Thor's Day

 Yep, it's Thor's Day once again, and once again, Loki showed up to the plant to cause his typical mayhem.  

It all started when we got there bright and early at 4:00 AM, and someone had turned the brazing gas off at the tanks outside.  That's like, the second time this week it's happened.  We had to wait until someone from maintenance got there to turn it back on, but they don't come in until 5:00 AM.  

Along about that time, someone arrived who could get the gas turned on and we were able to get started.  Just a few moments later, there we were brazing merrily away, when someone up in the fin press area turned on a Vitally Important machine and it began shrieking like a banshee. 

That settled down after a bit, but that same Vitally Important machine was rattling like it was about to come apart.  I never did find out what was going on, but it sounded like one of the gears that runs the conveyors through it was out of sync.  It eventually stopped, so I guess maintenance got it sorted.  

On a similar note, it would seem we've lost one of our new brazers.  I mean, as in she quit.  I'm sure she's still very much alive.  Word in the department is that Stalker told her Monday that if she didn't braze a minimum of 100 headers per day, he'd move her somewhere else, and she hasn't come back since.  

The irony of that is that when he was on a stand -- as in working in sub-brazing -- he was only doing about 50 headers a day his own self.  I know this because the guy who was our supervisor at the time told me so.

Back in those days, we were assigned to braze for specific lines, and his was line 1.  Group Leader Shark was constantly telling me, "Go get an order for line 1.  Billy can't keep up."  "I need you to help Billy on line 1, they're about to catch up." 

So I was having to braze basically for two lines because he's so dadgum lazy.  And yet, he was constantly running his mouth about how I was leaving more leaks than he was.  Well, of course I was!  I was brazing three times as many headers!  If I only brazed 50 a day, I wouldn't leave any leaks either. 

While we were talking about that, one of the other brazers whispered in my ear that she had called in yesterday just because she couldn't deal with Stalker's BS.  She was getting ready, then told her husband, "I just can't do it" so they called in.  She shouldn't have to be doing that.  Nobody should.

What blows my mind -- all of our minds really -- is with all of the different women complaining about him, why does he keep getting a pass? 

In more pleasant news, the sun has been shining all day and the wind is really kicking out there, all of which results in my yard finally drying out somewhat.  I walked around the back yard and it feels pretty solid, but parts of the front still have standing water.  The landscaper had told me he'd try to come back tomorrow (Friday), but I don't know what he's going to do until the dirt gets delivered.  

I'm getting excited!  It won't be much longer until I can start putting my little beds into place and that's just the beginning.  One day, I hope to have a full sized greenhouse similar to this one. 

That'll be a bit down the road, though.  I still have to clear the rest of the yard and get the rest of my fence replaced first.  Maybe Saturday evening or Sunday, I can get out and record a little vlog for you kind of explaining the vision I have for my back yard. 

And a bit of not so good news, my one and only little sunflower seedling looks like it's about to die.  None of the others have shown any sign of life, so I think I might look at Walmart next time I go and see what they have.  I want the kind that only get a couple of feet tall, not the giant ones.  

And finally, I've only gotten a few rows knit on the sweater since I last showed you, but we're making progress, albeit slowly.  

We're working Saturday, but maybe Sunday I can get it finished.   

Oh, that reminds me, I need to put buttons onto my shopping list. I'd better go do that while I'm thinking about it. 

Laters. 

He Wasn’t Kidding

The landscaper came today to begin clearing my garden spot, but didn't get very far before he had to quit for the day.  He sent me a message -- which I didn't get until my lunch break because we aren't allowed to have our phones --saying he was going to give the yard a couple more days to dry, then try again on Friday. 

It was still very soft, and he didn't want to totally wreck my yard or get stuck, and when I got home, I saw what he meant.  Some of the ruts he'd left were very deep.  This one looked to be about a foot.  

He told me not to worry and assured me he would fix it once the dirt arrives -- which we don't know when that will happen because the dirt man's dirt pit is full of water.  As soon as it dries out enough for him to get a load of dirt into the truck, he'll bring it.  

So now, we wait...  

I'm not at all surprised.  I knew the yard was squishy when I went to fill the bird feeder yesterday, and even the high spots were spongy.  Not only that, I'd thought about mowing Monday afternoon, but there was still standing water in my front yard.  This is why I hired the landscaper in the first place -- to fill in these low spots and give the yard better drainage.  And to get my garden spot ready, of course. 

He keeps thanking me for being patient, but I told him the weather does what it will, and all we can do is to deal with what we are given.  It'll get done eventually.  I mean, it can't rain forever.  Can it? 

