I’m trying to get our yard ready for the winter, but Mother Nature isn’t cooperating well. It’s been cold, then warms up and is rainy, then back again. It’s rainy today, and we have storms that might be severe tomorrow. Fingers crossed we come though the next batch of storms in one piece.
I keep listening to the news about the awful tornado damage and lost lives in so many states recently. It’s heartrending. My irritation about it not being comfortable to work out in the yard is selfish and I’m embarrassed.
Wish me luck on trying to keep my head on straight and my mouth firmly shut.
There are no words today after seeing the devastation and heartbreak Mother Nature wrought last night over Illinois, Missouri, Arkansas, Kentucky and Tennessee. I’m grateful we weren’t hit, but we keep learning more and more about the lives that were lost, the people left behind, and the terrible destruction.
My heart goes out to everyone. Words don’t help at a time like this, but I care.
A couple of days ago my husband turned off the irrigation system to the planters in our yard, turned on the propane heater in the well house, and plugged in the electric heater out there. Several weeks ago I cleaned out my raised bed square foot planter boxes and put tarps over them for the winter.
Today I unhooked the hose on the outdoor agricultural faucet that goes to the garden and unhooked the garden irrigation system control and stored it in the shop.
I will now try to clear out and neaten things up for the winter in the yard, along the driveway, etc. so it looks like someone cares. I will try to do something out there each day where the weather is cooperative.
The end of the growing season makes me sad, but I realize that everyone needs a rest before the whole cycle can start again.
It’s TOO cool and rainy here this morning! It’s 41 degrees F., gray, breezy, and rainy.
Cliff and his guys from Safe Elite Transformations 479-849-0520 are due here at 10:00 to re-install a board that trims the ceiling on the porch for us. When they made a new ceiling for us and painted the porch not too long ago, Cliff told me that there wasn’t much to attach the trim to. He’ll try to figure out a way to remedy that today. I can’t say enough about him and his group. If you need work, remodeling, building, or repair done in our area, you won’t find a better, more honest or hardworking company.
I will continue my repainting of the back of Wonder Wart-Hog, the mailbox decoration that was damaged when it was up on the mailbox for the first time. Someone really did a number on the back of it. It has been sprayed with ‘something’ that wouldn’t come off. I put a first coat on the green and white parts of the painting yesterday. When Cliff and his guys finish, if it’s not pouring, I’ll go out to the shop and see if I can get the second coat on. I’m hoping I can repair the damage. I’m disappointed that someone would do this. We have been putting the decorations up on the mailbox for years and years now without a problem. I hope we don’t have to stop.
The trees are NOT colorful here in this part of Arkansas this year. We’ve lost a TON of leaves already. So I was amazed when I looked out the back door two nights ago just before sunset and saw all the COLOR all the way across our valley. I’ve never seen it this way before, like the trees were bursting with light. I tried to get some pics, but most of them didn’t come out right. These two were the best I could do at the time.
Bill Watterson-Calvin and Hobbes-celebrateeachnewday.tumblr.com
It’s drizzle-y, windy, and too cool this morning. The high today is supposed to be 57. Right now it’s overcast and 47 degrees F. I was ready for cooler weather, but this is ‘too much of a good thing.’
We will join our friends for Lunch Bunch in about half an hour. It’ll be good to catch up with what has been going on for each of them. We have been having lunch together every Friday for about 20 years now. How many changes! We have shared good and bad things, laughter, hugs, and tears. Some of the faces have changed. We’re never sure how many will be there, but the core group is three of us: Linda, Kay and myself. My husband was accepted as an honorary member of the group several years ago. He sits at one end of the table looking at his “harem” he says. We have told him that he is welcome as long as he behaves…
Unless it’s pouring after Lunch Bunch, we will scoot to Walmart afterwards to replenish some supplies. We plan to stay in the rest of the day, warm and dry. I’m putting the electric blanket on our bed today when I put fresh sheets on.
I’ve been adding new products to my Etsy site – Handmade Haven by Linda. Please take a look if you have the time. :0)
To those of you who have been following the blog, I FOUND the gallon container of mold/mildew/algae/elephant remover! As soon as the weather is dry and sunny, I’ll put some in a spray container and hose down the greeter robot yard art at the bottom of the driveway that I’m trying to refurbish. When I get the green and other dirt off of him, I can prepare to freshen his paint.
