10/52 RIGHT HERE

We are out running around on the trail several times a week, sometimes literally running!  So I don't usually count it as a 'hike', but Sunday we put in several hours of trail work and I was very pleased with how much further the whole trail goes now. So, I am counting it.

This poor garter snake tried to lay in the trail and sun, even after Murphy Jones clomped right on it twice.  The third time he came by with soaking wet feet and dopey grin and stepped RIGHT ON the snake, the snake made its way eastward and we kept going.

The first drop on the north loop.  Well, it will actually be the climb up.  I thought it was so awesome and I was running up to the top and nearly keeling over-so steep, such a climb!  It's...40 vertical feet.  4 flights of steps,  Nearly nothing. hahahaha!  Oh well, that hill goes a  LOT further down...bwahahaha
I did this whole bit myself, that north loop is my personal project.

Chandler dramatizes the work load.

My latest reroute goes by this sinkhole with a little creek popping out of the walls.  Chan immediately jumped in and started arranging rocks

Matt found this spider!  I was down below the cliffs hauling up rocks.

The trail by the creek continues to change!  We've spent HOURS on this one stretch, all day Saturday in fact.  It's looking so great!

And that's it so far-ALMOST a mile one way.  I planned to work more on the north loop and my legs said nuh-uh Wednesday.  Now it's Thursday and dance is this afternoon, so Friday it shall be!  LOOP, YOU WILL BE DONE!  ish.

We kicked around trail names, trail symbols and talked about putting up little signs at the campsites and trail junctions.  We settled on nothing other than Chandler wants solar lights between the 2 campsites, so I have that on my list!

I have also decided to commit to actually dropping some more weight.  I am at a good starting point to lose more-already more active.  I just need to stop rewarding myself with copious amounts of Snickers and carbs.  *sigh*  So today's grocery run will be green-heavy and carb-lighter.  More sighing.    But, I am tired of being this heavy, so not many options there.  hahaha

Work Weekend!

Saturday, Matt and Jake took down that huge tree in the front  yard.  It was covered, COVERED in wooly aphids that had drained the leaves until they were black.  It had lady bugs, blood sucking cone nose and other undesirable things all over it.  It had started to spread to my maples, I ended up cutting several of their branches to add to the fire we kept going all afternoon.  Luckily there was no wind and it was totally clear, so the smoke went straight up-no lung attacks for the hacking population.

The tree was also directly in front of the internet antenna, so our connection speeds are better now.

We mowed, I mean super mowed where you get the corners and edges and all that.  I ran around with the clippers and clipped down the bigger weeds growing along the fence across the front and foraged into the brush pile across the road and an hour later, found the mailbox.  Well, 1/3 of the mailbox, but it's the third she puts the mail in, so that was good.  The past couple of months it's been just a door in a wall of green things that was fast becoming a tunnel to a door in a wall of green things.  I had to take scissors with me if I needed to raise the flag. I trimmed the rose bush, the butterfly bush, the forsythia, the quince and took down one million or so privet springs with the clippers or the mower.  Then I raked them all up and burned them.  Then I put weed killer directly on the stumpy bits.  YES.  Death-dealer.

The tree limbs and all the brush were burned over the weekend, all that's left is a stack of wood from the trunk and bigger limbs and the stump.  And a huge pile of ash.  Update: we made a fire pit!

I love it!

We bought stuff to finish fixing the hall bathroom floor and redo the shower floor in here, we bought enough paint to at least finish the front of the house and the kids already have a whole section double-coated, it looks great!  We bought wood to replace that last row of fascia board, we bought curtains for 3 more windows.  I bought paint for Ben's previously pink and purple closet doors.  Now they are green.  They need one more coat to be done.  We bought solar lights to go next to the frog pond I dug as a joke in the spring.  It has 11 frogs now!  It's very badly located as far as walking around at night, so now there's a little light right by it, I hope the frogs don't mind, but I did not want to step in it and squash them all.

The new curtain for the front door.  Still lets in light, but makes it more private!

