Unimaginable

We have a tree in the backyard that is a gnarled mess of branches that has long ago gotten out of control. It has a couple of squirrel nests in it and just a ton of branches that swirl around every which way. I did some trimming on it before we brought the hot tub in, which is located out of the picture below just to the left. It is a tree that I don't really care for and eventually want to remove it. Grass won't grow underneath it and it takes up the limited amount of backyard space we have. But once a year, for about two weeks, it produces these lovely little rose-like bouquets. They really pretty...but only for about a week or two.

Eventually, we will remove it. Quite possibly this year. we're not really sure yet and I would like t0 be relatively sure that if I am displacing squirrels, they will not have any young ones waiting for me to exterminate them. I do have a love/hate relationship with the squirrels, but it is not my intention to purposely kill them. I will settle for making them homeless.

I thought Sunday was a day of Rest!

The weather looked promising today for work on the inside and out. I wanted to get some more tree limbs cut down. I'm slowly chipping away at a tree in the backyard that I eventually want to remove. In the meantime, I have removed a few larger lower branches. This tree is so out of control with twisting, turning weaving branches that the first branch I cut today just hung there. So I went to work on the branch just below it that it was twisted around. They both hung there. So finally, I went after a much larger trunk portion and that finally made everything come down.

Then I set about the task of cutting up all the branches and removing them to a suitable staging area for later transfer to the dump.

I then set might wrath on a little tiny chunk of wood at the back of the yard. This chunk of wood was once an errant tree that grew into the chain link fence near the alley. After cutting away most of the tree, I have been working on removing this remaining stubborn section. I've used a chisel to break it up. I have used a large drill bit in hopes of cutting it up. I am now to fire. This method would have worked great had I enough lighter fluid to keep the fire going. I didn't want to use gas because I don't want to be in the news under the "Stupid People" section.

Susan spent her day in the entry way (again) and is making excellent progress. Pictured below is Susan in her painting garb as she paints the inside of the front door.
Here is a better picture from the front porch of the light yellow she painted on the door. This matches the walls in the stairway and the upper portion of the walls in the entry.

I have been enlisted to help in a neighborhood project concerning the Corbin Park sign. It is located at the end of Washington Street as you head north to the park. It is a decal that has been applied to the sign that was silk screened by a local company years ago. At the time, they had five of them made and this is the third one.

As you can see from the picture above, it has seen better days. It is time to remove the old and apply the new. I met with a guy named Mac who lives down the park. He has the new decal and we tried an experimental tool to remove the old decal. It's a drill attachment the will remove the old vinyl. It will work great for our purposes except that the cordless drill we were using is not powerful enough to do the job. We are going to have to arrange with one of the near by homes to borrow their electricity for a while. I think a have enough extension cords to reach the sign...depending on the neighbor who gives us electrical permission.

I have to go now. I'm being called to stain some wood.

Lawn Mower Man

About a week and a half ago I mowed the lawn for the first time of the season. At the very end of the job, my grass catcher broke. There are a couple of welds that hold the main section of the frame to the handle that clips on to the mower and holds the bag in place.

We have a friend who will be able to weld it for me but I haven't had the opportunity to get it to him. In the meantime, my fertilizing must have worked because it is time to mow again.

Tonight I decided to mow without the benefit of a grass catcher. I like this method because I don't have to keep stopping and shacking out the bag. The lawn really needed the mow so I'm glad I went ahead and did it.

In addition to the grass catcher, I have a problem with the mower that is very annoying. This thing starts up on the first pull. It's amazing. Even the first time out of the garage this year, one pull and off she goes.

The problem is that she can't keep going. This mower, like every other piece of power equipment sold in this country, has an Idiot Bar. That's the button, lever or handle that the operator MUST hold on to in order for the machine thingy one is operating to continue to operate. If you let go, the machine thingy stops. I'm sure just as many countless lives have been saved by this safety item as the countless number of straightjackets that have been applied to those trying to defeat it.

Anyway, where was I?! Oh yeah. I have to pull the cord to start the mower, hold onto the Idiot Bar and lean down to the engine to pump the primer to keep the mower going. This goes on until the mower is sufficiently warmed up...about three hours. Once it's warmed up, it goes great. Even if I stop, dump the grass, drink a beer, drink another beer, reattach my finger, it comes right back on and runs strong.

Taking it in for a tune up doesn't help...much. Then it seems to be only a two hour warm up session.

It's Earth Day 2010 and in addition to cutting the lawn with a gas powered lawn mower in honor of the Earth, I also cut down an Earth Day Tree for the living room. Tonight, we will bury the ceremonial disposable diaper in the yard and then we will be burning Styrofoam and the Earth Day Tree while doing the Earth Dance around the fire. We will finish off by turning the heat waaaaay up in the Hot Tub and basking in the warm glow of every light in house being turned on.

Happy Earth Day!

Tuesday Night Work Night

Susan and I (mostly Susan) determined that we need at least one night during the week to dedicate ourselves to working on the house. Tuesday seems to be the best night for that and so that was the order of the evening.

Susan accomplished more than I as I enjoyed an episode of NCIS that, while it was a re-run, I wanted to see. I then got to work on the stairs. I'm doing some minor touch up sanding and wood puttying. I am very close to staining and varnishing.

I saw some signs that the grape vines are waking up. There are little tiny buds that are slowly getting bigger each day. They should burst forth with leaves any day now.

The official hops growth for yesterday was 5 1/2 inches. I checked out the Sterling Hops this morning and it looked like it grew another inch over night.

Here it is April and I am already considering shutting down the furnace for the season. This Global Warming is really working in my favor with the Utilities. It has been very warm and we haven't used the electric heater in the bedroom for over a week. In fact, I believe it is time to switch from the fleece sheets to regular good ol' fashioned linen.

