I’ve been working on the “Belly Vested Whapado” bird for several days now. He’s finally finished and will find his spot in the yard later today. We’ll have to tie him to something wherever he lives, because he needs the extra help, but I’ll take some pics and post them later.
Next up will be a set of 4 “emus’ we built to hold planter pots. There are actually 6 emus in the set. 4 live together to the side of the driveway and and there are 2 more that live on our deck. We haven’t brought the other 2 in yet. Pics to follow on these, as well.
There are some yard critters that I plan to refurbish in place. One is the robot who welcomes people to our home and holds our house numbers sign. He weighs 200+ pounds. I’ll do him in stages, first cutting the greenery away around him, then using a mold remover to get him clean, and then bringing a large can of white paint and a brush to the bottom of the driveway in our truck. I will also use rust preventing spray paint on him, masking areas carefully.
I noticed the ‘Mama and Baby Snail’ that live on one of the brick planters needs to be repainted, and a shovel bird that perches on the edge needs work, too. Right now I am refusing to even THINK about the ‘Flying Pig’ that hangs over the driveway. :0)
Our “cleaning robot” is finished and ready to be put back in place. We will do that later and I’ll take pics for share with you.
Meanwhile, I’m now working on TWO pieces simultaneously.
We call this the “Belly Vested Whapadoo”
As you can see, he needs a lot of work. My husband came out to give me moral support. He steadied the ‘bird’ as I started the cleaning. All of a sudden, his HEAD fell off!
While my husband reattached the head, I switched to another piece. It was a smaller “shovel bird” that we use as a bird feeder in the front flower planters. We also drilled some holes in the shovel for better drainage.
I got about half of the shovel bird piece painted yesterday. I’ll finish that today, and then get started again on cleaning the Whapadoo.
We call this yard critter our “Cleaning Robot.” He is ready to clean up any spill with his fireplace broom and shovel dust pan.
He has the usual fading or peeling paint, but he was also injured this past year, falling over and having his head break off. My husband did a quick repair, welding his head back on, but we didn’t take the time or effort to do anything cosmetic.
This morning I thoroughly cleaned him, threw away the completely faded and now brittle “red” bowtie, pulled off his discolored eyes, etc.
I painted the first coat, but am considering some color changes that might mask some f the weathering damage better.
Our humidity is still really high, making our rather moderate temperature of 88 right now feel like you’re swimming through pea soup as you walk around, so unless it rains, the robot will have to wait until tomorrow morning for more work.
Our turkey was just really dirty with all the paint fading or completely gone. I forgot to take a “before” pic before I started cleaning him up. I put him back in his spot beside the driveway last night.
My husband wants to change where the turkey lives, and I have no problem with that. He’ll probably move it today while I work on another critter.
It’ll be interesting to see where my husband decides he should live.
I’m leaving for Lunch Bunch in about an hour, looking forward to celebrating my friend’s birthday today, and hopefully it won’t be TOO hot to choose another critter, take a pic or two, and get started with the cleaning.
We did our errands and I went out to the shop to work on the Farmer Robot.
I replaced his ‘hands,’ having found an old pair of work gloves. I stuffed the fingers with plastic peanuts and the palm of the hands with plastic bags. I drilled a hole in one side of the gloves so I could screw them onto the arms – having learned the hard way that if you don’t do that, the hands ‘disappear.’ I then wrapped some duct tape around the bottom of the gloves – also having learned the hard way – that if you don’t, wasps make nests in the gloves.
I laid him on his back in order to be able to glue new eyes in and have them stay on, instead of falling off before they are dry. When I eased him down onto his back, water came streaming out! Apparently he filled with water during all the heavy rains we’ve been having. I left him on his back and finished painting the lower part of his overalls and legs.
Later today I’ll turn him over, seeing if more water comes out, and also so I can paint the lower part of his back and legs. When I stand him up again, I’ll use duct tape around his neck to keep as much water out as possible, then tie the bandana back on.
My husband will use our truck dolly to give him a ride from the shop to his spot on the right side of our driveway pad against the house. When he is back where he lives, we’ll take pics to show you.
I’ve almost finished the 2nd piece in our metal critters refurbishing project. There are 8 more in the shop, with more to come.
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,I think I told you that we got fiber optic Internet and TV when we finally got the opportunity recently. We’re very happy with the Internet. There is much less lag time than there used to be. The TV, however, is VERY upset when the system goes off, in a sudden power outage, for example. It takes forever (seemingly) to get to the point where it is up enough that our remotes again work. We decided to get a UPS that will live in the entertainment center with the TV plugged into it. Our power outages are of very short duration. We have a generator that comes on when the public power is out. It switches on by itself when it detects the public power is off for a certain amount of time. It switches off again when it senses we have public power back. A couple of mornings ago, our power went off and on several times in succession. I thought we would never get the TV back again.
