In the garden, and RAIN!!!!
POSTED BY: SIGNYM
UPDATED: Thursday, December 25, 2025 04:27
VIEWED: 1005090
PAGE 488 of 1154
Quote:Yes, we've been in the mid-90s lately, but unlike you (I think) we don't get high humidity so it's not as bad.
SIGNYM:
Well. Here it is July 7th and I still haven't gotten my rear in gear. All I've managed to do was little piddly stuff: We always do "safe and sane" fireworks for the 4th, which we did again this year. Went with hubby and dd while they went to see the doctor. As I mentioned, replaced a couple of thermostats and put up and indoor/outdoor bluetooth weather station. Repaired a couple of hose ends so I could insert trigger grip nozzles, helped sort wire and screws, walked the dog and yada yada. Small stuff.
But I have plans for tomorrow, and the day after, and the day after that, so I think I just needed a break. I feel like my energy might be coming back, and after a nice rest most of my aches and pains have throttled back.
So here's hoping I get a good night's sleep and wake up ready to roll tomorrow.
SIX: It's hot by you, ain't it?
Don't hurt yourself.
SIGNYM: Thanks SIX.
Managed to get out early enough to walk the dog, do yardwork yesterday and have a righteous bin of yardwaste to show for it. Also helped hubby sort out more stuff in the garage.
DIDN'T manage to get out early this AM, so contented myself with walking the dog, watering the flower garden and watering and harvesting the veggie garden (cucumbers, zucchini, and avocados galore), and tracking down the fuckups that hubby's retirement plan managed to create, as well as grocery shopping (yet to do).
But tonight I'm going to irrigate the whole property in prep for weeding over the next few days.
SIX: Just make sure you take some breaks if it's too hot by you still.
I've learned to drink a bottle of water BEFORE I go out, and whatever I do outdoors in the summer is done by noon at the latest. Having to water the vegetable and flowe garden every day lately, and gave the Haas avocado - the one that's so stressed with mites ... a two-hour leaf-rinse and soaking. Also managed to dig up a half-bin of weeds ... not as much fun as pruning but definitely necessary! Once I get the big ones out, the flame thrower goes into action!
Quote:It sounds like you're planning a lot of heavy-duty hard labor at your end. So I'm going to bounce your advice back to you: stay hydrated, and take plenty of breaks!
It's actually going to cool off to the mid 80's for a few days here, so I plan to take full advantage of that. I'm going to attempt to jack up that front porch overhang tomorrow. I've gone rediculously overboard on supplies and materials. I've got 4 pole jacks that can lift 20,000lbs each when fully extended (38,000lbs if not extended), a couple of insanely long 4"x4"'s, cinderblocks, piles of wood and screws and brackets for any repairs I'll need to make, and 100sq ft of chicken wire to keep the raccoons out if I have to expose a lot of stuff underneath before jacking.
Would be nice to have some assistance, but it looks like I'm on my own again for this one. Slow and steady wins the race.
Quote:
SIX: In any case, just got back from my brothers and a long day of mostly driving. It was a little hairy there at first because of the damage done by the previous botched attempt at a repair by my old man, but I was finally able to figure everything out and my brother's scooter is in working order again. I also had to teach him a lesson about inflating tires, since the front tire only had 11.5 lbs of pressure in it, and the back tire that is directly below where he sits had a scary 3.5 lbs of pressure in it.
I also had to stress on multiple occasions that he's going to need to retrain himself on riding that bike now as if it were a new one, since his top speed is likely to be much greater than it was before and leaning to make turns is going to be a lot easier (and easier to just tip over) if he tries to do it like he had to when they were that low.
There mNOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Quote:Well, I missed this bc of THUGR's trolling.
Originally posted by 1KIKI:
Well dang but the Argentinian ants came back a couple of months ago. At first they were at very low levels and tolerable, but since then their numbers have increased and they've created significant ant trails to the kitchen sink and trash (they haven't found the cat food yet).
For years - YEARS - I would try different things to block or clean away their chemical trails. I've tried cinnamon and cloves, dish detergent and carpet cleaner, aspirin and diatomaceous earth - I've probably tried 50 things by now if not more, and every single one has failed.
But I recently tried something that works! HAND SANITIZER! They sort of flinch away from following their trail when the hand sanitizer is wet, and after it dries, they just won't cross that line.
AHA!!! Take THAT! Argentinian ants.
Good deal!
Have you ever tasted hand sanitizer after it's dried? I have. (Don't ask.) It's very very bitter. I don't know if that's what they're reacting to, but if I were an ant I wouldn't cross it!
We used to have a nest of ants living under the track of a sliding glass door, and unfortunately that was right at our kitchen. It had rusted out and created a hole thru which the ants could come and go as they pleased, and until I tracked them down and found their nest and destroyed it, we ALWAYS had ants in the kitchen. But what used to work for me was ArmorAll. Not sure what was in it that the ants found so distasteful but they hesitated to cross it. It sounds like hand sanitizer works even better!
*****
Definitely going to keep that Amdro in mind, tho. Seen two red ants in our yard lately, could be fire ants, so I definitely want to keep an eye on that!
-----------
Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake
#WEARAMASK
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Yes. Stay hydrated. I'm glad you're doing it.
