July 4th fun, or you never know...

....what a day will bring.  Yesterday morning started out fairly normal -- I was outside scraping paint off the siding, my neighbor had come over to chat while I worked, said he was ready to clean out the crawl space if that was OK with me (he needs the money to get his truck fixed).  He has a great Tyvek crawl suit and that literally covers every part of him aside from the face, and he wore a mask.  I'm not sure how much he got done because I ended up leaving before he was through.  At that point, he had maybe three-quarters of it finished but thought he'd have to do the rest today.  I'll have to check it out later.  Now, I have a big bundle of it out on the curb awaiting pickup.  Cool.

While I was scraping away my phone range.  I almost didn't answer it, because I had to run around the house and get to it before the machine picked up, which is a dash, but I made it.  My cousin Ken was on the other end, inviting me to a big get-together at a friend's house, and I wasn't about to turn down that opportunity.  I worked a bit more on the siding, about three hours total, but time was telling me I needed to go about the process of cleaning up my dirty body, so I put things away.  It'll be there waiting for me next time I feel the urge.  A few weeks ago a friend gave me an old drill to use in the process -- I just need to get a chuck for it, then one of those wire brush attachments and a long power cord.  I haven't had the $$ to do that lately, but when I do it should make short work of the paint that doesn't come off easily.

But, on to the fun side of life.  After a few wrong turns and after asking a couple of people how to get where I was going, I found their wonderful house out in the country and the three of us took off for the party, a good long drive away at a home on this lake.  Life is good.

I know some of you out there believe I'm the devil's spawn but here is proof that I came into this world in the usual way -- I have kinfolk!  This is Ken's son and daughter-in-law. Ken is the son of my first cousin which, according to my know-all genealogy software makes him my first cousin once removed.  For some reason, it doesn't tell me what his kids would be, but I'm guessing they're first cousins twice removed. 

It's too bad the fish didn't cooperate and show his width, and I know it looks a bit on the small side,  but for a bream (pronounced 'brim, for you Yankees out there), it's a pretty good size.  They caught quite a few of these in the course of the day, but put 'em all back.

 

This is Ken's youngest grandson, from his daughter and son-in-law who I didn't manage to capture on film.  You couldn't get this boy out of the water!

Fishing with granddad (papa).

Half of me had an urge to get out and paddle Ken's kayak, half of me didn't, and the lazy half won.  One of these days!

One of the guests had been an extra in a movie filmed in the area last year and her tales were fascinating.  Called "Get Low", it stars Robert Duvall, Bill Murray and Sissy Spacek and is due for release this month.  Here's what IMDb has to say about it: "A movie spun out of equal parts folk tale, fable and real-life legend about the mysterious, 1930s Tennessee hermit who famously threw his own rollicking funeral party... while he was still alive."  Should be a fun movie, and it'll be nice to see the local scenery.

One of the highlights of the day was the low country boil.  Again, for you Yankees, this is a dish from the Georgia and Carolina coastal areas that will make your heart sing if you ever have a chance to try it.  The cook was very kind to allow me to follow her moves with the camera.  It takes awhile to cook, but is oh, so worth the wait!

First, the potatoes boil, since they take the longest.  I'm probably going to have the sequence a little off, but I think the sliced  lemons and limes went in next and there's a big bag of seasonings that goes in at some point, too.  Eventually, the citrus slices come out after they've flavored the water then the corn goes in, then a mess of fresh Andouille sausage.  When those come out and into a container to keep warm, the shrimp go in for about two minutes, then everything is dumped onto one huge table and everybody digs in.  My plate was rather meager, I'm afraid, because I'd snacked on chips and dips earlier and because my appetite still hasn't fully returned from when I was sick last week, but I had to get some of everything to try.  My goodness, it was good!  I was sorry I couldn't eat more but I sure enjoyed what I had.

And, what's a Fourth of July party without fireworks?  The kids, not surprisingly, had a great time with their sparklers, as well as the fireworks.  I had the camera set on 'fireworks show' (imagine that) and was rather pleased at the results.  I'm still not sure how to best use that feature -- when I press the shutter, the screen goes blank for awhile and I'm not sure whether to hold it in place at that point or not.  Mostly, I didn't hold it there the entire time it was blank, and it did just fine.  

 

I had problems with timing the bursts of the fireworks, but some of them turned out fine.

