6 1/2 week thread, beltain to solstice

[Rosemary]

Only 5 weeks to solstice? Ack! Spring has only just started here - I don't want to think about the days getting shorter so soon!
This book sounds interesting... I'm going to look at the library.
I try to limit my projects - well, I have to, due to full-time work - but I would like to do so much more...

[Teacher Terry]

It’s much harder to accomplish things when working. Deep cleaned my office/guest bedroom and pulled all the furniture out. Enough hair behind things to make a baby Noki ). It took me hours.

[Yppej]

The garden is planted and I used the gift card and $13.98 of my own money to buy a couple items of classic clothing, resisting the temptation to waste money on trendy items that will only be in style one season.

[rosarugosa]

Good work, Yppej. Is it a vegetable garden or flowers, or both?
I shredded and spread more leaves but still have plenty to go.
I spread the critter repellent.
I started the closet clean-out on Fri. I probably could have finished yesterday, but the weather was too nice to spend the day in my closet. It's also still pretty cool weather, so it doesn't feel like time to pull out all the summer clothes yet.
I did scrub the 20 screens I had taken out for the house painting that is supposed to commence tomorrow. I hadn't put windows/screens/curtains on my current list because I wasn't sure when the painters were going to start, but I'll add this to my list. Once the house is freshly painted and stained, I am going to want nice clean windows!

[Yppej]

Both RR. You should feel the summer heat tomorrow. What do you use for critter repellant?

[Chicken lady]

Lots of progress!

i am struggling with my new approach. This week I fell back more into old habits.

I did get lesson plans done before classes, grade, deliver hippos, fire the kiln twice and attend graduation. I cooked dinner twice and usually made it to bed.

i did not start evaluations, I only did yoga once, and I skipped swimming. My snack choices have been questionable

My farm goals slipped as I only partly groomed the rabbit, made no ice cream, gave the goats their vitamins but did not fully keep up on stalls, planted nothing and made no pie.

I did dig a few feet of ditch.

dh picked up more housework and cooking this week.

school has been overwhelminging with two kids in crisis. One I will still be dealing with next week.

so, the coming week’s goals:
work: last day planning. finish all grading and begin evaluations! Make progress toward mothballing classroom for summer, stressful meeting on Tuesday, schedule end of year conference, fire kiln twice.
pottery - bring home tools I borrow from class every summer to make examples that kids then have the same tools for.
health - two yoga, one dinner, keep working on snacks and bedtime
farm - don’t fall behind on milk - either feed it to chickens or process it or freeze it or drink it, no more piling up in fridge. Groom Rabbit. Improve stalls. Make Pie.

[nswef]

Cl- You just threw in digging a few feet of ditch! That would have been a whole day project for me. I continued to be amazed and admire all you do in a day!

[rosarugosa]

Both RR. You should feel the summer heat tomorrow. What do you use for critter repellant?

It is a product from the Gardens Alive catalog. This year I took them up on their $25 free coupon, so it didn't actually cost me anything. The product is "Mole Relief," but it is also for other small mammals. I'm trying to keep groundhogs from taking up residence under our porch and shed this year.

[nswef]

Oh Rosa, We may have FINALLY eliminated groundhogs from the big shed although my husband saw 4 in the meadow above the shed while he mowed. We've had them for 20 years, but 2 years ago we were overrun....so now we trap them and shoot them in the trap....an awful thing to do.( although I haven't run into any rural person who thought it was awful. )The plan now is to use the hardware cloth to block the holes. It worked on our front porch and little shed, so I'm hoping it will work on the big shed IF I can get it up in time before they go searching for a new home. I use 1/2 inch hardware cloth, bend it into an L shape so that it goes up the wall about 6 inches and out in front of the base of the shed about 18 inches. Supposedly they won't dig under that for more than 12 inches....It has worked. One year it failed because the 18" section rusted. (about 3 inches under mulch and dirt. Next on tap on our murdering spree is the moles...My husband rolled the lawn this spring and we haven't seen any runs, so maybe like in Rabbit Hill they got discouraged.

[Yppej]

Thank you RR. I will tell my folks who are dealing with those critters.