bird skull, a letter, and more than you ever wanted to know about septic system drain fields

You might remember that I found a dead white wing dove in the front yard during one of our hard freezes and as I usually do when I find a dead bird I cut it’s head off and stick it in a fire ant mound. It didn’t come out completely clean and white mainly because I took it out too soon but also because it wasn’t the right time of year. It was wet and cold and the ants were deep underground fasting I suppose. I even tried three different ant mounds and thought I had lost it after the second. when I dug it out of the first one it wasn’t much changed so I put it in a mound that got more sun. That was when I thought a critter had gotten it when I dug it out, better but still icky, intending to get it later in the day and didn’t remember until the next morning and couldn’t find it. The day after that I looked again and it was in plain sight so I put it in a third ant mound. When I dug it out of that it was much cleaner but still had stuff in the skull but I feared losing it for good and brought it in. I’ve worked on it two times with little stiff paint brushes, a piece of wire, and some very pointy tweezers after soaking it and I guess it’s as clean as it’s going to get. 

I’ve got it on the shelf and put it between the cardinal and the mockingbird.

We got a letter from the state about our architectural etched and carved glass studio from which we retired at the end of 2017. We continued selling the cast glass at our annual open house with our other glass artist friends but that stopped after 2020 because of covid and the last time we had any opportunity to sell directly to the public was 2021 when we shared a booth with our friends at the Height’s Artisan Market and although I continued to send work to the gallery I was not responsible for sales tax on those sales. So, the letter. The state is revoking our sales tax permit as a result of zero total sales, zero taxable sales, and zero taxable purchases for the last two years. We no longer will have a business from which we must collect and remit sales tax or for which we can be tax exempt for certain purchases. 

Tuesday I went to empty the kitchen scraps container on what I euphemistically call my ‘compost pile’, more aptly a forage pile for the local wildlife; I never dig any compost or dirt out of it because it’s full of ants. Anyway it’s at the very back of the property and on my way there I came upon a wet spot in the big backyard with several small puddles of water where there should not be especially since it hasn't rained for weeks. This does not bode well. Being out in the county as we are we’re on a septic system, one of the older ones. Our system has three tanks buried in the little backyard. The sinks, the showers, and the toilets drain into the first tank which drains into the second tank which drains into the third tank with a line that pumps the water into the drain field. The drain field is a series of perforated pipes every 3' buried under the back half of the property. I don’t know how deep but I’ve never encountered one while digging back there (turns out the lines are 12" deep). You’re not supposed to put anything on top of the drain field, like buildings mostly, because if something goes wrong it has to be dug up but I figured flower beds wouldn’t matter. So, apparently based on the location of this wet spot it’s the line from the third tank to the drain field that has sprung a leak. So now I have to dig around in that area and find the problem. Hopefully it’s something Rocky can deal with.

Wednesday after digging and cutting tree roots I exposed 30” of pipe. Haven’t found any obvious cracks or leaks. I was starting to hit drier dirt on the left but the surface of the ground on the right is still wet for about 20”. Ideally I’d like to be able to watch when the pump goes on and see where the water is coming from but that will just be lucky timing.

Later…I encountered Rocky on the street while I was walking the dog. He’s got a couple of days before starting his next job so he’s coming with his helper Friday morning.

Thursday…I showered in the morning and as I was leaving for SHARE I checked the hole. It was filled with water.

Later…More digging in the afternoon. I’ve now exposed 6’ of pipe with no obvious cracks or leaks.

Friday…Rocky and his two guys showed up and we put a hose in the access port of the third tank until the pump was activated so they could see where the water was coming from. It started seeping out from underground under the drain field pipe in the middle so now they’re digging up that line and bailing out all the water. So far haven’t found the leak yet.

A little later…They found the leak, a hole in the bottom of the field line about 4’ back. So now they’re digging more around that spot to give Rocky room the get in there and cut out the small section and reconnect the line with a collar.

