Seven days to go

Today I finished painting two more sides of the garage. One more to go and it's done. I had the worst time with the bumblebees today - this time there were four of them, and they would sometimes come at me two at a time. But I don't have the luxury of waiting for cool weather, so I'll have to take my chances.

New thing learned: Sand Mix does not cling to vertical surfaces. At all. It works pretty well for what it's supposed to do, which is level out uneven spots in concrete between 1/4" and two inches (that's something like 6 mm to 5 cm for you European metric hippies.) But I may need to use more Mortar mix to finish off the wall. I think I also need more concrete for one end of the sidewalk - one last 80-lb bag should do it.

I also learned that while old, junky T-shirts are fine as work shirts, there comes a point where they will simply fall apart. My T-shirt did that yesterday. I had to put a different one on underneath and then throw the junky one on top as a sort of apron, to absorb the paint and dust. That worked out pretty well.

My trees and plants arrived today. I ordered two cherry trees (CompacStella and Lapins), one blueberry collection (six plants of different varieties), and two Canadice grapes (red, sweet, and spicy, to replace the now-absent Spice grapes that used to be in the grapevine) from Miller Nurseries. Unfortunately, they were sold out of Shademaster Locusts, which I intended to use to shade the house from the Summer sun - oh, well, I'll order them next year. Fortunately, the plants were shipped dormant and will keep for up to three weeks in their packaging. I expect to get them planted in a few days.

My right shoulder hurts. My legs hurt. I am fairly well sunburned on my forearms and the back of my neck. My hair feels like it's full of cement dust. I need a shower. Then some sleep. Then it's back off nice and early tomorrow morning to see if I can finish this up. Then I have to spray my grapevines, and plant my trees and other plants, and assemble the new lawnmower, and mow two lawns, and...