Fish and (wood)chips

Friday was Charles' last day of summer vacation, so because he was having to go back to school and because he has been such a help this summer - with everything but especially with the bookcase ordeal, I told him I was treating him to a fish dinner at Country Catfish in Oakland.
I had Court in Water Valley which turned into an all day matter. It actually worked out pretty well though because I called Charles as I was leaving, and he met me in Batesville.

We met at Mama and Jerry's so that I could change clothes. Mama was still in Tupelo, and Jerry was still at work, but Peanut was at home. She was a little confused when I came in but there was still no Mama or Jerry!

Mary Ann and Nathan were in Batesville helping Matt get his new office situated, so we planned to meet them, so they could go to Country Catfish with us.

I had to make a quick stop at Blossom's for a boxwood sphere (great idea, Mama!) for my new Peter's pottery vase for the end table. Wanda Carol had just what I needed! I am so happy with the way it turned out...After taking the boxwood back to Mama's so that it wouldn't get too hot in the car, we met the Dillons and headed to Oakland. We stopped by an antique store across the road from the restaurant, and Mary Ann and I each found a couple of neat pieces.
Then it was back across the street for a delicious catfish dinner!

I had left my car at Mama's and had a great surprise when I got back to Batesville...Jerry had taken my car to get the crack in the windshield fixed. How sweet was that!!

After a great evening, we arrived home to find a pretty hot house. Saturday morning we woke up really early to find that the house was still just 77 degrees. Since the air conditioner unit had a frozen coil, there was really nothing we could do until a licensed repair man came out to add more freon. And since this happened on the HOTTEST day of the year so far, Charles had to leave messages for all of the repair guys in town.

I decided to make the most of the situation. Since we were going to burn up inside, we might as well burn up outside and get some of the much needed yard work done.
So, I began by trimming the evergreen tree next to our garage. It had these ugly brown pod things on it that have little worms or something inside - I know gross right? Anyway, I was determined to get all of them off and figured that if I brought out the trimmers, I wouldn't have to touch them...I think I got a little carried away, but all the pods are off of the tree now.

After leaving messages for the repair guys, Charles came out to see what I was up too. He helped trim the upper branches which were too high for me to reach. He then tackled weed eating the back hill while I pruned a few more shrubs and weeded the front beds.

I got the rake out to help move the mulch and dirt around. The rake was also helpful because I used it to make an outline of where I wanted Charles to edge the side beds. I also used it to outline a widened front bed for Charles to edge around.

When we were about halfway through with our projects, the repair guys started calling. Thankfully, one told us he could come around 1:00.

We kept working until almost noon - by then it was way too hot for us. The morning had actually been pretty nice because a breeze was blowing for most of it. However, by noon, the breeze had stopped and the sun was just beating down...

We got a lot accomplished, but we still have to mulch all the beds. We decided today that that project could wait until a cooler evening this week!


Thankfully, we were not without our air conditioner for too long, but just being without it for a night a half a day really makes you realize just how thankful for it you are!