Six years on Mars!

Today is the sixth anniversary of when we moved into this house.

It's hard to believe it's already been six years!

We marked the day by drinking eggnog and enjoying our Christmas decorations:

Charlie Brown Christmas Tree sent by Mama O'Brien, surrounded by various paper cutouts, mementos, & presents.

Momma Arave's Christmas Bough.

Mama O'Brien's stockings.

Pickles' stocking, plus we hung the stockings for the mice again --
they're not upstairs this year, but we know they're never very far away.

It was a nice ending to an eventful weekend, full of champagne & oysters, and happening to be at City Hall when the mayor's body was lying in-state in the main rotunda. Never a dull moment!

As for Pickles, the test results did come back clean, and she's having her stitches out first thing Monday morning. She is preparing by resting up in a pile of clean laundry:

Poor Pickles!

Poor Pickles had to undergo a medical procedure this week.

A few weeks ago, we found a lump on her belly. Our regular vet did a needle biopsy that was inconclusive, so we had to bring her to a special vet on Monday for a lumpectomy.

They sent her home with this satellite dish cone:

Cone? Or is she picking up radio waves from space?

It's made of a heavy paper with a plastic coating. It's nice that it's not rigid, so that she can lie down comfortably. Also, she doesn't get stuck on things like door frames, because the collar gives when it hits things.

Unfortunately, that has also been its downfall. Pickles likes rubbing on furniture and walls -- particularly when she's wearing something she doesn't want to be wearing. Two days in, she had managed to get it to flip the wrong way:

Cone? Or dashing dental x-ray cape*?

That in itself isn't a problem, because even with it inside out, she still can't get to her stitches. But now, four days in, it's been folded and unfolded and bent and unbent so many times, it's just a floppy piece of paper.

We woke up this morning to this:

Cone? Or infinity scarf*?

I'd give it 24 more hours before she figures out that she can get to her stitches. Definitely wouldn't make it the next 8 days before her stitches are scheduled to come out.

To keep her on the mend, AJ went out to the pet store today for a new collar. This one is much smaller and stiffer, but is still comfortable for sleeping:

It also features little windows to allow her to see what's going on around her. And, of course, we get the benefit of seeing her cute face:

She's back in to the vet on Tuesday for a check up of her stitches. We should also get a full report on the biopsy on Monday. We got a preview from our regular vet yesterday though, and it sounds like we're going to be getting good news.

*Thank you, Jon & Amanda, for these very apt observations.

The Year of Finishing Things: Finished!

Earlier this year, I declared 2017 to be The Year of Finishing Things: this would be the year I finished up a few lingering projects, clearing the decks for new fun in 2018.

I am happy to report that all unfinished projects are now finished, with the completion of some odds and ends in the kitchen!

Over the past week, I refinished the wood counter, painted trim, and fixed some peeling veneers on the china cabinet drawers. AJ put the icing on the cake by adding an important detail into a section of door trim that had been cut away to accommodate the lip of the old counter tops:

Now on to the fun of planning new projects!

Waterproofin'

Among other boring maintenance things, I have been refinishing the back stairs. After two weekends of sanding and sealing, the work is finally done and ready for the winter rain to start.

AJ captured an action shot:

Happy Halloween!

 Happy Halloween from Greta Pickles, of Greta's Junk Removal & Hauling Service!

No job too big or too small. Will work for chicken. Dial 1-800-DOG-BUTT for an appointment.

Doorbell!

Been busy with boring maintenance stuff recently: sealing the back deck and stairs, weeding, etc. Nothing interesting enough to post about. But I just realized that I hadn't posted a picture of our new doorbell...and its tiny house:

 

A few weeks ago, AJ rightly decided that it would be faster to order a new wireless doorbell than wait for me to get around to rigging up my Rube Goldberg-esque nautical bell doorbell. And so the new doorbell arrived, and the "Memories" (from Cats) chime was selected.

Not to allow anything to be too easy, I decided to take very seriously the manufacturer's instructions to not put the doorbell button in a place where it would get rained on directly -- so I built it a little house.

I have had many compliments on the arrangement, including from Mr. Bunkport, our contractor, who saw it while doing work on the house next door, and some strangers who were walking by and took a photo of it. People seem tickled by it, despite its extremely serious mission: alerting us to when our dinner order arrives, rain or shine.

Yard done! Mural done!

More things finished!

Last weekend, I pretty much finished up the yard. Just one thing remains: Susie's and my experiment with cuttings of lavender. Everything else is happily in the ground and doing its thing.

Also, believe it or not, I finally finished the bamboo mural at the bottom of the stairs.

