Sticks, No Stones

Well, I am worn out. Tuckered out. “Tarred”. (tired)

My grandmother used to say she was “tarred”, in her sweet Southern accent. I would say, “as in tarred and feathered”, and she would say, “yes, but mostly feathered.” It was a joke between us.  :)   (Maybe you had to have been there.)

But yes, I am just a wee bit “tarred”. I have been outside picking up sticks. Yes, sticks. Don’t I lead a glamorous life?? This ranks right up there with scooping the cat pan.  :)

The bread loaves are in the oven, rising, the baked chicken breasts are diced and in baggies in the freezer, but the main To Do Item for today was tidying up outside.

You see, with all this ice and wind and all the winter storms, there is the inevitable tree limb damage. And while the damage is, in most cases, very minor, it’s there. There were a few 10-15 feet limbs that I cut up, but mostly it is 18 hundred million little cottonwood sticks on the ground, and they are not going anywhere. They have to be picked up, one by one.

And today is the warmest day of the 7-day forecast, so it’s the day to do it. It’s the best weather we’ve had in quite awhile to be outside -- 59 whole degrees! Whoa, heat wave! Don’t get excited, the dreariness will return just in time for the weekend.  Whew, what a winter we’ve had!

So guess who has been outside this afternoon picking them up? Me with my slowly-healing back, bending over for each CrAzY stick! I tried to pretend to myself that I will get a nickel for each stick that I picked up, but even that game doesn’t help much after awhile. The promise of ice therapy afterwards, though, does. Sheesh, I never thought that lying on ice would ever be a reward.

This is where having a nice, big treed lot comes back to bite you. Ah, well, it is a very small price to pay for all that beauty. Maybe I will chant that to myself when I go back out and pick up 75 thousand more sticks! Because I haven’t finished. I’m just taking a sorely-needed break.

Anyone up for a bonfire??  :)

XOXO,
Lucky Dog
♥