Catching Up: Birds, Knees and Gardens

It's been a busy time since we got home last Wednesday. Spring really burst upon the scene while we were gone, or so it seemed. Everything is in bloom and greening up.

Larry is healing nicely from his knee replacement, although of course there's still a long road to go. Today he was able to graduate from using the walker to using a cane some of the time. That made him feel pretty good.

The days have been a whirlwind of exercises, icing, visits from the home health people, the arrival of his EZ Stretch machine, more exercises, more icing and so on. He's had a few visitors and that has helped him not be too bored. His appetite is back, the swelling came and has subsided some, and he gets good reports from the visiting nurse and physical therapist.

He is a good patient--he doesn't complain at all, and willingly does his exercises and icing. The only problem I've had with him--and I expected this--is that he wants to push ahead too fast. Yesterday I found him out in the very cluttered workroom, rummaging for tools to do some small thing he had on his mind. It was tough going to convince him that it wasn't a good idea to be out there!

Taking care of him keeps me plenty busy, but in a good way. I have different chores to do, for sure, but I'm enjoying it. Last summer I kind of complained that he'd shut me out of the gardens--this year, they're all mine! Which is not all that good since I can't run equipment. But I can plant and hoe, and I've got some things in the ground--a few tomato, cabbage and pepper plants, onion sets and beet and carrot seeds. A good neighbor came over and worked up the ground so tomorrow I'll go get more seeds and plants. It may end up a weedy mess, but we'll get something out of it for sure.

The hens are confused--they miss their man! They are slowly getting used to me, though. I changed the waterer to a different one, fixed a few holes in the fence where one renegade keeps getting out, and I'm training them to recognize the sound of sunflower seeds rattling in a bucket--my ploy to get the renegade and any of her cohorts back into the pen. This evening I began cleaning out the bedding--apparently a job Larry does not like because he hasn't done it in a l-o-n-g time. It will be slow going but I hope to get it all cleaned out eventually and new hay or straw put down for them.

I also straightened up the shed where Larry feeds the dogs and cats. He is not like me, who likes organized chaos. Everything was piled willy-nilly in there--now it's at least in straight rows. We have completely different ways when it comes to things like this. I want things placed so it looks like I care about it; he just tosses it in there however and moves on. But somehow we both get done the things that need to be done, and that's all that matters in the end.

My flamethrower (Granny's Firestick) got a workout this weekend when it rained--I was able to know back a lot of weeds! I love that tool, but have to be really careful using it. For weed control without poisons, though, it's the berries.

There are many things I need to deal with in the coming days, like spray for the carpenter bees, weed-eat around the gardens (ordered a new battery-powered weedeater that I will be able to handle), continue to get after weeds with my firestick, plant, weed, etc. But all will get done, or not. I'm not stressing over it, just doing what I can when I can. One of our sons will be over soon to cut the grass, and that will be awesome.

In the meantime, I'm enjoying time at home--time to cook, clean, and take care of little things I've been putting off. Even getting a few things listed on ebay, and especially spending plenty of time on the porch watching the birds, deer and squirrels. The migratory birds continue to arrive and it's such a pleasure to see them. Here's a few recent arrivals:

We saw the female summer tanager first, a surprising bird all green and yellow, not a common color combination here! Then this afternoon I spotted the male.

The Baltimore Orioles are still hanging around. They drained this hummingbird feeder overnight.

I saw the first rose-breasted grosbeaks yesterday; we don't get them every year, so they're a real treat.

He and the red-bellied woodpecker seemed to be having a power struggle over the feeder.

I realized today that we have many birds with red on them somewhere:
Cardinals
Ruby-throated Hummingbirds
Summer Tanagers
Scarlet Tanagers
Red-bellied woodpeckers
Downy Woodpeckers
Rose-breasted grosbeaks
Pileated woodpeckers
..and probably others I'm not thinking of right off.

That's a quick update on what we've been up to. Maybe now that we have a sort-of routine established, I can get back to regular blogging.

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