our house

Good morning.
I thought I'd post some current pics of the house. Not sure if I did this after we got all settled in or not. These first few pics are of course the living room....

I like having the TV mounted on the wall instead of sitting on the cabinet. And no wires showing.   :-)
And that's our cameras showing on the TV screen.

Of course the kitchen looks pretty much the same. I have enough cabinets that I can store everything away when I'm done with them, so no toaster or coffee pots on the counters. Just my toaster oven.

Easier to keep the counters clean, and I like the minimalist look.   :-)
Went back downtown again yesterday and had lunch at the Triple George Grill again. This time just a light lunch of wings and a chicken flatbread. Used our gift certificate and we still have another $35 left. So we'll be going back.  :-)
 We've also been busy with finalizing our plans for our next 2 trips. First one is approximately a  7 hr drive up to the Reno/ Lake Tahoe area for 5 days, and the second will be our nearly 3 week road trip to Michigan and back with stops in Muskegon, Lansing, Toledo and St Louis among other places.
 That's it for now....

A saturday post

Good morning.
I got out of work early yesterday, so I went shopping for the weekends meals. We were having a new dish Friday, Beef Broccoli. Today will be home made pizza, and Sunday, Ham steaks, mashed potatoes and butternut squash.
When I got home, I tackled the bathroom. I hate cleaning, and always let it go until it's nasty. So I dove in and spent a good 2 hours on it. And it's not even very big. A very small bathroom that was typical of the 50's when this house was built. We've remodeled it twice in the 26 years we've been here.


We now have all the fixtures in bone which I really like. Not as sterile as white, but looks clean and neutral. And not only do I need to scrub the tub and shower, But it also needs to be 'waxed'. When we last remodeled the bath, we replaced the tub with a whirlpool tub. They make them to fit where a standard size tub fits. The sides are just a few inches higher. But it's fiberglass, and looks best if it's 'waxed'. I use a product called Gel-Gloss.
Oh, and in the first pic, the louvered door is only like that from the front. Once closed, the back looks like a 2 panel door. One need a little privacy in the potty. :-)
And here's a pic of our new dinner dish.
It was yummy! I'll post the recipe when I have a little more time, as for now, I need to get ready for work. My first customer is at 8am.

off to work, again

Good morning.
Just a quick post before I run off to work.
Another beautiful day yesterday! And I spent a good part of it indoors. I cleaned the inside of the mo-ho and restocked it. But I spent a good part of the day working on the house toilet. It was leaking. Craig thought it was the inlet valve thingy, so we went out and bought a replacement. After all that work, it's still leaking. At least it's not leaking on the floor, but you can hear dripping. I'm now thinking it's the flapper thingy not sealing tight when it closes. I'll get another one of those and try that. If that doesn't work, that will mean taking the tank off the toilet to replace the drain assembly. Oh well, it's always something right?
And as I run off to the salon for another work week, here's a couple of current yard pics.....

