The Fence, The Ditch and A Vote - A Busy Thursday

Today is a busy day for DH. He's spray painting the front side of our fence with water proofing, and he also is meeting with the County "Ditch" guys about our Eastern border - the ditch and stream and undergrowth and trees - lots and lots of trees. So he'll be a busy, busy boy today and (hopefully) exhausted and able to get a good night's sleep tonight. 

DH will be spray painting sealant on our side of the fence 
today. He said that he splashed some water on the other 
side to check how it reacted, and the water beaded up, so he 
was happy. That's what's supposed to happen once the sealant
 has been applied. Thank goodness we won't have to 
repeat this for another ten years. What a chore! 

Yesterday's "day off" didn't require any real cooking, so I did some housecleaning instead. I was determined to work on my corner in the computer room. It's getting a bit out of hand. I actually didn't accomplish a lot in that corner, but I did tackle my closet.  I tossed a bag of clothing away - simply not good enough even for Goodwill. I also found three VERY nice shirts I had purchased years ago. They were still in their original packaging. All "Large" and I'm wearing "Small", so definitely NOT for me. I'll think a bit about where to bring them. I could bring them to the Y with me - I know they'll find a good home there. I could give them to Goodwill ... maybe I'll post them to my blog later this week and send them to whomever requests them. That might work. We'll see what happens. Right now they're out of my closet. I'll figure out their next home within a day or two. 

I love handbags, I have a lot (these AREN'T mine), 
and I keep them on my upper closet shelving. However, 
looking through them, I'm out of control on these and 
have to cull them down. 

I realized, looking at my closet, that I'm a total handbag fiend. My Mom loved them - but she was really good about keeping her "collections" under control. I'm going to have to do a serious cull of my handbags, and I have some exceptional ones. But I rarely carry one. I use pockets whenever possible. *sigh* It's a dilemma ... I will get this one figured out, though, and at least I did manage to get my closet slightly cleaner. It's got a ways to go, but it's a start. 

I'd appreciate your vote. At this point, anyone 
can vote for a story. Later the voting will be 
restricted to participants only, but I have to stay 
in this longer than three stories! LOL Your 
vote is important, and very appreciated. 

Voting for my story on LJ Idol closes in late afternoon. I'd very much appreciate a read and a vote if you feel my story has merit. I write under Erulisse. My entry can be found here: https://erulissedances.dreamwidth.org/1041072.html, and the voting is going on here: https://www.dreamwidth.org/poll/?id=31569. Thanks for reading and voting, and have a great Thursday. I'll be back tomorrow. Slava Ukraini. 

After a HOT Day in Painting Hell, One Side is Complete

So, one side of the fence is done. DH started at approx 10:35 am, and ended at 4:28 pm. It was a miserably HOT day, 90+ degrees at the apex, and he says it's really a 2-person job because of the paint bucket and the sprayer mechanism, etc. Apparently he fastened the sprayer back together again at least two times where he didn't do it properly and ended up making a mess, and he still had to do brushwork on the lattice at the top. He's got the other side to do now, but that's on our side and if we need to do it in pieces, we have that ability. I wanted to get Laura and Fahkri's side done ASAP so that we wouldn't be intruding onto their property any more than necessary. 

This was the fence on June 25, just after it was 
erected. Way in the end there, almost past 
where you can see, is Bob's corner. That damned 
corner where the two fences overlap for a short 
bit, is a total PITA to paint - brush or spray, 
it's just too close to get there easily. 

He pretty much worked nonstop for the entire span, thinking that he wouldn't get it finished until 6:30 pm or later. Fortunately he finished up earlier than that, but he was exhausted. He requested that I get him two different things from Dairy Queen, so as soon as I dropped off my laptop and shop stuff, I headed back out and brought back sugary frozen things for him to drink. He also had soup for dinner, so that helped to replenish his liquids a bit. He said he would NEVER do this again, though. That he would pay someone to come out and paint it, cost be damned. Lesson learned - LOL. 

I'm fully in favor of hiring someone to spray paint (or 
brush paint - probably a combination of the two) our 
fence next time. It's a ridiculous amount of work. But DH 
was determined that he could do it. Lesson learned. 