The UPS we ordered came this afternoon and my husband hooked it up awhile ago. Now we’re waiting for the TV to resurrect itself and be able to watch TV again. Fingers are crossed that we have this small irritation solved now.
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I find it almost impossible to believe what a gorgeous day we’re having. It is normally in the mid to high 90s with a heat index in the triple digits. Right now it’s sunny and 78 degrees F. with a light breeze. Stunningly beautiful!
This poor little guy we call the “Farmer Robot.” He stands to one side of our garage door, keeping watch on the yard and our garden. As you can see, he needs quite a bit of refurbishing.
I started work on him yesterday. I scraped the peeling paint, removed the farming gloves and bandana, and generally cleaned him up as much as possible.
I’ll get him some new work gloves, stuffing them with plastic bags to give them some shape. I’ll replace his bandana, and his eyes.
I got a first coat of fresh paint on him yesterday and will continue the work today. I hope I can make him look reasonable again.
I finished the box turtle and put him out in the rock garden again. I cleaned him thoroughly, replaced his eyes, freshened the paint, and sprayed him with polyurethane to protect him as much as possible.
I started another critter this morning. We call him the “Farmer Robot.” I’ll show you pics of the sad shape he’s in tomorrow.
Today is a pretty day, though the humidity is still high. Thanks to a neighbor’s super-kind compliments about our mailbox decorations, we will change our decoration when we leave to go to Lunch Bunch. This is what we’ll put up –
Pepe LePew and Penelope
We will enjoy catching up with our long time friends as we have every Friday for over 17 years now. It’s impossible to explain how close we feel, having shared highs and lows, laughs and tears all this time. The number of people at lunch changes from time to time, depending on who is being visited, which other friends took time to be with us, but the core remains the same – Kay, Linda, and me, plus my husband who was ‘graciously’ taken in as an honorary member of Lunch Bunch. Kay’s husband also joins us from time to time when he isn’t working. He is in high demand because he can run many huge machines like an artist – a vanishing skill.
When we come home, I’m planning to get out and weed whack the yard. My husband got the recalcitrant riding mower running and got the main part of the yard done. I need to do the parts he can’t get with the mower, of which there are many, followed by leaf blowing to clean things up, and then spraying with KillzAll weed killer to discourage new growth. I don’t know how long I’ll last in the heat, but it’s good knowing I can come in, jump into the shower, dress in clean clothes, and maybe even have a nap this afternoon.
Tomorrow is the official start of “Lewis Refurb 2021” where I wash, scrape and thoroughly clean one of our yard metal critters, then repair or replace parts, repaint, and finally spray with polyurethane for protection so it can go back outside. The sun and rain and temperature ranges are very hard on them. I’ll do the best I can to give them some more years as members of the Lewis family. I’ll start with our “Box Turtle.” –
This is what he used to look like. I’ll take a picture when I get started so you can see what Mother Nature does to our ‘creations.’ The poor thing is NOT a happy camper right now.
The other thing I’m hoping for this weekend is that my husband will be in the mood to cook out. I have some kielbasa and some lovely veggies that would make a delicious meal. I’m hoping we can have a late dinner, sit and talk on the deck, with our rope LED lights on, making things festive, while we enjoy the evening and our animals.
I hope that you’re having a nice day today and that you’re looking forward to an enjoyable weekend.
Isn’t this wonderful? The child’s happiness just radiates from this sculpture. (Not sure how happy the frog is, though)
Summer is here in Arkansas all of a sudden. The temperatures are soaring, the humidity is rising. Afternoon thunderstorms are forecast almost daily, with or without severe weather. We have had SO much rain this year that one of the next things we need to do is trim out some of the greenery that is trying to close off our driveway. I will drive the truck S-L-O-W-L-Y down one side of the driveway. My husband will ride in the back, yelling at me to stop each time he needs to work an area. He’ll lop things off as well as possible, throwing the debris to the side of the driveway. When we get to the bottom (650 feet down our steep driveway) I’ll drive to the church, turn around and then go UP the other side of the driveway. We have SO much this year that we will probably need to do this several times before it is reasonably clear.
Ironically, one of the next pressing things is to get our irrigation system for the yard on, tested, repaired where we have blowouts, and schedule to run. Our rain will probably shut off one of these days, like Mother Nature turned off the faucet, and things will dry up and die fast.
I’ll spread out the black plastic we had on the floor of the greenhouse, trying to get the remaining plastic to dry enough that the mud will fall off. Right now the mud and rain makes it weigh a TON. I think that once it is dry enough, I can get the remains into two more leaf bags. Then I’ll spread grass seed on the bare area that was under the plastic and clean things up. And the dismantling of my beloved greenhouse will be finished. I’m disappointed that I wasn’t able to make it work. It was too cold or too hot 99 percent of the time. We did what we could, with barrels of water warmed up by the sun, plus a space heater on a LONG extension cord in the winter, and extra fans and as much cross breeze as we could get in the summer. I think we could have made it work if we could have afforded to fully heat and cool it. Maybe we can try again if we win the lottery or the Publisher’s Clearing House Sweepstakes.
