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.
Filed under Lewis Art, Lewis projects, Lewis yard art
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 –
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.
Yesterday afternoon I finished digging out the iris from the backyard planter. (I still need to make sure the planter is completely cleaned out, add more potting mix and replant some of the iris, but I declared victory for the day.)
I rewarded myself with some time in my art room.
I’m working on some Christmas presents for my good friends from Lunch Bunch. (Shhhhh! It’s a secret!) The time flies by while I’m up there, thinking of my friends and trying to make something I hope they’ll enjoy. I have quite a few things to make, so I’m hoping I can sneak up there a lot in the coming weeks.
I also have some refurbishing to do on some of our yard art. Our ‘box turtle”
needs an eye re-glued, plus some touch up on peeling pain on his back.
I found some orange “neon” paint. I repaint the orange on both sides of the jack-o-lantern, hoping the paint will make him pop when headlights hit him next year.
We have an 8 foot tall (with stem and leaves) metal flower attached to a power pole in the back yard. Some wasps figured out a way to get between the metal of the flower and the plastic saucer type thing we glued to the center and covered with glass beads. We think our spraying has finally at least caused the wasps to relocate, if not die outright – so we’ll bring this into the shop. I’ll remove the center piece, clean everything up, caulk the center back on and replace the glass pieces that have fallen off.
I’ll work my way around the yard, repairing things as best I can. We’re also looking to repair some other critters still in the shop so that we can attach them to the ham radio tower extra length part we stood in concrete recently.
We have a few things in the shop that need to be repaired or finished that we can hang on here, plus critters we make in the future. This will be our “Critter Tree.” :0)
Amber at 5-1/2 months
Amber is over 52 pounds now, almost 6 months old, but she is not showing any signs of being a brave dog yet.
Yesterday was particularly traumatic.
First she met this –
Paperblog
Picture – if you are able – a large dog almost putting her nose on the baby frog my husband was showing her – and then large dog leaping backwards. She sneaked up on the frog again, almost putting her nose on it, then leaped up and backwards again, with a bark. Then came dancing around, whining. My husband started to show it to her again, and she was leaping backwards again. Mean, scary frog!
Then she met this on one of our walks –
Texas Parks and Wildlife
A turtle similar to this one was on the sidewalk in the yard in the front of the house. Amber went right over to it, but leaped back in fear when the turtle had the audacity to move. Amber leaped backward, coming over to me. “Save me, Mom!” She wouldn’t go near it again.
To cap off her day, she faced this –
credit unknown
Amber wanted to be with my husband, but he was going up and down the stairs to our basement. We tried to entice her to come down the stairs, offering a treat, but she would barely stick her head around the corner, much less even CONSIDER coming down to us.
She finished off her day with a small bite of the burgers we were grilling, some ice cubes from my husband’s drink, a ‘mad dog’ run in the yard, and then bed.
Whew! Such a challenging day for our ‘baby’ dog!
Filed under Amazing Animals, Family
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