Coffee and...Part 27...! :-D

Morning GOBs, and Robert! Yes, it is a gorgoeus day here, what a relief after that heat wave. We should get some rain by Friday (golf day of course!) and the gardens will love it. I don't care how much water we put on from the well, it doesn't have the same effect as the nitrogen enriched rain.

Molly, those white four o'clocks are just beautiful. I'd love it if you saved me some seeds, maybe I'd have better luck with home grown ones! My original ones were from a friend, (I think I'm repeating myself) and they came back year after year. My DS got some from me and they did well, in the UP of Michigan, for her too. She called this morning and says they have a huge harvest of ripe tomatos, so I told her to bring some down when she comes through Labor Day weekend. Mine will still be green....in December....lol.

Only tried landlord-ing once. Our first house didn't sell quickly enough, so I rented it after we moved into the new one. I must have lost the tenant lottery because that gal was as thick as a brick. She called me at work one morning to say the water heater had failed and there was no hot water. I was concerned, but I couldn't do anything while I was at work, so I said I would stop after work and see what was wrong and get a new one if needed. When I got there, she said it was fine now, must have repaired itself! She used all the hot water in a short period in the morning, showers and laundry, but it didn't occur to her that that was the problem. Also didn't occur to her to call me and save me a trip.

Another time she called to say they couldn't get the storm window into the front door. The storm/screen door had four of those little thumb screws that you turn to release the screen, and then the storm slips in and you turn them back. She even had her brother look at it because he was a carpenter and he couldn't do it either. Now we know there are at least two idiots running around loose.......... Then, when the house was sold, she didn't move out until the very last minute of her lease, and my buyer was frantic thinking she would have to get the sheriff to evict her. I was very happy when that little adventure came to an end.

Sarv, I've never found a sports bra that didn't feel like I was being restrained in a strait jacket. I've given up. Speaking of giving up, my dad retired from teaching when the kids started getting unruly and you weren't allowed to discipline them. (early 70s) Before that he never had a problem, being 6' 3", and a big burly guy, he could just stare down the naughty ones, but once they figured out they could get away with anything they wanted, that didn't work.

He said it wasn't worth his health to deal with juvies and their overprotective parents. I was raised with a swat on the behind (bum to you, Carol!) and so were my kids and we were none the worse for it. Child abuse is a different scenario but social services can't seem to make the distinction.

If the Relafen is just for inflammation, can you take something along with it for pain? Or is that a no-no?

Betsy, I'll bet your cold is compounded by seasonal allergies. Now that the a/c is off and the windows open, I'm stuffed up and sneezing all the time, and it has to be whatever is in the outside air. Chicken soup can't hurt, even for breakfast. I hope you feel better soon, summer colds are the pits.

We picked up the new dishwasher last night, DH said "I hope you aren't expecting me to install this tonight".... I said "No. I hope you aren't expecting dinner!" LOL We stopped at a noodle place and had Pad Thai, and there's leftovers for lunch. Yum. Or maybe I'll have it for breakfast, just throw in a little more egg....!

Maria, those big rocks cost us a bundle, we have all kinds of little round rocks from the glaciers that are about the size of your head, but the big ones have to be hauled in. Since our acre is all on a slope, we had the retaining wall and the steps done by a friend of a a friend, who did an excellent job but was well paid for it. I do like it though, and it was worth it. We have the only lot in this subdivision that has anything more than a few shrubs, the rest are almost all just lawns and no flowers.

Enjoy the day....I feel like digging, maybe I'll move and divide some hosta...



This message was edited Aug 24, 2005 8:25 AM

good morning y'all :)

meezer
that is one beautiful garden. WOW is all i can say.
we've got an expanse of bank that's in one of my
untamed areas & i've been pondering for years
how to bring out the best in that difficult place.
showed your pic to the dh and he loved it! i mean
he really really loved it! he teases me about the
pics i save to show him - when i say "hey look
at this garden/greenhouse/arbor/etc pic" he
does this mock groan and eye-rolling thing ...
and asks what he has to till/build/or buy this time :)
your picture elicited an enthusiastic response, he
said he was going to start the bank project this
weekend! we have the boulders already. the dh
has made a hobby out of collecting rocks/boulders
from local highway projects for my local backyard
projects. thanks for the inspiration.

