Lucky day so far, KNOCK WOOD
Jan. 12th, 2021 04:41 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
feng_shui_houseI got up a little earlier than usual, and remembered it was trash pickup day. I put it out and heard the truck around the corner so just waited a few minutes, picked up and could bring my bin back in. I was glad to have the bin outside my yard for such a short time- kept it safe from OPT- other people's trash.
Checked on the tomato plants and luckily caught a teeny tiny caterpillar when it had just begun (the tomato hornworm caterpillars are incredibly destructive- overnight I'd seen them eat a plant down to the root). Saw a couple blossoms on some of the tomato plants, yay. (I have planted WAY too many, should probably thin them out, but I'm in no hurry).
Organized and ordered another batch of Spoonflower designs- I'm FINALLY starting to get past the returning Covid 19 symptoms- the other day I was in the yard and could smell something floral. The brain fog has really messed up my creativity, so I had to fight to make even simple designs- hopefully now I'll be back to drawing/writing, and maybe even sewing.
Cooked a simple omelette- 2 eggs, salt, pepper, cream, bacon bits in butter and it did NOT BREAK, nor did it burn, nor did it have any undercooked bits. YAY.
Spoonflower sent me an email that they're sending me a special little gift in appreciation for- pretty much hanging in there throughout 2020. No idea what it is, but it's nice to have a pleasant surprise to look forward to.
City workers came by, parked in front of my house to do stuff across the street- pouring a little cement around the stuff they put in. Ok, fine. Dick Blick sent me a gorgeous catalog of artist supplies... I do not NEED, but... you know, Imma gonna enjoy looking at all of the stuff.
KNOCK on door-- Amazon order came, including my nut-splitter. EVERY WOMAN should have a nut-splitter. I hadn't been able to get off a frozen nut on one of my pole saws no matter what I tried, so I bought this gadget. It's basically a tiny chisel set in a looped handle, and there's a little push/anvil that screws down to force the nut against the chisel to break it. It was hard to work, so I rummaged for a wrench and discovered I had long ago bought a NUT WRENCH. Another thing every woman should have. SO I used the nut wrench and the nut splitter and got that nut off in pieces. BWAAHAHA. So now I have two pole saws with new blades. FEAR ME TREES.
Since I couldn't get the head off the pole saw to work on the nut, I laid the pole down across the dining room table, and as I was working on it... out of the corner of my eye, I saw movement on the pool deck. A blue jay was bathing in the ceramic planter I keep full of water (I once saw a kitten trying to drink out of the pool, so I keep the planter there to prevent kitten drownings). The bird bathed and flew away, then came back and bathed some more, flew away and came back... so I THINK I got some ok pictures. I was in the house, taking the photos through a window, and it's an overcast day, but I have hope.
When I was rummaging for tools I found an old thing, like a fine whetstone set in handle & you know, I think I can use that for smoothing the rocks that are too fragile to risk in the Tumbler, so that's nice.
When I went to return the tools to the other room I passed the living room and saw a worker truck parked there again- they'd left after the cementing, so I was curious and went outside.
THE SODDING BASTARDS GAVE ME SOD! *dances* (I don't have true grass here, it's more of a ground vine and you don't raise it from seed, but from cut up chunks.) They covered a good part of the destruction. Not all, but most. SO now I can resist going out to dig up rocks. I have GOT WAY MORE ROCKS than was sensible, but I am obsessive.
So, here's hoping this is a start of a run of good luck. I would be grateful for it, yes, indeed.
Checked on the tomato plants and luckily caught a teeny tiny caterpillar when it had just begun (the tomato hornworm caterpillars are incredibly destructive- overnight I'd seen them eat a plant down to the root). Saw a couple blossoms on some of the tomato plants, yay. (I have planted WAY too many, should probably thin them out, but I'm in no hurry).
Organized and ordered another batch of Spoonflower designs- I'm FINALLY starting to get past the returning Covid 19 symptoms- the other day I was in the yard and could smell something floral. The brain fog has really messed up my creativity, so I had to fight to make even simple designs- hopefully now I'll be back to drawing/writing, and maybe even sewing.
