WannaRunnaRound

I wannarunnaround and do the things I did before Covid-19 put a halt to almost everything normal in my life.  I know we are all getting tired of it all.  Not having young children, grand kids, or living in a community with many kids, I forget what it must be like for them, to be so restricted.  I know they must wannarunnaround and play with friends, more so than we adults.

"Running from Coronavirus" - I read that "throughout our national self-isolation period, there has been a mini-boom in running.  It has naturally emerged from a cabin- fevered populace."  We all know that running improves our health and prevents disease.  It relieves stress and eliminates depression.  Here is a list of ten specific benefits of running.  I really need to try and start running again, or at least walking briskly.

I think in these times, more than ever, running around is as important as running.  It is necessary for us adults to 'play,' especially if it involves some running.  Within the context of neighborly, rule-abiding social distancing, we can figure out some aerobic motions and movements, preferably outside, that’ll make us happy.  We need to get out, chase our dog, play catch with a friend, hike, go to an outdoor small social gathering (especially if it includes dancing), etc.

Saturday 6/6 - Computer time with cats nearby watching the critters outside the window.












Jim and Joe went to breakfast, for a drive to look at houses, and then to golf.

I started weeding by the sidewalk, spending a great deal of time digging out all the wild violets by root.  In the process, I discovered a tiny, volunteer Japanese Holly, and decided to move it out by the other one I had just transplanted.








Of course this involved several other steps to do first, ones that have been on my list awhile.  I removed two 5 gallon buckets full of rock, transplanted several iris and then had a spot for the little Holly.

Some of the girls sat with me on the porch during a lunch break.  Then Maggie took a nap back outside near where I continued weeding.










This is all the farther I got with weed removal by the time the guys got done with golf and I needed to get cleaned up for an evening out.

We picked up Patty and then Jim at his hotel, and proceeded to Lilly Bluff National Park, with the Obed National Wild & Scenic River.




A short hike took us to the overlook with spectacular views and frightening heights.



I don't know which was scarier, Joe's speed on the curvy road to get us here, or looking out over the railing on the walkway. 


Driving a short leg of our trip, we arrived at the Lilly Pad Hopyard Brewery to enjoy a cold can of beer.














The hops was growing right next to where we sat.







This was a laid back, friendly place, located in the middle of nowhere.  Everything was outside and it was like hanging out in someone’s backyard, very relaxing.

Internet photo

We enjoyed  pork tacos and some of us
a second beer.











One of the resident kitties reminded me of Maya.


As we were leaving, I saw this cute 1956 yellow Thunderbird parked next to us, and asked Patty to take my photo beside it.  The owner was near by and offered to let me sit in it for the photo.  Heck yeah.  Of course Joe had to photo bomb.

 Sunday 6/7 - I saw this snapping turtle while putting out corn for the deer.  I imagined it was a female, fixin' to lay eggs somewhere.























I watered the iris again, after our morning walk. 

Most of my day was spent in the front yard working.  I trimmed some of the bushes, raked up leaves, and weeded.

A break was taken for lunch, and later for our group chat time.  At one point when going deep into the woods by Allen's to dump a bin of weeds, I flushed a baby fawn.  I hadn't even seen it until it jump up and ran off.  I felt terrible about disturbing and frightening it. 







Britney showed us her two new guinea pigs, which are so cute.  They are sisters.  The brown one is Canchita (Purivian for a grain) and the black one is Pepita (a Mexican grain).

I weeded until dinnertime, and again a little after I ate and fed all the critters, but I still did not get done.  I need to get the rest of the wild violets under the azalea and trim it.  I also need to trim the larger shrub along the side of the house, rake up the leaves under them, and get a few more weeds over in that area.

I was pretty tired and sore by the time I climbed into bed.

Monday 6/8 -  Sitting here in the sun room at my computer as usual, the dog started whining and barked a few times.  I looked out and did not see any deer by the pond.


But then I saw what was upsetting Maggie, this big snapper.  The turtle was just cruising along across the back (video) but then started digging where I thought there was a chipmunk hole.  (I misspoke and said groundhog on the video.).















I watched her for much of the morning, nearly two hours, and thought she had started laying eggs (video).  I was reporting on Facebook every 30 minutes or so.




I got busy and when I went back to check on Mrs. Snapper, she was gone.  The 'hole' was barely 2" deep, the ground very hard, and there were no eggs.  She must have given up.






I had brought home a damaged sheet of plexiglass from the barn.  It had been a table top, but broke when the table flipped over in high winds.  So I had Joe cut it down in size to fit in the little window from the living room to the porch.



It wasn't big enough, so we had to cut a second smaller strip to add to it.  This will allow the cats to have access to the porch on hot, or cold days, when we have the rest of the house shut with the air, or heat on.




I will add a flap where the hole is once hey get used to going through this space.