One thing we were looking for over 30 years ago now when we were looking for land on which to build our home, was running water (a brook, or stream, or even a pond.) We couldn’t find that and ‘settled for” the top of a ridge line with a terrific view of two more ridge lines behind us and the valley in-between. If we had been able to find the water, maybe I could still find the childhood joy of catching a frog…
Our weather can’t decide if it wants to rain or let the sun come out. When we awoke this morning, it had rained very recently. Now the sun is peaking out a bit. We’re due for scattered showers from now through Tuesday, at least. We’re starting to get used to trying to get things done between storms…
THANK YOU to the people who have looked at my new site on Etsy HandmadeHavenByLinda and have written to make suggestions. Fresh eyes and new ideas are priceless. I appreciate your help. :0)
I’m gearing up to
finish clearing off the last of the greenhouse. We have one long, heavy 4×4 remaining. My husband has been carrying one at a time out to the shop to remove whatever is still attached and save the wood for another project. With the price of lumber now, this is a thing for us. Also remaining out there is the black plastic we put down on the cleared space that was supposed to keep weeds from growing inside the greenhouse. This had limited success, and was also invaded by fire ants. I will go out armed with Eight Bug Killer and will carefully try to gather up the plastic. And finally, I’ll use the weed whacker to neaten up where things had grown up.
It’s time to refurbish the metal critters we have created over the years that are all around our yard. We are taking them out to the shop, where I will clean, repaint, replace parts, etc. before we put them out again. The sun and rain and whatever are hard on things, so it will take a bit of effort to restore them to their former ‘glory.’ First up is our “Box Turtle” –
This is the way he is supposed to look. Right now he’s VERY dirty. Some of his paint is peeling, and at least one of his eyes has fallen off. I’ll try to take pics as I go to share with you.
It looks like today will be another perfect day. We had one yesterday, too – sunny and 80 – and I’m not taking a minute of these for granted.
We leave in a bit more than an hour for Lunch Bunch. Today I’m taking gallon bags of spinach and lettuce from our garden to my friends. I absolutely love it when we have enough to be able to share with people who mean so much to me.
I’m hoping that one of my friends will have pictures of her new kitchen floor to share. She had a pipe burst during the last winter storm and it completely ruined her floor. Apparently a LOT of people had damage because she had to wait a long time for someone to be able to build a new one for her. I talked to her on the phone, though, and she said she was THRILLED with it.
I have some pics of our new carpet and new porch floor to share with my friends. It will be a LONG time before I get up to walk anywhere on the first floor of our house and fail to smile ear to ear. It’s such a pleasure to have things looking good. We’ve been opening our front and back doors to enjoy the weather in the afternoons. I can also see our new porch floor when we do that. And the carpet FEELS so good when you walk on it. :0)
Yesterday when we were going to get our mail and make a quick run to the grocery store, we couldn’t get our garage door to stay closed. It kept going down, then ‘bouncing’ off the bottom and going up again. Apparently the last big storm we had recently blew its mind. We ended up getting out the paperwork and reprogramming the remote that lives in the truck and the manual opener that lives outside the garage. Now it seems to be working fine.
Yesterday’s project bundle was threefold: 1) three loads of laundry, 2) put new sheets on our bed and change out the electric blanket for a summer velour one, and 3) change my clothes in my closet, putting winter stuff in the guest room closet and bringing summer stuff into my bedroom closet. I got most all of this accomplished yesterday. Today I’ll finish organizing my closet today, plus I’m promising myself to actually go through my stuff carefully, looking for things to donate.
I will also check my garden to see if I need to start the automatic watering again. We’ve been getting a lot of rain, so I turned the system off. We’re supposed to get more rain tomorrow night into Sunday…
We splurged last night, eating hot dogs and chips, with ice cream and fresh cut up strawberries for dessert. It’s been about a year since we did that last, so it tasted like Heaven. :0)
I hope that your Friday is wonderful. Enjoy every minute!
We haven’t bothered to change our mailbox decoration for several months due to several factors. We had put up my husband’s favorite of the decorations we have made –
Sonic, The Hedgehog, Wyle E. Coyote, and Roadrunner. He likes this one especially because it was the first time we had a real 3-D-ness, with the Roadrunner’s legs.
Yesterday we were getting the mail really late in the afternoon. I asked if my husband minded changing the mailbox decoration. He agreed, so we put up MY favorite, Calvin & Hobbes. This one makes me smile, and I think that with all we are all going through these days, it’s good to get even a virtual hug.
