More Bits and Pieces and Pieces and Pieces

The title refers back to this post, in which I claimed I'd be making three more backs that month. Owa tagoo siam! (It's nearly impossible to find a relevant clip of that Odd Couple episode ["The Exorcists"], but I really wanted to link it here!)

I did manage to make two more backs this week, but that was after getting a head start on this:

Nann had commented, "The black/white top might benefit from some improv cutting and bright inserts." Which tickled me, because it had been included with lots of this in the orphaned bag:

So many random slashes and bright inserts! None of which spoke to me in the slightest. Not in the least little bit.

Snowy Sunday

 Oh, it was so exciting 3 years ago when this happened! (Three years ago!!!)

8 Dec 2017

Today we woke to a similar light dusting, but this time it stuck around.

Quick pathway update

 The last picture I posted of the bird feeder pathway (9/25) was with 4 of the 18 pavers established:

Now that there's been a couple months of rain and all the mud has been washed away from the finished project (it got quite messy toward the end!), I'm pleased to show you how it looks today:

The finches and juncos make quite a mess when they're at the feeder, but there are a pair of doves that come in and enjoy the feast left on the pavers.

Quite to my surprise, all the strawberry plants I transplanted to make way for the pavers survived! Being more evenly distributed around the yard now, it'll be easier for my folks to harvest their goodness next summer.

Rainy Day Feeling

I feel that I might owe Oregon an apology! Earlier this week I bought eighteen 12" pavers to make a firm path in my parents' back yard from the lawn to the bird feeder.

The first 4 pavers (pink oval) have been installed under the feeder, each row offset by 8" from the previous row. The arrow shows the intended path/direction of the remaining 14 pavers, where the strawberry plants have already been slightly trampled by the established foot traffic.

Here's where the "apology" comes in: it's been raining steadily since the day after I started this. With this kind of power connected to a yard project, I can't help but think 'If only I had begun this on Labor Day Weekend! All the resulting rain would have saved Oregon a ton of headaches!'

Today would've been Wednesday

... is what I found myself thinking this afternoon at "close of business", relaxing with a glass of wine in my front yard.

I've got a beautiful view from the shade. There's a park with a pond directly across the street, and families are enjoying it more and more these days, especially while the week of Texas Spring is in effect. Soon enough, temps will rise to their usual 90+ degrees.

This will be a disjointed post. In one of the many "laughs" emails sent by friends, this one stuck:

"I'm either coming out of this quarantine 20 lbs lighter, chakras balanced & a house full of completed craft projects, or...

20 lbs heavier with a drinking problem."

I'm choosing the latter.

We have a nest outside our front door. It was built last year and inhabited again this year. Imagine you've stepped outside and looked up:

The biggest dark blob is the barn swallow nest. The others are probably wasp nests, but I don't bother them if they don't bother me.

Sitting in the front yard puts me directly in the flight path of "our" barn swallows as they zoom from the pond to their nest, but they don't seem to mind. Of course, I've no idea what they're really saying about me behind my back.

"Close of business": I shall elucidate in tomorrow's post. Dinner's on.

Still lurking about

So, some of this happened yesterday, finally.

At the end of May, this had been entirely clear of vegetation, with a fresh layer of sand put down in expectation of 12" pavers to follow. Then I had an encounter with "leaflets three" from which I slowly recovered during our hot, dry summer. Nature stepped in to fill that sandy void I left.

Tuesday we had a good rain, at long last, leaving the ground soft and manageable. Wednesday morning I popped out and pulled things up until my eyesight was too compromised with sweat (even with a bandana around my forehead) to be able to distinguish things properly. Three or four more passes should get the remaining plants uprooted and tossed in the bin (which is full now anyway, so I'm in no hurry today).

Now I'm off to make some headway in the sewing room. The day's To-Do List has been completed, and I'm in the mood for sewing up some mindless QAYG string blocks.

Happy Bunny Take the Wheel!

Today is a day of completing those odds 'n' sods cleaning projects.

Happy Bunny has been my co-pilot ever since I bought this set for myself for my 50th birthday. Whenever I get a new car, I clean these up and get them installed pronto. For some reason, that didn't happen this time around and she's been sitting in a bathtub, patiently waiting for some attention for the past 10 months. Now she's air/heat drying in the shade in our 100-degree Texas weather and will be ready to go back to work in just a few hours.

in which (Mostly) Everything Goes Back

First, let it be known that I am a Wench with a Wrench. I own tools and I know how to use them. In fact, the literal last time Hubby bought jewelry for me, I returned it and bought a reciprocating saw and a table-top miter saw with the money. I mention this because getting this garage put back together wasn't simply a matter of rearranging pieces. Some adaptations were made, thanks to the plethora of saws and other tools I had at my fingertips.

Truly, the best kick in the butt I got to getting this garage into a workable condition was being forced to move nearly everything out of its place. From there, I could view that corner as a blank slate, a clean canvas, and fill it to suit our needs, not what had always been.

There were 2 non-workable and large items in the previous configuration: the work benches. One (on the left wall) served only as a horizontal surface on which to dump stuff, and took up valuable real estate in the process (as well as blocked off a portion of the main bench). It was moved to the back porch, which really did need another horizontal surface on which to store a large table saw. That's fodder enough for its own post!

Garage redux/redo, Part 1

When last we left our intrepid explorer, she was staring at a partially empty garage:

It hadn't always been so. In fact, the intervening years had not been kind. At some point I had taken a 270° series of shots so I could make plans in my comfy recliner of how I was going to fix this increasingly-unworkable room.

Shelves, cabinets, and pegboards abounded, but they only seemed to add surfaces on which to dump more crap.

Here Comes the Sun

My husband uses the current administration as the full moon off of which to sight his sextant of life choices. And this administration is headed by as full a moon as you're ever likely to find in a car full of adolescent passengers. All this is to say, as soon as King Coal was adopted as the energy source of choice, hubby decided to finally embrace solar power.

Having wanted to go solar for years now, I was thrilled when he finally came on board. It may also have been a matter of timing--I'm not sure the company we went with had enough cachet in our area until now. But they're aligned with Elon Musk, the John Galt of our times, so we're happy.

I came home (after 5 weeks in Oregon helping my parents) in time for the install. In preparation, hubby had moved everything from the left side of the overstuffed, chaotic garage to the right side (also overstuffed and chaotic) in anticipation of the battery wall being installed inside the garage. He also moved things off the back wall. Not particularly well or well thought out (as in: move the entire 7' cabinet, but don't empty any of the shelves?!?), but moved nonetheless.

First step on The Day: slow the 50 mph traffic (of kids being driven to the three "within walking distance" schools on our street) to an acceptable 30 mph, by parking a fleet of vans and a truck in front of the house.

Win.