Cooked a simple omelette- 2 eggs, salt, pepper, cream, bacon bits in butter and it did NOT BREAK, nor did it burn, nor did it have any undercooked bits. YAY.
Spoonflower sent me an email that they're sending me a special little gift in appreciation for- pretty much hanging in there throughout 2020. No idea what it is, but it's nice to have a pleasant surprise to look forward to.
City workers came by, parked in front of my house to do stuff across the street- pouring a little cement around the stuff they put in. Ok, fine. Dick Blick sent me a gorgeous catalog of artist supplies... I do not NEED, but... you know, Imma gonna enjoy looking at all of the stuff.
KNOCK on door-- Amazon order came, including my nut-splitter. EVERY WOMAN should have a nut-splitter. I hadn't been able to get off a frozen nut on one of my pole saws no matter what I tried, so I bought this gadget. It's basically a tiny chisel set in a looped handle, and there's a little push/anvil that screws down to force the nut against the chisel to break it. It was hard to work, so I rummaged for a wrench and discovered I had long ago bought a NUT WRENCH. Another thing every woman should have. SO I used the nut wrench and the nut splitter and got that nut off in pieces. BWAAHAHA. So now I have two pole saws with new blades. FEAR ME TREES.
Since I couldn't get the head off the pole saw to work on the nut, I laid the pole down across the dining room table, and as I was working on it... out of the corner of my eye, I saw movement on the pool deck. A blue jay was bathing in the ceramic planter I keep full of water (I once saw a kitten trying to drink out of the pool, so I keep the planter there to prevent kitten drownings). The bird bathed and flew away, then came back and bathed some more, flew away and came back... so I THINK I got some ok pictures. I was in the house, taking the photos through a window, and it's an overcast day, but I have hope.
When I was rummaging for tools I found an old thing, like a fine whetstone set in handle & you know, I think I can use that for smoothing the rocks that are too fragile to risk in the Tumbler, so that's nice.
When I went to return the tools to the other room I passed the living room and saw a worker truck parked there again- they'd left after the cementing, so I was curious and went outside.
THE SODDING BASTARDS GAVE ME SOD! *dances* (I don't have true grass here, it's more of a ground vine and you don't raise it from seed, but from cut up chunks.) They covered a good part of the destruction. Not all, but most. SO now I can resist going out to dig up rocks. I have GOT WAY MORE ROCKS than was sensible, but I am obsessive.
So, here's hoping this is a start of a run of good luck. I would be grateful for it, yes, indeed.
no subject
Date: 2021-01-13 07:43 am (UTC)Nut splitter and nut wrench - hee heem I agree, especially a nut wrench is ABSOLUTELY necessary for a lonely woman!!! I am happy to have a small, well equipped utility place is our garage and my son equipped it expertly and fortunately I always work with him and so I know how to use the tools.
I hope your tomato plants will be all right but don´t hurry with thinning them, you never know.
Oh, a wetstone! You can´t imagine how EXPENSIVE these are here!!!! I have a piece of an old one and we keep it as a treasure.
And the bastards destroyed your King´s Solomon Mines...bl...y hell!!!:-)
no subject
Date: 2021-01-14 01:44 am (UTC)Transplanted more tomato plants. It's WAY too many plants in a small area, but we'll see what happens, now that the first blossoms and first caterpillars have arrived.
I also have a little whetstone (without a handle) that I bought over 50 years ago for $1.25 just because I'd never seen one for sale, in a very strange little 'everything' shop (my mother wouldn't even go in, because the shelves were piled to the ceiling). :^)
I'm very happy that I'm no longer tempted to dig up the verge. I have SO MANY MANY ROCKS. Part of my motivation for digging up and removing as many of the larger rocks as I could was to make it easier for plants to grow- I wasn't really expecting the city would give me any grass, so I was just going to wait and hope natural weeds would grow in, because even weeds are better than rocks and dust.
In a week, the fancy rocks that came with the rock polishing machine should be done and then I'll sort through my very plain rocks, looking for any that have a TINY bit of potential. ;^)