Starting on Monday, St. Patrick's Day.
My tiny Winter vegetable garden is outdoing itself. All manner of salad greens and arugula share the plot with Irish potatoes, carrots, beets, peas, cabbage, onions and garlic.
Work lately has been bountiful too. A big job dropped in my lap. I started it after my regular jobs at 5 PM and I worked 14 hours through the night and jumped into my regular jobs on Tuesday...without a wink of sleep. By the time I got off work on Tuesday at 9 PM, (the pessimist would say that I hadn't slept in 2 days), I had worked so many billable hours that my upcoming dental work, my horses' and Cole's upcoming vet bills were more than covered.
Thomas Edison said: "Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like hard work".
And, I had the chance to steam clean my carpets with the machine I had rented for work, while I flew by the farm to feed animals. Very groovy.
Wednesday.
Cole, who hasn't made a satisfactory recovery from his surgery, was taken back to Tuskegee University for another round of radiographs.
Dr. Horne had postulated last week that he may have hip dysplasia... a bad prognosis.
The X-rays didn't back up this theory. How's that for good luck? Unfortunately, they have no idea why he's still not bearing much weight on his repaired leg. But, I'll take an enigma over terrible news any day.
Thursday. I finished an art project. Before you fall off your chair laughing, let me assure you that I have no illusions of leaving my day job.
It's my attempt at being overly symbolic. Bear with me. It's a modified Carbon atom (true C atom only had 2 orbitals and that didn't jive, so I added another). Carbon is found in all living organisms...the building blocks if life. The vines, rocks, moss and lichen all came from the farm because that's home = me. The nucleus is where I want to hang out because it contains all my little protons: Cole, Jinx, Axel, Angus, Bella, Tommy and Mack. But, to grow, I must venture out on the different orbitals. Sometimes, the outer orbital is too negatively charged and I shouldn't stay out there too long (ie. working 30 hrs without sleep), but going 100 mph around my orbitals is how I'm hardwired. As long as I can keep one foot on homebase, my little atom will remain happy and complete.
This is why my sister is a Fine Arts major and not yours truly...
Friday. Dr. Brown, my equine vet, did her semi-annual checkup and vaccination.
The vet, pregnant with twins, without her usual assistant, was saddled with me as her helper and with one 2000 lb Percheron that was being less than cooperative, in spite of sedation. Perk of being the doc's assistant: I got to stick my hand all the way to the back of Angus' mouth, feel all his molars! Very groovy.
By Friday night, it appeared my lucky leprechaun was off shift. I drove in to see Axel acting strangely. It's been said that a horse only ever has two thoughts running through it's brain: how to kill you or how to kill itself. Absolutely true and I take the latter one very seriously.
About 5 years ago, I lost the best two horses to colic. Admittedly, both were 27 year old draft horses, but my Alice and Charlie were/are irreplaceable.
So, with Axel showing signs of colic, I temped him, poked and prodded, called his equine vet after hours, got Dr. P to give Axel some Banamine from his stash, I kept him locked on the barn overnight and feed him alfalfa cubes laced with 16 oz mineral oil to flush out any impactions.
Saturday. I'd spent Friday night going back and forth throughout the night to monitor Axel. By 8 AM, he was back with the herd and I was thanking my leprechaun for his overtime work!
By lunchtime, I was in Heaven = Petals From the Past nursery in Jemison, AL, about 2 hrs away. I'd escorted a client/friend up there to introduce her to the addicting vice of gardening. She was an easy convert. Within minutes, she'd wandered off to drool over shrubbery and left her girls wondering: "Mummy, where's mummy?"
Cole acted as my budgetary tool. By taking up the backseat, I couldn't fill it up with plants.
Good dog!
I ONLY bought two plants. Two more rose bushes for my antique rose collection. One rosa hansa...
...and one rosa 'Souvenir de Sainte Anne'.
Sunday. The two dogs that are boarding with me and the Great Cole headed to Birmingham.
After almost two hours of driving through hard rain, the rain stopped. My 1/5th Irish at work. Mark and I were able to work without so much as a droplet of rain interfering.
Cole did a fine job supervising.
Helene's future 2014 vegetable garden before lunch break.
The garden after the revitalizing effect of Helene's home made food for the work crew.
Another wonderful day. Did I mention she sent me home with her famous Pecan Crispy cookies??? Very, very groovy.
