Working in the Garden

Today was a very busy day. It was DH's birthday but we had to celebrate last night because he and DS left early this morning for Canada. If you have been with me for awhile you may remember his going off last year and the year before. His grandfather bought some land about 10 hours from us in Canada (Mewburn lake , not sure if I spelled that right). You have to go down old logging roads and then you abruptly dead end at a lake. Not the one the cabin is on though, oh no. You need to put all your stuff in the small boat, having brought the motor with you of course, then you motor across the lake, get out, portage across some land (carrying your stuff, the boat and the motor) and motor across another lake to the cabin. How do I know all this you ask? Well, 27 years ago, right when we were first married, I went there. It is a beautiful place but once was enough for me. You pump the water up from the lake to drink, there is an outhouse and the leeches in the lake are like 8 inches long. Have fun boys!

All that being said, and you all know he is a pilot for a living so is gone a LOT, but I struggle when he goes to Canada. No phone, yep, no cell phones where they are going. Great for him, anxiety producing for me. Why when he is gone for a living, I have no idea. I just HATE it. So my goal is to be super busy the whole time he is away. So, let me share my day with you, ok?

He got up at 6am so I got up at 6am to "help" him pack. Finally got them on their way around 8am. Tried to go back to bed but I was ready for the day to begin. I actually just putzed around for awhile on the computer. Our baby chick hatched so had to ooo and ahh over it. Isn't it adorable now that it is fluffy?? Seriously, DD1 could not be more excited.

I decided I needed to eat and then it was time to work in the garden. I had sooo much to do and there was NO rain today so it was perfect. I have 5 garden areas to take care of around the house plus the gazebo area. I got the front garden all planted and wood chipped. I got the side garden mostly weeded, planted but not wood chipped. I was sweating BUCKETS!! DD2 decided to come home and help me, THANK God!! One of the gardens is hers. DD1 wanted to go see How to Train Your Dragon, again, so since DD2 needed to go out and get boots we went to the movie (I had to shower first). Love this movie. Really, really cute!
We came home and DD2 was almost finished weeding her garden. About 2 hours of weeding. So I planted the 3 Stargazer Lillies that I got for only $1 each!!!, another group of lillies I got for 50 cents and the Impatients. Still needs woodchips. I got most of the containers planted too. Just need to do some clean up of those. As I was re potting on the table outside, I happened to look down and here is what I saw:

This is a fishing spider and this one was about 2 inches in diameter! UGH!!! Spiders, please stop following me. I looked around and the calicos had come out to help too. What's up with that? They don't even like each other!

That's Hallie on the left and Autumn on the right. Oh yes and there were a TON of these although this is one of the bigger ones, all over everywhere.

Anyhoo, I still have to 2 biggest gardens left to week and beat back the lemon balm in. I will stop for some wood chips and a few other things on the way home tomorrow. I did find a weird fungus on the bricks in the gazebo area but forgot to take pictures of that, maybe tomorrow. Then you can tell me how to get rid of it!

Re heated smoked chicken and had some potato salad I had made yesterday for dinner tonight. Had a shower, and am now on my third load of laundry. I'm a little tired.

One of the highlights of the day? Bringing in this beautiful boquet from my garden (the peonies are from the neighbor and YES I did ask her before I cut them) Aren't they lovely?

I hope you all had a good weekend too! I'm beat but still need to pack a bag for the gym in the morning. Oh yes...about that. I gained 0.4 this past week. Darn it!