Plan B was the theme of the Week

     I'm starting to believe the weather is against us.  Everytime we have a chore outside that needs to be done the weather is uncooperative but when we have no plan the weather is fantastic.  We need to get more logs cut and split because this winter is different then most or maybe I've been keeping the house warmer either way our pile is super low.  With the melting snow and heavy rainfall though our firewood processing pad is a shallow lake.  It would be cruel to make Papa cut in those conditions.  So it's been postponed another week but next week it has to be done, the lake is drying up so it looks promising.

Where's the plug? I need to drain this water.

     The weather here has been unpredictable and surprising to say the least.  I have a weather app on my phone and it's always alerting me to winter advisory warnings or this or that.  The one warning that usually never is correct is the wind warnings.  For the most part I don't even pay attention to them I just ignore them.  I actually haven't seen one in a while, but we should have had one just a few nights ago.  I was awakened by Papa taking the puppy out to go potty and as I was dozing back to sleep I heard the wind whistling.  In the next few minutes we were both awake listening to items or who knows what clash about outside.  Of course the next morning we went out to see the damage and there were branches scattered about the deck.  In the back forty we found an oak knocked over and another tree pushed over luckily onto another tree or it would have hit our awning.  With winds that strong you think my phone would have annoyed me with a ding telling me about possible strong winds, but nope not when it's actually going to cause damage.

Papa saved the house from those trees.

     Papa geared up and got the chainsaw roaring and a trimming he went.  Most of the branches were smaller so we got the burn barrel fired up.  Papa and lil man got all of it cut down and trimmed up, now we just have to continue cleaning it up.  With the two kiddos and the freezing cold weather it's hard to stay outside all day, so we'll continue it some other day.  I wonder if one day we'll be able to finish a project in a day, I don't see that happening anytime soon. 

     While the tree trimming was happening I went and tackled the greenhouse.  I was injured last year and I'm still dealing with that so the greenhouse wasn't dealt with properly at the end of the season.  We had more pressing matters plus it wasn't urgent so it got pushed to the very back burner, like doing it this year.  It looked worse than it was, just a little picking up and dumping out planting pots.  Once it was cleaned up I was quite shocked by how many planting pots I have collected.  I guess picking them up on the side of the road and at garage sale free piles really adds up.  One part of garden prep is complete, now onto making a planting list and ordering seeds.  

It felt good to get it all picked up and now it looks so pretty.

     My organization goal is going pretty good and I wanted to incorporate it into my gardening so I decided to organize my seed packets.  Year after year I've been putting them in a small wicker basket with a bunch of other gardening related items and I'd like them nice and neat so I can see which seeds I have without too much of a struggle.  I've seen different ways of putting them together but the one that I liked the most was the trading card binder sleeves.  I was so in love with the idea, I looked on Amazon and for about $6 not bad but I wanted immediate satisfaction so I hit up an actual store.  We checked out Staples but they were out of stock.  We happened to be at Fred Meyer and Papa suggested we look there and of course they had them. I looked all week long at different stores and nothing and the one store we are in about 4-5 times a week has them in stock, it's always the last place you look.  

     The next day I ripped them open and gathered my seed packets.  I could picture them all together, flipping through them and knowing what I have.  I went to insert the first packet and it didn't fit, I folded it this way and that way, but it was a no go.  Now what would I do, then I remembered some old photo albums collecting dust in the back of a closet.  The album pockets are the perfect size and there's even a place for notes next to each one.  So my seed catalog will be even better than I had imagined.  

This is what organization looks like, I like it!!

     I try to have somewhat of a plan for each week so we can be productive and have an idea of what we are doing.  Some weeks it's even needed because we have certain chores that have to be done in between appointments and errands.  Of course not all weeks go as planned just like life and the weather.  This week it was the weather that changed things for us but we adjusted and still managed get a few things checked off our honey do list.