Done!

For the last few weeks J has been so helpful. I do try not to work a good horse to death, but I could use her here 8 hours a day for weeks. However, we have both had bad sinus problems with fever. And, there are allergies. She works very odd hours and never knows when the woman needs her. Besides, I could not hold up to her being here for an 8 hour day. So, she comes here at odd times and for a few hours.

She did not mow the yard last week, so today she came and finished picking up sticks and such. She did an excellent job of getting the yard clear of sticks that could ruin the new lawnmower exbf bought last year. She arrived at 9 am and left about 1:30. We did take off for lunch at Arby's--Grand Turkey Club with a coupon, of course. So, each sandwich was $2.99. We got 50 cent Cokes and ate in a little park with a walking trail, pulled up under trees for shade.

I told her I could not pay much and she said it was okay. She received $20 + lunch + other things she can use that I gave her. AND, yes, she agreed to come every two weeks.

The mower has a bagger. This was my request so it would get leaves people refuse to rake, even for pay. They want to blow them. Well, that just makes a mess. With fences on two sides and bushes on the third and lots of leaves, the leaves just blow up too much dust. Dust that is 30 feet high and leaves going nowhere is not my idea of getting leaves up.

She dumped the leaves on the street right where I told her. She likes to have me there so she can do it right. As she dumped the leaves, I decided I should have told her to put them in the chicken pen. Wasted leaves!

Then, I told her to dump them in the chicken pen and just happened to be there when she was ready to do so. I had her just dump them at the back of the pen. She wondered it I did not want her to spread the leaves out. Nope, one pile from each time she dumped. I explained the chicken would spread it. Later, as she was dumping the last bag, she smiled and said she saw Dominique spread it.

She learns lots, maybe not really important life skills, but learns nevertheless. She left a few things undone that I told her to do, but she got weeds, leaves and grass up. Or down, depending on what it was.  She told me she left lots of my flowers because she hated to cut them down even though they were right in the middle of the yard. She explained she mowed around them.

When I went out to see, she had left weeds. When I showed her the rounded ends of daffodils and the pointed ends of the weeds, she volunteered to mow the weeds she left. Guys complain about mowing around huge swaths of daffodils. She has a better work ethic and attitude than anyone who has ever mowed my yard. She has a job as long as she wants it. Really, it will only take her about an hour from now on. It was my lawnmower and my no-ethanol gas. And, she walks down the street. Plus, I feed her.

I gave her a huge, square, flour-sack kitchen towel and told her to wear it like a bandana so she would not get the pulverized leaves in her nose and mouth and drop it down cowboy style when she did not need it. She was glad to have it because of the dust. I also gave her a Zyrtec since she was out.

The weeds do look like pretty, tiny deep purple Iris. But, I hate them. One guy refused to mow them even when I begged and threatened. He was a good friend. So, I just went out and live-headed the weed flower before he arrived and we never had another problem...lol. He was very careful not to mow down my daffodils! He knew not to mow them after they bloomed!

Even though I did nothing useful today, I hurt so I can barely stand it, even lying down. Since it was her first time to mow, I had to show her things and she came in to ask and wanted me to come out. Climbing the steps and walking around was excruciating.

I fixed Dominique's food about 10 am and found it on the counter at 6 pm. I am a bad chickie mama, but she had about an hour to eat. She did not give me an egg unless she laid it after 6 pm.

One thing I did was to get my son and grandson's birthday gifts in the mail. So, that's done in time since some of the stuff is Easter stuff. My son will be 49 on Easter and his son will be 12 on the 19th.

Your turn
Do you ever feel a great accomplishment even when someone else does the task? That's how I feel right now. Does exhaustion overtake you even when just occasionally supervising a task?