we're wrapped up pretty tight

Good morning.
I'm glad we weren't camping yesterday because it was cold, cloudy, and windy. :-)
On our last day off, I stayed home and Craig did our usual running around. I had to be home for a 9am service call. We had our furnace guy coming over to take care of the co2 problem we've been experiencing off and on. I first told of this problem back in early June. You'll find the post here.
Anyway, the problem seems to be a negative air flow. The high fan is sucking in more air than it can find. Apparently, even though our house is 57 years old, I've managed over the years of insulating, caulking and weather striping to pretty much seal it up fairly tight. So without much air leaking into the house to compensate, it was pulling air down the water heater exhaust, causing the water heater to occasionally vent into the house.
So what was the answer? Bring more air in from outside. He ran a 4 inch pipe from the furnace room just above the floor to near the attic ceiling.. I said, "isn't that just like opening a window?" He said it wasn't because the attic is dead air. Little movement. The only time air will come through the pipe, is if it's pulled through when the fan is running. He says we'll get more air in through the water heater exhaust, which is really another open pipe to the outside. I guess I didn't realize how many 'openings' we have to the outside. The dryer vent, the bathroom exhaust. They all hook to the outside, with nothing much more than a poorly self sealing flap. It will be interesting to see in the winter if cold air comes down through it. If so, I can always stuff some insulation up it for the winter. Most of the winter, the furnace uses low fan, so it isn't as much of a problem as summer.
So anyway, after that was done, Craig had arrived back home, and we mowed the yard. Got the mo-ho backed into it's parking space, and I did some weeding.
Dinner was a chicken version of hamburger helper. Was good.
And now, it's back to work. Looks to be a fairly busy week. Since it's hard to schedule time for lunch, I always take stuff to snack on during the day. This week it's bananas, watermelon, plums, celery, cottage cheese, and tuna fish. Oh, and leftover pasta salad from our trip. :-)
And since we were gone and didn't fix big enough dinners for leftovers, it'll be lean cuisine thingies for the next 2 nights. But that's okay, I like them. :-)

it's trying to kill us!

Good morning.
Well, it happened again! I was walking through the dining room when I noticed the co2 detector showing a 135! I opened the door to the water heater and sure enough, it was venting into the room again. So I opened the windows, and immediately called the company to have another tech come out. While I waited, I decided to try and find out why all of a sudden we are getting so much co2 venting inside. I tried a couple different scenarios. First I turned the water heater up with out the air on. It vented perfectly. Then I turned on the air, it still vented perfectly. Then I first turned on the air, and then the water heater. It vented into the room!
It appears the air running sometimes causes a downdraft on the hot water vent pipe, sucking air in from outside! If the hot water heater is already venting when the air comes on, the exhaust out the pipe is stronger than the pull from the air. So I recreated these scenarios several more times , and 3 out of 4 times it vented into the room. I felt I had some good info for the tech. When he finally arrived at 6:30pm, I explained my finding. He new exactly the problem. The air conditioner fan is pulling in more air than is sometimes available. He said usually, there's enough air leaks in a house to compensate for it, but our house must be fairly air tight. Good for insulating, but bad for air flow. Also, the air coming into the unit is from a small area. Since our house is on a slab, the 2 cold air returns are in the living room and hall. There's none in the bedrooms or TV room.
He said I'd have to call the furnace people and get a fresh air make-up air intake with a damper to allow enough air flow. In the mean time we can just keep the water heater on vacation until we need it and then turn it up when the air isn't running.
So now I at least know why only sometimes we are getting venting into the house. The water heater has to come on while the air is running. And we've run the air a lot this past weekend, and this is also the time Craig does a lot of laundry.
So while we waited for the tech to show up, we did get the lawn mowed. I cleaned out the burning hole and bagged up 7 bags of ash, and did some more spot weeding of the lawn. It's been a mini heat wave this week and today is suppose to hit 95 before cooling back down into the 70's this weekend.
I also managed to get the recipe's for the chicken and pork dishes we had this past weekend posted on Cooking with Craig.
Now, time for another work week....