I haven't had a chance to pop over and take a look yet, I might not until a few days have gone by. But I'll look at some point. Bob's Corner was where he started, and that was a total PITA (which I thought probably would be the case). Bob's chain link fence and our wooden one overlap by about 2-3 feet, and they're VERY close to each other, maybe three inches between them. Getting the fence painted behind the chain link was extremely difficult and he was texting me about how impossible it was for over an hour - on just this little piece of fence. Fortunately things went a bit smoother from that point, but yeah. It's a long span of fence, and I think hiring someone the next time will be a great idea. Of course in 10 years we'll be 80, so who knows if we'll still be able to live in our home. 

He was SO grateful when he hit the gate - knowing he had the 
larger section done. Of course, he still had quite a bit of fence 
left to do, but the end was in sight. Corners, it seems, are 
the worst, however. It took him over an hour to do the 
final panel. 

So, I'm off to the shop. Today will be another hot day, and at least I have A/C at the shop. The house can get like an oven (especially on the top level) during these days. I'd probably better start putting my mini chiller filters into the freezer again for my mini A/C that I put next to my bed. Sometimes just my fan won't quite be enough (although last night was the first time I've turned my fan on). Back to writing my next entry into LJ Idol. It's finally coming clear, and that's good because I have to submit it no later than late today. I'll let you know when you can read and vote, and as always, I appreciate your votes more than you can ever know. Have an excellent weekend and I'll be back on Monday (although I might pop in here for a quick LJ Idol update if needed). Slava Ukraini. 

It's a Fence Day - No Day Off

We're getting a span of several days without rain, so DH is trying to take advantage of it. Now, I thought he would dive right in with the spray painter and get the fence done, starting yesterday. Of course not. He decided he needed to pressure wash the entire fence first - something that could easily have been done earlier in the week to allow for a proper dry time. But no - he pulled the big pressure washer from the shed and pressure washed both sides of the fence. Then complained about how it might not be dry enough by today to apply the stain/finish coat. *sigh* 

I thought I'd share a photo of my kitchen 
window area with all of you today. Why not? 
We're probably all tired of looking at stock 
photos of the fence - LOL. Here you have 
my yellow sink - original from 1960, and above, 
from L-R, my immortal philodendron (which is 
doing VERY well this year). Above it to the 
right, a clear rainbow-shimmered glass orb 
that my oldest niece gave me as a holiday gift 
more than 20 years ago. To the right is my owl 
teakettle - the matching oriental cups are in 
the cupboard to the right. Following the up in 
the teapot spout, you can see my kitchen dragon - 
handblown glass of crystal and blue. Two potholders 
(one on each side) and my Chinese cleaver complete 
this small area. I spend a LOT of time here - LOL. 

He thought he should put a heavy coat on, but the directions said "thin coat". He doubted himself so much on that, he had me go down and read the side of the 5-gallon bucket of sealant. Which I did, and yes, it said "Thin Coat". So he's grumbling, but he'll do it. I'm hoping that the South side (Laura and Fakhri's side) will be dry enough for painting. Our side I don't care as much about. We have time to sandwich in painting on our side when the weather permits and the fence is completely dry. With our humidity, dry is always a relative term in the summer months. 

Of course the big pressure washer has a lot more power than 
my little one that I've been using on the house. But it also 
managed to trip a fuse in the fusebox - LOL. It's bulky 
and even though it's on wheels, it's a lot harder to handle. 
I'll stick with my more portable sprayer sticks at this point. 

Now .... not to berate DH, but ... if I had known he was going to want the fence pressure washed before he painted, I could have done that for him a week or more ago so that it had plenty of time to dry. But no ... he never mentioned it at all. So when he was sighing and moaning about doing the fence yesterday morning on a bright and beautifully sunny day, I thought he would be diving right in with the sprayer and getting the coating done. Apparently not. Once again common sense had nothing to do with it. So, I'm working at the shop today and DH is tackling the sealant, South-facing side first, then the opposite side if he's got time and it's somewhat dry. I have a feeling I'll be calling a paint company to redo the fence in another ten years (maybe less). 

It does seem that in general, mankind simply doesn't WANT to 
get along with others. If there isn't a war going on, they'll do 
whatever is necessary to start one. I really don't understand 
that - but I can't argue with it. It seems to be the case, at 
least throughout my years on this planet. 

