Home Improvements.

I really have to sit down and make a list of things to hire someone to do.  There are some things I could do "well enough" myself but just haven't for years.  There are some things I could do "barely" but would not be as good as a professional.  There are some things I realize that I'm just not up to any more.  There are some things it is just too hard for one person to do on their own.  There are some things that require some destruction to get to new things and I can't even figure out where to start. 

I was braver about home and yard improvements when I was younger.  Between 37 and 42, I built a 2 level deck, a toolshed, a 350' fence with 2 gates around the backyard, a 2' deep 9' diameter pond and 40' raceway, panelled most of the basement and added electrical outlets and a hanging acoustical ceiling tiles and lights. 

I cleared about 500 sq ft of underbrush, vines and junk trees.  I built framed gardening beds, roto-tilled a couple hundred sq ft of flower beds, installed edging and border stones, and planted some fruit trees, shrubs and a hosta bed. 

And then I pretty much wore out!  In the mid 90s, I decided my yellow walls and "bitterweet orange" carpet had to go.  Don't laugh too hard, the carpet should have just been a deep gold, but I was into bright colors at the time and I was stuck with the yellow paint by the builder (it was white by contract but when I complained a bit, the builder said he had lots of yellow and I thought anything was better than white).  And I hated the 1" mixed tile in the bathrooms.

So I hired a general contractor to change some things.  Well, *I* sure couldn't do those things.   So I had a general contractor remove the carpet and install oak floors, add baseboard and crown molding, and connect the 2 around all the room openings with wood and side molding.  I had the bathroom floor and wall tiles changed to 4" cream tiles,  I had them stain all the unfinished doors moderately dark, add a fold-down attic stairs, and some stuff like that.  

Afterwards I painted almost all the walls new colors.  Dining room, cardinal red; living room, hunter green; bedroom, Aztec Rouge; Computer and Guest rooms, Blueberry Mist; Kitchen, Bright White (a mistake); and left the bathrooms yellow.  I even painted the stipple ceilings in the living and dining rooms and hallways/stairs a very pale version of the wall color.  I liked the way it looked like the walls were reflecting onto the ceiling.

I left the kitchen floor (brick linoleum)  and counters (butcher block laminate) alone.  I liked then then and like them now.  30 years and they are still in great shape.  I don't get bored with good colors...

But I did replace the cheap appliances in the kitchen.  Energy efficient, well-rated Consumers Reports models, all black. 

The changes were WONDERFUL!  I was thrilled.  And that was when I realized that (except for painting), I couldn't do those things.  So I stopped for years.  Well, I liked what I had, so why not. 

And then it got harder to do things myself.  Professionals could always do it better.  So I spent years improving the yard further.  That's a never-ending job, so I was happy.  Having a sense of accomplishment is good.

But the home improvements were 22 years ago, and there are changes I want to make in the house.  I wish I had extended the crown molding and baseboards and frame covers into the kitchen.  I want tile walls in the kitchen around the oven and sink and counters.

I had the bathroom tiles and tub last year by professionals (cheap original tub with a failing surface that couldn't be cleaned properly) and tiles falling off.  They did that, and I painted the walls a Soft Moss color.  The whole deal.  Removing all the fixtures (towel bar, outlet covers, lights etc).  Cleaning the walls with TSP, rinsing them 3 times, waiting a week for utter drying.  Taping all the edges.  Painting.  Reinstalling fixtures. 

And discovering it needs a 2nd layer of paint...  Argh!  Well, I can do that easily enough.

But I want to have more done.  Extending the crown and base molding (I mentioned previously) in the kitchen, and wall tiles for easier cleaning (and I might consider mirror panels).  But I can't figure out a mix of tile colors (want varied ones in a color group) that will go with the existing red brink linoleum and butcher block counters.  Red/oranges? Or golds?  Or something else?

But that is only part of the changes.  When I panelled the basement, I added a 1/2 bath.  Dumbest idea ever.  Total waste of space.  It has to go.  So I need professionals to rip it out, extend the hanging ceiling to match the existing ones, cap off water pipes, etc. 

Plus, there are few things less welcoming to visitors than an ugly garage door a front door.  Those a probably things I can do myself.  The question is the color.  My house siding is a medium green.  My shutters are a dark green.  I'll color the inside of the house to suit myself, but I should probably make the outside pleasing to the neighbors and visitors.  It is already unique, being green with a mixed brick foundation in a sea of beige siding houses.  So this is about trying to match some colors. 

The garage door and front door are white.  I'm bored with white.  I'm thinking of making the front door match the shutters.  Maybe the garage door too.

