Our Olde House : January 2024
As Christmas approached, our whelmed feeling was quickly heading back toward overwhelmed, so we decided to take two weeks off from unpacking boxes and deciding what to put away or discard. This was a good decision for our mental well-being, but we did end up skipping putting up any outside Christmas decorations. Miss Sherry bought a small tree that we used as a Christmas tree which we sat on top of a bar stool in the living room. If less actually is more, then we had the most, or the lessest if less is still less.
Our ‘no unpacking boxes’ hiatus allowed Miss Sherry to resume cooking using a real oven and her beloved slow cooker, both in her new kitchen. She is an excellent cook and was very much missing being able to cook real food; I am sure Southern women understand and empathize with this situation. For my part, I did what I do best, which is to eat the wonderful food that Miss Sherry prepares; her chili is my favorite, but there are a dozen other dishes that all tie for second place. We play to our strengths.
During our ongoing drought it managed to rain only enough here to move all of the leaves off of the roof and into the gutters which plugged up. I got to clean the gutters again, using one of my five ladders, but I did not cut myself or fall off the ladder, so the task was completed successfully. I find in my retirement years that my standards and bar for task success are significantly lower than they once were; this is fine with me, and probably long overdue.
Our next priority is to have our black walnut tree removed. It needs to go before it falls down; it is dropping branches more frequently and when the oak tree fell, it knocked off all of the branches that were over the deck. The good news is that one of our kitchen carpenters wants the black walnut wood to make furniture, so he and the tree guy are coordinating for a day to remove the tree.
After the black walnut tree is removed, we will have the deck rebuilt with new railings and plastic wood. We cannot have these two tasks done at the same time because the workmen need access to the same location. We also need to have the entire backyard leveled to remove all of the impact craters from the fallen tree and the huge hole where the stump was. Hopefully we can get it pretty level with a gradual slope that will shed the rain runoff effectively without making any giant ponds.
In the Spring we need to have sod installed in the entire backyard, and to have sod installed in the front yard where the azalea hedge once stood. My little diversion dam seems to be keeping the rain from going under the house, but I need to complete this task before we can have sod installed. I want to reinforce my little brick dam with another layer of decorative brick for a stronger dam and better appearance.
My two week ‘no unloading any boxes’ hiatus has turned into seven weeks, so far. I have wandered into the rooms with the boxes a few times but quickly left before anything useful was accomplished; I just cannot get motivated to relive the chaos yet.
Miss Sherry and I, and of course Hooch and Fuzzy survived our first major thunderstorm since June. All four of us are pretty jumpy, especially when the wind starts to blow hard. A car door slamming across the street had both of us off the couch and looking for fallen limbs; fortunately there were none. We had one incredibly bright and very close lightning flash, reminiscent of the scene in Home Alone 2 where Joe Pesci’s hat is on fire and he does a handstand into the toilet filled with kerosene. This flash was not that funny and had all four of us looking for something to hide under. This too will pass, and we will return to our pre-chaos charming selves, except maybe Hooch who seems to have skipped any phase that could be described as charming.
I briefly thought that our red wasp population was extinct since I could not remember seeing any for a year, but Miss Sherry reminded me that we found two or three in the ‘kitchen’ after the roof was repaired and before any inside repairs were begun. So, the Christmas 2022 freeze did not kill all of them, but it certainly made a huge dent in the population. Maybe the three we saw survived the freeze because they stayed in the attic, and the rest are actually extinct; I can only hope.