Still, life goes onward and I'm alive for another wonderful day in this world. It's a crazy world - not even counting politics. Mankind is a warlike species - we don't seek peaceful resolutions; we automatically strike out and then wonder why everyone else is upset with us. It works that way in families, congregations, governmental bodies and international relations. It might be a crazy world, but it's also a world of beauty and compassion. Please don't lose sight of that beauty as you struggle with the bureaucracy and politics of our day-to-day life. Keep the love going. I'll be back tomorrow to wrap up the week. Slava Ukraini. 

The Fence, Cloudbursts and Cooking Tools Opinions

The fence saga continues ... I can see myself posting similar posts well into the Fall the way the weather simply isn't conducive.  Yesterday was supposed to be dry (all week is supposed to be dry). Nobody told that to the Weather Gods, however, who decided to capriciously toss two major cloudbursts over our area in the afternoon. The soaking was great for the plants, but not so good for the fence which needs a 24 hour dry before it can be stained and sealed. If it was just a stain, it wouldn't be a big deal at all (and we're really not looking to change the color, anyway). It's the "sealed" part that requires a dry surface, and we haven't had that yet. The Frozen Northlands in the summer become the season of mosquitoes large enough to carry off a horse, and rain - lots of rain. *sigh* Hopes continue, but reality keeps intruding. 

We had two separate cloudburst over the shop 
yesterday. The clouds just DUMPED rain for 15-20 
minutes, then stopped and the sun came back. Weird! 
And a bit frightening in many ways. These are 
tornado days, but fortunately, all we got were the 
cloudbursts. 

Because of the possibility of painting on a non-rain day (when the fence has dried out), I have to be flexible in my own days off too, ready to go into work at the drop of a "dry day ahead" hat. I really hate that - my schedule for my days off are pretty set and I might end up doing a lot of cooking during my two-and-a-half hours of available time after I get home from work, just to have my lunches of alkagizers available, and my dinners of whatever to eat. *sigh* One of my great joys is being able to spend time in the kitchen on my Wednesday and Friday daytimes. That may not exist over the next two weeks while we dodge rains to get that fence completed. 

I can get a locally-sourced Corian cutting board in 
either of two sizes for a reasonable price. I'll have 
to measure the space I have and the size of what I'm 
currently using for my cutting board, but I'm leaning 
towards the 11.5 x 15 inch size. What do you think? 

I'm also thinking hard about that Corian cutting board. I would rather not lug it around the State Fair, and as I recall, the prices at the vendor were good ... but not THAT good. I think I can get one, locally sourced, for a similar cost, without having to carry it on my back for a full day of walking and experiencing the State Fair. I'm looking into that. 

I'm thinking about a straight rolling pin, but 
what do you think? If you use a rolling pin, 
does yours have handles, or do you use a 
straight one? I'd be interested in your 
viewpoints. 

I'm also looking into a new rolling pin (see yesterday's post). For those of you who use a rolling pin, do you prefer the straight bar style, or one that has separate handles? I've never used one of the straight bar styles before, but as I watch cooking shows, it seems to be a quite common style, and there are some that appeal to me on Amazon. Do you have a preference for materials of the rolling pin too? It seems that there's everything from metal to wood, and they're not expensive. 

I have always owned and used the traditional style, but the 
handles get loose and control disappears. I've never quite 
understood how to get a level surface with the French style, 
although the French certainly know how to cook 
pastry. I'm thinking more of the center one, but would 
appreciate your insights if you have used rolling pins now 
or in the past. 

So, after having peppered you with enough questions - LOL - I'm off to the pool. I don't think we're expecting any showers this morning, so I should be able to get in a good swim. At least, that's the hope. Have an excellent Tuesday and I'll be back tomorrow for my "day off" if I'm lucky. Slava Ukraini. 

It's Monday - Will the Fence Get Painted This Week?

Happy Monday to all. So far ... (crossing my fingers) it's looking like this might be the week that DH gets to paint the fence. He'll start on our neighbor's side - he thinks that might be a bit dryer than our side. I'll be texting Laura later today to let her know our (yet again) revised schedule. If the weather and equipment cooperates, we may have this task completed by the end of the week. I might have to work a day of my days off so that he can complete the project ... we'll see. I really HATE giving up one of my days off. 

DH has his respirator now, so he's ready to tackle the fence. 
He knows he needs to get this done before too much longer, 
and it's looking like this week will be a good one. I'm 
crossing my fingers that he can get this done. 