i can't contribute much to the landlord/tenant
discussion. i went from college dorm to married
w/a house. there's some rental houses in my
neighborhood and everyone complains about
their state of neglect - not a lot can be done about
it tho. just another reason why i balk at renting my
house and moving to va.

it got much cooler & less humid overnight. i was just
outside to feed the chickens and did the usual
garden tour in my pajamas ... i've seen the cutest
little bunny around lately ... suddenly he's not so cute -
he has cut off & eaten all but one cane of my only old garden
rose & all but one stalk of swamp sunflower! grrrrrrrrr.
my whole rear property line borders old woods and this
is the first plant-eating incident i've had in 10 years. so
i'll be out there today wrapping the plant supports with
chicken wire ... dag nab it. or, dag rabb it.

my SIL called last night to say she'd pay me to come
stay at her cabin in the va mountains for a week and
build & plant a shade garden. i had to chuckle at that
one - i look at my shade garden and think what a
colorless blob it is. not sure if i'll take her up on the
offer or not ... gardens are like art - it's in the beholder's
eye ... what if she doesn't like what i've done? geesh.
i told her next spring would be the optimum time to do
this and in the meantime she needs to cut pics out of
magazines so i can see what tickles her fancy.

well, rabbit measures await ..

happy wednesday, everyone :)
dig

That is the same kind of cold I get, Betsy, all the way down to my chest then I cough forever which is worse than the cold,
It is very cool this morning,am looking at my green tomatoes and wonder if they will ever get red, :-(
Good for your DIL, Sarv, she needs to spend on her self too, right? But it is nice to have a DIL you enjoy being with.

Interrupted myself, Phone, been invited to a reception tonight, thought it was nice to think of me usually one is sort of left out after is not a 'couple' any more.
Maria

M5,

I have you down on the list for 4 'clock seeds when they get here, and Julie of course.

:^)))

Thanks, for the compliments on my no effort cascade of flowers!! I think it looks like a waterfall with the alyssum tumbling down the stairs.
Regarding the bunny invasion: Hit the nearest Great Clips or Cost cutters and take all the human hair you can get your hands on, buy a bag of blood mealat the garden shop, and spread both liberally around your threatened plants. Once those widdle wascals find the "buffet" they will call their friends and relatives.......

Cute and Rabbit in the same phrase is an oxymoron!!

DUH--- I read Molly's post too fast and thought she had white morning glories- double duh...Hey, if you have any extras, I'd love to try them. I have the limelight ones (charturse green leaves w/shocking pink flowers) They really stand out in the garden, but are slow to give seeds I have only collected four of them and it has blossomed all summer long.

Just got a call from my mom. I didn't call her yesterday and I got a scolding today for not giving her a call. I told her the phones went both ways!! She laughed at that one.

For some reason, my tummy is rolly polly today. And I feel like a headache coming...yuck. Don't know what the matter is. Think I will have to get out the soda crackers and munch on them.

I'm listening to the radio they are talking weight. Muscle weighs more than fat, so maybe I am gaining muscle in my weight gain. LOL Going back to Contours next Monday...

Sarv,

Got you on the list for 4 o'clock seeds.

:^)))

yahoo for the 4oclock seeds = made two beds, washed and arranged hair, got dressed and THAT'S ALL!! Almost time for lunch. Man, am I going down the tubes fast....

Thanks Molly!!! Took a shower, ate my leftovers for breakfast, and am about to hit the road. Gas cost me $2.81. yesterday and I'm going to top off today because price usually goes up on Thursday. Sheeesh. Gotta plan my trips out better.

Ouch!

It cost me $43 to fill up last week...OUCH is right. Wonder if I could train the cats to pull a buggy - LOL!

I tried to fill up my 26 gallon tank a couple weeks ago at a Marathon station. They evidently have put a cap on pump purchases at $40.00. The tank never got full.

So I stay close to home.

Molly

cheez, what king of cars are you both driving?

Good Morning everyone! Nice and cool here for the moment. Nothing planned...and I'm *not* going to *plan* a thing for the rest of the day.

