Cleaning Day
What could be better than an entire day devoted to laundry and cleaning? I hear Pam in my head saying "Yeah, crazy girl, we've been over this already. I-DO-NOT-LOVE-CLEANING." I know, it isn't for everyone. But we're messy people over here at the Williamson Ranch. Someone has to do it. I have been three loads of laundry behind for months now. Actually, I'm kind of scared of all the things I really have to do. There are things I can't put away because about a million other things have to be put away first. The garage is a very scary place right now. I need to clean out the space the freezer is in so I can convert the whole thing to my pantry, but that means shifting everything that's in there to somewhere else. My garage is packed SOLID.
Here's what I hope to do in six hours time:
Think I can do it? I know, seems impossible. But if I'm going to be able to do other things like my preserving projects, I need to clear the slate. It's time to do the following canning projects:
So you see? Oh yes, somehow I managed not to mention paying bills. I'm scared of my bills. I think they're going to choke the life out of me. I think they're going to wait until I'm asleep though. This is fine, I'll just avoid sleep like usual and they will give up.
We got some yard work done yesterday. It felt so good to get out there and do some of the things I've been meaning to get done. I trained Kaiserin Fredrich to the house, trimmed up all of the plants to the left side of the front door, and Philip pulled up the obnoxious bushes that I hate on the right side of the front door. He also finally planted my Peace rose and my Mr. Lincoln. We were talking about how long it takes us to get our yards looking nice. It really takes us a couple of years. During that time we let a lot go to shit while we figure out what we want to do with it all. It took us three years at our old house to get it looking really nice. We're never super tidy so our yard never looks showcase pretty.
It doesn't matter though because even with a certain amount of constant weeds, we got our last garden to where it had a nice structure to it and even when getting sprawly had a charm to it that pleased me so much. You won't ever come to my house and think "Dang, I should write to Sunset Magazine about this place!", but you just might sit back and want to relax while the bees buzz like mad and the humming birds take a dip in the buddleia. You'll want to smell the roses and pick the daisies. You'll want to be in it because at some point my gardens do overflow with amazing scent and color and generally something good to eat.
I get very excited about planning my garden. Yesterday I started looking through some books I got from the library. Border gardening is what I'm most interested in right now because I need to plan a great big border around my front yard. I know I want to mix in some roses, peonies, salvia, yarrow, rudebekia, shasta daisies, coreopsis, lupine, purple cone flowers, lavender, Veronica spicata, Echinops, Scabiosa, Alliums, Achillea, and some penstemon. Some of these are new to me (growing them myself) and many are not. There are a lot more I want to plant as well but how exhaustive a list can anyone read?
Looking through garden books it seems that a favorite tactic is to choose color themes. What I want to choose is every color mixed together. I don't want a cool or hot color scheme. I want to just plant a huge array of colors all jumbled together with certain randomness. Nature doesn't do her planting in color blocks, she just lets seeds fall where they may, so perhaps sometimes there is a big patch of one color where most of a plants seeds have fallen or bulbs have multiplied. But then the birds mix things up. The wind mixes it all up too. When you look out over a field of wild flowers (not easy to find anymore unless planted by humans) you see all the colors and plants mixed up and it's so beautiful to me.
It's time to get ready to clean. So I will leave you with thoughts on your own gardens and homes. Please tell me what your favorite plants are in the garden and why. What are your favorite color schemes? What about your garden gives you the most pleasure? I realize that this is a little bit like asking if you're naked right now, but go ahead, tell me anyway!
Note: I just got back from the gym and returning my library books as well as fetching a couple of items from my store storage and on the way back I realized that my plan is incredibly flawed. If I can't put things away very well until the garage is organized, then why aren't I doing that monster of a job first? I have to do laundry no matter what so I'm going to start and then perhaps revise my original plan. Perhaps I need to do most of the cleaning tomorrow after organizing and cleaning up the spaces that desperately need it. Meanwhile...the clock is ticking. It's already 10:30, so I only have four hours to do whatever I choose to do. Dang it.
Here's what I hope to do in six hours time:
Go to the gym.
- Do every last load of laundry in the house.
- Fold the damn laundry. All of it. Seriously.