Sunday was glorious, though. The weather was absolutely PERFECT for sitting outside and enjoying the weather on the patio. We were able to shelve all of the different problems we've each got digging on our brains, and totally enjoy a wonderful afternoon. I'll harvest my first cherry tomato tonight, and my plants are growing SO big and tall and bushy. I'll have a mass of tomatoes available eventually, and then it will be time to dehydrate them and pulverize them so that I can add fresh tomato taste to my recipes throughout the winter months. Because, no mistake about it, despite the crazy non-winter we had this past season, Winter is Coming! 

Normally at this time of the year, I'd be hip-deep in 
Le Tour de France. To my surprise, I'm just not that 
into it this year. I suppose because of all of the other 
things I've got to get finished before I can enter 
the Fall and Winter seasons. 

We've got about six weeks or so before Renaissance Festival starts, and I'm already looking forward to my season of Fest and the Fair and my annual visit with Sharon. But there's so much to do before then - like figure out how to use a damned rolling pin. I've never been much good at rolling pins - maybe have used one a total of less than 50 times my entire life! But I want to make some eggrolls, and need to make a gluten-free eggroll wrapper for them. That will require rolling the dough, and I'm really bad at it. If I succeed at the recipe, however, I'll be looking for two kitchen things at the State Fair - a Corian cutting board, and a marble rolling pin (or something equally excellent). Both of these items, of course, will weigh a TON, and we take the bus back and forth, so anything I buy will have to be carried throughout the long, multi-mile walking day. That's the "Ick" factor of the Fair. But the positive is that everything will be available there - no hunting around or mail ordering. 

I want a Corian cutting board for my kitchen. I've 
blasted through two cutting boards already since I 
first started WildFit, and I'm cooking a lot these 
days. My "new" cutting board which is less than 
four years old, is getting really scuzzy. I want 
something durable to hold up to the knife work. 

So here it is, the early-middle of Summer and I'm already looking at the Autumn. Crazy, I know, but that's how I operate. I try to look ahead and plan ahead as much as possible - DH and nature being the more unpredictable aspects of planning ahead. Today is easy, though. Finish my tea, have my breakfast, and get to the shop. It's time to work again. I hope you have a great Monday and that your goals are successfully met. I'll be back on Tuesday. Slava Ukraini. 

Our Weekend Plans are Set - Painting, Spraying and Working Hard

Blogger seems to be having some issues this morning, although it could be my old mainframe computer. I hate writing my blog on my laptop. I like the big screen and the other things (like my old version of Photoshop) that I have on my Win 7 computer. Yes ... I'm on one computer that's TOTALLY out of date - but then, I'm totally out of date too, so we make a good pairing. For anything requiring a more technical and up-to-date approach, I use the laptop. 

I'm well aware that Win 7 is a OLD system, but my main 
computer is an OLD computer. There are a lot of programs 
I run (like my full Adobe Photoshop) that need the Win 7 
platform. My laptop is much newer with a much newer 
operating system, and a less satisfactory Photoshop. 

The morning rain finally ended and I got out to brush down the fence in mid-afternoon. DH had supplied me with a wallpaper paste application brush for the task. It worked OK, but I think I would have been equally successful with a toilet brush. What was required was stiff bristles to whisk the dirt that had splashed up onto the bottom board away. I spent 30-45 minutes going down the fence on Laura's side, pulling some grape vines (horrid things - they take over and destroy everything) while I was at it. The grape vines are from the previous owner - Laura doesn't care if I pull them away. 

Our brush isn't nearly this neat and clean, and 
is quite worn, but it worked really well for 
clearing the dirt and dust away from the lowest 
boards for DH. He'll probably do one more 
run, though. It was still damp when I was 
brushing, and he needs clean and dry. It took 
me about a half-hour of time to do a total brush. 

Tomorrow DH will assemble the spray painter, grab one of the five-gallon buckets of clear coat that we purchased from Home Depot last week, and head out to spray paint. The plan is he will do Laura's side on Saturday and our side on Sunday. It'll be harder to deal with Laura's side because of the electrical cord, but I hope he remembers that Laura said he could use her patio outlet if needed. I know he doesn't want to trespass onto her property any more than necessary, but the power issue might be difficult - there's a fence in the way - LOL. 

