Bummer!

I got home from work yesterday and the first thing I noticed was that my front yard humming bird feeder was on the ground.  No big deal.  I figured the high winds from the previous night's storms had knocked it off the hanger.  

I walked over and picked it up to hang it back up....and turns out it was a big deal after all.  The little plastic hanging loop molded into the ant moat had broken.  The problem with that is, there is literally no other way to hang the feeder than that ant moat loop, because if you take it off, the rest of the feeder is smooth glass.  Not only that, they don't sell replacements -- not even on the Perky Pet website.  I'd have to buy a whole new feeder.  

And that's what I'd planned on doing tomorrow when I go to the store.  

However, this afternoon, as I was watering my little basil seedlings, 

and admiring my tomato,

a hummingbird buzzed me, as if to say, "Where's the feeder?"  

"Sorry, guy."  I replied, "It's broken."  

The little bird flew off and I thought, 'I can rig something up that will last until I can get a new feeder," and that's exactly what I did, using some old Red Heart yarn.

It's holding for now, but I don't know how well it'll keep the ants away, and that is an absolute must around here.  I'm still going to look at the store tomorrow, because I don't think I'll buy this kind again.  There's no point if they're just going to break after just a few months of use.  

In other news, now that my little greenhouse is empty, and hopefully, the landscaper can come early next week, I think I'm going to start my little sunflower seeds.  Maybe by the time they're ready to plant into the garden, I'll have something set up for them.  

On a similar note, once my seemingly immortal snakes have gone to that great herpitarium in the sky, I want to get something like this to put into that room. 

I like that the lights are adjustable, so that I can get them closer to the sprouts so they won't get so leggy.  One day, somewhere in the future, I want a greenhouse like my friend Marcy has.  

But right now, I want popcorn.  So I'm going to get popcorn. 

Laters

A Li'l Storm

Yeah, we had us a little storm last night, but fortunately it didn't produce any tornadoes.  At least not up here, despite what my coworkers have said.  There were some tornado warned storms down south, almost to the Louisiana border, but what we had here is called a wake low.  

That's when a very low pressure area forms in the wake of a storm system, and it can cause strong winds.  And that's probably way more than you ever wanted to know, but hey, I gotta be me.  

Anyway, I haven't heard of any significant damage in this area,  but I did see some smaller tree branches down and some garbage cans tumped over on my way to work this morning.  

By the way, I'm still going in at 4:00 AM so expect blogging to be sporadic and posts to be brief for a while.  They've posted that the lines are going to be off this weekend, but we'll have to wait and see if component areas will be working.  Right now, our numbers don't look too good, but how can we braze anything if we never have parts?  

After work, I came home and cut the first little bunch of orange mint and hung it up to dry. 

Last year, I gave all I had to Cody and Brennan, but this year, I want to save some to maybe make some tea once it cools off a bit.  And my peppermint, too.  Save it for tea.  And whatever the mint was that my neighbor gave me when I first moved in.  I think it's spearmint, but I'm not 100% sure.  

Once I get my raised beds in place, and have moved my stuff from the planters into them, I might dig up some of that spearmint and put it in there.  In the planter, I mean.  Right now, it's growing wild in my yard.  I'd thought to put a little herb garden right beside my back door, so that's where I'd planted it, but I quickly realized that space wasn't nearly big enough for all of the herbs I want to grow.  

That's why I had the guy fence in that section on the West side of my house.  It gets good sun and will make a fine garden spot. 

One thing, you may remember I had terrible issues with squirrels digging in my planters last  year.  Or birds.  Or the cat.  I don't really know what it was, but something was digging my beds up.  I've been trying to think of something I can do to stop that this year, other than just piling bricks up in the planters.  

I was looking at something like this:  

Maybe not this exact product, but something similar.  Maybe without the spikes, which according to the reviews, don't do much to deter cats anyway, but the mesh would provide a barrier against critters digging things up.  They had some stuff at Walmart that I almost got last week.  It was a plastic diamond mesh, kind of similar to chicken wire.  If they still have it, I might pick up a roll this Friday when I go do my shopping. 

If we're off Saturday, I might run up to Batesville and see what they have at Lowe's.  I know I keep saying that, but one of these days, I'm going to mean it!  

But for now, I reckon I need to head for bed.  I know it's early, but then 2:45 comes mighty early, too.  

Goodnight. 

