Wednesday, May 2, 2012

Is This Week Over Yet?

I knew this was going to be a busy week, but I didn't think it would last this long.

I know, usually I'm complaining that time goes by too fast. And although time this week is certainly not lagging, it does seem as if it should be more than just Wednesday.

Our weather has been alternating rain and sun but has kept things outside too wet to work on those tasks. So efforts have been on remodeling and other inside projects along with getting the last of the seedlings started.

A friend commented today that she saw a blossom on a wild strawberry plant. Granted, the wild ones typically bear fruit a bit earlier than domestic strawberries, but it's still mighty early to be seeing blossoms up here.

In the summer we have one of our hummingbird feeders hanging right outside the window over the kitchen sink. I'm not totally sure he wasn't hallucinating, but Papa Pea thinks he saw one of the little guys zoom past today as he was filling a bucket of water at the sink. If this is true, it means their arrival is a full two weeks early in our neck of the woods this year.

We lost our last Light Sussex laying hen day before yesterday to a hawk. We ordered the Light Sussex as chicks last year and it was the first time we've had this particular breed. I really liked the looks of them, they're a dual purpose breed, are excellent foragers, are docile and friendly and tend to go broody. This gal was sitting on a nest of twelve eggs when she ventured outside for a little exercise and fresh air . . . sadly just at the wrong time.

Out of the twelve Light Sussex birds we got, only four were hens. One we lost early last summer and then three more, including this last one, have been picked off by hawks. They say light-colored birds are more likely to be easy prey and in our case, this has proven to be true. Dang.

We've had lots of little decisions to make having to do with the remodeling this week and a couple of small glitches have popped up. One glitch which wasn't such a little one is that we don't have enough of the fake brick material to finish the area behind the wood stove. S-c-r-e-e-c-h! That's the sound of progress coming to a halt.

We can go no farther on the living room until we finish the brick wall. It has to be done before the tile goes on the floor under the stove. Before the stove gets set back in place and reinstalled. Before the flooring can be laid on the rest of the floor. Before we have a soft piece of furniture on which to plant our weary butts at the end of the day. There's no place that handles this particular product anywhere close to us. We had to order what we got from the factory 350 miles away. Gotta figure out what to do now.

As we frequently say to each other (several times a day it seems), "If this is the biggest problem we have, we have no problems."

Right now, both of us are really tired and need a vacation. Ha! That's not going to happen, so we'll settle for a good night's sleep tonight. Tomorrow is a new day and we'll wake ready to whip our weight in wildcats!

15 comments:

Judy T said...

This does seem to have been a very long week. Good luck with your tile shortage. What a pain. Probably not something you could order on Amazon. But even if you could, the shipping costs would kill you.
Take care of yourself, get some rest and hope for drier weather so you can get some 'rest' outside in the garden!!
Judy

Sparkless said...

This has been a very long and not particularly good week. I'll be very glad when it's over.

I hope you can order some more brick and get it quickly so you can finish up. Or maybe you could put a different kind at the top kind of like a border?

Here's to a good nights sleep!

Tami said...

Everything seems to be 2 weeks earlier here too. How frustrating! All these little issues...That's what's making your week seem long. I was just thinking my week is flying by!

Sue said...

Oh, so sad about your Sussex. (THAT sounded odd, didn't it?) And a momma to be, too. Shoot.

You should have your hummers today at the latest--we got our first one yesterday. Next up will be the indigo buntings and towhees. Yay!!! Spring has finally arrived!!!!
:D

Lisa said...

Yesterday felt like Tuesday, and today feels like it should be Friday to me. So sorry to hear about your hen. Does this mean no more fresh eggs? And most sorry to hear about the brick supply. How incredibly frustrating. Isn't it hard to figure out how much material to order to complete a project, without ordering too much material to have waste. While you wait, can you can work in your quilt room? I hope so.

Mama Pea said...

Judy - On our initial order of the Z-Brick, we were fortunate enough to have a friend pick the (very heavy) supply up for us. And you're so right, shipping from the factory is gonna be huge. Still don't know what we're going to do.
We did check Amazon but they don't have enough of the color we're using. Sigh.

