Filed under: family, Farm, projects, repairs | Tags: diy, family, farm, repairs
It happened again. My youngest has the boys borrowing her tools, in this case a hammer.
Farm girls learn a little bit of everything it seems. Our children have grown up with us planting and harvesting, but also building, remodeling and refinishing. So who do the city boys turn to when they need some fix-up tools? A country girl, she can even show them how to fix it if they ask.
My favorite story from my daughters is from the first year our youngest was teaching. She was living in a house with two others. When food started disappearing from the fridge they decided it was time to change the locks on the door. The guy who was the “manager” of the house bought the lock sets and the tools he thought he needed to get the job done, despite our daughter telling him she had all the tools needed to do the job. Our youngest came home to find him with pieces all over, struggling to understand the directions. She showed him how to do the job and then went of to do some other things. That night when she came back, the back door lock was in pieces on the table. He was stuck again, so she just replaced the back door locks for him.
So watch out guys! That country girl just may be able to show you a thing or two about things you would least expect.
Filed under: fish, garden, house, pond, projects, rain, water garden, weather | Tags: floating water plants, garden, Koi, pond, railing, screen porch, water garden, weather
Our porch and pond continue to change. This week the railing that we had ordered special made came. 
Sunday we spent some time cleaning and roughing the metal, then Karen painted it. Today I installed it.
It looks great, and adds a bit of safety also. It’s only 4 steps up and a drop to soft grass so we were not worried about spacing on the bars. The hand rail will help get up and down the steps.
When we were in Colorado we found some nice brackets to add to the west posts of the porch, they were installed Sunday also.
They will allow the hanging of some decorative items to add some color.
Our floaters in the pond are really growing in this warm weather. Here’s the pond on June 30th,
and here’s the pond today, July 9. More and more the year old koi are turning from black to orange. It’s fun to watch them all come when I feed them, it is taking more and more food to make them happy.
I finally found our newest batch of kittens today, they are about 2 weeks old. Mom is not happy to have me around so I left them alone for now. When they get older I’ll start getting to know them.
Our grass is starting to show signs of stress from the heat of last week. Many places are starting to turn brown. No rain is forecast for the next week, but temperatures will be a bit cooler than they were.
Some areas in the corn are showing a lack of water. This was more pronounced in the 100 degree heat. Now that temps are in the mid 80′s the roots are able to keep up with the demand for water. There is some water if you go deep enough, I just hope it is enough to get the crop to the next rainfall.
Michael
Filed under: home addition, house, projects | Tags: Christmas, decorating, easy projects, home, house, project, Santa
Santa’s peeking in at our house. He’s keeping an eye on us.
Peeking Santa
Here’s a closer look.
The idea was my wife’s. It really was an easy project.
Rear view
Santa was purchased as a display item. After deciding how we wanted him to appear in the window, I screwed Santa to a 1 by 3 and clamped it to the door frame. This 1 by 3 is long enough to go all the way to the floor so I only needed one clamp. Using the clamp means there are no extra holes in the frame. He’ll be easy to store for next year. Just an idea of something easy for others to do to get a little extra holiday decoration.
Michael