I've spent the morning going through some of my coleus photos trying to get in the mood for making and trading cuttings with the peeps in the Coleus forum. After I've taken all the cuttings, I think I'm going to ship all the plants down to Molly so she can babysit them. hehehehe...just thought I'd tease ya a little. All you need is MORE work! :-D)

Kinda hard to believe that we've only got a little over 6 weeks here before first frost...and there's a mountain of stuff that needs to be done before then.

Ok, that's it for now...just wanted to check in (OH...before I forget...Thanks Molly! I'll be looking forward to those seeds.)

Later...
~julie~

egads! I had to go to town to the post office, and decided I'd fill my tank before prices go up again. I still had half a tank already, and to top off my 12 gallon tank cost over $17.

The Kingston Trio song about the MTA keeps running through my head... the song written about the MTA raising subway fares by 5¢...

Wowweee,

I have germination: green beans, 2 kinds of lettuce, watercress and broccoli. There's 2 other items I'm still waiting on, but can't remember what.

Now as soon as I get that new sprinkler extension in the back corner I can actually plant them in the ground, except the watercress. That needs really wet soil so I better keep that under a hawk eye. I already germinated tomato seeds the week before and they have grown a little. I can't wait to get some fresh garden veggies again.

You are very welcome ladies, but be patient on the seeds, they just started a new blooming cycle.

Julie, you would not be the first to use my back yard as a green house. Everything that has come down here has grown like monsters. You need to do this, come ahead!

Molly
:^)))

Hello again, remember me? Time just gets away from me sometimes when I'm having so much fun.

M5, your cascading hillside of boulders and flowers makes me wish I had a hillside in my yard to work with. Have lots of rocks, all sizes and several colors that came with the place.

I brought some peaches for the counter. Better eat 'em outside where the juice can run off your chin and elbows. My neighbor has a peach tree, also apples of different kinds. I think I will make peach juice this year using the Mehu-Liisa since I have plenty of them canned and they're small so peeling them is time consuming and not fun. Same with the apples. I make them into juice too and mix a pint of elderberry with a quart of apple juice in a pitcher when we want to drink it. Apple juice is fine by itself but not the elderberry, ugh. The elderberries are starting to ripen, too. They are awful tasting things but I have to beat the birds to them, slipped up on that one year and had to go find wild ones to make juice. Elderberries have antioxidents like blueberries so I had to find ways to use them. The plants came from my sister's pasture where they had been trampled (and fertilized) by her cattle. We dug up one plant and I divided it and got 4. Later I planted another one from somewhere else. They make a good windbreak on the north side of the garden. Gonna have lots of grapes this year if the deer stay out of the garden. More juice.

Gotta go change sprinklers and then get the hummer feeders filled before the poor little things think I don't love 'em anymore. They'll soon be going south. Even though our days are still hot we are getting down to about 40 overnight. It slows the ripening of all sorts of vegies and fruit that I've been waiting for since last year.

See you later.

Mary, tell me how you make your grape juice. We have a huge trellis full of them and I've tried several ways to do up the juice and am not happy with any of them. I even bought one of those machines where you throw in the grapes and turn the crank - juice supposed to come outta one end and seeds/skins out the other. We must have had monster seeds, because the darn thing plugged up pronto. It works slick for tomatoes tho!

I have a ton of tomatoes, so next week I have my work cut out for me. Kids want to make fresh salsa, but never get over here to do it and I'll be darned if I am gonna make it - I don't like it that much to put all the work into chopping things. I even planted some havanaro peppers for them and they look great!! There are several hundreds of them - they will probably mostly go to waste = but I may just dry some to see what happens.

DH is snoozing in his chair after a day at work. I am antsy to do something. Wish you all lived closer - we could go garden walking!! It is drier than dry here, so I turned the sprinklers back on. Hottest and driest summer that I can ever remember. But it is better than the cold/wet ones we've had the past several years- I am NOT complaining!!

Got pea soup going on the counter - gonna make some rolls to go with it. I know it sounds like a winter dish, but it is getting chilly here at night already!

