Thursdays are always set aside for visiting mama. After getting the guys off to work yesterday morning, I ran down to the barn to feed my animals and discovered a geyser of water shooting out of the back wall. A river had formed starting from where the pigs’ drinking pipe comes in and running through the barn and out towards the pond. Judging from the amount of water I saw pass by in five minutes and the beautiful stream rushing out I could almost guess that we purchased an inch or two in depth for the pond that night. Obviously, when I fed them at 4:30 there was no leak, so it happened sometime in that 15 hours of evening and morning after. The sweet lady at the water company jokingly asked if I ever catch a break. My answer? Rarely! We both had a good laugh. What else is there to do? Well, I’ll tell you; I’m getting rid of the pvc this morning and putting in galvanized pipe so they can’t bite it off. Lowes opens at 6 am so I’ll run up there when the guys head off to work. I had to fill up buckets for the pigs to have water so I could shut off the valve to the barn. I can already hear someone ask me “what about your husband?!” He’s working and so am I sweet pea. Nobody wonders why he isn’t doing the dishes so let’s not wonder why he’s not in my barn. He does help when he can but running pipe is easy and I’d rather he and James take care of the power bill, so to speak. I probably will have help this morning but if I don’t that’s ok too. My big girl panties work just fine and, after all, this is kind of my hobby. I always wondered why I didn’t have a hobby until one day it hit me. That barn and everything in it is where my money and time goes; therefore, it must be my hobby. My mother blames my dad.

I apologize for showing you this old picture but it’s too dark to take a current one. The greenhouse was finished yesterday. My daughter and her husband came by to visit and they helped me pull the plastic over the finished frame and staple it up. The amount of heat generated inside the frame was astounding considering the wind was really kinda cool yesterday. I’ll be using the tractor to move my containers into this space today and I promise to send you pictures of the finished product then. In all I spent zero dollars. I used wood and nails we already had and the roll of plastic was a left over roll Chris didn’t need any more. What can I say? I’m a scrappy kind of girl and I don’t need fancy to be happy. Well…in some cases anyway. Greenhouses fall into that category thankfully. Anywho, I now have a green house and I’ll show you when the sun comes up.

This old picture of me in my Easter dress smiling with my daddy is one of my favorites. I always think of this picture around Easter. It’s only fitting that I use it to tell you that we (my kids and I) are working around my house today when I’m done with the barn and plant relocation. We bought some black paint for the shudders, black stain for the front door, and I’ll be running a weed eater around the flower bed boarder. We have plans to make ourselves a pretty place to hang out in the back yard if time permits. It’s therapeutic to do projects like these alone sometimes but it’s also medicinal to do these things with your family too. I’m excited to get their help and input. I’ll send you lots of updates as we go along. I was running around too much yesterday to think of taking before pictures but I promise to give you all the details today as we go along.

The adventure with mama continues. I have to watch to make sure she doesn’t goose people we don’t know when we go out in public. Sometimes I have to explain things to strangers when she tells them they look cold, it always confuses them. Mama is always cold so if your arms are exposed then she thinks you are cold too. Some folks don’t know how to handle her vocalized observations so I smile and quietly explain. In most cases people pick up on the obvious, her filter is gone so just smile and reply.

She told me five times in fifteen minutes yesterday that she met a really nice man on Wednesday but she couldn’t remember his name. First, the fact that she remembers meeting him is note worthy. I was intrigued. Second, she was hoping to see him again. Now I’m wondering what will happen if she sees him again. My curiosity was answered the moment she stepped out her door. There he stood, she gently put her hand beneath his chin and asked his name. Jim, he smiled. Now I can tell her if she forgets. They slowly walked down the hall towards the dinning room side by side. I made my exit but I smiled all the way to my truck.

Ok, time for me to get busy. I’ll check on you a little later on.

Y’all be sweet,

Bena ❤️🐝