But I keep seeing these stick-on fake pictures for garage doors and can't escape loving the idea.

I need to make a list!

Weird Stuff

There is always something new around the yard. 

The last stuff in the broken compost tumbler...

The cleared spot where the original passive compost bin was against the first toolshed .  The lower color is the original color of the T1-11 panels of the toolshed.  Weather wore the panels out more than composting material did.

A weird moth showed up.   It doesn't like to spread its wings, so the picture is strange.  But it has markings I have never seen before.  And after 30 years here, I've seen ALL the regular bugs.  I bet tghis one is newly surviving by warming conditions.

On the other hand, katydids are familiar.  It it their time to show up.  

I saw my 1st japanese beetle in years today.  It was walking around a marigold flower.  I grabbed it and stomped it flat.  I've spread Milky Spore around the yard every few years for a decade.  It is a ground-dwelling bacteria that parasitizes japanese beetle grub larvae.  Seeing one reminds me do apply the milky spore again.  It has been about 7 years.  Milky spore in the soil lasts as long as there is an infestation to feed on.  After that, they die out and need to be reapplied.  But it is a very effective grub control that lasts for years and is not harmful to worms, birds, or pets.  Or humans.

Also, I have castor oil to spread around on the lawn.  The moles have discovered the front yard after all these years.  It makes their insect food taste horrible to them.  I'll start with the centers of the front and back yards to establish a "no good food" zone, and expand it slowly outwards and chase them to the neighbors yards. 

Then I'll tell the neighbors about castor oil spray and let them ruin THEIR moles lives.  As long as I keep them out of my yard, I'm happy to help the neighbors do the same.

And when the moles go, there are fewer voles.  Voles use mole tunnels to travel.  Moles don't eat plants, but voles do.  Fewer moles; fewer voles!

The House Next Door

We can't figure out if the house next door to me was purchased as a rental or a primary residence yet.  In one way, there seems to be a lot more contractor work going on than if it was "just a rental", but then we don't know how much work was needed inside after 30 years of several owners.

There have been cabinet contractors, wood flooring contractors, and gutter replacement contractors there. A rather strange and ugly wood railing around the front porch (apparently installed by the bank) was removed and replaced with a vinyl one. 

So, a few things a rental would see and some it wouldn't.  I hope it is someone moving in themselves. 

I hope whover moves in is quiet and has no dogs or teenage children.  That means noise and I have gotten used to the quiet.

I hope they garden.  That way, they might understand why there are a couple of junk trees I would like to see removed (and I'm willing to pay all or most).

I'm not sure of the timing.  If it is someone planning to move in or rent by the end of the month, there isn't much time left.  Any time without a neighbor is good. 

Oh sure, it might be someone I am thrilled to meet, but the odds on that are pretty low. 

I think it is the possibility of a neighbor who is really annoying that worries me.  The previous resident was great.  You could hardly tell he existed.

I learned that the house had been sold for way less than I expected.  Now I really wish I had bid on it.  Any renovations could have been combined with some I plan here at a better price and would have gotten me going with my own.

I'm one of those people who can do what is required for business (like a rental) but will procrastinate for myself, LOL!

TOMATOES!

I got a dozen all at once.  Brandywine, Cherokee Purple, Pinapple, and Ponderosa Pink.

I ate one at lunch, one at dinner, one the next lunch and another the next dinner...

Heavenly.

They aren't pretty.  But they sure beat anything at the stores and farmers market.  And I already have more this year than all of last year!

The red plastic may have helped (no splashing up of soil-bourne fungals).  The waterbottles may have helped.  Large soda bottles screwed into plastic spikes that delivered water several inches underground slowly.  Into which I dropped slow-release organic fertilizer pellets to dissolve with each filling of the bottles.  And maybe lack of rain so I controlled the watering each week.

But for whatever reason, this is seeming to be a good tomato year here.

A Very Unfortunate Moth

I have really been enjoying my Venus Fly Traps.  In the past, I have tried a few and they didn't live very long.  It is sort of like buying an ant farm; a short-lived novelty.

My understanding of Venus Fly Traps was that they lived in shady bogs in upper Southern States.  So I kept them on East windowsills and caught a few flies to feed them.  They would last a couple months and fade away.

So, this year, when I some some for sale, I researched what they needed.  To my surprise, a site said at least 4 hours direct sun and more was better.  Plus NO tap water.  I knew they didn't want fertilizer (that why they catch insects), but they also didn't want dissolved minerals in the water.  Distilled water was best.

I was so surprised, I checked other sites and even asked about it on a forum discussing carnivorous plants.  I always do some research before asking a question at a specialty site.  Otherwise, you tend to get condescending replies.  But it WAS trustable verification.    So, armed with good information, I have kept the plants in larger pots than they came in, on the sunny deck.

