Road work.

One of the many projects we are working on is clearing out the area where the driveway will go. One of the things we had to do was take care of all this leftover cement block pieces from the old logging office. We started to use them to fill in the little ravines in the logging road, but that was clearly going to take forever. So one pickup truck load at a time, my husband has been hauling them to a recycling center that agreed to take it for a project that they are doing.

I've been keeping my eyes peeled for any plants I might want to re-locate. I saw these leaves and thought they just had to be something interesting. When I looked them up, I discovered they are a strange little wildflower called Little Brown Jug. I dug up the three sets I found and moved them to a safe place where I can keep an eye on them. 

The other thing we are doing is piling up and rocks to be used for a chimney and/or foundation. There are a LOT of rocks in these mountains, many large and flat.

We have a made a bunch of piles of them so they'll be available to the builder next year.

Tumbleweed likes to drape herself over any available perch and watch us. Here she is on one of the many piles of cut firewood.

She supervises my work much of the time, except when she is expressing her love by purring loudly while she tries to devour my hand.

Man, I hate poison ivy.

So I was working on an update post but got temporarily waylaid. I took off last Wednesday because I'd been advised to not plan anything the day after my second COVID vaccine dose. I had a headache Tuesday evening and Wednesday morning, but then basically felt fine. Likely because I have a slacker-ass immune system.  My husband had taken the day off, too, so we went up to the Ridge and while he was setting poles for fencing, I tended a brush pile that we were burning. It was a gorgeous day and I was working in a short-sleeved t-shirt. Unfortunately, there were poison ivy vines included in the brush. Which, apparently, can get to you through the smoke. Within a day, I had poison ivy rash on my arms, neck and face. Even my eyelid! Most unpleasant. 

Because of that, I hadn't felt motivated to do much of anything until recently, and in the evenings we've been lying around watching a global cooking competition show called "The Final Table." The Spain episode stirred up a craving for Paella Valenciana, and I made it this weekend. We made ours with chicken, shrimp, clams, and spicy chicken sausage. I also roasted some peppers and tomatoes to add it. It was pretty good. I even got the browned layer on the bottom, called the socorrat, to come out right. My poison ivy is fading a tiny bit, so I will start working on the update post now.