the little wild kingdom

[flowerbug]

Glad the garden club meeting went well! Are you getting any more participation? Yay for starts!!

so far it isn't increasing, so the few people who've showed up haven't normally been coming back. there are two of us who've made every meeting and one very solid third person who's a great person and i hope will continue to be there.

suggestions being thought about how to reach more people and different age groups but i'm not really a cheerleader type of person so we'll see what shakes out with that. also the suggestion was to have a topic for each month to give people something to grab onto instead of the general ideas i have on the flyer which is posted on the bulletin board. worms are a pretty good topic and i'll try that for the next month's meeting - need to redo my worm page anyways so this will give me a good reason to do that.

 

[flowerbug]

Mom has been having a hard time coming up with fabric that she can use for batting in her lap quilts that she makes for vets and hospice. we used to have a good supply from a hotel up north that would donate their used sheets that they would switch out every so often. this saved her a lot of $. last fall that hotel was sold to someone else and they didn't want to keep the sheets for her any longer so that source was out.

after struggling to find anything at all at the thrift shops and places she's managed to get by the past year. over the weekend someone brought us a whole backend of a pickup truck full of gowns that can be cut up and used . the guy had been hanging on to them because he couldn't bring himself to throw them away so he was very glad to find someone who'd use them for a worthy cause.

we don't have a lot of storage space but a few years ago i redid the garden shed and tiled the walls and ceiling to get it in better shape and to keep the mice from being able to get into the walls and since then we've mostly been using it for her fabric storage space and also some things for winter storage, but now the end of this little room is stacked full of bags of fabric from floor to ceiling.

 

[flowerbug]

klutzy day today. i'd finished planting a bean garden and was stepping on some rocks to go from mud shoes to clean shoes and there was an oddly shaped rock that flipped up the other end right when my foot was rapidly being put from one shoe towards the other. very unhappy toes and foot for sure. i'm swearing and laughing and telling Mom to hang on a second because she's wondering what i've done and i'm hopping around in the gravel with one shoe on and other other off. when i finally tell her what i've done she says she won't kiss it to make it feel better or give me mouth to mouth. it's good to know where we stand with such things...

 

[flowerbug]

it really helped to take some ibuprofen in the evening and right before bed. this morning i can hardly tell i did anything to my foot other than the fact that i have three purple toes. one reason why i don't take pain meds all the time for little things is that when i really do need it i want it to work. seems to have.

i'll be out in the gardens today and hope i can get the North Garden planted with beans.

 

[flowerbug]

made progress yesterday with three walls cut in so today all i have to do is roll as far as what we have left of the stain will go.

a slight chance of rain this afternoon but if i get going early enough i can get the first and second coats on the fascia boards when i go out to start with and those will be dry enough by the time the rains might show up. the fascia boards are easy to do and it takes more time to move the ladder than to roll the stain on.

the sides of the house that are ready to do will take more time but that can go quickly too compared to all the brush work it takes to get them ready.

not as windy today so that will help too. pine needles in the paint tray may be a challenge for two of the walls. hmm... ah well... it's all ok.

 

[flowerbug]

scrubbing eaves today, over half way done, will make tomorrow easier. weather is sort of cooperating so i can't ask for different. when i need a break it has been tending to rain.

today i saw some spots i missed with stain so i have to remember to hit those once or twice again before i call that wall done. but generally all of the walls are now done i just have a few fascia boards to put two coats on and then the rest of the eaves and any touch ups i can find before i run out of stain.

way back when they first built this place they used a specific stain and i did like the look but it wasn't a very good stain and they absolutely did not clean the wood or prep it at all before staining. now, here or there some bubbles are forming, but short of stripping the areas down to the wood and starting over it's going to happen. and as they say, so it goes. a few big bubbles i'm going to have to pop and see if i can squirt some stain inside and see if that will stick better than nothing. if that doesn't work then those spots i'll carefully redo but i'm not redoing entire, large areas.

no, i'm not at all happy about that, but it's just the breaks, when you home build and don't know what you're doing stuff happens...

today we were joking about blowing it up. the whole house. i said, "Hey if we were going to do that we should have done it before I put all this work into it!" so there ya go... warts and all it is home.

 

[frustratedearthmother]

DH always - "A house is like a jealous mistress." It always wants more, lol. Sounds like you're making good progress.

 

[frustratedearthmother]

Who knew pot would stink so badly out in the growing area? So, if it's legal to grow I guess it's legal to use. Glad you were able to help your friend!

 

[flowerbug]

staining done. gardening tomorrow a few hours. not too much.

found out today what lady bugs taste like. not good.

 

[frustratedearthmother]

found out today what lady bugs taste like. not good.

Doesn't sound good. BUT, today I found out today what regurgitated food from a goat's stomach tastes like. I was medicating a goat and she spit the entire contents of her mouth (cud) straight into my face...and mouth...and eyes...and nose. I must be getting soft in my old age because she still lives, lol!