Jaci Dawn

I am skipping over exercise #9 (what would you do if you suddenly came into a lot of money? A. Invest and Save) and working on #10 (What is a typical writer’s day in your mind? Describe.)

Mine would be a “typical writer/artist’s weekend”, the end result of which is *I hurt all over*. I’ll rub arnica lotion in before I crawl in bed tonight and hope I feel better in the morning when I have to get up to go to the Day Job. The Day Job currently pays the bills, but if I didn’t have to go to the Day Job, and I made money writing and painting, this weekend would be pretty typical.

Saturday, I pulled furniture away from three walls in the living room and washed those walls. I dusted all the shelves and items on display (sorry, no photos), and I washed the oak hardwoods with Murphy’s Oil before replacing the furniture. I cleaned out all the runners for the sliding windows (here, in the Pacific Northwest, mildew and moss is a huge problem, but they weren’t too bad). I washed each wooden slat on the Venetian blinds, and then I washed the big picture window and the small picture window (inside). That done, I gave the rest of the house “a lick and a promise” – deep cleaning is better left on a room-by-room basis.

Then I moved outside. I finished hacking at the rhododendron in front of the front stoop – I hate that plant! It’s pretty only when it blooms, but it covers up the front entrance, and for safety’s sake (mine), it needs to be hacked short every few years. It was also blocking the house numbers (has been for a couple of years). Suffice it to say, you can see our front door now. It was a butcher job, and – sorry – no pics.

A third of my lilac died last summer, and I got out the tree saw and cut out all the dead wood from that. I left the branches on the lawn because by that time, I was DONE. The only other thing of note that I did was to wash off the stoop and steps, and I met the newest new neighbors. (Our neighborhood has been in flux this year: we got a new neighbor across the street to the south, a new neighbor across the street to the east, two elderly neighbors vacated their homes [OK, Virginia died, but Selma moved to a retirement home and her house is now for rent]. And the neighbors across from Selma’s old place just sold their place. Their replacement is who I met). Daniel & Katie and the most adorable Staffordshire Bull Terrier ever. I mean, this guy up and climbed the retaining wall to sniff my pants and tell me how much he likes being our new neighbor. I like this dog!

Then I sat and waited for my husband to call because we were supposed to meet in Estacada for a particular brewery celebration. Don was out hiking with friends and said he’d borrow someone’s cell to call me when it was time. I watched Trolls (horrid, really – who recommended that?). I sorted laundry. I waited. I napped. I waited.

So this isn’t exactly an ideal day in the life of an artist/writer. But he finally called and it turned out that our plans had been canceled by other people and he was coming home. Life happens. Instead, we went down to Feckin’ Brewery and Smokehouse and listened to a pretty darn good cover band (Trying to Sleep). Then we watched a horrid French movie that I still haven’t figured out yet.

Today, however, has been the perfect example of a good writer/artist day. I had popcorn for breakfast, courtesy of the local produce store, Spicer Brothers. Bought pasteurized, but not homogenized milk from Garry’s Dairy, in glass jars. Whole milk. Came home and sank the bird feeder into a bucket with bleach and water.

Don was trimming up the rhododendrons out front, including my butcher job. We have to keep them trimmed up about four to six feet so I can see under them when I come home late at night (safety, ladies!) and we have to keep them trimmed away from the house by 2′, including the gutters. They generate a lot of dead material. (Bonus: he cut up and disposed of the lilac mess I left him.)

I moved to the back yard and took a tree saw to the horrid Oregon Grape I planted 14 years ago. I thought ALL Oregon Grape was a low growing shrub with pretty yellow flowers, so I planted this stuff in innocent bliss. I had little idea that there was a commercialized variety that grows 10-12′ tall and basically takes over your life. The smallish shrub I have always enjoyed turned into a gargantuan monster that shaded out my southwestern garden corner. Last year, I began the move of killing it all and restoring balance to that corner of the garden.

I cut down three of four bushes last year, but was stymied on the fourth: too many tree-like stalks growing out of the ground. The three I cut down last year, I have continued to hack all summer, and I hope will eventually die because I refuse to let them grow. Don came out and helped me kill the fourth – and final – beast. I now understand why my friend, Tori, stated that she “hated Oregon grape”. I thought she was being over-dramatic. Hah!

Still no photos.

We broke for a beer break and opened the first of the beers in Donald’s prize case from Feckin’ (for the barbecue): Feckin’s tasty IRA. It’s a red ale, not too hoppy, and very low on the IPA scale (I hate IPAs, just for the record). An excellent ale.

Then we watched bees. This is a note to not be underrated: bees. I can name three neighbors who use chemicals to kill weeds and insects. I have a sign in our front yard proclaiming us to be chemical free. Fifteen years ago, our first summer in the garden was spent asking ourselves, “Where are the insects?” We had no insects, no birds.

Fifteen years later, we have a plethora of bees: green, black, honey, bumble. Wasps (I welcome all except yellowjackets). Spiders. The birds are amazing.

Speaking of birds, I cleaned the bird feeder, stewed down some suet and added dried mealworms. We rehung the birdfeeder full of black oil sunflower seeds and one suet feeder. Then I came out to see my car covered in this:

The little shits shat all over my car. Pretty certain it was hummingbirds who were upset with Don trimming the rhododendrons, but – really???

I spenbt the rest of the afternoon tracking down insects with my Google Pixel (it takes better macro photos than my DSLR). The bees weren’t cooperative, but the fall wolf spiders were.

Finally, after showers, laundry, dinner – I was able to sit at the computer and write, scan, and create. Perfect day for me. 🙂

I still have time to work on a chapter in my novel.