I'm hoping things go smoothly for DH today. It's a big 
job, but the weather is actually cooperating with days 
off and available. With luck, by the end of the weekend, 
we'll have the total task complete for the next 4-5 years. 

I hope it goes relatively quickly, and quite smoothly. He's never used a sprayer before, but it will speed things up considerably. There's still some brushwork to be done, but it will be minimal. It would be a blessing if everything works smoothly, so please think lots of good thoughts for this project. I don't want a crabby Hubby when I get home from the shop tonight. I'd rather have one who is surprised at how well the sprayer worked and how relatively easy the paint job actually was. I'm sure he'll be eaten by mosquitoes, though. I don't think there will be any way to avoid that. 

My Asian Vegetable-Beef Soup recipe turned out very 
tasty. I added cooked wild rice to the mix, and I 
chose "Hen and Chickens" mushrooms - SO GOOD. 
I'll definitely be making this one again, and I'm going 
to totally enjoy it for my dinner for a few more days. 

By the time we are able to sit down late Sunday afternoon, I'm sure both of us will be totally exhausted. I'm sure glad I have a lovely light soup in the fridge for my dinners over the next few days. I tried a new recipe called "Asian Vegetable-Beef Soup" that is lovely, and I added a batch of cooked wild rice to the broth yesterday. It's a keeper, for sure. I'll make this one again. I have four other Summer soups that I pulled out of a recipe search earlier in the week. I'll be trying a lot of new stuff over the next few weeks and I'm totally looking forward to it. I hope they're all as good as the Asian Veggie soup has been. Have an excellent weekend, I'll be back with a progress report on Monday. Slava Ukraini. 

A Weekend Ahead of Cleaning and Spraying and Final Thoughts on the NHL Season

The weekend plan is for DH to spray sealant on Laura's side of our fence on Saturday and Sunday. I'll apparently be helping, although what I'm specifically going to be doing is a mystery to me. I'll be starting out my contribution to the fence project tomorrow when I'll be doing a power wash of the bottom rail on Laura's side from the West through to the far East. Doing the power scrub won't be a problem, but getting the hose over might be an issue. Still, DH will have a similar issue getting electrical power for the spray painter when he's actually doing the painting. It'll be a weekend of hard work for both of us. 

I did warn Laura via text that DH would be spray painting 
the fence on their side on Saturday and Sunday. He's on his 
own for Saturday and I'll be helping him on Sunday. She 
offered him the use of electrical plugs from her patio if it 
would make things a bit easier. He might end up taking 
advantage of that ... or not. He's a stubborn old coot! 

It wasn't exactly the way I had planned to spend my Friday. Fridays are usually my "make Ogre Juice" day and sometimes a bit more cooking. Fortunately, I made a great new vegetable soup yesterday, and I can whip my Ogre Juice together in an hour - I've been doing it for long enough. So, it won't be horrid, as long as the hose cooperates. I don't want to snap any lillies or damage any other flowers getting the hose over to the fence. I wonder if Laura's hose is long enough? I might text her today and see. Maybe I can join my long hose onto hers and eliminate the necessity of pulling the hose up and over the fencing to do the power scrub? 

What I need is something like this - that will entrap and 
elevate the hose above the flowers (most of them - the 
lillies are much taller, so guide around the lillies). 
Unfortunately, we don't have anything like this. I wonder 
if I can find some at a local hardware store that I can 
buy quickly before starting on my project tomorrow. 

Hockey is over for the year, and what an amazing Stanley Cup series it turned out to be. I kept a set of notes from the end of the season, and had a good laugh over it as I was pulling it off my calendar yesterday. Twenty-five ice hockey columnists and commentators were asked about which team they thought would win the Cup, and also who would win the Conn Smythe Trophy. Every one of them had Florida losing in Round 1! Their numbers for which team would win the Cup were Carolina Hurricanes 7, Dallas Stars 6, New York Rangers 4, Houston Oilers 3, LV Knights 3, Winnipeg Jets 1, and Toronto Maple Leafs, 1. NONE of then had Florida going past the first round! At least Connor McDavid was named Conn Smythe Trophy winner, even though he played for the losing team, he well deserved the accolade. But, it certainly proves that the pundits have NO CLUE about who will actually win when it comes down to it. LOL

It's only the sixth time that a player from the losing team 
has won the Conn Smythe award. VERY rare. 