I caught a few flies to feed them at first (I good at that).  But I quickly noticed that there were a lot more closed traps with something in then than the few flies I fed them.  So it really is true they can catch all they need. 

In fact, one plant is healthy enough to be sending up a flower stalk.  The forum recommends cutting the flower stalk to save the plant the energy required.  But given that the plants have doubled in size and have almost all of the dozen or more traps full, I think I will let at least one bloom to see what the flower looks like.

All well and good...

But I'm posting this to show one very unfortunate moth.  It must have landed on a trap with its wings up because they were outside the closed trap.  If the wings had been closed, it probably would have pushed its way out the side.

BTW, the part about them wanting distilled water worried me.  I'm not someone who buys water in bottles.  So I was pleased to discover the stuff costs 88 cents per gallon at Walmart.  I bought 2 gallons.  I used a half gallon just soaking the peat moss mix.  I had to keep preventing myself from soaking the peat moss in regular tap water out of habit, and I had to keep reminding myself not to water the Venus Fly Trap pots "as usual" when I am watering the deck flowerpots.  But it is a habit to skip them now.

One good thing is that rainwater is just fine.  Not rain off the roof, just direct from the sky into clean buckets.  3 well-rinsed kitty litter tubs collect more mater from an inch of rain than you might think, ans we got 2.5 inches here in one storm early this months.  I now have two 1 gallon jugs filled with rainwater now, and it only takes about a cup to keep them wet each morning. 

I still feed each trap with a fresh-caught insect every couple of days just to watch the traps close.  It doesn't seem to be necessary, but that's most of the fun of having the plants, so I do it.  Plus, it seems like sweet revenge to see the traps close on a small caterpillar I pick off a veggie in the garden.

Front Yard Island

I've mentioned finally setting up a front yard planting island before.  I bought 60 bare-root Astilbes in early Spring.  I thought they would do fine planted in Spring instead of Fall since they were dormant.  I nestled them down into the 3" of 50/50 compost/topsoil mix and expected great result. 

Well, for one thing, a site I visited that listed deer-resistant flowers mentioned Astilbes.  And for perennials, Astilbes bloom a really long time.  Most perennials bloom a couple weeks and are done.  Plus, it is a shaded spot both under a small Saucer Magnolia Tree and shaded in the afternoon by tall trees in the neighbo's yard.  Seemed perfect.

Well, deer have a funny way of eating.  The don't nip leaves off, they just bite and pull.  And, apparently, deer don't mind eating Astilbe at all.  But when they pulled on the new plants, they just came out of the ground.  So I had to keep replanting them every few mornings.  The deer got nothing from them, but they kept trying.  So I draped chicken wire over the plants so the deer couldn't keep pulling them up.

Sadly, the constant air exposure to the roots killed about half of the Astilbes.  But the remaining ones seemed to be surviving.  With that problem solved (until they grow higher), I ignored them while doing other projects.

Weeds are insidious.  They grow just a little each day.  So one day, they are a few small ones and you think "I should pull those weeds" and the next week it looks like overgrown lawn!  And the weeds were suddenly 12" high with 4" tall Astilbes hidden among them.

So I went out to weed then Thursday (I'm a bit behind on the posts).  Naturally, Thursday was the hottest day of the year so far.  96 and a heat index over 105 with 90% humidity.  So I thought, OK, I'll do some today closest to the Astilbe and water the whole areas.

I did 30 minutes and then went inside for 15 (a good habit in hot weather).  Then did another 30 and 15.  Then another.  Well, to my surprise, I had done the entire 30'x15' island! 

Some of the Astilbes are surviving with only a leaf or 2, some had been pulled up and I didn't notice so I planted them again deeper, most of the surviving 30 of the original 60 were healthy and 6" tall.  I will plant new ones in the gaps next Fall, but my focus this Summer is on the survivors. 

Having ridded the entire island of weeds now, I am hoping that the 3" of compost will smother most new ones, BUT I will watch them more carefully the rest of the Summer!

And THEN there are the 30 Astilbes I planted in the back yard!  No deer there, but more sun.  And different weeds too.  The front island weeds were mostly crabgrass that came up easily in the loose compost.  The backyard weeds are some kind of grass that spreads by runners under the soil. 

I let that get away from me earlier, but it was a smaller area.  I went in with a trowel to get the runners out.  I din't expect the sun to be causing a problem, as there were some older Astilbes that do just fine there.  It seems new ones are more sensitive. 

