Rainy Mother's Day

So it is pouring buckets on Mother's Day. It's okay, because I need the rest. Not a lot of chores to do indoors (litter boxes and trash), so it was looking to be a reasonably lazy day anyhow. But the rain has been insane the last couple of days, and it's still going on today. About the only outside thing I might be able to get done is something I've thought about, which is to go bring up the old feed buckets and blue barrel from the back of the property to the house for rain barrels, so I have water for the tomatoes. Though right now, I don't think that's much of a problem. My Georgia Peach tomato is already blooming, the red beefsteaks have a ways to go, and my Arkansas Travelers have yet to pop up, but that's okay - there's plenty of time for them.

Getting laundry and groceries to the house yesterday afternoon was a nightmare, and why I am glad that a - I have a walking stick, b - we have that Coleman cart, and c - hubby and I are tough. Also d - we got up super-early and got things done and got home before it was raining as badly as it got to be. The mountain road was a horrible mess anyhow by the time we got home, so we had to use the cart (took it with us just in case) to lug everything home UP THE MOUNTAIN ROAD in it. We started, at hubby's insistence, with everything in the cart - laundry and what groceries we picked up, mostly being cat food as they were low. Hubby could barely move the load, and wouldn't even let me try. He got it up to the second cattle guard and was so wiped, that as much as I hate him smoking, I made him take a smoke break and smoke that sucker all the way to the filter so he'd get a long enough break for his muscles to recuperate.

He admitted he wasn't likely to get the whole load up the hill in one shot, and agreed to what I said - take the laundry up first. He could heave it onto his shoulder and just walk up like that. As I had actually taken ten minutes to fold everything at the laundromat, despite him saying not to bother, it fit better and I had put a sweater and all the towels we did (six of them) on top of the clothes to help keep them dry. So off he went with the laundry basket (thank goodness I had talked him into that instead of the hamper). The tarp from the truck was over the top of all the groceries to keep the bags of cat food dry along with what boxed stuff we had gotten.

Soon as he was out of sight, I said the heck with waiting for him to come back, it's raining and I'm tired and I want to get this crap home. So, a few steps at a time, I managed to haul that cart full of stuff up the first incline and got it just over halfway to the house. Might only have been five or ten steps backwards up the hill, taking a step, heaving the cart, taking a step, heaving the cart ... but it got me and it up to Cliff's place before I had to stop for more than a minute at a time. I got started again and was almost to the bottom of the second incline when hubby got back to me, and instead of hollering at me for doing something so hard, he was grateful. It left him the muddiest, slipperist part of the road to haul the cart up, but I pushed from behind, and helped support the cart to keep it from rolling backwards whenever he needed a break. Thus the groceries got home, and everything indoors. I was so exhausted, I didn't even bother with trying to do anything last night, and simply ate a little bit and went to sleep till this morning. But I proved to myself that I am a tougher little homesteader than I thought I could be, even if it took me forever and a day to get the job done.

Thankfully, I had planned a nice but cheap and easy Mother's Day dinner for us - cheddar cocktail weenies, mashed potatoes, gravy and a veggie. Nothing fancy, just something reasonably filling and that we both like. Also, lightweight to haul home as there isn't much lighter than powdered gravy mix and instant mashed potatoes. The weenies weren't too heavy and we already had the veggies here, so that saved a bit on weight. The cat food was heavy enough (a 40-pound bag of kibble doesn't sound so bad until you try to pull it around in a cart up a 15% grade hill).

So I am essentially stuck indoors today, and I really don't mind. I have hobby things I can do, and I have needlework to do, photos to take of things for sale, kitties to play with, DVDs I can watch if the internet is down and I can't catch up my TV online, computer games to play, and loads more. I grew up without computers and internet, and can still manage to primarily entertain myself on a cruddy weather day without it, lol. Hugs and love, all. I am off to do what I can while I can.