On a similar note, all my little basil plants are adjusting well to being outside full time and have started growing again.

Even this little one that I wasn't sure would make it.  

I know you probably can't see it in the photo, but it's putting out tiny new leaves.  By late summer, I'm going to have basil running out of my ears.  

While I was outside, I noticed my poor tomato plant was a bit droopy, so I gave it a good watering, and it perked right up. 

I'm never quite sure how much water to give them, because I heard too much can cause the tomatoes to split.  Let me do a bit of research on that...

Hmmm, OK from what I've read, I need to check the soil and water when the top inch or two feels dry, and water in the mornings for best results.  I'll give that a try...wait!  I just remembered I got a soil meter thingy with my mini-greenhouse.  Let me go dig that out and see what it says.  

Here, visit a bit with Marty Mac until I get back...

OK, I'm back.  According to the moisture meter, the tomato plant is good.  The needle was in the green section, so that's what we're going to go with.  I'll check it every day for a while until I kind of get a feel for how often to water it.  

Abrupt change of subject, I know I'm constantly joking about how my snakes seem to be immortal, so on a whim, I looked up the record lifespan for a corn snake in captivity.  Thirty two years.  Thirty two!

And a king snake was 33 years...It would seem my snakes aren't so immortal after all.  I'd done research before buying them, and everything I read said they average around 15 years in captivity.  Nowhere did I see 20-30 years.  I didn't sign up for this!  OK, yes, I did.  But I think...well, let's just say if I only had the two snakes I intended to get, it would be a different story.  I didn't want Slider or Blaze.   Let me rephrase.  I didn't intend to get Slider or Blaze. 

Slider was only supposed to be staying with me until his owner found a new place to live (long story, not necessary to go into it at this point).  That was in 2007, and he never came back and got the snake.  Slider is a ball python, by the way.   

Then Blaze was also kind of dumped on me in a way.  I'd wanted to buy a bloodred morph, and found someone in a forum selling one.  She told me she'd only sell me the bloodred if I also agreed to take another snake, an amel het lav.  I know most of you don't know what that even means, but it's something to do with the different color morphs corn snakes have.  I didn't really want two snakes, but I did really want the bloodred, so I somewhat reluctantly agreed.  

I kind of feel bad, because I've never felt as close to Blaze as I have to Sunset and Onyx...but he's a snake.  He doesn't care as long as he gets fed.  Speaking of, I guess next time I order snake food, I'll order a few years worth.  I can always sell what's left over if they die before they eat it all up.  

All that to say, I won't be able to set up my spare bedroom as an indoor plant room quite yet.  Although if I get rid of that massive computer desk that only serves as a place for me to pile junk mail on...

And finally, I was looking at my latest house note, and the principal balance is right at $40K.  I've been toying with the idea of taking some out of my 401k and paying my mortgage off.  Then I can take the money I've been paying on the house, and max out my 401k contributions, and the catch up contributions.  That way, they'll be paying me interest, instead of me paying interest to some bank.  

I don't know.  Back when Cody was little and his father wasn't helping us out at all, I was so poor for so long that I've almost developed a phobia about spending money.  I had to kick myself good and hard just to hire this landscaper, so taking that much money out of savings -- enough to pay off my house -- really makes me twitch.  

Still, it won't hurt to just look into what it would take.  Will it? 

Now, if you'll excuse me, I think I'll take myself a quick shower and get back to work on that baby sweater.  

Laters.

Almost Back

Hallelujah!  I am almost back to where I was before I frogged my great-nephew's sweater. 

For those of you who were kind enough to pretend not to notice, I'd forgotten to knit the border stitches on one of my wrong side rows, leaving a huge gap in the front border.  You can see the one row of stockinette in the midst of all of that garter stitch.  

But I have checked, double checked, and triple checked this second iteration, and we're good to go.  

In other news, I've heard from the landscaper and he's going to come out tomorrow and start clearing all the stuff out of my garden spot.  He told me it's all the rain we've been having that has delayed things, because the place he gets his dirt from is waterlogged, just like everything else around here.  He's hoping they can deliver late this week, but it might even be next week before they can come.  

Even so,  I'm ready to get this whole thing started -- and over with so I can get my raised beds into place and start getting things planned out.  Heh, I was having the hardest time texting with the landscaper when about halfway through our convo, I realized my phone was set to the French keyboard.  

Speaking of -- my garden, not the French keyboard -- I've got one lonely little sunflower seedling.  So far. 

I do hope there will be more before it's all said and done.   And look at this!  I've got blooms on my sweet banana pepper plant!