Before the fireworks began a couple of guitars came out and a songfest was happening inside so I hunkered down to listen.  Some fine singing in this bunch!  There was a young woman who is auditioning for American Idol in a couple of weeks, and she was really good.  All in all, we were up waaaay past my bedtime, but I got my second wind during the fireworks.  The old clock was edging up on midnight when we left and was right at midnight when I drove away from Ken and Lynn's place.  I had a lonesome, hungry kitten waiting for me but she didn't get much attention, I'm afraid.  Naturally, by then I was so wide awake that I didn't sleep much, but that's fine -- I can nap later and sleep tonight.  I wouldn't have missed this for the world!

My Saturday

Hasn't been all that momentous, really.  But, progress has been made.

After my angry rant yesterday I said to hell with the diet, I needed a treat, and for me, that generally means food.  I hied myself off to El Nopal, a lovely Mexican restaurant at the other end of town I'd yet to visit.  A nice dinner, some good chips and salsa all washed down by a Dos Equis, and I felt a lot better.  After that, I slept well and woke up this morning determined to do something fun -- a ride on the Silver Comet Trail.  Turned out to be a short one, just under an hour because my legs and overall energy were not interested in doing more, but that was enough.  I felt much, much better afterwards.  I need to start more mornings like this.

My neighbor really doesn't want to clean out under my house, according to his wife this morning.  All that fiberglas is itchy and it's a hot job.  Duh.  I just went outside and checked it out for myself, pulled out what I could from the small entry.  Aside from the crawlspace being tight, which it is, I didn't find it all that onerous, personally.  Raked out all kinds of stuff aside from insulation:  clay flower pots, plastic flower pots, what looks like a small oven grill.  I can do this entire job myself, really.  It's not so bad under there and once my eyes became accustomed to the light, I could see just fine.  I need to get a long hook for the entry door so it doesn't keep falling shut, and of course equip myself with long sleeves, long pants, eye protection and something to cover the nose and mouth, to keep the glas out of my body.  Wonder where I could get a surgical mask?  I have some of those foam masks, but they're hot and miserably uncomfortable.  A bandanna would probably work better.

Disposal is a more difficult issue.  Normally around here, people just put unwanted stuff like this out on the curb and the city hauls it away.  This comes away in pieces, smallish pieces, and tends to blow away.  The environmentalist in me doesn't want this stuff blowing all over the place.  I put what I took out today into my garbage can, but it's not likely to hold everything I take out, even in small increments.  Of course, the environmentalist in me decries the whole idea of this stuff entering a landfill, but I sure don't know what else to do with it.  Sad.

So, I have a project before me, and one I can get into.  Save myself a few $$, make sure the job is done the way I want it done.  I've crawled around such areas before, in my Atlanta house, although with far more space to work in for the most part.  I insulated both floor and attic of that house myself, so this is not a new concept to me.  Maybe I'll end up putting it all back in place myself, too.  Why not?  That should be the easy part!  Paying for it is what's going to be tough.  I'll definitely go with Johns Manville brand, which is formaldehyde free.  They have one version that is completely encased in plastic, very easy to use, but it's all pricey.

Aside from errands, and feeding the plants with some Garrett Juice, I think that's been my day.  Oh -- I spent a good bit of time on both the Comcast and Charter websites, spoke to a delightful young man at Comcast.  Turns out I should be able to get their internet service plus basic cable TV for less than I'm paying ATT for just internet.  He seemed to be unable to determine if there is service in this neighborhood and will call me back next week to confirm.  There is cable here -- in the living room.  Don't know if it's Comcast or Charter, but I'm hoping Comcast. From the website, at least, Charter didn't seem to offer the basic services I want, just bundles that are expensive (or, cheap for awhile then expensive after the initial time period).  I don't want that.  The Comcast telephone is a bit higher than my basic ATT service, so I may be forced to keep that for the time being.  And yes, it's worth paying them for the balance of the modem cost simply to get rid of them.  I may end up with a cell phone, although that may also be too pricey.  Will check that part out after I get the internet squared away.

I had the bright idea the other day to make use of all the basil in the garden, rather than tossing the trimmings into the compost pile.  Years ago back in Atlanta, an Italian friend of mine who was also a fabulous cook told me I could freeze pesto, as long as I put a layer of olive oil on top of it.  At least, I think it was freezing -- maybe it would just hold indefinitely in the refrigerator that way.  Since I already had all the ingredients, I made three batches of pesto today and froze them individually, then put a layer of olive oil on them. We'll see how it works.  Then, I made a batch of vanilla ice cream (no, I really am not going to go hog wild off the diet, because I've recently lost almost 10 pounds and don't want to put them back on).  Still, a little treat here and there -- why not?

