June 6, 2007

All of my young plants are starting to get established. All the flower beds were dug in March, and I've been planting since then. This front bed was interrupted by the much awaited installation of our irrigation system, but it was worth it! Because of the ample water and sun, I'm spending way too much time weeding grass/sprouts out of this bed.  There’s a lot of empty space, and I really need to mulch, but I’d rather spend money on plants.  I think I will plant a ground cover (probably variegated …)—hopefully I won’t regret it later…

 I bought 6 agapanthus at one of the big Houston nurseries a few days ago.  They’ve already started their summer (50% off) sale, so I will try to go back next week if I get everything planted that I already have. The plants don’t look bad yet, so I’d rather buy them now and take care of them until they’re ready to go in the ground. I have no idea when the porch will be completed, but I will need some fairly mature plants to go around the base of the porch, so the sale will make a huge difference.

I have lots of cool little mushrooms in the back 2 flowerbeds that sprout in the evening and open up like this in the morning.

 June 7, 2007

We signed the papers for the home improvement loan today.  These are the things we’re hoping to get done with the money this summer:

-add a porch across the back and south side of the house

-new metal roof

-paint exterior

 We’re not sure how far the budget will go, but we’d love to be able to turn the room we’re using for our closet into a real closet and master bath. Since we already have 2 baths and it’s just us, we’re leaving that for last.  It will be expensive since we’ll be adding plumbing, tile, and carpentry work.  The exterior work needs to be done and will be enjoyed and used daily—not that the master bath/closet wouldn’t, but it’s not a “living” space like the porch will be.

Please excuse all the clutter. This photo is actually from May 12, but it's a good back view of the house where the new porch will be. The porch will go across the entire back of the house and wrap around to the room at the front of the house (far left in the photo). At a little over 11' deep, it will add comfortable outdoor living space for us. We really bought this home because of the potential that the yard/lot offered, so this will help us enjoy it.

June 12, 2007

The front bathroom door is freshly painted, and it's been without hardware since we had the door reinstalled. I used a knob that was original to the house and the box part is from a box of old knobs and latches from an old family property in Independence that my in-laws recently sold. It matches the ones we have, but it just needed some cleaning and a thin layer of flat black. The ones from this house still need to have years and years of paint removed.

June 17, 2007

 This morning when I was getting out of the shower, I saw what I thought was one of the chickens by itself at the back of the yard. It looked different—longer and leaner than any of the black chickens, but I thought it was the wavy glass playing tricks on me. I went up to the window for a closer look, and it appeared to be some kind of water fowl. I grabbed my camera from the other room and shot a few (bad) pictures from the utility room. I got dressed at quickly as I could so I could try to go outside for some closer pictures, but the bird was gone when I got out there. I've heard and seen what appeared to be a seagull for the past week (and I have no idea why a seagull would be in Brenham), but it looked white/light colored when it flew over. My glimpses have been brief since we have so many trees. This bird appeared dark brown and young looking. If it is a seagull, it has a very long neck; if it is a duck, it has extremely long legs. If anyone has any ideas about what it is, I would love to know.

June 18, 2007

I’ve been doing finishing work on several projects that have been in-progress for a while: second coat of paint on trim in sitting room & both bathrooms; caulking; and Harper put the quarter-round in those rooms.

June 20, 2007

It rained a lot overnight/ early this morning, so that helps make up for the suffocating heat we’ve been having. It seems like we've already had much more rain this summer than last, but I don't have any numbers. Houston and other surrounding towns received rain many times last summer when we were skipped over, so we're thankful.

 Only one week (or less) until I get my shipment of chicks! I’m very excited. I’m probably going to start with 7 or 8, but I only want to keep 3 or 4 at the most.  I’ll give away or sell the others, but I’d rather start with too many than end up with too few, especially since they sent roosters instead of hens on some of them last year.