I don't smell anything

Good morning.
Yesterday was another beautiful day. Sunny and 80. :-) But it could have been a deadly one.
We have a carbon monoxide detector, and all of a sudden it was showing various numbers. It's always been at 0.
During the day on Sunday, (that's the day Craig does all the laundry and it was also warm, so we had the air on) it would spike up to 150. The recommended exposure is below 35. It appeared to be happening when the air conditioner was running and the water heater was operating. At those times, the exhaust was being pulled into the room instead of up the exhaust pipe. Our house is on a slab, so the furnace and water heater are in a closet off the dining room. Our furnace has a 2 stage blower and it uses the high stage for cooling. It creates a lot of flow. So I called for a service call and opened windows to vent the house. It would fall back to 0 in about 5 minutes. I also turned down the water heater to vacation, so it wouldn't run during the night.
Long story short.....it ended up being a small baffle thingy in the top of the water heater. It wasn't set in it's slot properly. The tech explained the baffle, when in place properly, causes the rising heat to twist, sort of like a mini tornado. That helps to propel the exhaust up the pipe so it doesn't vent into the room. Once he re-set that, no more problems.
It's a good thing we had the co2 detector because the exhaust is odorless, and was already giving Craig a dull headache. Make sure you all have one and make sure it's operating right. Our mo-ho has one too, and we replace the batteries at the beginning of each season. Our home one plugs in.
Soooo, after that, I went out and washed the Kia and PT Crusier, and vacuumed them both out and waxed the PT.
For dinner, another new dish, Tequila-glazed grilled Chicken Thighs. They were sooo good! I promise to get this recipe and the pork recipe on Cooking with Craig, as soon as I get some extra time.

yard sale success

Good morning.
I've just returned from cleaning the Salon, again. No ants this time. :-)
The yard sale did okay. Here's the pics....

As you can see, not a whole lot, but I made my self set quota, so I did well enough. Not near as good as a plant sale, but I wasn't expecting too. :-)

I did have a dozen or so plants I potted up, and they went fast. I actually had a number of people stopping to buy plants. I always have my plant sale the first Sunday in June, and apparently people have remembered and just stopped by. Many left a little disappointed. :-

But I told them, next year.

After the sale, we boxed up stuff for the dumpster, and stuff I'll drop off at goodwill.

The rest of the afternoon, I spent cleaning the valleys on the roof of leaves. As you can see in the above pic, our roof line isn't very steep, and we have many valleys that collect leaves.

I also cleaned and filled the bird baths.

For dinner, we tried a new pork recipe. I'll put it up on Cooking with Craig when I get some extra time.

Now, time for a shower, and get Craig up.....

do I feel more secure?

Good morning. Yesterday was windy and cool, so not a lot done. We did however, go out and buy a new mailbox. When ever we go on a trip, we have someone pic up the mail, even if we're gone just a few days. And sometimes it's difficult to find someone who's in town that weekend, and available. And with gas prices the way they are, he doesn't want to put anyone out. Sooooo, he's decided a locking mailbox would do the trick. Since we're usually gone only Friday to Monday, and we get the mail Friday before we leave, it would be just Saturday's mail sitting there. I don't think that would be a problem, but Craig's positve someone will stop, see mail, and know we're out of town, and break in to the house. Now anyone who know's Craig knows he tends to be just a tiny bit paronoid about security. I mean, we have an alarm system, a sodium light in the front yard and one in the back yard, dead bolts on all the doors, and timers on several lights. We even leave 2 cars in the driveway when we're gone. But he's convinced, as soon as we pull the mo-ho out of the driveway and head down the street, a giant sign goes up on the roof screaming, THE MOTOR HOME IS GONE! AND SO ARE THEY! Seriously, he drives me crazy sometimes. :-) I tell him there's lots of times the mo-ho is gone for a few days for service. I tell him we live on a very busy street with a speed limit of 55. No one but people who knows us even notices at our house as they wizz by. But anyway, now I have another project to do. And this will be involved because I'll have to move the post too. This thing is wider, longer and higher than the existing one and there's a standard height and setback required of the post office. Oh, and I'm not going to tell him you can look in the slot and still be able to see if there's mail in there. Nope, not going to say a word.......

just 2 means good for 5

Good afternoon. Craig had his colonoscopy this afternoon, and he had 2 polyps removed. They were very small, and the doctor said if the labs come back good, as he expects them to, Craig can go 5 years before the next one. He was sure glad to hear that! This one had been only 3 years because he had 5 polyps the first time. And he has not had a good experience with the prep. Both times now after the initial prep, he's clear when he goes to bed, and gets up in the morning, not at all clear, and had to do another 1/2 prep to get where he needed to be. That's why he made this appointment in the afternoon, just in case it happened again, so he'd have time to 'redo', and it did! But now it's over, and we can get life back to normal. On the way home from the hospital, we stopped at Finlay's for a late lunch. Craig had an American cheeseburger, and I had their really good ribs.