Updates

I said it would take me a bit longer than five hours, and I wasn't joking.  Of course, it may only take five hours of total knitting time, but when you have this obnoxious thing called work taking up the majority of your day, well, that five hours gets spread out over several days. 

All that to say, this is as far as I've gotten on my great-nephew's sweater. 

I've finished the yoke, and am about to start dividing for the sleeves.  

In another update, the landscaper contacted me yesterday evening and said he hasn't forgotten me.  He's keeping an eye on the weather and well, right now it looks like it'll be sometime next week before he can even get started.  

So, this morning, I put the little basil plants into their new home on the front porch.  

There they'll stay until their bed is finally ready.  

While I was out there moving the tomato away from the porch edge so it doesn't get drowned, look what I found!

Two little blooms!  Of course, they're just forming, but hopefully I'll have a tomato or two soon.  

I know this is short, but I want to get back to knitting, so I'm outta here. 

Laters. 

 

I'll Live

I went bright and early this morning for my annual physical, and the doc says I'm going to live.  Overall, he's pleased with my progress -- my weight and cholesterol are both down, and my A1C is back to within normal ranges.  High normal, but still normal.  

I told him about the pain I had in my left shoulder a while back, and he checked it, said I had normal range of motion, and it was probably just a touch of bursitis.  I'd been worried about a torn rotator cuff, so I'm glad to know it wasn't that.   It feels a lot better now, too.  Almost back to normal. 

After my appointment, I thought briefly about running up to Batesville to see what plants they have at the Walmart up there, since the one here has had a paltry selection this year.  I don't know if it's because they're remodeling or what, but they haven't really had much of anything.  Maybe the one up in Batesville would have a better selection, and of course there is always Lowe's.  It would have been a beautiful day to walk the trails at the mounds, too, but in the end, I didn't go.  

Instead, I ran by the Walmart here and got my oil changed to stop my car from nagging me about it.  While I was there, I ran by the craft department and picked up three new skeins of yarn.  

I'd been looking for something to knit a baby sweater for my oldest nephew's baby -- which I found out yesterday is a boy-- and thought something in the camouflage will be nice, since they're all avid outdoorsmen.   The other two were impulse buys.  I thought they'd make nice looking charity hats, and there just might be a second baby sweater from one of them, too.  I've already cast on a 5 Hour Baby Sweater from the camo. 

Somehow, I think it'll take me a bit longer than five hours, but they ought to be done before the baby gets here.  I'll probably do a matching hat, too.  

The only other thing I did was to get the new air conditioner into my bedroom window, and that was a chore in itself.  As you can see, the window in that side is odd shaped and higher than a normal bedroom type window. 

That not only makes it hard to lift the unit up that high, but they never fit quite right.  I don't know why they put such odd windows on that side of the house, but they're all like that -- even the one in the kitchen.  Next time I go into town, I'm going to have to look for some insulation tape or something to seal up around the edges, then we'll be good to go for a while.   That brown stuff is the little bit they included with the unit, but it won't be enough for what I need. 

It is now happily humming away, cooling down the bedroom.  

Maybe now I'll finally get some sleep.  At least, better sleep than I have been getting.  

Knitting Has Been Done

It feels kinda weird sitting here on a Sunday evening, not having to think about getting ready for work in the morning.  It's making me almost jittery, thinking I should be getting my lunch ready, or fixing the coffee pot, or going to bed...but I'm not.  I'm sitting here blogging and about to *gasp* start a movie or something.  I don't know what yet, but I'm going to watch something. 

Anyway,  this has been quite the busy Sunday as far as TV watching.  Let's see...I watched a few episodes of Dr. Pimple Popper, some episodes of JAG, some of Vacation House Rules, and a couple of Atlantis.  

And I watched my friend Marcy's newest Flosstube.  Do you know she has knit three emotional support chickens while my one has been languishing in a drawer waiting to be seamed?  Yep, and thus I was inspired to dig her out of what has been essentially her grave and get her finished.  

That, Gentle Reader, is exactly what I did.  

I had one little setback when I was sewing the second side of the stomach piece in when I got nearly to the end and discovered the sides were not even.  I ripped the whole seam out, then adjusted the sides so that they lined up, pinned them into place, and re-sewed the seam.  Once that was done, the rest was easy peasy.  

At least I thought it would be until I couldn't remember where I'd put the fluff stuff.   After tearing up the house, I eventually found said fluff stuff and the stuffing of the fluff began.  Here she is, all finished and ready to be emotionally supportive. 

