Firewood, firewood, and more firewood!

This time of year is all about firewood. Heck, this entire year has been about firewood! It seems like all I've really accomplished this year is trimming trees, setting the logs aside for firewood, and burning the resulting brush. 

It started in May with a maple tree uprooting along the south stone fence. I got that cleaned up just in time for me and the cousin to rent a lift and top a few maples that were close to the house. Yeah, that happened in July and it was hot, hot, hot work. But we got it done. 

After all that, it was time to call in the professionals to take down a huge oak that was ninety-percent dead. I made a video on that. Actually, I made a lot of videos this past summer. You can check them out on YouTube on the Holly Tree Manor channel. 

I haven't had a lot of time left over to blog about anything, even the writing. I'd like to say I see the light at the end of the tunnel, but not yet. There is still a large pile of maple logs to cut into round, and even more oak logs. The cousin and I will have firewood for the next several years with just what is already on the ground. The thing is, it's doubtful Mother Nature will let the winter pass without gifting us more. 

I get tired just thinking about it.

The Lady of Holly Tree Manor/The Hideaway

Holly Tree Manor, The Hideaway, firewood, log splitter, John Deere 1023, rural living, country lifestyle, KC Kendricks, romance fiction, Between the Keys, Deuce's Day

Where are the hostas?

 

Where did three of the hostas go? No need to answer. I know. The damn deer got them last fall. 

It amazes me the deer will come in this close to the patio. The deer coming up is also how the one screen got ripped out.  I can't blame Deuce for getting excited, and replacing the screen was a cheap and easy fix. But dammit! That deer killed three of my hosta plants!

The good news is that the remaining three plants are in need of being separated. I'll do that during our next warm day. Today it's very breezy and the air has a cold edge, reminding me spring and winter are still conversing with each other. (She writes that tongue-in-cheek.) The pictures don't show up all that well, but there are three clumps of the hosta up where the only tulips on the manor are blooming. 

I wasn't planning on getting the strip along the walk mulched this week, but one of the big box home improvement stores had 2cu bags of mulch on sale five bags for ten dollars. Experience told me I needed four bags for this area. Yes, I got five because there are no shortage of places that can use a hit of mulch. 

It's one more thing to cross off my Spring To Do List. 

The Lady of Holly Tree Manor/The Hideaway

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Another day of snowy weather followed by sunshine

Yesterday was one of those days that we didn't bother to dress in street clothes. Yes, the Lord and Lady of Manor spent the day in flannels and slippers. I think it did us a world of good to take a day off from everything, or almost everything. He watched an old movie and I "worked" on the computer. When the snow stopped, I ventured out and took a measurement.  So add this to what we got a few days ago, and it's eight inches for the week. That's pretty good for us. 

Today dawned bright and clear! Lots of sunshine and only a few fluffy clouds. I hopped on the John Deere 1023 and ran the snow pusher in and out the lane a few times, cleaned off and started the vehicles, took Deuce on a walk-about, and shoveled the sunroom porch for His Majesty Loki. The cat wants out, but let his furry little paws touch the snow? No. 

Deuce is a different matter. He wanted to go romp so off we went. I even managed to get a video of our short stroll and get it uploaded. The link to it is below. 

A couple of snow days a year are good for my soul. I always resented having to drive to the day job when it snowed. The last ten years I worked, I didn't. I worked from home. Some change in the world is good. 

Snow falling is beautiful and peaceful. In the woods, everything stops to watch, eve the squirrels. I stepped out onto the patio (it's covered and screened) for a few moments just to listen the quiet, and to reflect on how very blessed I am to live on the mountain. 

The Lady of Holly Tree Manor/The Hideaway

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A little luck never hurts

Several days ago, May 29th to be exact, I took a tumble in the middle of a creek. I'm lucky I didn't break a hip and lie in cold water for hours until someone came looking for me. It was just one of those careless things that happen when you have a big dog. Deuce tells the story over on his blog, Deuce's Day. Anyway, I sustained a really deep bruise on my left hip and it's taken this long for it to start to feel better. 

A little luck never hurts. I was able to get up and limp home. It could have gone in a very different direction and I'm grateful it did not. It would not have been a fun way to start my retirement years. And if my retirement is off to a limping start, that's really okay. At least I'm on my feet. That's a good thing.

About five days ago, I pushed it and walked with my cousins. Big mistake. It may have set my recovery back a bit because I started to hurt all over again. Today, it's much better so I tried it again and it was just Deuce and me on our walk. We went back the old homestead lane, a walk that is always a balm to my soul. I spent summers back at that homestead as a young girl, and every twist and turn in the road brings back a memory. The woods are so green and the sunlight is dappled and glorious in the early morning. No one else was on the trails and it was so very peaceful. 

We made it home in good time and I set about filing the pictures I took. I decided to make a Photoshop collage of some of them. It was a good occupation for an afternoon that turned to rain.

The Lady of Holly Tree Manor (The Hideaway)

Deuce's Day, Greenbrier Smokey Deuce, Holly Tree Manor, The Hideaway, walking in the woods, a writer's life, simple country pleasures, retirement, good luck, broken hip, bad falls

Who really wants to walk the length of the Nile?

Several years ago I got a Fitbit Flex to track my steps. Having an office job, I sit in front of a computer all day. On top of that, being a writer puts me in front of the computer a lot as well. I've always made it a point to get up and stretch, but how well was I really doing? I thought a Fitbit would help and it has. 

I bought into the whole ten thousand steps a day thing. That was my goal and I did pretty good meeting it three or four times a week. I figured out a loop around my office building that was over six hundred steps and I did it once an hour while there. Walking the dog and just going about my day did the rest. It wasn't until one night about eleven o'clock that I put the kibosh on getting 10K a day. 

No way did I really need to go outside in the dark and walk out to the end of the lane and back just to see the little rocket ship on the Fitbit Charge2 blast off. That's when I knew I was placing far too much importance on a number. Now I consider anything over seven thousand steps, or approximately three miles, a day a bonus. 

Really? 

Maybe I'm not doing as well with letting go of the numbers as I thought. This week, I got an email from Fitbit awarding me the Nile badge. 

I've graduated to a Fitbit Versa2. My first thought upon viewing the email was I would have gotten this a lot sooner if my old Charge2 had not repeatedly unpaired itself and not reported my steps. 

No, I'm not far enough along on my journey to let go of the numbers. My whipping out the calculator to figure out how fast I can get to 5K miles was proof of that. I'll report back sometime in August or September. Or not. 

The Lady of Holly Tree Manor (The Hideaway)

PS. I've also blogged about this over at Deuce's Day. Deuce has walked a good portion of the way with me and deserved a badge of his own.