I need to start. I drink way too much coffee and have since I stopped drinking. It's not a problem during the winter, but it becomes a problem during summer. Even though I have the A/C and doing any work inside the house is now pleasant enough and I rarely break a sweat unless I'm in the attic, yardwork and any of the other outside and in the garage stuff can be pretty brutal when I've had a pot of coffee. I have started chilling water in the fridge and it's been a life saver.
And yes, it's the humidity that's a problem here. Despite the fact it's only rained twice here in 3 weeks and not all that much when it did, it's regularly 50 to 75% during the day and even higher at night. Yesterday we did have an hour long storm in the afternoon and it was super humid, but at least it was relatively cool compared to the last few weeks so it wasn't that bad.
That being said, it did put a bit of a damper on my planned work yesterday. Taking apart what I need to in order to be able to put jacks in the correct places while also not damaging aluminum and not being able to reuse it is terribly slow, and maybe impossible. I got stuck on one thing late yesterday and decided to call it quits and go into it today with a fresh mind. I'm still not sure what I'm going to do...
But at least I was able to check my roof patches yesterday. I won't breathe a true sigh of relief until we get another 3 inches in an hour, but it did rain fairly heavy there yesterday and it's bone dry inside.
Cooler day today. Hopefully I can at least get those jacks up so I can start working on the fascia sub fascia replacement and get one step closer to getting those gutters installed.
Good luck with your work today.
Do Right, Be Right. :)
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
We're jacked. 
I actually lifted the overhang quite a bit more than I intended to in one day, but once I knew what was really going on I expected this to happen once I detached the columns.
The funny thing is that I could have detached those columns last year when the problems were first visible without any jacks underneath it. The overhang wasn't sinking. The concrete slab did over the years and was using the columns to pull the damn roof down with it. The overhang is an inch higher than it was this morning. I actually had to raise my jacks to keep them tight as I removed the bolts holding the columns into the frame.
This should at least put an end to any new damage. I'll take my time jacking it up to level and then work on fixing the damage and getting ready to have the gutters installed.
Even got the lawn mowed today.
Do Right, Be Right. :)
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Just been a lazy Sunday here.
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Bright sunny day here. Out for my walk.
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Well, I went and bought a small laundry hamper and turned it upside down to use as a writing table of sorts. Still not really high enough, so might have to get something else to add to it.
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Sprayed for bugs and weeds for the fourth or fifth time this year. Neighbor yesterday asked me how the hell I don't have any weeds yesterday when I was talking with her and her old man.
Tore down all the fascia in the front but one 4.5 foot overhang. The board under that is bad and will need to be replaced, but I'm leaving the aluminum up until I get to it so it doesn't draw any attention.
The rest of it is fine, which is nice. 35 to 40 or so feet that I just needed to scrape, sand down and paint today.
Also gave another turn to one of the jacks since the overhang went back up just a little more on that side enough to loosen it. :)
Time to shower. Got to do some shopping.
Do Right, Be Right. :)
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Nice. Just did my math and I'm going to be able to return over $200 worth of stuff I overbought for the job. :)
Already got my next jobs planned out and that will easily cover the next part.
Do Right, Be Right. :)
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Decided to hold off on buying any asphalt and concrete patch for the driveway and the garage slab. I want to research both processes and get an idea of the proper stuff to buy for the job rather than just buy a bunch of stuff since I was already there and had a large in-store credit burning a hole in my pocket.
I did buy the self leveling caulk though to fill in the two concrete slabs up against my house, and some extra backing rod in case I didn't have enough. It's nice having it on the ready, but that's something else that I can't do until other things are done first. Not only will I be patching the two places that I know water is seeping in the basement, but I'm going to trench down a few inches around the peremeter and clean it off good so I can paint it all back with the roofing/basement tar that I used after fixing the wall under the porch last year. One year later and that area looks fantastic. Just that clean black stripe under the bottom of the siding is going to be a huge upgrade to the curb appeal. Once that's done I can powerwash and use the caulk seal on the slabs.
Today, hopefully, we're getting slammed with a big thunderstorm. I got about 1/4 of an inch of rain the other day and the attic was bone dry, but I really need to have a storm where it hits as hard as those spring storms to get a good idea if my patch is good or not.
Meanwhile, I recently found out the place I bought all of that expensive paint from during the first year I lived here is still open. I drove by it yesterday while running my errands and still couldn't find it. It's in the middle of this town square place that is always super busy and the parking is right on the street so it's hard to be looking over at the storefronts while also keeping an eye in front of you so that nobody pulls out and backs into you. I'm going to call them today.
I'm hoping they still have my name in the system and a record of which colors I bought. I have two of the old cans, but it seems that I threw one of them out after emptying it all those years ago, so I have no clue what that color was and I don't want to damage my walls to get a color match.
Without getting a discount, a pint of that paint is $14. The gallons cost me $57 with the discount and the store's normal price was $62. I only have a few dings to patch from furniture in the master bedroom, and in the 2nd bedroom there were a few cracks under the windows because I let water get in when I didn't have windowsills. The paint is supposed to be able to go on with touchups and blend in seamlessly, so rather than paint the whole rooms again, I'm hoping the paint lives up to the hype (and the price).
Do Right, Be Right. :)
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME