Board of Correction, Memorial Day Quilt, World's Largest Bee and some other Random Stuff.

 Today, I decided to clean out one of my beds. The columbine bed has been a bit of a mess since last year. I let some burro's tail get started in it and it took over. It was time for it to leave. So, I dug out a wagon full of what was left of the ground cover that I had originally planted in it and turned eighty pounds of composted manure into the bed. I transplanted the old ground cover back in, as well as an errant wild columbine that had come up in the herb garden and some violets. It went from this to this. Next up is the remaining burro's tail and ajuka in another bed. I regret having introduced them and it is time for them to get curtailed. Hopper may not be happy about the clean out. Fortunately, his chain is short.

While I was working on the columbine bed, the biggest bee I have ever seen began cruising the iris. It was easily an inch and a half long. It sounded like a little airplane, coming in for a landing.

So, here is the Board of Correction. I picked this up on a job site about twelve years ago. It had been abandoned and would have gone into the dumpster. None of the kids in the family must have wanted it. I can't imagine why. It has been signed by at least five kids; most notably Jeff, who must have been well acquainted with it.  It originally came from the Cave of the Mounds and I can just imagine the kids (as adults) all talking about it. "Remember that board that dad used to make us sign after he whacked us with it? What was that about, anyway?".

I remember getting it with a willow switch a couple of times. I had to go cut the thing myself and I thought that was really adding insult to injury. But, I never had to sign off on it. What a bizarre souvenir. I bet Jeff still thinks about it. At least we will all be immune, once we reach seventy six years of age.

Awhile back, I joined a quilting group. We just finished the Memorial Day 2012 raffle quilt. It can be had for a whole dollar! If you'd like a chance, I have tickets. Ticket sales benefit the United Methodist Women's group. 

More photos are here.

'Splodin.

I am sorta stunned by what is going on out in my garden. Granted, it has been a weirdly warm spring. But, I wasn't really prepared for what I came home to Monday.

I went away for a few days. Apparently, it rained and was warm while I was gone. I returned to an amazing array of open iris, more than I've ever seen from my garden. And, they're just getting started. All of that pampering is paying off. I'll have to dig new beds this year, I could spread them out to twice the space they're in right now, easily.

The Iris aren't the only happy things out there. Two years ago, I planted wild columbine in a raised bed next to the back door. It wasn't too happy in the spot where I put it. However, that didn't stop it from reseeding and popping up all over the place. My back door is just surrounded with it.

Tonight, I ran around and took some photos at dusk. I'm not a fan of my digital camera. I never seem to get what I want out of it. but, we had a happy accident. It was confused over what to do with these poppies and posterized them. They're psychedelic!

More photos are here.

Hey, Blogger! I hate your new editor. Do you hear me? I hate it!

Macho Shopping Bags.

This afternoon, while getting ready to walk into the grocery store; I glanced over at my selection of reusable shopping bags, lying in the passenger seat. It occurred to me that the demographic they are going after with these things must be primarily women, since most men wouldn't be caught dead carrying one of these things. I immediately started envisioning macho reusable shopping bags.

The first thing I thought of was a gun. But, walking into a store with a gun shaped object might get you some unwanted attention. Then, I imagined a penis. This is also problematic, since most men probably wouldn't want to carry around a penis, other than their own. So, then I imagined a log or club shaped bag. That would do the trick! Or, how about a nut? Maybe a mag wheel, air cleaner or a beer can? A battery or a bobber might be nice, too. I may have to make up a few. :)

The New Porch.

So, the porch isn't that new. The old porch was torn off in the spring of 2011 and replaced with a new porch that looks pretty much like the old one.

Insurance agents are weird. I've had conversations off and on for years with several different agents concerning my shake roof. I guess it is their shaggy appearance. But, there seems to be some suspicion and misunderstanding regarding the nature of a shake roof. My agents have all eyed mine and have all voiced opinions that I think were more superstition than anything. In the spring of 2010, I received a very firm request to replace the shake on the front upper roof. I found this to be quite ridiculous. The upper roof was in great shape. The shake on the porch was not. I'd been eyeing the porch myself, thinking that it was only a matter of time before I had to re shingle it. So, the fact that the porch roof passed muster while the upper roof didn't, made me scoff.

Even though I didn't agree with their assessment, I had to do the roof. So, we ripped off the old upper roof and replaced it with asphalt. I hate asphalt shingles. I felt like I had removed a layer of dignity from my house. It had shake on it for it's entire life; 150+ years. But, I needed to move on from these ridiculous exchanges, so, I folded. I pushed off doing the roof that really needed it for one more year.

Over the winter, one of my brothers and I had a series of discussions about my porch. It had never been my intention to tear it off. I had re sheeted and sided the front of the house around it. Now, I needed to remove the ceiling to get at the wall above it and I was troubled by the fact that the ceiling was not level, causing a cosmetic issue with my siding and trim above the windows and door on the first floor. My brother told me that we should simply rip the porch off, that I'd never be happy if I didn't. He was right.

Together, we hatched a plan to build a porch that looked almost identical to the old one with three major differences. We changed the angle of the hip, so that it was symmetrical, front to side; we made the ceiling level; we shot the joists over the beam, buying me the space to trim my windows and door properly. Cosmetically, it was the best thing we could have done. Functionally, it was, too. I was able to really seal up the front of the house and the new porch is attached to the house much better than the old one. It took two weekends. One, to rip off the old and sheet and wrap the front of the house. The second weekend to build the new porch. It's Plain Jane and I love it.