Monday, after we returned home from all our running around, While he finished some bookwork waiting for the prep to start working, I went on a cleaning binge. I cleaned out several kitchen cabinets. You know, the ones with deep shelves you never see what's back there? Well, I found a bunch of stuff to add to my spring yard sale.

One particular item, a few of you might remember, a hot air popcorn popper! We got this way back in the late 70's I think. Haven't used it in years! It's even got a little butter melting cup on top!

It still works, but with Craig's hundreds of fillings, (okay, maybe not quite that many) he doesn't eat popcorn anymore. So with this gradual house cleaning I've been doing, I'm filling up a space in the living room for a pretty decent size yard sale. I'll post more of these little treasures later. And if anyone wants any of the stuff, if your willing to pay shipping, you can have it!

Soooo it's back to work tomorrow.

Oh, ps, I was going to take a bunch of pics in the hospital, and even post the polyp pics, but Craig didn't seem to think it was a good idea. So, since he went through so much the last couple of days, I thought I'd humor him and be good. :-)

a busy day

Good morning.
First off, Garret, the video works fine for me, so I don't know what happened with you. :-
And it was a beautiful almost spring like day. Sunny and mild with temps reaching 40.

After replacing the deadbolt on the entry door, all of a sudden, we realized the door handle looked nasty. So we decided to replace that too. Funny how you don't notice obvious stuff sometimes. :-)

But now they're both shiny and new.

And here's a pic of the yard. We still have snow on the ground, but it is slowly melting away. I expect by the weekend, it'll be all gone. I just hope it stays gone. :-)

And I got into another cleaning frenzy yesterday. I cleaned the laundry room and cleaned out the storage cubboards in there too. Threw out a bunch of junk.
It sure feels good to have things all nice and neat and clean. Too bad I don't do it more often. :-)
I also scrubbed walls in the TV room. One wall is textured and upon closer inspection, it was filthy! Apparently there's a lot of things I don't notice. :-)

We usually watch TV in this room instead of the living room because it has a large patio door with lot's of light and views of the yard.

And after all that cleaning, I relaxed and played on the puter untill dinner. Craig made a tasty spaghetti. Instead of a meat sauce or meatballs, he cut up some vegi-burger sausages. It was good. Remember, I've got blood tests coming up for my annual physical, and I'm trying to eat good. :-)

worn out lock

Good morning.
I've just returned from cleaning the Salon.
Well, it's another weekend, and we still have snow on the ground. But it is slowly going away. I can see large swaths of grass. And the temps mid week are to get near 50, so maybe it'll all be gone by next weekend. :-)
We came home from work yesterday, relaxed with cocktails, and I played on the puter while Craig started dinner. We had home made pizza. It was very good!
One of our projects for today, is replacing our entry door lock. Last Thursday, as I was leaving for work, I couldn't un-lock the dead bolt on the door. It was very hard to turn. But eventually, with some work, I got it open. Then it wouldn't lock. But working with it, I finally got it to lock. We didn't want to keep messing with it, so the rest of the week, we've used the garage door to come and go.
Now we have 3 doors to the house and they all have the same key. I sent Craig to Lowes to see if they could re-key a lock with our key so we'd only have to replace the one and not all 3.

Well, they now have a lock called
Kwikset Polished Brass Residential Double-Cylinder Deadbolt.
On the box it says.....
Polished Brass Residential Double-Cylinder Deadbolt
Kwikset Signature Series Product Featuring SmartKey® Re-key Technology.
Re-key the lock yourself in seconds in 3 easy steps.
Patented side locking bar technology offers improved security by protecting against lock bumping, an attack technique used to defeat conventional pin & tumbler locks.