Our weather is becoming more and more like fall. I’m loving it. It’s cool enough now I am enjoying wearing a hoodie when I go out. In the afternoons it’s warm enough to open front and back doors and let the beautiful breezes in. We already have leaves all over the place because of our lack of rain, so I’ll have to be content to find fall images to enjoy the changing colors this year. Tomorrow, as a part of our change of seasons, we’re due for some strong storms. One day soon I’ll need to move hot weather clothes out and cold weather clothes into my closet. We’ll put snow tires on our truck. Shut down the irrigation system, and more.
Some things are ‘sneaking up on me.’ I was thinking of fall, but was surprised when I was asked yesterday about our plans for Thanksgiving. It seemed like it was much farther away, and yet I have made and packed Christmas presents…
I’m having fun trying the impasto technique in my art room. I’m not happy with the one I’ve been working on. I’m not sure whether I should continue to work on it, or dump it and start another. Wonderful ‘problem,’ isn’t it?
I hope that today is a good one for you. Enjoy every minute.
Yesterday on the way home from our errands, a white-tailed doe jumped across the road in front of our truck. She was absolutely beautiful. Amber was in the back seat – one of her favorite places, but Amber didn’t see her. This gives you an idea –
WDFW
I worked an hour and a half on side 2 of “Wonder Wart-Hog” yesterday. Right now he looks like a big green blob with a head. Hopefully, I can get that to change. :0) This is the front –
It rained while I was working on the mailbox decoration in the shop. We’re supposed to get more rain today, tomorrow, and Friday. We may need a boat! All this rain is bringing cooler temperatures, though, and for that I’m grateful. We have our doors open to get a nice breeze through the house.
Unsplash
I’m tearing my hair out trying to find a replacement for our phone carrier. We changed the credit card used to make our automatic payments. We got a late notice. I called and they told me, “It takes 6 to 8 WEEKS for our system to recognize a change like that.” I’m still having trouble believing that. Anyway, I asked them to take us off the family plan and the unlimited everything we’re on. Only one of our phones is smart and we basically use our phones for emergencies and some texting. After spending almost an hour on the phone with them, they told me the plan we’re on is the cheapest they have. Since we’re seeing ads for half the price, I’m trying to research the question.
joemarino.org
My scales confirmed that I am past the 30-pounds-off mark now and have begun to make progress toward the next goal. :0)
Last night we went to bed about 12:30 am and the wind was gusty and there was lightning. I didn’t hear it rain, but severe weather was possible overnight into this morning.
We awoke to 60 degrees F. and bright sunshine.
I took a walk around the yard to see if there was damage. We lost a couple of leaves on my elephant ear plants and there were leaves all over the civilized part of the yard around the house and our driveway, but I didn’t find any damage yet.
I did find several things that brought my spirits up –
I’m SO happy. I was sitting in my chair, re-reading a book and sipping coffee, front and back doors open to a nice breeze and suddenly heard the rain. Ah, glorious rain! We really need it.
We went out on the screened back porch (my dog Amber and I) so we could hear it better and smile at each other.
The forecast is for a ‘good chance’ of rain today and an even better chance tomorrow. Hooray!
I finished the weed whacking I wanted to do yesterday! The tomato planters are clean, the debris is gone, and I got the grass and weeds down from around the planters, under the house, under the deck, down the back sidewalk, and around the brick planter beside the garage pad. And now it’s raining, right on schedule. Hooray!
We’ll run our errands in half an hour, delighted by the rain even if we drown while we’re out. My husband will spew bad words because he’s tired of mowing for the season, but the plants are all breathing a sigh of relief.
It’s quite dark outside, looking like nighttime instead of morning, but we aren’t supposed to have severe weather, just a cold front with cooler temperatures. I’M READY! :0)
If the wind isn’t blowing a lot when we get home, I may get out my umbrella and enjoy a walk in the rain.
(The above is NOT what I’m making for my friends, but the picture make me smile. What FUN this child has had, thinking of something and trying to make it come to life.)
Since our heat index here in Arkansas is forecast to be 110+F. this afternoon, , I decided to get my body moving earlier than usual this morning and get out to the shop to continue work on the refurbishment of the dragonfly plus working on my Christmas presents for friends.
