Procrastination will eventually bite you in the butt

I don't have a lot of time to spare, but thought I'd write a little as I finish my coffee this morning.

Brandon's confirmation open house is a week from tomorrow. I literally have a list of 50 things to get done before then. Thank God I'm not working right now! I got quite a few things done yesterday: took down the winter hallway curtain, washed and hung on line to dry; I made a decision on a color for the family room and went to town to buy it; took down the awful valance and vertical blinds and brackets from my patio door (good riddance!); I purchased my hanging baskets and got them where they go; purchased my marigolds for walkway; worked on painting the bar stools.

Today I am going to finish painting the bar stools, clean off the porch, and start on the family room. I am most excited about the family room as I have HATED it since I moved in 7 years ago. It is a dirty rose color with teal green carpeting -- puke! There is no time or money to replace the carpeting right now, but I think painting it will make a huge difference.

Why do we wait for a big celebration to fix up our houses? I remember as a kid my parents and my friends parents all scrambling to get their houses fixed up for confirmation and graduation parties. We should do this stuff for us instead of doing it for other people since we are the ones you spend so much time here! I think we all have good intentions to do stuff but time just slips away and the next thing you know 7 years have passed and you still haven't gotten it done. Well, that's what happened to me anyway, and now I'm scrambling.

This weekend Brandon is going to his Dad's (I'm waiting for the inevitable "gas is too expensive" excuse from his Dad) and Jeff is coming up. Jeff and I will be painting the outside of my house this weekend, so I am praying for good weather. He has already replaced several boards and the paint is already purchased, so we are pretty well set to go. I really wanted to have the front deck replaced before the party, but that is definetly not happening! I'm hoping we can also have a little fun and go see the Indiana Jones movie too.

BTW, summer has officially started because Judy is back and we have had our first summer girlie lunch! Woohoo!

Garbage

I have taken on the project of cleaning out the area behind my back yard so that the hay rake thing that is back there will be visible (it's really cool!). So today I took my saw and giant pruners and a big black trash bag and went to work. I pulled out a couple of dead trees, trimmed some branches, and cut down some pesky alder (?) bushes. I noticed a big pile of what I think is bear poo just behind my propane tank. It's either that or moose poo. Fascinating.

I have lived here 7 years. Every spring I take big garbage bags and walk around on my property beyond the yard and pick up garbage. I wish I would have kept count on the bags I have filled. If I had to guess, I would say it's been at least 35 bags worth. Not too mention, my first summer I hired a couple of guys with a pickup to load up their truck with garbage too big for me to handle on my own. They did 3 or 4 loads... I'm talking overflowing kind of loads. They pulled out water heaters, and stoves, and hunks of metal, and tires, and weird rusty pieces of farm equipment. I bought this house in the winter so the stuff was hidden and the woods looked very pristine.

Even though I have "cleaned" this spot at least 3-4 times prior, I still found a full garbage bag full. I keep thinking that one day I will find a treasure, but 90% of what I find is green bottles with a twist top. Were the people who lived here cheap wine drinkers? Or did they make moonshine? Whatever it was, they sure loved it.

The history of my 10 acres is this: a railroad spur came here in the 1800's and this area was logged. I have found several railroad ties, a couple of spikes, and an actual rail in my woods. Cool! A family then owned my 10 acres as well as probably 30+ acres in addition. I think this would be in the 30's. They had a beef farm here which explains why sometimes when I dig in my garden I smell manure. It also explains the thousands of feet of barb wire I find everywhere in my woods. Nice. They had two boys and a girl. The girl had a weird disease and died shortly after she graduated from high school. One boy lives in Two Harbors. The other tried to sell his 10 acres next to mine but couldn't because he owed 20 years of back child support. He finally sold it to a very nice guy from Knife River who uses it to camp with his sons. My rustic outbuilding (and most of the garbage) is all that is left from this family.

A photographer from the cities bought the land next. He spent his time in my rustic outbuilding and took pictures. I find it amazing that anyone slept in there. I'd feel better sleeping outside.

