Pulling Up and Down Poison Ivy

April 23, 2026 On Sunday (April 19), the outside temperature was in the 50s F when I got up. With all the rain we’ve had recently, I decided it was a good time to pull up poison ivy since the ground would be soft. I have to wear protective gear when dealing with poison ivy […]

Front Field AKA the Front Meadow

April 19, 2026 We got three weeping willows delivered by FedEx on Friday (April 17). We plan to put them in the front field aka the front meadow. We walk around the front field to get a rough idea of where the trees would go. We didn’t want them to be too close to the […]

Planting Seeds While Bruce Assembles a Low Garden Bed

April 19, 2026 On April 15 (Wednesday), Bruce continued assembling a short garden bed. I removed weeds from a tall garden bed to get it ready for more dirt. Using my three 5-gallon buckets in my wagon method, I topped the garden bed with Bama Dirt Pro Mix. After I finished adding dirt to the […]

A Time to Chip

April 17, 2026 On April 14 (Tuesday), Bruce put on coveralls in the morning for body protection to chip branches. I thought I might help him, so I put on coveralls as well. Earlier this year, to create an in-ground garden bed, I put down cardboard and covered it with leaves. The plan was to […]

Printing and Mailing the State Tax Forms

April 17, 2026 On Monday (April 13), I loaded the state tax forms onto a USB Drive. Bruce addressed the envelope to the Alabama State Revenue Department. We went to the library to print the tax forms. I was happy to find the library gives a discount for printing tax forms. We had 15 pages […]

Gallbladder Decision and Time to Move Some Dirt

April 16, 2026 Updated April 17, 2026 – Thanks to Beth for noticing I wrote “loom” instead of “loam”. On and off for several days, Bruce and I discussed whether or not I should have my gallbladder removed. After some more bad attacks, I realized that diet would no longer control my gallbladder’s problems. On […]

Sunrise to Sunset

April 16, 2026 On April 11 (Saturday), I woke up at sunrise. This is the first time I’ve woken up at sunrise since Nox had to leave us. She would wake Bruce or me to take her outside at sunrise. If you look closely, you can see fog past the pines. Mid-morning, we went to […]

Sitting on the Front Porch, Watching the Sunset

April 14, 2026 On April 10 (Friday), Bruce mowed while I worked on finishing the tax forms. After I completed the tax forms, we had supper and then sat on the front porch. A big toad was sitting in the grass near the front door, just off the porch. If the toad hadn’t hopped we […]

Butterflies and Blackberry Flowers

April 14, 2026 I didn’t do much for a few days except for the doctors’ appointments. On Thursday (April 9), we took the car to the dealership for a recall for a ground wire on the transmission possibly not being connected. (By the way Rieko, we named the car Little Red Hood with the nickname […]

Around Blackberry Homestead

April 13, 2026 On Saturday (April 4) and Sunday (April 5), I was trying to not do much since my foot hurt from the removal of the two planters warts on my right foot. I did walk around a little bit and took some pictures. I didn’t do any work on the gardens. Notice how […]