Home Again, Home Again, Jiggety Jog

Wednesday and Thursday of this week found Roy and me logging about 4,539 miles on the highway. Okay, it wasn't quite that many miles, but don't try to convince my still-numb butt of that.

We drove to the mid-part of our great state on Wednesday for a couple of appointments in the hustle and bustle of too much concentrated population, vehicle snarls, noise, and assault on all of our senses. Not to say there is anything wrong with that metropolitan life. It's just that we've been in the woods way too long to remember how to function in such surroundings and still maintain our equilibrium.

While my husband drove, in order to keep from stressing over-much on the heavy traffic, I knit. Not very successfully. I've torn the crown of this little hat out three times now. Can't get the pattern to work. I think it's the knitting gods getting back at me for not knitting much anymore.

Wednesday night we stayed in a not very nice motel room where I seriously doubt I got more than two hours of sleep. (Yes, I have issues about not sleeping my own bed. So then why didn't I sleep more than two hours IN MY OWN BED on Tuesday night prior to taking off on our little sojourn Wednesday morning?)

Due to circumstances beyond our control, Thursday's planned agenda was fouled up and had to be rearranged. This got us down to the southwestern part of the state on our appointed rounds much later in the day than we had expected. There we met with good farmer friends where we loaded up about 1,000 pounds of open-pollinated corn, organic barley and wheat for part of our winter's livestock feed. We had a great three hour visit and although they wanted us to stay overnight and make the eight hour drive home today, we had obligations to fulfill this morning that we needed to be here for.

But before we left, D and I picked two big boxes of apples from their lovely, old Haralson tree. I gave one box to our daughter today and the other I'll make into applesauce.

We arrived home a few minutes past midnight last night and I was in bed shortly after 1 AM after we unpacked what couldn't wait until this morning. Roy took a little longer to wind down before coming to bed because he was pretty zinged up on the coffee he had consumed to keep him alert for the drive home. The deer were heavy along the highway the last two hours of the drive and with a thousand pound-plus load in the back of the Suburban, you know you're not going to be able to stop very fast should the need arise.

This morning started waaaay too early with our good neighbor calling to say he was ready to bring his equipment over and get the five foot deep trench dug for a new addition we're putting on the house . . . but he needed to get it done before 10:30 when he had to be at another job.

This little area in the back of the house was originally going to be a shaded deck for the hot summer time but now it's going to be something else. More details on this to follow.

The ground where we dug the trench didn't have much structure and started to cave in, moving the soil under the poles that were holding up the roof over the area. "Uh-oh," is what it looks like Roy is saying as he's quickly realizing what is happening.

Temporary supports had to be put up so we didn't damage or completely lose the roof.

Unfortunately, this is what can happen when one does physical labor early in the morning after two previously grueling days on the road, inadequate sleep, and a rather large hammer coming into contact with one's finger rather than the nail one is aiming for.

I just stepped out the back door and took this shot of the old support posts dangling in thin air over the newly dug ditch. And, yes, those little white specks you can see are snowflakes coming down. Hope it doesn't fill the ditch by morning.

More on this exciting situation tomorrow.