Well finally taking the time to catch up on the posts for the day. Seems like everybody has been sort of leisurely. Sorry folks that are down with the crud. Ain't summer the worst time for something like that? I had to go to the chiropractor this morning, so decided to go to the grocery while I was out. BTW the adjustments at the chiro, are giving me some relief from the back and neck pain, and is even helping my arm. They have discovered that I have no discs in 4 spots in my neck and 5 in the lower back. The grocery is my least favorite chore. When I got home I rested then fixed chicken stir fry for supper, with a nice salad and garlic bread, yum. I stopped by Walmart today to see if they had any plants on sale, well I snatched seeds from asiatic lily, about 15. Have never tried to start them, but am going to give it a try.

Meezer, your steps and cascading plants are georgeous!! I want some rocks like that. All we have in Kentucky is limestone and it is quite boring.

Sarv, I made salsa last year, it was good, but you know what, for the little we eat, I figure I can buy it cheaper that going through all that chopping.

Molly, how many months of the year can you grow a garden? Our season is about April 15- Sept, or if we don't have really cold weather, sometimes into October.

Diggingit, I wish my DH would show some enthusiasm for a project that I suggest. He will reluctantly help with the heavy stuff, but I usually do projects on my own. BTW, I have a good recipe for "rabbit stew"!!

I will be back later, I have to go out to water all my babies.

Bonnie,

Growing veggies starts now for seeds. I was getting bell peppers and tomatoes well into May this year. When it gets into summer, its way to hot.

Molly
:^)))

Sarv, do a DG search by going to the top of this page and clicking on "search" in the blue banner line. Type in "most useful canning tool" and justmelisa as the thread starter. Ok, now you will see a picture of the Mehu-Liisa. I just use grapes or whatever kind of fruit I've got, and nothing else, no sugar, they are sweet enough and it is all natural sugar, the kind that is good for you. The juice comes out of this thing ready for canning. I drain it from the little hose right into my jars, add a lid and process them in a boiling water bath for about 15 minutes. Very simple and not much work.

Evening all. There will be apple-blackberry cobbler on the counter in 5 or 10 minutes when it comes out of the oven. The aroma just brought my husband downstairs, but it's not quite done in the middle yet. I'd intended to get a lot of cooking done today as he took care of my store for me, but I ended up spending almost the whole day catching up with an on-line class I'd signed up for.

We had a couple of showers today. The garden should be a little happier. I've got LOADS of green tomatoes and I sure hope they hurry up and ripen before the nights get frosty! I didn't even bother to plant beets this year as I'm the only one here who likes them.

I posted the summer squash pie recipe in the recipes forum even though nobody expressed any interest. It's quick and easy and tastes very good. If the squash is starting to take over YOUR refrigerator too, you might want to try it.

I hope everyone's feeling better. Summer colds are the pits! Usually mine start in the head then move on down to my chest. Taking cough-suppressant/ expectorant type cough syrup right away usually prevents it turning into a hard knot in my lungs. I don't know whether or not this would work for anyone else, but it might be worth a try.

I have to remember to send myself an e-mail so that I'll remember to pack everything for the craft show on Saturday. We're actually planning to have some fun for a change and will only be at the store for a couple of hours on Friday, then we're powwow bound!

Feeling much better today, although I did take an hour off this afternoon - just pooped, worn out! Couldn t concentrate on what I was doing and was getting frustrated with all the mistakes I was making. But the antibiotics are working. DD went back to the doc today, had a chest xray and blood work done. Small spot on one lung but they think the drugs are starting to work, finally! They did add a nebulizer for her. Sheesh, that girl always gets this stuff bad and so does DGD! I seldom get sick.

DB and SIL will be here tmr night between 6 and 7 pm - about a 13 hour drive from Regina. Looking forward to seeing him - he's the sib closest in age to me so we spent a lot of time together growing up. Extremely smart, had a 99 in all subjects on his ACTs. Never know it to talk to him tho, thankfully! Got his master's in history then went to seminary. Can read and/or speak Dutch, German, Italian, French, Spanish, Latin, Hebrew and Greek. Some quite well, some just enough for studying. Whew! way beyond me!!!! lol

Did some more potting up tonight, got 6 baby Palace Purple Heuchera, one Echinops Ritro and 5 or 6 sedum. I still have to send someone on this thread one, was it u julie? It got too hot before I got it done this spring, so hope to get that to whoever it was soon. I'll have to look it up on an earlier session if no one remembers, so pls remember!!!!! :)

