Fall stuff

I rescued the rain guages so they wouldn’t freeze and burst… but it hasn’t stopped raining since.  I have no idea how much it has rained…but it is a lot.

Today it may rain only a little.  I have a list, I have checked it twice.  The last things to do before winter arrives…

We still have two windows to wash the rest have been done.  Since they are upstairs windows that we hardly ever look out they are not high on the window washing list.

We defrosted the deep freeze.  That was an adventure…found some sweet corn we didn’t know we had.  We made a list of what is in there…no vegetable soup was found so later this week I will be making soup.  Our list is actually a map of the freezer…upper and lower left and right…as long as we keep the list current we should know what is in there at all times….maybe.

I am still working on Christmas Cards however I hope to finish them up this week.  My next project is to paint some of the flowers that Far Guy has woodcarved over the summer….after that I have some woodcarved bark houses to paint.

Far Guy is feeling a tad better, he had a Dr visit…he is still short of breath and has a cough…we are doing all the right things for now possibly another antibiotic can be started in a few days. We are in a wait and see mode.

We are ready for Trick or Treaters…the little bags of candy are ready to hand out!  I wonder how many ghosts and goblins we will have this year?

Half a Wheel

We bought this half of a wheel in an antique shop in Baker Montana one summer.  We used to have a cow skull that went with it but a previous neighbor’s dog named Molly kept stealing it.   Eventually  it disappeared. (Molly’s Mom and Dad may have gotten tired of returning it.)

I used to put pots of flowers near it.  Now it is just a spot for weeds.

We had a busy Sunday.  Jen and Andy came over, we went out for lunch to kick off birthday week.  We stopped by Wallyworld to get a couple of cases of water when we had strong help…of course one of the workers in Wallyworld thought Blake was in the store and she got a little excited.  We use bottled water for coffee and then our coffee pot lasts a good long time! I drink coffee once in a great while and Far Guy cannot wake up without it.

I mulched the first batch of leaves in our yard…and so it begins.  Last year it was 7 mulchings…time will tell what it is this year.

I put a bunch of old landscape bricks for sale on a facebook marketplace and sold them and they were picked up…no more pile of bricks!  Cross something off the list!  Ah yes you actually have to make a list to cross something off.

My inside projects are kinda like the half a wheel…no big accomplishments.  I still have 22 Christmas ornaments to paint. 

Going Buggy

Had time during the garage sale to visit with some old and new neighbors and take a few photos.  The sale went well and I will add more “stuff” and repeat the sale next week.  Chance loved having company and exhausted himself greeting people just like in the old greenhouse days…we finally had to put him in the house so he could rest.

This week I will be attempting to weed out some “stuff” from Far Guys garage…if he hasn’t used it in 20 years then perhaps he should give it to me for the sale.

A grasshopper

A bee

I told Chance be careful where you are lifting your leg…the Sedum is a favorite spot of his.  It is also a favorite of the bees.  It seems to have thrived with his contributions.

Sedum ‘Autumn Joy’

I helped Far Guy set  up a spot where he and all of his classmates can upload and look at their photos.  What a struggle…not the most user friendly site so I am certain that just a few people will be calling for instructions.  Oh well it will keep him busy…I told him I just needed to be done when I added the photos I took…or I will be going buggy for sure.

Hello September

Things are winding down.  Many of the tourists have left, only the weekend people will be around until they close their cottages for the winter.  School will start on Tuesday.

I opened my big mouth and volunteered to take Far Guy’s 50th Reunion Class Group Photo…it was a moment of complete insanity or stupidity. I am praying for a cloudy day.  Far Guy and I scouted out photo locations at the venue where the class will meet.  I have enlisted the help of an older PRHS alumni to help me get the group ready…sounds like about 75 people will be there…Far Guy’s class  of 1968 was 157 graduates.  So only about half will show up.  Far Guy has been real busy with the preparations.  He is the go to guy for all the last minute glitches. The Class Booklet is being put together today…I was asked to help since it is a holiday weekend and everyone is busy.