So they re-keyed it for him and today I'll replace the bad one with this one.
I love technological advances!

Before, we would have had to replace all 3 to get the same key.

So, I've changed all the clocks, cleaned the salon, had a piece of leftover pizza for breakfast, and now it's time for my shower.

patience

Good morning.
Yesterday turned out to be very productive. I got bitten by the cleaning bug good. :-)
I vacumed, dusted, washed the kitchen cuboards, and srubbed the kitchen floor. You'd think as nice as it looks when it's clean, I'd do it more often. :-) But I don't.....
And, we still have snow on the ground. It's suppose to rain today with a high near 40. That should get rid of most of it. But then, as it gets colder tonight and tomorrow, it's suppose to turn back to snow. :-(
I know, patience. The temps have actually been close to normal for this time of year, but I was hoping for an early spring.......
Other then cleaning, I played on the puter.
Craig made a tasty dish for dinner. He cut up a couple of chicken breasts and pan fried them with shredded cabbage. It was kind of like chicken helper, but with cabbage instead of noodles or rice. Very tasty!
And now it's back to work. The week is looking so-so. We'll see how the phones ring this week. :-)

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

Good morning.
I've just returned from cleaning the Salon. I also did a couple of maintenance issues.
I was fortunate that the winter storm that was due to hit the area, came later than predicted. I awoke to no snow, just a light rain. Temps hovering at 34.
But by the time I finished cleaning the Salon, it had turned to snow.
I stopped at Meijer's for a couple of things for dinner, picked up the paper, and carefully made it home on very slick roads. The temps are forecast to drop throughout the day with snow accumulation of 3-6 inches.
Here's a couple pics I took after I got home...

Front yard looking out over the golf course across the street, and back yard. Standing inside looking out, it is pretty. We'll stay home the rest of the day doing our usual Sunday routine. Craig doing bookwork and laundry, I being mostly a slug playing on the puter. :-)

The work week ended up very busy with a lot of phone calls on Friday and Saturday. Next week is looking to be quite busy also.

And thanks for all the comments and e-mails about the Salon decorations. It's a bit of work and it's nice to know it's appreciated.

Now it's time for my shower. :-)

It's Tuesday

Good morning.
Well, we didn't vacuum shop yesterday.
I let Craig sleep in, (until 9am) while I played on the puter.
We then went to the bank, post office, and stopped by the Salon to drop off checks. The newer stylists that joined our staff last March, gushed over the Christmas decorations. It feels good to think all my work behind the scenes is appreciated. :-)
We then went to Meijers for groceries and then back home.
Read the paper, had a light lunch, and while Craig did more bookwork and laundry, I did a little more work outside. I rearranged the side of the garage where he'll park Kia when the snow starts now that all the mowing and blowing are done.
I then spread mothballs around the tires of the mo-ho. Craig seems to think that well help keep the mice out, I'm not so sure, but it's easier to spread than argue. :-)
I think what has helped, is I put bait in the shed back in August, that's near the mo-ho. Mice always seem to make nests in there in the winter. I've gone through 5 trays of bait since then. And there's been no activity for nearly a month now. I'm thinking I've eliminated all the mice from the area. That's my thinking and I'm sticking to it. :-)
I also checked the water level in the mo-ho house batteries. We leave the mo-ho plugged in all winter because we have those sonic rodent repelers plugged in. Craig seems to think that well help keep the mice out also. I don't think they work, but again, it's easier than arguing. :-)
After 34 years, I know when to pick my battles. :-)
Anyway, I caught up on all my blogs while Craig made a tasty dinner of beef stir fry. It was yummy! And we ended the evening with cocktails and our Monday sitcoms.
And it look like our mild few days will end later today as a cold front is coming, bringing rain that well over night turn to that icky white stuff. But I can't complain. We haven't had any snow yet, and it's nearly Dec.
That's all I got for now.

