Weekend Chores Are Never Done

I started off my chores with a load of laundry. Who needs a gym membership when I get to haul 5 buckets of water for the wash cycle and 5 buckets for the rinse? Then I moved on to organizing the mobile home some more. I moved more things in to the shed like the plastic chairs, the carpet cleaning machine and the yard tools. It's looking more and more like a plain old shed every day and less like my shed-house. Oh well, my shed-house dream will happen someday. It's just not time yet.

Right now I am working on making the mobile home livable. It needs a lot of work. At least I can walk around without climbing over things. Once I get all of the similar items together then I can give/sell them. Today I noticed how many tarps I have...4 of them. I need one to cover my water tank. Good thing I didn't run out and buy another one. I still have a lot of trash to go to the dump but I want to make sure my truck will be full. It costs $10 a load so I want to get as much in there as possible.

My main goal of the day was to fill my giant pot with potting soil. I thought about buying soil but I don't have any money for that so I used the potting soil that was in the greenhouse's bathtub.That's right, the prior resident liked to use bathtubs as pots. See, he was frugal too. I also have over 100 black plastic pots from the prior owner. I need to give those away. Black plastic in this climate just cooks the plant's roots. I have enough gardening trouble without cooking the plants too. That greenhouse gets so hot in the summer, I thought that I should hang a clothes line in there. My clothes would be dried in minutes if I could stand the heat while I hung them :) I hauled many loads of soil to my pot and replanted the strawberry plant. Something recently ate my strawberry plant. It was doing so well too. There is a little left. Hopefully it will come back now that it has a lot of room to grow.

After the pot was full of soil I planted a bunch of seeds. I'm not very optimistic that anything will grow so I planted many things like thyme, peas, beans, tomatoes, zucchini and yellow squash...oh and marigolds. If no vegetables grow at least I might get flowers. The pot is near my front door so I can check on its progress every day. It is on the north side of the RV so it will get shade. And I can collect water from my shower and from dish washing and water my plants because they are so conveniently located. Hopefully javelinas, squirrels, pack rats and rabbits won't get up there either.

I finished that job then filled my RV water tank and then filled the small water tank. I don't know if we will get any more rain before July but I have room for it if we do. I also cleaned out the storage compartment under my RV. Wow, so much space...now, what can I put down there? I have heard of people adding a cat door between the inside of the RV and this storage compartment. They put the litter box in there. That might be something that I want to do if I can convince my cat that it is a good idea. Then I rode my exercise bike while watching TV again (it's still fun because it's new to me), collected my laundry and put it away, then started to make dinner.

I needed to go outside again so I opened the door and the trouble-making neighbor dog came bounding around the corner. I jumped back inside. Well, I thought, I'll wait and hope he leaves. I made dinner, ate it, made lunches for the week and kept looking outside to see if he had left. Nope. I looked one more time and this is what I saw:

That is it! Last year I hid in my RV because that dog decided that I was his big chew toy. He also stripped the bark off of my newly planted baby tree and bit my tomato plant in half. He left bruises and scratches on my arms and body. He really scares me. I know he is just a big dumb dog who doesn't know his own strength but I am not going to be held captive on my own property again! I talked to his owners last year and they promised to put up an electronic fence. I didn't see him for 4 months and all of a sudden he is back. I guess the fence isn't working anymore. Of all the garden predators, I didn't think of THAT one. I had hoped that having a tall pot would keep most animals away like bunnies and squirrels. Well, I forgot about neighbor dogs. Does he think I hid a bone at the bottom??? After that picture was taken I 'discouraged' him from visiting. I hope I never see him again. Grrrr.