Welcome to May’s “7th of the month” journal post, which covers the period from 7 April through 6 May 2026. As per usual, I will be following the same pattern that I started in my very first “7th of the month” post by discussing events that fell into the following three categories:
- Holler,
- Personal, and, of course,
- Writing.
And now, without further ado, here’s this month’s “7th of the month” post:
Holler
This “month”, the main focus for “holler” projects was gardening. I spent the first part of the month building small (1’x4′) Square Foot Garden (SFG) planters for part of my plant order through the local Cooperative Extension office. These planters, my “berry boxes”, are for the blackberry and blueberry plants — the starts of my two berry patches. These berry patches are something I’ve been wanting to do since I picked blackberries from the black berry patch of a dear friend of mine, who then turned ’em into blackberry cobblers! Hopefully, I’ll soon be enjoying blackberry cobblers made from blackberries I picked from my own blackberry patch AND blueberry muffins with berries from something my dear friend didn’t have: a blueberry patch! Only time will tell how fruitful my “berry boxes” will become…
In addition to transplanting the blackberry and blueberry plants, I also transplanted some strawberries and onions from the same Cooperative Extension order. I filled TWO 3-tier GreenStalk vertical planters — one with strawberries and the other one with the onions. In addition to the 3-tier planters, I also filled not one… not two… but FOUR “grow bags” (two small and two large) with onions! This is primarily because one of our neighbors gave us a big bag of onion sets that a local business was giving away! Not wanting them to go to waste (like part of my Cooperative Extension order did), I had to work hard to get ’em all transplanted, which I managed to do over the course of several days. I planted ’em all about an inch apart (as per the directions from our neighbor), butt I’m really hoping that they’re not too close together. As with the berries, only time will tell…
In addition to building the “berry boxes”, I also spent some time — and effort — making what I’m calling my “sifter”, using scraps of wood that were lying around and some “chicken wire”. My original plan for the sifter was to use it for sifting the accumulation of sawdust from processing firewood, but then I realized that it would also work for sifting the soil from last year’s GreenStalk vertical planters. So, that’s what I did! Since my focus has been on gardening, I figure that I’ll use the sifter for its original purpose (sifting sawdust) once I’ve got everything I want to grow transplanted into the six other 3-tier GreenStalk vertical planters I’m planning to use for this year’s garden.
While I was busy with the above-mentioned gardening tasks, Sweet Thing spent some time working in the Annex (the new addition to the back of the reliquary) where he set up some solar PV lighting AND created a “sorting station” that I’ll be using as I go through all of the bins and boxes of “stuff” that I take out of the reliquary (to make room for the building of my longed-for loft storage AND a bonafide WORKSHOP). In addition, I might also turn some of the space near the “sorting station” into a temporary “sewing shed” since my plans for a permanent “sewing shed” fell through at the last minute!
In addition to working in the Annex, Sweet Thing also spent some time building me a ramp to get down into the “kitchen garden” area since I felt the back porch stairs were far too rickety for daily use. He ended up getting halfway done before realizing that the slop is too steep. Since we’ll need more wood, we’re going to order enough for the revised “kitchen garden” ramp AND for a much-needed front porch ramp — to replace the rickety front porch steps, too! I can’t tell you how excited I’ll be once both of the ramps have FINALLY been built. In the meantime, though, I’ll be using the partially completed ramp… dreaming about the TWO new ramps!
I’ve now got something exciting to share with y’all: the pond is now home to a couple of special visitors! A pair of Canadian Geese have taken up residence at the far end of the pond, so we’ve been spending lots of time watching them as they dine “al fresca” in the front yard and along the driveway. A few years ago, we had periodic visits from passing Canadian Geese during their annual migration, but they stopped visiting after a while. So… When we discovered the current couple, I was absolutely ecstatic! I REALLY hope that they’ll stick around for a while since I enjoy their company!
Personal
I waited until (almost) the last minute to file my 2025 income tax returns, and it took a phone call from my Darlin’ Daughter (who told me that they were headed down to their tax appointment) to get me started on my own tax returns. I suspect that the reason I waited so long to start this year was receiving letters from both the IRS AND the state’s equivalent! Apparently, I made several errors when preparing last year’s (2024) income tax returns! Thankfully, the errors I made ended up being settled in my favor, but just the fact that I’d made errors last year made me VERY nervous when it came to filing this year’s (2025) income tax returns. I spent many DAYS (probably weeks) working on mine — going back and forth between thinking that I’d be getting a refund to realizing that I’d have to owe taxes yet again. Once I was FINALLY sure I’d done the “maths” correctly (or as correctly as I could), I assembled ’em and then filed ’em — mere days before the April 15th deadline. Whew! I’m glad that task is out of the way for a while!! When next year’s tax season rolls around, I REALLY need to get an earlier start on the preparation of my tax returns!
Once I finally filed my 2025 income tax returns, I was then free to focus on other personal things — like my “quilt-along” sessions AND much-needed car repairs! I’m STILL working on “Wonky”, my double wedding ring quilt, which I want to become a family heirloom in much the same way as family Bibles ended up being family heirlooms — by documenting family weddings. Before it can become such an heirloom, however, I must FINISH the darned thing, especially since yet another series of “quilt-along” sessions will be starting soon! Moving one… At some point, we let the maintenance slide on a couple of our vehicles, which resulted in having just a single working vehicle (the “little white roadster”, or LWR, for short). Because of the work on the ramps, we realized that we needed to get our two other vehicles working, so that was another focus this “month”. As it turned out, bout of our other non-working vehicles (the ones that are able to haul large cargo like the “dimensional lumber” needed for the ramps) needed “brake jobs”, so we’ll be keeping our local mechanic quite busy!
Writing
About the only writing I did this “month” was related to April’s writers’ postcard swap, something I’ve been doing for several years since I love sending and receiving postcards, a Victorian invention! As I mentioned to my postcard swap recipients, my writing screeched to a halt for whatever reason, and I haven’t been able to climb back up onto the “writing wagon”. I’ve got several ideas for stories, but I can’t seem to get started on any of ’em! Consequently, I’m starting to think of myself as an impostor: someone who calls themselves an author/writer, but doesn’t write anything! Hopefully, I’ll be able to break through whatever is stopping me, so I can start actively working on at least one of the story ideas bouncing around in my head AND finish it before the start of my next trip around the sun! I was hoping that participating in May’s GWIC event (the first full weekend in May) would help be break through the “block”, but I got sick between “Packing Day” and the first stop, leaving me with absolutely no desire — or energy — to write! So, yeah… Sadly, not much writing happened this “month”, but “hope springs eternal” as they say, so I’m hoping that things (related to my writing) will change SOON!
Well… I think this about sums up my life for the past “month”. I hope you enjoy this glimpse into my life. I’m looking forward to hearing about what has kept you busy lately, so please don’t hesitate to leave me a comment below!