| Snakes | | [14-Nov-2008]
This is back from before I went to D.C. went home one night and there was a small snake laying against the house above the false shutters. Took a few fuzzy pictures and ignored it. A few days later went home, and this time the light was off. Opened the door and the snake dropped on my shoulder. It was sitting on top the screen door this time. Had to chase it out of the house. Havent seen it since and its been about a month now.
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| House is Livable | | | [12-Oct-2008]
Finshed work on the library. It looks like crap. Baseboards dont quite match, they need repainted already, corners are horrible and the carpet doesnt quite fit but large bookcases hid a lot. Ive got all the books out of the living room and garage. I may leave the shelves in the Pooh Room and my bedroom however, it will give me a little more room for a gaming table in the library it was a bit cramped before.
They finished sodding the yard. After pictures are up, see previous entry. |
| Drainage work | | [07-Oct-2008]
The drainage work started yesterday morning. Its impressive up close but not so noticeable, I thought they would do an obvious ditch but it was more reshaping the land. They lowered the land at the fence line about 6 inches and built a wide channel out to the street making a new path for the water away from the house. Dirt went behind the wall I built which will be for flowers now, but also adds to the height making it about a foot and a half from the low point to its top. It also went to either side to it slops down in to the channel and some at the driveway for fill (unrelated but a place for the extra dirt). They removed a lot of the junk stumps, but for some reason not the pine tree stump. They arnt done, the drain i put in is in pieces and they are working on the drainage at the corner of the house still. They also need to sod and seed it.
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| Repairing from Fay | | [30-Sep-2008]
The repair work is moving along. Both rooms are drywalled and painted. Dont have to paint the ceiling since it matches already. Still have to do the base boards and floors. This is taking longer than it should because the dishwasher decided to flood last week setting me back a few days. Had to replace the intake line and electrical cord on it so i could get it in and out without problems. Here are photos of the repair work so far at various stages, including two construction workers just standing around. Drainage work will start this week. Removed the pine tree that leaned towards the house so it wont fall on it after its roots are gone.
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| TS Fay | | [26-Aug-2008]
This was bad. The water about 3:00 pushed over the flower bed in the back and started building up against the house. This was worse than Dennis. Eventually it seeped into the library.
Roberto helped me move all the books out but im still dealing with the cleanup and rebuilding the flood control. Had someone come out and they say all i can do is a giant ditch along the back to the street. Waiting on the huge estimate.
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| French Doors | | [06-Aug-2008]
Mom bought French doors to replace the crappy sliding glass on for my birthday. They are installed now. It took a few weeks to get the screen on the outside, these pictures are before that came.
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| The other grapes | | | [13-Jul-2008]
Are ripe already. Im talking about the unidentified purple ones. Since I have the day off Tuesday i may try and go to the Famu vinyards over on Mahan and see if they can identify them. Oh i have Tuesday off to put in the new French doors and replace the cable with satellite. DSL is already in place, and working. Its not the 5mb promised so i have to call about that. One problem is i will have to find some way to externally change the satellite receiver with the dvr somehow. |
| Despite Rain | | | [07-Apr-2008]
It pored down rain most Saturday and everything i needed to do was stopped. Couldnt mow the lawn, couldnt do the gutter and didnt really want to stand on a ladder and play with electricity in the thunder and lighting.
Had to do it all Sunday. Got the gutter installed on the side of the garage. The rain was starting to dig a channel where it came of the roof there. Also installed the cealing fan in the bedroom. |
| Yearly Photos | | [17-Mar-2008]
Did this years Yearly photo. Except for the disappearing french drain and white flowers on the neighbors dogwood its not much different than last years. The new white mailbox post is obvious, and look the jeeps bikini top matches now! Most the changes I did this year were in the back.
Some changed are the nice border around the blueberris (see above), the flower bed I rebuilt this weekend, making it a little higher. The pineapple guavas really took off this year, they are now taller than I am. I got the cold frame finished just as the cold stopped. It has only one problem, it tends to fill with water in a heavy rain but that last weekend it was 14 degrees warmer than sitting out in the open. The two front apples are covered with flowers this year. They barely produced last year so it seems like they just need another years growth.
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| Planting has begun | | | [03-Mar-2008]
I started the outdoor planting this weekend. Its not supposed to freeze again so I hope it will all make it. Put the corn in the ground, the cherry tomatoes and a couple of peppers. Replaced one of the pumpkins that was lost despite being covered over the last week. Guess that even covered they can do 26 degrees.
I will hold off on the regular tomatoes until next weekend so they are a little larger. None of the pepper seeds I planted outside have sprouted, nor the beans inside. I will try with some more seeds this week but by the 15th if they havent sprouted ill buy plants. put some corn seeds in the ground to fill out the squares.
The peas did sprout and are about 2 inches high. The Earlyglow strawberries came in and I got them planted so the strawberry bed is full again. The potatoes are also planted half in the towers and half sprouting inside.