I’m working on the eyes of the dragonfly now. I cut a black rubber ball with knobs on it in half and glued them on the dragonfly. Now I am using glitter glue paint to try to make the ‘eyes’ sparkle. I finished the main part of the work on the 6 Christmas presents out there. As soon as they dry, I’ll work on the accents and finishing touches. Upstairs in my art room, I think I’ll finish the 3 other Christmas presents I’m working on up there today. I love it when I figure out what I want to try to do early and have lots of time to work without feeling rushed. I find myself remembering lots of happy times with each of the people I’m making a present for, hoping they’ll enjoy the gift. :0)
Since today is the first day of September, and kids are in school here now, we will change the mailbox decoration, hoping to make the bus riders smile as they pass our driveway. Here is the decoration we’re putting out today –
We’ve had an amazing several days on our trips to town. Almost every day we have seen deer, either standing beside the road watching us, or jumping in front of our car, scaring us to death before we can breathe enough to appreciate their beauty.
Yesterday it was a doe and two fawns crossing the road. The mother went first, followed by her baby, and then, when we thought the show was over, another fawn followed them.
I don’t know if it’s the really hot weather we’re having lately (heat index of 113 F. today) or what. Usually, if we see them at all, it’s early in the morning or just before dark in the evening. Now it’s in broad daylight.
I love it – but I HOPE we can give each other enough space not to get hurt.
Our mailbox decoration represents a return to our ‘normal” summer in Arkansas, rather than the cooler, rain-filled summer we’ve had this year. We’ve gotten quite spoiled, not fearing heat stroke as we mow, weedwhack, tend our flowers and square foot garden veggies.
All that ended about a week ago now. The rain stopped, the sun came out with a vengeance, raising our actual temperatures to 100 or more in the afternoons, and the heat index to surge even higher. UGH.
The only thing left in the garden now is sweet onions, weeds, and our two planters of tomatoes.
My husband managed to get the civilized part of our yard mowed, mowing right before dark one evening and then first thing in the morning the next day. I followed that with weed whacking right before dark night before last, and then finished it up last night and blew the debris off our sidewalks and driveway pad with our leaf blower. I was planning to use our push weedwhacker this morning in the area behind our shop and beside our garden, but we talked about it and decided I would really be risking heat stroke. I walk outside, with my headband on, and I’m instantly wringing wet. I think we will only do what is absolutely necessary until this “Punishment from Mother Nature” passes. We might even wait until fall…
I WILL pull the sweet onions and start drying them soon. I don’t know how much longer the tomatoes will make. Even with our irrigation system, the tomatoes are almost boiling on the vines. Happily, my elephant ear plants and phlox or doing well, even with the heat. I’ll try to get out and get pics for you.
When I get out there early enough, I’m still working on the refurbishment project of of our yard critters. Right now I’m repainting “Mama and Baby Snail.” I post a pic when they’re ready to go back outside.
Every summer I regret the fact that we ran out of money when we were building our home over 30 years ago. We managed the main house and the small shop, but we had to give up my dream of a pool. I taught swimming every summer from age 14 through college to help pay for my education. We live on top of ridge line, and had to dynamite several times to be able to have our basement, septic system, and the pool. We got the first two, but not the third. Every summer I dream of a beautiful in-ground pool. Of course, I also dream of Sven, the gorgeous pool man, coming to take care of it – and me. (If I’m going to dream, I’ll include it all… :0) )
It has rained off and on for 3 days straight, and we’re feeling a bit water-logged. The yard between the house and our shop is standing in water, so I’ll probably have to wait until tomorrow to put the pieces of the “Dog with Bone” yard critter together and him back out in the yard.
I’ve been playing in my art room painting a mini-purse for a nice lady. She bought one from my Etsy site recently, then wrote to tell me that the snap on the purse was so tight she couldn’t use it. I didn’t know about the problem and was embarrassed. I took the two mini-purses that had snaps off my site and ordered some that had zippers. It’s beige, but I’m painting it a dark blue to resemble denim and then will paint ladybugs and leaves on both sides. I’m hoping to have the replacement in the mail to her tomorrow. I’m grateful for the chance to make it right with her.