Safe Elite Transformations 479-849-0520 started work for us on the Friday before Easter. I found them through Home Advisor. Cliff called right away, made an appointment to come look at what we needed, gave me a price for replacing the porch ceiling, repairing the roof soffit where squirrels had gotten in and were wreaking havoc – chewing wires, chewing a hole through the ceiling, etc., plus hanging a new shutter we had bought and needed installed on the 2nd floor of the outside of our brick home. He told me when he would call with a price, and he didn’t keep me waiting. I accepted and the work began without delay.
They quickly tore out the old sheet rock. They were careful removing our fluorescent light fixtures and ceiling fan. Cliff told me he appreciated the good job I had done getting everything on the porch out onto the deck. They got the new sheet rock up in a day, I think. They were very careful on the mudding and taping – even tearing one part off and redoing it because it didn’t meet their standards for excellence. Their ‘texture guy’ came and did a beautiful job of adding texture to the ceiling before painting. It really is an art.
Here is a picture of the finished ceiling with the fluorescent fixtures and ceiling fan back up.
We expanded the contract – at my instigation – to include painting the rest of the woodwork on the porch. I knew – having painted it before – that you have to use roller AND brush and it takes forever.
So now I feel we have a new porch. The only exception to that is the floor, which will address at a later time. The guys spent a long time on cleanup, cleaning our brick as well as possible, our painted door, and especially the floor, which two of them mopped at least a couple of times. They were careful to take all the trash away. There is no sign of anything in our yard or on the deck that a work crew was here.
My husband and I moved the table back onto the porch after they finished last night, and hauled 4 long pieces of painted wood from the previous ‘fix’ that we might use for another project to our shop.
This afternoon we will get our power washer out and I will try to get chairs clean. We have 4 that go back on the porch and another 5 that live on our deck.
I will go through the rest of the stuff on the deck, cleaning the things that hang up, creating a pile to go in the donation pile, and throwing away some things.
I feel I have a new porch. The Safe Elite Transformations guys are good people and hard workers. I can’t say enough about how nice it was to work with them, their competence, their passion for excellence. No ‘ranking’ is high enough. You will be lucky if you get them to do work for you.
We are having a beautiful day today. It’s hard to believe that we are due for possibly severe storms overnight into tomorrow, with gusty winds and hail (and flying hair balls) much of the day tomorrow. I’m hoping that the whole thing will bypass us.
My guys are due tomorrow to finish painting our new porch ceiling. They will also paint the rest of the woodwork on the porch, so it will seem like a whole new porch when it’s finished! They have already installed a new shutter to replace the one that fell off the front of the house and sealed the area of the roof soffit where the squirrels were getting in. Clifford Harden is very reliable. He either comes when he says he will or calls to let us know what is happening, so we’re not left hanging. He, his brothers, and other workers in the group they call Safe Elite Transformations have a passion for excellence. You can reach them through Home Advisor, or directly at 479-849-0520.
If Mother Nature cooperates with us, by the end of the day tomorrow we should have a nice-looking new porch ceiling!
Since our weather is so nice today, I’m planning to transplant the celery I’ve started in the kitchen to the main garden. I’ll take some pics so show you later. Things are happy in the garden so far. I’m also planning to finish weed whacking in the back and then hopefully spray some KillzAll to discourage the weeds from popping right back up. My goal is to have less and less to weed whack each time throughout the season.
I’m still trying to go through the things I brought home from the booth I shared with my friend Carla at Rags & Roses in Greenwood. It is a really nice shop, and the owner, Joanna Brandt, is a peach. Our sales were super slow, though, so we decided that it was best we try other venues. I am going through things, trying to decide which I should list on my Amazon Handmade page. I’m taking my time, so my office looks like of like an explosion occurred. :0)
I have always enjoyed the month of April. “Ray and Sarah” make it an even better month. :0)
It is only the third of April and already it’s shaping up to be a much better month for us.
My husband and I both received our second COVID vaccinations last Monday.
My spring veggie garden is in and seems to be doing well so far. I have planted Butter Crunch Leaf Lettuce, head lettuce, spinach, crookneck yellow squash, zucchini, cabbage, and broccoli. I will be adding radishes and celery starts to the main garden in the next day or two. We also have two planters with tomato plants.
We have a nice group of contractors replacing the back porch ceiling, installing some new shutters to replace some that fell off the front of the house two stories up, and sealing the place in the roof soffit squirrels had gotten inside and raised havoc. The combined project should be finished Monday by the end of the day. They are on Home Advisor and the name of the company is Safe Elite Transformations.
Continuing our fight with the gremlins that have been plaguing us – my husband was able to fix the riding mower – twice, due to two different problems – and got the lawn mowed. He also was able to get the push around weed whacker running and did some of the heavier weed whacking.
I weed whacked in the front and then used the leaf blower to clean things up. I’ll do the back today.
I will use the opportunity of the fluorescent light fixtures and ceiling fan being down from the back porch ceiling and see if I can clean them up a bunch before it’s time to put them back up.