My desk is still a mess…yes those recipe cards are black and white and then I color them…I got them at a Dollar General Store.

Yesterday I worked on cleaning my garage.  It was warm in there..and I am about half done.  When I came in to cool off I worked on options for this years Christmas Card.  I needed to make a template for my stamp…cause I only want part of the stamp to show…complicated and I am certain it involved some Math that I forgot a long time ago.  Good old trial and error worked!  I will work on Christmas Cards at Craft Retreat later in the month.

Chance is doing pretty good for an old guy.  He is eating a little of his usual dog food….peas and salmon dry food with his boiled hamburger and rice.  He seems a bit more confused than usual especially if we wake him up.  He first got sick on August 11th so that was three weeks ago…he has finished all of his medications and we will see how he does.

 

Ants

I have been struggling with ants.  We moved an old log bench to a different spot and it was attacked by big black ants.  Ants that bite…I know this first hand as they went in one hole of my croc and bit me hard enough that I kicked off my croc. These black ants make huge mounds….and thousands live inside the mounds.  I never took an Insect ID Class…but they are most certainly ants.

How about Ants as a sculpture?  This is Sculpture #2 at the Park in Park Rapids.

This sculpture is called AntVenture.

I suppose if you were a child you could have an adventure. 

I have no sense of humor when it comes to ants.  I don’t want them any where near the house or where they can bite Chance…or me.  I would use Diatomacious Earth on the mounds…but it rains heavily every few days…I have to wait for a dry spell.

besides plotting to kill ants…I washed the lawn mower….I drew the line at waxing it…but I probably should have waxed it.

I sprayed a bunch of Canada Thistle…and made the rounds to see that what I sprayed a few days ago is in the process of dying. It is…since I am the local plant sprayer…I have most of it sprayed except for an area that I cannot get to unless I am become a mountain goat.

I sprayed a bunch of Poison Ivy too…Roundup for Poison Ivy is my weapon of choice.  In Minnesota every property owner is responsible for his/her Poison Ivy along property borders. If you have the Ivy you can be reported to the County Weed Officer…then it gets nasty.  Some people especially those who move here from a fancy smancy town don’t like ivy when they find themselves covered in the rash…and report their neighbors.  Do not laugh it has happened.

Poison Ivy is a special regulated plant; 

Poison Ivy must be eradicated or controlled for public safety along rights-of-ways, trails, public accesses, business properties open to the public or on parts of lands where public access for business or commerce is granted. Must also be eradicated or controlled along property borders when requested by adjoining landowners.

After all the plotting of killing ants and spraying Noxious Weeds

I took some old solar lights and put them in the wildflower area where the Lilacs are…earlier this spring Far Guy mowed them down…but they have come back nicely.  We need to mow the perimeter and I wanted to protect the Lilacs somehow.

It was a warm busy day…one project led to another all day long, finally when my hair was dripping with sweat…I gave up…cooled off…washed my hair and read.  We had a thunderstorm and got an inch of rain in thirty minutes.  What happened to gentle soaking rains…we have had only gullywashers lately.  I will have to mow again in a few days…mow …rain…repeat.

The new wild garden

Back in May my brother put in a new drain field for our septic system.

The work has been completed.

Far Guy planted some old wildflower and left over garden seed out there.  One day we picked up a bunch of Sunflower Seeds and planted them too!

We watered

I had been going out there to spray the Poison Ivy to get rid of it. I wore my pretty red boots.

I stopped going out there. We could see a few marigolds blooming here and there.

It is a jungle out there. The deer have been in there eating and chomping off most of the sunflowers.

This is one of the survivors.

I will get out there one of these days.  Some of the weeds should be pulled because they are shading out the flowers.

On the far end we planted a Spruce Tree and some Lilacs.  Far Guy babied those lilacs for weeks…so they have a good start.

It doesn’t look like much yet, but once the wildflowers get established and we can mow a few paths it should be a pretty area.  If not then the deer will have another spot to graze.

