One of, you know, those days.

Good evening. I should be getting myself to bed soon but I just don’t currently feel like it. Some days are, you know, just days. Today has been one of them.

I used to really like Sunday. It was like having a day off. I don’t really feel that any more. This morning, for example. I actually got up late, 7:30, but only because I didn’t go to bed until after midnight. I have to milk Zoey and feed and water the goats so anything beyond 7:30 just isn’t going to happen.

Then I did fun stuff like wash dishes. For breakfast we had sausages and buckwheat pancakes. The pancakes were from a mix that Paul bought because he said, “I wanted to try it.” That really is funny because he almost never eats pancakes. Besides, if someone wants buckwheat pancakes, I’m pretty capable of making them from scratch.

Can you see it? Not really. It's under her left front leg.

Then there were more dishes. I decided to make an apple crisp because we needed something to eat later and we have quite a few apples and I’d really prefer to eat or otherwise use them before they are to the point that I’d rather let the goats have them. Then I decided to make au gratin potatoes because we have a ton (almost literally) of milk, leftover ham, and potatoes that need to be used. That took care of five pounds of potatoes, five cups of milk, and about two cups of cut up ham.

Then there were more dishes. Because there are always more dishes. I did make the boys wash some they’d gotten dirty and I made them put the clean ones away.

Then I decided to make hot chocolate. Because, you know, we have that almost literal ton of milk. That takes care of two and a half quarts. And makes more dirty dishes.

I was wondering what had been causing Misty's digestive upsets. Maybe eating Kitty's leftover catches? Maybe because Kitty actually eats them as opposed to swallowing them whole. I had to make Misty give this one back.

I took the bone out of the ham so I could cook it for pea soup and put the rest of the ham in a smaller container. I think we need to have ham and broccoli fettucine because we’ve still got this ham and we’ve got quite a bit of broccoli, too. I hope Paul wants to take some potatoes to work for lunch. He probably won’t because he likes to eat what he cooks, not what I cook. That’s what comes of being a bachelor for so long, I guess. On the other hand, I generally like to eat what I cook rather than what he cooks which is what comes from doing my own cooking for my entire adult life. Still, I hope he takes some because they don’t freeze well and we’ve got a lot left.

Anyway, I basically was busy doing stuff in the kitchen until noon and then a little bit more when I did the hot chocolate later.

I carved some stamps, too. I was looking at Lord of the Rings pictures and came across this one of Gandalf that said, “You shall not pass,” and thought that would be an excellent one to put on the other side of the river that we had hoped to cross in the fall when we planted Joanna’s letterbox. I changed it some and then carved it. Then I carved a Lamborghini for Cedric. It isn’t perfect by a long shot but he is happy with it and that’s all that counts in my book. I also carved two more for the Star Wars series I’d like to do for May 4^th.

Yum, yum! These are all from yesterday morning, by the way.

That was fun but the reason I carve these things is only partly for the fun. It’s also because I want to plant and find letterboxes. That means hiking and that means finding places to go. The Great Seal of the State of Jefferson is going to be planted near Mt. Jefferson here in Hubbardston and I’m going to call it Transplanted or Homesick. Or maybe Transplanted and Homesick. Cedric’s Lamborghini is going to be called Lambo Lord and be planted also in Hubbardston. Gandalf will be planted by the nonexistent bridge I mentioned and will be called You Shall Not Pass.

I was looking at different places to plant the Star Wars series and haven’t decided. There are quite a few possible locations. Depending on how many I get done, it will need to be a fairly decent hike. One of those I have already done I’d like to do as a hitchhiker. It is a very simple and small design.

When Laura, Joanna, Daniel, and Amena were my homeschooling children, I used to think that I’d like to do a year-long schooling calendar. My thought was to do school for two or three months and then take two or three months off. I had it all figured out but never implemented it. Now that Seth and Joseph are homeschooling, I’d really like to do this now but with Amena and Cedric in public school, it would be much easier said than done. But, if you figure a year having 365 days, 104 of those are weekends. Most schools require 180 days of school. That leaves 81. Why not break them up evenly throughout the year? If you divide the year up into thirteen week quarters, you could be on ten weeks and off three. And that really gives you more days of school than you need unless my math is way off because I should be getting to bed. Anyway, I’d sure like to give it a try sometime.

You might be asking what that has to do with letterboxing. It’s just that I would sure like to go out and plant some letterboxes tomorrow rather than do school. Joseph wants to get out and do lots of hiking because he’d love to catch up with Jack Foley and maybe even pass him on the Pack 12 Cub Scout hiking leaderboard. For a boy who doesn’t like hiking, Jack has a few miles under his belt. Joseph is at 55.5 miles and Jack has slightly less than twenty more. Can Joseph catch up? I don’t know but he’s currently willing to give it a go.

Tomorrow might actually be a good day for school because it’s supposed to snow again. If there is public school tomorrow, Seth and Joseph will do school. If there is no public school, I’ll feel sorry for myself about not being able to get out and do something.

In the meantime, I have plenty to keep myself occupied tomorrow. And then some, really.

In the other meantime, have a splendid evening and a terrific tomorrow.