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The budget house is spent for this month, but it's a great start.  I got up one day last week with enough energy to do something big, but not enough lung capacity to exert myself, so I tackled the budget for next year and worked out how much we can set aside to put on to projects and still do things like get a down payment for Matt's newer car, replace the roof, pay off Ben's braces and take a vacation.

I have tried to take it somewhat easy this week, after making the fire pit yesterday I felt like my rib was jabbing into my lung.  I ended up calling the nurse line out of sheer nothing else to do for myself.  She went over my symptoms and said it sounded like that rib may be broken.  Well, there's nothing to do for that other than prescription pain meds, which honestly have never helped much anyway.  They make me feel more like I don't care that I hurt than actually make it NOT hurt.  Tylenol is fine, thanks.  Found out if you wrap it, you can give yourself pneumonia.  Makes me wonder if bras are such a good idea.

We have a camping trip next week and Matt's vacation is coming up next month, I am looking forward to being elsewhere for a little while, even getting so much done around here, I have been around HERE for a solid month, barely even left the yard.  Have not even seen friends since we got back from Tennessee.  It's been a very lonesome summer!

Round the House

Happy to say, we are knocking some stuff off the list!  I got the carpets cleaned, got Chan in an art class, signed myself up for a few things as well.  I have Jake's birthday mapped out if not exactly planned and Friday Matt got under the house and added the support columns under the living room floor.  It feels SO different in there!   Yesterday we cut and painted the wood to replace the overhang over the porch.  Today we-meaning Matt-pulled out half the rotten wood on half of the roof and got about 2/3 of it replaced.  I am hoping for dry weather until next weekend!

We had three major things to fix on the house-the roof, the living room floor and the bathroom floor.  So that's one finished another well underway and the bathroom floor will not take very long.  Suzette said everything takes five times longer than you plan, so I am planning it to take an hour.  I think that was her mistake on the house they are building.  She did not plan it to take a couple weeks, she was thinking long-term to begin with.

We also burned loads of downed limbs and clippings from the various bushes around the house, Jake chopped privet-ever an ongoing issue here-and we had a fire going most of Friday afternoon and all of Saturday and Sunday.

 

I wanted to get a few pictures of Charlie, but he's not a sit and smile kinda guy.  So I had to run ahead and snap him coming to catch up.  He has energy and then some...

 

I hope he will work out, it's iffy for him at the moment, I don't know if he's settling in and showing his 'true' self or what, but he is INSANE.  If he were human, I would take him in to a drug detox center-I'd be that sure he was tweaking, he's on 10 ALL THE TIME.

 Jessie is not happy with the new doggie.  She will play with him at times and let's him eat-which is a huge thing-but she is ready for him to go away already.  I can't blame her...

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I am still your favorite, right Daddy?

Kuma just watches the whole thing from across the yard.
Don't worry boy, you are not going anywhere!

 I took several shots of the heart-shaped hole in the trunk as it burned then could not figure which I liked the very best.  So here they all are.  haha

 Once we have the house 'fixed', meaning our list checked off, we want to build a patio and an outdoor kitchen and I want the chimenea to look like this trunk!

I am taking before shots, I will post the progress as we go!

Don't hold your breath for an invitation to the patio warming, I am guessing it will be another year before we are done with the house.  Oh, wait, the Suzette Prophecy.  I mean, it will be barely 2 months before the house is done.  Yes.

Porch...done

I finished the porch today, I took some pictures afterward, but it's about 30 degrees hotter outside than inside and it was humid, my camera lens fogged up.  I will post them anyway, and will get better shots...in October. 

We tried out the yellow trim...it was too mustardy and looked like nicotine stains up close. 

We decided to just paint the wall and ceiling and that trim piece all the same color.

Here it is all girled up.  I pressure washed the rest of the porch today and got off the paint drips.  I will worry about the color of it some other, cooler date.  Between mowing and painting and the 107 heat index...I'm done for now.

Yes, I do have a go away sign by the front door.  And Foo dogs!

This all started when I painted that bathtub last week.
MADNESS

Painting

Wow, I had no idea going into this project how much would be involved!  We have painted the trim 3 different times in the last 7 years and I have painted the bathroom and kitchen floor and other things in the house, furniture and what-not.  But I have never taken on the house itself.