Later still…Well, fuck. Rocky cut out a section of pipe to show me the hole and that was not the leak, that was the first perfectly drilled perforation in that field line which means that there probably isn’t a leak but a clog somewhere in that line. 

Our drain field consists of 12 field lines 70’ long with an 1/8” hole on the bottom of the pipe every 12”. Small roots can grow into those holes and grow until it’s a mass of roots. So now it becomes a much bigger problem of how to find the clog and how far down it is. One of Rocky’s sons is a plumber so he’s going to borrow Gunnar’s motorized snake and see if they can find the clog that way and determine where to dig. So that’s where we are now. Hopefully it’s not too far down the line.

 

eye repair, snipped kitty, and Sunday's task

Yesterday was my annual eye appointment and the good news is that my eyesight hasn’t worsened and the good/bad news is that she did not tell me the cataract in my left eye wasn’t bad enough for surgery, come back in a year. My left eye, which is my seeing close eye, has really been bothering me for the last several months. It’s been feeling like there is some goo that I can never rub out or a sheer veil that doesn’t make things more blurry so much as reduces the clarity. I had to fill out a questionnaire considering my answers as if I was looking with my left eye only. Anyway, I had two options for where the surgery will be done, at the hospital here or the hospital in Bay City a half hour away. I will need to be taken and then picked up with about 3 hours in between. So rather than Marc having to sit around the hospital in Bay City for 3 hours plus the hour of drive time I opted for the hospital here. The downside to that is that she only gets one day a month at the hospital here. The March slot is taken, she will be out of town during the April slot, so it will be May before I get the cataract removed. The right eye is also developing a cataract but it’s not bad enough for surgery yet.

Yesterday was also the brown tabby’s day to get taken to the vet to get snipped. This little cat is mostly silent, has a very quiet mew when he does mew and the only way I can tell if he’s purring when I hold and pet him is from the vibration in his throat. He was very loud and vocal in the car but after a few minutes he quietly settled down until we got to the vet where he expressed his displeasure. I’ll pick him up this afternoon. It may be awhile before he lets me pick him up again though the gray tabby got over it pretty quick.

I moved all the rest of the outdoor plants back outside last weekend and we even got the last three out of the garage, the biggest most problematic being the night blooming cereus. It is huge. And heavy. And cumbersome. And needs a new pot as the plastic one it’s in is starting to break apart. I’m going to have to cut it back though I don’t want to because I love how big it is and that it gives me 20 or more flowers at a time. Not that I always see them since it blooms at night.

So the task I had to attend to over at Pam’s house Sunday was filling an animal burrow, my guess would be armadillo. I don’t know if you can tell from this picture but there is a big hole under the bottom stair of the steps up to the front door and it extends under the concrete paver that the post sits on, which was already tilting down into the hole, and on under the house. Fortunately I had a wheelbarrow load of clayey dirt from digging the hole I planted the yellow angel trumpet in. 

First I pulled out the ferns that had migrated there in front of the steps and in between the steps and house and moved all the rocks she had there and the concrete paver at the bottom of the steps for better access to the hole. 

Shovel some dirt on two sides of the paver under the post and into the hole under the stair, used a length of 2” x 4” and a hammer to pound it down as far as I could, more dirt, more pounding, add a little water, more pounding until I felt like I had it well filled and compacted. 

Then I got a small piece of limestone I had hanging around and pounded it in the space between the 2” x 8” and the bottom of the step. I still need to get some small shims to complete that part. And then I put the rocks and the other paver back in place.

getting the garden ready with interruptions

Friday I had to go out and get cat food for the wildlings and I went to the feed store to see what plants they had in and bought five tomato plants, two bell peppers, a basil, and some yellow and white seed potatoes. It’s baby chick season too but I didn’t buy any of those. 