I think I sewed the wattle on backwards, but at this point, it's going to stay that way.   Oh, well.  I doubt anyone but me would even notice.  

Before all of that even got started, I finished another charity hat.  

In other news, I finally found my garden twine and tied the first round of my homemade tomato cage.  

You may have to blow up the picture to see it, if you're into such things, I mean.  It's just green twine, so do what you will with that.  When I finally get my garden spot fixed up, I'll probably have about six tomato plants, so I found some on Amazon that you can put together in different ways.  I'm not going to order them just yet, but they're already in my cart.  

I'm thinking I might put a little fairy garden in one of the corner spots.  It'll be really cute, there. 

Also, I did a little research on hardening off seedlings, and discovered that I can do it much faster than I have been.  With that in mind, I left them out for four hours yesterday, and eight this morning.  It was early morning sun, so I figured they'd be OK with that more so than harsh afternoon sun.  

I brought them back inside and rigged up the lid of my greenhouse so they'd still get a little light.

I put the rest under this lamp, then switched out the bulb from a regular LED to a daylight bulb.  

I think starting tomorrow, I'm going to leave them outside all day, and ... well, I don't know what I'm going to do when I go back to work.  If we weren't expecting rain all next week, I'd just leave them out, but I don't want them to get pounded into mush.  Also, the tips of some of the leaves are turning brown, and I think that means I'm overwatering them.  So, I'm going to cut back on that, too, and see how they do.  

Oh, maybe I'll dig out that old baker's rack and put them onto the front porch!  I need a new baker's rack, by the way.  The old one is almost rusted through in spots...Hmmm, off to Amazon...

I'm going to have to start doing something with this orange mint, too.  It was struggling a bit, then I moved it to the front porch and it's perked up quite a bit. 

Maybe tomorrow, I'll cut some and start drying it.  Or maybe I'll make me some orange mint tea.  Who knows.

For now, I'm off to google fairy garden ideas. 

Laters. 

Blink Twice

Today was the longest day...it just seemed to drag on and on.  It finally ended, and as we were lining up to clock out, I said to my coworker, "We'll blink twice, then be back up in here."  Except I'll blink three times, because I have Monday off to go to the doctor for my annual physical.  It's also time to get my oil changed, so I'll probably get that done while I'm in town.  

By the time I get done with all of that, the yard might be dry enough to mow before the next round of rain moves in on Tuesday.  I was hoping the landscaper would be able to come get started sometime this coming week, but looking at the forecast, it doesn't look like that will happen.  Maybe next week...

On a similar note, look who got put into their big boy pots this afternoon!  

I didn't even have enough of the little pots, so I had to re-use some of the ones I'd bought plants from Walmart in.  

Good thing I saved them.   Anyway, I'm still working on hardening the little plants off, even though I kind of feel a bit like I'm tossing them into the deep end of the pool.   I mean, because they don't fit under my grow light any more, I want to make sure they're getting enough light, so I'm leaving them out in the sunlight a bit longer than I normally would at this stage of the hardening process.  

I think in the long run, they'll be OK, and even if they aren't I've got plenty of seeds left. 

I also need to get this sunflower moved, but I was hoping to put it into one of my raised beds, so I don't want to move it just yet. 

It can't stay in that planter too much longer, though.  It will get too big.  I have no idea what species of sunflower it is, because it was a total surprise.  I don't know if it came from one of the plants I grew last year, or if a bird or squirrel dropped something there from the bird feeder.  It's going to be fun seeing what it grows in to.  

Speaking of, I've saved some sunflower seeds from one of the plants I grew last year that I want to start next.   If I remember right, they're one of the smaller plants that only gets a couple of feet high.  I'll put them into my pollinator bed, once I get it set up.  Again...waiting for the weather to clear so the landscaper can do his job.  It's frustrating, because I'm excited to get started, but we can't control the weather.  

This may be God's way of teaching me patience.  I just wish he'd hurry up!

They Shenaned, Again

Apparently, there have been shenanigans at work again.  

There I was at work, technically still on lunch break but already back in my work area.  I was chatting with another brazer -- just chatting about nothing in general, when Demi-god walked up and said, "What's going on?"  

"Nothing," the other brazer said, and Demi-god told us, "They just paged Uncle Supervisor to the parking lot."  

