Sore Muscles

Last weekend was a busy one and expect this weekend will be no different. Lance is preparing to put in his garden and tending to his chickens and I’m trying to get some yard projects done too. Spring sort-of lends itself to outdoor projects and we’ve enjoyed the great temperatures and blue skies.

Saturday morning both boys had back to back baseball games. Riley’s was first and although his team lost, it was a good game. It’s always fun to watch Owen’s team play and Saturday was no different. A kid on the opposing team had a player that tried to run the bases in reverse. You have to give the kid credit, doesn’t it accomplish the same thing? After we got home and everyone had lunch, we all went outside. First we moved the chickens from their 75 gallon aquarium home with a heat lamp, to the outside coop Lance had built for them. The boys helped us carry them 2-by-2 from the basement out to the coop. Ten in total and after seeing them in their new spacious home, it was easy to see they’d long outgrown the aquarium.

After the chicken-move, Lance and I used a 2-man auger he’d borrowed from his Dad to dig fence-post holes around his soon-to-be garden and the chicken coop. We also dug a couple of additional post holes for an entry-way to the garden that Lance plans to build a trellis over and some built-in benches. It was fun talking through that design and making plans with the eventual design to include a walkway leading from stairs down the side of our driveway. There is so much we’d love to do outside but we’ll just do a little bit each year until we get there. We’ve learned that landscaping isn’t cheap but we do both enjoy it so it’s fun to make plans and brainstorm ideas. Here’s a picture of the garden and the fence posts. Hopefully after this coming weekend the fence will be up and possibly the garden will be tilled too assuming the weather cooperates for us again.

Sunday after church and lunch we were all outside again. This time we were burying chicken-wire around the perimeter of the chicken coop to prevent any predators (namely our dog) from digging their way in to the chickens. I’m pretty sure this activity is largely responsible for my aching muscles on Monday. We dug a 2’ wide area, about 6” deep around the 60’ perimeter of the coop using a shovel, hoe and rake. Whew! And since I didn’t get to use my legs and glut muscles much in that project, I decided to take the boys bike riding later that afternoon. I didn’t want any of the other muscles to feel left out. By Monday morning I was sore but have since recovered and am looking forward to doing it all again this weekend.

Both Saturday and Sunday the boys were mostly outside with us, riding bikes, playing ‘army’, jumping on the trampoline and sometimes helping by digging random holes, handing Daddy tools and checking on the chickens. There were frequent breaks for a snacks and drinks because they were, “so tired and hungry!” And they both came running any time Lance or I uncovered a worm so they could promptly feed it to the chickens. Riley also caught a frog at some point over the weekend but we talked him into letting him go back to his ‘home’ in the tree.

This weekend Lance plans to wrap the fence around both the coop and the garden and I hope to get my 10 new azaleas in the ground down the side of our dam. If we’re feeling ambitious and have time to spare, maybe the garden will get tilled and Lance will have time to build more bird feeders and houses. Something he’s been doing during the week using scrap lumber of which he seems to have abundance. We also have to squeeze in two baseball games on Saturday and a birthday party on Sunday afternoon. On second thought, we might not get around to those ‘extra’ projects.

In other news, Mom and Dad are traveling around Kentucky this week. Her email this morning said they were at Mammoth Cave National Park. They did a 2 mile tour/hike yesterday and were planning on doing the longer 4 hour one today. Lance and I saw the cave on one of our visits to see his brother who was in seminary in Louisville at the time. It’s really amazing how massive the underground world is of Mammoth.

Before I sign-off, here is a good picture of our snaggle-tooth Riley. That other top tooth is loose too; I suspect he’ll have an even wider gap in a couple more weeks.