Year	Player	Team	Position
2024	Connor McDavid	Edmonton Oilers	C
2003	Jean-Sebastien Giguere	Mighty Ducks of Anaheim	G
1987	Ron Hextall	Philadelphia Flyers	G
1976	Reggie Leach	Philadelphia Flyers	RW
1968	Glenn Hall	St. Louis Blues	G
1966	Roger Crozier	Detroit Red Wings	G

What strikes me on this list is that four of the Conn 
Smythe winners from losing teams were Goalies, 
with one Right Wing and now, McDavid, a Center. 
What a odd mix, but understandable for those seasons. 

So, I'm off to the pool. Next week will be a bit off schedule because July 4th (Independence Day for my international readers) is on Thursday, so I'll be pushing my usual Thursday swim off to Friday next week. It'll throw me off all week - LOL. Here's hoping you have an excellent Thursday and I'll be back tomorrow. Slava Ukraini. 

The Fence, The Alarm and My Mom - Here, There and Everywhere

Happy Wednesday. Despite the weather being lovely yesterday, DH "putzed"  in the garden, but didn't do anything about spray-coating the fence. I, on the other hand, watched several YouTube videos about how to use our paint sprayer. I'm much more confident now. DH has decided his best days to do the fence are Saturday and Sunday. Supposedly the weather will be best. I have my doubts that the weather people can tell with any certitude this far away. But we'll see. We need to get the fence clear coated, and if he won't do it, I'll have to fold it into my time. 

The spray painter is pretty easy to use, the tricky part is 
making sure that the paint is the correct thickness to easily 
work through the mechanism. There are some videos that I 
was watching yesterday. I'll try and watch a few more today. 
I might get stuck doing this on my own - sometimes these 
jobs start with good intentions and then never quite get done. 

I phoned my security alarm company yesterday, and it seems like the lack of communication was a glitch because everything is working well now. That's a relief. I don't have to have a technician come out and play with the alarm panel. At least one thing was a positive. 

I'm not sure if the statement above is grammatically 
correct. It's grating on me. I suspect it should be 
"...recover emails that have disappeared ..." rather than 
the shorter way in the illustration. But ... the concept is 
exactly what I'm talking about, so here you go. An 
incorrect text box for the correct idea - LOL. 

Today I have to check out an email from Missy - she's tried to send it several times without success, so we'll see if it arrived in my in-box yesterday afternoon. I certainly hope so. It's old photos and memories of my Mom that her Mom had kept. I'd very much like to see it and read about it. 

This is the photo that I have hanging on 
the wall to the left of my computer. I see it 
every day. Mom was probably around 40 in 
this photo. She was a beauty! 

I also need to contact the county watershed district. We need to schedule a walk-through on our property. They will be clearing trees from our stream bed (or drainage ditch) and we want to make sure that they are quite aware of what trees are on their property and which ones are on ours. I'll call them today, between cooking, cleaning, laundry and finally collapsing and chatting with Aearwen - whose birthday it is today. So, Happy Birthday Aearwen. Hope you have a wonderful day and year ahead. I'm heading for the pool, so have an excellent Wednesday. Slava Ukraini. 

It Was a Successful Day - Final Fence Photos

Yesterday's "Day Off" turned out pretty successful, all things considered. I had an excellent swim under a wonderful sunrise, then, after breakfast, I started my errands. The grocery store was focused on my nightly salad stuff - my salad "cupboards" were bare, so I needed a bit of everything. My local grocery store came through with flying colors - some excellent produce joined my refrigerator later in the day. I got home slightly early, which didn't make DH happy because I had my car in the garage when he was trying to leave for work, but I didn't care. I had a lot to do and needed to get going. 

Four photos of the new fence because that's been our focus 
for the past weeks. Here is the Western corner. The small 
part of fencing on the right is our neighbor Chris' fence, then 
you see the corner and the rest of the fencing is our new one. 

Even though I didn't need to do any kitchen work - I have plenty of food available until tomorrow's blend of a new batch of "Ogre Juice" - I still had three loads of laundry on my agenda, as well as some outdoor items. High on my list of things to do was a quick trip to Joe's Sporting Goods for a mosquito net for my head. I knew the mosquitoes were getting nasty once again, and I wanted to get the bird detritus cleaned up from my front door area. So, after getting the next load of laundry going, I headed out to buy my mosquito headpiece. 

