accomplishing little things and the Friday selfie

My sister is out of town this week so I have her two little dogs. I also go to her house every day to feed and spend time with her two cats. They've been all happy to see me, come running when I call, up until Wednesday when they evidently decided that it was my fault they had been locked up in the house alone for the last 6 days and they were taking their ire out on me. Fine. I won't pet you then.

I also worked two of her days at the antique store this week.

Having the dogs here makes it harder to get anything done since I don't have a big fenced yard, just the Little Back Yard, which I put them out in several times a day for short periods and although the shop yard is fenced across the street, the gate is not secure, and I won't leave them in the house alone except for short periods. When we are out in the Big Back Yard, I have to keep my eye on them because they will wander as far as I let them into the 13 Acre Field and the Wild Space.

Marc has been working on getting the sandblasting system hooked up in the new sandblast shed. All the air pipes are in and the exhaust fan so even though he still has to put the plywood and shelf up on one wall and build a shelter over the air compressor, we are, for all intents and purposes, back in business.

It is still so hot here and humid. Too hot to get much done and nothing done unless it's in the shade, which Marc hasn't had over at the shop. It's not too bad in the shade as long as you are being. perfectly. still.

I've been trying to get small things accomplished. Like picking up the immature pecans that continue to fall. I bet I've thrown at least 12 gallons of varying sizes on the burn pile and every day, pick up another gallon or two. I pick them up for two reasons...one, I go barefoot and when the ground is littered with small hard lumps it's not so pleasant. The other reason is that the larger ones that fall will eventually shed their husks and I won't be able to tell the difference between the good ones and the bad ones when the good ones start to fall. If we get any good ones. If there's any left to fall by the time they get mature.

I've repotted a couple of the transplants from the old city property. I'm clearing the old garden of weeds and the plants left over from spring. This was the absolute worst garden we have had since we've been out here. We got one or two small tomatoes and a couple of japanese eggplants and a handful of jalapenos and that is it. The weather was freaky what with the late hard freeze but mostly I think, no bees. I have seen so few bees this year. The new garden is going to be over at the shop across the street where it will get more sun and we have more room but it's too hot to build and prepare the beds so we may not do a winter garden this year.

I built two small crates to hold all the glass samples and I've finally gone through all the boxes left over from our initial move and the final move this summer. I donated a bunch of stuff to a shelter and filled a box with stuff to take to the store and sell. I have a couple of boxes of stuff for the grandkids to go through the next time they come out here.

I repaired the tea cup bird feeder again and I think we've fixed it so the squirrels can't knock it off the hook any more. It's been doing brisk business from the titmice, chickadees, and the cardinals with an occasional curious wren. The last brood of cardinals has been coming, the immature males and females. One of the young males is just now getting his grown up plumage and he's very spotty red and brown.

And I finally repaired the shadow box that I acquired years ago to hold my whistle collection. I wrote about my whistles here if you are interested and you can even listen to five of them (well, you used to be able to listen, the links have disappeared). I have a few new ones since I did that post...the boot, the long antler, and the bright blue ceramic one that you put water in and it warbles like a real bird.