About two years ago, maybe even a little longer, the feed store bought a big building much nearer me that used to be a western wear shop that closed and moved to Bay City because, like every small business in this town, they didn’t get enough business to stay open (and no I didn’t shop there either because I’m not into ‘western’ wear). The feed store announced they would be moving and expanding which included partnering with Ace Hardware. This announcement generated some excitement because one thing this town does not have is a good all round hardware store. The previous lumber yard had a hardware, paint, and plumbing section with limited selection but the guy retired after Harvey and closed up shop leaving us with Walmart or a place called Star Parts which has a very limited supply of hardware and plumbing stuff. Then Alamo Lumber (a local chain) announced they were going to move on the same spot as the previous lumber yard which structure they tore down and rebuilt and they’ve been open for about a year and they do have a large and well stocked hardware, plumbing, gardening, electrical, etc supply side. The early excitement died down as they turned out to be the most expensive place in town. So now, finally after delay after delay and permits and flood remediation and all the other hoops they had to jump through to get those permits they finally started adding on and remodeling the building and glory be, they are moving to their new location this weekend. 

When I was in there Friday one of the women behind the counter said to me after I mentioned that the new location would be much closer to where I live, I think you live down the street from me. I live on XXXX, I said. I live on YYYY (which is the next street over), she said. I walk Minnie down her street as well as mine. She didn’t recognize me so much as she recognized Minnie. You live on the north side or the south side of the street I asked. She lives next door to the house that’s for sale. Oh, the house with the christmas wreath still hanging in the tree. She laughed, well I got all the other decorations put away last weekend. True. She didn’t put her Christmas decorations away til Halloween last year.

Saturday I was out pulling up the mustard greens which had bolted and pulled the last cabbage and was turning and weeding the last section of the garden to get it ready to plant when Melissa, Rocky’s wife, called. Rocky has been busy the last two plus months tearing out and completely redoing the inside of a house so I haven’t seen much of him lately and I had told Melissa that I need the water pipe over at the shop fixed when he gets a spare day. So apparently the spare day was that day, now or who knows when is how she put it. So Rocky showed up and completely replaced the water pipe into the shop, the one I had wrapped with insulating foam and duct tape and which still cracked. You might remember I wrote about finding water gushing out of it in 40˚ weather right before dusk. Anyway, once we got all the insulation off, we found that not only had it cracked below the turn off valve but also the outside casing of the turnoff valve had not just cracked but split apart. Fortunately it was still functioning. That bulge midway is a new shut off valve but the handle is on the other side and at the bottom is the casing, 8" deep, that contains the main shut off valve, the one I couldn't get to turn. It's still off so we haven't checked the new pipe yet.

I should finish up my garden today but first I have another task I need to address over at Pam’s house. More about that later.

busy days, EarthLab, spending spree

Thursday, Friday, and Saturday were very busy days so I've been missing hereabouts. Thursday, of course, is my volunteer day at SHARE and man were we busy. It was a food delivery day from the food bank in Victoria, we were down several volunteers back in the food area, we had 33 requests for food with 8 or 9 of them being the largest families when usually it's one or two or none, and an equal amount of the next largest families. We gave away a lot of food. Including two huge cartons of watermelons.

Friday I wrote my last post and then was greeted with ants in the pantry for the second time in several days. The pantry is an add on, built against the wall in the kitchen.

The trim on the outside is tight so I have no idea how the ants were getting in there but inside there was about a 1/8 to 1/4 inch gap between the side boards and the wall with other smaller gaps wherever two pieces of wood met. First time I threw out all the food they had infiltrated, crackers mostly, and sprayed orange oil to kill the little bastards but two days later they were back, infiltrated more crackers. So I emptied the entire pantry, cleaned it thoroughly and then set about to caulk up every damn gap and crack in it floor to ceiling.

before and after

Yesterday was the Farmer's Market and this month's EarthLab at Hesed House. I thought the program on hibiscus started at 10 AM as all but one of them has and so I pulled into the nearly empty parking lot and my heart just sank. No one is coming. I was walking up just as Stephanie came out to let me know the program didn't start til 11. So I went to the market to get my honey, tamales for Marc, and another of the blue daze plants while I waited. As it turned out, it was one of the most attended programs with an enthusiastic audience with lots of questions and lasted nearly two hours as opposed to the one hour they usually last. And look what they brought with them!

