Burning Calories

The weekend's (and Monday's) glorious 85-degree afternoons were spent post-hole digging for the new garden storage area and acid-washing the porch rafters in preparation for new gutters. We're absolutely exhausted.

Mason's been on fence duty. It's a 4-foot-high jobber that blocks the view (and a bit of the sound) of the generator and creates a fenced-in area around the well house that lets us store all our garden-related tools and supplies. Very tidy. We like tidy. Not enough tidy around this place. Yet ...

Once again, my lack of real skills puts me on "scrubbing" duty -- washing down the worn wooden rafters with an acid that has also taken off the top layer of skin on my hands and arms (city women pay good money for this kind of thing, right?). I got the dark brown stain on the back porch and tomorrow, after the prerequisite dog walk, I'll stain the front rafters.  Then Mason will be on gutter-installation duty.

Both the fence and acid jobs called for major calorie-burning -- just as we were running out of food in the house. We didn't want to go into town, so suddenly it was a flashback to being on the boat and making meals out of mystery items found under the bunk. We got by on tuna for lunch and tonight's dinner will feature scraps of all sorts from the fridge.

As for all those calories we're burning, Mason is as skinny as ever. I know I've lost weight -- who wouldn't, going from a sit-at-your-desk-for-10-hours-a-day job to constant projects? But I haven't been able to bring myself to get on a scale yet; I know those evening beers are certain to be working against me. OH, which reminds me: The first batch on home brews came on line this weekend. OH GLORIOUS HOME BREW!! It's a copper ale, and yes, it turned out quite well, thank you very much.

To town tomorrow we go!! Yippee! That means a lunch out -- and a chance to buy more plants!!

Sorry no photos today. Tomorrow I'll snap one of the fence! Or of Mason on the tractor laying down a wide base of pesticide using our new tractor-mounted spray rig. A tractor day always makes for a good day, sez Mason.