Put away as much as I can (magazines, books, toys, purse contents that my purses have vomited all over the house, beer bottles, jars with definitely dead cocoon-type thingy, and all the rawhide scraps the dog has left in handy corners and under chairs.)*I have opted to do what I can from this list today and tackle the tougher bigger garage job another day soon.
- Dust all dustable surfaces.
Sweep all sweepable floors.
Vacuum all vacuumable floors.
Mop the kitchen floor.
Put all clothes away.
Find space for canned peaches and tomatoes in cupboards.
Cut fresh flowers for the house.*there was only one bouquets worth of flowers to pick.
Take library books back.
- Take movies back.
- File papers accumulating on the bill desk.
Think I can do it? I know, seems impossible. But if I'm going to be able to do other things like my preserving projects, I need to clear the slate. It's time to do the following canning projects:
- salsa
- marinated three bean salad
- stewed tomatoes
- pears
- corn relish
- frozen corn (corn is almost done for the season)
So you see? Oh yes, somehow I managed not to mention paying bills. I'm scared of my bills. I think they're going to choke the life out of me. I think they're going to wait until I'm asleep though. This is fine, I'll just avoid sleep like usual and they will give up.
We got some yard work done yesterday. It felt so good to get out there and do some of the things I've been meaning to get done. I trained Kaiserin Fredrich to the house, trimmed up all of the plants to the left side of the front door, and Philip pulled up the obnoxious bushes that I hate on the right side of the front door. He also finally planted my Peace rose and my Mr. Lincoln. We were talking about how long it takes us to get our yards looking nice. It really takes us a couple of years. During that time we let a lot go to shit while we figure out what we want to do with it all. It took us three years at our old house to get it looking really nice. We're never super tidy so our yard never looks showcase pretty.
It doesn't matter though because even with a certain amount of constant weeds, we got our last garden to where it had a nice structure to it and even when getting sprawly had a charm to it that pleased me so much. You won't ever come to my house and think "Dang, I should write to Sunset Magazine about this place!", but you just might sit back and want to relax while the bees buzz like mad and the humming birds take a dip in the buddleia. You'll want to smell the roses and pick the daisies. You'll want to be in it because at some point my gardens do overflow with amazing scent and color and generally something good to eat.
I get very excited about planning my garden. Yesterday I started looking through some books I got from the library. Border gardening is what I'm most interested in right now because I need to plan a great big border around my front yard. I know I want to mix in some roses, peonies, salvia, yarrow, rudebekia, shasta daisies, coreopsis, lupine, purple cone flowers, lavender, Veronica spicata, Echinops, Scabiosa, Alliums, Achillea, and some penstemon. Some of these are new to me (growing them myself) and many are not. There are a lot more I want to plant as well but how exhaustive a list can anyone read?
Looking through garden books it seems that a favorite tactic is to choose color themes. What I want to choose is every color mixed together. I don't want a cool or hot color scheme. I want to just plant a huge array of colors all jumbled together with certain randomness. Nature doesn't do her planting in color blocks, she just lets seeds fall where they may, so perhaps sometimes there is a big patch of one color where most of a plants seeds have fallen or bulbs have multiplied. But then the birds mix things up. The wind mixes it all up too. When you look out over a field of wild flowers (not easy to find anymore unless planted by humans) you see all the colors and plants mixed up and it's so beautiful to me.
It's time to get ready to clean. So I will leave you with thoughts on your own gardens and homes. Please tell me what your favorite plants are in the garden and why. What are your favorite color schemes? What about your garden gives you the most pleasure? I realize that this is a little bit like asking if you're naked right now, but go ahead, tell me anyway!
Note: I just got back from the gym and returning my library books as well as fetching a couple of items from my store storage and on the way back I realized that my plan is incredibly flawed. If I can't put things away very well until the garage is organized, then why aren't I doing that monster of a job first? I have to do laundry no matter what so I'm going to start and then perhaps revise my original plan. Perhaps I need to do most of the cleaning tomorrow after organizing and cleaning up the spaces that desperately need it. Meanwhile...the clock is ticking. It's already 10:30, so I only have four hours to do whatever I choose to do. Dang it.