A Sleepless Night

                                 

Isn't it amazing what one can accomplish during a sleepless night?

 I spent the better portion of my day yesterday working in Mom's yard,mowing,bagging and picking up leaves.That's always been my sister,Rita's job, but she is having a few medical issues for awhile, so I decided to help her out with the leaves. I have a mower with a bagger on it, and it is so nice when it comes to picking up leaves. I have always kept that kind of mower since I am into building better soil anyway. I use the leaves in that process. Most of the time, I dump the leaves into the chicken pen where they scratch and turn them daily into rich black compost. And then when I need rich dirt, I take my leaf rake and my handy dandy home made dirt sifter into the pen and collect all of the "black gold" I need. But back to my topic.Pop went along and helped me which is rare when I go to Mom's, but he took the opportunity to fill the 4-wheel drive truck up with gas and give it a good washing while we were in town. You know our rule. Never go to town without several tasks in mind.We came home and noticed our yard was filled with leaves once again,although I had just cleaned it the day before.Needless to say, I jumped on the mower once more, and cleaned my own yard. The adrenalin was evidently surging in my veins, so when I finished the yard, I decided we needed to clear the pile of cedar slabs out of the driveway. A friend of ours,who had been taking in the festivities at Hodgensville's Lincoln Days,had thought of us, and brought us the slabs for kindling.Another friend had built a cabin of sorts,for the Lincoln Days festivities, and when the day was done, he planned to burn the slabs, but our 1st friend intervened, and loaded them on his truck to bring to us to use as kindling. Now wasn't that thoughtful of him?Nevertheless the slabs had been laying there, in the way,but who could complain. We just never took time to move them.They were not quite cured yet,so Pop decided to hold them over for awhile. He and I loaded them onto the old 73 Ford, then drove them to our holding lot for such,and Pop used Ole Rose to lift them out of the truck bed with a chain. Thank goodness,we didn't have to handle each and every slab again.We had laid the chain across the truck bed,then piled the slabs on top of the chain, then wrapped the chain around the slab pile when we were done.Then Pop had only to hook to the chain, and lift them out of the truck bed with the forks on the tractor.Pop said we could have used the forks to move the entire pile in the beginning, but we needed the exercise, plus I don't trust Pop using Ole Rose and those big forks that close to power lines,water lines,building,etc.He's always been pretty careful, but with his age now,I worry much more about such things. Sometimes ,things just happen, and you end up with more damage than good.
I guess all the work we did, had worn me out to where I went to bed too early, and slept my usual 4 hours,then I was wide awake for the rest of the night.I figure I'll pay, later in the day,but what the heck.I'm retired. I'll take a nap.
Since I couldn't sleep, I washed a few dishes,a load of clothes, and made a pincushion.And Oh yes. I wrote up this blog entry.
My original plan was to write about how I had incorporated one of my little "puff balls" into my pincushion.If you remember, I had got 3 pillows at an auction last week,which had the faces covered with little stuffed balls.

I thought perhaps, I could use them somehow, and I have figured out how to use them in my pin cushions,yet still assemble them in the way,using all of the same components.My little rolls of wool fabric,my bottle caps,my pretty fabric scraps, and now the little "puff balls".After completely assembling the pincushion,I only need to add a ribbon to hide the seam around the middle,and it will be complete.The little pink pincushion with the flowery top, in the picture above, is the one I just finished.
I have been working with my wood projects and paints here lately,but I decided to pull out my pincushions once more.I do love making them and that shouldn't disturb Pop.I have a sleepy headed side kick close beside me as I work,also in the picture above.Lilly is turning out to be a wonderful pet, and although we still shed a few tears once in awhile over loosing our beloved Sarah,Lily has brought us a lot of comfort and joy.