So after digging out the fewer weeds left, I shaded them.  2' metal rods supporting shade cloth (like a loose-weave cheesecloth) attached with twist-ties.  And I'm watering them deeply every few days.  The good news is that some are doing just fine, a few are recovering, and the ones with only a couple weak leaves seem to be starting some new ones.  I only lost about 25% of those.  New planting are always difficult. 

One thing I didn't realize was that the area received more sunlight than it used to.  One reason is an huge mature oak tree I had removed 3 years ago.  It was losing large branches and I became convinced it was dying.  And it being on the west side of the house (from where the stormwinds blew) it might have fallen on the house.  As it turned out the top half of the tree was hollowing, so it was a good decision.

But that meant more sunlight (where I didn't need it).  And when I rebuilt the deck (25 years old and deteriorating) that gave more sunlight to the Astilbe bed.  I may put up a shade fence or move them in Fall, but again my focus is on keeping them alive through Summer.

One project of many, LOL!

And, BTW, the Astilbes in the front only cover 1/3 of the island.  In the Fall, I am going to move most of the several dozen Japanese Painted Ferns I have elsewhere to the island.  Deer DON'T like those at all. 

An Interesting Person

I visit many odd discussion sites.  One is an atheist forum ( I am an atheist).  But because almost all of us there are atheists, a lot of the discussion is not about atheism.  One of the threads was about games.

I am a game-player.  And I don't mean the latest online game; old across-the-table board games.  This one guy and I started talking about old games.  We knew and had played the same ones.  So I mentioned a few odd ones.  One was a game were you searched for subs in 3D under a cover.  He said OMG, I loved that game but couldn't remember the name and he had been searching for it.  It was Sonar Sub Hunt. 

The green halves lift up and you snapped in plastic rectangles for subs and round ones for mines.  The grey things in the corners were working periscopes so you could watch your opponent move his destroyer around (just under the green covers).  If he brushed a mine, a buzzer sounded and he lost a destroyer (I think you got 3).  If he pressed a button it pushed a spring down and if it hit one of your subs, a light came on above (so no cheating allowed).

It was really quite a complex mechanical game for the 60s.  Sort of a version of 'You Sunk My Battleship'.  It was quite a popular draw for my neighborhood friends, and my Dad and I played it often too. 

Being basically a random-luck game, it was pretty fair for everyone, but it sure was interesting. 

My forum friend was thrilled to have the name so he could search for it on Ebay.  I checked, it is available there, for $100.

So I threw in another odd game I had played and said NO ONE had ever heard of it.  It was called "Feudal".  HE had and loved it, and described some of the strategies he used.  They were my strategies too.

And since MY strategies were not the ones my only opponent (a roommate) used, it was interesting that we thought alike about that..


So we compared more complex games from Avalon Hill.  That company specialized in replicating historical battles in great detail.  Like, in Gettysburg, all the units entered the board at the correct times and by the correct roads, the terrain mattered in attacks and defenses, etc.  He played that for years too as did I.

We also compared playing other games.  We both played the same games and hated the same ones.  We are even almost the same age.  We have both tried to find local game clubs that play such games, without success.  We even like one computer game; Civilization 2 (that is a game where you start as a primitive society and slowly build or fight your way to either world domination of launching a spaceship to Alpha Centauri to establish a new colony.  You can also play the Civ games online against single or multiple players and against bots.

But it turns out that we are on opposite sides of the country and both hate traveling.  We will never meet.

But it is nice to know there is someone out there like me...  There aren't many.

Sister Visit, Not

I live 2 hours away from the town where most of my family lives/lived in MD.  When my sister and hubby decided to move to FL after retiring, she planned to visit me before leaving the area.  Well, moving is stressful and busy, and she couldn't get the free time.  I understood that.  I would have been equally pressed for time.

This April, she emailed that her hubby was returning to the old town to meet old friends and go fishing in Canada with them.  Susie decided to go along as far as the old town and stay with her daughter and visit old friends there.  She said she was going to drive the 2 hours to visit me one day here.

Things happen.  She decided driving 2 hours in a strange rental car (she doesn't like driving) was too uncomfortable.  We considered meeting in the middle, but that would have just been in a restaurant for or hour and that's not a great place to talk.  I considered some outside locations, but the temp is hitting 95+ and the heat index over 100, so that wasn't a good idea.

We decided to just keep talking on the telephone every so often.

I miss her generally.  She is not only a sister but a person I like.  I mean, if she was only a neighbor, I would like her too.

But with 2 months notice, I started fixing the house up.  I'm a single guy set in his ways; I don't worry too much about how the house looks inside.  But I repainted the bathroom, mopped the floors, washed other walls ( the kitchen really needed it), etc.  And I had yard stuff to show.  The new compost bin, the new deck (3 years old but she hasn't seen it), the enclosed garden, flowers everywhere.  Etc.

