When I found out the dates for my step dad's hip replacement surgery and the time it would take for him to recoup, I decided that a trip to Georgia might be in order while the kids and Bruce were away at camp for a week. I asked a friend to go with me so I wouldn't have to drive all that way by myself, she agreed and we packed our suitcases full of comfy clothes, books, snacks and various electronic devices to keep us connected with those we love.
I'm sure that at this point God was looking down from heaven shaking His head and chuckling.
Seems Nancy Jo (my mom, who I usually respectfully call "Mom", until this trip) had a few other things in mind.
When we arrived at the cabin at 1:30 in the morning, we got a quick snack and headed to bed, with plans to talk in the morning about any specifics she needed to discuss with us before she went off to work. I swear I saw a little twinkle of mischief in her eye.
The next morning she cooked a nice breakfast, cleaned up to go to work and then we met for a meeting at the table. In my mind we were going to discuss Pop's medicine schedule, his PT regime, his hardheadedness, dinner plans, errands that might need to be run. I didn't see it coming...the sly way she inched her way into talking about the porch....
"How do you think a pop of color would look on the porch?" She asks, knowing I have an opinion...and so my friend, Pam, and I jumped right into her trap...spouting off color schemes and techniques and ideas. And so began our downhill demise and what I am now lovingly calling Work Camp - Georgia Style.
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| Before...porch swing |
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| Before Coffee Table |
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| After coffee table..and hydrangeas from Nancy Jo's yard |
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| Who wouldn't want to spend a few hours swingin' here.... Pillows from Lowe's make this swing extra comfy |
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| Here's the pop of color she was hoping for... |
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| On the other side of the porch we added these chairs with a red "pop" of color to tie in the color scheme. |
Let me give you the back story. The back side of Pop's shed is a scary place. The fact that one of his dogs has been bitten by a snake two times in the last 3 months should give you a pretty good idea of why two smart women should not be trying to move anything remotely located to it -150 feet, uphill, to the other side of the cabin. But we're talking about Pam and I and between the two of us we have never said no to something anyone said was impossible, so Pam started cleaning off the bench...which was covered in a hoarder's heaven of potting containers and gardening essentials.....and containers filled with rank rain water that had been there since the flood...yes, the one Noah was in.
I headed up to trim back the hydrangea bush and came back 10 minutes later. I approached the site with caution since it smelled like something had shrivelled up and died. In fact, I half expected to see one of the boxer puppies laying dead on the ground. As I gasp for air, Pam and I finished pouring out buckets and finally reached the end of the breeding ground for reptiles of all stages and ages. Now all we had to do was move this potting bench uphill to the spot near the hydrangeas. Easy? Of course not.
Wet wood is 1000 times heavier than dry wood. So, the bulky bench was not only rank with the sour water smell, it was heavy and bulky. Pam and I were tossing that thing around the yard like a dog with a piece of meat. It's a wonder it made it to that spot in one piece. Now that I think about it, it's a wonder that Pam and I were still in one piece after we moved it! Not only was it heavy but the ground was slick from all the rain and Pam and I were slipping and sliding all over the place.
We got it all situated. Rinsed it off. Went back down to the shop where we had left a mess and cleaned that up....and there were the pups (two years old...not really pups) drinking the rank rain water. (Yep...that's gross.) One of them had rolled around in it. (They aren't super smart.) We shooed them away and Pop yelled at them and told us it smelled like "Pig Poo" out there. At that point, I was sure I was going to toss my cookies. We were just about done cleaning up, where Clara Bell (Pup), tossed hers all over Pop's shop floor. Cleanup on aisle 4. Could this get anymore nasty?
Shortly after that, it started raining. Pam and I planted ourselves on the front porch admiring our work and feeling pretty good. A soft breeze blew through the air...and as we sipped our ice water and iced tea, we exhaled and inhaled the intoxicating fresh rank rain water air as it whiffed by.
We were too tired to care...and frankly I was pretty sure I was soaked with the odiferous water anyway...so it didn't really matter!
PS- Nancy Jo was super excited to see her new porch...which meant she had more ideas for us for other areas of her yard. Which meant that Day 2 of Work Camp is coming soon to a blog near you! And no matter what you might think...Pam and I really enjoyed taking care of these things for mom...it was almost as nice as sitting around in our comfy clothes, checking out pinterest, eating fun snacks and nodding off randomly....almost, but not exactly.
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