spring break

we have, mercifully, been out of school on spring break this week, and boy, did i need the down time. unfortunately, i am never satisfied unless i get 12,000 things done, and this week, i didn't come close. i often wonder why i just can't relax and let it flow like water, as my friend meg would say.

i did do a lot of things. today austin and i finally finished planting the tree that we started planting on sunday. i finally found out why i can't get trees to grow in this yard: about 2 feet down is a solid base of clay. we actually used a pickaxe to try and break it up, and even that didn't work much. i finally just bought topsoil and filled it in as best i could. in keeping with the landscaping theme, i also bought the stuff to make another above ground bed for my vegetables, and i bought some snapdragons and petunias and planted them in the window boxes on the porch. yesterday austin and i went up to amelia and pam and i toodled around the farm in the golf cart and picked up rocks for another one of my projects. i had been out on wednesday to a rock place and had priced rocks and decided with my lack of finances, buying rock didn't make much sense. tomorrow i am going to go up to ashland berry farm and look around at what they have and other than great big greenhouse, i will be close to finishing round one of my nursery and plants circuit. i have been looking at pictures in my books and on the internet of some possible projects, including another fountain, and i am thinking that i am going to make a few of them. i can make an above ground fountain that might be pretty cool. i just don't know exactly where i can put it, but i am thinking about it. right now, it is just a big pile of rock in the front yard, an idea waiting to happen. tomorrow i am hoping to finally get the tiller going and to dig up the backyard bed that i want to do as phase 3 of the 5 year plan. i am not sure exactly what i am going to do yet, but i guess if i at least dig up the dirt, that will force me on to something!

there wasn't much travel this week, although i had hoped idealistically to do a day trip with austin. we did go to the beach to visit with mom and dad. mom had made barbecue and the aunties came out for dinner and visited with us. we spent the night and went back on tuesday. we stopped at trader joe's in newport news and bought guacamole and marinara sauce and then we stopped at the pottery, where i bought some plants and checked things out. the only other traveling done was up to amelia yesterday, where austin and carter hung out and went to wal-mart, a first actually, in that austin went off in a car for the first time with a teen. it was good for him, as the two of them talked apparently about girls and their mutual problems with girls that they like, but who won't take an interest in them because they are their "buddies" and therefore aren't candidates for anything more. we ended up eating hamburgers there, and carter and i sat out on the new outdoors porch and played guitars. i taught him how to play the beatles "blackbird" and while we played, austin amused himself by throwing sticks at squirrels in the big old oak tree in the backyard. he actually hit one of them in the ass, which was pretty funny. what was more funny is how completely asinine he was throwing stick after stick, over and over, just like a damned golden retriever! small minds, easily gratified.

i have managed to get some house chores done such as scrubbing the kitchen floors, cleaning out the refrigerator, replacing the lightbulbs that had burned out all over the house and doing laundry. there are plenty of things to finish, such as running the sweeper. i am also finishing up jen chamber's kayaking pottery piece, which has to have a sealant put inside so it doesn't leak.

one of the things i have gotten hooked on this week is communing with the ducks and fish. i have walked out to the berm and fed the fish most nights, and have seen turtles a couple of times. it is very peaceful out there. my cattails and lily pads are coming in, and that is good. i have been buying some seeds and need to get them planted, something that has been on the agenda for weeks. i need to move the dead plants outside (moved the two trees today) and then get going with the seedlings.

pam and i decided to fly to albuequerque in june and then go up to pagosa springs. taylor got the tickets with his american express points and i am going to try and get the rental car with my points. we now need to start planning what we are going to do. i can't believe that i will actually get a second chance at new mexico after having missed it last year. one of the things pam and i are doing is to go to four corners and also to mesa verde national park where the cliff dwellings are. beyond that, i am not sure what we are going to do, other than this trip takes us north vs. the last trip which was to the south.