They let us take home the ones we wanted if we wanted to. Other people selected some first but these are the ones I brought home.

In other news, we've been spending money like drunken sailors. Marc bought a new riding lawn mower yay!

and I bought an air purifier for my bedroom like the one in Marc's, two extra filters, a six pack of rice milk, and three jugs of Palmolive dishwasher soap through Amazon. The last two items I have not been able to get at either of the two stores that sell groceries here for months.

Today, I finally accumulated enough tomatoes for making tomato sauce so after breakfast I did all the prep and they are now in the oven slow roasting. All four of my plants are represented...beefsteak, old german, big boy, and black krim.

Still have some for eating and more coming along on the plants.

no good deed goes unpunished

This was supposed to publish this morning but apparently I didn't do something right. Anyway, big surprise when I got to the hospital Sunday afternoon, they had completely weaned him off oxygen. I guess 14 days of IV antibiotics, steroids, breathing treatments, etc finally hit a watershed and BOOM. This mornings x-ray was so so much better than the last one last Thursday but still will take time to completely clear. His general health had improved so much that he was too healthy to qualify for the insurance to pay for the in house physical therapy so they discharged him from the hospital. Oral antibiotics for two weeks instead of 6 but that could be extended. Now to get a primary care doc and a referral to the pulmonologist who has been treating him and Home Health Care to work with him on physical therapy.

After fixing my dinner Thursday night, I turned on the hot water faucet to wash the few dishes and waited for it to get hot. And waited, and waited, and waited and no hot water. Checked the water heater and the pilot light was out. It had gone out a few weeks before Marc got sick so I didn't think anything about it and followed the instructions on the tank...turn the knob to pilot, hold down the knob, push the striker button, continue holding down the knob until the status light comes on. OK, pilot light would flame but the status light would never come on and when I released the knob it would go out. Well, fuck.

Called Rocky 8:30 Friday morning, could he come light my water heater as I was having no luck. No problem, I'm nearby, I'll be right there. He couldn't get it to light either. Called his plumber friend who said the thermostat was bad, it would cost as much to replace the thermostat as to get a new water heater, you need a new water heater. Well, fuck.

Rocky located a same size, 30 gallon, water heater in El Campo, about 20 minutes down the road, went by his current job doing something for the Methodist Church to ask if they would give him half a day to help me out and they graciously agreed, so off he went to get the new propane water heater.

Now, when we bought the one that had just failed, the one we were replacing was too wide to get it out through the door to the closet in which it sat so they had to take the molding off and remove the door jamb to get it out. The new one one was smaller in diameter and it could be installed or removed without having to do that again. So Rocky gets back, takes out the water heater, puts it in my studio room, opens the box of the new one and I'm looking at them and the new one is wider, 18” to the previous 16”. Rocky, it's not going to go through the doorway unless you dismantle it. Well, fuck.

He takes off the molding, removes the door jamb, gets the new one in and hooked up, tests it to see if all is well, pilot comes on, puts the doorway back together again, we turn on the hot water faucet in the kitchen and no hot water. Pilot is off, won't come on, further investigation and the guy sold him a water heater for natural gas. Well, fuck, fuck, fuck.