I had a rare, fun thing happen recently. I ordered some tops from Amazon. I tried them on when they came and they were WAAAAY too big! Talk about a rare, fun thing!!!! :0) I returned them, and ordered a totally different style and a smaller size. THEY came a couple of days ago and are GREAT! They’re called “yoga tees” and come in a package of 5. They’re comfortable, stretchy, and have moisture wicking. I love them!
I’ll be painting, waiting for it to dry, then painting some more the rest of the day. I hope my customer will like the replacement. Fingers crossed.
I hope you’re having a safe, comfortable, dry day.
Amber is not afraid of storms. This is what she looked like, though, last night when we were having lots of thunder, lightning, rain, and gusty winds, plus our power going off and on repeatedly for very short periods.
When I reached out to pet her and talk to her, she climbed right up into my recliner with me, circled behind me, and settled in. Since she weighs 95 lbs, that left ME with only the front edge of the chair to balance on while I petted her and talked to her. We stayed like that for about half an hour, til things had tamed down. She jumped down and happily went back to choosing a toy from her toy basket.
This shows you a bit of what our yard looks like this morning. We have leaves EVERYWHERE. We haven’t found any damage, though, and that’s wonderful. We only have a chance for afternoon thunderstorms today, so we’re relieved.
The elephant ears came through without damage. Hooray!
The poor phlox is pretty battered. Hopefully, they’ll pull back up.
Our heat index this afternoon will reach the triple digits, so I’m going to get our to the shop pretty soon to continue work on refurbishing the ‘turkey’ yard art critter I started yesterday. I’m hoping he can go back out to his place at the base of a tree beside the driveway by the end of the day. I forgot to take pics of the ‘before’ on the turkey. He was basically just super dirty and desperately in need of new paint. I’ll take pics to share when he is back in place.
Did I tell you I HATE automatic Windows updates? For some reason they always cause us problems. We can’t NOT do the updates, but it’s sure a pain to deal with the havoc they generate. Yesterday it was one of our printers that suddenly won’t print plus our personal DVD computerized collection isn’t opening as it should. My husband fought with it most of the day yesterday to no avail. He wrote Microsoft and is hoping they have some help for us. He also talked to our son via a conference call, in Thailand. Hopefully, answers will come today.
Tomorrow at Lunch Bunch we’ll celebrate the birthday of one of our core members. Our friendship – going on 20 years now – is priceless.
My husband has been celebrating the lack of rain lately. He’s been praising the ‘brown and crunchy patches of grass in the yard, meaning he has to mow less. I told him to enjoy it while he could. Rain is due this weekend.
My spring garden is about to come to an end. I got what is probably the last of the yellow squash, leaving only sweet onions. I’ll probably pull the onions soon, leaving them to dry on the trailer bed and clean up the garden. On the good side, though, we had the first two ripe tomatoes of what I hope will be a wonderful season. My husband and I shared them for lunch yesterday. They were delicious. I hope we get enough that I can share them.
Every year about this time I wish we had been able to build the pool we wanted when we built the house. Since we’re on top of a ridge line, we had to do a lot of blasting to build a house amid all this rock. We blasted for the septic tank, the basement, and then blasted the whole back yard for the pool. We ran out of money before we got to the pool, though, so it never got done.
I worked every summer from the time I was 14 through college teaching swimming with my 6th grade gym teacher to make money for college. I really miss the great exercise I got. I tell myself that if we had a pool, I would go out and swim every possible night before bed. The reality of that would probably be that I would gritch and moan about having to get my exercise cleaning the pool, rather than getting to swim in it. I would have to fight for space to swim laps, having to dodge raccoons, opossums, squirrels, and other critters I don’t want to think about who thought we had built the pool for THEM…
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!
The sun is shining, but we had a cold front move through, so the temperature will only get to the mid 80s today with low humidity. BEAUTIFUL!
My new elephant ear plants (all three of them) have come up now and are looking healthy.
I finally programmed the irrigation system so that we don’t have to check it nightly.
Knock on wood – nothing has fallen apart lately.
