My hands aren't raw and I didn't get my hands into the prickly pear this time, just my rear end. LOL SO is the one with exzema, not me.
Do we have logs? LOLOLOLOL Yes, hardwoods that SO collects here and there and then when he has enough, pays the guy with the portable bandsaw to cut them into lumber. I'll have to take a photo of one of his log piles.
Actually, we have oodles of cedars growing in the woods and if I can get logger man to get his chain saw out, I was thinking of getting him to cut some for legs. Cedar is pretty rot resistant.
What a nice surprise for your friend! Nobody ever surprises me with dragons, darn it. LOL I love the chicken birdhouse too. I found it at Peebles on sale plus I had a coupon so who could resist?
Vincent Price was AWESOME in person. Such a wonderful actor. I also saw Stacy Keach in Richard lll a few years ago at the Folger Shakespeare Library's theater, which is a reproduction of the Globe. That was pretty awesome too. The Folger used also to do a wonderful Medieval Christmas show that I took my daughter to every year when she was a kid.
Garden Objects #2
Here's a new garden object for me. I had a unused Ebay Gift Certificate and decided to use it for something to feed or water for the birds.
Here's a top view. The whole thing including stake is glazed copper. I particularly like the enameled leaves. Here's hoping the stained glass birds aren't broken by falling tree limbs.
Here's a beautiful carved stone wall plaque that looks really out of place on this white wall. It is covering a really ugly set of wire connections. DSO keeps saying that he wants to recable all of the utility wires and make them all come onto the house at one spot neatly bundled. As my electric cable have twice had sparks and had to be replaced, I don't want him fooling with those wires. They all had been chewed by squirrels!!
I bought this at the Botanical Gardens of the University of British Columbia in Canada a number of years ago. It is 30" by 24" and is very heavy. It looked lovely against the brick wall of my balcony just above a nice seating arrangement. I will be thinking of a better place to use it. Maybe it would be better around the front of the house against the bricks.
Love the bird bath Stormyla, you are right that is a beautiful plaque but not a good location, maybe you need to hunt up another garden object for that spot and put your plaque in a better location.
Wow, really pretty birdbath and plaque!
Stormy I have the same bird bath and it's not real copper, it rusted so I called the company and got a replacement, which I'll be spraying with a clear coat before I put it outside
Edited to say this is a pic of the rusted one.
This message was edited Jun 10, 2009 1:42 PM
Got lots of help watching over my new garden bed. Maybe birds will leave the seeds alone and the rabbits and friends won't like going near those eyes. He illumninates at night along with a nearby tall frog holding an umbrella.
Nice guard owl. That's a great idea about scaring off seed hunting birds.
That's a really nice bowl Roses. Great idea. Let's see if those critters will get with the program!
Jen, Thanks for the tip about the bird bath. Another item to spray!
I never fed the birds before. How do I get this bird to stop hogging all of the seed and leave some for the others? I thought a change of seed might help. Bought a couple of other varieties this week.
Do you all have Ross stores in your area? I stopped in the other day and found great buys on all sizes of ceramic planters. Will post pix tomorrow. 16" tall ceramic planters for $15. Many different styles and colors and glazes. I was surprised to find 3 full aisles of garden objects.
I love Ross. They have one in Winchester now thank goodness. Looking forward to your photos.
I finally got my concrete bench put back up under the big crabapple tree. The top is a little off to one side but I'll fix that today.
Stormy, bluejays are pigs. My mom, the bird lady, cusses at them a blue streak and chases them away from her feeders. I think they mostly go for the sunflower seed so maybe try something without much of that. Will it hold thistle? The goldfinches love that and the bluejay won't care for it.
This message was edited Jun 13, 2009 6:56 AM
Love the bench Hart.
I'll have to check out our local Ross store. I don't do much shopping and that isn't one of the stores I generally go to.
The Jays will go for mixed song bird feed, sunflower seeds and corn. Not much you can do to keep them away from that feeder. If you want to feed smaller birds you can get special feeders that only allow small birds to reach the seeds. Or you can do what I do.... have more feeders I have two pretty good sized ones that get filled everyday (yep I go thru a lot of bird seed). After trying several different cute and sometimes expensive thistle feeders, I just went and bought a thistle sock. IMHO they are much better to use. If you think jays are pigs you should see the squirrels.
Nice bench, Hart. I often end up using my concrete bench as a mini work station. It's out in the far corner of my big bed .
Holly, that's just what I was using. I'll be on the lookout for the items you & hart suggested. The squirrels don't bother that feeder. Maybe it's hard for them to get the seed out. Those rats will eat a suet cake in one day. I've never heard of a thistle sock. Guess I'll spend some time studying the items in the bird feed section of HD.
