Oh, the Pressure (washing)

Yep, it's that time of year again. Time to pressure wash things around the city house. We have an over abundance of very large oaks that keep everything nice & shaded but does allow mildew to form quite easily. We moved everything off & away from the areas to be washed.

We got the front patio/walkway done on Saturday afternoon but didn't get any pics (thought I had some old ones but couldn't find them). Anyway, the heat index was around 110 degrees - it was HOT & HUMID! And, the pressure washer wasn't working as well as it should. We had loaned it out last weekend & when it came back, the loanee had not drained all the water out of the pump, hoses, etc. According to Greg, this is a big no no. It was working but just didn't have as much pressure as it should have. Live & learn. He said we were never loaning it out again (we'll see).

We got an early start on Sunday & were able to get the front porch, driveway planter & back patio done. Rain was forecasted but had not yet arrived when we started around 9:00a. With the spraying water, it was like a fog bank for several hours. It then rained on & off the rest of the morning so wasn't quite as hot.

Here are the before & after pics of the planter & back patio:

Fog bank. It just held on the ground the whole morning.

 

Still wet, dried to a much brighter white (see below). Nelly approved.

The worst part, I think, is putting everything back (I still haven't put the front porch back together).

Here's a pic of the back patio with our new (to us) patio table & chairs.

The old table was on it's last legs & most of the boards had rotted through. We had painted the whole set a couple of years ago, hoping to get another year out of it & we did. But, it was beyond repair. The chairs are still in decent shape. Pressure washed them as well & will be transporting them to the country this weekend.

I found this set on one of the FB swap pages that I am a member of. It is a very high quality set (Hanamint) that we got for a great price. It is cast aluminum & has some paint flaking but we will eventually pressure wash it & repaint.

Rister likes it too.

Oh well, gotta run to the grocery store & then get dinner started (Lamb Shanks & potato cakes tonight).

Hope everyone has a great upcoming 4th of July. Stay safe, cool & dry.

Weekend in the City

We stayed in the City last weekend to get some limbs & bushes trimmed. The weather was perfect but those limbs got bigger & bigger, or seemed to anyway.

We decided to try our hand at grafting again. I wrote about our first experience here:  Plant Experiment. We got 10 plants out of that one & I'm happy to report that 9 are still alive.

We did 20 Loropetalum & 3 Camilias. Hopefully our success rate will be better this time.

As we were cutting back the Loropetalum we ran across this guy:

This blog is turning into a reptilian site. This one was as calm as the other one & only about 1/2 as long & 1/2 as big around. But, with different pattern & coloring. I need to get a snake book to identify what critters we have hanging around.

Rister isn't doing his job very well.

The hawks were very active & screeching at one another for about an hour or so. Then the owls started but it was too dark to get a picture of any of them.

Went to visit FIL after we were done, then came home, gave Nelly a bath, had an adult beverage & ate a steak with a twice baked potato. Overall a very nice weekend with a couple of semi-major projects finished.

It Finally Produced!

I put two cut off & dried pineapple tops in one of my very shady beds in the city, about 8 or 10 years ago. I check them occasionally & remove any debris but no pineapple has ever grown in either one .... until now.

Woo hoo!

Friend or Foe?

This guy was in the bushes at the City House. Right where I have to trudge through to turn on the faucet. He's about 3 or 4 foot long & about as big around as a quarter.

An Update! (Picture Heavy)

Didn't realize it had been almost a month since I posted! I've been in the country taking care of a few things. We went up over Memorial Day & got a lot of stuff done on the apartment. We got the appliances placed in the kitchen & the shop pretty well cleaned up. I stayed the following week to get the baseboards finished painting & the gas hooked up to the stove.

Here's an updated pic of the kitchen. Still have to put the panels on the island & the countertops ordered & installed, but it's coming along.

The best news of all ......... We got the pantry started. One side is done & just need additional pins to hold the shelves for the other side. Now all I need to do is fill it up!

These are the shelves that I got at the World Market going out of business sale in January 2015 ($15 each). Three & 1/2 on each side. Greg had to cut the 1/2 one & fabricate the shelves but as usual, he did a great job. Once the shelves were up we decided that we needed a top in order to make full use of the space. There is no way we could have purchase wood to make this shelving for $105. It would have cost twice or maybe even three times that much. I can't wait to get it finished & start moving stuff in!

We got the grass mowed & everything cleaned up around the yards. Also had these for dinner one night, along with some potato salad.

The following weekend I hosted a small cousins get together to swap recipes for a family cookbook that I agreed to coordinate. We'll see how that turns out. Everyone is so eager to get one done but only a few actually take action to make it happen. I've got until the end of the year to use the software to get it finished for printing in January. So far, myself & only a couple of cousins have added 75 recipes, 50 of which are mine (or friends & MIL). Oh well, I'm not going to stress about it, if they don't contribute by the deadline then it's their loss.

Anyway, it was a lovely week, even if it was a bit HOT & no rain ALL week. It did cool down enough at night that it wasn't unbearable like it is in July & August. The mornings were nice until around 10:00a then you definitely wanted to find shade. I watered trees most every day, all the established ones are doing good. The ones I planted last October are struggling but I'm crossing my fingers. TS Colin brought some much needed rain to the area the day after I left.

Each morning as I was enjoying my cup of coffee, this guy showed up to spray the surrounding fields.

I have seen them do this before but not so many days in a row. The only thing that is different is that the field is planted in corn instead of squash, melons, cotton, etc. The fields behind my Dad's place & directly behind our lot are pretty small so it was pretty impressive to see his skills in getting to those. I'm sure it's pesticide he was spraying but there was no wind & he was very precise. Most mornings on his direct approaches I could see his face, he was that low.

He flew & sprayed a different direction each day. Although I don't like pesticides being sprayed, it must be an awesome job to get to get paid to fly each day.

In othere news, the Crepe Myrtles are doing great!

And Nelly enjoyed her time in the country as well.

I'll end with this parting shot. Thought it was pretty cool & shows that the property is not all completely flat. This is looking from the barn down the driveway through the branch.