Yet to come this 'holiday' weekend is turning the compost piles.  I think perhaps another ride or two on the bike may be in order, also.

Bah Humbug!

All I can say is, I'm glad you're not here in this room right now, and if you're smart, you're glad too!

Bad day?  That's putting it mildly.  I've been really bored at work for quite awhile now -- since I caught up on all the backlog of work, there's not much to do.  On a busy day, maybe a hour of it might be used working.  The rest I twiddle my thumbs, occasionally answer the phone, and play computer games, all of which do nothing by frustrate me.  I do not do idleness well. My boss has been all distracted lately with buying a fancy new car for his wife, and when I arrived at work today I found that he wouldn't be in until noon because they'd gone to Atlanta to pick it up.  Well, by noon, he was still in Atlanta and hadn't even signed the paperwork yet.  Back in mid-afternoon, he says, but I've heard that story from him many times before.  Wouldn't matter so much, except this is payday and that meant he wouldn't be here in time to sign my paycheck.  I stewed awhile longer, then walked out.  It was a total waste of my time, even with the piddling amount I'll be paid to have been there.

Then, I got home and found a bill from ATT, which was still over $80, after monthly phone calls to them to correct their error.  Next month, I keep being told, and 'next month' it's still the same.  The woman in May gave me a credit, and the woman today did, too.  Like a fool, I didn't call last month or I probably could have gotten it then, too.  Today was a fine day to call -- I was already pissed and this just added fuel to the fire.  Every time, I get told a different story.  They have me over a barrel for another 5 months because of the damned modem, for which I'm paying $10 per month and for the balance of which they will bill me if I cancel the service.  I will NEVER use ATT again, as long as there are other options out there.  I think they've forgotten that Ma Bell isn't everybody's mother.  We have options now, when Ma Bell screws with us.  Rant, rant.  I'm still about to explode.  But, on to other issues.

Remember this?  This was my bathroom when I moved in, as inherited.  Yesterday, I got my bathroom window installed, and now it looks like this.

I'm not thrilled with the installation -- when he put the outside trim back on he did a really crude job of it. The bottom piece is now not level with the other siding on the house and looks bad, plus he didn't put it on so that all the corners match up.  I'm going to have to take the bottom piece off and redo it myself, I guess, and get my neighbor to help with one of the replacement side pieces that is too wide to fit evenly.  Sloppy.  I think I'll stick with James from now on -- he's slow to get to things, but when he gets to it, he does a damned good job.

My squash vine, which looked so healthy last week, has been wilting a lot lately despite copious additions of water.  I suspected squash vine borer for various reasons, finally looked it up today and yep, that's what it has. No help for it other than pulling the plant up, which is what I did.  I planted a new seed a few days ago, should still have time for more squash this summer.  

Pretty, isn't it?

I just love it when kittens sleep with the tip of their pink little tongues sticking out!  She was just waking up, looks a bit stupid, but trust me, she's got some smarts, as cats go.

I have three days off now, and it just might take me that long to be ready to go back to Rome.  Fortunately, our weather has cooled to a far more tolerable, and more normal, high 80s rather than high 90s.  We are all relieved!

Harvest

I pulled the cannellini beans from the garden last night and hung them to dry.  I don't know if the time is right or not, but it really doesn't matter.  There aren't enough of them to really save, and they were ugly and annoying in the garden.  I did open a pod up and yes, it had nice, fat white beans in it.  I suppose I could cook them fresh, rather than dried, but the idea does not appeal to me at the moment.

This day does not hold the promise of a lot of interest or excitement, unfortunately.  I have a few chores to do, and a buy-one-get-one-free coupon for perennials at HD, but that's about it.  I need other things, but even though I got paid yesterday, I don't have money to spend on non-necessities so other things will have to wait.

Tuesday, I'm planning a drive towards Atlanta to the suburb of Marietta, to get some goat's milk yogurt and kefir so I can start the anti-inflammatory diet.  A friend is thinking about going with me, and that would be nice.  I also need to get my car serviced at Jiffy Lube, and stop at a nursery that's nearby.  It's not a trip I'm likely to make often, as I try to avoid Atlanta and its traffic as much as possible.

 Anything that moves is fascinating, including the second hand on my clock.  She doesn't miss much!