Rocky is not happy. Takes the doorway apart, removes the water heater, boxes it back up, takes it back and gets the one for propane he ordered, gets it installed, pilot comes on, burner comes on and we're in business. By this time it's 5 o'clock. I sent him home, we can put the doorway back together later. He came back Saturday morning and finished up.

the result of all that trouble

Consequently I didn't get anything done I had planned to do on Friday while at home, ran a few errands Saturday and catching up on my sleep, and headed back to Victoria Sunday.

no AC and a shopathon

So, yeah, the AC quit cooling last Friday as reported, guy came out and got it working again until Tuesday when it quit cooling again. This time, bad news, the compressor is dead but it would be the next day before he could tell us if the part was under warranty (which expires next month), if it was available and/or when he could get it, and how much. Great. An immediate trip to the Evil Empire, the only place in town that sells window units, and we had a 5,000 BTU window unit which we installed in the window of the combination living/dining room. At least we had one cool room now. So, labor to just replace the part (which is under warranty) and coolant...$1,500 and it would be two weeks before he could get the part. Or we could replace the entire 12 year old outdoor AC unit with new; 3 options ranging in price from $3,500 to almost $5,000...one less efficient, one pretty much what we have now which he could get in a week, or one that is more efficient and could install in a day or two. We decided on the third option since it will supposedly reduce our electric bill for only $700 more than option 2, comparable to what we have now. Of course, a 'day or two' on Thursday afternoon means Friday or Monday. So excuse 1, excuse 2, excuse 3, they'll do their best to make it late Friday but having been self employed for over 40 years we know all those excuses. It means Monday. Of course, the most expensive route is the one they can do right away. Just call me sucker. In our defense, temps are mid to high 90s for the foreseeable future. And besides, 12 year old unit. If we opted for the repair it could conceivably have to be replaced in the next year or two anyway.

Spent the morning at SHARE as I do on Thursdays, it was really slow, maybe 10 or 12 clients for food. Worked on the wax box for a couple of hours in the afternoon. This inlay is going to be very fiddly even after I supposedly simplified it some. Hahahahahahaha. I'm having to adjust my mental image to correspond with what I'm able or rather willing to accomplish.

And I finished my watercolor of the yellow trumpet flower unless I decide to do a background. I'm undecided at this point.

Tomorrow is going to be a long long day. I have my follow-up for my toe and since I'm going to pass through the Shopping Mecca in Rosenberg on my way back I have a list of stores and items that have been piling up so I'm going to try and get as much of that done as I can before I throw my hands up and head home. Besides the doctor's appointment, I need to stop at Spec's (liquor warehouse, self explanatory), Michaels Craft Store (watercolor supplies), Lowe's (pond pump since the one in Big Mama's pond quit working a week ago), Academy (exchange some yoga pants), and maybe Famous Make Shoes (need new sandals). And maybe Target to look at some drapes for the big bay window in the living room if we're going to be streaming shows in the hot afternoons.

roof woes and watercolors

Woke up Monday morning to intermittent light rain and wet and wind. Checked the roof repair over at the shop and the same spots were wet and not just a spot but a stretch of 5 or 6 feet. Damn damn damn.

Monday night, or rather, early Tuesday morning the predicted storm came through...lightning, thunder, high winds, tornadoes (but not here); rained enough to have water standing on the side of the house. The dog is becoming a little more tolerant of rain but this storm finally got her trembling and panting and restless. It's the restless part that is the most annoying, she's never still for more than ten seconds. Because she is keeping me awake.

It was really over by 8 AM and breaking up to a clear sky by 8:30 or so. But it was Tuesday and I had to leave by 8:20 to pick up Robin to get her to work by 9. Then make my breakfast, go to the watercolor class, go from the class to the grocery store to do the week's shopping, come home and unload and finally walk over to the shop to see how wet the space above the studio room was that we have been trying to find and fix the leak(s). Since it had been definitely wet when I checked it Monday after the little bit of rain, I was shocked to find it barely damp up there. Yes it was a blue sky sunny day and it had been about 5 hours since the rain had stopped but surely it hadn't been long enough for it to dry out. So now we wait for another rain and another check. So weird that a light rain leaked through but a hard rain didn't seem to have.