Drain Field

Years ago 18 in fact, when we built this home we had John design our septic system….he did it for free…he had knocked over a couple of trees down at Mom and Dads lake property accidentally…but offered to replant the trees or something else…my Dad told him go design a septic system for Gene and Connie. Back then you had to have a installer design your system but you could do the work yourself. When John designed our system the subject of his business came up and he said he sure wished he could sell it to someone that he knew wanted it and would make a go of it. 

I knew my brother might be interested and he was coming up on vacation. (He lived in Wyoming and was working in the Oil Patch)  During his vacation we installed that septic system…graveless it was the up and coming “new” system that would last our lifetimes.  My Dad and Jody did the backhoe work, the tank was delivered and set and two legs were dug part by backhoe and part by shovel to make them really level, I put the fabric sleeves on the pipes and connected them up making sure everything was level and then the whole works was covered in sand.  It worked. At that time we hooked up our camper to the system….later that fall we would build the house.

This “new” system began to fail for many people at the 7-10 year mark.  For us it took 18 years….we don’t put any milk down the sink, ammonia, bleach or pickle juice.  We have had the main tank pumped consistently ever two years or so just as general maintenance  Last winter one of the caps blew off three times…we figured we had a problem.  We had our 1,000 gallon tank pumped and out came 1,500 gallons…500 gallons were sucked out of the over burdened drain field. 

Yesterday was the day our drainfield was replaced and it should be good for our life time.
Oh yes during that vacation my brother bought John’s business…he does complete septic systems both designs and installs, he excavates building sites and builds and repairs roads.  He is busy from the time the frost goes out until it freezes so hard you cannot move dirt.  Then he moves snow.

before

My brother Jody removing trees.  Many trees were removed and taken away.

Jody in the skidsteer, Josh in the backhoe and Frank on the rock leveling.


Chance was a curious dog…he usually goes potty out there.  He didn’t like it when trees were falling or brush was being picked up.  Luckily I had walked him very early in the morning.

Cross it off the list…it is a done project.

When you live in a big city your sewage is taken care of for you, out here in the boonies we have to take care of our own poop.

Garage Sale

I have spent the week getting ready for a garage sale.  The garage is as clean as it gets, tables are covered with quality junk and hopefully sales will be good and I can cross this off my list.

I didn’t find any surprises in the totes that have been accumulating out there.  I did find a few totes I had hidden upstairs, so hopefully I will have some empty ones after the sale.

It may rain on Friday but highs are supposed to be near 70 degrees.  The neighbors will stop by and we will visit, sometimes garage sales are kinda a social thing. Sometimes I think we just trade junk.

Chance will be in the house or on his lead…he thinks everyone that comes into the yard is his long lost friend. 

We took time out yesterday to go to a garage sale ourselves and I bought two old photographs!   Far Guy went to the Shot Clinic and got his Kenalog Injection.  He gets that about every three months.  So it was a busy week.

Salvia in my small flower bed.

Woodcarving Weekend

We tried our best to stay on task all weekend.  We still went for Chance’s evening drive…he looks forward to it and it is part of his routine…and WELL if you have ever owned a Border Collie…they have routine ingrained in their brains.

We finished some more Christmas Ornaments and now have 25 totally finished (just 50 to go!)!! AND my desk has more parts cluttering up the top…if we keep our knives to the wood, paint and sealer on my brushes all this week who knows how many we could get done this week. Far Guy would like to put this project behind him…me too!  The patio looks like a woodshop.  We can hold the skeeters at bay until about 5PM then they become too much for us.  Chance starts looking for someone to cook at 5:30 anyway so it becomes time to come in for the day… and fight over who gets to cook.

On our drive last night we saw a Doe and two fawns…can you spot the fawns?
 

They are just to the right of the Doe.  They are enjoying the tall grass in my cousin Todd’s Tree Farm.

August is half over today and summer is winding down.  School doesn’t start here until after Labor Day. Fall is in the air with cooler nights and an occassional Oak leaf drops to the ground.