DS (16 yr old) arrived home about 11 pm - tapped on the window to wake me up. Just got into the drowsy stage and I heard vehicles going by and motors running, then lights flashing so up again to check that out. Our 79 yr old neighbour went to the hosp. DH heard today that she was so dizzy she had to crawl from the bed to get to the phone to call for help. After much testing today, she came home tonight and found out it s the same inner ear disease as a cousin has. He had a spell where he couldn t walk either. She gets more done in a day than I. Last year she painted her whole house, one daughter helped with one wall, she did the rest herself. She cleans her gutters, mows her lawn, runs the snowblower, the hedge trimmer, u name it. Her DH had Parkinson's for years before she lost him 2 years ago and she just got used to doing all the outside work. I hope to stop bye Fri and see how she's doing. She had company tonight when she came home so I didn't intrude.

I planted 3 different hosta seeds and geum 'Mrs. Bradshaw' and the geum are just popping out of the ground. Yeah! The seed is from the one I lost this winder and I really like that plant so I'm thrilled to see the seed is viable. Yippee!! Hope the hostas grow too.

time to hit the hay, 5:30 comes before I know it. Night all! P.S. I'll DEFINITELY have a peach!!!! Thanks!

P.S.S. Finally saw the new 'while u were typing' banner. Hi McCool, the dessert sounds yummy, it'd be scrumptious warm with some vanilla icecream!!! Oh yeah, I picked a cereal bowl size of raspberries, better run out and get them, left them sitting on the grill while I was potting. ha ha !

Oh gee, fresh peaches, yum. And the cobbler, I think I will have mine with vanilla ice cream. Thanks, Mccool. After I posted earlier, went to the garden and selected some tomatoes to save seeds from. Also have some beautiful cox combs, cut some of them, and paired them with hosta blooms (white) really a neat looking vase. All of my annuals are just bursting with blooms, have lantana, marigold, gerbera daiseys, sun flowers, all kinds of coleus, glads are blooming, have several giant dahlias blooming, snap dragons, so pretty. I have morning glories and cardinal creeper that I enjoy in the mornings.

Tomorrow will try to clean house, and do laundry. For some reason have gotten behind this week.

Well, I am getting sleepy, a good sign, so it's off to bed for me. Catch you in the morning.

Well past my bedtime!! Spent a delightful evening watching DH install the new dishwasher. Most of the time was spent getting it perfectly level, he said he didn't want to have to do it again...so it had to be just right. Running a small load just to make sure it works. I notice there is no spray arm above so I will have to watch how I load it. It isn't any noisier than the Maytag, because we took all the insulation off the Maytag and duct taped it to the new one!

I'd love some of that nice warm cobbler with a scoop of Ben and Jerry's ice cream...warm cobbler is one of my favorites. (Right after warm choc chip cookies) Prefaced by a nice juicy peach which I will devour leaning over the sink!

Off to bed. See u in the morning....

Night Meezer!!

Good Morning all,

It's raining out there, looks like it has been for a while. The ground feels saturated. The wind chimes are singing. I have to remember to take them down if the winds get too strong here.

Sarv? where are you? I thought you would have beat me here this morning.

I woke up at 5:45, turned on the coffee maker and laid back down and slept for 45 minutes. I needed those extra few winks.

Definately no work today. My DS went down to Key West on Monday with a friend. They will be home later today. They didn't even know Katrina was on her way.

I promised a package out in the mail this morning. I can surely get that done and I have 2 more signs to paint. That's a rainy day project and my work bench is high and dry.

I think I'll go see who is awake over in the Weather Forum. Be back later yall.
Molly
:^)))

I'm here!! I took an allergy pill last night- guaranteed to knock me out, however I woke up feeling dopey and I hate that feeling. Chugging down some coffee now to give me a jolt to get me a going. I am going shopping with DIL today. I am going her way as she is always behind and I wait hours for her to show up here. We;re going carpet shopping for their basement. She said they went yesterday and DS refused to talk - she was so embarassed by him. She is such a sweet heart- I would give him a dressing down if I was married to him. Actually he is a lot like his dad and I chew his ear often!!

Wore the new sports bra yesterday and I don't like it a bit!! Looked like I had a pancake front - and felt like I couldn't take a deep breath- it lasted until 3pm - then I ripped it off and went ala natural!! Much better.