We have needed to repaint a couple of years now, there are chips in the paint here and there from things hitting the house or where the wood has been damaged by rain and we have gone over those places, repairing wood and sealing off around windows and doors and so on.  Without the exact color to cover chinks in the paint, we have covered them with white...which protected the siding just fine but did nothing for the house's self-esteem.

I had the color in mind-a faded blue, like denim.  I even had the paint chips-stacks of them in fact-and I looked at them and envisioned the house that color and really wanted to have a nice, subtle clean/fresh coat of color on there.  I even did the color swap thing on the camera and took pictures with the 'new' color on the house to see how it looked.

Then we went yesterday to get more spray paint to finish a project I had going and I decided to get a couple gallons and start on the porch.  As I picked up the chip that had the chosen light blue color on it, I saw the one next to it.  oooo.  Blue Phlox, same color as the flowers, as lilacs and irises and snowball bushes.  That bright purple-blue that we all love.  We decided to go for the much more bold color and if we did not like it, we were out $50 and a few hours of time.

I had just pressure-washed the porch and the house walls and eaves, so it was ready to start on.  The kids got going with the rollers and Matt and I worked on the cracks and details.  Then we decided to do the ceiling the same color-we paint it light blue every year and it keeps away the wasps.  The last 2 years we painted it, it looked white 3 months later and we had all kids of trouble with dirt daubers and wasps.  It won't fade this time around!  Not in a year anyway.

As the color dried to a lighter hue, we all stood back and looked at it.  It's not trimmed out or even filled in all the way yet, but we LOVE it. 

We were back out this morning to finish up the gallon we opened yesterday before the rain hit and Matt was painting the wall and saying how he thought it was a great color.  Ben said he thought it was beautiful.  Even Chan and Jake commented on how happy the color was, how blue is calming and now we have a serene house.  The most I got out of everyone about the other, lighter colors was 'it's fine'.  I am glad we went with the brighter shade, it certainly is a big difference over the faded grey green.  It feels happy.

We went and got the price for replacing the fascia boards-which we can paint before we put them up, which will be nice!  That's next, after we finish the porch and the front of the house.  2 gallons will barely make a dent in the whole of the house, at the rate we are using it, we will need 8 or even 10 more gallons, plus several gallons of white for the trim.  We are going to do the porch first, then the remainder of the front of the house.  The bathroom floor in the hall needs to be replaced, so that will be next in order of necessity. 

Then Chan's surgery, then we can start on the rest of the painting once that's paid for.  So it won't be done all in one go, but it's underway at least!

The color looks different in all of the shots!  You will just have to come see it when it's done, I guess.  : D 

Tree Two

Dave came over today with some chainsaws and helped Matt clear away the part of the pine that fell as well as the Paulina tree that was damaged some months ago.  Matt cut the English dogwood outside our window, it has been dying for a few years and this spring, it did not put out any leaves that were not immediately eaten by worms of some kind.  Most of the inside of the stalks were hollow.  I hope we can find another one in a couple of years and replant it somewhere not in the solid shade.  I don't think planting a new one right away would be a good idea, as the leaf-eaters would probably maul it as well.

Anyway, they worked at least 3 hours on it and then I burned a big pile of leavings, the first of many of those out there.

 

The AC was not working again today, the outside unit won't even kick on to run the blower.  The guy is coming in the morning to check it out again, keep your fingers crossed that it will be an easy fix, though to be honest, I am just numb at this point.

Hot!

Well, the first of 'summer' weather is upon us, I mowed most of the yard today and sweated like mad.  Matt is off mowing at Judy's now, he finished up our yard and I ran around and re-caulked a couple windows with the silicone caulking, it is SO much better than latex caulking.  I think it's making a difference, I do know that this past winter, we only had about a dozen ladybugs in the house-it has been in the multi-hundreds in the past.  Once we get some insulation in the attic, we should be getting much lower electric bills.  Just what we have done since the first of the year has had some effect-the electric bill for March was $50 less than I had budgeted and that was a hopeful estimation, too! 

