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Today I’m feeling twice my age –

I’ve told you that my husband got a new-to-him 45 foot ham radio tower and rotor through his ham radio club. Most of it is in a pile close to my greenhouse, but one segment of the tower plus the rotor, are in the shop. My husband is making a base for the tower out of 1/2 inch iron. This weighs a TON – give or take a few pounds.

Meanwhile, we’ve been looking for someone to come drill a 10 inch in diameter, 6 or 8 foot hole in the ground, put a pipe down in the hold and fill it with concrete. He’ll weld the heavy base on the end of the pipe. He’s contacted two drilling companies who don’t seem to be interested in such a small (for them) project. Finally, my husband remembered the name of the man who drilled our water well 30 years ago, Mr. Musgrove.

I remember him well because his first question on the phone was which side of Mt. Harmony Road we lived on. When we told him, he said, “Ok. I’ll come. There’s water there. There isn’t in any other direction.” He came with a Dousing Rod! It looked like a stick to me, but he wandered around our property with it – and either due to its working or a really good dramatic flare, the switch suddenly pointed down to the ground. He dug down and found water, plus Fool’s Gold, at 168 feet. We put some of the Fool’s Gold in a sandwich bag and hung it, plus his notes – framed – on a wall in our dining area.

Mr. Musgrove is now 85, but his sons are carrying on the business and they should be contacting us soon about the drilling we need.

This news sparked a lot of activity yesterday from us. We have a trio of large evergreen trees on one part of our property. They’re so close together we thought for a long time that they were one large tree. My husband took the ladder, a large extension cord, and the chain saw out to the trees. We worked for about an hour, taking limbs off the evergreens that are in the way of a truck driving through there to where he wants the hole drilled. He cut and I either held the cord so it didn’t cause him trouble, held the ladder still, or hauled off what he cut down. This morning he took out a barbed wire fence post that was also in the way, so we think, other than having to undo one end of Amber’s dog run, we’re fixed for the truck and equipment coming in and out.

As a result of my labors the last several days, I was stiff and sore when I went to bed last night. I woke up in the night with my back and hips hurting. I took some pain medication and slept on the heat pad. This morning I slathered on Sports Creme (I know – athletes would cringe at this old lady using their stuff) and took more meds. I’m still stiff and sore, but functional now.

We have declared that today will be a rest day. It will also be a yoga day. (I planned for this yesterday, but the branch cutting took precedence.) I MAY set up to start tomato suckers in the greenhouse today, and I MAY spray weed killer on the ground under my raised bed planters, and I MAY prune stuff in the trio of brick planters in the front yard – but I MAY just ignore these things and take a nap…