Stuff and Nonsense

Future walkway!

It's been too hot to do much of anything outside,  but I have been out a couple of early mornings working on the area where the ramp was removed.  I dug out most of the sand and piled it on the side of the house (under chicken wire), have used a shovel to move soil from hump areas (used to support the lower part of the ramp), and this morning went out and finished the job, for now.  It's fairly level and slopes away from the house, which was the primary goal.  Once the work under the house is finished (James hasn't started yet -- it's not something he looks forward to!) I can think about steps here, get rid of at least part of the excess lumber.  Some of it (one concrete end, for example) just needs to be cut off and put out front for removal by the city.  Whatever's left after the steps will be saved and someday used to extend the steps around the other side of the porch.  That is probably fairly far into the future, as it involves removing the concrete block steps and I haven't asked anybody about the difficulty/cost of doing that.

See how tiny she is?  That's an average size chair.

I may be stuck with this little critter.  That's not a horrible hardship, but I really didn't/don't want to raise a baby of any kind at this stage of my life.  Thank goodness I can put this one on the front porch when she really gets to be too much.  She seems to be quite comfortable and happy out there, although she is always happy to come inside and get a little attention.  I asked around, and my neighbor says this is a dumping area for unwanted pets in this town, and that's most likely where she came from. I called some local vets, including one in Rome recommended by the rescue group as being less pricey, and found that if she's under 6 months she doesn't need leukemia testing, and her shots won't start until she's 9 weeks old, so right now she won't cost me any vet bills.  Her name may end up being 'Pest', as that's what I call her most of the time.  She would be Pest II in my life -- Pest I came from similar circumstances, rescued from a dump half dead and filthy.  The name came about the same way, too.

I took my worm bin apart last night, spread the bedding onto a compost pile, put the soil/worms/castings and small, uneaten organic matter into the two raised beds.  Why, you ask?  First of all, a few days back when I added some coffee grounds to the bed I saw almost no worms and thought maybe the heat had been too much for them.  This was the first day after the ramp came down and the plastic bin was in full sun all morning for the first time.  I haven't seen but a few since then, either, and normally I see lots of them when I put stuff in.  Also, with the ramp gone I really don't have a good shaded place to put them plus I was frankly getting tired of thinking about them.  

Never fear, however, the wormies were all safe and sound and burrowed deeply into the moist soil, with plenty of baby worms.  I expect they will make themselves at home in the raised beds, continue to thrive and reproduce and make castings for the plants.  Life will be a lot simpler for me.

Much cooler today/last night, thank goodness, but it was starting to warm up outside when I was working out there and the sun grew closer to the tops of the trees.  Granted, maybe the fact that I'm wearing sweat pants might have contributed to that.  Today?  Deal with the kitten's needs, call a gutter man, look for a job here in town.  Who knows, beyond that.