Bluejays are kind of bullies, but I was happy to see one tear down and eat two wasps nests near the front door this year. It ate all the larvae in the nests while the worker wasps were flying around it. A separate peanut feeder might keep them busy and away from another feeder, but then there's the squirrels to contend with... it's always something, as Roseanne Roseannadanna used to say.
I'm always getting rid of wasp nests but I was reading last night they kill all kinds of bad bugs and feed their babies up to 400 flies a day. Have to rethink this wasp issue. That must have been something to see the jays taking after the nests, Claypa.
We have very few squirrels out here, I don't know why, but they tend to go for the black walnuts and I haven't had the problems most people have with them getting at the feeders. Now if I could just figure out the bear problem I could put my feeders back up.
Holly, Ross has all kinds of nifty buys stashed around the store. I bought a top there that was the exact same top that was a local department store for almost $40. It was $12 at Ross. They have household things, baby and kids' clothes and toys, even some gourmet food items. Last time I was there, they had the prettiest peppers in oil stuffed into bottles in pretty patterns.
It's always the first place I go when Christmas shopping for my nephews because they always have the neatest men's gifty stuff for cool 20-something guys. This year, I found desk clocks that were nice, stainless steel airplanes.
BTW, I'm a TJ Maxx junkie too. LOL They often have some pretty garden things for very reasonable prices.
wasps can often be seen prowling through my asparagus fronds which are yearly plagued by grubs on the leaves- I say Hi and step back to let them work!
However, when yellow jackets make a nest right by the front door....sorry, too close for comfort.
I wish I could retell effectively the story of my hubby (pre-married) and his two work buddies attacking a huge hornet nest he had in his tree, first house. You can just imagine...Lunch hour, car, a 'missile' of some kind, mixture of bravado and sheer terror...it was a hysterical story to hear them tell it
Sorry, back to Objects other than paper hornet nests
Men + big hornet nest = Keystone Hornet Kops. LOL
OK, How did we get onto the birds and the bees??? It's funny,since I've fully embraced grdening, bees don't bother me at all. I've had some really nasty stings in my life both from wasps, hornets and bees. Once my foot was swollen for a month, another time my arm for 3 weeks. But now, none of them seem to bother me, even when I'm trimming the Salvia right as they are working it.
Here are the pots that I got from Ross. I also got two small ones. These are 18" X 18" x 18". They also came in green, orange and cobalt blue. They were $15 each. They had other styles too. There were some nice light green ones with a interesting brown over glaze for the same price.
Those are beautiful, Stormy. What a bargain!
Here are some more people that live in my garden. This is a small statue, just under 14". It's called "First Love." This is an old statue which I bought at an auction. I'm still trying this one in different spots to determine it's permanent home.
Speaking of birds, bees and bugs in general. I released 4000 ladybugs in my garden at dusk tonight. I hope they eat lots of nasty critters!!
hart that was about it!!
stormlya, you're now my official pot shopper. I do not have a Ross here tho. I walk down the pot aisles and keep thinking, but they're all the same exact shape- boring. I was tempted at Lowes last week...but 25 dollar for a thin plastic pot?? I dunno...I'm too cheap.
Sally, Do you have Big Lots??
I know Hart, anything ceramic of that size is over $40 at the garden centers. HD & Lowes charge $30 to $35 for the plastic ones.
Here's another Bistro set that I have that needs some restorative work. I often sit and have lunch at this one. It is cast aluminum with an antiqued sort of powder glaze.
Sally, you are right, that's just ridiculous. I have a lot of the big plastic nice ones, but I bought them at Lowes season end sidewalk sale for 75% off. Most of the time I end up using the large rectangular ones for growing seedlings outside.
Boys will be boys!! DSO and his friend were trying to help the warehouse crew at work when the injection foam machine stopped working. They got that foam all over their suits and it started to harden. At lunchtime they both went to DSO's home and put their suits in the washing machine. DSO sends his laundry out and had no laundry detergent, so they put Topjob in the washing machine!!! I've still laugh at that story. They both went back to work in some of DSO's other clothes. His friend is 10" taller than him.
Here's a photo of some of the damage. I can't really think what I'm going to do with this one. I do have an antiquing paint kit that I bought a while back to use on something or other. I'll have to read that package. Anybody have any ideas?
Jen, I've been trying all month to get over to the Big Lots. That place is always good, especially for holiday items. I get lots of cheap little fun things there for kids. I also want to look there for some basket type of items to use in lieu of hardware cloth cages.
Nice pots Stormyla, I need some but still haven't had time to go look.
This message was edited Jun 14, 2009 11:35 PM
My Gosh, Holly, There are tons of those on Ebay. Have a look. The newer ones are cheaper.
Sally, here's Ross's store locator. Put in your zip code for the store nearest you. http://www.rossstores.com/
Stormyla, Good idea, I've removed my post so Ric doesn't see it. I've been on line looking. Maybe not for Fathers Day but his Birthday will be this summer. I already found one I like and is in my price range.
