Spring! Errands! Chicks! and More! – May 20, 2024 – at the Clampetts

Spring has arrived in Clampett-ville. The weather folks may call March “spring” but in New Hampshire, it doesn’t arrive until May. Plus, what the heck is going on with us???

Hello Folks,

Like the last few weeks, I am late, late, late posting a blog. Once we arrived back in NH, we haven’t hardly been able to catch our breath.

The weather is pretty darn good. This week looks to be in the 70s, 80s and possibly even hit 90. We have had a few gloomy days, but not a whole lot of (RAIN). Shh! do NOT say that word aloud, please.

I have even dragged my personal journal upstairs with me so I can recall just what went on last week. I do know the week was exceptionally busy. So without further delay, here it is. The good, the bad, and the ugly.

Monday, I was still having some cramping issues but lucky for me, the cramps eventually died off. I went to Bone Builders. Came home from there and because it was a sunny day, I did 2 loads of laundry. Normally, I only do one load a day but frankly, I still have not caught up with laundry since I returned home from vacation. Did I say “vacation”? Seems like a long time ago! In fact, we will be home 3 weeks Wednesday and I am truly still behind with spring chores. More later about that.

I also found my grow boxes in the barn and hauled out 11 of them. However, B has not had an opportunity yet to hook up the summer hose, so nature has been washing the boxes. At least they are piled up neatly by the deck. No criticism of B, just a fact. If I think I am busy, it is nothing compared to B.

Tuesday found me doing errands. On my best days, I dislike having to do errands other than grocery shopping and stopping at the gasoline station. Those errands I can handle, but other errands I don’t like as much. Anyway, Tuesday was do errands day.

I had a 9:45 quickie hair cut. I was late arriving. GRRR. Then, I needed more bags of potting soil. I went to Home Depot and bought 3 bags of potting soil to start off with the leftover soil from the grow boxes from last season. This isn’t nearly enough, but it was all I could handle.

While there, I texted B to see if he needed more knock-down, small cardboard boxes for packing books. It seems that between my FIL being a voracious reader and having Ben (Dr John’s oldest son) available to pack said books, I figured B needed more boxes. My SIL brought about 70 with her the previous weekend, but we were getting low again. Yeah, that is how many books my in-laws owned. And we ain’t done yet!

Anyway, B texted back that yes, I should get 15 more boxes. He also asked me to go to an auto parts store for something. GRRR. That is another place I detest going. But being the good wife that I am, I agreed to go.

The auto parts store is right next to our local Verizon store. My iPhone needs a new cover so I figured why not. But as usual, all they wanted to talk about was setting us up with a newer, more expensive plan. They didn’t have any covers for the “older” model iPhone that I have. I believe my iPhone is an 11 Pro, top of the line when I bought it not all that long ago. I left disgruntled and figured I can get a new cover on Amazon. Finally home to do yet another load of laundry and to hang it outside to dry.

I was home for about 2 hours. And, inadvertently, let the critters out of the pen. What a time I had getting them all to come back in, as I had to go to the VIP Tire Store to get 2 more new tires! Anyway, it seems I got most of the critters back in the pen. I think God had something to do with this.

Then it was off to Claremont yet again for the tires. Of course, if you are female, you know how this goes. Sure enough, a guy from out behind the counter came around with a clipboard showing me how my tires were wearing unevenly. Would I like an alignment while I was there???? Sure, why not! That was only $100 more. Finally, everything was done and I started home and the car handled fine for a while.

Now, my theory on anything automotive is this. When a female enters the establishment, it is assumed that she knows nothing about what she is asking for. In most instances, for me, that would be true. No man behind the counter would have come around with a clipboard to ask B if he wanted to have the tires aligned. Period. How the heck do I know if what they showed me was really true? I didn’t and still don’t. But B had way too much on his plate to take my place, so I went to the tire store alone.

And the price for 2 new tires plus the alignment? $600. YEAH!

Once I got out of the city and started home and the speed limit went up to a whopping 50 MPH, I noticed a definite shake to the car. Yep. It was shimming and pulling to the right. I didn’t even bother to tell B. I figured he would find out soon enough and he did!

Wednesday was a bit showery. We both had eye exams (eye, not head exams) in the afternoon in Hanover. I was trying out B’s optometrist. So, off we went after B had to make a few pit stops to do some errands. As we were traveling along on secondary roads, B noticed the shaking and the pulling to the right. He recommended I go back to VIP the next day. B also took a video of the shaking from inside the car. Sigh.

Well, I liked the optometrist very much, but neither of us cared for the optician at all. Very snooty, very busy with things more important than customers. Anyway, we both left our glasses and each of us brought from home a previous pair of glasses to wear home. Now, I am going to rant for a bit, so skip the next paragraph if you don’t want to hear it!

It seems to me that leaving your glasses for 2-3 WEEKS is a scam. The optician wants you to purchase new frames. Since I generally have to have an updated prescription yearly, that would mean buying a new pair of frames EVERY year. So, B and I are both adjusting to our OLD glasses, and for the most part, without an issue. Makes you wonder, right??? Plus we both had our eyes dilated.