Either the guys will paint the rest of the wood on the back porch or I will do it myself once this project is finished.
Today would have been my parents’ 79th wedding anniversary. (My dad would have been 103 this year and my mom 100). I think of them often. I was very lucky in my choice of parents. I have so many wonderful memories. :0)
So things are definitely improving around here since April started. I hope that a new leaf has been turned over and that we can continue making progress on what seemed like an endless list of things that HAVE to be done ASAP.
We are just back from taking our Honda Ridgeline truck into the dealership because a couple of lights started showing up on the dash this weekend. We looked up the icons and couldn’t make much sense out of them, except one had to do with emissions, so we thought it was important that someone who works with Hondas all the time and knows what they’re doing should look at it. They will call us when they have an estimate on fixing the problem. We have been running from one thing to another lately that needs repair or replacing, so we have had to spray money in all directions – a bit stressful. So I’m hoping that THIS time, we’ll hear some good news. I’ll stay in close proximity to the phone so that I won’t miss the call.
I wasn’t sure where the dealership was. I followed my husband – a nerve-wracking prospect – so the trip seemed to last forever. We’ll go back together to pick up the truck when it is ready, and I won’t have any trouble getting back home.
My husband is building a new welding table out in the shop. He found one online that would allow the table to be tilted and turned, giving him more flexibility and ease of working on his projects. The trouble was, the table cost over $2200! He looked at it, deciding that he could build one. He ordered the table top online. We went to Davis Iron in Fort Smith and bought the heavy square tubular metal he needed, and then went to Harbor Freight to get some really heavy duty wheels. He has been working on the project for several days now, and is at the point where he will paint the metal support for the table.
The bolt at the top (to the left of the table top) can be loosened, and then the table top can be tightened to any angle desired. The top can also be turned so that he can work on long items. He can roll the table around, or store it out of the way. He also MADE a breaking mechanism so that the wheels can be locked so the table doesn’t roll while he’s trying to weld something.
We have a nice, sunny day today (AMAZING!!!!) – so he is trying to get the metal support for the table painted today so it won’t rust.
Once we have paid for whatever the truck needs, I need to call the propane people again for help with the pilot light in the shop’s heater, the Window World people to see if they have been successful on making our replacement windows, the property tax people to see if they have sent out bills yet, and finally (I hope!) a contractor who can help us repair or replace the sheet rock on our porch ceiling…. 2021 seems to be an unending series for us. Our son, who lives in Thailand, said when we chatted briefly this morning, “I hereby declare a moratorium on things developing problems.”
We are now down to the dregs in our South Beach boxes.
We ordered pancake mixes a la carte to tide my husband over, but those are super-expensive. I fixed two packages for our breakfast this morning, realizing we are on a count-down until my husband starts to balk. Happily, I researched low carb pancake mix on the net and found CarbQuik, a low carb baking mix! It’s inexpensive, and can be used for things other than pancakes sometime in the future. I have it on our grocery list now.
I Can Has Cheezeburger? – DailySquee.com
This morning I made the SB pancakes, I made tunafish salad for lunch, and I have the makings for keto chili in the slow cooker for dinner. I feel like ‘Food Central’ right now, so I will get serious about making plans for the next week so I don’t face the serious culture shock of feeling I’m in the kitchen all day prepping, cooking, or cleaning up. I have my Simply Keto recipe book by Suzanne Ryan, and I will make my calendar and figure out a game plan so I spend as little time in the kitchen as possible in the coming week, yet try new recipes for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
I am grateful that the possibly severe weather from last night’s forecast once again bypassed us. We had a lot of lightning, but no damage that we have seen so far. Whew!
My next big project will be shutting down our raised bed square foot garden for the season. I turned off the automatic water system yesterday. I will harvest the onions, spreading them out on a trailer bed thingie so they can dry out, hopefully being good for storing in my net bags in the pantry. I will take pics to share. Part of the shutting down will be clearing the remains of the plants, intense weeding, then making Mel’s Mix and filling up each of the six 4′ x 4′ wooden boxes that are my planters. When that is done, I’ll cover each of the planters with a tarp to hold down weed production until I’m ready to start planting again. All this will take several days. Once this is done, I’ll continue my efforts to arrange things for seed sprouting on my garage counter.
I noticed the sound of the TV come on in the living room while I was in our office at the computer. Our TV is possessed, and turns the sound on by itself from time to time, so I went in to see if my husband was actually watching it or if he was sleeping.
He wasn’t there. I found him trudging across the yard, a long 2 x 4 in one arm and a half sheet of plywood in the other, making way from the greenhouse to the shop. He has been having strokes, losing the ability to speak intermittently, so he has promised me he will tell me when he decides to do something like this. He didn’t. Imagine my surprise. :0(
Anyhow, I rushed outside and took the 2 x 4 and we walked out to the shop. We put the wood away and he was super hot and tired. Imagine my surprise.