The gate leads to Laura and Fakhri's yard in the South. 
It is the far left of the photo above. 

Then, just to the east of the gate is DH's latest garden 
area - the semi-circle. He made that part last year, the 
first attempt to start working the upper yard instead 
of just the lower one. 

That was successful, so I grabbed my jet sprayer and a hat, put on the mosquito netting, and headed out to clean the robin's nest off my front door light and the surrounding area. If you recall, I had mentioned that the hose in the upper yard hadn't been attached to the spigot. Well, I found out way. The coupling was the totally wrong size and there wasn't an adapter handy. So, I completely undid the hose from the bottom yard and pulled it as close as possible to the upper yard, attached my jet sprayer, and worked the clean in that fashion. It wasn't as quick, and it took a little bit of scrubbing too, as well as some ladder work, but I was successful. My front door area has been reclaimed once again. AND, the mosquito netting over my hat and head worked GREAT! I highly recommend it if you're in an area with a lot of mosquitoes. 

Finally, we're into the lower yard now. This photo was 
taken from the patio table, so this is pretty much what 
we'll see when we're seated having drinks on a hot summer 
day. I'm VERY happy. Our privacy has once more 
been restored and it's SO important. AND we have most 
of the summer still to come. Good timing all around. 

Basically, everything fell into place for yesterday - something that doesn't always happen. I even had time to photograph the fence sections completely for my record, so I'm pleased about that too. It looks lovely. Of course, it will age darker over time and that lovely new cedar wood color won't last for long, but it's so pretty right now. I'm headed off to the pool for my last outdoor swim of the week. I'm hoping today's swim will be as wonderful. It'll be a quiet swim - my headphones need recharging, and I forgot to do that yesterday. *sigh* Quiet swims make things a bit more challenging for me - I get bored and can't easily swim through any minor issues like I can if I'm listening to my current book. Oh well, my own fault. I certainly COULD have charged it yesterday, I just forgot until just now! Have an excellent Thursday and I'll be back tomorrow. Slava Ukraini. 

We Beat the Rain - Fence Success

The fence people were at the door around 8:00 am and jumped right to work. DH was HORRIBLE at sending photos, although he did give me commentary to keep me up-to-date. Still, I only have two photos to share with all of you since I was at work and he was here watching things come into place. As it ended up, it was a good thing he was actually paying attention (something that doesn't always happen) since he caught the fact that one panel had not been fully nailed into place and was able to catch them and get that done before declaring everything done and dusted. DH sent me a couple of photos before the skies opened up and a deluge of rain came down. We'll send the final payment off to them tomorrow, and finally, this saga will be finished. 

Looking up at the fence while it was being erected. DH was 
standing in the lower garden area, looking Southwest into 
the upper back yard. 

It's been a long and VERY expensive process. It's not that we couldn't afford it - but it was a definite strain on the budget. Still, if this one lasts for as long as the last one, it's quite likely we'll both be dead by that time since the last fence lasted for almost 20 years and we're in our early 70's now. 

Here, the fence is completely erected. You can see 
the gate in the center section, then from the 
gate onward, the fence goes steeply downward 
to the lower garden area, until it joins with our 
neighbor Bob's chain link fence. It really looks 
wonderful. I'm VERY happy with it, and so very 
grateful to have a fence back in place once again. 

So today will be a housecleaning day. I'm seeing too many ants again (a couple of the really tiny ones, and a couple of the big carpenter ants). It's time to refresh the ant traps, so that's on my agenda for the day. My first load of laundry is in the washer and there will be two more today. I'll do grocery shopping, but I don't need a major buy this time - I still have soup from last week's cook to finish up before cooking another large batch of something or other. I do have to take a small check to my bank for depositing. It's a check that is made out to my mother - royalties from Dad's books amounting to less than $20. Still, the publisher has to distribute the royalties, and my mother is the beneficiary. I used to have a separate account set up for these funds, but that was many years ago when they actually amounted to several hundred dollars each check. That's not the case now, so I need advise from my bank on how to get it deposited properly. 

Remember these guys? Well, they are grown and gone now, 
but they were typically messy teenagers during their 
last week or two in the nest. The area around my front door 
looks awful and getting it cleaned up is high on today's agenda. 