We slowly crept out of Hanover. Between the shaking car, the traffic going about 25-30 MPH, and the rain showers, it was a hideous ride home. To help us maintain what was left of our sanity, we stopped in Lebanon at a Thai place and had a late lunch, early dinner. It helped our eyes, got us out of the traffic and the showers even stopped. It was well worth it. We had an enjoyable meal and brought home enough for dinner the next day. Here is a picture of B enjoying his ginger duck, wearing his old glasses.

Oh! I forgot. The bill for the both of us at the eye care place? A whopping $693!!! Plus, waiting for 2-3 weeks to get our updated glasses. As an aside, B LIKES the old pair of glasses he is currently wearing because they have bifocals in them instead of his progressives! Hahaha. He had thought he didn’t like bifocals, but now he says he likes that feature of his old glasses more than his progressives.

So, that was Wednesday. Now I am moving on to Thursday. Back to Bone Builders at 8:30 a.m. Then I finally found the crate I had been looking for for the turkey chicks that I was expecting any day now. I got that out, washed it, found the feeder for them and a small water container for the new arrivals. I am almost there!

Thursday was also grocery day. Off to the market I went and to the gas station yet again. Oh, and let’s not forget stopping at VIP! I explained the shaking and pulling to the right. This time it was a young lady at the desk along with the same guy as last time. By the way, he was very busy on the computer while I was explaining about the issues. Ah-ha. I made the new appointment for Friday at 2:00 p.m. More waiting.

Once home again, I put the groceries away and began making sauce for the lasagna I planned to take to Mark and Ginger. It seems Ginger had had to have day surgery about a heart issue and was told to stay at home for a week. They seem to like my lasagna, so I was happy to make one for them. Like my mother, I make the sauce one day, then put the lasagna together and bake the next day. Makes it much easier for me to do.

So, while I was making the sauce, I had a call from Runnings store that the turkey chicks had arrived! I wasn’t about to go back to Claremont again Thursday, so they agreed to hold my 8 chicks until Friday. Sigh. More errands.

Friday finally arrived. Since my appointment at VIP wasn’t until 2:00, I let the critters out of the pen. While doing this, I cleaned out the chicken coop, which is easy-peasy compared to the duck/goose pen. After that, I sat down to watch the ducks/geese swim.

While I am doing all this, B is down to the homestead continuing to shuttle stuff to the free pile and continuing to clean everything out. Monumental task. Plus he had a guy tagging around behind him that was buying stuff. Whew. By the way, those extra 15 boxes I bought on Tuesday? Here is what they looked like now filled and at the free pile. My in-laws’ house is also in the picture. By the way, this isn’t all the books. Last weekend there were a lot more boxes of books and the family isn’t done with books yet! The house was packed with bookcases and books.

Anyway, back to VIP. This time, they fixed the problem. I was there for an hour.

Then, on to Runnings store to pick up turkey chicks. Here they are in their new home!

You will notice 2 are dark striped. They are bronze breasted turkeys. The others are white breasted. I think I have all 6 white ones sold. The two bronze babies are for us. More on this later. They sure do eat a lot! I was up at 3:00 a.m. one night and thought their heating pad was not heating up. B was up working in the shop, so I texted him. He came in and apparently, either the extension cord or the cord to the outlet, wasn’t plugged in all the way. Anyway, they finally got some heat and I went back to bed!

Needless to say, I did not get the lasagna done on Friday. It was just as well, as I had no good place to keep it cold and one of Ginger’s friends came up and took her out to lunch in nearby Hillsboro.

That meant I needed to finish the lasagna on Saturday, which was fine with me. It went together very well and looked pretty darn good, except it never did brown up for me. Ginger got it to brown up when she heated it up. Here is a picture.

Once the lasagna cooled off enough, I drove it down to Bradford to Mark and Ginger’s. I also had previously made some pumpkin rolls and froze 4 for them. Ginger looks good and I was pleased that she was heeding the doctor’s advice and resting! Unfortunately, the procedure did not do what it was supposed to do. She goes back to the doctor in a month to discuss other options. Sigh.

On my way down to Bradford, I stopped to see B working at his parents’ house. B was looking very gray and he was obviously very tired. Again, he had a guy tagging after him which, surprisingly, doesn’t seem to bother B! Anyway, I pulled off the road in Newport and called him. The last thing we need is for him to get sick or worse. I strongly advised him to go home and get some rest. I also asked him to text me when he got home. Even more surprising, he did! When I got home several hours later, he was sound asleep on the couch with the Youtube station chatting in the background. I was greatly relieved. He has worked steadily all day every day since May 1 at the homestead cleaning, throwing out junk, sorting, etc, etc. He needed a rest.

As it was, we were supposed to get some showers Saturday evening. So after I put our critters to bed around 8:30, we went down to the free pile and I helped B cover the boxes of books. Sunday morning after I did my critter chores, I went down and removed the tarps. I was afraid people would assume that the tarps were also free!

I am ending my saga here on Saturday evening. Sunday proved to be anything but restful, as the gutter company came to install new gutters on our house. I will talk about that in another blog.

By the way, as to spring popping around here, it is! Here are some pictures I took one morning when I had a few free minutes. My MIL’s lilacs are beautiful, but with the heat we are expecting this week, they, sadly, won’t last.