Sparkless - We've got one wall completely done but only up a little over halfway on the second one that butts up against it so a different border across the top wouldn't work.

Tami - Your week is flying by because you're in whirlwind mode and are getting big amounts of tasks completed! (Should be call you a "bleached out blonde" now? Hee-hee!)

Sue - So hubby really DID see a hummer?! I'll be darned. Well, we're ready because he got out the feeders and filled them right away.

Lisa - We still have 8 more laying hens so we'll still have eggs. Thankfully! Don't know how I'd cook without our fresh eggs.

Regarding the brick supply, we were led astray in that the sq. ft. coverage on the box was listed as much higher (!) than that indicated in the fine print on the instructions within!

I'd love to cool my heels in my quilt room while waiting for more materials but I'll be outside working as much as weather allows and then there are always those ever-present household jobs that get pushed aside until "I have time!" No problem finding things to fill our days, is there?

judy said...

Just last WEEK someone said there hummingbird feeder was froze ,for all I remember it could have been you or CM( CAN WE STILL CALL HER THAT)The week can't be over fast enough for me ,my grandson that lives with me ( he is 16)fractured his knee cap in softball yesterday---whoisme and whoishim---lol -he is in a lot a pain tho ,won't find out till tomorrow to see the ortho -the so I asked the urgent DR. ,what do you think they will do -surgery ,WHAT? she says "I'll let you suffer and wait to her it from the horse's ,I mean Drs. mouth or something to that effect and then there next week.....

Susan said...

Amen to that. I woke up this morning thinking it HAD to be Friday - but was disappointed, again. I had the same feeling the past two days! What a drag about your fake brick shortage! Is it a deliverable amount you need? I bet it gets pretty old not having your living room all nice and organized and comfy. I hope you solve your dilemma soon!

Jane @ Hard Work Homestead said...

What did you do with the nest eggs? Are you going to incubate them the rest of the way? Poor thing. I think you hid the brick stuff so you didnt have to finish the job ;) My Husband pulls that trick all the time.

Mama Pea said...

judy - Ouch! A fractured knee cap does sound awfully painful. Sure hope they don't have to do surgery. Either way, it's probably going to be a bit of time for his recovery.

Susan - Still no solution to the Z-Brick dilemma. "Pretty old" is an understatement when it's been weeks now (again!) that the living room has been torn up. The only "comfy" place in the house right now is bed and we're almost too tired to enjoy that when we get there. Ya know how when you're over-tired and lie down and it hurts more for a few minutes than when you were upright and going?

Jane - We tossed the eggs. We weren't too keen on more chicks anyway. We've got a batch ordered from a hatchery coming soon and at least half of them will be roosters that will go in the freezer leaving us with enough laying hens. So the eggs the Light Sussex was sitting on were really extras that we don't need.

No way would I have hidden the brick material so we couldn't finish. I am so tired of having the living room NOT finished. Tired, I tell ya, TIRED! (Yes, I am getting really cranky. Why do you ask?)

Erin said...

Sorry to hear about the hen. To me the week is flying by, probably because I am having people over this weekend and want the yard "ready" but it never is LOL!

Mama Pea said...

Erin - Yupper, having a deadline like that for an event ALWAYS makes time fly by . . . even faster than normal. You can never get all done that you want. I think there's a rule about that!

Anonymous said...

Oh man:/ You have had a rough week. Praying it gets better real soon!!

dr momi said...

Sorry about the hen....grrrr to hawks. Oh-Oh, I'm late in getting out my hummingbird feeder. I better get on it! So-o-o-o, if your stove is out of commish for right now how are you staying warm? (we are starting a fire in just a bit here....cold morning and highs only in the low 50's)

Mama Pea said...

Stephanie - Oh, not so rough . . . just more frustrating than anything. And I'm glad to say it's evened off now. Just gotta learn to roll with the punches more!

dr momi - Since hubby "thought" he saw the little hummer and got out the feeders, nary another sighting have we had!

Our temps seem about like yours. Fortunately, we still have the wood stove in the kitchen which does a really good job of heating the whole house except in the depth of winter time when the temp is below zero. Then we need a little help from the living room stove. Do you think we'll have it hooked back up by then??