a respite from the heat but not from the work that needs doing

I got all the Georgia peaches given away or put up, all the blueberries put up, tomato sauce made and put up. Adding all that to all the dewberries and corn that got put up and there isn't enough room in the freezer to slide a piece of paper in there so Thursday I made a trip to Lowe's for a small chest freezer cause now I have a big bag of potatoes I need to do something with. And then I didn't buy one because...covid-19. Who knew that besides toilet paper people were buying up freezers fast and furious! The guy in the appliance department at Lowe's says they get trucks in Monday and Wednesday mornings and on those days people start lining up soon after they open to be able to buy whatever small chest freezers that happen to be on the truck. There are no floor models, they aren't allowed to put anything on order because they can't guarantee an ETA, people get pissed, want their money back, yell at the managers. There were two Chinese models that I had never heard of but declined to get one of those. The guy said he didn't expect things to get back to some semblance of normal til mid July. I'll wait. Because I have the freezer compartment in our old refrigerator from the city house that's over at the shop that I can utilize in the meantime. It was nasty inside though since it's been unplugged for months so I spent yesterday afternoon cleaning the inside.

After those two brutally hot days we woke up Wednesday morning to delightfully cool air and low humidity so I got out there with the trimmer and did the yard and then around the gate to the shop yard and then around the rose bush and the banana trees and yellow bells and started on another area when I ran out of gas the second time and that was enough for the day. Today I trimmed all the way across the front of the shop (it was all about knee high) and started around the bunker but soon ran out of gas, me and the trimmer, and one tank of gas was all I had in me today (and of course no before picture because...me) (and I have once again amazed impressed the boys) but it looks really good now. I need to get out there and poison the fence line again, maybe later today, maybe tomorrow.

There's a sidewalk under there that I have yet to completely uncover.

Also Thursday Pam and I finally ventured out to an estate sale. This is the third in person one (the first one after she started up was virtual). It wasn't too crowded and 90% of the people were wearing masks but not the woman who runs them or any of her employees. It amazes me that people think the virus is over especially since we've had 32 new cases in our county in less than the past two weeks when it took months to get the first 50 or so. Anyway, we didn't stay long as there really wasn't anything of interest. From there we tried to get the freezer with no luck and then, because we were very close, we went to Caldwell's nursery where I picked up a couple of rudbeckias and Pam got the other half of my birthday present, the thing that goes in the Talavera pot she gave me, which is a yesterday, today, and tomorrow since none of the ones I tried to bring from the city house when we sold that property survived.

And the buds on the fig tree have turned into leaves and three new buds have appeared.

So what did I do this morning before I used the trimmer? Went and got more Fredericksburg peaches, though I did just get the small basket. They're small this year and have kind of a mottled and thick skin but I had one for lunch and it was the best peach I've eaten so far. So what did I do after lunch? Went and bought more tomatoes from a guy in Boling who comes to the Farmer's Market here on Saturday morning but I wanted first pick and since he also sells out of his house, I went there. Very pretty too. The tomatoes, not the house. Though the house is nice enough.

Tomorrow I deal with tomatoes. These and the ones in the refrigerator from last weekend and the ones my neighbor brought me a couple of days ago will get processed for freezing for use later in the year.

same song, different verse

I've been busy and fairly single minded. Still working on these waxes and small castings. I haven't heard from our glass blowing friends about whether or not there will be an open house in December. When I spoke to Kathy weeks ago she was uncertain. They still had not been able to get in the studio and turn the furnace on. They haven't quite emerged from the turmoil that has been their lives for the last couple of years. A fellow glass artist who also participates says they are planning it though so I'm trying to see what I can get done in the way of small castings between now and then. Not much time though, 22 days. And still no funding on the small animal hospital job but they did send me some new images.