The land was then sold to a husband from Two Harbors and his wife from Utah and their kids. They lived in a trailer on the land (and I heard later that they ran their septic into the drainage ditch! Ewww!) until they built the house that I now live in. He told me at least 4 times during our two meetings that she was a former Miss Utah. I found it very hard to believe, but maybe they have a different set of standards out their in Utah... I don't know. Either that, or the Mn winters were extremely hard on her. Or, maybe all those cigarette butts I cleaned up were hers... and the green bottles! That would really explain a lot!

This family also contributed to the garbage... mostly beer cans that the husband threw into the woods as he cut the grass with the lawn tractor. But also, according to the local trash hauler, they were behind 16 months for their trash bill. He also mentioned that they hadn't had trash service in at least 6 months. Hmmmm... I wonder what they did with their trash?

Anyway, I find it so hard to believe that 2 or maybe 3 of these families looked at this land and instead of seeing the beautiful trees and wildflowers and wildlife, they saw a place to throw 100 years worth of garbage. I feel like the Native American in the commercials from the '70s where he stands looking over the garbage and a single tear runs down his cheek.

I hear that most old homesteads around here are like this... mine isn't the exception... it's what the "old Finlanders" did.

So what "treasures" did I find today? An old perfume bottle and a old bottle of Pond's face cream (not just the men who threw the garbage). At least 10 green bottles and 2 clear liquor bottles. A pie tin. Dozens of rusty cans. At least 5 beer cans. One of the pieces to a kid's toy. A never ending piece of plastic. Rusty wire. A plastic bowl. Blue glass. Some unidentifiable hunks of metal. A skippy peanut butter jar lid, and two mayonnaise jar lids. That's what I remember anyway.

Summer... or is it winter?

My god, is it ever going to warm up? I am so anxious to get outside and do stuff in my yard, but it is just way too cold and gloomy! I waited all winter for this?

My sophomore year (again) is done. My nursing classes were frustrating, but went well (got an A so I really don't have to much to complain about, do I?). I had a brief taste of clinicals at Benedictine Health Center on the sub-acute floor. My first patient only had 2 minutes of exposure to me and then he got the news that he had an untreatable obstructed bowel and was going to die. Great start to my career.

My other classes went well as well. I got an A- in Nutrition (I was robbed!) and an A in Financial Management. Just waiting to hear about my German grade...

So far my summer vacation has been spent getting the house ready for Brandon's big Confirmation shindig. Jeff has been helping me prep the house to be painted... replacing boards and stuff. I also want to get my fireplace replaced before then and at least get the family room painted. I'd like to get new flooring put in there as well, but I just don't know if there will be enough time.

I did manage to get my front flower gardens cleaned out during the couple of warm days we did get last week. The few daffodils and muscari that the deer didn't eat are blooming nicely.

I checked the schedule for The New Adventures of Old Christine and it doesn't look like she is going to be on at all during May! Figures, now that I have all the time in the world to watch it!

Just finished watching Walk The Line. LOVED it. Joaquin Phoenix was very convincing as Johnny Cash. And I was impressed with his and Reese Witherspoon's singing. I know I'm behind in seeing it since it was released in 2005... I'm behind in a lot of things! If you haven't seen it yet, I highly recommend that you do. I found some great photos of June and Johnny if you are interested: http://www.junecartercash.com/index.html.

As a lot of you know, I am fascinated with old and often abandoned buildings as well as old things. My house is filled with old things that have been in my family, or things I have collected over the years. My newest fav is a trunk I picked up at my fav antique store in Two Harbors. I've been asked a few times why I love old things so much, and I sometimes find it hard to explain. Well, I ran across an excerpt from a book entitled No Smooshing, by Gary E. Anderson, that I thought sums up why I feel the way I do about old things pretty well. Check it out if you have a spare minute or two: http://www.streetdirectory.com/travel_guide/2674/family/the_sadness_of_old_buildings.html

Well, that's all the news for now! I apologize if I seem like I have been ignoring any of you the last several months... please know that it nothing personal; school just tends to occupy all of my time. This is why God gives students their summers off! If you want to get together with me over the summer, give me a holler!