Anybody ever take cuttings of petunias and try to overwinter them? I have some waves I'd like to save - fushia pink and lush. Also, is there a place I can go to tell if a seed is sterile???

Had friends stop over last night. They work at the school I worked at. We had so much fun laughing and things happening. The wife saw my greenhouse and immediately took her DH to see it - he is getting one for her tomorrow he said - I need a DH like that. I made a comment to my DH that gosh - wasn't he nice to her and I got a grumble back. typical..

Molly, I heard a hurricane is heading your way - take care and move all your plants in to safety. Seems like you guys are always in the weather news.

Time for my garden walk...

Good morning peeples...
hubby and I went into town for a few necessities yesterday afternoon. On the way home we stopped to look at fridges...found *the* one I wanted...got home, measured...looks like I'm *stuck* with the one I have. (TOO small!)

Kooger...hope you're feeling much better today. And, yep, it was me who asked for those sedums. But do me (and yourself!) a favor, ok? Please send me an D-mail and tell me what the postage is as soon as you send the pkg...if I dont get it out immediately...well...it may take a week before I remember to put the envelope in the MAIL! :-O

I just woke up...and can't keep my brain on course...I keep forgetting what I was going type. Sorry guys...I'd better come back later...after 2 pots of coffee.

~julie~

Good morning.

Kooger, I hope you feel good as new soon. Summer colds seem to be more miserable than winter ones, maybe because in the winter we feel like semi-hibrination is normal. I also have that guem, Mrs Bradshaw that I planted out of a 4 inch pot a couple of years ago. It didn't look as good this year so maybe I should save the seeds and sprinkle them around where I want them. The seed heads hang out over the lawn and I've been using the clippings for mulch in my asparagus patch to hold down the weeds, so maybe I will see some of them sprouting down there. I have this unruly strip behind and under the grapes where the quack grass and weeds got well established again so I thought maybe the grass clipping mulch might help supress them next spring along with feeding the aspragus, the grapes and some poor boysenberry bushes that are growing too close to the fence and keep getting pruned off by the horses. What I really need to do is haul some old straw from my neighbor's barn cleaning pile and apply it about 10 inches deep. Maybe this week now that I'm not using the old truck to haul hay......

My hubby and youngest son are off to visit our oldest son in Alaska and go fishing for a couple of days. They'll be back Sunday evening. I'm holding down the fort, keeping the critters fed and the JRTerrier walked a few times every day to do his duties in just the right places. It seems like female dogs just don't have so many decisions to make, they just squat the get it overwith! With him it is all an important social occasion. Hubby timed his trip so that it didn't conflict with my ride schedule. Next weekend there is a 3 day event and I will be taking my two younger horses to compete and leaving the older one at home. I plan to be competing on one horse the 1st and 3rd day and the other one the 2nd day.


M5, I have showed your wild rock garden/steps to a couple of people who love it. One of them is having soil hauled in (it was rinsed off of sugar beets and is free for the hauling) and making berms which she hopes to plant with cascading types of plants this fall or next spring. Hopefully, whatever residue of herbicides it may have will have disapated by then and not kill things she wants to grow. Her land is flat and she gets noise from a railroad line, so her berms will redirect some of the unpleasant noise as well as looking good. Right now they are in the process of hauling it in so it looks bad, but she can visualize it all planted and looking great!

Time to get dressed and get moving. It's about 40 again here this morning and officially got down to 36 in town at 5am!!. Today's temp is supposed to reach 80 and tomorrow closer to 90 again.

Mornin' everyone! I was awakened earlier by a phone call from my brother wanting to know if I had any shakin' damage from the earthquake last night.

LOL, it was only a 3.8 and nearly a hundred miles up the mountain ridge from me. The news said it was felt as far south as Atlanta, but I'm a sound sleeper and didn't feel a thing!

McCool, the cobbler sounds good. : )

Darius,

I'm glad that even though you missed it, you are okay. I also slept pretty heavy last night. Didn't hear the rains come in.

Funny, when the barometric pressure drops, I want to sleep. Maybe I'll take a nap (I never take naps) today. It will be something different to do. :^)))) Waiting out the storm.