Because of the above, I haven't had time to post much and this isn't much of a post so I'll pad it with some miscellaneous pictures.

 green lacewing eggs on the glass of the storm door to the Little Backyard

 bumblebee foraging in a confederate rose

 the totems illuminated up by the rising sun

 green frog on the storm door to the Little Backyard

 the dog thinks shoulders and arms are for standing on

I've been chasing wrens out of the house lately

 the magnolia bud and baby seed pod casting, cleaned, finished, and ready to be affixed to the wax leaves

 the spring iris are emerging and this one speared a maple leaf

the yellow butterfly ginger liked the rain

short stories 15

Pecans

Perhaps I was a bit hasty in my assessment of the end of the pecan harvest. They aren't raining down but they are falling fairly steadily. I picked up a good gallon's worth between yesterday evening and today mid-morning. We have a slight breeze this morning and the trees' leaves were steadily drifting down as I was out there. So far I have shelled 4.3 pounds of nuts. That's the post shelling weight. This is my evening activity and also on Saturdays while I work at the antique store.

Spider

One morning last week, Marc called me out to see a spider web that was being lit up by the morning sun. Usually, spiders weave their webs in the evening and take them down during the morning. Apparently not the shield spiders as this little lady was busy spinning her web. She was putting it up right in one of my paths and so during the day as I went back and forth, I made a conscious effort to avoid crashing through it. I had some idea about taking another picture later in the day. Early afternoon, distracted by something, I crashed right through it.

Chandelier

before

I finally started cleaning the Dresden porcelain chandelier, a massive chore so I try to do a little every day. (and by that I mean I worked on it last Thursday and not a day since.) It will take an entire giant box of cotton swabs...or two. I don't know if you can tell how really dusty/dirty this thing is.

after

Trees

These two beauties are on my main artery between my house and the Square downtown. These are the two biggest specimens of these I have ever seen. The raintree is gorgeous and mine is puny in comparison but I'm glad this one is not in my yard because I swear every seed in every pod sprouts if it hits the ground. I'm already pulling up raintrees everywhere in the yard all year long. And this confederate rose is enormous! That's a carport underneath it on the left. It must never freeze back, being in a protected spot and they must never cut it back.

Work

I have so many things on my to-do list that I can't seem to pick any one thing. I need to work on the flower beds and plant stuff and start on the raised beds for next spring's garden. I want to work outside but it is still just so hot out there in the sun that I quickly abandon any attempt. I need to organize waxes and start making molds and casting stuff for the annual open house the first weekend in December (and it's probably already too late for that) and the show at the gallery in Florida next spring. And, I have two small proposals to write for commission work besides actually getting in the shop and finishing the commission we have.  

Sunset

Last night's sunset after a beautiful cloudless day.

long week and a selfie

We are putting in a long week this week in the shop. Not by design particularly but because my daughter and her family are going to Dallas this weekend to attend their cousin's high school graduation and party. And since they have two dogs and three cats, they needed someone to take care of the animals.

So we came in Tuesday and will be here til they return on Sunday. We had planned to come in on Monday as usual but it rained on Monday and Tuesday morning as well.  Almost 6" worth! We haven't had that kind of rain since the drought years started.  And it rained again on Wednesday, though we were in the city by then.

One thing about being here six days instead of three is that we are getting two weeks worth of work done in one week.  Good on the one hand but bad on the other. Sandblasting and stencil cutting for six consecutive days is hard on the bodies. But we are making great progress and our clients are happy about that. And when we finish earlier than predicted, we will be happy about that.

Being here for six consecutive days would not be fun if we were still confined to our tiny two-room-with-a-bath apartment in the house with our single burner, coffee maker, and mini-fridge but since the Boy and Wife have moved we have access to the rest of the house and, most importantly, the kitchen. Still, I would rather be home.

The cat would also rather be home because even with a bigger place to roam, she is still housebound.

