Tuesday, June 28, 2016

June This-And-Thats

Before June gets away from me I suppose I should write about a few things.  I've taken enough time away from here already, but there has been nothing major to discuss other than what I have already posted this month, so it's once again time to start typing and see what happens!
  • I'm glad that I made it a policy not to discuss my work here.  Even though my name is not on the site, I would worry that some of my gripes over the years could make it back there.  Especially most recently.  Then again, I would probably be posting much more often!
  • We have decided on a contractor for our new roof project and decided to wait on the porch project as that will be pricier than we had hoped.  The papers are signed but the work isn't scheduled yet, though we were told about 50 days out.  The foreman has visited to get details and we are waiting to talk to the electrician about the exhaust vents.  I'm not worried about not having a date yet, I just want it finished by fall and I have no reason to believe it won't be.  I've also contacted them since to change the color of the drip edge on the gable ends of the house to black.  Since we have no eaves or overhangs, I thought it would give the upper edge more definition.  Also, it will match the nearly new black flashing around the windows we had installed in 2013 and the foundation that we repainted black last year.  Our house and garage will be fully white with black trim, foundation and shingles.  Not as exciting as some of the colorful houses of this eclectic, near east side of Madison, but I think it will look rather sharp, nonetheless.
  • For some reason we don't get many thunderstorms here.  I watch the radar; I watch them coming right at us; I watch them fall apart as they approach our lakes while continuing along the line to either side.  I do enjoy a good storm, but nothing too dangerous, of course.  I don't enjoy death or destruction in my nature but I do enjoy samples of its power.  It's exhilarating watching the lightning, jumping at the thunder and smelling the ionized air.  That being said, things must have gotten a little windy the other night.  No real storm, but we did have much rain and wind in the early hours.  On a related note...
  • I have more free firewood thanks to stormy winds on Saturday night.  When we got up we had a 12 foot craggy, leafy live branch hanging off the side fence and mostly in the lilac and purple-floppy-plant.  We waited until around midday for all to dry out some, then I went and trimmed all the little leafy branches and saved the main logs for firewood.  As I was trimming that I heard a crack and crash and watched a dead branch from one of the same black walnut trees fall feet away from me on old neighbor Dave's side of the fence.  Oh, I saw it coming just in time so didn't even freak out, but it did make a little bit of a racket.  It was at least half as big as the live one but less dense, being dead.  I finished the branch I was working on and, after an hour or so break, went over on my neighbor's side and did the same to the dead branch.  I talked to him last night.  He didn't see me doing it but he did notice them disappear at times when he looked out the window and thanked me.  Which leads me to how...
  • A couple years ago neighbor Dave had moles, but not last year.  Last year I didn't have moles, either, but not this year.   I've seen holes in the short space between ours and his houses and even more in the back yard between the garden and the back fence.  I asked him about the device he used a few years ago, a thing he stuck in the ground that made a sound at intervals, and he still had it.  So I put that in the ground between the houses, now I need to shop for some kind of critter repellent for the back yard.  A nice side effect would be keeping the damn bunny rabbits out, too.
Well again, just start typing and see what happens, that seems to be good for me.  Still, time to wrap it up.  I do need to get on Amazon and look for critter repellent, after all.  
*And one last thought - like last year, we have been wanting to have a fire pit and invite all we know.   though just like last year seemed to go, every Saturday has been the hottest, most humid day of the week for several weeks now.  This week should change, so I need to get on that.  
Thanks for reading!

Saturday, June 18, 2016

Stump Flowers

I've been neglecting this space, sorry about that.  Not up for writing at the moment, either.  So here's an updated picture of the stump flowers I just took.  Compare to the picture I posted two posts (and almost a month!) ago and you can see the growth.  I think I'll dump the rest of the pictures on the garden blog.

DSCF4803


Saturday, June 4, 2016

Holy Cow!

This is what one-quarter of a cow looks like in our freezer.
DSCF4793 b
Some time ago a friend asked if we would be interested in going in on a cow.  We had talked about it previously but now it was time so we jumped at the chance.  Grass fed, corn finished, and from Door County, Wisconsin.  The cow had been picked a while ago but it took some time waiting for the cow to fatten up for slaughter, so we've been waiting for several weeks.  Then I got word earlier this week, it's time!  Our friend went up to get it from his dad (who lives up there and also had a share of the cow) after work yesterday and showed up here late last night to drop off our quarter of the cow.  It is a shared quarter, meaning we have front and back cuts of meat.  I was told over 200 pounds, though it appears lighter.  Still, we paid a good rate across the board for good beef that includes several kinds of roasts and steaks, stew meat and soup bones, and over 40 tubes of ground beef between one and one and a half pounds each (in a box at right under tenderized round steaks, among other cuts).  Kate took inventory this morning, but we still need to get it sorted better in the freezer.

Well, that's one less thing to think about now for quite a while.  And it makes grocery shopping easier, too.  We had this in mind when we bought the freezer and I'm glad it is now full of meat.  Should be a lot of fun grilling this summer.  Yum!

Wednesday, May 25, 2016

Plant Day!

DSCF4730I took the rest of the week off for a little spring vacation, and with the holiday weekend I have six consecutive days off!  I've needed it for some time now.  I haven't really given myself one or two bigger projects this time off, but I do have a list of lots of little things to get accomplished.

