Coffee and...part 12 :-D

I'm so glad you're up to doing this kind of work. Darius, wouldn't it be great if your sister got enough out of the house to buy the business/residence in Johnson City outright and have some money left over?!
I am rooting for you.

Just wanted to share this with you. The Iris forum tell me its tall bearded iris Rare Treat. Well named isn't it, and what a gem for 75 cents last fall in Ace Hardware!!
There are sometimes bargains out there!!
Carol

What a deal! That would cost about $6 - $8 from the big iris growers.

That iris is a beauty!! Mine are just about 6" now, the crocuses are blooming, and the crabgrass is growing faster than anything else! Had a really busy day, on the go for most of it, my feet are telling me it's about time I sat down. Uuuuk Julie, I STILL can't drink milk. On my aunt's farm they kept what they didn't sell in a big pan on the counter, flies all around, it was never chilled. At my mom's, we didn't have a refrigerator (I lived with my dad and step mother and only saw her summers, or Xmas) and we kept stuff in a crock buried in the ground to keep it cool. Milk still smells sour to me...my kids used to use me as the testing lab, ie, "smell this, Mom, is it still good" ? Yuck. Good thing this doesn't carry over to cream....butter...cheese.....LOL

I always wondered if my gardening gene would carry over to my kids. DS, since he bought his little house has been doing wonders with his yard, flower beds, mulch the whole green thumb thing. I'm tickled pink. And now DGS and his wife are working on theirs. He borrowed my little tiller and called me the other night. This is a chuckle. ..told me that the bags of compost had directions on them, telling you how to till it in, put in your seeds or starters, and then water it daily. He said he wasnt ready to plant anything yet, but did he still have to water it?? Ahhh youth.

Darius, all that work you put into that house is going to pay off!! It sounds really promising to have that many visitors early on. I'm sure that attractive entry way has a lot to do with it.

Found a line of teeny tiny little sugar ants in the bedroom this morning....we had quite a lot when we built on top of their territory but I thought it was over and done with. I don't have anything in storage so why can't I find the extra ant bait ??

My fingers are achy from pulling weeds, and it's bedtime. DH crashed about an hour ago....and I'm ready. Have a beautiful Sunday, if I dont stop in tomorrow.

Carol...I'd love to have that Iris in my garden...it looks like 'edging' crocheted on a fine linen hanky. The color is gorgeous!

M5...Yep! (I'm glad I never had butter or cheese until I moved to Illinois & Wisconsin...otherwise, I'm not exactly sure what I *would* eat. LOL)

It 'spitted' a little rain here today...just enough to let me call it a "rain day". That's when DH and I just putz around the house doing not much of anything and enjoying it. :-D I spent most of the day looking at my photos of last year's gardens...not bad for not having much to work with.

Well...I was really just going to turn off the computer and go to bed. :-)

Nighty nite, all! Zzzzzzzz

~julie~

Frost is forecast here for tonight! Eeeek! Roses, raspberries and just about everything else have leafed out. The raspberries even have buds on them. I hope the forecast is wrong! But we can get frost until May 10, here.

WOW! Just got off the phone with my sister. Out of the 19 house showings Friday and Saturday, her agent has had three offers... and TWO of those are for more than the asking price! There are 6 more scheduled today (so far). Her agent is coming over tomorrow to discuss the offers, plus any more that might come in over the weekend.

Is that mind-boggling or what?

HAPPY for you and your sister, Darius! As the song says, "Everything's coming up roses"!
Pati

Thanks, Pati... we just have to remember not to count the chickens until they hatch.

I doubt I'll sleep much tonight... sheer anticipation.

Yeh! Yeh! Darius and Judi!!!!!!

Alright Darius, you have trouble sleeping come on down here and help me re-design my daylily and canna beds. And dig and transplant etc.

The sun is way higher in the sky now and what used to be a shade garden on the north side of the gym, is turning into a butterfly/flower garden. I have a lot of work to do before it gets toooo hot.

Molly
:^))))

Darius - I've been away for so long I'm not sure I get all of it - but sounds like you and your sister are going to move in together and she's got to sell her place? And sound like it's working out great! Wow - she's in a great market apparently. Keep us posted.

Hi Molly! I need to be out working too - but I've got a sore throat and so I'm taking it easy today!

Later all!

m. ;-)

Glad to see you peeking in here Marcia, missed you. Hope you feel better soon! Yes, your assumptions are correct.