"Maybe they caught some more people playing craps," I joked.  I'd just found out this morning that a couple of nights ago, they'd fired some people off second shift for playing craps at the end of their assembly line.  

Then we had to explain to Demi-god what craps was.  He actually knew the game, but knew it by a different name.  

But that wasn't what this was at all.  It would seem that some guy was out in the parking lot beating up his girlfriend.    I never did find out who it was, though.  Demi-god said it was someone over there, waving his hand vaguely at the sheet metal department, and his girlfriend works up there -- waving his hand vaguely towards the front of the plant. 

That isn't a safe place for anyone, but it's especially unsafe for women out there.  I can't wait to get out of that place. 

In other news, the last item of my recent spending spree has arrived. 

 It's been in my wish list for a while, but when they marked it down to $18.99, I couldn't resist. They say it's a limited time deal, but sometimes they just say that to get you to buy something on impulse. 

No matter, my Doctor Who collection is now complete, because I don't intend to get the Peter Capaldi or Jodi Whittaker seasons.  I think Capaldi would have been a good Doctor if he'd had better writing, but I felt his story lines were pretty lame, and I never had any interest in watching Whittaker.  

I don't even know who is The Doctor now, but I can tell you Eccleston is still my favorite. 

Well, I have to go in at 4:00 in the morning, so I'm going to end this and start getting ready for bed. 

Goodnight, Gentle Reader.

Air Buds!

I'm sure you will all be pleased to know my air conditioner was delivered a day early, and to the right house, no less!

Good thing,  because I for sure wouldn't have been able to lug that thing all the way home.   At this point, I'm so tired I don't even want to lift it up to the window.  Because I don't have normal windows on that side of the house, I'm going to have to lift it up about armpit high, and I just don't have it in me today.  

Maybe this weekend I can get 'er done.  

On a similar note, it has been so hot and sticky and downright miserable at work, I remarked to a coworker, "We're going to be dying up in here in August!"  

She replied, "We're going to be dying up here in May!  Wait...that's tomorrow!"  

It sure is...funny how January seems to last forever, but once you get past that, each month goes by faster and faster until December is just a blink...

But for now, it's almost May and the landscaper got back to me with his quote.  It was a bit higher than I had wanted, but then, everything is these days.  I guess I'm still trying to live in the late 1900s when life was affordable.  Still, the job needs to be done, so I accepted the quote.  Now, we're just waiting for the next round of storms to pass so he can get started. 

Let's hope that is soon, because some of these little guys are outgrowing the greenhouse. 

I'm going to have to up-pot them soon, then finish hardening them off so I can get them into the beds.  Once I get the beds in place and filled, that is.   And my banana pepper plant has buds on it!  

I don't know if I'm going to leave it in that pot or move it to a bed.  I'll decide that later.  

Speaking of work, they announced recently that a real estate developer will be building a new industrial park here in town.  You can read about it here:  Ground Broken On New Industrial Park.  I'm pretty sure this will be the death knell of the plant.  They already can't find anyone to work out there as it is.  

As I was telling my coworker, these kids coming up today have never known life without air conditioning.  They aren't going to stand here sweating to death in such a toxic, unorganized, unsafe plant when there are much better options out there. 

Oh, we had to fill out a safety survey today.  They always make us do one after a major incident has occurred, but don't expect anything to change any time soon.  If they really cared about safety, they'd have made the plant safe years ago.  

He Came!

He came!  The landscaper came!  

I was really impressed, because he messaged me first and let me know he was running behind on another job, and would be a few minutes late, but he was coming.  Sure enough, he showed up when he said he was going to.  That's more than you get from most people around here. 

He was a lot younger than I expected, and indeed if I hadn't known he's married with three kids, I'd have thought he was a teenager.  All that aside, he was very polite and respectful.  We discussed what I wanted, and he was very up front about pricing.  It's going to cost this much to rent the dirt spreader thingy -- because he's just starting to build his business and doesn't have his own equipment yet, and that much for the dirt, then add in his labor on top of that.  He asked me how much I was wanting to spend, and I said I had no idea how much this type of thing costs, and for him to charge me a price that's fair to both of us, but from what he'd told me so far, he was still within my budget.  

Just between you and me, I'd saved up $5K for the entire project, but that includes getting the area prepped, plus the beds, the dirt to put into the beds, and the pea gravel or sand, or whatever I want to put between the beds.  I have one of those molds that you use with the Quick-crete, and I may use that between the beds.  I haven't decided yet. 

