Home and Garden Keeping

We cleaned out the old, rotting grape trellis and will now have to create a new one. But this is a happy event for me. We got rid of the thicket and perhaps now we can have a real trellis that actually allows the crop to grow within reach. I thought we would only take out the thicket of everything (trees, briars, choke cherries) then keep the main vine and just shore up the old trellis, but two days after we sawed and yanked and pulled and snipped, the dear old ironwood trellis gave a great sigh and collapsed. We didn’t get to watch it happen. I salvaged a few of the cross members and the very long screws for a arch project some sweet spring day when I get inspired to make a rustic looking something for a corner of the garden somewhere. The new grape arbor will be hog panels and posts.

Monday I did bits of work. Sewed a denim skirt from used shop fabric and realizing that it won’t be a long lived skirt. There are tiny holes randomly punched through it ( broken fibers). So I broke down and ordered three new pieces of fabric for skirts, finally. Next I sewed most of a new dress of a splashy blue and grey Liverpool piece. Easter morning I shall have a new frock.

I also mopped my dirty kitchen floor. Since it is spring break-up the floors are dusty and dirty and fun to mop.

I am actually enjoying house keeping. It’s been almost a year since Amy took up house keeping in her own little house leaving me with mine to do alone. I dreaded it. I wondered how I would do. I worried that cleaning house by myself would take me half the week. It does. But I like that. Imagine my surprise. The guys don’t care if I wait to do mopping till Monday. Saturdays are meant for anything but cleaning. My girls will be bugged at me for saying so, because we religiously did cleaning on Saturday when they were home. Now I clean when I get inspired. And I think our house is as clean as ever.

A quote from my sister Shilah. “Love your people … sometimes that means a good dose of forgiveness and grace. That’s ok. Love them for sure then.”