DSCF4734
Today was forecast to be rainy almost all day so I wasn't thinking I would get plants in at all.  Instead, it was a beautiful sunny day until storming for a short time mid to late afternoon and now is clear and nice again.  We got some hanging baskets last weekend, now I needed to buy more pots and plants to fill them.  Kate wants the tree stump out back filled and that's what I set out to do.  Plus we had our pot out front to fill and space for some perennials by the porch.  That space has some plants that were in pots last year.  It's quite the hodgepodge of perennials in that corner and they will probably have to be separated eventually.  I was a planting machine this afternoon.  I managed to use up all the new and all the usable pots we had, and I still have 4 marigolds to put somewhere.  They'll probably end up in the flower bed in front of the two perennials I planted.  Also, the white bucket on the stump has a seed pod for cucumbers.

DSCF4738I think most of what I got are perennials.  And no petunias this year, for a change.  When my wife got home she was asking me what they were but I have no idea for almost all, but I kept the tags.  I picked out plants that I found pleasing to look at, colorful - or will be, and could handle full sun.  I did not purposely look at what anything was called, I don't know enough about plants for it to mean much to me.  The plants in the pot out front are part sun/part shade and I had a couple of the red ones left over that are in back that I will keep an eye on.  In fact, now the games begin... with the bastard squirrels!
DSCF4740

Tuesday, May 24, 2016

Cheers, Wisconsin, we’re No. 1!

This story has been out for about a week now, but I read this editorial this afternoon in today's edition of our local paper, The Wisconsin State Journal, while in the waiting room for our dentist after work today.  (Yeah, that was fun, too.  I might write about it later, but anyway.)  Our city of Madison is number 4, and our state of Wisconsin has 12 of the top 20 cities.  Twelve of the top 20 drunkest cities in all of America.  Surely nothing to be proud of... but that's not how we roll.  I hate to say it, kinda not really, but this editorial hits the nail square on the head.





Click the text for the whole article!  Written by Ben Bromley.

Sunday, May 15, 2016

May This-And-Thats

DSCF4729It's been some time since I just typed and let things out.  In fact, I haven't really felt like writing anything in a while, I guess.  Other than my Ace Frehley LLP post, I've mostly written just to post pictures to keep up with our garden and spring flora.  Starting to type and not knowing exactly what will come out can be - and has been - fun and interesting.  And, well, life is ever forward so shall we get started?

  • I reached out to 8 contractors, heard back from 6, and received quotes from 3.  We know who we want to hire for the roof project, but as of now we are waiting for the quote for the porch project from the same company.  It will affect how we go about financing, if we do just the roof right now or both projects.  The roof project is the highest priority for us, the porch will be pricier.  Neighbor Dave tells me the porch was being built at the same time his deck was, about 1973.  He also said he knows it was not permitted, and after taking a closer look at the construction, there is no doubt in my mind no permits were pulled and no inspection took place.  It's not in danger of falling apart, but no inspector would approve of the building method.
  • I used Bayer Season Long Weed Control on my lawn a couple weeks ago.  I've been sold on the product since it finally got rid of many tiny weeds in my front lawn last spring, I think.  It's the kind of thing that you hook up to the hose and spray the lawn.  I did my full front and back lawns, and I even did a strip of my neighbor's lawn beside our driveway.  I've had issues in the past with crabgrass and other weeds coming down her side and getting into my yard.  The only thing is I got a little too close to a couple peony bushes, a small one of ours and a very large one of the neighbors.  The plants got all curly and sick looking in just a day and they remain that way.  Thankfully it only affected a part of my neighbor's plant, but I think our peony is done for this year, though I do think it will come back.
  • Before I forget, Kate was in California a couple weeks ago for a work conference.  This has happened before in years past.  It's during the week so with work and chores it goes by quick.  Then, just as the cats and I start getting used to her not being there - she's back.  It freaked Basil out quite a bit last year but he seemed to take it better this year.  I was also glad to have her back, even though we both seemed a bit testy with each other for a few days for some reason.  We also have an anniversary coming up, kind of a milestone one, too.  No, I don't think they're related, but I do have to start looking for some kind of gift!
  • Spring is finally here.  I was so anxious for it to be here this year.  I want it to be comfortable without a coat outside and I want to get the outside fully cleaned up and ready for summer.  Aside from some of the usual projects, all that is left is plant shopping and that will most likely happen next weekend.  We had frost warnings the last couple nights and the high temperatures still are not enough to have all the windows open comfortably.  I hope we get some of that all-day open-window time before it inevitably becomes central air time.  For the time being, the heat remains on.
  • Another thing about spring, and this year especially, the lilacs burst with blooms and at the same time the lily of the valley is starting to peak.  I brought in some of each yesterday making the the house very floral scented.  We had to put them in different rooms to spread it out a little.  They both smell so nice and are so fleeting in spring we must enjoy it while we can.

DSCF4727
Well, when I sat I only had a vague idea of what I might say and look at all the stuff that came out.  Now, I better wrap it up before it gets too much longer.  I'm sure I'll have forgotten something, I always do, but I also don't want to make a post so long no one reads it. 

It will be another summer of projects and activities so I'm sure I won't run out of anything to write about anytime soon.  Thanks for reading.

Ta ta for now.