Big Ball of Energy

I had the most awesome Saturday.

You know those days where you just find energy?? I so rarely have them that at 8:45am when I realized I had already walked the dog, off leash run the dog, brought firewood from behind the garage into the garage then also filled up my indoor wood bin, fed and watered the chickens, taken a load of shaving out of the chicken coop and spread fresh shavings and cleared some roses, I realized wow!!!! if I can accomplish that in an hour and a half...what else can I do.

A lot is the answer. I hung curtains, painted a door, repaired, sanded and stained drawers to a dresser, cleared two blackberry patches (with the help of the chickens), cleared roses from around the apple tree that fell in the hurricane and cut what I could then reach, took the dog on two hikes and had another off leash game of fetch, gathered all the information I had for my children to do their taxes, tried the first idea of how to manage all the potatoes I have. I blanched and froze three cookie trays of french fries (great idea...I cooked up some today to sample and make sure that process works. Yep, they were delicious!!) I had a lovely long conversation with Zoe. I miss that girl but she is doing really well! When I finally stopped for the day and looked up, it was 11:30pm.

I sure was tired and sore today, but still managed to accomplish a fair bit including peeling and cutting 5 dozen potatoes, boiling and mashing them. I made 5 shepherd's pies and froze the rest in mashed potato rounds.  During the week I hope to make and freeze potato pancakes, dishes of scalloped potatoes, and par boil chunked potatoes that I can use for hash browns or put in soups. I can't thank everyone enough for all the suggestions.


I think that Mother Earth was feeding from the same energy pool that I was yesterday. In order to clear one of the blackberry patches, I needed to remove a birch tree which had fallen over the blackberries. I had started the process last week and had cut a third of the tree up. I brought the chainsaw out, cut some side branches then cut two 16" chunks off the end. Cut more branches, cut another chunk. Now here is the really fun, unbelievable, gravity defying part of the story. I cut a small, insignificant side branch off of this birch tree and stared in awe as the righted itself standing all remaining 10 feet upright. Dropping its roots and raised ground back into the hole it came from. What kind of magic is this??? I'm not sure if you can tell in the picture to the right, but the top of the tree is white and freshly cut looking and 10 feet off the ground (nothing anywhere near what I can reach!)

And tomorrow its back to work lol!!