This message was edited Jun 14, 2009 11:52 PM
That's hilarious, Stormy! My ex one time decided to wash clothes and washed and dried my nice, blueberry blue, only cashmere sweater set I've ever owned because I had found it on sale for a song. It might have fit the cat when he finished with it. (As an aside, he did stuff like this all the time but it was always my stuff that ended up ruined. I never have figured out whether he's really that dumb or if it was a passive aggressive thing.)
Stormy, it wouldn't be hard to get that effect by painting your base color, letting it dry and then painting over with the darker color and wiping or brushing it where you want to take some off. I would definitely use a metal paint, though. You could thin the second color a bit if you want. Flip it upside down to practice on the underside and make sure your brushes aren't too loaded with paint.
That copper color underneath is really pretty.
Sally, there has to be a Ross near you somewhere.
Holly, Mums the word. Great, did you find it on Ebay? I always go there first as I find that the tremendous amount of sellers leads to very competitive pricing among the power sellers. I always look for sellers who say they are open to reasonable offers. 9 times out of 10, they accept my offer.
My second choice is Amazon.com for the same reasons.
Hart, men definitely seem to have laundry handicaps. How is it they can fix cars and all sorts of machinery and electronics but can't master the wash? Mind boggling and, in your case, infuriating. That's almost grounds for divorce!! One life only has a few cashmeres! Years ago there was a cashmere factory outlet some 25 miles from here. It sold top of the line cashmere, not the thinner mass produced stuff. Oh, woe was the day when it closed. I've not seen that quality since, not even in Needless Markup.
Hart, those are great suggestions for the paint. I could even use a sponge for the black color. But I'm worried about that powder coating. It's coming off in fairly large chips. If I painted over it would it still continue to flake off? I'm not sure how I would remove it, if necessary.
Rub it down - vigorously - with a stiff wire brush before painting. That should take care of any loose paint. I'd do that by hand and not use one of those whirling wire things you can attach to a drill. That will just grind large patches down to bare paint.
With so many places for the brush or sponge to catch and make drips and paint blobs, a brush will be a lot easier to use. Just make sure after you load your brush, you tap it well inside the pail so your brush isn't loaded with gobs of paint. You can even work the brush against some newspapers a bit before working on the metal. Don't ever rub the brush against the rim of the pail to take out some of the paint.
It would be harder to control where the paint goes or comes off with a sponge. I'd use a brush. See how the paint is darker on the higher parts, lighter on the lower parts and edges? You'd have the opposite effect with a sponge.
Heh, funny you should mention divorce. LOL He wasn't able to fix cars or mechanical stuff either. I used to say he couldn't change a lightbulb without an instruction book and I really wasn't completely kidding. There's a reason why I learned to be so handy. LOL
Here is a new pic of the shade wreath. It has been growing for 10 days now so I deemed it solid enough to hang. Have to tuck in some of the loose sphagnum moss and it is still looking a bit bare but it won't for long. I pinched back the impatiens and they are just starting to flower. I found the tag for the other hosta it is Hope.
Holly, that's gorgeous! Take a look at this - and their prices 8>o
http://www.simplysucculents.com/shop/search.php?category=12 They have wreaths too, also expensive.
jen--I sure do have Big Lots thanks for reminding me! Bought a berry wreath after Xmas there and sure got my 50 cents worth
stormyla--hey, 11-13 miles not so bad. May take a ride one day. Thanks
Holly, the wreath is coming along nicely, do you have to spray it to feed it every now and then?
SAlly I saw that there is a Ross store in Bowie, I may have to check it out.
How about Christmas Tree Shoppe or Store? When they first put one in I didn't realize they sold other stuff besides Christmas stuff. Wish it was closer to me (about 1/2 hour) that's what I get for living in the boonies, BUT I wouldn't change a thing!
Catbird, The potting soil I used has a slow release fertilizer in it. I use my water-wand to reach it to water like I do with my hanging baskets but every so often I take it down and give it a really good soak.
Hart thanks for the link, neat stuff but the prices.... I will say that potted sedums can be pretty expensive but that is just over the top. Especially if you had seen the great selection everyone had donated for the project all of them started from cuttings. I might pic up one or two really flashy sedums to add to the sedum wreath.
I'll try to get a new pic of the sedum wreath
Had to go to Hancock Fabrics yesterday and Ollie's Outlet is almost next door. It may be just a Baltimore area chain, not sure. But they had beige fiberglass planters, about ten inch and 13 inch. I took a 13 inch for 7.99, seems like it'll last a long time eh? They also had a whole bunch of crafts store stuff---probably all discontinued colors various paints, some stencils and supplies, some scrapbook stuff--a mix of stuff of course. I got more paint for my spongeing downstairs and some for flower pot doodling, small containers for 50 cents to a dollar.
While saving money there I spent 25 dollars!