April Labors

I’m currently not able to get any vacation time at work, which means both my house & history projects have all been put on hold & even routine house maintenance is hard to accomplish.  The lawn took off as it does each spring but is now in good shape & staying that way as long as I mow it weekly.  I have gotten a few small history projects done.

I bought this Brit canteen at the OVPR and initially covered it with some Whitney Lachine blanket scraps.  The Whitney blanketing proved to be a burr magnet in the woods.

So I took the Whitney wool off & covered my new canteen as well as my Goose Bay Workshop tin lined copper canteen with scraps from a Brit military surplus blanket.  This works much better - the wool means the canteen doesn’t  clank when I walk & it keeps the canteen cooler too.  I didn’t have enough striped material for both canteens.  I also made up a bunch of egg carton + wood chips + wax fire starters.

My faithful blog readers may remember remember that I had a tree in my yard come down last year.

These are the before pictures

Well I did as much as I could with an ax, then borrowed a chain saw from a friend.  The chain saw was clearly the solution to this cleanup job, so I spent part of my tax refund on an electric 16” chainsaw of my own.

Here’s the current status pictures.  Clearly I’m not done but steady progress is being made.

I expect this pile will be much bigger by the time I’m done.

April is the month when all my backyard critters reappear. 

I had to move this fellow into the woods before I mowed the yard one day.  Two or three turtles show up in my yard each year.

There have been skinks in my yard every year, and last year there were both adult & baby skinks around the Norfolk Pine stump.  So far this year there are several around the kitchen door porch.  I hope they eat ticks. 

Don’s Party

Da Urchin, my much beloved offspring, works in the field of animal control & rescue.  A restaurant in the northern VA area set up a benefit night through her employer wherein every 10% of the cost of every meal sold on Rescue Evening went to animal rescue funding.  WooHoo!  And it turned out that Rescue Night was the day after Don’s birthday, so an expedition was in order.  Don & Dolores, their good neighbors from across the street, Carly & Dean, Da Urchin, & yours truly all made went out to eat at this really really good south of the border restaurant.

(OK, I’m bad, I‘ve forgotten both the name of the restaurant & Don’s neighbor ).

Presents were given, laugher was shared, & a good time was had by all.

And here’s a thanks to all our furry friends: the dogs who joined us for the hunt, stayed with us to guard our homes & herd our flocks, & yes even came with us into battle; the cats who followed the mice to our grain stores, strayed into our homes after the same vermin & self domesticated themselves into our hearts; and all the other creatures great & small who share the Web of Life with us.  May we always treat them well for they remind us that we are not the Web of Life but only a stand in it.