Barn Cleaning (and more)

What a crazy-fast weekend for us.  I finally had all of my ducks in a row to get to a running group "class" that takes place at our high school track on Sunday mornings and was really looking forward to it.  The instructor is a competitive athlete who specializes in the duathlon.  I have been trying for some time to get my sleep pattern right so I can get up in time for the 7:45 class.  This was the weekend...  So I thought.  I ended up with an unexpected, forced midnight overtime shift (technically on my day off) after my shift on Saturday night.  Luckily I was prepared to stay as I had food with me and wouldn't have to surf the vending machine which I do not like to do.

It's been years since I worked a midnight shift.  It was quiet, thankfully, as I started losing my voice a couple hours into the shift, but got it back later in the morning.  As the sun came up I realized it was going to be a stellar weather day.  I barely remember the drive home.  It's a short commute though.  On Saturday we had made preparations to hang the old business sign from the kennel in the stairwell going to the basement.  I helped Mrs hang that and then I grabbed 5 hours of sleep.  When Mrs was finally able to pry the pillow from my arms and rouse me it was around 2 pm.  She had been very busy while I slept, mainly doing painting projects that needed to be done.  Basement mudroom area, old front door (which is now Safety Red!), screen door for the 'new' front door (is now white), lots of cleaning.  I didn't hear a thing.

The rest of the day is sort of a blur.  I installed the final piece of fence around the garden which keeps the chickens out and gives me no more excuse to not finish the garden.  We had a small cookout with a nice fire in the back yard in the evening.

Guapo was scheduled for a much needed hoof trim on Monday morning, so Mrs and I went to work getting him cleaned up and ready for the visit.  That lead to removing virtually everything from the barn to be aired out and cleaned.  It was so overdue.  This took a couple hours and when Barbara arrived to trim, the barn was all spiffed up and not nearly as offensive as it had been.  Barbara had a baby about 8 months ago and Guapo was her first trim (other than her own horse) since then.  It took about twice as long as normal, but given the amount of hoof that needed to be trimmed and shaped it did not surprise me.

After showering off the filth from the barn, we ran some errands and picked up some salmon for supper.  At home we removed the front door and set it up for a couple more coats of paint.  I quickly turned over three of the raised beds and planted the tomato and pepper plants.  That felt good and the poor plants looked instantly happy to feel their roots in the soil.  We cooked out again and I started a fire, mainly to try to cut down on the mosquito and no-see-um concentration.

 So, despite losing a chunk of my time, we were able to turn it around and get a lot done.  There is no running class next week, so I'm hoping to get there on the 19th.  I have 5 shifts left, then I am off for two weeks.  Mrs is off for one of those weeks.  We're not going anywhere, but hope to do some things locally if we don't get consumed by projects here.