Been a while, eh gang?

For the fans of this 'blog (both of them), I had intended to write daily; or at least weekly. Life got in the way.

This weekend was a prime example.

Grandpa Hendrik's sister Katy died last Saturday while Laurie and Coral were away at Brownie camp. The funeral was set for the 20th at 11AM. I was not going to attend as Katy wasn't a member of MY extended family and I doubted I could get time off to attend the funeral.

But I took the day off anyway.

Colin took sick on Wednesday night, and the poor little guy was in a pretty bad way Thursday. I had no problem with taking my bike to work Friday (even in the rain!), but Laurie was certain Colin should NOT leave the house in his condition. So I stayed home to take care of him and phoned the news in to my boss; who should be thouroughly confused when I see him on Monday. I think I will make it a goal to have no absences for the month of July; Lord knows I should have at least ONE month with no missed days!

Friday night Laurie took Coral out to the Harry Potter Premiere party. Waited in line an hour for their pre-ordered copy of "The Order of the Pheonix". Laurie and Coral BOTH went in costume. Coral was the best little Hermione you ever saw (she even got auntie Danny, who went with, to do her hair!), and Laurie put together a decent Madame Sprout costume, complete with screaming Mandrake Plant. AT FIRST Laurie was too embarrassed to show her face publicly, but then the inner-child like urge to have fun play acting took over and she WON second prize for her costume! She may even have her picture appear in one of the local papers.

Laurie informed me Friday afternoon that I was going to be doing some gardening Saturday morning. I WAS to have gone to the chapel to set up chairs for Stake Conference, but evidently I wasn't going to be able to. Bob arrived bright and early Saturday morning with a steaming truckload of the City Reclamation Centre Special Composted Bedding Soil and set to spreading it about. We pulled up the old near-dead rosebush and the two dead cedar bushes by the front door; breaking numerous lengths of nylon rope in the process. After the soil was spread about and the bedding plants put in (and the bed next to the driveway weeded out in a BIG hurry by yours truly), Bob LEFT (with the kids, to get a treat) and after leaving the remains of the load in the driveway, was gone for good.

This left a pretty massive clean up for...you guessed it: ME. Bob was gone, the kids had gone back inside to watch cartoons (was raining by this time anyway), and Laurie went for a nap.

So I decided that since I was all alone on this job, I was gonna do it MY way.

Got the leftover soil policed up.

Cleaned all the weeds out of the driveway.

Built a new border on the west side bed with the dressed stones.

Built a new border on the driveway bed with the smaller dressed stones.

Used the remaining stones to re-build the east bed border, plus I got some beach stones we dug and piled in the backyard to fill in when I ran out of the dressed ones.

Fixed a new garden hose on the front hose reel, and disposed of the old one.

Swept the walk and driveway.

Stowed all the tools and the barrow.

I went in for a SHORT nap. By this time Laurie had awakened and demanded I help her lay some chicken wire in the beds to keep the neighbors !@#$%^&*!! cat from shatting in them. I dinna wanta...but she was insistent. After a delay of some minutes to find a proper pair of tin shears, we got the wire laid and buried. I was kinda pleased to see this morn that kitty had already tried to dig some in the west bed and got 'er claws snagged on the wire - ABORT! ABORT! My favorite fevered dream is to come out one morning to find that cat wrapped up in a furry, dirty, chicken-wire ball lying helplessly in the flower bed she tried to pollute. Cruel? Perhaps, but ohhh so instructive. I guarantee that cat would NEVER come around our place again if that happened. In the meantime, kitty will have to find a less sharp and pointy place to shat.

Needless to say, I fell to bed exhausted Saturday night. It can be forgiven that I COMPLETELY FORGOT ABOUT STAKE CONFERENCE ON SUNDAY. By the time we got up for church today, stake conference was half over...so we skipped it.

Shame on us...

Laurie LOVED what I did with the front yard (which surprised me greatly)...but was disappointed that I didn't have it together enough to remember conference (which was no surprise at all)...

Here's what I still (STILL!) have to do before summers end:

Put a coat of barn paint on the deck railing (before the dry rot REALLY sets in)

Re-Surface the deck (and fix the leaks).

Hang a Laundry Line. I think I have this one figured out, but I don't know if I will be able to do it CHEAPLY enough and still have it WORK.

Get the Tracker ready to be sold: Fix the tailpipe and muffler.

Wish me luck, I'm gonna need it.