With all this good, it’s hard to be down. My spirits are still high from the nice lady who stopped in her truck to tell us how much she enjoyed our mailbox decorations. I felt bad that we had gotten really lax about changing them, so I told her we would do better. We changed from our Calvin & Hobbes decoration to our Pepe LePew & Penelope decoration. I hope she has driven by and likes it. :0)
I hope that your Tuesday is a bright and happy one.
“Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.” ~ Margaret Wolfe Hungerford
Some say these birds are ‘ugly.’ In fact, I found these pictures when I used the search term, “Ugly Birds.”
emu-UglyOverload.blogspot.com
I love these birds. Their faces are full of character. I would much rather enjoy these birds than male cardinals, who wait for their mates to check an area out to see if it’s safe, and THEN will come and preen before taking a sunflower seed. This emu would as soon as peck you as say, “Hello.” I love him.
Red Wattled Hornbill-Carl Purcell
I had never seen this bird before. He looks quite dignified to me. Royalty, for sure. :0)
shoebill stork-KnowYourMeme
This has long been one of my favorite birds. He’s beautiful, isn’t he? He looks like he’s laughing.
tawny_frogmouth-AustralianMuseum
And this sweet bird is just trying to be left alone, hopefully camouflaged so he can catch a nap.
I admit I love all birds, but these hold a special place in my eye and heart.
We got out first thing this morning to tackle getting our irrigation system going. Mother Nature suddenly turned on summer here – going from unseasonably cool with lots and lots of rain to NO rain and ‘feels like’ indices of 100+.
Thankfully, no blowouts this time. I managed to reprogram the system, which thought it was January of 2007 when I started. I THINK I have it programmed now to start this evening, water for 10 minutes on station 1 followed by 10 minutes on station 2. I have my alarm set to check to make sure the system for the garden is working at 4:30 and then the yard system starts at 6:30. Fingers crossed.
I’m adding more products to my HandmadeHavenByLinda site on Etsy. I have several sales of 25% off running now, so I’m adding more choices for people to take advantage of the savings.
Welcome Wildlife
We have had several cottontail rabbits in our yard lately. Our dog, Amber, is too slow to even think about catching them, though she makes a good show of chasing them and woofing. I saw two first thing this morning – a very happy way to start my day. :0)
Now that we have the irrigation system going (hope, hope) I’m planning to enjoy a lazy day in the air conditioning until it’s time to check on the watering.
I’m having a good day so far, though – as you can see above – obviously not a good hair day…. :0)
First of all, IT’S NOT RAINING! In fact, from the look of the weather forecast, our rainy season has finally come to an end. This means that we need to get out some time this weekend – preferably this evening – and test our irrigation system, fix any blowouts, and schedule and run the system. Some of our spoiled plants – used to the cooler temperatures and lots and lots of rain, are starting to look wilted.
One of the last tasks remaining on the dismantling of the greenhouse project was to tie some neon pink surveyor’s tape on the stake in the ground so that the people who come (on no particular schedule that I can tell) to mow the gas company’s easement on the side of our yard won’t hurt themselves or their equipment running into or over the stake. I also took a sledgehammer. I hit the stake several times in all directions and was able to pull the stake completely out! So I brought the stake, hammer, and tape back to the house. Mission accomplished!
I took some pictures of some of the prettier things in our yard while I was out walking around.
This picture and the next are really making me smile today. Last year I had truly great elephant ears. I over-wintered them in peat moss in the garage and replanted them at the beginning of the spring. Nothing happened. :0( They were gone. I ordered some bulbs online in desperation. I received and planted three bulbs. Nothing was happening, so I decided that I wasn’t going to have anything. This one popped up yesterday. You can see the second one in the next picture. The third one hasn’t done anything, but I won’t be greedy. I am truly delighted and hope they will get large and lush.
You HAVE to laugh when you have to “update” the first blog post of the day 5 times to get rid of as many mistakes as possible. My lesson learned for the day is that you CANNOT cut and paste from the Etsy website to the blog without a MESS. Sorry about that. I think it’s straightened out now.
The Etsy shop is NOT messed up, and I AM offering a 25% discount on any two pair of my hand-painted wooden earrings – dangle/wire, post/stud, and/or clip-ons plus free shipping. If you’re interested, please take a look and take advantage of this and other discounts. HandmadeHavenByLinda on Etsy.
