Snakeskin that came in on the wood
Tuesday was mostly a washout. I tried to start laundry, got the kitchen cleaned up, fed the houseplants, and worked on the bills/budget.
My helper friend was here and did some chores and errands and helped me feed the houseplants.
Wednesday I was up by 6AM and set about finishing the bills. Around 7AM I had to tend the wood stove and realized the coals had finally burnt down. It needed cleaning out badly.
But before I got started I looked out the door to see where to put the ash bucket until my son could dump it. I discovered there was a layer of ice everywhere. The rain in the night had frozen.
So before I could do anything I had to sand all the walks around the house. So I got dressed and headed out. I used up a whole bucket of sand and part of another. But the rest of the sand was in the back of the car. It had been too icy to move it further the day it arrived. So I got a bucket and cut open one of the tubes of sand into the bucket and finished the sanding in front.
Then I got the birds fed, and finally got back to the ashes.
Once the fire was going, I sat down to rest and to elevate the knee that wasn’t happy with all the activity.
I forgot to mention that when I pulled up the shades I started taking down the candles that were easy to remove from the windows. The 12th day of Christmas had been on the 6th so that was the last night they would be lit.
After 45 minutes I got up and went upstairs and got all those candles out of the windows. The knee wasn’t happy so I sat down for a while.
Collecting candles
Over the next few hours with rest periods, I got all the candles out of the windows, fixed labels on the bases, and wound the wires around the stems and put them neatly way so it would be easy to find them next year.
I finished about 2PM and rested a while before getting ready to go to an appointment at 3PM. I’d waited too long and only got the wood stove ready, not the masonry heater. But the outside temps had been in the 30’s all day so I hoped it wouldn’t be too cold when I got home at 5PM.
The appointment was basically a waste of time; the doctor pushing drugs on me, which I refused.
A bit of excitement on the way home in the Senior van was the driver hit a big pothole in the dark and it partially opened a back door, enough to set an alarm off. He continued onto my house 7 minutes away and opened and closed the door, stopping the alarm.
Once home, I got supper heating, the masonry heater going, fed the wood stove, pulled the shades and opened the package that had arrived.
Larry’s birthday is the 14th and he will be 11 years old. I’ve had him since July 2023 and I’ve never seen him drink out of anything in all that time. He has a water bowl, but doesn’t seem to use it.
So I got him a water fountain from Chewy and put it in the bathroom by the sink. They will allow returns if he doesn’t use it. So I set it up and he inspected it and walked away. I’m wondering if I will ever see him use it…
I know he drinks a good amount as his catbox is soaked every time I clean it. I also got him extra duck so he won’t be so disgusted with me at breakfast time on his birthday.
I was so exhausted when I finally was done. I was in bed at 8PM.
On Thursday my helper friend is supposed to come at noon and he has chores and errands and then I hope to start another batch of chicken bone stock. I remembered to thaw the carcasses this time. I also hope to finally finish the bills/budget and finally get laundry started. It’s to be a sunny warm day, so it will turn into a sloppy muddy mess out there.