I felt as if I hadn’t done much of anything this weekend, until I tallied up everything.
Sure, it was all trivial stuff. Still, it was the opposite of doing nothing at all.
I cleaned the rat cage and moved it downstairs into the library, giving me access to the bunny cage so I could finally get it out of the house and destroy that huge and awkward piece of furniture. It was the first animal cage I ever built, and it was home to our first ferret – and the business of ferrets we accumulated after that. It was – briefly – home to a fox and to a hedgehog (not at the same time, mind, just until we could get better care for them). And for the past 2 years, it was home to Bun-Bun, who died abruptly of a stroke or heart attack 2 weeks ago.
Anyway, I dragged that cage outside and attempted to destroy it back into its component parts. I built it from 1×2’s and chicken wire, using a hammer, nails, and a staple gun. You’d think it would be flimsy, but oh, no. That cage is tough. It survived 8 ferrets, a fox, a hedgie, and a bunny, 10 moves, and my determined efforts to unmake it. It’s sitting in the back yard right now providing a nice shade spot for the dogs. They love it.
Now, once the cages were pulled out of the kitchen, I was free to clean it up, build a new set of kitchen shelves, and stock those shelves. That made the kitchen look tidier, and it’s easier to find things now. One more set of shelves and we should have it (mostly) organized, and that will do until we remodel in a few years.
We had enough bread and fillings to make sandwiches for a large number of the homeless people we feed through our Sandwich Saturdays Program, and scored a lot of toothpaste and shampoo samples to give with the sandwiches this week.
I sewed a new Pooch Pocket for Itzl. He adores it because he can hang around my neck like a huge and living pendant. Not everyone has a doggie necklace.
I also sewed him a new bed so he now has a bed that stays on my bed for him to sleep in (this one is built like a cave and he loves hunkering in it at night. I like him being in the bed because that means I won’t roll over on him in the night. Since he’s 2 pounds to my 160, it’d be no question as to who would win). He has a bed that stays in his car basket, and one that stays at on my desk at work (except when it needs laundering).
I sewed a dress and 2 blouses for my daughter.
And I created a pattern and sewed a prototype Hagatha Doll. I think I need to make the legs thicker, and it definitely needs a sturdier armature.
I tackled the backyard. That is a frightening proposition all by itself. I chainsawed up the fallen branches and pruned a few trees – the mulberry, the maple, the dead mimosa, and the cedars, then hacked out a bunch of saplings that were growing into powerlines and other Not Nice places. And then came the truly frightful portion of yardcare – mowing. I bought an electric lawnmower so I could mow by myself, and have already gone through 3 sets of blades. This is the second summer I’ve owned the mower. This summer has been so wet I’ve had to mow at least twice a week just to keep up. I wasn’t able to mow for the last 2 times because – surprise, it was raining. I don’t know about you, but I’m unwilling to mow with a powercord attached to an electric mower in the rain. So, the grass was hovering between hip and knee high. In the best of times, it takes an hour to mow the back and half an hour to mow the front. It took 4 hours to mow the back, stopping to hack a baseball out of the blades. I haven’t bought baseballs ever. I have no idea how a baseball got in the backyard, and less how it got jammed onto the mower blade, requiring a hatchet to hack it off. Then I hit a coil of wire, and had to intangle that. Then I hit a few branches hidden in the tall grass – and broke the blades. That necessitated a run to Sears for a replacement. And then, I had to pause to let the mower cool off – it was heating up and sorching the grass as I mowed. But, in the end, I got the yard mowed.
I went antiquing with my daughter for a few hours.
I made beer-butt chicken and planned out my daughter’s birthday – she decided on a dark chocolate spice cake filled with cherries and chocolate mousse and frosted with a tri-chocolate ganache, and a bavarian creme ice cream, home made, of course.
And I fixed the vacuum cleaner – again.
Sunday was “Free Day” at the zoo, and I volunteered out there for a few hours.
I played with all the critters, and I fussed and wailed at my computer.
So, I suppose, it wasn’t as unproductive as I feel it was. I think it felt unproductive because I actually watched some TV today – I saw a sales program on The Magic Bullet, and now, I feel I have to get one. I don’t usually feel compelled to buy things from TV, but the last time I did, it was well worth it. I bought a set of Ginsu knives 25 years ago, and I have to admit, they are exactly as they were advertised. I have never had to sharpen them and they continue to work well each time I use them. And this in spite of using them as screwdrivers, hammers, and other tools for which they were never meant.
And now I want this Magic Bullet blender thingie.
