A Busy Couple of Days

January 2, 2025

On New Year’s Day, Bruce noticed a couple of flickers in the backyard, fairly close to the house.

We walked over to the sliding door and watched them for a while.

The wind calmed down and Bruce decided to use his chainsaw to cut the branches off the fence. He also cut up old rotten trees for the garden beds.

Bruce decided to cut down a dead pine tree.

Bruce cut higher than he normally would due to poison ivy at the base of the tree.

I moved sticks and logs so they would be easier to collect for the next tall garden bed.

Bruce cut the large limbs next to the burn ring into more easily handled sizes. I separated out the large pieces from the smaller pieces. We plan to have a bonfire with some friends over to enjoy it with us.

I made blackeyed peas in my Instant Pot, mustard greens on the induction stovetop, cornbread in the oven, and ham on the induction stovetop.

Today (January 2), I wasn’t sure we were going to do anything outside. The high for today was predicted to be 48 F, but it got up to 51 F. It felt lovely in the sun.

I used my wagon to put leaves in the short beds, while Bruce got the tall bed out of its box. He started the assembly process while I gathered leaves from the huge pile and placed them in the short beds. Nox supervised Bruce’s efforts.

Once Bruce was ready to put the bed together, I went over to help. The bed needs two of us to put it together.

Once the second tall bed was put together, Bruce cut chicken wire to go on the bottom. I got cardboard boxes and cut them to fit. I placed the chicken wire underneath the braces and on the ground. It came up the sides.

I placed the cut cardboard on top of the chicken wire.

Bruce got the zero turn mower and the cart. He headed to the back pasture to pick up deadwood that was already cut. He had cut some yesterday and some was already cut when we brought the place.

It took several carts of old wood to fill the bed to the level of the braces. We then covered the logs with leaves.

Bruce received notice that his order from Greenworks had arrived. Bruce had ordered an electric string trimmer with several different attachments. The order was six boxes in all. We walked to the front porch to get the order and it wasn’t there. He looked at the message and it said the order had arrived in Livingston, TX.

Bruce didn’t check close enough when he made the order and had it sent to our mailing address in Texas. Escapees is going to forward it to us. The shipping is eating up all the savings from the sale. Stuff happens!

We had a spectacular sunset today!