Busy Day

There’s a robin that has nested in the bush outside the kitchen window. This has been the case for the past several years and I’m so happy to see her back again. In previous years, Ed would always trim the branches facing the house so we could watch her through the kitchen window. This year, she’s further to the right so no amount of pruning will enable me to watch from inside. But I find comfort that she is back again, in that old familiar bush, and soon baby robins will be arriving.

I bought a new hose yesterday. Some of you have heard this story. Last fall I wanted to buy a new hose because it was leaking, but instead Ed fixed the hose we had.  When I went to use it last week, it was leaking again and the tears came as I became frustrated with the hose and that Ed wasn't here to fix it and that he never showed me how to fix it.  So yesterday, I bought the new hose.

Well, I should have just replaced the hose and left it at that.  But instead I decided to clean the hose reel/storage box that we have.  Big mistake.  There's this small hose that connects the box to the faucet.  First, trying to disconnect that was a chore.  But I did it and went off and cleaned the box and then went to reconnect it.  Reconnecting it was as difficult as disconnecting it (I know I'm missing something--it shouldn't be that hard, but regardless...).  I got everything hooked up and turned it on and now the connecting hose is leaking all over the place!  I tried all kinds of things to fix it and heard my brother say "you need to be smarter than the thing you're working with" and so do you know what I ended up doing? Replacing the end on the connecting hose.   I took the end off the old hose that Ed had repaired, saw how it was done, and did the same thing to the connecting hose.  There's still a little bit of a leak (I think from the box not the hose), but bottom line--I repaired the damn connecting hose.  Which basically means I really didn't need a new hose, I was capable of just fixing the old one (the connecting hose wasn't leaking until I touched it)!  Dan and I laugh though because replacing that stupid hose, which should have taken 10 mins, took me hours instead!  I'm sure Ed is looking down laughing and just shaking his head!  But I did it and learned more than I wanted!

Of course while all this was going on, Dan took care of building what will be my vegetable bed.  Tim and Cathy met us at Home Depot and we consulted with Tim on the right wood to buy and reviewed with him how Dan planned to construct it.  Remember Dan is the architect so he can design it, but Tim has the experience on what is realistic in terms of actual construction. Hearing the familiar sound of the saw reminded me of Ed.  I am so pleased with the end result and so proud of Dan.

Our final task of the day was finding the cover to the septic tank.  It took us a bit because all we had was knowing where the pipe came out of the house and my very vague memory.  What a great moment though when we hit the tank!  From there we used Dan's logic to help us find the cover...he really is smart!  And yes I was annoyed that Ed had not educated me on this at anytime over the past three years. That would have been much easier.  But I'm also proud that Dan and I did it and, in fact, we did a lot yesterday.  We were both pretty exhausted (and a little sore) when evening came.

Oh, and a few cards came in the mail yesterday...

My new raised bed.  Just need the loam now.