The Adventures of Goldilocks and Her Bears

I did, finally, get around to nagging (in a nice way) the landlords about Getting Things Done(tm). So, Friday, they sent the Landlord's sister over with her handyman (she is also, apparently, a landlady in the area). I showed her the things that needed to be fixed: the decayed door trim around the exterior garage door and the adjact door the the water heater; the decaying water heater door (yes, using an interior door on the outside of the house means that it will fall apart when rain gets inside of it); the sagging gate; the worn-away grout on the kitchen counter. While she was contemplating the garage door trim, she saw our dryer vent pipe sitting out in the middle of the floor, pointing out the door*  and said "do [landlords] know about this?" I assured her that I had told them when we moved in that it needed to be done**. She responds that it must be fixed! Now! Woo hoo! I am unreasonably excited by this. Hurrah for someone who can see that pumping steam and lint into the structure is a Bad Idea! She can come be their representative any time.

A little later, she asked whether I had put in the nectarine tree. I confirmed that I had, along with all the other fruit trees. She mentioned that she had just moved down to this area, so I pointed her to Regan's Nursery and Dale Hardware. Then we talked about the tomatoes I have going. I ended up walking her through the whole garden and showing her everything I had put in. She was suitably impressed, which is always something to aim for in dealing with landlordery.

I liked the handyman. He did a reasonably quick job. He also knew when to ignore the LL instructions and do what needed to be done. I especially noted this in the grout repair in the kitchen. LL sister says that the only spot that needed repair was the really worn spot. I said that any place where it was worn below the lip of the tile needed to have more. He did it my way. :-) I also got him to caulk around the base of the range, so that when liquid spills on that counter, it doesn't drip on the pans in the cupboard below. Because that's straight up nasty.

Having all the repairs done really inspired me, so I finally got 'round to laying cardboard down in the few garden beds that needed it for weedblock. moriven got most of the rest broken down for recycling, so we don't have a big unsightly pile in the side yard any more. I covered the cardboard I laid in the front rose bed with some cedar chips I got from joycebre, which have now filled the whole house with the cedar smell. Nice! Next comes getting more compost for the garden beds in preparation for the fall growing season.

Today's project is to clean the top of the washer and dryer and then take the shop vac to all the lint in the garage. Talk about taking care of something that has been bugging me forever. W00t!


* See, the houses in this development were not built with exterior dryer vents because the developers were... just not thinking things through. I am unconvinced that people did not want dryer vents in 1973.
** I told LLs three years ago that we would do the work, but it needed a permit. We were not about to pay for the permit. Also, I doubt the city would have issued us one. Anyway, I am quite certain that the handyman did not get a permit for this change. But, since we have not done the work, I consider whether or not they get fined to officially be Not My Problem(tm). I'm pretty certain they'll have to change it once the inspectors notice the change. I'm guesing that it's too close to another wall. Boy, that's going to suck to have to patch.

For the three of you who say you like these posts...
( Massively pic heavy )

So far, I've lost 3 cabbages, 2 marigolds (!), and the japanese cucumber to a gopher. It's mighty disturbing to come out in the morning and find an entire cucumber plant gone without a trace.

Today, I actually saw the little blighter grawing upon my zucchini. The hose is currently running full stream down the open hole. Based on how much water has gone in so far, I'm apparently watering my entire yard and possibly the neighbors'. Washing a dozen dried japanese chilis down the hole was just me being vengeful.

Tonight was garden pasta - roma and yellow tomatoes, zucchini, beans, oregano, rosemary, and basil from the garden, sauteed with olive oil and purchased onions, then tossed over angel hair pasta with parmesan. Good stuff.  I added the beans last and their barely-cooked flavor made the dish zing for me.

I also took the other ~50 romas (we only have one bush, yo!) and made them into a sauce for tomorrow. I've never made spaghetti sauce from scratch. It wasn't as much work as I was led to believe, but enough work that I wouldn't want to do it all the time. There's another big crop of tomatoes coming, so I'll get to do it again soon. :)

On a related note, I want antifatigue mats in the kitchen. These are the prettiest I've found so far.

