Friday Eve

That's what I call Thursdays. Makes a Thursday feel closer to the weekend.

I promised I would post photos of the pond. Last Sunday I removed the fish into a big bucket, drained the pond, and removed a load of the most vile smelly debris you could imagine. With all the trees in my backyard it was full of leaves and sludge and rotten waterlogged black walnuts. The fish didn't quite know what to think when I put them back in but I think they are very happy now.

Here's another view that includes Sonny. He loves to watch the fish and drink out of the pond and the fish come up and swim around his face while he drinks!

Oh good - two photos uploaded now!

Just so you have a clear picture this one will certainly prove that I do indeed live in Georgia. Some people who have seen it ask if that is my outhouse. No. Duh. We got insude running water a few years ago. Geez! No, this is my yard shed. No telling how old it is. I'd like to shore it up and fix it up and paint it but that will have to wait until everything gets done in the house.

Pretty, ne?

So, because this is me talking I just have to ask if someone could please tell me in what freaking country GWB lives? I just saw him on the news and he gave the old "he he, the economy is in great shape he he" line and I 'bout screamed. I drive a manual transmission Ford Ranger pickup truck. GREAT gas mileage, small tank. Yesterday I filled it up and it was $40. That's about what I spend in a week if I only go from work to home and only run errands and do my grocery shopping along that route. That's $160 a month unless I go anywhere else. Which I do. So it's more like $200 to $220 a month. And we don't feel it now but we soon will - everything is going to go up. Even if the gas prices went down tomorrow we would feel this for many months to come. But at least we are now going to "invest in alternative fuel research" to help out. Yeah, that's gonna help my budget next month. Funny - I saw this 2 years ago and I'm just a common person. Why does the leader of the free world only react after it is too late and his approval rating goes down another couple of points. What a dumbass. I can deal with my guy not winning an election. I am an American and I have always felt it my duty to at least make a pretense of supporting my leader. But not this one. NOT MY PRESIDENT. Is it 2008 yet?

And speaking of the economy, I will soon post on the job situation. Anyone who has followed me from Random Thoughts knows there have been some changes and I haven't ever addressed them. I will soon. I'm still trying to get real with the situation.

Had the exterminator over this morning. Have owned this house for 7 years and the ex was too cheap to put out $100 bucks a year to keep up the termite protection. Since the divorce it has been on my mind and I finally decided to buck up and do it. Thankfully no termites, and they will come out next week and drill traps around the perimeter and moniter them on a regular basis. I can really sleep soundly now. This house is at least 120 to 130 years old and inside and out it is all wood - walls, floors, ceilings - termites would NOT be good.

OK, think we're caught up now. If you aren't totally bored I do hope you'll check back.

aka Gaga

The Projects: Potatos, Pond and Porch

I'm trying to get the feel for this new cyber house of mine and so thought I would tell you about some of my projects.

I've mentioned that I live in a small, 1100 square foot house in a historic village in the American south. My house is over 100 years old and literally began as a farm shack consisting, I believe, of 2 rooms. Because of this I have no end of projects, but I try to break them down into manageable pieces. I have a comprehensive list of things that need to happen and call this my 50 year plan. It involves such things as replacing flooring and re-doing a bathroom and other long haul and/or costly things.

For now though I am still trying to do routine clean up from 12 months abroad when my house sat empty preceeded by 6 months of a physical inability to accomplish anything due to a bad injury. So here is my weekend list (which involves mostly outside stuff and so must all be done today - Sunday):

1. Clean the pond. Bought the house in Feb of 99. Started the pond in May of 99. Spent several weeks with a pick-axe breaking through the packed, red clay and ended with a small pond lined with pieces of granite recovered from the yard. When I left for Japan in Jan 05 there were 6 fish. Miraculously 3 survived. I guess they ate the others because there was no one feeding them for a whole year. I am a bad fish mommy. It is 2.5 feet deep but roughly 1/2 to 2/3 full of leaves and debris and stinky muck. Right now it is draining (slow process) and I have a bucket ready to put the 3 fish in while I scrub it thoroughly and replace the filter. This is one of those projects that you just have to DO AND NOT THINK ABOUT OR YOU WILL VOMIT.

2. (See photo from first post) File cabinet. It is now completely sanded. I will have to do the polyurethane finish on the front porch and that is now covered with the layer of pollen that is an annual thing here. Before I put brush to wood I need to get the hose out and clean the porch.


3. Potatoes. OK. Problem. I just tried to upload a photo but could not do so. More new blogs kinks to work out. Anyway - Potatoes! My sister sent me a link to instructions about growing potatoes in trash cans and I thought it sounded like a very cool project so I ordered seed potatoes and gathered several large containers, including one trash can, and I now have 4 varieties of potatoes growing on my patio! Basically you let them grow to about 6 inches then add 6 inches of soil. You do this a couple of times and VOILA! Potatoes! I have now added soil twice and these are the most beautiful, lush plants I have ever grown. I have no idea what to expect in terms of harvest but they sure are pretty. Anyway, this is my "no-brainer" project for the day. I plan to sit for a while and look at them.

You are now up to date. Will check in later with photos of a clean pond and then later in the week with photos of a beautiful complete file cabinet!

Hello and welcome! This is the first post to my new blog. I hope some of you have followed me from my year in Japan blog and also hope you understand that sometimes a book has to end and a new one must be begun because the subject and plot and characters all change. Certainly not that I would ever compare myself to Shakespeare and Dickens but just imagine if they had written and written and written on the same book or play. We would be faced with 10,000 page novels that sucked and 4 day plays that no one could sit through.

So welcome.

OK. Now what?

Since I returned to the US in December I have been taking inventory of the things that need to be done. This is a huge list.

In January I purchased my very first, non-dead-relative piece of furniture. I bought an oak file cabinet from a really good unfinished furniture store. I bought it bare. It was available for pick up exactly 5 days after my surgery and so has sat in my bedroom waiting for sanding since then. Tonight I started sanding and I am hoping that by this time next week it will be ready to accept the paperwork that has lived in a plastic bin and a box since 2001! Above is the photo of the cabinet and the drawers - the feet are on the shower stool at right - this is my bedroom and hopefully in the next week I can reclaim it! Getting things done one little bit at a time.

gaga