My Mini Vacation

I took Friday and Monday off and had myself a nice four day weekend. It rained all day Friday, but Mrs Vache Folle, who also had the day off, and I cleaned out the smaller of our two sheds and made it usable for storage. Ninety five percent of the contents of that shed was useless crap that we had no business holding onto. It cost 90 bucks to have the carter haul it away. I had been storing in that shed some clothes from my thinner days in the expectation that I would one day fit into them again, but voles destroyed them. That saves me from having to wear 1990s fashions as I lose weight.

The rest of the long weekend was very pleasant, and I did a lot of puttering in the garden. There was a big to do around the hummingbird feeder as Swifty fought off at least six invaders. The hummers managed to down a quart of sugar water in less than a week.

Jasper has discovered the fish in the pond and, whenever any stray into his side (the shallow side is permitted to him) he chases them around. The pond is an even greater attraction to him now that he has frogs, snakes and fish to molest. He also has to make sure that no squirrels get on the woodpecker feeder and that the feral cat that has been hanging around gets chased or at least barked at whenever he appears. Also, no deer or turkeys are allowed in the yard or anywhere near the fence, and ducks and herons are absolutely prohibited from landing on the pond. These responsibilities keep Jasper occupied most of the time, but he does not neglect to attack the lawn mower or the vacuum cleaner when these are in use.

I went to the gym every day except Monday when I realized that I have been overdoing it. I need more time between weight training sessions to recover than I used to, so I have decided to weight train only four days a week instead of six (I alternate large muscles and small muscles).

We ate the rest of the meat that we had bought at the farmers’ market. This was a t-bone from a free range, grass fed bovine, a large free range roasting chicken, and a pork loin with the bone attached from a free range hog. We have got to get to the farmers’ market next Saturday to stock up on meat. If I had room for a freezer, I’d buy everything Farmer Abraham had to sell.

Summer is great chez nous. There is no place I would rather be in summer than on the deck looking out over the garden and listening to birdsong and eating the flesh of once contented animals.