Sunday Work Day

After yesterday, you'd think we had enough of working out back. Well, we rolled out of bed this morning. Actually, my dog made me get out of bed because Hubby was already up. She won't stop barking until we're all together. Anyhow, when I rolled out of bed, I found out I had muscles I haven't used in a while. It wasn't all that bad, but I had a workout yesterday.

Today, we got up and went out back again. Hubby pressure washed the cement picnic set we have. It had a nice thick layer of black and brown mold growing on it. So much so that when Hubby pressure washed it, there was a bit of a raised area between the clean part and the moldy part. It was noticeable to me. The picnic set hadn't been treated before and we had it for about 8 or so years, so we decided to put a finish on it. We bought gray cement paint for our pavilion (which is almost completed) and I painted the picnic set today. Here it is.

Cement Picnic Set Just Painted

Looks pretty good, doesn't it? This was a few hour job because we had to wait until the cement dried before I could paint it. I didn't paint the bottom bit of about 1-2 inches because it was in the dirt or close to it. We're going to level it an put rock around the base so you won't be able to tell.

Hubby and I started our fires again after calling in another burn permit. We got some more stuff burnt up. It looks really clean out back. Next, we're going to get the rock for under the picnic set and enough for around the fire pit. Then, we'll be making some Adirondack-style chairs for around the pit. Hubby made two already, but they need a couple of coats of paint. He only got one coat on before the rains came. Now the things are starting to mold.

Thursday night, we got our order of bug spray. It is heavy duty stuff. We must be the last customer on the route. Our delivery guy comes around 7 pm. Our mosquitos are so bad we can't be outside for long. We sprayed immediately after we got the order. We were able to work outside yesterday and today WITHOUT MOSQUITOS! Yay!!! This stuff is supposed to last for about 6 weeks before we have to apply it again. We may have just found a way to get our yard back! It also took care of our mole crickets. One of the dogs kept picking up the dead bodies. I hope she didn't eat any. She likes to eat bugs for some reason. You'd think we didn't feed her. Blah!

Well, I hope you had a great day.

Take care.

Rain

I don't know if any of you have kept up with the weather in the Southeast, but it's raining again here. So far this summer, it's been one rainy summer.

We have mosquitoes to the glory. Around here, we can't have any standing water. In 3 days you'll see mosquito larvae. That goes for any standing water. I've seen larvae in the dogs' indoor water fountain. We have one of those 1.75 gallon waterers. I only fill them half way so I can give them fresh water every couple of days. I was taking the lazy way out. I don't do that any more. That was just plain nasty. The girls get fresh water every day, even twice a day.

Another effect of the rainy weather is frogs. LOTS of frogs. We have tree frogs here and lots of them. They like to hang out around our porch light at night. I also keep a small container for the compost pile on the railing so I can put my coffee grounds and scraps in it every night. Then I empty it the following day. Well...sometimes a day or two after I should. The frogs find out that flies and gnats love to do their thing in the compost tin. They'll sit around it at night and snatch up the flies and gnats. Right now, we have frogs the size of pencil erasers coming around. You know the pencil...yellow #2. Yep. Frogs that little get around pretty well. They crawl up the siding and hang around the porch at night. They're fun to watch on the window. Last night, I watched one stalk a small fly of some kind. Frogs sure do have patience, don't they?! I hate to say this, but they pop when you step on them. Yuk! I didn't do it on purpose, mind you. It was a bigger frog a couple of years ago. I watch going out in bare feet now. Uh huh. Sure do!

Any how, every few days the frogs mate in the ditches. They sing so loudly for about 3 days until they get their stuff done. The noise is so deafening that you can't sit out and talk. Then you see little frogs everywhere. It's like magic.

Well. Because of all of this rain, we lost a lot of tomato plants. The tomatoes rotted on the vine and the vines are losing leaves and are growing spindly. It's time to plant winter crops, anyways.

The strawberry patch is holding on. The plants are losing leaves from the heat, but they're alright.

The elderberry plot has grown by leaps and bounds this year. We had two flowering stalks which were promptly eaten by birds or something. Next year should bring some good heads. I didn't gather wild ones this year, yet. I'll be hard pressed to find some still holding on to the stalk with all of this rain. What's funny is, everyone born down here thinks they're poisonous. I love to make jelly from them.

That's how things are going here in our piece of heaven.

Take care.

Yahoo!

It's finally over! The poison ivy, that is.

Two and a half weeks with itching and medicating...I've really had it!

Now, we have another problem - mosquitos. We've been spraying...the county came by twice last week to spray...we have a flying insect fogger and we've been fogging. These things are horrible right now. It hasn't rained much, lately. So, I don't know where they're coming from. We don't have standing water anywhere. Even in the ditches.

Wish us luck with this problem. We need it!

Take care