The yard looks so nice all freshly mowed, I love the effect of looking out from the hammock and the grass is smooth and uniform and then a tree or patch of flowers erupts, it's very similar to looking out over a pond or creek and the water is flat and things stick up here and there.  It has that same feel to me, anyway.

I am getting all worked up about going camping in May.  I wish Matt had a whole week to go with us and just sit by the lake all day every day.  But, I have bigger plans for his limited time off than driving 2 hours to sit in the camper!  

I sold 2 of the red backpacks, Matt is trading the 3rd for a larger pack with a guy at work.  We have what we want picked out online for the other 2, so the kids will all have internal frame week-long backpacks.  We still need to get Matt a larger pack and we need one more sleeping pad, what Jake was using is not working out for him.  I LOVE my sleeping pad, even though it weighs 3 pounds.  It's a Coleman Max with a built-in pillow and it's 2 inches thick and well worth the weight in my pack.  I love a pillow.  I am going to get another for Matt, I hope it will make a difference in his snoring.  He can give the mat he is using to Jake and all will be sorted out...eventually.

Still looking at options for July 4th week.  Matt has the whole thing off, I'd like to backpack the whole time, but where to go that we won't either die of heat stroke or be crushed in the crowds?  I am researching...

Here are some pics I took this afternoon.  I cut 5 inches off Jake's hair and shaved Zephyr down a few days ago and both are such PITA's about photos that this is the best I have managed so far.  Note Jess and Kuma needed some picture action, too.

Dear Diary

I actually found a diary from childhood and I spelled it 'dairy' for about 3 years.  I have a special relationship with cheese.

I thought I would just jot down what we did today, to keep an ongoing list in one place.  It helps being able to look back over later.

At any rate, I tried to get Matt to call in 'sick' and play hooky with us off on a trail somewhere today.  He woke up this morning and asked, in a sad voice, if he could call in sick because he was sick.  LOL  Oh well.  So, I ran some errands this morning-returned the carpet cleaner at 8, picked up dog food.  Back home, Matt was sort of up and moving around.  Allergies made him their bitch.

Around 10, we went to town to get the stuff to fix the spigot this weekend and...well, Hobby Lobby has their yard stuff 50% off this week, so we started off there.  $30 later (hey, could have been $60!) we ran to Lowe's and had a big discussion about various ways to fix the spigot.  The handle sprayed water all over when it was on and it was a PITA to turn off-you had to use a screwdriver.  The spigot is cemented into the base of the house, we can't just take it off and replace it, so it has not been on in about 3 years.  We opted to get a secondary on/off thingy and try to epoxy the handle of the original spigot while it was open. 

A quick pop-in at Wal-Mart to buy more solar lights (they are a buck!) we got some lunch and came home, stopping to get cookies at the bakery.  We have not been there in a LONG time...

I repotted the two herbs we picked up and Matt decided to tackle the water spigot today, so he shut off the water at the main line and put the epoxy on the handle.  About 10 minutes later, he turned the water main back on.  It worked!  Which is good because he...permanently sealed the water spigot OPEN.  The secondary switch works perfectly, not a drip.  I am glad, but ill because dang-3 YEARS of hauling buckets of water from the hall tub or rain barrel to the goats and dogs.  And plants.  And it was THAT easy-a $3 part and 10 minutes.  

I could strangle Matt sometimes...and I can't think of a single time he watered anything.  If it does not directly affect him, he can't be bothered until I bring it up so many times I feel like he acts just to shut me up.  Grrrrrr  I don't WANT to be a nag.  But I don't want to be stuck doing EVERYTHING, either.  Until today with the work-around, it was going to involve going under the house to re-run a new pipe from the main line to connect a new spigot to.  Guess what is under there?  About 8 BILLION camel crickets.  Even if it was just 8, there are only a few things in this world I am unwilling to take on in the name of getting something off my list.  Camel fucking crickets is number one.


The rest of the afternoon, we moved a maple tree from under the big pine to the front, I love maples.  I clipped about 200 pounds of privet from under the double pines, we burned another bunch of dead branches-it's like zombie yard out there, I can't figure where all these sticks and branches are coming from-and I fiddled around with the stuff we got at HL, which included 4 new knobs for the kitchen (also half off).  I really like my eclectic knob collection, I only need 7 more!  Then, the handles.  I am saving the old ones in case we move at some point.  I don't want to leave my hardware.  LOL

I thought we would collect them as we traveled, but...somehow we have never stumbled upon a mismatched handle shop.  Anywhere.  At all, ever.  So, I get them at Hobby Lobby and World Market.  Not very exotic...

That's it, not a tiring day other than the clipping privet, which is like Satan's butt hair.  The kids put up the new solar lights.

We had dinner, spinach fettuccine made with Jerusalem artichoke flour.  I LOVED it.  We watched Gentleman Broncos which was surprisingly good, despite the reviews.  Maybe you have to homeschool to appreciate a movie about a homeschooler.  Yeah, he's a little awkward, but at least he's himself and not frontin'.  You can tell he's trying to find his footing and navigate the world from where he finds himself.  And he's...himself.  I liked the movie.

Tomorrow everyone comes over to celebrate spring and St. Patrick's Day and that I did not die on the 14th and the fence is done.  We are going to eat an early dinner together and watch the sunset and the solar lights will come on and it will be lovely. 

Fence

I don't know why I worked 4 days on this and took a single picture, but there's the fence.  Well, the southeast corner of the fence anyway.  It's 8 foot wooden posts from the orchard to the end, past the cedar tree.  And metal poles down the side and across the back.  The posts are all straight, I don't know why a couple look like they are leaning here.  

We have strung lights all the way from the redbud at the rock wall to the cedar tree in the front and I ziptied more lights in the cedar tree itself, hanging down from the branches.  I plan to keep adding to those as I find more on sale.  LED lights are not cheap!  We want to replace them all with LED solar lights to keep from having to run power cords out there.

There's a little gate in the back and for now, the big gate is in front.  We plan to build something to replace it at some point. 

Matt picked up more solar lights today and the kids are going to tuck them in and around the yard tomorrow.

Here are a couple shots from what Matt took the other night, the lights add quite a bit of...um...light.  Well, the kids can run around after dark is what I am getting at.  hahaha.  That will be great when it's so hot all day, they can still get outside and get a little playtime in, plus I am thinking if it's lit well enough, I can weed, water and so on.  Don't worry, I won't mow!  

Ah, the party lights that usually hang in Poppy.  They are across the front gate at the moment. 

I really, really love having the whole yard fenced in.  I feel cozy and much safer and more like 'okay, now we have a defined space to tame.'  Before, it was in 3 sections and there were gates to get through to do anything.  It felt very disjointed and this is much better.

Hrm, okay that one post really IS leaning!  I need to fix that. 
Here is the same stretch of fence from above with the transplanted quince along the inside.  It had spread and was getting too intimate with the house foundation.  It's field stone along that wall, a couple of the roots had started growing into the cracks!  Eep!  We moved 4 of them, I hope they live as it's a bad time to move things like that.  But, it was them or the foundation.  There are still several out there that we decided were not too close for right now, so maybe we can move them this fall.

And here is one of the jessamine vines on the arbor by the gate.  We moved it because I had the distinct feeling it was going to collapse the roof, that stuff is CRAZY how fast it grows.  That was a $2.88 2 foot long vine 3 years ago.  I have clipped it back at least once a year since then and it still was up into the eaves of the house.

That's it, I have not taken many pictures.  Other highlights would have included a burning pile of trimmed-back limbs and roses, Matt cursing at the mower until it worked.  Me, mowing down privet that had gotten too big to pull up, me sneaking weed killer into the shopping cart and then putting little squirts on said privet stumps and then hiding it.  I don't normally use poisons, but privet is evil and not much else will work on it. 

Me digging tiger lilies up from along the septic line. (I have many, many clumps of these available for the taking if anyone wants any)  Me raking the whole hillside and then burning a pile of black walnuts that was roughly the size of the van.  Me running around thinking I was being shot at with bottle rockets when the walnuts began exploding in the fire. 

Tomorrow, I am taking the day off and will just clean the house.  It will be so nice to dust and put away stacks of fresh towels after digging and raking for the last 5 days!