Thursday, May 22, 2008

WHAT WE'VE BEEN UP TO . . .


Here are photos pertaining to last weekend’s activities on the farm. Photo left shows the new septic tank cover Mike installed. The old one stood above ground -- rather dangerous and in the way of mowing. This installation felt so good just because we've needed to do it for a long time.


The photo right is the south side of the house where I do a little gardening. I planted strawberry plants along the border last Saturday. The royal imperial frittalaria are fading away. They emit an odor that is supposed to repel rodents. There was no rodent activity in that bed, so perhaps it works. The iris I transplanted last summer from the Hazel Wright place which was torn down. Two of them will bloom this spring. Why is it that iris doesn't always bloom?


This is a photo of "bum-wing" Mike installing his weather station. It tells temp, wind velocity, humidity, and rainfall. Unfortunately, it doesn't work well. The good news is that we didn't install the wind gauge (whatever you call the thing) on the roof peak. We're thinking of seeing if we can return the station. The instruction booklet doesn't seem to correspond with the unit. (I hope it's not that we're getting old. I remember that nothing seemed to work well for my parents in their last years.)

And here I am, painting the old garden gnome. Would anyone volunteer to paint the eyes for me? I'm not good with eyes. And does anyone know if there's some compound I can rub onto him that might give him some shading -- like antiquing?


And, of course, like many country folks we enjoy watching the hummingbirds squabble. Mike hung the new feeder Hallie and Nick gave me for Christmas on the kitchen porch. The hummingbirds were just beginning to discover it on Monday. Photos next time -- maybe.

Our time here in town has been filled with meetings and appointments. The weather is cool again -- from 95 to 59, as they say. Today Mike has taken the 4-wheeler into the Waha area to pick up some geocaches. He took the camera, so he'll probably post a blog soon.

1 comment:

Hallie said...

The gnome is looking very nice! I'll ask Nick if he has ideas for the shading. You might try something other than a brush when you paint the eyes. I have trouble being accurate in tight areas when using a brush. Perhaps a Q-tip or the corner of a small sponge brush?

Good luck!