Anyway,  I told him, "All I ask is that you treat me the same way you'd want someone to treat your mother.''  And I showed him where I had started digging up the day lilies and spider lilies.  "I got this far," I said, "and said, 'I need help'."

So, now we have to wait for a week free of rain, which won't be this week, to give the dirt time to settle, "because you don't want me to do all of this work, then it gets washed away in a storm", he said.  

On a similar note, I got home from work, and there was a box from Home Depot in my car port.  

What in the world, I wondered.  I didn't order anything from Home Depot.  I got out of the car, checked the label, and sure enough it was a neighbor's package that had been mis-delivered.  I put my stuff inside, let the cat out, and went back out picked the package up.  It wasn't too heavy, so I decided to just walk it down to his house.  

When I got there, I saw another package in his car port.  "I'll just put this one right beside his other package," and as I did so, my eye caught the label on the package that was already there, and it was mine!  Oh, the delivery guy must have gotten them mixed up.  No problem.  I'd leave the neighbor's package, and carry mine home. 

Only mine was heavy.  About half way home, I was regretting that decision to walk, but I doggedly pressed on and made it home.  And what was in that package?  Why, it was the other raised bed I'd ordered.  

You know what else I ordered?  An air conditioner.  Seriously.  Last night, I got onto Amazon and ordered a new window unit.  It's supposed to get here Thursday, so I don't have to make an extra trip into town to get one.  

Oh, and I forgot to tell you yesterday that my lemon verbena and my lemon thyme didn't come back this year.  I want to try the lemon verbena again, and I think it might do better in a bed on the ground.  If I mulch it well, the roots won't freeze, which is what I feel happened to the last one.  

I also didn't tell you about the shenanigans at work, but not because I forgot.  I don't want to feel like I'm constantly complaining about my coworkers.  I will tell you that Stalker was back to wearing a t-shirt today.  We laughed at him, and one of the other brazers said, "He must have run out of polo shirts."   Saturday, he came in wearing a home-made "official" shirt.  He'd bought himself a blue polo shirt, then took it into town and had someone put a company logo onto it.  Or maybe he did it himself.  You can buy that stuff to make the iron on transfers and print it out at home.  Who knows?

And finally, just so this post isn't a total waste of your time, here is hat progress. 

 One more thing.  I started learning a really fun song in my Faber book.  It's pretty easy.  So much so, I almost have it down and I only started learning it yesterday.  I might just record that one for you.  

Maybe. 

Yes I Am

Why yes, yes I am going to bore you with photos of all of my plants!  There'll be other stuff, too, so hang in there until the end.  Or not.  It's totally up to you. 

First up, since I never heard back from the first landscaper, I came home and sent a message to the other one I'd found on Facebook.  I haven't heard back yet, so keep your fingers crossed that this one shows up and does the job so I can start getting my raised beds put up.  I'm going to need them, too.  

Look who got their first taste of big boy sun this afternoon!

I'm going to have to up-pot some of the bigger ones pretty soon, because they're almost to the top of the greenhouse.  

What I did up-pot is my sweet banana pepper.  

I don't know if it's going to stay in that pot for good.  If I can get my beds set up, I want to grow banana peppers in one, so I may move this plant into one of them.  If I'd known how much I like banana peppers, I might have been growing them a lot earlier.  

Since I was outside already, I walked around taking photos of all of my other backyard plants.  Behold, my sage and rosemary.

My French Tarragon.  

The white stuff is the diatomaceous earth I've been putting into that planter to kill the fire ants.   It's become an afternoon ritual.  I get home, fill the bird feeder, shake ant poison onto the new beds...you know.  The normal stuff.  But since these are herbs, I want something food safe in this planter.  Thus, the diatomaceous earth. 

This is my Greek oregano.  

My lemon balm.  I also want to have a whole bed full of this, too.  

My peppermint, which will probably stay in this planter so it doesn't take over the whole bed. 

And my orange mint, which might get the whole other side of this bed.  Provided I can keep whatever ate my last one up away from this one. 

 Now for the good news, in less time than it has taken me to write this far, the second landscaper has already responded to my message and we've set up a time for him to come.   Maybe this one will show up and I'll finally get my garden spot started -- not to mention the low spots in my front yard filled in. 

In other news, I didn't make it to the store again today.  To buy a new window unit, I mean.  At this point, I may just order one and have it delivered.  What with that and all the gardening stuff I've been ordering, my UPS man is getting quite a workout.