Thanks for the help!

Good morning.
First, thanks for all the comments and e-mails. I'm getting a lot of good feed back on the business cards. If you haven't seen them yet, go back one post, check them out, and let me know what you think. I won't make a decision until the end of the week.
Yesterday was perfect work in the yard weather. It got all the way up to 64. Unfortunately, it also rained nearly all day. :-(
So I spent a good part of the day down loading more game to play this winter, while Craig did his usual bookwork and laundry.
The rain did let up around 3pm and I was able to do the final cleaning of the eaves troughs now that all the leaves are finally down. When I'll do the last mowing, I'm not sure. The weather is quickly going down hill. It was 44 when I woke up this morning, but the high is projected to be 39, so falling temps through out the day. Thanksgiving is projected to be only a high of 36. Yuk!
In other news....
Our new mats came in yesterday, and I went in at 6 this morning to take up the old ones and put down the new.


Our new mats above, and the old one below.
I really liked the old ones. The pattern is called Granite. They don't make this style anymore. It was very good at hiding tint spills and such. But as you see, they were starting to wave around the edges instead of laying nice and flat like the new ones. That was beginning to be a tripping hazard.The lighter color actually makes the Salon look more spacious. I just hope they clean well.

Now time for my shower and to get Craig up.

our last nice day

Good morning.

The weather this week has been outstanding for Early November. It's been Sunny and mid 60's all week! To bad I had to work most of it. But it's coming to a quick end. Rain/snow showers are moving toward the area, and after a high of 69 yesterday, tomorrow is projected to be only 44.

I did get my hair done Thursday afternoon.

An hour gap was available, and that was enough time to get my hair cut and colored. And even as thin as it's gotten, I've decided to let my curl do it's thing instead of combing it straight.

On Friday we did manage to get out of work early. Craig's last 2 customers cancelled, and I was done at noon after starting at 8. So we took advantage of the last nice day we'll probably see this year, and Cut down more stuff in the yard. I'm about 90% done and very pleased with my progress.

I also went up on the roof to clean leaves and twigs off. As you can see in this in this pic of the house I took some time ago, we have a very low peaked roof. And, we have seven valleys due to the unusual floor plan. Soooo, leaves and twigs easily collect in those valleys and every fall, I have to get on the roof and blow them off.
Then I cleaned out the eaves troughs. I'll have to do that one more time once the rest of the leaves come down, but it should be a little easier then.

I also helped Craig change the tires on the Cruiser. He has snow tires for the winter that really help with traction.

Then we relaxed on the deck with cocktails soaking in the last of the warm weather.

And now it's time for a shower and my last day of work this week!

another weekend gone

Good morning.
Progress on the time change. I actually slept until 5am.
And it was another beautiful day yesterday. Mid 60's and sunny.
I didn't do as much as planned, but I did manage to change the oil in the push mower, riding mower, and the snow thrower. I thought I had done the snow thrower in the spring, but Craig said I didn't. When I drained the oil, it look good to me, but oh well, better to be safe than sorry.
:-)
I then cleaned out the garage where the Kia will park this winter. With 3 cars and only a 2 car garage, it looks like cruiser is out and I'll drive him this winter, since I'm usually the first one to leave in the morning. His 1998 Honda Accord has never seen snow, so it gets one side, and the Kia is new, so it gets the other side. Poor crusier. :-(
I then stored all the stuff I took out of the mo-ho. It was all over the living room. Once Craig finished washing all the bedding, I packed that away in a closet. Since we have no basement, (our house is on a slab) I stored the rest of the stuff in big plastic bins, and set them by the front door in the living room. We never use that door, and actually seldom use the living room since we got that 32 inch LCD TV for the sitting room.
And that was all I did. We spent a good deal of the afternoon, enjoying cocktails on the sunny warm deck. We may not see any more weather like that until next year, and wanted to take it in as much as possible.
I cooked chicken on the grill, and Craig made his tasty Acorn squash with honey and bacon bits, and fixed some long grain wild rice on the side.
And of course, another episode of Glee. That show is really good! Love the songs! I even went online after, to watch a couple of older episodes on Hulu.
Another good day, and a very good weekend.
And now, another work week. It's looking slow this week, so maybe I can get a haircut and some highlights. I'm looking pretty dark and dull. :-)