I've worked on the male bird and I think I'm done with him but I made a small change to the female bird as her posture has been bothering me so I changed the angle of the tail and the position of her feet. Now all I have to do is the background. I took the painting with me to the class to show Gay and she thinks it doesn't really need a background, that the white makes the birds, female and male white browed tit-warblers, really pop out and, to her, it looks finished. So now I don't know. I'd hate to try the background (which I envisioned as very pale blue fading out to the edges) and do a bad job of it and ruin the work I've done especially since there are so many small areas in and around the flowers and leaves so I've decided to put it aside for now and start on something else. Here's my finished(?) painting.

I did make the small addition of more greenery next to the cabin on this one and it's now finished and signed.

Yesterday in class we did the next step on our current painting. Last week we did the washes of sunset sky and water, you might remember I did two and forgot to take pictures. This is the one I didn't work on yesterday.

This week we added the clouds, the land mass on the horizon, and the shadows in the water.

This week, Jade went with me to the watercolor class. First she did the color washes with very little instruction from me and while that was drying she worked on the second one of mine. She did a pretty good job considering this is her first time to do watercolors. I'd show you her work but I didn't take a picture and she didn't save the one she took.

I just got off the phone with my one gallery owner. She's giving me an early warning for the anniversary show next October because she really wants a box. She was supposed to get the Heron box for a show but I sold it unexpectedly the very first day I showed it two years ago at our last open house. I thought I was done with the boxes except for maybe a small round one and I don't really have any ideas so I guess I better start looking around for some inspiration.

 

another busy week

I don't know if I just don't have anything interesting to write about or I'm just too damn busy these days.

Tuesday we started a new landscape in the watercolor class, a sunset reflecting on water which will have a sailboat and a line of vegetation when done. All we did was the sky and water, very loosely done with washes. This is Gay's example to follow. I wasn't happy with my first attempt so I tried it again and now I have two to choose from next week. Sorry, apparently I didn't take a picture of either of mine.

I did take my painting to class Tuesday to show Gay my progress and she was very complimentary, made a few suggestions for the female bird which I attended to. So here's my progress on that. Now to do the male bird and then the background.

Wednesday I moved all the plants back out of the garage and the house and got the small plants set up on the etageres by the back door and finally found the little frog I'd been hearing off and on and it turns out there were two little frogs hiding amongst the plants and they were both still alive. 

Then I moved the truck and swept off the concrete apron and brought Jade's rug over from the shop to roll out to vacuum it. It's a big rug, 8' x 10' or so, and it needs to be seriously cleaned but first it had to be thoroughly vacuumed to get as much of the dirt and dog hair and people hair off as possible.

While I was doing that Rocky came by to let me know he would be here Thursday to see if we could finally find and fix the leak in the roof/wall of the shop/studio and fix it. You might remember several months ago I climbed up the ladder in the studio with a can of FlexSeal paste to plug up the holes we could see and I did a fair job but some water was still getting in when it rained. 

I decided the sheet metal panels of the overhang needed to come off where the leak was so we could get a better look at where the roof of the shop met the wall from the outside and hopefully find where the water was getting in.

I had bought a tube of F/S paste for a caulk gun and after he removed 5 of the overhang panels outside, he climbed up on the inside and used all of that plus 2 cans of F/S spray on top of what I had applied previously and then he climbed back up on the overhang and he called out to me to look. There was a crack where the caulk was oozing out from the inside and so we're pretty sure that was the culprit. Even so, he got a strip of metal flashing which he jammed up under the edge of the shop roof panels and then replaced the overhang panels under the flashing and then screwed the flashing down onto the overhang panels so that rain runs off the roof onto the flashing and then onto and off the overhang. So now we wait for a good rain to see if we (ha, he) was successful. While he and his helper were doing all that, I was cutting back winter damaged plants over there.