Molly

Molly, I have the same inclination when the pressure drops... probably why I slept through so many hurricanes when I lived in Florida!

Has everyone seen the picture of our fearless leader?
Pati

http://davesgarden.com/forums/t/540236/

Well it's a quarter past noon, the sun is shining and perspiration is dripping from my cranky old body. Cutting, fitting and planing an old cedar fence board to make a finish strip for the outside of the shed windows; installing insulation and sheet-rocking the wall where I raised the windows, and deciding it was hot enough out there to take a rest. 9:30 to 10:30 had breakfast with my friend John (caught him in mid sentence), and gave him 20' of PVC conduit to bury wiring for his outdoor light. He's the only friend I see much of, the only one with the same interests. He's a retired teacher, artist, photographer, wood carver, sculptor and landscaper. After it cools off a bit I can get to the wiring and try to clean things up some. The small Garlic Chicken Pizza I had for lunch yesterday did a job on my digestion. It took about 10 hours,4 Tums, a slug of Maalox and a liter of Club Soda to settle things down. All that from a little 8" pizza! Cleaned out "Mackie's Room", the cement patio under the Wisteria, and put the benches in. Should have done it when the Wisteria was in full bloom. After we had to have Mackie put down I buried him there and had a 9X12 slab poured and rebuilt the arbor over it. Even on this small suburban lot it is a very quiet and private place. Missy's ashes are on the desk next to me all the time, but some are sprinkled out by Mackie too. Still have time, if I don't dawdle, to clean up the shed and build racks to hold the 80 some Brugmansias that will have to be brought in before frost. Sure wish their metabolism was capable of generating enough heat to keep the place warm. A couple light bulbs and a small fan should be enough to keep the frost off. Well GOB's, I don't want to make you feel bad, and I do sympathize with you and your too hot-too wet-too dry weather, but even though I consider 80° to be hot, our weather has been hard to beat. Nearly perfect in my estimation. Since its almost 1:00 it may be time to have an open-faced sandwich of tomato, cheese, cucumber, mayo, salt and fresh ground pepper, maybe a stuffed olive or two, and of course, the ubiquitous club soda on the rocks. (here's my friend John)

The outside of the shed is getting closer to being finished.

can't say the same for the inside.

with the windows raised there is more wall area, though a few thousand sq. ft. of floor space would be nice.

Very nice Robert, I'm sure you'll finish it no time at all, you are such a focused craftsman. Now come and sit down and have a nice piece of banana cream pie, and rest a while. Unless you ate too much french toast with your pal, surely you have room for pie....

I thought it looked like rain, but I hung my sheets out anyway, and they are ready to be brought in. Ran some errands, had a quick chinese lunch, and I'm ready for a sit down myself.

Earthquakes!! The building where I used to work is built on pilings that need to be kept wet, so someone has the job of checking them every day to make sure the water level is correct. There is also an earthquake measurement device down there, because even in midwestern USA the quakes on either coast show up in the substrata here and get registered. Glad to know you are safe Darius, but I don't know if I would have appreciated that early morning wake up call!

And Hurricanes!! I hear they are expecting a lot of rain with this one because it is so slow moving. Stay safe Molly, and if they tell you to get out, don't argue!! We can't afford to lose any coffee clubbers.

Sarv, what did I tell you about those sports bras? I don't know what fiend designed them but he was apparently unfamiliar with the female anatomy. Strait jacket, I tell ya!!!

Hope Kooger is feeling better today. Summer colds like to linger.

My little table arrived today....and I do mean little!! It's shorter than I expected but will still serve the purpose. Packed in a billion of those plastic peanuts, which tried to escape when I was cutting the box open but I foiled them by putting the box inside a 50 gal. trash bag. Haha!! Not one got away! (I confess to being easily amused)

Glad it cooled off, everyone is baking and we can enjoy lots of calorie free cyber treats! Gotta go rescue the sheets....and check on DH who came home with a headache.

Meezer, the pie looks good, more than good! Think I'd like to have a slice along with a couple cups of tea. It is one of DS favorites, but I haven't made one since he toddled off to college many years ago. Should take him one just to show the GD's what their daddy ate when he was a youngster. Cooling off some, and there's a nice light breeze so guess I'll get my clippers and go harvest some poppy seeds.