Finally, I want to get the bird detritus from our baby robins cleaned off around my front porch. Those little guys were FAR from clean - they messed and made droppings everywhere, and there are pieces of the old nest that Mama Robin cleaned away still scattered around as well. I need to hook up my hose pressure washer to get that cleaned up, and I need the upper yard hose attached to the spigot to do that. Unfortunately, the hose isn't attached, and I'm quite sure I'll become a mosquito smorgasbord when I'm trying to get the coupling together. *sigh* It's too bad I don't have a safari helmet with netting attached. 

I should probably wear something similar 
to this to get the hose attached to the spigot 
and clean up the bird mess. The mosquitoes 
are out for blood in that part of the yard, and 
I don't feel like a serious battle. I'm pretty sure 
I can find something at Cabalas or REI. 

Have an excellent Wednesday. It rained like crazy last night, but I should have a lovely outdoor swim today, watching the sun rise while doing my laps. I'm so happy that the outdoor pool is open once again. I wouldn't like running out there in cold temps, but it's a total joy in the summer months. Have an excellent Wednesday and I'll be back tomorrow. Slava Ukraini. 

It'll be a Great Swim, and It's Fence Time!

I awakened early today, and took advantage of not being rushed to write a "proper" blog. I'll still get to the pool on time. If it was yesterday, I probably would have ended up swimming indoors - we had thunderstorms yesterday night and early morning. But today is quiet, so we'll be outdoors for the sunrise. Our really busy day is Wednesday, so hopefully it won't be super crowded today. 

I'm looking forward to getting back into the water again. As 
far as outdoor water goes, the lakes are all open for swimming 
again, although I don't like swimming in them. I'm just not much 
for sharing my swim with wildlife - human beings excepted. 

When I get home from work today, I should have a fence to look at. At least that's my hope. We're on the schedule for today. They originally had wanted to come on Friday last week, but that would have meant I'd have to work and DH would have been home. Since I had a kitchen full of fruit that had to be cooked, and also needed my "Ogre Juice" for the next week, that was a firm "No" on my part. Today was their next available day and Tuesday is excellent for our schedules. It's a day when DH is normally off from work, so we didn't need to shift schedules around. 

Remember these lovelies? Chomped by the deer now. As are 
many of our lillies and lots more flowers. I need my fence 
back. The deer can jump over - I've seen them do it. But 
they're much less prevalent with that barrier in place. 

I did text Laura and Fakhri about the fence install, as I had promised them. I also thanked them for being great neighbors during this event. Laura got back to me later in the day, telling me they were out of town, but appreciated the "heads up" and she'd see me when they returned in a few days. Since I'm a firm believer that good fences make for good neighbors, I'm sure we'll become better acquainted now that the fencing will be replaced. I know DH will be much happier - the deer have been eating and stepping on our flowers and he's hurting every time one of them is cropped up below the blossom. Deer are lovely to look at, but horribly destructive to our flower garden. 

I've seen fox in our area before - a few years ago I saw a 
mother playing with her kits on a grassy slope as the sun 
was rising - it was a magical moment. I adore foxes, so seeing 
one so close to home yesterday really made my morning. 

I don't think I have any hummingbirds this year. I'll blame that on the fence too. The quiet privacy of our yard just isn't. Our yard has become a thoroughfare instead of a cul-de-sac. Oh! I have to share! Yesterday when driving to work, I saw a juvenile fox (probably 1-2 years old) scampering across the main roadway I was on, a limp squirrel held in his jaws. This was only one block east and one block south of my home4! I knew we had foxes in our area - I've seen them on rare occasions. Seeing him so close to home was a real treat!  

Just having that wonderful length to swim during the warmer 
months is a real treat. Running in and out of the water can 
be cold, but the water itself is warm and wonderful. A great 
workout, of course, but also a wonderful way to greet the sun 
at dawn. 

So, I'm off to the pool. It's a good thing I wasn't swimming yesterday - it was thunderstorms and rain, and the indoor pool would have been the only option. Today, on the other hand, is quiet and lovely. It'll be a great outdoor swim. It's so nice to stretch out in the length of the Olympic-sized pool. It's a luxury that we all look forward to - totally understandable. Have an excellent Tuesday and I'll be back tomorrow. Slava Ukraini.