Now if you'll excuse me, I found a new to me show on Prime called Atlantis, in which a young man named Jason goes through some sort of time warp and ends up in ancient Greece.  I'm going to go get something to eat and watch a few episodes. 

Oh, and knit a bit. 

Laters.   

Not So Quiet Sunday

Sunday is supposed to be a day of rest, right?  But today, I found I simply couldn't keep still.  After all the rain we've had this week -- plus more on the way this evening -- I had to take advantage of the beautiful weather we had.  

Well, it started last night when I decided to put a li'l fire in my fire pit and sit outside for a while.  

It didn't last long, because even with insect repellent on and a citronella candle burning, the skeeters were still eating me up.  The Incarnation of Evil and I enjoyed it while it lasted, though.   

I had to feel sorry for the cat, there.  She'd caught something, but I don't know what it was, because as she was running to show it to me, she dropped it and it got away.  She's still looking for it in that photo up there.  I still went over there and petted her and told her what a good girl she was, so maybe that made her feel better.  

I went back out for a bit this afternoon, but again, I couldn't sit still.  I wrote a few lines in a letter to my Australian pen pal, then jumped up and sprinkled some more diatomaceous earth in the raised bed -- the one with the fire ants in it.  I sat back down, then jumped up and pulled some weeds.  I sat back down, then went and turned my compost tumbler a bit...and so on and so forth until my Adirondack chairs were out in the bald sun.  Then I came inside and took a shower.  

Now I'm watching a fairly new crime show on Hulu called Tell Me How I Died.  It's a true crime show about forensic pathologists solving difficult crimes.  

But I'm getting ahead of myself.  

The day started when the cat woke me up yowling outside my bedroom door at 4:30 this morning.  I fussed at her a bit, but she doesn't understand the concept of sleeping in.  A couple of cups of coffee and a couple of episodes of Sins Of Our Mother, which was recommended by a coworker, during which I cast on another charity hat. 

And just for fun, I went back and watched the very first episode of Call The Midwife.  I don't know if I am going to re-watch the entire series, but it's fun seeing them all so young, and the ones who are no longer there.  

As soon as the sun came up, I re-potted my tomato plant and put the rods into the pot. 

I haven't tied any twine to them yet, but I will within the next couple of days--at least down towards the bottom.  I'll add more rings of twine as the plant grows.    

Since we're facing the possibility of heavy rains tonight and into tomorrow, I've put it onto the front porch for now.  

That way, it will be protected from the deluge, but still get  plenty of direct sunlight.  I'll probably eventually move it to the back yard, once monsoon season is over.   

Speaking of,  it won't be long before I up-pot and begin to harden these basil seedlings off. 

I can almost see them getting bigger by the day.  I've rearranged the little sponges so that the smaller, weaker seedlings are closest to the grow lights, and that seems to be helping them a bit.  Maybe this year, I can make real pesto without having to add spinach to get enough.  Oh, and I need to look up recipes that use pesto...

And finally, Texas QB Quinn Ewers was drafted in the 7th round.  It would seem the NFL might just agree with those of us who've been saying he's over rated.  

Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to close this so I can enjoy my last few moments of my day off. 

Laters. 

Another One

Well, at this point, I can only assume that I’ve been blown off yet again. 

That’s right, still not a word from the landscaper, and he came so highly recommended, too. But as I was despairing last night of ever getting the job I need done, another landscaper posted his number in of the local groups, so I got it.  Best thing, he said call, TEXT or message. 

That gives an introvert like me a lot of leeway.

I figure I'll shoot him a text Monday evening when I get of work.  I need to get on this, because yes, I ordered another raised bed from Amazon. This one is 8' x 2', which is what I want to put around the fence line and next to the house.  Then I'll put my 4' x 4' beds in the center.  I'll have to start laying them out to see how things are going to line up, and to do that, I need the space prepped.  

Hopefully, this landscaper will show up and do the job.  If he doesn't, I don't know what I'm going to do.  Oh, and bad news, the fire ants have taken up residence ...well, all over my yard, but some have moved into one of my planters. Since I've got food items planted there, I didn't want to use poison, so this afternoon I got out and gave them a good dusting of diatomaceous earth. 