HI folks.
Woodspirit-hope that the frost passed you by.
Keeping fingers crossed Darius..I thought that the store you wanted had other bids on it (not sisters' house!!) I need to read more carefully.
Been lolling around all day-better get in gear-need to get a few things accomplished..Sigh!

Darius that's SUPER news! Sure hope it all goes well from here on out!

I've been transplanting seedlings from flats and winter sown containers into 6-cell packs all day. I'm almost to the point where I wish I hadn't started all of this. LOL (But isn't that always the way it goes? :-D)

Hi everybody! I'm on my way out the door to go to DS's house for supper. Yummmm Brats and beer!

~julie~

Wow Darius thats great news - looks like that hard work you did is paying off. Fingers crossed it all keeps rolling along.
I'm going to be missing for a few days - going walkabout - well driveabout actually. I want to see Big Bend national Park and if we don't go now it will be too hot and have to wait till next year. Its a long drive though so it isn't a day trip!
Carol

Have a fun trip Carol! Take lots of pictures.

Haven't been here for awhile - too nice outside!!! And I am loading the greenhouse (my little piece of heaven) Although a bunch of stuff I put out there got burned! grrrr

Darius - I hear a sale coming soon!! Your sister should have jacked the price up higher!! Tweet tweet - birds next huh?

It's as warm in Mich as it is in Fla - that's something this time of the year. We are all spoiled here - April is usually a rainy chilly month, but this is our 3 rd week of glorious weather. (does that mean a cold summer???)

I spent the last two days frolicking around with a tank top on and how I have a royal farmers tan. This morning I decided to slather on the 'fake bake' stuff and add some color to the legs. Hope I don't end up with streaks!! LOL

hve a great day follks!!

We didn't get frost here. Not sure about down in the valleys. I went to an nursery that just opened in a place where both good and bad owners have had nurseries for several years. The last one were elitist, only had very fancy plants. Even during the height of the planting season, they didn't have common plants like impatiens or petunias. I guess they went belly-up.
The new folks had a great selection of healthy-looking plants. I only bought a tirarella and a Japanese Painted Fern. But my spousal unit had to rescue me and plant them and move a rose bush. I was so beat from "doing" Biltmore House and Gardens that I only managed to plant 3 oriental lily bulbs and my calla lilies. I intend to visit this new/old nursery regularly if they are going to continue to be so well-stocked and have such gracious and informative workers there. The name is funny: Garden At The Top of The Hill

Good morning. You all had a busy weekend while I was out playing my horse game.

The weather was mostly cloudy, a little windy and cool, a little rain Saturday afternoon but I only rode in it about an hour. That was enough to get me plenty wet and a bit cold. My horse did well on his first 50 mile ride, taking 9 hours and 15 minutes out of 12 hours allowed for that distance, and I got lots of compliments on him. I'll get some pictures of him posted here eventually. My camera never got out of the case all weekend but it did make the trip. Before the ride I was too busy to think of taking pictures and after the ride it was raining. On the way home I had a flat tire on the trailer but noticed it before I drove on it. I had stopped about 15 miles from ridecamp to have a hot breakfast (tired of eating out of an icechest) and when I came back to the rig I had a flat. It was ok when I left camp, an almost new tire so I must have found a nail. My star wrench was nowhere to be found but I did have a block I could run the other tandem tire up onto (instead of a jack) and some guys who had parked behind me had a wrench to get my spare off the trailer and so they changed it for me.

This morning I have to load up 2 horses and go to the vet for some booster shots. I will swing by the grocery store and get a few things on my way home. Breezy needs to be ridden this afternoon so I hope it will warm up by then. A few minutes a go I ventured out to feed the cats and retreated quickly, but of course I am not dressed for outside. My bathrobe and fuzzy slippers are warm but not that warm!

Darius, the bidding war sounds like a good deal for your sister's house sale. Apparently you did a great job of getting the house presentable!

See you later.

Thanks to ALL of you for kind words about my efforts to make my sister's house marketable. I think I probably increased the value by about $20,000-$25,000. Most noticeable is the curb appeal and I think we only spent around $400 or so on shrubs, flowers and mulch with some careful searching/shopping outside the big box chains. Of course, getting all the bad repairs re-repaired helped, and taking several loads of **** to the dump. Hard to believe we did all that in 2 months.

I should know today if she's going to accept any of the current offers, or counter and let them do a bidding war. We spent about an hour last night going over what she does NOT have to agree to in a contract offer, like paying points for the Buyer or half the closing costs since she's in a Seller's market. This is her first house so she has little experience with selling (or buying, for that matter), whereas I was in the settlement business a few years.

It's a gorgeous day here today and I really MUST get motivated to get the weedeater out...

Have a great day : )

Whew... I had forgotten how using a weedeater makes your hands vibrate afterwards... and slings green wet stuff everywhere including face and arms! (Been 2 years since I used it.) Still have 1/4 left to do, maybe tomorrow.

To relax and do something different, I cleaned (and I mean CLEANED) my keyboard which has been giving me fits. This photo is AFTER I had taken off the frame and used a goodly portion of a can of compressed gas to blow out the gunk. That turned out not to be the only problem...

See next post

Each key has a tube shape on the underside, which pushes down on the rubbery button-like things on the keyboard. Mine were filled with fine, fine dust and some fine hairs, probably from my cat's undercoat.

I have to say that after 100 Q-tips, 1-1/2 hours, 2 oz. of isoprophyl alcohol and half a can of compressed gas, my keyboard works like new! Yea!!

Gosh Darius,wouldn't it have been easier to just put it in the dishwasher?????

LOL, Robert... certainly easier but it would have ended up in the trash like the first one I took apart! (Besides I abhor dishwashers so do not have one. Nor a microwave.)

Good job Darius.Does this mean the keys won't fall out if I turn the keyboard over? I'm great at being able to disassemble most everything,given a bit of time and a big hammer .Somehow there are always more parts left over on those times things do go back together.Viking logic tells me that when pieces are seperated from their home port they multiply. Great news about your sisters house.That 'curb appeal' factor really works doesn't it.Hope the new business idea works for you.Locally we have a place,probably a franchise,called Birds Unlimited,with all sorts of bird and outdoor and decorative items.They seem to do a pretty good business.

Robert, I lightly pried off all my keys (they don't fall off if you turn the keyboard over, LOL) and carefully placed them in the right order to go back on after cleaning. I was careful to just do a section at a time, though. : )

As a 10 year old I took apart all the innards of my bicycle wheels. Never got all the parts back in (2 pcs. left over) but a younger sister and 2 brother rode it for years afterwards.

My sister signed a contract today for $10,000 over the asking price and they have accepted the contract. Unfortunately she also agreed to pay $5,000 in closing costs for the Buyer so that's money she just flat gave away. I had asked her to call me before signing anything but she thought she was smart enough. It will still depend on an appraisal and a home inspection. Closing set for June 15.

Darius...CONGRATULATIONS! on the sale of your sister's house. (I was thinking about those 'before and after' pics of the entry...and yep, those curb appeal changes certainly made the house more attractive to the potential buyers...but your re-repairs were no small contribution to the sucess either.) I'm SO happy for you guys!

HI Mary...good to see you had a great trip (even if it *did* include a flat tire). I wish I had *half* your energy and drive. I'd be unstoppable! ;-)

Hi Robert! I always wondered what would happen if a person turned a keyboard over. LOL Now, Darius...do you know how to repaint the keys? Mine has several invisible letters...so I guess it's a good thing that most of the time I can type without looking at the keyboard. hehehe

Hi Sarv! We're getting a lot of that *great* weather here in SW Wisconsin, too. It's probably going to make problems for me in years to come because all my notes for the IBLF and WS seeds are based on date...not on weather. (Ouch! I'm going to need MORE room in the basement next year. I've already gotten MOST of my seedlings out into the mini-greenhouses. Not possible for most years!)

I guess my GH's are working well for hardening off seedlings started indoors. Yesterday, for the first time, I put my tomato plants out in the full sun (windy too) and they stood up against those rigors beautifully! HOORAY for ME!! (I thought I might have killed them! LOL)

Spring HIll sent me a shipping notice last week, so I'm hoping my package of plants comes in today before the forecasted rain storms hit. But if it doesn't, I definitely learned my lesson last year...I'll have those littlte suckers in pots so fast it'll make their heads spin. I don't intend to lose anything more to my ignorance than is absolutely necessary. :-D

Time to get busy with the hose and water bucket...Man...I can't wait until I can put all this stuff in the ground!

See ya later!