We walked back to the house. I got him in his recliner and got him a big glass of iced tea.
He is sleeping now.
While I have the chance, I am moving the rest of the wood from the greenhouse out to the shop. I’m using the wheelbarrow, which is slow, but not as bad as actually trying to carry the sheets of plywood. I’ve moved the two sheets halfway across the yard now. I’m drinking some water and resting. I’ll finish this trip, and then I only have a half sheet of plywood and three 2 x 4’s left – one more trip.
Since our ‘agreements’ lately seem to be so much hot air, I’ll need to get more proactive about things to keep him from hurting himself.
I’m counting all this wood moving as my elliptical trainer exercise for the day. I’ll do some yoga later to try to stretch myself out.
Marabou Stork-photo credit unknown- via Penny Yaffe Krakow
If you have a candidate for the “ugliest/most beautiful bird in the world,” please let me know. So far, I love the Shoebill Stork, the Tawny Frogmouth, and the Marabou Stork. I love them because they are unusual, and they have character.
We are at the end of our gorgeous weather streak and are back to normal August weather for Arkansas today. We will keep the doors open for a bit longer, and then close up and turn on the air conditioning.
Yesterday I started what will be a long project – dismantling the greenhouse that was killed by the storm.
I gathered a wheelbarrow load of things I can salvage. It is in the garage now. I will reorganize my counter area in there and store what makes sense there. The rest will go out to the shop. I also gathered a leaf bag full of trash. I will do this steadily, a bit at a time, until it is empty and then we can dismantle the shell. I was amazed that the plastic tubs I was discarding wouldn’t hold together long enough for me to pick them up by the edges without shattering. I then used things that acted like a spatula to scoop them up and put them into the leaf bag.
The thermometer I keep out there showed 120 degrees yesterday – and this is on a COOL day here for August, showing one of the reasons the greenhouse didn’t work well for us. We couldn’t afford to add heating and cooling, and the cost to run it would have been astronomical. I will try to set up a seed-starting area in the future with a grow light in the garage, along with starting things on the window sill in the dining area, plus pots on the deck.
This shows you one of the many reasons I have hope for the future. The pandemic kept us from planting our usual flowers all around the house. I thought we would be completely bare on the deck. Instead, seeds from the wave petunias we planted last year sprouted and have given us a lovely display. (If you look carefully, you can see our yellow lab, Amber, keeping me company while I took this picture. :0)
I am continuing my efforts to become a seller via Amazon Handmade, though I’m not making much progress yet. I’m trying to find out if I can simply put things up for sale via my regular Amazon account where I sell used books, or if I need to apply for separate accounts for each of the categories my products fit in. So far, everyone I manage to finally connect with gives me links back to Seller Central. Seller Central sends me to Handmade, and so the cycle from Hell continues…
All the good people in the path of storms Marco and Laura are in my thoughts and prayers.
Tawny Frogmouth Owl-hcreations72 via Penny Yaffe Krakow
I LOVE this bird! So ugly she’s beautiful. AND unique in the world.
Lowes
I will finish the yard clean up today from our storm last Friday. I have used all the picking up branches and using the leaf blower to try to clear up the yard as a stand-in for my elliptical trainer since Friday. I have done at least two sessions each day in the hot sun, getting my heart rate up, breathing hard, then resting and drinking LOTS and LOTS of water to re-hydrate. I’ve been finishing that off with an abbreviated session of yoga each day to stretch out my poor, sore muscles. I had one day of neck, shoulders and arms really complaining about working with the leaf blower again, so finishing today will be a good thing.
I have a haircut this afternoon! I go to Tangles in Greenwood, owned and operated by Michael Remillard. He has cut my husband’s hair and beard, plus my hair, for years now. He makes us look presentable, and that’s no small task! I went really short last time and I have really liked it, so I’ll ask him to do that again. I just wash and blow it dry every morning. No muss, no fuss. Wonderful! If you would like to contact him, his phone number is 479-357-9305. He is the best.
I have lost almost 10 lbs via South Beach now. I am about to break into new territory on my losing-the-lard efforts, rather than re-losing what I lost before. I will be really happy when I reach that point, and will probably make you roll your eyes with my jubilance when that goal is reached. :0)
Gfycat
I am trying to finish my newest earrings today, putting various findings on them, (pierced, post, or clip-on) so I can take individual pictures of each pair and list them for sale on my EyecatchingEarrings on Etsy website.
I have no big project today, other than finishing the yard clean up. If I can do that, plus get the newest earrings finished and listed, I will be happy with my day.
The combination of zipping into my art room, doing a project, and zipping out again, plus having other projects take priority, resulted in a mess in my art room.
I just got some new wooden earring blanks that I have ideas for, but decided that my art room deserved a good straightening up and cleaning before I started something new. As you can see, things are in a mess.
