I got half of last week’s post written but the good weather kept me from finishing. Even though it was a holiday weekend, I didn’t get everything done that I wanted to.
The weather was extremely cooperative, despite the rather high chance of rain on Sunday. The unseasonably warm temperatures have nature and humans, both ready to get spring started.
Saturday’s high was 85 degrees; my husband and I just could not resist doing some fishing on the river. Our morning consisted of running errands in town, for which we went separate ways.
When we met up at home, we headed down to the river. It was a little high and fast due to the flood gates being open at Possum Kingdom Lake, but I found a nice place where the water was calm.
We specifically were fishing for catfish, so I baited up my hook, threw it out into the water, and sat down to wait. Since the water level changes quite a bit throughout the year, at the edge of the water is usually a sandy beach. Chairs are optional with a beach like that.
Of course, the three dogs went with us. Hank spent the entire time running up and down the edge of the water, disappearing over the dunes only to reappear coming from the opposite direction.
Hannah thought it was hot and spent part of the time cooling off in the water. The best we can tell, she is a Belgian sheepdog; she gets a thick winter coat, and she puts on probably 20 pounds for winter.
Scooby is our senior dog. He is small and has a hard time getting through the tall grass, but he is determined not to be left behind. The walk tired him out and he dosed in the sun most of the time we fished.
I was the first to catch a fish. We were both impressed with its size; it was, however, the smallest we caught that day. My husband caught the next fish, which was also an impressive size.
My next fish was bigger, but my husband caught the biggest fish I think we have ever caught on the river; it weighed 4 pounds. In total, we had 4 catfish weighing 12 pounds, collectively.
When we got back up to the house, my husband filleted the fish, and started cooking supper. I began the task of repairing my raised garden box.
The garden box is made of cedar, and stands on metal legs. It is 8 feet long and 2 feet wide. It is only about 1 foot deep, but it is surprising how much dirt it holds. Two years of heavy spring rains caused the wooden bottom to fall out.
So, I removed the dirt still remaining in the box, then moved the box out of the way. I put a new bottom in it, and then proceeded to shovel the heaps of dirt lying on the ground into the bucket of my tractor. The bucket was barely big enough to hold all the dirt.
Since it was supposed to rain on Sunday morning, I wanted to keep the dirt out of the rain until I had the box ready to be filled; I parked the tractor in the barn overnight. That was a long day, and I was exhausted.
Sunday was a little misty in the morning, but the rain held off until evening, so I had plenty of time to get the box back in place, leveled and refilled. After moving all that dirt, we had an early supper of fried catfish, and we relaxed on the couch.
We didn’t have to go to work on Monday because it was President’s Day. I mostly did house work (vacuuming and laundry), worked on organizing my office, and built a stand for my dual computer monitor.
I wanted the dual monitor to sit high enough that I can see it over the top of my laptop. Most of the time, the second monitor’s wallpaper is like a picture for me to enjoy, but on occasion, I use it to run different tasks at the same time.
I bought a lovely birch board from Home Depot, cut it to size, and stained the pieces black. After the stain dried, I nailed the pieces together, and applied 2 coats of urethane spray sealant. It’s just a simple stand—nothing fancy or beautiful about it, but it is extremely functional.
The rest of my week was kind of boring (aside from the 80 and 90 degree temperatures). I took the day off of work on Friday to take my mom to get her driver’s license renewed, and to have her eyes examined. In between, we did a little shopping at Target just to kill some time.
After Mom’s eye appointment, we had lunch at IHOP. They have recently changed their menu, and they are currently offering a cobb salad with greens, blue cheese crumbles, chicken, and a hard-boiled egg; I asked for the fried chicken, and some avocado on the side. It was a really nice salad.
This weekend the temperatures will be a little cooler—in the 60’s with the wind out of the north. We don’t have any work planned because we will be celebrating my mom’s 88th birthday all weekend long.
I hope your weekend is a good one, and next week, too.
Proverbs 20:29 The glory of the young is in their strength, the gray hair of experience is the splendor of the old.