Finally, right after lunch, I got to work outside.  I gave weeding a rest and worked along the front, trimming and removing dead leaves and bush clippings.  After a first trim to the yew on left of the rhododendron, I decided to go even shorter.








Now the yews look kind of bare, but I have done this before.  They will grow back.  They really need to be this low to get the windows open.  I left the rhododendron because this spring it only had a few blooms on it.  So I must have trimmed it at the wrong time last year.  I will cut it back next spring right after it finishes blooming.


I started edging with the weed wacker along the border wall, and then decided to recruit Joe for this job.










By the end of the day (well 6pm) the beds by the house looked pretty good.  There is a little weeding left to do and I need to get mulch.  This panoramic view is kind of an odd looking, but makes it look like we have a round house the way the photo is distorted. 

Before calling it quits for the day, I put this dollar store buy, disposable aluminum pan around the dogwood tree out back.  Hopefully this will keep the squirrel and chipmunks out, so they don't eat all the flower buds like they have the past two years.  And it will keep the squirrels off the roof where they go to get to the bird feeders in front of the windows.











Joe and I watched a movie - The River Wild, an adventure thriller I highly recommend.

Tuesday 6/9 - I woke at 1:30am, took my thyroid med as usual (in the middle of the night) but then couldn't get back to sleep.  My phone pinged at 1:55 and I checked to see who was up at that hour.  It was Courtney, just finishing a 14 hour work day and going to bed.  She was still on call for the night.  Also, her company had had issues with 200 covid-19 tests at the lab Monday night.  I got up and went out to the porch to read.





Stevie, and the other three cats were thrilled to see me up at this hour.  I took a one hour nap at sunrise, but woke with a headache I could not shake.  I felt drugged and too tired to accomplish anything.

Babe in the shredded tent and Mama Styx outside of it.



I proceeded to the sun room and to work on this blog while (video) the cats played on the tower by my desk.

The asphalt guy called and would be coming soon, so I jumped into work mode.





The first guy arrived about 10:30, while Maggie was watching me sweep up gravel from the street at the top of our drive.  (Our street is a tar and gravel road.)  I wanted to keep the gravel (and water) from washing down our drive, so they planned to put a 'bump' at the top of the drive to prevent such an occurrence.




By the time I finished dumping two buckets of gravel under our deck, things had started rockin' and rollin'.





I helped get the hose so that the steam roller could be filled with water.  It was then parked in the garage, ready for action.



Next the drive was sprayed with this black stuff to help the asphalt stick.






The dump truck then put hot (the man said 350°) asphalt in the spreader.

As the asphalt was laid, the team of guys got busy with different tools, pressing and shaping the edges.














I had to quickly move my lava rock succulent planter out of the way.


The steam roller was was then hard at work.

The dump truck had to refill the spreader several times. 














When they started on the other side of the drive, the dump truck rolled over some border blocks, moving them out of position.  I had planed to neaten up all boarders that were in contact with the new asphalt anyways.

As these guys worked, so did I.  Well I tried too.  I wanted to finish the weeding of the beds by the house.  I took several breaks, to take all of the asphalting photos.





Once they had started on the second side, I wasn't near as pesky.  By the time I stopped weeding to get more photos, they were about done. 






They had leftover asphalt, so did a little section of road in front to prevent gravel from washing down the driveway. Yeehaw!














They made it past Allen's drive before running out of asphalt.  No bump was made, so I was still concerned about a lot of water running down the drive.  I'll have to wait for our next 'gully washer' to see how it all drains.

I was also wondering how the water would now drain at the left side of the driveway.  You can see that they paved over the sidewalk to widen our drive, and the pitch was now a little different probably.  In the past, a lot of water came down the middle of the sidewalk, and drained off near the big holly bush.  I am hoping to direct more of the water down the drain pipe I discovered.  I can't wait to finish landscaping this last little corner of our front beds.  I was advised to not put dirt up next to the drive for at least a month because it draws moisture from the drive and weakens the asphalt before it totally hardens.














We set buckets of rock with reflectors and tape at the end of the drive to keep vehicles off of it. 

I re-did this edging by the lava rock since the last ½ block that was here would no longer fit.  The drive was now at least two inches wider on this side.  So to get the blocks to fit up against the edge of the drive, I just reduced the curve of the bed.














I worked until I got the rest of the weeding completed and I was exhausted by the time I came in at 6pm.  Monita fell asleep watching me through the window.





I had uncovered more phlox that was hidden beneath weeds.  The only way to get all of the root of the wild violets is to dig up the phlox.  There had been some on each side of the azalea, which I had also really trimmed back.  I added a stepping stone because we tend to cut through here, and moved phlox to both sides of it.  Here is a before and after photo of this section of flower bed.  I want to do Preen weed preventer and mulch next.

Britney posted her University of Peace Commencement Ceremony video and I took a screen shot of the section where her advisor spoke about Britney's accomplishments.  We are all so proud of her!

After an hour nap on the porch swing, I went straight to bed, at 8:30.