The 'baby' is making herself right at home, driving me crazy at times, sweet as she can be other times.  She's just a baby, doing what kittens do, but it still drives me crazy.  But, she'll grow out of it.  I have to give her another bath today, for flea control, this time without the orange oil but with more soap on her little body.  She won't like it, but once I get the fleas off her, she can live inside, with her litter box and everything.  I'll probably still use the front porch as a playpen, however, when she's getting on my nerves too much.  Right now, she's enjoying all the wires under the desk.  That's ok, as long as she doesn't bite into one, and she's likely to do just that.

It didn't take her long to grasp the concept of 'canned food', even if it's laced with garlic.  She begs, and turns up her nose at the dried food if she can get away with it.  And she can't.  I don't budge on things like that.  If she's hungry, she'll eat the dried -- ate plenty of it with gusto before she tasted the canned.

So that's my day.  Due to be hot and sunny, not wet, for a change.  Time to spray the bermuda grass sprouts that are left after removing beans.

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.

A Fuzzy Wuzzy

This sweet little kitten has been wandering around the neighborhood since last night, at least.  Not sure before that.  She followed some kids home way down the street last night while I was cooling off on the porch, but their mother was saying 'no pets' and I wondered what would happen to the little thing.  The kids were in front of my house, across the street, when I saw this little thing loping down the sidewalk after them -- they had stopped to see something in one of the yards, and I guess this is what they saw.

This morning I walked to the library and she was sitting in a different yard, on this side of the street, came running out to me.  I wouldn't let her follow me, but determined that if she was still there when I came back, I might give her a cuddle.

Long story short, she was still there and she was extremely cuddly and lovable and skinny and no doubt hungry and clearly had fleas.  But I took her home, gave her a little raw cows milk and some cat chow that I'd purchased awhile back in anticipation of getting a cat soon.  She was starving -- don't think I've ever seen anything that small eat so much at one time.  She can't be more than six weeks old and has clearly been raised in a loving environment and not mistreated, so I have to wonder how she came to be alone and homeless on this street.

She hasn't had the best of days.  After she ate, I dusted her with diatomaceous earth (DE) to get rid of the fleas, then fed her a concoction of garlic oil, cod liver oil, and DE, to discourage fleas from the inside as well as purge worms, as the DE will do.  And yes, it was food grade DE, totally safe for humans and pets to swallow.

After that, she wouldn't leave me alone so she perched on my lap while I read.  A friend stopped by, and while we were walking around talking I carried her until she started meowing in a panic that I recognized as a kitten's signal that she had to poop.  I'd prepared a sand box (literally, sand in an old disposable foil cake tin) and put her in this.  She didn't recognize this as cat litter, but eventually instinct took over and she started digging.

I guess this had made for a pretty tiring day, because after she finished with the litter box on the porch, I brought her back inside (much cooler!) and set her on my ottoman atop a sweatshirt that I use to protect the white fabric.  I don't think she budged -- just sat down, lay down, and went to sleep.  Later, she stretched out a bit but slept for a good hour in a half until.....

I stuck her into a bath filled with mild soap and a little orange oil, again to get rid of fleas.  I'd been watching them crawl all over her while she slept -- amazing numbers of them.  DE won't work that fast.  Needless to say, she was not amused at the bath and I'm guessing that the orange oil began to sting a little here and there, probably where there were flea bites, although I didn't use but a few drops.  She's tiny enough that I could hold her in the water long enough to drown the fleas. That sounds awful -- I wasn't holding her under water, but her rear feet were in the water and I was using my other hand to scoop water over the little body and scrub at the fleas.  She would have completely panicked if I'd held her underwater.  Eventually she was yeowing enough and frantic enough that I took her out, gave her a quick rinse under the faucet, and wrapped her in a towel.

After I got her mostly dry, I put her down and she took care of the rest.  I'm thinking she'll never trust me quite as much again, but she's young and maybe she'll forget the 'torture'.  That does not mean that I'm going to keep her.  I am rescuing her, have contacted a rescue organization in Rome that I've been working with.  I don't think I can afford the cost of leukemia testing and inoculations, and I don't want to keep her unless I know she is leukemia free.  I'm waiting to hear from them.

In the meantime, it was off to Kroger for some food for me and a litter box/litter for her.  I'll need it when the time comes to get a cat, whether it's this one or not.  She'll be sleeping on the front porch, where she is now.  That's her home, with inside privileges, for the time being.

Progress Report

The attic ventilation is complete.  This went in a few weeks ago, and yesterday James did the roof vent.