Since it's so difficult to really capture all this with photos, here is a little video of what it looks like coming down the back stairs and walking into the yard (email me if you're not sure how to make it full screen).

I'm very happy with how everything has turned out, especially the mural. The yellow-green leaves turned out better than I expected, as did the panda. Here's a close up:

I am really happy with how the mural looks from the new chair, as well:

It's so great to have this stuff finally coming together. Maybe next week I'll actually move on to fixing the doorbell...

One step closer to finishing the yard

Susie and I spent the afternoon at a beautiful gardening store this weekend, carefully selecting the plants for the yard.

After much debate, we decided that these Westringia Morning Lights would be nice for this spot to the left of the brick path:

I also got rosemary for the triangle bed to the right of the path, and Susie is going to give us a cutting of her lavender for the spot right next to it:

A few more herbs in there, to add to the giant mint on the left of the photo, and it will be a nice little kitchen garden.

Just a few more finishing touches out there, and I will call the yard finished!

Two Things, Plus Two More Things

Finished two more things this weekend.

First, I have been feeling like the guest room needed something. Maybe a headboard for the bed. I had been thinking about painting one on the wall, when a conversation with Amanda gave me an idea.

I used the last big section of old kitchen counter (which would have been thrown away by now if it weren't so huge that cutting it down into chunks was going to be a project all of its own):

Stretched a brown sheet over it, added a piece of trim cut from the old 2x4's we took out of the back of the house, and attached it to the wall:

Not bad! Just what the room needed.

Also finished up with the terra cotta tiles left over from the kitchen floor (and the tiny tiny patio). Smashed them up & put them around the plants in the front yard:

I also got very lucky this weekend, and inherited the card catalog from AJ's classroom. I put it on a set of drawers I already had. Fits perfectly!

Lastly, as I was lounging about on Saturday, enjoying our 75-degree weather, I wanted to share this view from the hammock -- it's a climbing rose bush that our back neighbor has neglected for the past three years (much to our benefit -- it's now about 20 feet tall):

More progress in the yard

Made some more progress in the yard this past week.

Used some left over gravel to edge the walkway:

After much hand-wringing, I decided to not go whole hog with a vegetable garden this year. So much work! After finishing school, all I want to do on the weekends is goof off. So, why not?

AJ trimmed back the jade in the front yard this weekend -- I grabbed some of those trimmings and planted them in the vegetable bed, along with some wildflower seeds. No longer looks like a dust patch:

But of course I do have my peas. And they're very happy, especially with this piece of corrugated steel behind them, adding light and heat (although obviously not in late afternoon, when I took the photo):

Lastly, the hanging chair arrived:

AJ approves:

Next, a few more plants for that bare spot in the triangle bed on the right of the brick path, and for a bare spot to the left. Then we can call the yard done!

(for now...)

Finishing Things Chapter 1

Now that I have all this time on the weekends, I can get on to the very serious business of finishing things.

With some cooperation from the weather, I was finally able to finish the tiny patio for the tiny grill:

Complete with tiny concrete brick and paver table:

Finished!

That box on the left is a tiny planter I made a couple years ago. I will get that planted when I get some more potting mix. Maybe next weekend...

I also spent a lot of time moving a lot of dirt from the big pile I created when I did the brick path, to a low spot on the side of the yard. Finished!

Here's how the yard has shaped up:

Ready now for some Earthboxes, a lemon tree, and some lavender! And a hanging chair in the corner, by the panda.

Celebratory pie!

Just wanted to post a picture of this beautiful strawberry rhubarb pie (homemade crust!) that AJ made me for celebratory brunch on Sunday.

Can't think of a better way to celebrate having finished that damn MBA than a slice of this pie and a glass of champagne!

Landscaping & Big News

In between (numerous) weekend rain storms, we've been working on the landscaping in the back yard.

These photos are a little hard to see, but I took some of the especially insect-damaged timbers from the old back part of the house -- stuff too big and too damaged to do much else with -- and created a raised area for a swing in the back corner and a raised garden bed next to the new wall:

Big thanks to our houseguest Corrie Jo for her ideas! She is a genius. That is a fact.

We planted some dahlias in there, and some California poppies. And six snap peas. Because snap peas -- even just a handful -- are essential for summertime happiness.

Meanwhile, the radishes, lettuce, and carrots in the gutter are very happy:

And the sedum in the other gutter is also very happy:

Thank you to Momma Arave for the advice on transplanting the sedum into this gutter! Another genius!

While Corrie Jo was here, enjoying beautiful weather in the hammock and directing my efforts at landscaping, I also got started on a tiny tiny patio for our tiny tiny grill.

It's about 2 feet by 3 feet. Tiny.

