Category: Home Projects

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Milestones

Bear off leash, off the long line, running free! I was going to wait until Sunday but something made me try it yesterday. He still keeps an eye on me, does not chase the deer – in fact looks back to me if I don’t tell him “leave it” …like “aren’t you going to call me off?” He is responding to “Let’s go”, “This way” and if I ask him to come to me, he does…but I only ask this once a day on walks. We did the loop yesterday, a before bed perimeter walk and this morning’s perimeter walk by lighted collar and a loop walk – all off leash. So much fun – Bear gets more exercise and so do I plus more fun for us both.

Drug the A/C back out – 90 on Sunday/Monday, almost 90 yesterday – not cooling at night – blech!

Replaced all rug pads – great sticky pads, all rugs are staying put :)!

NOAA says next Tuesday for cool weather…counting the days!

This morning on the loop.

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Big John’s

Never say never or last or always…

I wrote in the previous post, not that long ago, that it was my “last post for 2008”. But shortly after I hit “publish”, I received a call from Big John’s. Big John’s is the shop that had my snowblower for tuneup/repair. I decided on Sunday that the snowblower needed a tuneup at the very least. Big John’s is closed on Mondays. I phoned on Tuesday, gave all of my info and was told that their pickup/delivery person would call me “sometime” about picking up the snowblower.

That afternoon, when I was in Kalispell on my pre-storm supply run, I received the call. Dave was about 1/2 an hour from my house. I was 2 hours from my house. I gave instructions to get into the garage and when I returned the snowblower was gone. I put a note on my calendar to call Big John’s on Tuesday next week and see if they had any guess as to when I might get the blower back. I calculated that given the extreme cold and heavy snow, there might be a LOT of snow blowers needing service and snow machines and 4 wheelers, etc. – all the purvey of Big John’s.

Dave phoned me early this afternoon and said they would deliver the blower back to me in an hour if that was ok.

Yippy, Skippy and A-OK with me. I was beyond happy.

Dave and his assistant played with Karl whilst I got a check for the whopping sum of …..drum roll please: $61.50 – which included the pickup and delivery. I had expected $150 plus.

Karl was disappointed when they left.

I am now the president of Big John’s fan club.

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Herb Garden, part 1 aka “stopping to smell the roses” or whatever

Yesterday afternoon I needed a break from programming and was thinking on a little strength training session. But, it was beautiful outdoors – not too hot, nice breeze…so I combined a bit of strength work with the start of my herb garden project.

The “plan” for the herb garden is to smooth out the pile of dirt – topsoil pile left by the last owner and somewhat commandeered by Karl. (see King of the Hill )

The weeds and grass need to be removed. I am going to mow around the pile a bit and surround it with a rock border. I’m not sure what herbs or other things I will plant – I will wait and see what the nursery has when I’m ready. I hope to be ready to go to the nursery by mid-August when they put all perrenials, including herbs on sale. This should work well as I don’t plan on killing myself to get the dirt ready for planting.

This not killing myself to get it all done RIGHT NOW – this is a recently acquired “skill”. In my youth and not so distant past I would have decided it all needed to be done immediately. Yesterday, as I approached the dirt pile with my first wheelbarrow full of rocks and looked at the grass and weeds that needed to be pulled – and I was already hot from picking up rocks – I said to myself…”Hmmm, think I’ll just clean up this one little corner for today”. That’s when it struck me that I’d changed – and the thing is, it is a good change and a change that makes the project more fun than work! I don’t NEED to do it all RIGHT NOW. I can do a bit at a time – taking breaks in my work day to get outside and do something active. And I find myself looking forward to what little bit I might get done today – and enjoying thinking about how I might arrange rocks and what plants I might get…some day…

This change to doing projects a bit at a time – yes, partly due to the fact that it is not as easy at 52, almost 53 to work physically hard for hours, but it is driven more by an appreciation for enjoying the moment and the task versus a “just get it done” attitude.

I cleaned up the little corner of the dirt pile, dumped my first load of small rocks and took a moment to look at the progress. The sun warmed dirt and just pulled weeds and grass had that “working in the garden” smell. Karl was working on a stick nearby. It was a simple, joyful, moment – one I might have missed if all I had in mind was getting it done.

I’ve got plenty of rocks to choose from…

Enjoying the moment, smelling the dirt, feeling the sunshine…Herb Garden, part 1.

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Recycling the garden

The garden which I originally looked at with excitement – envisioning fresh fruit, vegetables and herbs – turned out to be a bit of an albatross [to me] as it required a tremendous amount of work!!! to get fresh fruit, veg and herbs.   I made the decision mid-summer that I wanted it gone.  I will be a container gardener next summer… a few pots of herbs, tomatoes, peppers, onions – things easily taken care of. 

It should be easy to rig a drip watering system and some chicken wire protection from deer so I can leave them for rv trips.  Even with the garden turned into “grass” – still not much to mow and trim – probably less time as I won’t have to trim around planters and the fence.

The recycling part… my neighbors had said they would like some of the strawberry plants and as we got to talking about time to get them, they decided that they wanted the planters and the fencing – the whole kit and kaboodle!  And – happy, happy, joy, joy – they have a backhoe!! – so have the ability to pop the posts out and grade everything out after and before you know it, we worked out a trade so that everyone gets what they want… they get a complete garden kit and I get a vanished garden.   A friend of theirs wanted some strawberries also so we spread the love a bit and there were even a few leftover plants that I put in containers.  Hopefully, I’ll get enough berries for a shortcake or 2 to share next summer.

Karl has been supervising the dismantling which is going very well.  Readers will have to bear with me – I LOVE big equipment and watching it work and seeing how to do things so this is probably the first in a series of the garden recycling project.