Sometimes, I can be quite gay!

General Progress on Nothing in Particular

First, a quickie update on Hops. To review, this is the third year for my two hops plants. I have planted two varieties of Hops, a Sterling and a Hallertau.

The first year they plugged along sluggishly and didn't do much...as one might expect.

Last year, they both cruised along pretty well and reached the top of the arbor...about twelve feet up and produced copious hopses. I even made beer with some. I came to realize that I will have hops forever and a day at the rate I'm using them up. However, I never really planned on using the hops in my brewing. I just wanted a vine that would cover the arbor and in that, the hops is doing it's job.

So now it is April in year three and the hops are on fire. I noted about 6 inches of growth yesterday. Yup, one day! Pretty amazing. I marked it today to see if the growth rate is as impressive. Report to follow.

My grape vines are also in their third year but they are really not very impressive. At this point, they still look like they are asleep.

Other yard related items...I am really on top of my Dandy's this year. I fertilized with the weed killer and I have been regularly trolling the yard with my Weed-B-Gone sprayer and nailing the little Dandy Bastards as they appear. I feel like I'm ahead of them this year. However, I have been wrong before.

All my predictions from yesterday came true. It's unbelievable! We didn't do nuthin!

We didn't do much better today.

We got up and went downtown to participate in wiping out cancer. I'm not sure how we did but judging from the turn out, I think cancer is on the run. I think there was about 8,000 runners and walkers.

After the race, we went to "Isabella's" for breakfast. We all had a nice BM (Bloody Mary) and enjoyed our breakfasts.

We got home about 11:30 and sat in the hot tub until about noon-15. The hot tubbing did nothing for our energy and so we took a nap.

I finally got out into the yard around 1:30 but I didn't really do much. Susan napped until almost three and then got up and went to work on the entry way.

More nonsense like this will follow throughout the week and we will probably start to loose ground on our projects.

Weekend Itinerary

I thought I would start out the weekend by jotting down some thoughts of how I think the weekend will go and then I can compare these jottings to the reality as seen from the perspective of Sunday evening.


I have to bar tend today and I have a friend from college in town this weekend. Several of us Frat Brothers plan to get together for dinner tonight. So there will be not much of anything accomplished by me today.


Susan has to work tonight but has the day to herself so there might be something happening with her. I think she is close to putting a finish on the Newel Post Light. She still has some touch up work to do in the entry way.


Tomorrow we are participating in a run downtown. It's the Susan G. Komen Cancer Run. The hope is that if we all run well enough tomorrow, it will wipe out cancer. Susan is talking about us doing this run (3.2 miles) at 9:00 and then going to church at 10:00. We'll see.


I got up this morning and got in the hot tub. I'm trying to cool down now before I get dressed and head for the bar. It doesn't seem to be happening...the cooling down.

Fertilizing Savant

I timed out the fertilizing situation perfectly. I was afraid it was going to rain and wash out the fertilizer I laid down on Sunday. But the rain held off for 24 hours and allowed the granuals to do whatever it is they do before braking down from the rain and absorbing into the rich fertile soil of what passes for our lawn.

It was great to get back to work yesterday where I don't have to work as hard. Man! I am sore from a weekend of backbreaking yard toilage. It was great when we realized we had a hot tub to soak in. It didn't seem to help me from being less sore...unless the soreness I feel is less than what I would have felt...which is kind of scary when you think about it.

Weekend Worka-Alco-holics

We have had a good productive weekend. Susan in the house and me outside.

Susan is still working in the entryway, sanding and plastering and plastering and sanding. Mostly plastering. She loves getting plastered. She is getting very close to being able to paint, stain and wall paper.


I borrowed the Farm Truck from my pal Robba and rented an aerator for the lawn. To help defer the cost, I shared it with my other buddy Mark, who did his lawn. That thing really is a workout. I am sore today.


But I cannot rest as I have the truck loaded with leaves and twigs and crap that has to go to the dump. I would also like to put a little fertilizer down but I don't think the weather is going to cooperate. I'm going to take a chance and fertilize anyway. That's how one can insure a rain storm...by doing something that a rain storm would destroy.Here is a picture of the parking strip along Wall Street. I show this picture because this is the best it will look for the rest of the year. I have a very difficult time properly watering this long thin stripe of grassiness and it dries out quickly. Here, next to the Farm Truck, it looks like a long thin park. A park for worms perhaps...or spaghetti...or snakes who like spaghetti.

I have been away for a week so it's time to get caught up with all the action in our lives. I haven't really been any where. I just haven't been here!

For starters, I ended up getting third place in the NCAA Basketball bracket thing I was in. I earned $13.50, none of which I shall declare on my taxes. If this is used against me in a court of law at some future date, won't I feel stupid!

We have successfully re-financed our loan from an 30 year mortgage to an fifteen mortgage. I would apologise for the grammatical error in which the singular infinitive is doubled to a transitive Lusitania, but I sometimes like to appear ignorant. It helps to mask the times when I am ignorant.

We are making excellent progress on our Newel Post Light. We have finally compiled all the parts we need and have assembled them into a nearly working light, as seen below.

I need to actually wire the thing now and I have a little more work to do on the base you see it sitting on. Nothing major...just some shaping and sanding. We now have about $75.00 into this light. It stands about 18 inches tall and we think it will look totally bitchin' when it is in place at the bottom of the stairs. It's not going to provide a lot of light but that was never goal.

I am making plans to trap myself a skunk this weekend. I have seen it several times and I want to strike before it has puppies. The details will be forthcoming as the events take place.

In the meantime, have an pleasant day!