It would have been nice to show her the things I've done.  And to sit and talk to her.

But at least I have a nice clean house!  That should last about a month, LOL!

While You Sleep

Have you ever considered what goes on in the world when you are asleep?  I know that when I go to bed, I am totally cut off from the world.  And the first thing I do when I wake up is turn on the radio on the headboard (tuned to a news station) to hear of events.

But what if something really important happened while I was sleeping?  What if the Yellowstone Supervolcano erupted?  What if India and Pakistan exchanged Nuclear weapon attacks?  What if the Sun went dead?  I mean, I would just sleep for days waiting for dawn and get colder and colder and colder.

I say this because I had the strangest dream last night.  Aliens arrived on Earth, and I didn't know about it.  And they were good aliens.  They announced they would take everyone who arrived at any major city by dawn to a newer better Earth2 (since they knew what we needed and had found one), and I slept through it.

I ignore the phone at night, I don't have smart phone with alert apps, and I doubt neighbors would beat on my door to tell me the good news.

Actually, it would be bad enough just to not know that some virus had been dropped in my area by some terrorists...

I suppose this has something to do with a feeling of lack of control over my life while I sleep, but it is still an interesting question.

"What if something really important happens when you are asleep"?

Batteries

I practically live on batteries here.  Everthing has a battery.  Sure, the oven and refrigerator and TV are AC powered but most things need a battery.  I have recharageable batteries for almost every minor thing in the house though.

I have flashlights, wall clocks, kitchen timers, weather stations, a cordless vacuum, a laptop, a cordless leaf-blower, a cordless hedge-trimmer, cordless tools, and portable stereo radios all over.  So I have rechargeable batteries for almost everything.  I am building a shelf in the basement dedicated to recharging things.

But there are some annoying devices that use those little round batteries.  Kitchen timers mostly, but even a caliper needs one.  I hate that there are not rechargeable versions for them. 

Two kitchen timers and the calipers all went dead last week.  So I set out to get new batteries.  First, I discovered that the 3 stores I went to do not stock the kitchen timer batteries, but they could be ordered at 2.  The batteries cost more than the timers.  I can buy new timers cheaper than the batteries.  That makes no sense. 

So I will buy slightly more expensive timers that have batteries of a type that I can replace with rechargeables. 

The kind that fits my caliper comes only in packs of 3.  The battery lasted 10 years; the shelf life of the replacement battery is 3 years.  I will never need the other 2 batteries!  But the joke is on them.  One of the batteries in the 3-pack wasn't even the right kind.  Same size wrong voltage. 

Yeah, OK, the joke isn't really on them, but the error costs me nothing as the last battery of the 3 would be long-depleted natuarally before I needed it so I could just throw it away and no loss. 

We need rechargeable small round batteries!

Newspaper Reading

I love newspapers.  And I am lucky that my "local" newspaper is The Washington Post.  So I get local and national news articles.  I love the editorials, science articles, political articles, and comics the best. 

But I got to the point where I wasn't reading the new newspaper every day.  When I got 3 months behind, I cancelled my subscription.  Kept reading the older papers of course. 

It was actually very interesting.  I could completely ignore the sports section as being old and the local news was outdated.  The comics were fine; few of them are topical. 

The editorials became hilarious!  You never realize how silly most columnists and editorials are until you read them after their predictions are made.  I was reading liberal and conservative ideas about what Trump would do in his first 100 days after the first 100 days.  None were right.  Well, some were, and those people were right very often!  It is a good way to decide who to pay attention to.

Looking back, what some of the columnists suggested would happen and knowing what DID happen was great reading.  George Will (conservative) was right about a lot, so was E J Dionne (liberal).  Charles Krauthammer was nearly almost always wrong.

I missed some of the comics that had story arcs.  But they aren't my favorites.  I find it pretty hard to care about those "soap opera" ones like Judge Parker. 

I missed the Style Invitational contest feature.  That suggests weird contests in the Sunday paper like writing haikus about current events, combining Kentucky race horse names together for humor, and creating puns by rearranging letters in Post headlines for anagrams and the like.  I entered the contests in the past and got mentioned twice.

For a first entry printed, you get one of those pine tree air fresheners.  Its your "first ink" (fir stink, get it?)

But reading old papers, I couldn't enter because of the deadlines.  Now I have new papers and can enter again hurray.

"There was a time when
I was gone but now I'm back
Never win again."

LOL!

But now I know which columnists to pay more attention to.