Monday, Monday...

Had a very pleasant weekend; the landlady came to visit and we got some work done on the barn's workshop then visited S&L for a light dinner. S&L had finished the ceiling in the bedroom of their new house, narrow varnished tongue and groove of clear...pine, I think. Really nice. Also got a start on tiling the greatroom floor, which meant I had to leave the boys home. They weren't happy campers, because they all really like S&L and who can blame them. S&L, or at least L, tend to be soft touches with such things as sausage. This, to a dog, is the measure of a good neighbor.

Today or the next I've got to score some roll plastic. The fruit tree in the meadow is about to go nuts with blossoms, which will then be killed by the next frost. The tree dutifully commits this folly every single goddam winter, but this time I'm gonna cover it for the next few weeks and see if I can't persuade the thing to at least flourish, if not actually fruit. Landlady brought a plastic sheet, but it was too small; we ended up using it to wrap a smaller tree that has been ravaged by elk and cattle to the point where if it survives another year it'll be a real coup. Too far from habitation.

The Yahoo weather forecasts have been comically wrong for days now. Several days of hard wind, and then last night the clouds rolled in - two days late by the forecast - and now there's a hard midwest overcast and drizzle that looks like it'll go on for weeks but could all blow away within the hour - who knows. Either way, it kept the overnight temperature up and staved off the frost for one more night. If I can manage to wrap that tree today, I will. I'll bet D&L have some plastic they can lend me. Pay them back next trip to town.

Last night, just as I was thinking of going to bed, Click came in and settled the question of who's been leaving the mouse bits in my bathtub. She entered the lair carrying a big, fat field mouse, went straight to the tub and proceeded to chow down. Thoughtful of her, if she really must bring them indoors. This morning the tub contained an anatomical study of a mouse's internal organs worthy of Hannibal Lector. Yeah, nice.

Ah, life in the boonies.