I was going through some of the organic produce from the co-op and a sweet ladybug climbed out. I have been wanting to order some for the greenhouse - which has aphids. I have been longing to get into the garden, so I took her out and placed her in the greenhouse. I hope she thrives. I must order more.
I took a quick look around and found more peppers....and little tomatoes. I must get out there and do something about the tomatoes, soaker hose placement and aphids. The neem oil doesn't seem to be helping much.
I didn't blog last week because I spent every spare moment, the entire week, working on an application packet and financial paperwork, which needs to be completed. I turned it in Thursday afternoon and had one day of relief before hearing I would need to do a bunch MORE financial stuff and turn in the application again if I didn't want it rejected out of hand. Ye GADS. Concise instructions about requirements would have saved me hours of paperwork.
My early morning tea in the garden, the hour of weeding and yardwork - gone! For the entire week. The garden is a mess. I need to get out there. I have to finish this application.
I spent a couple hours at home making calls and reworking numbers. I went into the bank and funded a trust. I came home and spent more hours trying to get things to flow from a current account hosted out of state to the trust...much more work to do. I crafted a new cover letter and collected papers to send off tomorrow to a lawyer. In the midst of all this we discovered Dad's wallet was missing. This is not the first time. We searched everywhere - then we thought to ask our Facebook community to pray for grace and sanity in our home and for us to find the wallet. I can't even begin to explain the hours it takes to replace things when he loses his wallet. I vaguely remembered seeing the wallet by his seat in the van....we searched and didn't find it. Tonight, as we headed to dinner at Nolan and Alex's...I began to just go through the cubbies in the van...and FOUND the wallet. I am getting SMART this time. I am making a copy of all the important cards in his wallet and keeping that in his file. I'm also probably going to pull some of the essential elements from his wallet and keep them in mine. Maybe. I'm usually the driver and that way we'll not have big panic. I already keep his Medicare cards in my wallet.
In any event I did not make it out to weed the garden today either.
Allie was at work. Liv seemed to need a visitor today and so Stacia went in to Eagle River and spent some time hanging out with her. I spent a total of 6.5 hours working on this finance/application mess. I suspect another 3 hours tomorrow. We'll see. I tried so hard to be polite but by the end of the day I found myself telling a state bureaucrat (not one of ours) he was less than helpful, and I would be contacting a lawyer. Which I did. They only asked me to send them a couple of things and THEY will deal with said bureaucrat. They knew EXACTLY what I had experienced and said I'm not the only one who has had this experience. She will handle the matter for free.
Our surprise invite to Nolan and Alex's home was such a blessing. They fixed a yummy dinner and we watched Hoodwinked. Stacia, and then Allie, both arrived to share dinner and a movie. It was a good ending to a rather unenjoyable day.
I haven't made it to the garden, but others have. Check this out! I was trying to find netting to cover my berries and couldn't. Michael made this. It's far fancier than anything I imagined. A quick look tells me the new strawberry plants have gone WILD. They are already creeping out of this space.
He thought of EVERYTHING. It has hinges and little legs and a handle so I can flip it up and weed and pick berries.
- That which was lost, Dad's wallet, is FOUND!
- An invite to dinner at Nolan and Alex's. They put out a good spread.
- Helpful women at the bank and the lawyer's office.
- I found a ladybug which gave me an excuse to get near the garden.
- Check out that lovely cover - the next step in the competition with the birds over the berries.