That's French tarragon, sage, and rosemary growing in this bed.  Once I get my herb garden set up, they will each have a space in it, and I may get a few more of each.  The long term plan is, once I get everything established and growing well, after I retire, I may sell little bundles of fresh herbs down at the Farmer's Market on the square. 

You know, just to have something to do with them, since I don't really cook any more.  Sometimes I don't understand myself.  I've always wanted an herb garden, but I don't know why.  Oh, well...Somebody will do something with them.  

In a strange case of irony too rich to go unsavored, I had planned on going to Walmart after work and buying a new window unit for my bedroom.  Alas, it got up to 94° at my work station, and by the time I got off, I was too hot and miserable to go to the store, so I just came home. 

And finally, I found out that the guy who got ran over came back to work the very next day. He won't need any surgery or anything.  He'll be in a boot for a while, and they've moved him to another area of the plant where he can sit down while his foot heals. 

He got lucky, because that could have been really, really bad. 

Not Yet

Well, I haven't heard from the landscaper again, but honestly, when this came across my phone this morning, I didn't really think he'd come today anyway.  

I figure I'm probably going to have to wait until monsoon season is over to get someone to show up, but I am wondering, how long is it necessary to wait before I assume I've been ghosted yet again?   If he's not going to show, I need to go ahead and find someone else so I can get started getting my beds ready.  On the other hand, there's not much he can do anyway until it starts raining, so we have time.  

By the way, one of the local meteorologists posted that the rain washed a big sinkhole in a used car lot here in town.  That rain was something else!  Too bad it didn't come in the middle of the night, because that's good sleeping weather.  

On a similar note, I was standing there at work, wondering if I really needed to go to Walmart today, being that they are still remodeling and I can't find anything.  Then I spent the rest of the day with the theme from Indiana Jones stuck in my head. 

And as I expected, there were things I needed that I didn't find, but when I went into the garden center, I found this: 

an orange mint plant.  I debated for a good long while, but at this point, I'm sure the one I had last year isn't coming back, so I splurged and bought the new one.  Now I need to figure out how to keep it from getting eaten up like the last one did.  Tomorrow, I'll give it a good dusting with my diatomaceous earth.  Maybe that'll help.  

I'd gone to the garden center with the intention of getting a tomato plant, and after much deliberation, I chose this one. 

I almost bought a tomato cage, too, but then I remembered I still have all of those posts I bought last year to stake my sunflowers.  I'll just use a few of those and some garden twine and make a cage of my own. 

By the way, I did find where they put the window unit air conditioners.  I might just go back and get one tomorrow afternoon.  

And finally, the volunteer bachelor's button is loaded with blooms and buds. 

 I got my new weedeater battery fully charged last night and had to go try it out.  It's got a little guide thing that keeps you from whacking stuff you don't want to, and that will come in very handy for me.  I was able to whack all around this little plant and somehow managed not to cut it down. 

And I love the new weedeater.  It's so much lighter and so much quieter than the old gas powered one.  I can see myself doing a whole lot more trimming now.  

I Guess They Didn’t

I guess they didn't hear us after all, because That Driver was right back on the tugger this morning.  Someone said they'd given her a drug test, and she wasn't impaired -- just a bad driver, so they OKed her to go back to work. I haven't heard anything about the man, though.  How he is, I mean.  I'll ask tomorrow if anyone knows anything. 

We had a bit more excitement today, when I saw someone running across the plant towards a group of supervisors, shouting, "Hey!  Hey!"  A moment later, all of those supervisors came running back the way she came and ran into the women's bathroom.  Long story short, someone had fainted and to be honest, I feel she probably just got overheated.  These young folks have spent their entire lives in air conditioning.  They don't know how to handle a 90° factory.

If they're falling out this early, they'll never make it through August, I'm telling you. 

In other news, the landscaper didn't show.  Didn't call.  Nothing.  To be fair, it's been raining almost non stop for the last two days, so I haven't given up just yet.  In the meantime, I decided it was time to play God with my little basil seedlings and decide which ones live and which ones die. 

OK, OK, all dramatics aside, I decided it was time to thin them down to one per pod. I tried to pick the strongest one in each, but in some cases, it boiled down to an eenie meenie miney mo type of thing.  I hope I picked the right one.  I guess we'll see.  

Here are the lucky survivors.

And here are the poor little ones who didn't make the cut.  

 They are now composting the back yard.  And just after I tossed them out into the mud, I thought I should have added them to the olive oil I'm infusing with basil.  Oh well, there'll be plenty more soon enough. 

