June 2, 2024

Recovery Day

We sat outside, drinking our Sunday morning coffee on the deck. Last night, I slept well and this morning I felt rested. The sun was rising, and dawn’s air felt refreshingly cool. The loud songs of various birds filled the air, creating a pleasant soundscape. I felt excited about another day off work.

While drinking coffee, my wife and I talked about purchasing a push mower to aid in our property’s upkeep. While the yard was too large to mow with a push mower, there were certain areas that were too small for the riding mower. We looked online and chose a few options, deciding we would go into town to make a purchase.

I washed up and changed clothes, preparing for our trip into Wilson. I had a bad habit of not checking my text messages whenever my wife was with me. Why would I need to check them when she was in the next room? I came out dressed, ready to go, and she asked me if I saw her text. Nope. She had done some online research and all the mowers that had the features we were looking for cost around five hundred dollars.

I originally looked at a Honda mower, but when I saw the five hundred dollar price tag, and that it would require a drive into Raleigh, I decided against making the purchase today. She told me it was a big purchase for an impromptu decision, and I agreed. So, we decided not to leave the house. The thought of staying home made me happy.

My wife, who loved spending time on the riding mower, pulled it out of the barn and mowed the front yard and an area just north of the pasture. Although there was no longer a fence here, three posts remained lodged in the ground, giving away the previous owner’s layout for managing their horses. To my surprise, my wife pulled out the three wooden posts by herself. It seemed to open up the yard and made the place look nicer. She was such a hard worker.

A long time ago, I had set out fishing gear that got wet in a rainstorm. I meant to clean it up, but the task never made my list as a priority, until today. I spent time outside rummaging through the bags and tackle. Because the fishing gear had sat wet for a while, I disposed of the paper and cardboard and thoroughly inspected each item. I washed everything and discarded anything unsalvageable. I was happy to find several usable pieces of tackle. After washing the items and letting them dry in the sun, I moved them to my Yeti fishing bucket that stayed in the back of my SUV.

After my wife mowed and I cleaned my gear, we were both hungry. I invited her to lunch, so we drove into Wilson to eat at La Rancherita, where we shared a torta birria, and a dip sampler to go with all the chips we ate. The weather was nice outside, and we weren’t in the mood for the place’s infamously rowdy music, so we opted to sit outside. It was a nice way to refuel and relax.

As always, we both felt tired from the busy workweek and enormous meal, so we followed through with a plan we made over lunch. We would take a nap. Because my wife had trouble napping, we decided she would take the couch and I would take the bed. She never napped in our bedroom, and we both didn’t fit on the couch. We fell asleep for two hours. That’s how I knew my wife was exhausted. She hardly ever took naps, and when she did, it was usually for less than half an hour.

We woke up groggy but feeling great. Sleep was a wonderful thing. We sipped a cup of coffee outside, and once we were fully awake, my wife got busy studying while I sat down to write. During a break, I put some chicken on the grill to smoke, while my wife concocted a creamy horseradish sauce I had requested.

After our study and writing session, we gathered various fruits and vegetables we purchased for the animals. There was corn on the cob, still in their husks, two kinds of apples, and some old cherries that needed to be discarded. We placed food in two different areas, just inside the tree line on the west side of the property, and, in the east, inside the pine grove.

In the evening, we smoked chicken to use for meals throughout the week, and for dinner, I cooked two steaks with wedge fried potatoes. The creamy horseradish sauce my wife made was perfect, the exact flavor and consistency I had imagined. After we ate, my wife went to take a bath, and I left the house to take a walk through the forest.

It was a nice evening to be out. Clouds covered the sky, making the woods darker than usual. In the grove, I spotted a small cottontail rabbit, relatively new to the area. It was feeding near the place where my wife had thrown two apples. There were fireflies lighting all around.

I moved up the trail in the pine grove, walking past the apples and corn we laid down. The animals had not touched them. As I moved north along the trail, I spotted movement ahead of me in the distance. A lone deer was calmly walking away from me. While in the forest, I stopped by Beaver Tooth Rock and the small marsh by the creek, taking in the scenery one last time before the workweek began.

When I arrived back at the trailhead, I saw a doe bedded down in the pasture. I paused, took a few deep breaths, looking up at the darkened sky. The weekend was over, and my mind was prepared for the workweek ahead. But first, more sleep.