Saturday, April 25, 2015

The wall is gone

Yesterday didn’t turn out as expected. No walk, no creating. After I got showered and dressed I went to town and did my errands. I had a couple of packages and a certified letter at the post office, had to go to the hardware store, and went to a continuous yard sale I had been seeing postings for. Had to be back by 11 because Pam and Ralph were coming over and Ralph was going to take a stab at removing the wall. 

I got a stool for $3 at the yard sale, a couple of books and a tile soap dish. Not sure where the soap dish is going to end up, but it was free, as were the books. The stool I had originally gotten for the workshop is now at the outside work bench, so I needed another for the shop.  I got back and got all the stuff put away and took pictures of the patio and outdoors before I moved stuff off and away from the wall. Ralph started on the wall and the bricks came out fairly easily. The mortar let go with a few taps and a chisel and actually came off the brick smoothly. There were a few that needed to be cleaned up, but that didn’t take long either. He had the short wall down in about a half hour. I watched what he was doing and after he left, I finished the rest of the wall myself. I took it all the way down to the bottom layer and will let him do that today. I’m going to break up and recycle the mortar pieces around the bottom of the shed. There are bunny holes that need to be filled and am hoping it will keep them and other critters from going underneath.

This morning I need to rake the pea gravel away from the patio and from in front of the shed for reuse. I’m hoping the physical activity will compensate for not walking. It looks a lot different without the wall. I want the new brick edging to look like it was designed that way. Will have to lay a few out, see how far we can go with it, and see what it will look like. I did get photos, but haven’t downloaded them from the camera yet. 

Once I get the new fill in by the shed, I am going to move the storage bench to in front of the shed and put my mexican cat and geraniums on that. One of the solar chandeliers will hang over that, just have to figure out how I am going to do that so I can still open the shed door. I am also going to move the solar panel to the shed roof and get it out of the middle of the yard. Not sure if that will be today or not. I am going to lash it down to the shed guy wires instead of putting holes in the shed roof. Should be fairly easy…key word being “should”. As for the bench, I will find something I don’t use a lot to store in in since it isn’t quite big enough for the bird seed, it’s intended purpose. Freeing up a little bit of space in the shed will be a bonus. I'm still having a hard time finding things I need. Unpacking as I need them, if I can find them.

As much as I miss Kali Cat and wish she were here, there are definite pluses to being pet free. I don’t have to vacuum daily, and I don’t have to feed her before my eyes are even open at 3:30 in the morning, fewer trips to the dumpster, and my dinner is just that - my dinner. 

Vicki brought me some beef stew last night and that is what I had for dinner. The timing was great, after bending over and moving bricks for a couple of hours, I did not feel like cooking. It was also very good. 

I picked up some copper pipe at the hardware store yesterday. I want to try and make a wider bangle. Will be trying to solder with copper solder instead of soft solder. But it won’t be today. I am so glad I got my rolling mill. It has reduced hammering considerably.Now I only have to hammer for a little bit of shaping and texture. My shoulder is very happy about that.

I got my ceiling fan ordered for the bedroom finally. Not sure when I will actually get to Yuma to do some shopping. I will be needing the fan very soon. I use the one in the living room almost constantly.

I have a nice big blister on the base of my right index finger from using Jake’s framing hammer yesterday. I guess I should use a different hammer today so I don’t irritate the blister too much.  It was sore last night, but this morning it has raised. The work wasn’t too hard, but was done in a bent over position. My shoulder isn’t bad surprisingly. I expected it to be worse and my hands to be numb. I’ll probably fix that today with breaking up the mortar pieces. There is a lot of mortar, so I am going to have to try to recycle as much as possible because I don’t know how or where to get rid of it. I can put a few pieces in the dumpster, but not three large boxes of it. 

I got a somewhat decent night’s sleep last night. I went to bed around 9ish, woke up at 11:30, was up for a while. Went back to bed around 1:30 and slept until 5. That is the best night I have had in a while. I’ll take it. Maybe I’m starting a new trend. I hope so. I didn’t cut off my fluids at 7, it is just too dry here and I was thirsty. But will try again tonight. 

I have decided to save some money and just use mixed bird seed. I had been buying black oil, but when I went to feed the birds yesterday, the sunflower seed container was full of ants. Not going to deal with that. The birds empty both feeders equally as fast, so they don’t seem to care. The mourning doves here are the equivalent of blue jays in VT. They will eat anything and go for the big stuff first. The cat food is the first thing to disappear, then the bunny food. They seem to be eating the cheap cat food just as fast as the expensive stuff I had left from KC. I can probably find even less expensive food at a bigger store. Small price to pay for entertainment.

Well, I guess I should get myself moving. I don’t know what time Pam and Ralph are coming over and it is already after 7. I need to get showered and dressed and do my morning chores. 

I guess we aren’t getting the severe weather that had been predicted the alert has been taken down and there is no rain in the forecast for today. I am going to leave the house open today as it is only supposed to hit 80. Next week it is predicted to be over 100. Will have to find something indoors to do then. My portable swamp cooler seems to be working to keep the humidity near normal indoors. Don’t know if it is helping with the AC or not, but moisture is a definite plus. 

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