart now. If you try to keep up with the mind, the body pays. I know because I’ll go like a barn on fire one day and then crash the next. This is what happened yesterday. I hustled all day Thursday to get as much done with the loader as I could, then crashed yesterday. We didn’t even make it to Rich & Robin’s for Friday night dinner. I hope they know how tired and sore I was and understand I needed to crash. I think it was good for Vick too. She would have been in a lot more pain if we had gone. Today she will be better and won’t care to do as much, and then she won’t ache tonight.