TheSprucePets-GettyImages
We’ve been setting a humane trap each night on our deck, trying to catch the critter who has been emptying our bird feeders lately. No luck until this morning, when we caught a cute raccoon. He didn’t hiss or spit at us, even though he was in the cage. We went out in the rain, put our trash at the bottom of the driveway, got our mail, and then drove out about 5 miles to relocate the raccoon in a stream. Raccoons don’t share well. They not only clean out all the feeders – they TRASH the feeders. He probably has brothers or sisters, mother and father, cousins, etc., but it’s ‘one down’ now.
The Mercury News
It’s raining, of course. I drowned putting out the trash. My husband had put the cage with the raccoon in it in the back of the truck, plus the bags of trash around the cage. I couldn’t get the bags out without moving the cage, scaring the poor raccoon as I drowned. Of course, he had pulled part of one of the trash bags into the cage with him, and I had to extricate that, as well. I was not a happy camper when I got back into the truck. My HUSBAND got drowned when let the raccoon out, so we’re even. :0)
Since it is supposed to rain off and on all day, it’s a great day to now stay home and stay inside. I plan to do a few things on the ‘should’ list, read, and maybe play in my art room today.
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.
WEATHER – It’s a good thing I’m not water-soluble, or I would have sogged down into a puddle by now with all the rain we have had. We just returned from putting our trash out for pickup and running errands. I wore a hoodie, since my husband has no patience for me trying to use an umbrella. I just throw my hood up to stay as dry as possible.
YARD WORK – I pruned our rose bushes and weeded a bit yesterday. Some unfriendly bug bit me on the back of my hand. It swelled up and itched like crazy. I finally got the itching to stop and the swelling should be down by tomorrow.
I was watching for ants, since I react badly to their stings/bites, but whatever bit me snuck up and did it before I was aware. I am going to try to harvest more lettuce, since my plants are starting to bolt, but it will have to wait until the rain stops.
EMAIL HACK – I seem to be over the worst of the repercussions from my email being hacked. I spent the entire day yesterday, except for the time pruning the roses, contacting as many friends and family as possible, giving them my new address, plus getting on our important websites and changing email, user name and password. What a hassle! I did get to talk to people I would LIKE to talk to more often, so that was a really good thing. If I finally reach a real person at Google, I will try to enlist their help in finding out who is responsible for the hack.
GENERATOR – Just as your car will never act up or make the noise you’ve been hearing when you take it to the shop, our generator came on just fine when the tech came out to help us figure out why it didn’t do its weekly test and or continue to run when we started it manually. He looked it over carefully. It started right up and continued until he turned it off. We told him the ‘overcrank’ light was on when we went out to look. My husband suspected the carburetor, but the tech was looking more at the fuel regulator, whatever that is. He said he would check his manual for ‘old’ generators to see if he could be of more help if we need to call him again. Meanwhile, $131.50 later, the generator IS working…
WEIGHT LOSS – My newest motivation to lose the lard seems to be working – at least, so far. Last Monday we had our routine doctor appointment with blood tests. We were doing fine (for old people) and the doc said we didn’t have to come back for 6 months, rather than the 3 months we have been doing. I decided that I wanted to try to finally lose a significant amount of my poundage by the time we go back in November. Since Monday I have lost 4.6 pounds. I’m trying to keep my focus on trying to really watch my portions, try not to eat in-between meals, or if I do, eat a really careful snack. I’m trying to move more, and pick up my afternoon yoga stretches again.
So far, my yoga efforts have been a dismal failure. Usually, I’m out in the yard when I WAS doing yoga. I’m telling myself that if I’m up and moving, that’s good, but I know it’s not a substitute for the good stretching I do with my practice. I’m going to rethink WHEN I’m trying to do my practice so that I can work in the yard AND do my yoga stretches on a daily basis.
ART ROOM – I’m still trying to overcome my stupid fear of failure regarding trying a new art technique. I’m really fascinated watching people demonstrate ‘acrylic pours’ and then ‘pours with crackle gel.’ They are getting wonderful abstract colorful work with gorgeous texture and cracks highlighted with gold. I’m going to keep making careful notes as I watch (and drool) and see if I can get started on it in my art room this week.
I hope that you are having a fabulous day, enjoying the weather where you are, if possible, or if cooped up inside like me, changing over to something fun INSIDE.