I’ll keep the chicks in a brooder in the utility room for a couple of weeks, but they’ll be moved outside ASAP so my house won’t start to smell like a hatchery. I’m getting a lot of different varieties, but no bantams this time since they come straight-run only. I’m excited about being able to watch them grow; I really missed a lot last year since I left for Africa a couple of days after we got them. I’m sure Harper will be glad that I’m around this time around.

 We finally met with a concrete person yesterday, so hopefully we’ll find out today or tomorrow when the porch can get started and how much that phase will cost. We also met with a tree trimmer. We’re going to have a sickly cedar tree removed from the front/side yard, and he’s going to take out some pecan and pine tree limbs that are growing toward the house.  

June 21, 2007

The other night I noticed a tiny monarch caterpillar on some of the dill that I had used for greenery in a jar of cut flowers. I had already enjoyed the flowers for over a week, so I guess the caterpillar was probably just a tiny egg on one of the leaves when I cut the flowers. Today the flowers are well past their prime, and the caterpillar is getting rather fat, so after taking a few pics, I returned the castaway to the plants that it came from.

June 25, 2007

After 5+ years of marriage and home-ownership, we ordered our first real bed (pictured above) this weekend. It should be here by the end of July, but hopefully earlier. I will probably take the canopy part off, because I'm afraid it will look odd as it will cut across the window behind the bed. The cool part is that I've wanted a huge leaning mirror, and with a little work, the canopy would make a great frame!

Even though our bedroom renovation has been finished for over a year, decor (the fun part) has been put on the back burner. Besides a few throw pillows and a couple of badly placed pieces of my artwork, the room is void of any real decor to make it feel like a cozy bedroom.  The challenge has more to do with time and space than anything. Time, because I need more of it to get the custom curtains made. I know exactly what I want, and they have to be made because of size of the windows. I refuse to pay thousands of dollars for sewing straight lines, so I have been patient until I have time to find the material and make them.  Sadly, I have a couple of sheets hanging for privacy, but I'm beyond ready for the real thing.

Because of all the recent rain, we've had a cool variety of mushrooms in the yard. I know it's weird, but I think they're so interesting.

June 26, 2007

The phone rang at 7:15 this morning--Stacy was calling to let me know that the chicks had arrived! It amazes me that within hours of hatching, the chicks are shipped from McMurray Hatchery in a little box for an overnight journey to their new home. Just before hatching, they take in the nutrients of the remaining yolk, and that is enough nourishment until they arrive the next day.  Of course, they're hungry and thirsty when they get here.

I'm only keeping a few, but I have sixteen right now! Sargent is very interested; he's sniffed and licked and watched me watching them.

June 28, 2007

Right on schedule (so rare), our trees were trimmed earlier this week. I would definitely recommend Beau's Tree Service to anyone who needs tree work. They did a great job despite the steamy weather and the precarious location of some of the limbs that needed to come down. We were also impressed with how well they cleaned up after themselves. We asked Beau to come back later in the year to clean up a huge old oak in the backyard.

The privacy we lost with the cedar is taking some getting used to, but we know it will be better in the long run. The extra sun will make a huge difference for the front bed, and it will also give the big oak tree in the corner some breathing room.

June 29, 2007

I am almost ready to start on the guest bedroom, but I promised myself I would complete some almost-finished projects that have been hanging over my head for a while. One of the projects was painting the back bathroom door. Since we wanted to strip and stain a lot of the doors, I hated to paint another coat on any of them. I finally decided to go with black for this one, and I really like it.

Two steps forward and one step back... I hung curtains in the sitting room and was reminded of how much cold air we were losing from the door in there. I cut weather stripping to put in the cracks, but I was having a hard time getting the door closed--it needs a lot of work. I tried push on the door knob while kicking the bottom of the door, but the old knob broke off and my shoulder went through the window.  Thank God I was wearing a T-shirt instead of a tank top; I have a few scratches, but nothing major. Now instead of that room looking finished, there's cardboard on the window and painters tape around the door.

The chicks are growing like crazy! Except for one--she's so tiny that I've had to separate her from the others. I really am surprised she's made it this far, but she's trying.