Little Things

I have been thinking that I need a shop vacuum for my garage…Far Guy agreed.  So we went to the helpful hardware place.  Finally a shop vac that can stay put…I won’t have to search for it and the accessories and then an extension cord.  Far Guy even gave me my own extension cord! 

I can vacuum my car when ever I want cause it is handy!

Surprising what makes you happy when you get older.  Now I can get busy cleaning up my garage…and yes that makes me happy.

I have mastered the 2 gallon gas cans…who ever designed that green cap thingy that has to be lined up just so should be shot.  If it is such a great design then why did I get gas all over my hands…it is supposed to be a no spill gas can?  Some things make no sense to me at all.  Obviously I need some remedial gas can training. I am happy with the size of the gas cans just not happy with the green thingy.

We cut down some of the brush that has been hitting me in the face when I mow…that is a relief.  The Thornapple has been removed it was threatening to decapitate me or at the very least scar my shoulder and arms every time I passed by on the lawn mower.

I made some more glass flowers.

A vase, a large plate, a small red plate, a glass tray and a star candle holder.

A glass, a plate, ash tray and a vase.  This is one of my favorite pieces!

I hope you have had some “little things” in your life lately that make you happy.

Solar Lights

I had a glut of solar lights.  I kept buying them…I even forgot I had a few. Must be my advancing age. On two different occasions I bought the stained glass lights…and managed to buy the same color!

I took down the falling over solar lights, I think the squirrels use them as spring boards.  I added new ones to the garden in front of the house where the bird feeders are.  I like to have lots of solar lights out there, it looks pretty at night and discourages animals from coming too close to the house.

I bought a few plants and actually planted them. The garden now has red Salvia and a few yellow Marigolds which will bloom eventually.  Red and yellow..I love those two colors together.  Now IF the squirrels will leave everything alone…and I remember they need water and a little care.  I should have clipped off all the red flowers, but they were blooming so nicely…they make roots faster without blooms…

I added a few glass flowers and my ant. It is a work in progress.  I have the wrong copper pipe for my pink glass flower…I need one that is bent.

I thought long and hard about what to do with the old solar lights… the tops and clear parts were still working.  So…

I made a little wire harness for the lights and attached them to one of my wagon wheels leaning against the old grain bin.   I have more to add.  It is a work in progress too.

I am done at the Dentist ( a cavity) and the Eye Doctor ( extra testing for glaucoma…which I do not have.)  Yeah for me!  WE are both starting to dread days that we have to leave the house or yard… we are becoming hermits I guess.

 

September Rainbows

We painted the garage entry doors and trim…three doors…another job that is hard on the shoulder.  They need some touch up…a storm came up before everything was dry….uffda…just what I want to do spend another afternoon painting. 
Far Guy is replacing my lawn mower blades, he was just going to sharpen them for me…but it seems I have worn them out.  We have had a good amount of rain lately and I am back to mowing once a week.
The storms brought rainbows.

Partial rainbow

Two partial rainbows…I know the second one is hard to see

Rain this time of year is good for the trees…they need moisture to survive the winter.

Summer is officially over now…Labor Day has passed and all the Minnesota kids head back to school today.

Let’s see if I can get this right we have one grand in seventh grade, two grands that are Sophomores and one that is a Junior in High School and one that is on her first year at Northland Northwest Technical College.  Makes a Grandma feel kinda old.

Two Big Projects

Yesterday we tackled two large projects.

The mail box was moved.  We have a new 911 number and address.  We just moved our mailbox around the corner…but it involved getting a new fire number ($35.00) and a new address.  The driveway that we usually take to get the mail will be closed, snow removal will not be happening down that drive.  Our niece, Katie who used to live down that driveway moved to Minot North Dakota along with her husband Hunter, the twins Gavin and Jordan and Aubrey…we miss them.  No use plowing a whole stretch of driveway that no one uses. 

Far Guy has begun the change of address mess.  I am certain that I will never remember it so I have it written down in my wallet.

