A skewed view of gardening.......and other endeavors.......

Well lovelies, you know what they say about the well laid plans of Oma's and men.......sometimes you win, sometimes the feed store is out of strawbales.

Who woulda thunked that so many others would want straw bales for gardens or fences or houses all in the merry month of March....soon to be April???? I guess it's a case of being on the cutting edge of the popular thing again. Seems like every time I catch a good idea, it's actually a case of me catching the ebbing edge of the current event. I was told by one feed store that I would have to wait until May to get some because his supplier hadn't cut straw yet and by another feed store that said I was too late for his supplier because they had already cut as soon as it got warm enough. ??????????????

these photos are from pinterest

So my lovely daughter asked some of her regulars at the restaurant and one guy said he could have some for her today. But that they would have to do the transfer of bales in the parking lot because he had to deliver the rest to......you guessed it, one of the other feed stores. And by the way, we don't have a truck, so she put down all the seats in the Explorer XL, put in a drop cloth and will be coming home from work with as many as they can get in the suv. I'm thinking maybe 6 which is about 1/3 of what we had orginally planned on. Oh well, when you look at the gift horse you need to smile and be grateful, right?

So on Monday instead of moving bales, we moved the front patio furniture to the back yard and vice versa. I know, you're scratching your head and saying, "but Oma why?" And my answer would be: "because".

this is also included, just because I can

Our front patio faces east. Our back yard patio faces west. In the middle of summer, if we go out to grill for dinner, we can't even touch the handle of the bbq grill because it is already a million degrees and sitting out at the patio table can only be achieved in the morning hours. I've wanted to try the grill and table in the front patio for a long time (cuz us girls are like that, logical, practical and crazy). So my number one, Ms. Shelley and I went about "making it so".

We have our comfy patio couch, chairs and coffee table set on the back porch now where in the morning, I can curl up with my paperwhite kindle, tea and watch the dogs run like crazy beasties, enjoy the birds and the back flowerbeds......and the soon to be new "bed" for veggies. I also found that we had an old patio chair that will make a perfect bed for strawberries.

In the afternoon, on the front patio, I can fire up the grill and make better use of cooking all the gret food we love from the grill, where it is shady. I can also set the table for dining al fresco and not get heat stroke. For me it is a win/win.

For Sweet Man however, although he goes along with things, he knits his brow and shakes his head. On this adventure in Linda ese, I asked if it reminded him of his childhood and he said yes, way too much.

When he was a youngster, the oldest of 8 children, (yes, I often say out loud what you are thinking....something along the lines of really???? or what were they thinking???), his Dad, because he was who he was and the necessity to keep the kids outta his hair, would have the older ones dig up the sod from the backyard and put it in the spots needing help in the front yard. Then they would plant a new lawn in the backyard....the only yard the kids were allowed to play upon, which makes no sense at all but hey, you woulda have to have known the stubborn old coot. It was an exercise in futility as far as Sweet Man was concerned and thus he grew up hating all yard work, home repair and honey do's. Or so the story goes, you know yada, yada, yada. any port in the storm.

So there have been many times in our forty something year long marriage that if I wanted something done.....I'd just do it myself. That in and of itself could be a bone of contention to some folks but I just know it's the way it is and kinda giggle when I ask him to help and there is generally a pained look and "very good reason" why we either ought to wait, ignore it, or he has something else that needs to be done first. Bwahahahaha. Like I don't know that song and dance. Heck I bought the teeshirt, and wore it out and learned that dance a helluva long time ago. Over it.

So Shelley my partner in crime and I generally do what we do when we want to do it. But this time was kinda funny when he came home and for reals the yards had switched places. Tee hee. That's how the olde folks at home prank each other around here.