We kicked off Memorial Day Weekend Friday 05/22/20 with marinated chicken on the grill.

Kicking off Memorial Day weekend Friday 05/22/20 with marinated chicken on the grill

As we were relaxing in the living room watching a movie, Sue jumped up at about 8:15 and announced we needed to take a quick drive up to the top of the ridge at sunset. So, off we went to see if the sunset was picture worthy. Though the colors were more muted than they have been, she did get some nice shots.

A picture worthy sunset!

Saturday morning, Colin brought up and installed a new battery for my Cub Cadet riding mower. The one I had was 10 years old. I didn't find that out until Fall late last year when he had come over to help me get it started and told me. Surprised that the guy who has been working on it for the last couple of years didn't tell me that because I had a whole new ignition switch installed last year. Regardless: new battery.

And of course nothing with equipment goes smoothly. When I was backing the tractor out from under the barn after Colin had jumped the old battery, the f'n tire came off the rim. So, Colin had to jack the thing up and fix that before we could even get to the battery. What a shit-storm of crap.

I spent the rest of the morning cutting the grass. It was so tall in some places I thought I was harvesting the wheat! Well... not quite that bad. But some areas were so thick and tall that I had to cross cut through it all numerous times. I was out there for a long time.

The grass was much higher than I thought it was so I had to re cut some sections a few times.

Coming along....

Once the grass was done, I went up into the barn and pulled down all of the hoses and got them hooked up. Not only would Sue need them for her garden work, but I had a lot of crap on the mower that had to be washed out. And of course, the hose attachment on top of the mower deck to flush out the bottom didn't work, so I have to find a new one of those.

It was such a nice day out that I figured I'd just press on into the early afternoon with some trimming with the weed whacker. Didn't take too long to get things looking pretty good, though Sue will have to get out there with the hand shears to clean out the areas around her flowers and plants.

As nice as the day had been, however, it started to get really chilly as the afternoon progressed. By 5:00 pm when Sue and I called it a day to relax and play some backgammon, neither of us wanted to sit outside, even out on the screen porch. It was chilly even in the living room.

While we played, we got a pizza going in the oven. That brought some warmth into the living room. Good thing because at the end of May I just didn't feel it right to turn the heat on. Gad....

We had invited Steve and Cathy over for 7:30 to sit out by the fire pit. I just knew it was going to be really cold sitting out there, so I bundled up like it was the dead of winter. Of course, I took shit for it, but man it was cold: it eventually got down to 36 degrees around 10 pm when Steve and Cathy left! 36!

Sue, Steve, and Cathy starting to bundle up as the sun begins to drop over the tree line behind the house.

Right after they arrived we just sat out around the fire pit as the sun dropped toward the tree line. Sue and Cathy took Beau for a picture hike up to the top of the ridge to see how the sunset was. Steve and I just sat around the fire pit and had a beer until they got back.

Sue and Cathy took Beau for a walk to the top of the ridge just as the sun was dropping behind the mountains in the distance.

It was pitch black by then, with Beau just barely visible as he ran around the yard. You could just hear some far away fireworks, and that was enough to send Beau creeping over to the back door to be let in. He stayed sequestered inside for the rest of the evening.

Even though the sun had set, the sky was still light blue around us.

Sue brought out a rhubarb sour cream pie with the rhubarb provided earlier in the week by Cathy. I had never had rhubarb before, so that was interesting. Not sure I'd be a fan of just rhubarb, but with the nice additions Sue had made, and the great crust it was really good.

Though 10 minutes later it got really dark very quickly.

Here I am at 9:00 pm, freezing my ass off while clutching a even colder bottle of beer in my winter gloved hand. Yeah, it really was that cold sitting there. Really....

By 10:00 pm we all decided to throw a flag on the field and call it a night as we were all really chilled to the bone.

Yeah, did I mention that the temperature got down to 36 degrees.... I wore my socks to bed it was so chilly even upstairs.

Sunday was bright and sunny, but with a chilly wind blowing through the trees. I loaded the trash, and some brush Sue had collected during the week, and Beau and I headed off for a Dump Run.

When we got back, Sue had a wonderful quiche she had just pulled from the over ready. We sat out on the screen porch, eating, sipping our coffee, and just chatting before she took Beau for a long walk somewhere in the woods.

While she was out, I did the laundry and finished up some computer work I'm doing on my new Longwood Currency Trading Blog as well as a Longwood Currency Trading YouTube channel I've been recording videos for over a month now.

But when she got back, we swung into gear washing some of the windows and dropping screens for the season.

I'm glad someone enjoys all this window washing crap....

Sue insisted I pose for a picture to show my endearing joy....

I thought the brightness of the white blossoms on the apple tree up by the garden wall was a nice contrast to the freshly mowed green of the grass. Glad I got this shot because most of the blossoms were blown off by a series of days with very high winds.

By late afternoon it was getting really chilly, and so we moved inside to get a fire going in the wood stove. That was really nice to have that warmth as we played backgammon and sipped our wine before heading into the kitchen to get dinner going.

I got a nice, warming fire going in the wood stove to knock the chill out of the air.

Sue perched in her window seat hiding from the camera.

Monday, Memorial Day 05/25/20, started off foggy with a very light drizzle. Sue fixed fresh farm eggs with home fries as we waited to see if it would clear — or at least not get worse. By late morning, it was still chilly, but we loaded the kayaks on top of my car and drove up to meet Steve and Cathy for a little outing to see if we could spot the loons nesting on one of the ponds.

Standing with Cathy and Steve with our gear, ready to head out.

Momma Duck herding her brood away from us as we launched our kayaks.

Sue was able to get this neat shot of a Loon nesting.

Steve and I paddled on blabbing about something totally missing the Loon that was swimming not far from us.

It was good to get home and just kick back and watch a movie as the sun dropped behind the tree line. And it was an early night for us both.