I started to remove the cheap ass insulation on the roof of my garage that was home to a dead mouse and a bat that was very much alive, and a chippy’s storage areas of acorns.  Good thing I am not afraid of bats.  What a job, I was covered in filth. Reinforcements came when my husband returned with next door neighbor great nephew Mason.  I had Mason don a mask and safety glasses…he was great at climbing up the ladder and ripping down the insulation.  When we had it all down, he and Far Guy built a stabber ( a nail on a stick) to aid in the picking up of all the pieces.  Seven huge garbage bags later we took turns using the leaf sucker upper to get all the small bits and pieces…mission accomplished.  Just let the chippys and mice try to make my garage a home now.

I was exhausted and I sweat so much that the sweat dripped from the ends of my hair…so I washed my hair and took a bath and put my jammies on.  Far Guy warmed up vegetable soup from the freezer for supper.

If we get company…so be it…they will have to look at me in my jammies.

Tall Garden Phlox in Trudy’s garden.

Stuff

My parents had a garage sale on Thursday and Friday…I got rid of some “stuff.”  The rest of the stuff is packed away in totes in my garage.  I have some “stuff” that will be sold on EBay.  Being gone two days really puts me behind on our projects.

This week Far Guy and I fixed some antler handles on the built in cabinet upstairs.  When we built them we didn’t realized that some of the pointy ends could catch people me in the leg.  He took them off and I cut them on the scroll saw and sanded the cuts smooth.  It was a struggle to get the drawers fronts back on properly but we finally managed.  A  few words of “encouragement” were uttered.

It rained enough that I mowed the lawn one afternoon.  I weeded our tiny flower bed under the bird feeders.

I am working on cleaning the pavers on the patio.  What a yucky, filthy job.  I bought a pressure washer at a garage sale one day…it works great at flinging the moss and dirt up against the house and onto me.  Eventually I will have to put a little more fine sand onto the pavers and work it in. I have at least another day maybe two on that project.

I damaged a window pane (rock from lawn mower) and another window got “cloudy” so they have been measured and are supposed to be replaced.  The fellow was supposed to be here yesterday…but he was a no show.

We have to make a new list of projects.  The garage trim is still awaiting paint…it has been too damp to paint.  I had some primer tinted in town..I guess I got a little wild when I scraped the trim….I can see way more wood than paint.

I finally got some stuff from the kitchen cupboards and deep freeze donated to the area food shelf.  “Stuff” we didn’t like that perhaps someone else will.  Have you tried the Steamers?  I bought a whole bunch of those on sale…oh my we didn’t like them at all.

I am NOT doing anymore sweet corn, the freezer is almost full.

My desk is a mess, it has been the dropping off point all week long.

I am going to work on that list now and add some fun stuff too!

My Mom’s Rose Wave Petunias

Old projects

I have been busy working on the imaginary list that is in my head. 

We finished the Christmas Ornaments!! Yeah us!  Done in plenty of time for Christmas.  I even send a bunch with my brother and sister in law to deliver to their kids and their grands.

We finished the special order Lady Slipper and Christmas Ornaments and all were delivered this past week!

I have some other carving projects that have been almost finished for a long time.

That red fish still needs something…perhaps I will make him plaid or polka dots.

The long pointy Santa was a class I took a long time ago that my cousin Chuckie gave.  The fish is from another class, it was a practice piece.  At one time I thought that the snowman could be a Christmas Ornament…too many hours in him for that.   The bark spirit became a Santa with a really funky beard.

I have a bag that holds all my unfinished smaller carvings…I have more upstairs…in a huge lard tin and in pretty little boxes…oh well if I don’t get them all carved they can be firewood.

I got the trim around the garage doors scraped and washed and they are drying out now before I prime and paint. 

My garage has finally been restored to normal and awaits the big project of ripping down some white Styrofoam insulation that we stupidly hung on the ceiling years ago.  I will be really happy when that project is done.  I am trying to figure out how to get it all down without using a ladder.  You wouldn’t believe the contraptions I have designed in my head.

I have the 2015 Christmas Ornament designed in my head…now to draw it all out and do a few prototypes. Busy Busy!