Well, I have all the first round of stencils cut and Marc will start on sandblasting the last panel today. My work is only half done though as now I have to cut the secondary stencils for the cream etched backgrounds on all 6 panels.  These generally don't take as long as I'm just cutting around all the
design instead of cutting the design.

Sorry I haven't been around this week to read what everyone has been doing.  Just too busy and too tired.

Here is me and some of the work we have been doing.

no, wait, I'm not ready

Yes, I know it's not Sunday but I did write it on Sunday.

It's Sunday and I can't believe it's already 6 PM. Tomorrow we have to pack up and head back to the city to continue the work on the two jobs in fabrication. We finished one last week and made some progress on these last two. Having two short weeks in a row and a slow start before that, we've been feeling the pressure especially with all the other stuff that was going on like...

trying to sell the house

delivering the finished panel

going on a garden club field trip

trying to decide if we wanted to drive to Corpus for the show after working all week

arranging to get the new shop cleaned (and they did a great job too)

We didn't finally decide to go until Wednesday so we packed up and came home and made hotel reservations and packed back up and drove there on Thursday. And then home again on Friday. And Saturday I worked at the store so this has been my only day off all week. I'm not ready for it to be over.

So Saturday was also the Freedom Fest here in Wharton. It's usually held the weekend before the weekend the Fourth of July is celebrated. There's a car show and a cook-off and food booths and cheap shit from China booths and community service booths and a veterans' parade which is the highlight of and point of the festival and music all day and a street dance and laser light show (new this year instead of the fireworks of the past) in the evening and activities like bungee jumping on a trampoline and a bouncy house and baby turtles for sale that I hate to see because they will all die sooner rather than later. The rock wall climbing and the walking on water in the big bubble didn't come this year. They moved it to this weekend in May because the last three years have been so fucking hot that nobody comes till evening and they are afraid all the old codgers are going to have heat stroke and die while they are being honored.

The Girl and the three grandgirls came to spend the day and go to the festival and after they looked at everything they came into the store and hung out with me til I closed. Then we came back to the house and Autumn and I went around and collected different wildflowers and she pressed them for a school project. So it was a fun day even though I didn't see any of the festival this year, not even the laser light show.

So did I mention that the Boy and Wife found an apartment? It's closer to where he works and in a neighborhood they like. So that was a weight off, to know that they found a place they like in plenty of time. They moved first tier stuff this weekend.

I'm so looking forward to getting this work completed so we can get on with the business of moving the shop. Next thing to schedule is having an electrician out to look it all over.

this is how my life is going...and a selfie

Before we can move anything into the new shop, it has to be cleaned. It's been a while since that building was used on any kind of a regular basis and while the shop bay area is not greasy, the whole place is grimy and old spider webby. We've hired a service to do that for us but they haven't worked it into the schedule yet.

Also before we can move the shop, we have to finish the work we have but this week was a short week because I had signed up for a garden club outing and last week had production problems.

Next week may be a short week also because of the opening of the exhibit at the museum in which we have two pieces. The reception is Thursday night while the 'meet and greet' the artists is Friday. So if we go (a 3 hour drive there and a three hour drive back), and we should go, it will require an overnight stay.

I'm talking with another small builder on Tuesday to see what he will offer for the city property and then need to pursue the big builders.

I still have one drawing to finish and a proposal to re-do and one of my jobs is getting impatient.

And just forget any gardening time. By the time I have time it will be too hot.

I wanted to get a haircut this week and that's not happening.

Plus I'm trying, and not very successfully, to keep up with the reading of and commenting on the blogs I follow.

There is just too much going on.

tearing my hair out

And we lost our internet access at home on Friday (which is why I didn't do my selfie post yesterday). We have service but it isn't recognizing our IP address and we get a window saying some other computer is using it, it as in our IP address. What the hell does that mean? Has our internet connection been hijacked and what the hell do we do about it?

I'm posting this on the computer at the antique store.

Edit: Yay! We got the internet back! Turns out it was a source problem, the source being the cable company.