May 24-30, 2020 Stairs, Chicken Coop, Henry, Garden

 May 24-30, 2020 

Stairs, Chicken Coop, Henry, Garden

Hello Friends!

The purple iris's started blooming this week!  I love them so much!  Henry met a baby fawn and responded so caringly that I was touched.  You just never know how a dog is going to respond when suddenly (and unexpectedly) exposed to a baby animal.  He was just tickled by it!  Every day afterward he would look at the same intersections in the woods for it to be there again; but, alas, it was never there again!  The mom learned her lesson and hid the baby better afterward.  I love spring and for Michigan, May is spring.

Chickens:

I removed the layers of plastic wrap I nailed down around the big metal room I built for the chickens.  It is their outside safe area that I call, "inner sanctum."  It is a lot of work putting up the winter shelter, but not as time-consuming trying to get it all down.  It is one spring job I don't look forward to!  Glad it is done!  The chickens have been enjoying time each week in their tractors---so they can spend some time scratching for bugs and eating grass outside of their usual area.

Henry:

Henry and I went back to the vet this week to get his stitches removed.  While there they took Henry in the back and popped some of his bumps to see if they were cancer or cyst/pimples and the results were pimples!  Thankfully!

Van:

We finally accepted Dh was NOT going to fix the van and that is was okay to take it into a car shop and have them fix it.  The drive to the shop was horrible!!!  It fumed clouds of black smoke the whole way there and I had to drive so slowly that I held up traffic...so embarrassing!!  I had to get a few wasp nests out of the van before we left, so it was a big day!  I'm glad Dd will have our van to drive now and not need to take my car every day and leave me stranded.

Garden:

I was able to start picking kale, lettuce, and spinach for my green smoothies this week!  Yay! Nothing makes me happier than growing my own greens!  I love knowing there aren't any chemicals or plastic packaging---just the walk from my garden to my blender!

Stairs:

Dh and I worked hard on the stairs again this week.  We've never entirely replaced whole staircases before and it is a lot of work.  I'm thankful Dh can do all the calculations and get things figured out!  I think we worked on them for four to five days this week.  We are putting new oak treads down with a beautiful Dutch Oil finish.  They are looking lovely!  

Discord:

This week was another hard week with Dd.  She wanted to go spend the night at a friend's house and this family doesn't do any social distancing or Covid precautions so I said 'no.' Dd was really not happy with me.  It is really hard for Dd to be "18" and thinking she is a complete adult and shouldn't have to come home or do chores or whatever any longer.  In my eyes, she is still a teenager trying to finish high school and should be helpful and nice around the house.  I guess this transition is one every family goes through, but I don't really have much experience with it.  We are both blindly feeling our way through these muddy waters.

Approval for Leadership:

I was approved for leadership at our church this week.  I totally don't feel like the right personality for leading Bible studies (I talk way too much and will have to really work on this) but I feel this is what I am supposed to do; whether I am the right personality or not!  I'll try it this year and reevaluate after a year of experience.  

Dd's Academic Progress:

DuoLingo: German: 1 hour thirty minutes of lessons

Music: Alto & Tenor Sax: 30 minutes