We had brocolli fresh picked from the garden and steamed to perfection tonight. Yum! Even the little broc which was almost eaten to death by bugs made a turn around and put out a tiny head. Aw! We'll have a couple nights more of happy broccies. Hopefully we'll get a second round off the plants.

Also in harvesting news, I've had a few red currants and a couple of strawberries. We have scads of Romaine.

The Roma tomato is showing tiny green fruit, and we have flowers on the peas. The beans have grown to the top of the fence and are now into the neighbor's tree. I had to thin the carrots, so I figured I'd try to replant them. I had a surprising success rate.The zucchini is producing as one might expect. There are some pickling cukes growing nicely, too. The chard was looking a bit sketchy for a while, but is perky and bright again. The corn seems to be growing slowly. Hopefully the sunshine will help.

In the realm of things I didn't expect to produce fruit this year, a handfull of blueberries are ripening. The apple tree has some happy little apples coming along. Come winter, I'll be in Pippin heaven. The nectarine has a few fruit, too, but they're pretty stunted. The fungicide I'm using to kill the leaf curl appears to be working. It's doing a good job on the adjacent roses and their fungi problems, too.

I'm excited! Two of the blueberry bushes we put in are developing berries! The red currant has a few fruit developing, too. I didn't expect to see them bear fruit while so young. Yippee!

( Dreadfully dull stuff about my garden )

We have baby mourning doves! I saw another small head peeking out today.

Sunday our landlord gave us a new fence to replace to one that was dead and sagging. It would have been nice to have some notice that the power tools were coming, but mostly I'm just glad to have a real, working fence. As a bonus, they chopped the ivy that was all around it, so there's room for new plants. I spent today planning and shopping so that I can spend tomorrow planting.

This was my own personal arts and sciences weekend.  

Thursday I came home and got a wild hare up my keister, so I cut back some of the ivy that was growing through the fence into my patio. This caused the rest of the ivy to pull the fence over the other way. Apparently those bugs that we told the landlord about really were eating away the fence. I ended up cutting away a big chunk of ivy just so the whole fence would not go over. moriven came home just as I was hauling the larger chunk - maybe 6'x4'x3' - to the trash. The look on his face was priceless.

I got the next coat of paint on the side rails of the bed. I'm down to the detail work now. I had to go out to buy different paint yesterday because the latex house paint that I've been working with, while durable, dries too fast to do the blending and shading that I want. I think it will provide a nice undercoat, but the details are going to be done in acryllic. Then we're going to varnish the crap out of it. (Right, right, sure, I could do it in period paint... but I'm not really up for grinding my own pigments, thanks.) I finally decided on the design for when I paint the footboard, but I'm nowhere near starting that project. I want to finish the sides first. The headboard, well, we're still debating.

I also got a ton of necklaces made. And photographed! And posted on smugmug! Tusya, I'll have some of these for your next auction. I need to find a good time to give them to you. Some will go the the Esfenn raffle, too (more about that in a later post). 

Last night I finished another big piece in the massive embroidery undertaking. I am pleased.

I have a volunteer tomato growing in the planter where I had a tomato in last year. It did surprisingly well over the winter. I think part of that is because of the neighbor's kitty, Sophia, who incubates it. I don't think I get to plant anything else there, though.



I've had a lot of photographic successes recently.

morivenhas posted two of my better shots in his LJ. (tiny aside: moriven F-locks all of his posts so that his exwife doesn't troll his blog again. **mumble mumble sorry excuse for a human being mumble mumble** He is happy to friend you if you want to keep up with his photography posts.)

I loved the afternoon light in the hall at Investiture yesterday and I got some really nice shots with it. The site was really nice and I hope we use it again. Hopefully on a day that isn't during a freak May heatwave.

The horsey shots at M-C war were really nice, too, though I wish that the other photographers had not joined me at my vantage point so that we could have gotten the cavalry charges from different angles. I have a tiny passion for seeing Alden ride. Damn, that man looks good on a horse. Zanaida looked damn fine, too.