Work for The Night is Coming
All good things must come to an end. One cactus was pretty, two cactus were okay. A huge tangled mess of cactus was on it’s way out. The kicker was the day Dennis washed off the west side of the house and the garden hose was pulled along the right side of the cactus bed. Yup, the garden hose was full of the very fine hair-like prickles.
“Work, for the night is coming,
Work through the morning hours;
Work while the dew is sparkling,
Work ’mid springing flowers;
Work when the day grows brighter,
Work in the glowing sun;
Work, for the night is coming,
When man’s work is done.”
I love this hymn of Ann Coghill’s. Today it just spoke to us as we hit the sunshine with a bit of tick list. The south side of our garage is a mere three feet from a gravel alley with a few potholes. Splish, splash goes the mud on the white siding. As of today . . . no more. The garage and potting shed got a soapy bath, complete with personalized scrubbing. The city did put some crushed asphalt down and the petroleum product mixed with the mud needed some TLC. Dennis was the one to wash the porch off. The screens held enough dirt that I could have transplanted one or two of these cactus in pots. After the hands and arms have recovered, I will go on to wash the patio doors before too long. It is more enjoyable to be in our rocking chairs in the porch when we can see through the patio doors’ windows.
Once we got the cactus dug out . . . where to go with them. We decided that the tarp was going to be pulled off to the side until such time that they would dry out and perhaps be burned. As careful as we were, I did snag some of the fine prickles. In the bright sunlight I could see the little devils almost glowing in their brilliance. Just because I could see them was not necessarily meaning I could get at them to pull them out.
The older ones on Stauffer have had another great day. The night is coming and we are done with our work . . . for now. My main objective is to keep an eye on the weather, least we have rain. That means I will beat feet up into the attic to get the window closed. These last several day of brisk breezes surely must be helping to dry out the bit of insulation around the area where the chimney was. I know both Dennis and I will sleep very well tonight.