I spent quite a bit of time there this afternoon, and think I did enough good that I can begin the new earrings tomorrow with a clean conscious. –
Amber’s feeding station is a pretty well-designed heavy rubber/plastic? thing that is in two parts – the upper part that holds the water and food bowls, and the lower tray part. Amber is creative, though, and immediately decided that she would take the upper part (the whole thing – full of water and food) away to ‘somewhere else.’ This led to my husband screwing it into the wall.
This was really gross, with dog hair, white water dental hygiene additive residue, dog slobber, etc. I was able to get the tray out from under the screwed-in top part and scrubbed it in the kitchen sink. I tried to unscrew the top part, but the screw wasn’t in straight and I was afraid I would mess up the whole thing trying to get it out. I just brought all the cleaning stuff to the station and did the best I could.
It isn’t perfect, but at least I’m not cringing when I walk past – several times a day – now.
PROJECT # 2
My kitchen is a busy place in our house. I try to clean as I go, but it gets to the point where I need to scrub the stove, scrub the sink, move everything off the counters, etc. Today was the day.
The only problem with all this is that now I don’t want to mess it up! :0)
Today we meet our friends for Lunch Bunch. Our ‘core group’ (Linda, Kay and I) have been meeting every Friday possible for over 17 years now. “Priceless” just isn’t a strong enough word to describe how special this is. Others come and go. Our husbands were made honorary members of the group years ago. Linda’s husband is gone, now, but we share memories of funny or touching things from the times he was able to join us. Kay’s husband has joined us recently. He isn’t working now, laid off because of the virus. He is at the age where he should have retired long ago, but loves the work. He is working now to define himself as much more than his work, and I’m delighted. He has a wonderful sense of humor and it’s fun to hear what he has to say. My husband has been a member for several years now. He presides over his ‘harem,’ ( :0) ) though now graciously sharing that fantasy with Bud now. We enjoy catching up with what the others have been doing, or hearing about plans for the future. We have borne the sad news together over the years, and have helped each other deal with whatever has happened. We had to miss a few Fridays due to the virus. Then the restaurant owner was allowed to serve us outside at picnic tables. Now we’re back in the restaurant, wearing masks in and out. It’s good to be back.
We will have to set our humane trap again tonight because it looks like we have ANOTHER raccoon. This has been a record-braking year. We have relocated 8 raccoons so far, and it LOOKS as if we will do it again..
We had quite a storm yesterday evening. LOTS of lightning, loud thunder, wind, and heavy rain for about half an hour that I was aware of. No damage, though. We are due for more today. Our grass and plants will be happy. My husband is frowning as he imagines the grass spurting up again.
This is yesterday’s tomato harvest. We are enjoying fresh sliced tomatoes for part of our lunches and dinners every day. It has been glorious. Even if the harvest stopped suddenly – as it sometimes does – we have been very lucky this year.
Not sure what today’s project will be. I’m trying to choose one area to ‘heal’ every day. Yesterday it was my kitchen desk and the shelves above it. I also spent a lot of time scrubbing one of the downstairs bathrooms. I have LOTS of good choices, as I am a slob. I’ll report later on what the choice is.
I’m doing really well on my exercising. Being able to add a gold star to my desk calendar is motivating for me – a person who hasn’t fully grown up. They motivated me as a child in school and I will still get off my duff and go earn one now. I’m giving myself one for each session on my elliptical trainer in the garage and each session of yoga stretches and abdominal exercises. So far, this is an 8-star week. I’ll go for 9 and 10 today.
I hope you have a wonderful day today, productive and enjoyable.
I have this nice little desk in our kitchen. The shelves above are a combination medicine and first aid supplies area. All too often it becomes a catch-all area, piled up with various things. Today’s project was to clear off the desk, go through the things on the shelves, look for expired meds, and reorganize.
Things are more organized now and much cleaner. :0)
In a few minutes I will drive down to get our mail and put out our trash. When I get back, I’ll spend some time on the elliptical trainer in the garage. I’m HOPING to do 20 minutes today, but I’ll do what I can and call it a win for the day. My motivation is high today. I was planning to do the elliptical MWF this week, but I’ll see what happens. :0)
My husband wanted to eat some of the South Beach pancakes this morning. The last time was a disaster, so we decided that the NEXT time we tried them, “I” would be the one who caused it. I mixed up the two packages (one for him and one for me) according to the directions. The batter was too thick. I added 2 more tablespoons. The end result was good. We used a little butter and some sugar-free syrup. It was a nice way to start the day.
I will check the garden and also see if we have ripe tomatoes to gather. It has been so hot that I have spent the minimum amount of time outside as possible. We have a 50% chance of rain today – particularly this afternoon – so I’m hopeful for a bit of a reprieve.
