Tuesday, March 26, 2024
Dear Dairy,
I woke up at 1 AM and wrote my blog until 5 AM. I went back to sleep until 7:30 AM when I heard Bits having a diarrhea episode. I jumped out of bed and saw he had pooped on the sleeping bag on top of Angel. I opened door, Bits went running out and I threw the sleeping bag out behind him. Angel woke up from all the commotion and was glad no poop had gotten on her. We got dressed and Angel went in the house. I called Christopher to tell him good morning. While we were talking I went to let Bits back in but he didn’t come when I called. I looked around the front yard calling for him but couldn’t find him. I went in the house and he wasn’t in there either. Then I saw him out back at the sliding glass door and let him in. I was relieved he wasn’t lost. He’s so little and cute, someone might decide to keep him if they found him wandering around. He probably got in the backyard through the broken fence I was planning on fixing today. I was glad he knew where to go and didn’t wander off. He’s real good about staying close by.
I got off the phone with Christopher and went back out front. I shook Bits poop off the sleeping bag outside and put it in the washing machine. I set the washing machine cycle on extra heavy and extra spin and extra rinse. I figured that would ensure the sleeping bag would get nice and clean. I said good morning to Shawn who was at his computer working. Bri had already left for work and Angel and Sam were sitting on the couch watching cartoons. I made breakfast for Angel and Shawn, Sam said his mom had AJ ready fed him before they left. I juiced pineapple and made two 64 oz. smoothies. I cleaned up the kitchen and got the kids started doing their schoolwork.
I gathered together the things I would need to fix the fence out back. I found the t-post hammer in the garage and put the 10 t-post I bought the other day in the backyard. Then I made a plan on how to best fix the fence using the t-posts I had bought. A lot of the wooden fence panels had fallen over because the wooden posts had rotted. Shawn had done a temporary quick fix of stringing 6 foot tall chicken wire between the fence panels that were still standing. It was enough to sort of keep the dogs in the yard but they still kept escaping underneath the chicken wire.
My original plan to fix the fence, was to secure the chicken wire to the ground with the t-posts and make it more stable. When I got to looking at what was left of the fence, I came up with a better plan. I could stand up the fallen fence panels and secure them in place by putting t-posts on each side. Having the chicken wire already there would help secure the fence panels even more. First I needed to see if I could even lift up the water soaked wooden fence panels. It was a struggle but I was able to do it and I got started with my plan. Before setting up each panel, I would get a t-post ready with the hammer in place on top. Then I would lift a fence panel up and hold it against the chicken wire with my knee. I would reach down and grasp the t-post, stand it up next to the fence panel and hammer it into place. My plan seemed to be working well.
After a half hour of putting the panels in place out in the cold, I realized I would need gloves. It was cloudy out and the temperature was in the low 40’s. My fingers had gotten extremely cold holding the metal t-post hammer. I went in the house and located some gloves and headed back out. That was much better. I worked on the fence for a couple of hours and it was a lot of intense work. Lifting the panels and putting them into place was the hardest part. The next hardest thing was hammering in the t-posts. Half of the time when hammering a t-post in, it would hit a rock underground and I would have to pull it out, move it to another spot and hammer it in again.
I used all 10 t-posts and still needed 10 more. I took a break, drank some smoothie and fed the kids lunch. Then I went to the store to get more t-posts and fill the propane tank that I had used to heat the pop-up camper at night. In 5 nights I had used almost the whole 5 gallon tank with the heat set at 50 degrees. That 50 degrees felt warm though when it was 30 degrees outsides While I was out and about, I re-donated the juicer back to the thrift store I had got it from and got a few groceries.
When I got back, I went back to working on the fence. I used all 10 t-posts I had just bought and still could have used more but it was good enough to keep the dogs in and I felt a great sense of accomplishment. My entire body got a great workout and it was letting me know. The fence definitely looked pieced together but it would hold until Shawn and Bri could afford to get a new one.
My body was telling me to rest but I still had to put down the pop-up camper and load our luggage into the van. I wanted to leave by 5 PM to head to my son Scott’s house. I was staying the night there because it was close to the airport. I had an early flight Wednesday morning and had to be at the airport at 4:30 AM. I already had an Uber scheduled to pick me up so Scott and Delany wouldn’t have to get up and drive us there. I wanted to spend time with Scott and Delany that evening since I had barely gotten to see them during my time in Utah.
As soon as I finished the fence, I packed up our luggage and put it in the van. Then I got started taking down the pop-up camper. Just as I was ready to push in the side panels, it began hailing. Hail was falling all over the collapsed side panels. I kept shaking it off of the panels as I pushed in them in, so they wouldn’t get put away wet. Then I slowly let the top down, stopping to walk around and push in the canvas before letting it down some more. When the top was almost completely down, it wouldn’t go down anymore. I walked around it pulling the top down little by little using all my strength. Finally I climbed on top and jumped on it. That got it down enough I could latch all the corners on the loosest setting. I kept walking around, tightening the settings a little at a time. While I was doing that Bri pulled up. I asked her if she was home from work early. She said no, it was when she usually got home. I hadn’t realized it was almost 5 PM. I had been working on the camper a long time. Bri helped me get the top down even more before we called it good. We went in the house and I packed up our last few things.
We said our goodbyes to everyone and got in the van. On the drive to Salt Lake City, I went the back way to the interstate in search of sagebrush. I wanted to grab a couple more branches to bring back to Texas with me. Amazingly, I couldn’t find any sagebrush. There was a lot of bitter-brush around but it doesn’t smell as good as sagebrush. It was getting late and I still couldn’t find any sagebrush, so I gave up my search and drove straight to Scott and Delany’s.
When I arrived, I unloaded my luggage and brought it into the house. Then we went out to eat. By then, all the physical labor I had done that day had caught up to me. My body was sore and I was really tired. It was good visiting with Scott and Delany despite being tired. Angel on the other hand was full of energy and very chatty. She was going full speed when we got back from the restaurant. I made up our beds and took a shower with Angel. Angel got out of the shower before me and I stayed in a long time. It felt so good to be showering.
I told Scott and Delany good night and managed to get Angel to calm down enough to get into bed. We started listening to a Bobbsey Twins book on audio but it was keeping Angel awake and she kept talking about what was happening in the book. I turned it off and we went to sleep at around 9:30 PM.
Thank you for reading my blog and being a part of my life. I dearly appreciate you.
Love,
Victoria
P.S. this blog post was inspired by the Holy Spirit.