I don't think he quite got the message that this is supposed to be vertical, adjusted to the pitch of the roof.  But, it's done and I can live with it.  The important thing is that it works!  It was spinning around when I took this photo.  James says it's lots cooler up there now than before he did any work, and that's what it's all about.

The pest control guy came by this morning to check out the crawlspace and give recommendations.  Turns out he's a friend of my cousin in Rockmart, which is always nice.  He says no treatment is necessary, that it's best to just solve the moisture problem and then the wood rot and other issues will go away, since they require moisture to live.  His main recommendation was to get the dryer vent hooked up to the outside vent, because that's putting moisture into the crawlspace every time I use it.  I didn't realize that, but it makes sense and it's easy to solve.  He felt that was currently causing most of my moisture problems.  Lots of the floor insulation has fallen down, worse than the photos my inspector took, and is probably all filled with moisture and not doing a good job.  So, I need to get that taken out and then plan to replace it before winter sets in again.  That'll give me time to put the $$ away.  My cousin says his neighbor is a contractor and has excess insulation and can probably get it free or really cheap, so I'll follow that up. After that's done, I can get a moisture barrier down, but he felt there was no rush on that if I take care of the other stuff.

I spent an hour or so scraping outside paint, and let me tell you there is NO better way to make the sun come out around here. Twice now it's happened -- I've gone out while it's overcast and relatively cool to do this work, and out pops the sun.  This is hot work in the sunshine!  I didn't push myself -- no rush, after all.  And now, I think I'm lazing the rest of this day away.

Remember This?

Back on April 3, right after I planted the small rosemary and lavender, before there was much more here.

As of today, it looks like this.  I've been waiting for some store to start closing out summer merchandise so I could find a birdbath on sale, and when I went to Wal-Mart this morning, there they were.  The rosemary and lavender are much larger and will become much larger still.  The other herbs and cosmos add to the mix and I'm really pleased with the overall result.

Quiet day here.  Overcast and damp, but I finally washed my poor car -- can't quite remember last time it had a bath, but I think it was last summer in Oregon.  Certainly long before it carried me safely across country!  Other than that, I'm not doing much.

Made some ice cream yesterday afternoon and ate every last bite after dinner -- can you say 'sugar overload'?  Not surprisingly, I didn't go to sleep easily but once asleep, I slept well.   The phosphatidyl-choline seems to be working.  I hope that once I catch up on all that sleep I won't be so sleepy all the time, but for now, it's just fine.  I'm happy to relax, listen to music, and read.

Critters of the Yard

Dragonfly on tomato stake.  This was as close as he'd let me get, and even then I'm at full zoom (24x). And hand-held, of course, so not as sharp as I'd like.  It's really hard to hold it steady at that focal length.  But I keep trying.

I never tire of the endless array of nature that passes through my yard throughout any given day.  Birdsong is always in the air, from before the break of day until after sunset.  Mostly cheery, often punctuated by the low cooing dirge of the Mourning Dove.

Lately, and again this afternoon, I've been fascinated by the dragonflies that pass through, often resting atop one garden stake.  There were several, all different, here at one time today, although I couldn't capture one big one because he only flitted around, never stopped for a moment of rest.

Blue dragonfly on hose reel.

Ladybug in Cosmos.  I have a native population and they thrive in the Cosmos and also in the veggie bed.  I'm grateful that they find my yard to be a good home. The wind was blowing and the camera didn't do a good focus job on the subject, but that's OK.

Not exactly a critter, but a sight I really like -- an old shed in a neighbor's yard crowned by a huge mimosa tree.  Unfortunately, only a close-up works because the yard beyond this is overflowing with giant plastic kids toys that kind of ruin the effect.  I like this look.  I also love the moments when the breeze is just right to send the wonderful scent my way.

Out in the back 40, the groundhog critter was feasting on mulberries, although not within camera range.  He's not the only one who enjoys that tree and its fruit.  Any given evening if I walk back to the compost pile, a virtual plethora of birds flitter through the bush, chirping and causing lots of shaking of tree limbs.  They don't like this human intrusion into 'their' territory.

In the late evenings, when I sit and watch the day end and the fireflies come out,  birds are everywhere in the lawn and trees, flying everywhere, finding food in the grass, even occasionally hopping around in the veggie beds in search of a tasty bug.  Cardinals, mockingbirds, brown thrasher, robins, an occasional Carolina wren and some tiny sparrows make up the usual crowd, along with starlings or something similar.  I've seen plover out there recently, and a grey bird I think is a catbird.  And of course the swallows that grab dinner on the fly.

