Out of The PIT

Over the past three weeks I have been biding my time, waiting for this splinter in my thumb to work it's way out. I knew it wasn't deep enough to be stuck forever, but it was not shallow enough for me to pick out. It was painful if I pressed on it, so I eventually got used to avoiding using my thumb for various tasks that required pressing down. Late last week I could feel a bump where the splinter was. It was clearly poking out a bit, but was still under the skin. A couple of days ago, the skin over the splinter sloughed off, and I was able to borrow a pair of tweezers and was able to yank out the offending thorn. It was still a respectable size all things considered. I'll be sure to wear thicker gloves when I continue gardening..

So this seems to be my life now: Less riding, more gardening. We have been spending the past couple of weeks managing our gardens, which are basically both our front and back yards. There is a lot of fauna on our property and it attracts a lot of flora. This past week we saw plenty of birds, a beaver, a snake, a gopher, a rabbit, in addition to the usual squirrels, ducks, raccoons, etc. A week! I'm sure we will be seeing a lot more different animals popping up in and around our lawn over the coming years.. In any case, today was a great day to go out for a ride. Except that I did not. I did not even try to get the bike ready for the season. I had a lot to do in our yards. We still have a lot to do in our yards, but I think once we get the hang of it, things will get a little easier. Along with digging up trees we don't plan on keeping and hiring students to do the grunt work (like raking leaves). We'll get our feet wet this year and figure out what we can and cannot m