More photos are here.

Woodshed Demise.

I was sad to see it go. But, it was time to say goodbye to the wood shed. It gave more than one hundred years of service and, given how hard it went down; had a few more in it. But, it was in bad shape and would have been more work to repair than for me to build a new one. So, down it went.

I did save the R.Hallett threshold, for the family museum. It is in league with "Ray is Grate". Perhaps it will get built into the new wood shed. We shall see. In any event, I now have everything cleared away from the burr oak tree in the yard (the old outhouse went last year) and it is nice to have that tree in the clear. It's a beauty.

More photos are here.

What This Blog Needs: More Guns.

It just occurred to me yesterday that this blog has gotten awfully girly. I've been talking a lot lately about sewing, cooking, gardening; all that stuff that is the traditional domain of women. Don't get me wrong. I love all of those things. But, I am not a girlie girl. I haven't talked too much lately about construction projects. Maybe I'll do a piece on my new porch. But, in the mean time: GUNS!

After telling one of my brothers about a disconcerting exchange between Eric, myself and some person who showed up randomly at our house one night after dark, my brother gave us a gun. I'd been thinking that I needed to get one and was very happy to have it gifted to us.

I used to do a lot of shooting when I was younger. While I was living in Rhode Island, I took a hunters' safety course. There were 100 people in the class; three of us were women. On the last day, they told us who ranked in the top 10, I was #2. I got one of the instructors all hot the day we shot clay pigeons with a 20 gauge. I missed all three shots, slightly down and to the left. He asked me if I'd ever shot a shotgun before and when I told him "no", he said something along the lines of my pattern being very consistent and when I got my gun sited in, I was going to be great. It was the way he said it. He was dying to find himself in a duck blind with an armed hottie worth her salt in ammo.

I don't think my brother is too different. Eric and I went out shooting earlier this spring: just plinking cans. I posted some photos to Facebook and tagged my sister-in-law, so that my brother would see that we were enjoying the gun. My brother called me up, all in a dither. He started talking to me about how I need a handgun. I agreed. I do need a handgun; I've been thinking about getting one. But, I don't know enough about them to know what it is that I would buy. Practically frothing, he asked me if I was going to open carry, conceal carry or just use it around the house. I found this highly amusing. I mean, my brother apparently envisions me all wild west. And, how do you use a gun "around the house"? Maybe I could thrill guests by shooting the tops off of their beers. Anyway, I told him he should think about what sorts of questions to ask about my envisioned gun usage and we'd do an interview at a later date. So, he is formulating an questionnaire.

In July, I am planning on attending my nephew's wedding. I am also going to attempt to get my brother to take me gun shopping. I think he'd just be a blast. In the meantime, I have this 22 to play with. Check out our Easter Peep Massacre.

I Took Candy From a Stranger.

Yesterday, while waiting in line to get something for dinner in the cafeteria, I was standing behind two gentlemen. One was wearing a riding jacket and had a pony tail, the other was neatly dressed in a very nice suit and had short hair. They appeared to be brothers. Suddenly, a button fell on the floor and I excused myself for interrupting to point out that I thought a button had fallen off of the shirt of the man with the suit. He marveled that I had noticed, agreed that it was his button and put it in his pocket after thanking me. The gentleman in the riding jacket turned to me and asked me if I'd like a chocolate and produced a small box of high quality dark chocolates. How could I say no? One of my coworkers stood by, watching this exchange, looking puzzled.

As soon as they moved away, it struck me how funny it was and I whispered to Phil: "I just took candy from a stranger.". Indeed, I'd just done what we've all been told never to do. But, being in the mood for something salty, I'd already picked up a pretzel. So, the sea salt really fit the bill and I am a sucker for dark chocolate, anyway. At dinner, I joked with Phil that it was his "in" and told him about an old friend that used to ride a nice, vintage tandem bicycle around Brown U. to pick up girls.

After dinner, I stopped at their table and thanked the bikerish gentleman, telling him that the chocolate was excellent. He offered me another, which I refused. He then introduced me to his brother, Mike and I wished them a good evening. The whole thing was sort of a comedy of manners.

Today, I stopped in Black Earth to buy a new pair of running shoes. As I was walking across the parking lot, a woman who was backing out of a spot stopped in the middle of the lot and literally "Hey, hey you"'d me over to her van. She asked me if I intended to purchase a pair of shoes, today. I told her that, yes, I did. She said "Then, you'll need this." and gave me a 10% off coupon she'd clipped from the paper.

I then drove the rest of the way north and put a new battery in my lawn mower, pumped up the tires, checked the oil, gassed it up and mowed my lawn for the first time this season. On my way home, buoyed by all of that good will, I bought a lottery ticket. I then stopped at my favorite antique shop at Reedstown and bought these incredible curlers from 1917. I mean, they're highly magnetized, Simple sensible, Does the trick, Scientific effective and A Wonder worker. Whew! My brother and I tested them out and they aren't one bit magnetic. I feel ripped off. Since they are guaranteed for life, I think I'll return them.

More photos are here.