One of those days

Have you ever had one of those days when you're incredibly productive? Yeah, today was that kind of day.

My work week starts on Thursday (I work an online job Thursday through Saturday). They're usually eleven or twelve-hour days, so I'm pretty tuckered by the end of  them. I've learned, therefore, to do chores on Wednesday, simply because it's nice to start the work week with a clean house.

Additionally, we've had a stretch of absolutely beautiful weather, with sunny days and temps in the low 70s. The birds are singing, the trees are budding, the grass is greening. Spring is here!

Sort of. Weather moves back in tonight and we have about a week of rain (and even a small chance of snow), so we enjoyed the sunshine while we could.

I started by washing our flannel sheets, and hanging them outside to dry. Drying flannel sheets indoors on drying racks is kinda awkward, but it's what I do all winter. Being able to hang them outdoors is a luxury indeed.

I also hung a regular load of laundry, parking the drying racks in the sun to take advantage of the warmth.

I steeped some sun tea.

Next I started a burn barrel. While that was happening, I started raking up all the fallen willow branches from the windy storms earlier this month, starting with the front and side yards. Willows are very pretty trees, but man they shed a lot.

I dumped everything next to the burn pit in the back yard so I could burn it. Darcy, intrigued by all the sticks I was conveniently providing, was a big help.

While the fire burned and Darcy chewed on sticks...

...I raked up the willow branches from the back yard and fed them into the fire. (The photo makes it seem like the fire had spread everywhere; I assure you it didn't.)

After this, I rooted around in the potato bin and pulled out 96 smallish potatoes for planting.

I wanted to plant six beds of potatoes, and figured 16 seed potatoes per bed.

I had prepped the beds yesterday, so they were easy to plant. Space, lever the dirt aside with a shovel, drop the potato in, voila.

It's a bit early to plant potatoes, but I'm willing to take my chances. Any excuse to get a jumpstart on the garden. I'll mulch them in a couple of weeks with straw.

Next I hauled in another load of firewood to add to the stash on the porch, to see us through the upcoming rainy weather.

We were low on kindling for the woodstove, so I collected some thin leftover slats from the shop...

...cut them on the bandsaw...

...and brought them up to the porch. Likely this will be enough kindling to see us through the remainder of the spring.

I emptied the ash bucket in the woodstove.

Then I did a small organizational chore that had been bugging me. In the pantry I keep a box where I store miscellaneous canning rings and assorted lids. It was over-full and hard to find canning rings when I needed them. Just one of those irksome things.

So I cleaned out the box and separated regular and wide-mouth rings into piles.

Then I threaded the rings onto string fastened with a shower clip for easy access.

I hung these in the pantry. I should have done this years ago.

Now my lid box has lots of room.

Next chore: Vacuuming the house (and cleaning the bird cage).

In the evening, I filled a tub with firewood...

...and watched the sky darken with incoming weather.

The very last thing I did today was put up this blog post. Whew, I'm bushed, but at least I have the satisfaction of knowing I got stuff done today.