Wednesday 6/10 - I had taken a sleeping pain pill because I didn't want to be kept awake with my sore, aching body.  So when I got up, I still felt groggy.  Sleep aids tend to do this to me the following day.








My morning amusement, as usual (video).  Babe entertaining herself.  She loves to scoot (spin) around this post, chasing her tail.  I can just never catch it on video.



More wildlife down back near the pond.  I think they are called golfers.  LOL

I started a very fast paced David Baldacci thriller (The Innocent) and couldn't put it down.  I read on the porch swing, out on a lounge chair in the sun, and in the cool air conditioned house on the sun room couch.  Joe had made another batch of chocolate chip cookies, so I had that mess to clean up, but also enjoyed a few hot off the cookie sheet.

To reconcile a completely useless day, I took Maggie on a long walk.  I even tried a little jogging at one point, but it did not last long.  We went past the new amphitheater that will be used for Mirror Lake Blast.  There may be no concerts this season, but we have next summer to look forward to.  This last photo was taken from across Mirror Lake.

Thursday 6/11 - This is what the floor on my side of the bed looks like most mornings.  Throughout the night Monita brings in toys hoping to engage me in a game of fetch.  I sleep through it or pretend I am asleep, otherwise she is relentless.  She leaves toys on my pillow as well.

It was a beautiful morning, 63° with a gentle breeze, and a few big white puffy clouds drifting by.  I often take a stroll around the house when I take corn to the rock down back.  I just love the colors in this flower pot and how well the plants have filled in.

Mid-morning I went out to clean up excess asphalt left in a few areas and to also redo these border blocks the truck had driven over while dumping asphalt into the spreader.










Again I had removed the extra block (no longer needed) that I had set aside to give them room to pour asphalt.  So I had to shift the remaining blocks (that were already knocked out of place) to get them to fill the gap better.

I had a late lunch at St. George Marina beach with several of my pool peeps.  I stayed for almost three hours, enjoying the sun, chatter, laughter, and a dip in the cool water.

Joe grilled chicken breasts for dinner and then I went for an evening ride.






Seen here, Amiga and I are looking at the new trail just cleared to cut around the bean field that they will soon be fencing in.  The old trail (to the left) will no longer get you past the bean field, but takes you up to the old ghost town.



Back at the barn before sunset, we rode around there for awhile.  I was impressed with how well maintained (and weeded) many of the garden plots are kept.  There is also an additional 'scare crow' with the first one that keeps changing positions, and is now sitting.

I had opened windows back up and turned off the air conditioning first thing in the morning.  By bedtime I closed a few windows because it was getting too cold. 

Friday 6/12 - Babe on the porch swing. 
Mid-morning I went out to water everything, and spent a great deal of time working my way around the house and getting all the new grass down back.









We have wren babies in this house.  I circled one of the parents in pink.  The younguns get very noisy when food arrives.  I tried to get them on (video), but when I get near, the parents stay away from the house.

After a quick trip to Food City with Joe, I got busy in the yard with little jobs.


I also finally dug up the ground to check the repair job the gas guys presumably did on the drain pipe they dug through when putting in the gas line a few years ago.  I didn't trust that they really did it because when they were filling in the trench, I noticed the the drain pipe completely severed and a section missing.  When I pointed this out, They were like, oh, we'll fix it.  Probably ten minutes later when I went out to check, the ditch was all filled in.  So it just didn't seem likely that they did a sufficient repair job.


Anyway, I started digging, looking for the drain pipe. I couldn't remember exactly where it ran so went well away from the actual gas line ditch, but along it (area I dug shown in pink).  Well I finally found it,nearly cutting through the yellow wire that warned of the gas line.  It runs well above the line I believe.  The line went under this drain pipe.





Just to make sure the drain pipe did in fact have a good seal, I put the hose in it up at the beginning by the drive and gutter down spout and ran water through it.









When water was coming out the other end down near the pond, and none was leaking out at the repair job, I knew all was well.  It may seem like a lot of work for nothing, but was worth it for peace of mind.  I filled in the hole and then got ready for Patty's arrival and our bonfire.

Brian had arrived home with Joan (from California) so I moved my car to the garage and Joe put his in the street.  Parking on hot asphalt this soon after it was laid, is not recommended.


First Patty, Joe and I worked together to apply flea medicine in the ears and down the back of all four cats.  Yep, it was a three person job.

Then Patty and I re-splined this screen on the porch.  Maggie leans against it, causing the screen to come out of the track and then I think the cats pulled the spline out.





It was actually quite easy with Patty's rolling spline tool and went much better than I expected.  Definitely easier than flea application on cats.

Brian and Joan came and joined us down by the fire pit.  Some of us enjoyed this sweet cherry wine from one of our local vineyards. 

I didn't get any photos of us, but did take a picture of our wine bottle.  We all headed in to our respective homes a little after 8pm.  When you can't run around, having small gatherings is the next best thing.