On our way home from errands yesterday, a deer – much like this one – jumped across the road ahead of our truck. It was far enough away neither the deer nor we were in danger. We were just able to appreciate the beauty of it.
The second spirit-lifter was a bird on our deck.
This is a picture I found on the net. My husband agreed, after seeing the bird this morning, that this Painted Bunting is indeed, the sweet bird we saw. We have never seen him before. I don’t know if he has a mate with him. He has been here for 3 days. Who could look at this beautiful bird and remain down?
I’m happy to be able to share these with you. We all need to embrace the good stuff in the world right now.
We will leave for Lunch Bunch in about an hour. It looks like we may need a boat if this keeps up.
I would like to harvest more lettuce, but Mother Nature has been playing with us over the last week or so, starting the rain up every time I get ready to go outside, almost like a faucet, waiting until I am out there, and then dumping on me. I can imagine her laughing at me. :0)
Other than squeegeeing, mopping, and toweling off the porch floor over and over, I’ve been playing in my art room. I’m trying to eventually try an ‘acrylic pour,’ but I’m a bit intimidated, so I’m trying one new technique at a time, building up to it. I put the second coat of a stuff called, “crackle medium” on the background of a painting on which I used Unicorn Spit paint. So far, nothing is ‘crackling.’ I’ll continue to experiment, having lots of fun, until something good starts to happen. :0)
I think I already told you that I am newly motivated to get the lard off. We had a routine doctor appointment Monday. We were doing so well that she said we could wait 6 months to come back, rather than the usual three. I’m now trying to lose a significant amount of my lard before we see her again in November. This week has been a good start for me.
I hope the weather is good where you are and that you can make this a wonderful day.
I just got back from my massage. I really didn’t care that today is rainy because I always feel SO much better after my wonderful massage therapist, Lynn Moody, 479-629-7601, finishes with me. Ahhhhhhh!
My main exercise since the 17th has been a series of squeegeeing, mopping, then toweling the porch floor each time the rain stops. The wind makes the rain come in and then the water sits there. I’m trying to lessen the damage as much as I can by taking care of the water as soon as possible between deluges and storms. We’re supposed to have two more days of this, and then MAYBE a 3-day-respite before the rains come back. I don’t remember our having quite this much rain before.
I will also try to harvest some lettuce if the rain will allow. We’ve been enjoying a combination of head lettuce, spinach, and buttercrunch lettuce from our garden with our dinners. :0)
I have on my to-do list today a return to my afternoon yoga practice. I’ve been so busy the last few weeks it got lost in the shuffle and my body is noticing. Hopefully, I can get in a nice session of stretching to finish off the good Lynn did with my massage this morning.
Also on the list is playing in my art room. I’ve been watching some demonstrations of acrylic pour art, plus another technique you can do with pieces of the pours that are left over. I’m a bit intimidated, to be honest, but my mouth waters as I watch what the artists are doing.
I’m trying SOME of the techniques, easing into this slowly. I’ve started a piece with my Unicorn Spit paint. I just put a coat of varnish on what I did yesterday. When that dries, I plan to paint some flowers, and then use the crackle paint on the background. Finally, I will use some metallic paint to highlight the cracks. Fingers crossed that it turns out SOMETHING like what my brain is picturing. :0) It’s such FUN to play with the colors!
The predicted rains haven’t started yet, so I will try to harvest some veggies today. I’ll post some pics after I wash and bag them. Happy to live on top of a ridge line right now. We may need a boat by the end of this…
KFSM – TV5 Fort Smith AR“Dancing Dragonflies” Hand-Painted Tote Bag
I sold this tote on Amazon Handmade last night. The image doesn’t show how sparkly it is. It will go in the mail tomorrow. :0)
TopSail Beach NC
My SIL and some friends are renting a house on the beach for a week for lots of peace and relaxation. She took this photo this morning, pre-sunrise. I am so happy she can get away and soak this up! And WE can enjoy her vacation vicariously!!! :0)
Yesterday the postman delivered a big box with the things I ordered to try a couple of techniques new to me – acrylic pours and crackle paint. Here is the link to a YouTube demonstration if you’d like to watch
creativeartworksblog 