The saga continues as the sun rises and sets upon… Our Yarden

Except it is going to be cold. Tonight it should get into the mid 30’s. This is patently unfair. The kids have now been paddling around in the pool with their toys and such for a happy week or so and all is right with the world. My husband and I have even gotten in once or twice in between shoveling dirt and moving rocks around.

It is a time for a happy puttering about, cleaning up, assessing conditions for the next creative build and moving forward on it. For contemplating borders and what some of the plants are that have “taken off” (garden lingo) and whether they are edible or “support” plants before I feed them to my family and potentially give them a tummy ache or turn their tongues purple or something. We even removed the plastic “roof” on our greenhouse at my insistence because the plants were being prematurely cooked (it’s amazing what can withstand 109 degrees).

And now the great plunge has happened. A crisp Fall like wind came roaring in and made me glad that we had not put away the winter clothing yet. It’s so unfair. I had already arranged to meet with the guy this week to have the horse’s blankets cleaned for goodness sakes…

But my sadness is tempered by a gift. For yesterday something momentous happened while my daughter and I went to up to the barn to meet with our AERC (American Endurance Ride Conference) mentor to assess our progress with the new pony and my mare’s EasyCare boot post shoe removal fitting. (For those non horsey types this is where my mare, who has been previously shod with classic metal horse shoes like the ones that you may have hanging on your wall facing up so the “luck won’t run out” has had them removed in order that she may go barefoot (au natural) in her off hours. When we ride out on the rugged trail she will have special horse hiking boots on instead. Blue ones. With gnarly tread. Ooooooh.)

Well, while we were engaged in horsey land my hubby went and cut the lower trunk of the felled poplar into 3” thick rounds! I came home to Christmas in June! You scoff at my rounds? They are things of beauty. I greatly desire to make stepping stones with them to wander throughout the Yarden’s flower areas and incorporate them into the concept of making it more difficult for the kids to track wet sand and dirt into the house every time they come in from the pool or trampoline. Happy dance.

And I wallow in the idea that along with its massive trunk top and several logs that were hanging about in the backyard previously intended for columns in a rustic shade structure that never came into being screaming “Decking Material!” I am saving at least a thousand dollars. Or more! Yes, much more, I’m sure of it. I just love shopping at home. (And Thursdays. Thursdays are trash days. They are so freeing…)

Mind you we are spending about $15 on the new Dremel tool chain saw sharpening attachment, $28 on the new chainsaw blade when it (the sharpening tool) did not work as well as expected, (I had found him all too frequently hunched over the teeth of the old blade with his buzzing little sharpener doggedly attending to the teeth one by one, by one… by one, which made me want to pull out my hair as, we found out later, he had apparently purchased the incorrect size), $17 on gas and bar chain oil, about $30 on the tube of stuff to rub on his sore back afterwards, $65 on a couple of gallons of polyurethane sealant, and we are now contemplating a new $200 electric hand planer to smooth out the chain saw marks to make the half logs usable whatsoever as decking material.

But Daddy’s Day is coming up this weekend, “Dad’s and Grad’s” sales abound and he’s a really, really great Daddy who doesn’t wear ties. Besides, we have the pear tree (still gives lousy pears but we’ll see what happens this year) and if I forgo the partridge we’ll really be saving money, right? Okay, I admit it is a lot like walking out of the craft store clutching my purchases and what remains of my coupons as the cashier waves the receipt at me declaring wildly “You just saved ninety three dollars!” and I smile at her thinking inside “But I just spent fifty two…”