~julie~

Good morning. $10,000 over asking price is great. Giving half of it away not so great but now maybe your sis knows to listen to your advice. The housing market is wild down there if people are willing to pay that much over. Some of those people probably have been living in some motel or ? after their houses got wrecked by hurricanes, so it is doubly fortunate that your sis has something to sell.

A few weeks ago our computer monitor died, we hooked up our old one temporarily. It is small, and several years old so was hard on the eyes, had some kind of a rapid fire flicker. Some friends gave us a nice new one so it is a pleasure to look at the screen again. Darius, you are braver than I am taking the keyboard apart. Obviously you are also much more mechanically inclined than I am. I do remember reading about somebody who did put their keyboard through the dishwasher. He/she learned the hard way that is a NO NO.

I spent too much time in town yesterday so didn't ride and today the weather is just as cold and windy and I've got to do it this morning. It's a sunny day but the wind will be worse this afternoon. My hubby will pick me up at noon to take me to get our old truck from the repair shop. Yes, that turned out to be a major deal. We have had this truck since about 82 or 83 so we know what maintenance has been done on it, etc, and the thought of shopping for another used truck is a bit scarry since a lot of people sell their problems. The dollar value of it is very small at this point but it is a good truck and we use it a lot so it is valuable to us. I have no idea what the repairs cost and I am not asking. Besides, it has almost new tires on it, the firewood racks fit it and so does the steel lumber rack. It has a trailer hitch, too.

The tire place guarantees their tires so they replaced my flat. The inside wall had a hole in it. I only had to pay a $3.75 disposal fee and they mounted the new tire, took my spare off and put it back on the hanger, and I was all set. We had put 4 new tires on the trailer about a month ago so I got 100% credit for the tread left on the tire.

Julie, you could probably use fingernail polish to repaint the letters on the keys, they have a nice small brush and any color you want, even sparkly!

Have a great day! See you later.

Ahhhh, life is great - just got back from a trip to two of my favorite greenhouses. One is owned and run by a former student of mine and his family (which I had also) They always make such a big deal about my coming to buy from them. Their prices are great, so I feel as if I've been given a gift!! Managed to buy 8 more plants....Also got the senior citizen discount...life is good!!!

Our absolutely gorgeous weather is coming to a halt - going to be 82 deg today and then down in the 30's for the next week. Hopefully the weather report is wrong, but we need rain soo oo badly ... I dug out flower gardens and put down preen. I have never used it before. Hope my beds will be weed free (fat chance...)

Woke up with a nasty headache this morning and a very sore arm (the one I use too...) Took some advil, but I still have both. I think my allergies are causing the headache - need to take my meds, but they zap all my energy...

Put out the hummingbird feeders, but so far no takers.

Watching the announcement of the new pope - gotta go for now!!

Hey Mary... I'd have repaired the old truck too. They don't make them like that anymore!

And, good news on the tire. Mine are Michelin's from Sam's and when I had a sidewall balloon in one 200 miles from home, the local Sam's replaced it, just a tred wear charge.

Julie I have GH envy, LOL. I haven't started any seeds this year, feels very strange.

Where's M5, Sarv, Hap, Patischell and other lurkers?

Just finished planting the last of the dozen dahlias from the Snohomish County Dahlia Society's annual sale.What a super bunch of tubers.A club member said the National Dahlia Show will be here in a couple years.Quite a feat I guess,and a horrible expense.She said it cold cost $50,000 to $80,000 to pull it off.Weather is being very nice,but a touch of frost on the windshield this morning.Pulled another bunch of rhubarb this morn and will have to make a little treat,perhaps a cobbler.
Mary,the older trucks are better.That was a rather rash statement,but I think its true.The rings on my '87 Toyota flatbed were worn after 187,000 miles but everything else was in great shape.Unfortunately nobody would do a ring and valve job,they all said the engine had to be replaced.So rather than put another $3,500 into it I got a later model Ford Ranger.BIG difference.The Toyota was more comfortable,better built and easier to drive.It is still in front of the house,and there are residual seperation anxieties to overcome.
Darius,too bad about the closing costs,but if it went 10 grand over asking price maybe you can rationalize as being a great 5 grand extra.No? well I probably couldn't either.Hope it makes it throgh closing without a hitch.
Mary,What do you get from these long rides? Is there a certification,points or something? My foster sister in So.Cal. rides Search and Rescue and they have a rigerous qualification requirement.I bet riding in eastern OR is beautiful.Hope you have pictures of the next ride.