I don't know what's going on with me, but I've been napping almost every day I'm home in the afternoon.  No complaints -- I love it -- but I can't help but wonder why, after decades of being totally unable to nap.  I have to wonder if the supplements I've been taking for a few weeks are finally working.  Two of them, lecithin and phosphatidyl-choline, are stimulators or precursors to the neuro-transmitters that tell the brain to sleep.  The other is niacinamide, which also helps the process in some way. I take them at bedtime so I wouldn't expect them to still have a lingering effect the following afternoon, but who knows?  I do seem to be sleeping a bit better, most nights. Trouble with the nap is that I really don't want to get up.  I've been awake a little over an hour now, and I still want to hit the sofa for more.

A Different Kind of Day

The first Nasturtium about to blossom!  Love those things, hope these are the vining kind that they are supposed to be.  I want to see them trailing along the ground, a'la Monet's Garden.

This has been an interesting day of rearranging priorities and finding things to fill the day other than using my hands.  Rearranging priorities, because it has become all too obvious that I am just not going to be able to do many of the things I wanted to do, such as painstakingly rebuild every window in this house back to theoriginal state.  It's just too hard.  I have no choice but to finish -- one way or another -- the one I've begun, but beyond that I'm just going to have to take stop-gap measures.  And that's OK.

My hands are swollen and sore, probably arthritis, from using the scraper these past few days.  I've had this syndrome before -- years ago in Eugene when I landed a 'dream job' of candymaker at Eugene's incredibly luscious Euphoria Chocolates.  I lasted 2 or 3 days before my hands swelled up to the point I literally could not move them out of a bent position.  Couldn't straighten them out, couldn't squeeze any harder.  Doc said the only cure was rest, so that's what I'm doing now.  Resting the hands and re-evaluating.  Aside from the hands and energy, there is also only so much money to be spent.

I have decided that the two most important things around here are getting the house healthy (attic ventilation, moisture control in the crawlspace, missing insulation, primer on the bad spots of the siding, etc.), and getting more food production (fruit trees, chickens, more veggie beds).  Half of the attic ventilation is done -- the front gable vent -- and we are awaiting a stretch of days when no rain is forecast and when James has the time, to cut a hole in the roof and install the big turbine.  I have a pest control company from Rockmart coming Tuesday to see about the moisture control and possibly getting rid of these wood mites or whatever they are with some Tim-bor dust, or something.  The rain garden is very much a part of these priorities, because I really need to keep the water away from the building. 

Funny how much easier it is to put paint ON the siding than it is to get it OFF the siding!  It's not a perfect job, but my hands won't allow perfect.  I'm just buying some time until I can get the entire job done by a professional.  Looks much better, methinks. Not sure when I can tackle another spot.

I guess this falls into the 'nice problem to have' category, but my tomato plants have grown taller than their support sticks.  They're still sturdy at the moment, but I think I need to get some longer sticks. I sprayed the veggies, blueberries and dogwoods with a concoction called Garrett Juice this morning, as a foliar feeding.  Haven't tried spraying before but I must say that a gallon of the stuff goes a lot farther in the sprayer than it does as a soil drench. It's a combination of compost tea (steeped from used coffee grounds, in my case), water, molasses, natural apple cider vinegar with the mother, hydrolized fish and this time, orange oil as a mild insecticide along with the nutrients.

The beginnings of my rain garden.  Oh, c'mon now, you can't see it?  Where is your imagination?  It's actually made a decent temporary solution, although I'm not sure it would work with another gullywasher like we had a few days back.  One step at a time.  Gotta design and plan before I can dig more.

Another temporary solution -- keeps the critters out of the crawlspace but lifts the access door for better air-flow, which the pest control man said was the best solution to the problem. I've had in mind building a little frame with wire on it, but since I don't have a saw that's really unlikely to happen, and this works.

So that's the photo-journey around Kitty's Place for today.  This morning, I drove to Rockmart to find Carlton Farms and get some raw milk and eggs from pastured hens.  It's illegal to sell raw milk for human consumption in this state, so it's labeled as pet food and most of it is sold in and around Atlanta.  Nice, old family dairy that's moved over to the natural side of things, and that is really great to see.  They have 600-700 hens who freely roam about 8 acres of pasture, shared with a few calves and a couple of small donkeys to keep hawks away.  Nice place, nice folks.  I'm guessing this will become a weekly journey for me, and it's only about a 15 minute drive.