Because of all that, I didn't go to SHARE but they weren't open to the public as they had some repair work done on the building on the inside and it was a day to move everything back where it belongs and we'll open to the public next week.

And on top of all this, when I left to get Robin yesterday morning and take her to work, the check engine warning light came on and then the fishtailing car warning light came on. I got my sister to follow me to one of the local mechanics where the woman who runs the place is so abrupt she borders on rude and told me they couldn't work on my car til next week but she would look at it and see what the problem might be. So she plugged her little computer diagnostic device in somewhere under the dash and told me that the engine was running rich and was my gas cap on tight. I shrugged, popped the little door and turned the gas cap another couple of clicks and both lights went out. She may be rude but she didn't charge me anything whereas if we had taken it to a dealer they'd have probably charged me $100 for the same.

Well, I guess I do have plenty to say, though I'm not sure how interesting it is, so it must be I just haven't had the time.

 

I'm fixing a hole where the rain gets in...

You might remember that when I had the studio room built out in the shop last year, Rocky was supposed to have repaired the leaks in the roof and whatever he did did hold for about a year but after that two months of rain we had last spring, some of it torrential, when I finally went over there to get started on some work it had leaked and the ceiling there was all mildewed and you could see where the water had run down the wall. Rocky cut out the sheetrock and got up there and marked the three places where he could see daylight coming through but I haven't been able to get him back here to fix those spots though he has said several times he had time to replace the sheetrock. Can't do that til the holes are fixed and obviously, he didn't want to do that. So, I finally got up there and did it myself. First I got some Ospho rust remover and sprayed that on Tuesday and today I used a paint brush to brush away as much of the dust and loose rust as I could. I had bought the small container of FlexSeal putty and got up there and smeared and glopped as much as I could push into that small space until I couldn't see anymore daylight coming through the three holes and a couple of seams of the metal sheeting, ended up using the whole container. It had to be done from the inside because of the overhang on that side of the building.

up I go

before, the biggest hole

after

So I guess I'll see how well it worked the next time it rains hard.

Then I cut a piece of sheetrock that was left over from building out the room. The opening basically 24” x 40” but is out of square so I took measurements, made a little drawing, marked the sheetrock, and got about 4” into my first cut when I realized I needed to flip the measurements longwise, cut the piece, and then only had to trim one edge once. So now I have to figure out how to prop it up using the ladder or get someone to help me hold it up while I screw it in place. So that's as far as I got today. Now that I think about it, I won't put it in place until after the next time it rains. 

no catchy title for not much to say

I don't have much to report. I'm managing an hour, hour and a half at a time working on the new model.

The plumber came out Wednesday and cleared the kitchen sink. I now have the little whirlpool going which I haven't seen in years and yoga class canceled that night as no one was able to come. That may have been my last time to lead the class as Abby might be back next week. While I've sort of enjoyed it, it will be nice to just follow instead of lead.

Robin spent the entire shift with me yesterday at SHARE and it was a good thing since we had the most clients since I've been volunteering there, 27. I would not have been able to keep up without her help. It was foggy when I set out to pick her up Thursday morning, visibility was very poor here but it had started lifting by the time I got to my daughter's house and it's foggy again today.

I had intended to go to San Antonio tomorrow to spend the weekend with Jade but she decided to come here instead to check on her dad and the new baby. She came in last night and stayed with her parents but she's coming here today and spending the weekend with me. I've been lax about my house cleaning so spent a couple of busy hours cleaning both bathrooms, the back bedroom and swept the workroom. Then I did a half assed job dusting the living room/dining room today

The cosmos has finally decided to start blooming and it had gone crazy.

The toad lilies are blooming. I need to move them as the tree canopy has gotten larger and they are leaning out for sun.

So far I've gotten two stunted flowers on the confederate roses but lots of buds. They are late since the arctic freeze knocked them to the ground again after they had already started coming out after the winter.

Jade's here so we're off for the day/weekend.