yard work

Good morning.
I wasn't sure I'd be able to make this post. My Internet connection has been acting up. But right now, I'm on.
I didn't get much done on Sunday, It was cloudy, cold and just plain icky, but I went out and picked up branches from the last windy day we had and got the idea some would make good kindling for a future trip campfire. So I wasted a lot of time sorting through them, getting fairly straight ones and trimming them to size.
But now I have 2 bundles of nice various size branches that will be good for fire starting.
I also checked the tire pressure on the mo-ho and the tow car and car caddy, and filled the water on the 'house' batteries.
Dinner was a roasted turkey breast with scalloped potatoes and asparagus.
Now Monday was more productive. A little warmer, (66) and partly sunny, so Craig mowed, while I cut down. I got the entire bed next to the pond cleaned out. It actually feels good to get started on the yard.
For dinner we had pork cutlets on the grill, butternut squash and baked potato.
Today, it's flu shots, banking and groceries, and maybe some more cutting, we'll see.
And i have several grasses that are starting to 'bloom'.


Fountain grass around the tree, and Japanese Silver grass at the end of the driveway.

Another grass at the edge of the house. Don't know the name.

Well, that's it for now....

5 little birds

Good morning.
I know, an unusual Saturday post.
And a short one because I need to get ready for work soon.
It turned out to be a very busy week. The phone started ringing off the hook on Thursday, and I'm completely booked now right through the 4th of July weekend.
I did manage to get the yard mowed when I got home from work, and took a couple of pics of our new neighbors.....

This is the nest they built right next to the patio door Craig won't let me use now.

I originally saw just 2 eggs, but apparently she wasn't done, because now there's 5 little birds in the nest. And the parents have been flying back and forth non stop feeding them. They're getting so big, they barely all fit in the nest! I'm thinking they'll probably be gone in about another week.

In other news, Dennis RV called and said the pics did the job. Newmar was able to find the right dryer vent assembly and has shipped it out. I should get that and the door handle assembly early next week. It'll be nice having the 'big guy' whole again. ;-)

And now I gotta go and get ready for work!

a birds eye view and a birds nest

Good morning.
Well, the holiday weekend is over. It sure went fast! And mine was 4 days! But if you've been following, I accomplished a lot! I also finished putting all the name tags on the plants and will put pics and prices on Friday and Saturday.
One thing that has been going on is a pair of birds decided to build a nest on the light right next to the patio door. And that's the side that opens! Even though we've been going in and out all weekend, when we weren't around, they'd continue. And now there's 2 eggs in the nest. Now as soon as I start to open the door, the bird flies away. And Craig says as soon as the eggs hatch, we can't use that door. Great! I'll have to go in and out the front door! What a hassle! And for some dumb birds!

The birds are actually quite cute. They're called Flycatchers. A little bigger than sparrows, but smaller than robins. They made the nest out of mud and moss.
And another thing I did yesterday was to put a charcoal vent cover on our sewer vent.

For some reason if the wind is coming from the right direction, you can smell sewer gas sitting on the deck. Phew! But this cap works perfect. It has some kind of charcoal granules that filters the smell out. We've never had this problem at any other house.

And while I was up there, I took some pics of the yard.
The mo-ho in the driveway. It sure looks big from up here!

A path going into the shade garden. Bright sunny days aren't the best time to take outdoor pic!

And the basic view of the back yard. The yard is nearly an acre. That's why it took so long to get it weeded!

And now it's time to get ready for another work week!