And yes, made out of materials left over from other projects.

First I made a form and poured the rest of a bag of concrete into it:

Not quite enough to fill the form, but that's ok, because I had plenty of mortar left over from the kitchen floor to fill up the rest of the space. And, of course, plenty of left over terra cotta tiles:

That was a couple of weeks ago now. If it ever stops raining for more than two days in a row, I'll be able to finally grout this sucker and call it done.

Speaking of done, as you know, 2017 is The Year of Finishing Things. Here is something big I just finished: this morning, at 11:30am, I officially turned in the last assignment for my last MBA class (please click here). I am completely done and on my way to graduation!

Looking forward to a less break-neck pace to my week, and to having some time on the weekends to relax and have fun doing projects.

Onward & upward!

Laundry Table

Continuing on the theme of meeting furniture needs with stuff left over from the old kitchen, I bring you...

... Laundry Table:

Vertical Gardening, v1

Having such limited space, I've been interested in vertical gardening for a while. This weekend, I finished the planters for my first go at it.

I took an old 10' gutter that came down in The Big Project of 2014, and some short lengths left over from a recent replacement, and mounted them all to two 9'-long boards left over from the kitchen demo last year. Then I put them up on the new fence.

Lettuce will go in the top one (new materials) and succulents will go in the bottom one (old gutter) -- I'm not putting food in the bottom one because there is old roofer's tar in it.

Very interested to see how it goes!

In other vegetable garden news, I have held off on planting because I made a large pile of dirt digging the hole for the brick path that I need to deal with first. I am going to use it to level the yard a bit, but I can't do that until the rain stops long enough for me to do the work & then spread more mulch on top to prevent muddy paw prints. Maybe this weekend we'll get lucky.

Pickles doesn't care about the dirt pile problem. She thinks the brick path is the best, warmest bed ever:

Holding off on planting has given me a chance to consider the virtues of self-watering planters: improved yield with less work. Based on Farmer Wasserstrom's recommendation, it seems like they are worth a try. And no, I won't be building my own out of recycled materials. I'm actually going to *gasp* buy them new.

Anyone else try one of these systems (ex. EarthBox or Growbox)? Any pros/cons to share?

Brick Path

Forgot to post this last week. The sun came out, so I finally got to put in the brick path!

Dug a big hole:

Put sand in the hole to give the bricks a bed to settle into:

Put bricks in the hole:

Ta-da!

So many vegetables, so little space

Now that the failing concrete wall is gone, and the kitchen is as done as it can get until the weather warms up (the finishing touches involve paint & stain), we have turned our attention to the yard.

A few weeks ago, we took some time to plan out the space -- roughly what will go where & when. We had planned to put in a brick path at the entrance to the yard today, but another rain storm has come in, so that's out. Only one thing to do: plan the vegetable garden!

Now that we have the area along the wall to work with, we can expand from about 20 square feet to about 40. I'm spending the morning looking at seed packets and notes from previous years, trying to remember what did well in various parts of the yard, and researching dwarf lemon trees. First planting on March 4!

In related news, even though I didn't officially plant anything last year, I had some random carrots come up in the carrot box. We ate them every now and then, but mostly we left them for Pickles -- she loves to nibble carrot tops. The other day, I decided to pull one just to see how big it was:

Dog for scale.

It's about six inches long, which is about two inches longer than this variety gets if you pull it in a reasonable timeframe. This thing is so old, it had next to no flavor. It pickled well in the Japanese rice bran fermenting bed (read about that here) that AJ gave me for Christmas, though. And note the well-trimmed top. Good job, Pickles!

Kitchen Furniture

Over the past several weeks, I've been (slowly) building the final pieces of furniture we need to finish the kitchen.

Everything is, of course, made from...wait for it...recycled materials from other projects.

Dog stuff area:

Table top and legs are materials from The Big Project, shelves are made from pieces of the original kitchen cabinets.

Thing for towels and the dish drain:

The top is a spare part from an Ikea cabinet, the bottom is one of the old kitchen cabinets (I'll paint it when the weather gets nicer).

Silverware and utensil drawers:

Chest of drawers is a nice piece of furniture AJ found on the sidewalk. I built the stand it's sitting on out of pieces of the original kitchen cabinets.

Main cooking area:

I built the table on the left from materials left over from The Big Project. The cutting board on top of the wheeled cart on the right was actually part of the original kitchen cabinets -- I just refinished it and attached a collar to make it sit snugly on top of the cart.

A few final touches (mostly paint) when the weather warms up, and the kitchen will be 100% finished.

Next project: now that the concrete wall has been replaced, we can get the yard back in shape!