Robert, it's not so much the $5K but that we had talked 15 hours before about what NOT to give away, and all my advice based on my experience in the title/settlement business. She just blatantly chose to ignore my advice.

I now wonder if we can successfully be business partners and housemates. We haven't been too successful as sisters for 50+ years...

Darius,

I'm here, sort of. I am visiting my 2 boy, 3 grandchildren, and 97 year old father in Rochester, NY until Weds so my time on the net is very limited. All doing fine... nothing out in plant places, not even HD. I getting withdrawels with no plants except dead ones. Everything is grey here.....dead... The grass is greening up some. I am so homesick. Tomorrow afternoon I will be home with my DH, Archibald ( my precious baby) and my plants. DH promised has has watered all. Hope so or they are all dead. Too little time in the ground.

Your last statement gives me some worry....can things be done on a temporary basis for awhile? Can you talk this over with your sister first? Winters can be very long with two people under the same roof.......Prayers are will you to make the best decision, for both of you.

Hap

Thanks, Hap... glad to see you dropping in while on vacation! Won't you be glad to be back where it's warm!

Hard to say if I can work it out with my sister or not. I took care of her when I was 14 and she was in kindergarden (while mother waited tables at night). This is a typical scenario... (I had a parakeet.)

"Judi, leave the bird alone."
Later by a day or a week... "Judi, leave the bird ALONE."
Later by a another day or a week... "Judi, LEAVE the bird alone." Over and over and over.
Until finally she fell trying to catch it and I had to take her to the hospital for stitches.

Some things never change....

When I was raising my kids they learned at a VERY early age about me counting to three. At ONE they new they had better look up, at TWO they new it was time to stop, because if I said THREE they GOT IT. I did not wait for them to get in trouble or hurt themself. And believe me, there was a very short time period between One and Three. My kids, the the next ones, are very smart and they did not like the consequences of THREE.

This will still work with your sister, for I can assure you, she has not changed, i.e. the house-selling deal...... So I think that you have got to change or be prepared to go back 50 years... Ready?

Hap

Darius....just keep in mind that you've not had luck for 50+ years being sisters, but you have a chance now to change that. My suggestion would be to make sure you have your "alone" spaces - one for each of you. That way you can get away from each other. Heck - I have to have that from DH!

Good luck!

Marcia

Hap, I wish I thought I could make some successful changes with her. We argue all the time about her 17 year old who has NEVER had any discipline enforced and my sister always makes excuses for the kid. Natch, the kid hates me because I do expect compliance.

My only bargaining power may be my expertise, as she has all the money. Otherwise, yes she will have $$ to move someplace else but will once again have to take a low-paying job if I don't help get a business set up. She doesn't have the skill for doing that. Nor probably the impetus...

Marcia, Like your new DG name!

I agree, every one needs a room of their own, and my sister and I have agreed on that point. What concerns me is that I have all the negotiating skills for a new place (and business) and she has all the money but apparently does not listen to my voice of experience. She grew up in my shadow, always compared (somewhat unfavorably) to me. Too bad all around, as she both loves me and on some level hates me.

WOW!

darius, the same thing went on forever with me and my sister. I am only 11 months younger than her but she did the "Big Sister" routine. My dad wanted to let me be adopted by my aunt, but my mother refused. So I was always compared to her and somewhat to my older b rother. Always was treated as though I was dumb and no discussion was ever made about my future. So they both got to go to college and I got married off at 18 (and divorced a few years later).
I still a familial feeling for her though, and when she lost her husband and found he and a girlfriend had run up her credit cards by $200,000.00! she needed someone to care about her. That got worse when she got lung cancer and now has fractured 5 vertebrae in her back. We talk at least once a week, now. When I went to Myrtle Beach with her last summer, I had to let her know right away that she was being bossy. In fact, about 3 times. She realized it was true. She backed off. Things are gradually getting on a more even-steven level with us. And we are actually enjoying each other. Now if she could just get out of pain.....

Well, my sister and I just spoke on the telephone and I hung up on her. She started spouting damage I did (yes, i dropped a cigarette ash that burned a hole the size of a dime in the new carpet but easily repairable for under $50) whereas I believe I added $20,000 to the selling value of her house.

She gave me $500 for travel expenses. Gads, NEVER deal with sibings!

We may work it out but I doubt it.