I am trying to choose something in the house that needs ‘healing’ (cleaning out, reorganizing, cleaning) each day. I’m not sure what today’s project will be yet. So MUCH to choose from! I’m working on large leaf bag #3 of things to donate to the Disabled Vets.
I’m re-reading book # 47 (out of 49) of the J.D. Robb (Nora Roberts) “In Death” series. #50 in the series has been ordered and will arrive soon!
My husband and I got a couple of things done yesterday that had been weighing on us.
THING ONE: We finally drilled holes in the pvc pipe that runs along the back edge of the brick planter we had to rebuild recently, so that the elephant ear plants I put in there could get some water. The only problem, though, when we got that done, was that the irrigation system didn’t turn on when it was supposed to.
The brains for it in the well house showed that one of the power failures lately got it. It though it was 11:00 at night in January in 2007. :0)
I managed to find the manual for the system – HOORAY for me!
AND
when my husband got frustrated, I was able to reset things so I could reprogram the system. The first time I tried, I messed up; but the second time it worked! We went around the yard adjusting the Station 1 planters and then moved to the back when Station 2 started. YEA!!!!!
THING TWO: The second thing was our supplementary driveway alarm had failed. My husband ordered a new one. When it came, he painted the part we attach to a tree in camouflage. That was as far as the project got until I remembered it yesterday while we were waiting for the irrigation system to turn on.
He got the part from the shop, attached it to the tree, and we tested it, having it working just before we worked with the irrigation system! ANOTHER YEA!!!!
I love days where we can do something that stays done awhile. :0)
For some reason I cannot explain, I like to PAINT earring pieces upstairs in my art room, but I like to put the earrings together, put the labels, on put them on cards, and take pics in our office downstairs. I really don’t have a good place to work down here, so I end up working on top of PILES of STUFF.
It started out where I had a few different kinds of findings, labels, earring cards and tools I kept these in a neat wooden ‘thingie’ I found at a garage sale. Soon my supplies overloaded its capacity and things hit the fan after that.
This is the wooden ‘thingie’ I love. I will still use it for some of the supplies.
Now that you are thoroughly appalled by my chaos, I’ll tell you that I have a PLAN on how to make order from it.
I have this nice tabletop file cabinet that I haven’t been using for awhile now. I have cleaned it out and plan to use it to make some sense out of my jewelry making supplies. I am hoping that between this and my wooden ‘thingie,’ I can access my stuff easily and have it not under foot while not in use.
This is one of today’s projects.
If I have some success, I’ll take pics and share them with you.
We are having another gorgeous day with lots of sunshine and low humidity – a wonderful combination! Since we have gone from dark, gray, cold, rainy weather day after day to bright, sunshiny, soon-to-be-hot weather here, today will have two projects:
PROJECT ONE: Changing from winter closet to summer closet.
Depositphotos
My closet doesn’t look this bad, but it will take a lot of moving to get cold weather clothes out and hot weather clothes in. I will try, over the next few days, to try on each thing, making decisions about what to do with the things that don’t fit. Some of the things –
I like, and MAY fit with more lardage loss (I will put these in with the cold weather clothes)
will be folded up and included in the next donation to the Disabled Vets in Fort Smith Thrift Shop
will be thrown away.
The remainder will be organized as well as possible, in the hope I can put my hands on things quickly and easily.
PROJECT TWO – cleaning out the garden.
The day is perfect for work outside. My lettuce and spinach are starting to bolt, so it’s time to harvest what I can and compost the rest. I can at least pull the plants, but it may take a day or two longer to put the garden to rights. I plan to check the co-op in town next week to see if they have anything I would like to plant.
I hope that you are enjoying a beautiful last day of May, too.
We put up our Valentine’s Day mailbox decoration yesterday on the way to do our other errands.
This cupid is about 2-1/2 feet tall by almost 3 feet wide. It is made of heavy sheet metal, cut out by my husband using our CNC set up. We found the design on the net. He uses a program to convert the picture we have found to what is called “G-Code” a language the computer can understand. We save this on a thumb drive and take it out to the shop. We put the thumb drive into the computer and decide speed of cutting and a few other things. After set up, we start the program which guides the torch to cut the design out of an 8 foot x 4 foot sheet of metal.
Once the design is cut out, we add the piece that will attach the design to the mailbox, welding it on. We use an overhead projector and a transparency we have made to mark the salient points of the design onto the metal – both sides.
I then paint both side of the metal and the attachment piece with paint made for outside. When the painting is finished, I spray the piece with polyurethane spray to protect the piece as much as possible from sun, wind, and rain.
We change our decoration twice a month.
If you look carefully in the background of this picture, you can see our 100 pound robot made from scrap metal who welcomes people who want to come up our driveway. You can also see two metals owls – each about 2-1/2 feet tall, perched on top of poles that hold a gate we can close.
We really enjoy making decorations and yard ‘critters’ together.
My husband is trying to find a good design now for “Wonder Warthog.”
creativeartworksblog 