While we're on the subject, I went to ask Supervisor GreenJeans to sign a scrap ticket and he told me all about his garden -- how high his beans were gitting, his potatoes, all of it.  He gets so excited about this stuff.  

He really should have been a farmer. 

Can You Hear Us Now?

There I was at work, just a working away, keeping my head down and minding my own business when suddenly I heard a blood curdling scream coming from the direction of the automatic brazers.  We all ran over like lemmings to see what was going on, and it was a terrible terrible thing. 

First, you need a little explanation to understand what was going on.  In order to get the parts from the component areas -- tubing, fin press, sheet metal, etc -- they are loaded onto buggies, which can be connected together and are then pulled by what we call a tugger.  

With me so far?  

OK, so there was a man who was hooking up a buggy full of parts to the end of a train of buggies, only the tugger driver didn't wait for him to get clear of the line of buggies.  She just jumped up onto the tugger and started driving while he was still in front of the last buggy, and she ran over the man.  

He was laying in the floor screaming, and one of the maintenance guys named Derek ran over and quite literally turned into the Incredible Hulk, and lifted that entire buggy full of parts off the man so the others who were there could pull him out.  I don't know how badly hurt the man is, but he was sitting up and talking as they wheeled him to First Aid.  

Once we figured out what had happened and that the guy would be OK, I turned to a couple of my coworkers and said, "I don't mean no harm..."

Ever notice that when someone says they don't mean any harm, they're about to say something harmful.  And yes, I know it's a double negative.  I was speaking vernacular.  I do that in real life, you know.

But I digress...

I turned to my coworkers and said, "I don't mean no harm, but That Driver should never have been on a tugger in the first place."  They all agreed with me on that point.  Then, we all began wondering how HRH will take this out on the rest of us.  What will they take away from us now? 

That's the thing.  As much as they hoot and holler about safety, it isn't really that much of a priority for them.   They care about giving the appearance of caring about safety, but they don't care that much about making the plant a safe place to work.   I'll give you an example.

Over in the sub-brazing area, we have conveyors where we put our completed orders.  Back when they first put them out there, they were about 3" higher than the highest our little rolling tables would raise up to, which meant we had to pick up all those heavy bins of parts.   We have been begging for years for them to lower them, but they wouldn't do it.  I know for a fact, at least four maintenance request were submitted, but they were all rejected because someone named Lee Jackson -- whoever that is-- said he didn't think it was that big of a deal, and he wasn't going to do it.  Lower the conveyors, I mean. 

We finally got them lowered about a month ago, but I had to go all the way to the head of the safety department to get it done.   I told him about all the maintenance orders, and he said, "You didn't tell me!"  But I shouldn't have had to.  ANY time an employee brings up a safety concern, it should be taken seriously and dealt with right away.  

I heard from multiple sources that a lot of people have complained about that particular tugger driver, but nobody did anything about it, and today it could very well have cost a man his life.  So to those members of management who don't want to listen...

CAN YOU HEAR US NOW??????

In more pleasant news, my mysterious package that Amazon felt it had to hide for privacy has arrived, so I can show you what it is.  A new weedeater!

This one is battery operated and sooo much lighter that my old gas powered one.  I've already put one of the batteries onto the charger, but it won't be done before I go to bed tonight.  I'll probably just unplug the whole thing and finish it tomorrow.  

Funny thing, the UPS delivery guy rang my doorbell, which he doesn't usually do.  I thought maybe I'd need to sign for the package or something, so I went out there and he just wanted to ask about my snakes. He remembered when I lived on Riverdale Road and had the snakes and my dogs.  I told him the dogs have died, but I still have four of the snakes.  He was amazed that they are 21 years old.  

He asked if I had anything new, and I said just the cat.  I told him I'd gotten her when the man across the street died, and he said, "Oh, yeah, that's {So and so's} dad, and he called his daughter in law's name.  

And I'm thinking, isn't that life in a small town? 

And finally, the landscaper I reached out to messaged me back last night after I'd gone to bed.  In a strange stroke of luck, I just happened to be beset with insomnia, so I picked up my phone and there the message was.  He said he'd come by today and we could talk about what I want done, but so far, he's been a no-show.  

I'm not giving up just yet, though.  It rained pretty hard last night, so it might have gotten him a bit behind.  But keep your fingers crossed.  I'm anxious to get started with my herb gardens!