Replaced some of the roof shingles. There was a whole group above the garage that had broken off. Rewired the electric fence so its not in the way when working in the garden, and the plants do touch it. Not sure its placement is much better since I've tripped on it twice now already. |
| Roomba | | | [30-Dec-2007]
The roomba robotic vaucum cleaner my mom got me Christmas works great. I did have to strighten some things up but it runs all over the living room and bed room without problems and does a good job. Its much slower than normal vaucuming but since you dont have to do anything it fine.
African violet is starting to bloom again finally.
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| Yearly House photo and flowers | | [16-Mar-2007]
Took the yearly house photos as well as some others of the so much you can see the white flowers on the tips of the branches in the yearly photo. house and yard. The apples are blooming
 . It looks like everything survived the winter, including the kumquat tree I thought was dead. I went to dig it up and its got little green shoots coming out of the pinestraw from the root stock. The entire garden is planted. Im out of room for more until the onions are harvested. I planted a pumpkin and a squash this year where the watermelon was last year. Im not sure were Im going to put the water melon if it sprouts.
I also put up some pictures of flowers from around Tallahassee; Azaleas, dogwoods, crab apples. The wisteria started a few days later so none of it made it yet.
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| Gutters | | | [22-Nov-2006]
Installed gutters on the front of the house weekend before last, and after work the next 3 days. Got it done just before the disapointing rain on Wednesday that didnt do enough to test them. Hopefully they will stop the flower beds from flooding in the front. If so I think I can also remove the gravel in front and reuse it in back. It will look nicer that way. |
| Flood Control | | | [31-Oct-2006]
It rained almost 4 inches Friday night in just a few hours. I was home and got a good look at what happens. The flower beds in the front get swamped. Too much water coming off the roof. Ill be installing gutters soon, this should also take care of some of the splash going onto the walkway.
Around back the raised berm on the west side of the french drain and the lower land on the east side worked well to keep the water away from the house. The beds in the back need raised more, and some drainage put in them, sloping of some kind because the collect water. The yard between the septic tank and the bed is a low spot. Water collects there, then flows against the house between the septic tank and the bananas, the same place where a lot of the roof water ends up too. That corner is 4 to 6 inches deep in water. Water also flows into this area from the pasture by way of the oak tree. I think doing another berm type thing from the oak to the pine and gutters along the back will fix alot of this, as well as just building up the corner so its not so low.
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| More drainage work to be done | | | [10-Sep-2006]
It rained almost 3 inches in an hour or so today and was the best test for the drainage I put in last summer. While it works, the 4in pipe just isnt big enough to handle the volume of water and it flows on top of the pipe and gravel as well. Not as bad as during Dennis but still river like. Have a problem with the ground on the west side of the drain is too low and water comes over to that side to easily and piles up at the house. Working on fixing that. Took pictures but cant find the cable to go with the camera to get them on the computer. |
| Popup Sprinklers | | | [30-May-2006]
I reworked the irrigation this weekend to get some of the above surface tubing underground. I keep running over the above ground stuff with the lawn mower. So now from the faucet its below ground to the 1st apple tree with 4 popup sprinklers for the pinapple guavas and loquat. I also ran lines over the the grape trellis ends. Put a faucet at all three end points. The trenching shovel made this much easier than the stuff I did last summer so Im thinking about continuing it out so I have a faucet at the oak tree. |
| Easter Flowers | | [14-May-2006]
These photos have been on my camera for a while, the flowers since Easter.
Also some photos of Carlins Birthday Party out at the blueberry farm. |
| Azaleas under the oak | | | [19-Apr-2006]
Saturday Clayton and I went to get some azaleas from his dad that had been dug up and wernt being replanted. It took till Wednesday to get enough dirt to cover them. They were in pretty bad shape to begin with and didnt get much better in those days despite constant watering. Wednesday I got 3 yards of top soil delivered and planted them around the oak tree. Its rained since them which is helpfull but I think its too late. Im sure at least one is dead and the others arnt perking up. Oh well I have the bed ready for fall when I get the rest of Rons azaleas.
There is still about a yard of dir I need to move. Some of it will level the new azalea bed, they rest as fill near the drain I build last summer as soon as the grass grows up through the fill Ive already put on the west side of it. Im trying to keep the overflow water on the east side away from the house.
All the ones I got from him this winter out font are doing fine. The 4 in the back are dead/dying, I think its the clay they are planted it. It was also starting to get warm when I moved them, and they got hit by the worst of the last cold snap after that.
The strawberries are still producing, lowering the water to them seemed to help the taste some. The blackberries are covered in flowers. I need to move the zuccini its just to large and crowding out the other plants. The tomatos are starting to flower, and only about 2ft high, not the 14ft of 2 years ago. The iris bloomed. I was about to remove them but the first ones bloomed right on time for Easter. Despite my concerns the grapes have all come back to life, and are growing like crazy. |
| Garter Snake on the Patio | | [03-Apr-2006]
When I got up Sunday there were two garter snakes sunning themselves on the patio. The little one ran off and I never saw it again, but the big one stayed around all afternoon, moving to the front later in the day.I think they are living in the wildflowers. .
Also took some photos of flowers and strawberries.
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