Shooting, burning and a million rocks...

I think we should buy stock in tylenol...or ibuprofen...
I started this morning making my list of what to do today...Laundry, cat boxes, vacuum, cut-back outdoor plants, clean and fill bird feeders, and last but definitely not least..."barn". I try to stick to the value that work comes before play, and since the barn is a new hobby, it would have to wait till the chores were done.
We couldn't do anything yesterday because we were working overtime...oh glorious overtime...great for the pocketbook, establishes character, but robs you of a day of your precious weekend. Overtime and I definitely have a love/hate relationship. But anyway, that's why we were down to just today for working on home projects.
I started my chores, and P headed down to the field on a mission of her own. She loves to burn in our ten foot fire pit. It's a primitive urge inside of her...like what drove the cavemen to first make fire... and because of the rain, she hasn't been able to since last Fall. So since the cardboard around to house was starting to pile up she packed it all up and headed down to the pit while I scrambled around...crossing things off my list one by one so I could join her.
After an hour or so, Patty called me on the walkie talkie to let me know she would be shooting her gun into the hillside. Like I mentioned before, shooting stuff is the cure for anything that ails ya...and her favorite thing to do...second only to burning in the pit.
So I continued working, hearing the pow pow pow coming from the field... I asked her how she did over the walkie talkie, and she told me she did alright...that it tends to pull to the right...or that she's a bad shot... I highly doubt it. All it means to me is that if she is aiming at your shoulder, she'll hit you in the head. :)
About 15 minutes later, I threw on my steel-toed boots and trusty carhart jacket. I grabbed some soup for P, grabbed the dogs and headed down to the field.
Now I knew if I dilly dallied I wouldn't make it to the barn. I had a mission today, and I didn't want to come up until it was done. There was a huge pile of rocks of various sizes in the section of the barn we haven't "mucked" yet. The rocks had to be moved before the mucking could commence. I tried my chances starting the John Deere again. It wasn't raining, so if it died outside again, it wouldn't be shitty to have to push it in again. She started right up. I guess last weekend's bad gas had passed. :) I backed her out and attached her "Heavy duty hauler" to the back. I looked at the pile of rocks. Some of them were big and probably about 30-40 pounds...ugh. So I started filling the little trailer...After I put about 30 rocks in, I noticed the tires were a little flat. So much for heavy duty. So I made about 10 to 15 baby trips with the rocks. I had the perfect spot for them. Last year we had our seasonal creek trenched out. It was 6 feet wide, and ran the whole width of the property. So I started throwing rocks into the creek and felt my back complain immediately....which drove me to work faster. I noticed when I picked up the rocks, I was wiping the spider egg sacks off of them and throwing them into the trailer without thinking...I was a machine...Now that I think about it, it gives me the heeby jeebys...gross.
P headed back up to the house and I worked faster. I wanted to head back up to the house too, but I had to finish the stupid rocks. By the time I finished I had only been at it about an hour and a half. My body told me it had been longer. I had filled an area of the creek about 6 feet by 7 feet. I try not to think about how many rocks it will take to fill the whole creek bed... Fortunately "rocks" happens to be what my land grows the best...everytime I turn around there is another coming up through the soil...so I'm sure there will be plenty.
I noticed before I left that the barn wasn't as creepy as it used to be...the sun was filtering through the old siding, and I knew I couldn't wait to get back maybe next weekend to do more.
I grabbed the dogs and walked the orchard before heading to the house. I noticed all of the trees had little buds on them! Spring is coming!
I climbed the hill to the house, changed into comfy clothes and collapsed on the couch. I could hear the unscraped portion of popcorn ceiling taunting me from the hallway...
Ugh...another day. I need tylenol.