Once everything is all in place, I'd like to get about six of these.  At least if Walmart still has some by the time I get my beds set up.   I may have to wait until next year to really get things going.   

In other news, it's been a minute, but you get...yes, a meme debunkeration!  I've been seeing this one going around FB again lately, 

and my first thought was, "Why?"  If you want to know where a product was made, just look at the label where it says, "Made in..."  Second of all, it's just not true.  I didn't even have to research this one.  All I had to do was to grab the nearest product with a bar code.  In this case, it was the weather seal stuff I'd bought to put around my new window unit in the bedroom. 

As you can clearly see, the first two numbers are 07, but it was made in...read it out loud.  

Made in China. 

Try it for yourself.  Grab the nearest thing with a bar code and check.  Then check those memes before you pass them on.  

And finally, as if they didn't think we had enough on our plates at work, they told us today we can no longer go get the dispatcher to print out our scrap tickets.  The dispatcher came around and gave us all a list of scrap codes and a stack of scrap tickets, and told us that from now on, we'd have to write them all out in longhand.  

It's bad enough that the tickets we write aren't even for our scrap.  It's all tubing's.   The only scrap tickets I should be responsible for are if I should braze something wrong or burn something up.  I shouldn't have to write a ticket if tubing over runs a part, or bends it wrong, or lets poor quality go down the line.  But I do.  Why?  I don't know.  

Only now, we have to HANDWRITE them.  In long hand with a pen...

They stand up there every single morning, telling us our numbers aren't good enough, but they keep piling more and more on our shoulders, then wonder why our production drops.  

There's a duh moment if ever there was one. 

I Was Joking!

When I said I was going to re-name this baby sweater the 50 hour sweater, I was only joking.  Turns out the last laugh was on me.

There I was, done with the sleeves and working on the body -- only a few rows from the hem, just a chugging along mighty proud of myself when I noticed it.  Way back up nearly to the beginning, a tiny little error I'd made. 

Heavy sighhhhh...  

At first, I started to leave it.  It's so small, they'd never even notice it, I told myself.  But no.  

I'm not going to have my first great-nephew being carried around in a defective sweater, so I did what any good great-aunt would do, I sent the whole thing to the frog pond and started over.   OK, I did try to fix the error first, but ended up messing up more than I corrected, and it was only a few rows in anyway, so I took the better part of valor.  

Good thing I'm a process knitter. 

I must say, it's going a whole lot more smoothly this time, too.  I've already gotten back to the part where I start increasing for the sleeves.  

 I'd thought about doing the next one with the Baby Surprise Jacket pattern by Elizabeth Zimmerman, but alas, the one book of hers I have doesn't have that pattern in it.  Oh, well.  If I can find the book that has the pattern I knit for my nephew -- the baby's dad-- I'll make him one of those.  I think I know where it is.

In other news, the cat has been getting into some burrs somewhere.  I comb them out of her fur, then she goes right back out and gets more stuck all over her.  I'd just leave them, but she acts like they make her uncomfortable.  She hasn't been herself these last two days.  She even slept in the bed with me last night, and slept all night.  She lay still, didn't walk all over my head, and didn't knock a single thing off my nightstand.  

I thought at first she'd gotten herself hurt again, but I can't find any wounds on her.  Maybe the weather has gotten her down.  I know I'm about tired of it being rainy.  And guess what it's doing right now?  It's thundering.  

The rain hasn't started yet, but it should soon.  We'll get a couple of sunny days next week, then more rain will move in by next weekend.  I don't know when the landscaper is going to be able to come what with all this rain. 

He might as well just dump some mud in my yard, because that's what it's going to end up being. 

OH, there's Weatherman Matt on my phone warning me of the heavy precipitation approaching my area.  I guess I'll batten down the hatches and watch some Miss Austen on PBS.  The app, that is.  

Laters. 

We're Off!

 And we're off!

Today, I mean.  We're off, the whole plant.  

There was some doubt for a moment, because Group Leader Shark had come around and asked for volunteers to work, which of course I said I would.  I didn't really want to, but someone has to pay for all this yard work I'm about to have done.  If it ever stops raining, that is.  

Wait, let me rephrase that.  Someone has got to build my savings account back up after I pay for all this yard work I'm about to have done, and I don't see this evil cat of mine running out to get a job.  And it can't rain forever...I mean, literally it can't rain forever because God promised he'd never flood the whole earth again.  So it's got to stop raining sometime.  

Unfortunately, that sometime isn't today.  

But I'm getting ahead of myself...

Where was I?  Oh, yeah, Group Leader Shark had come around asking for volunteers to work, and even though I didn't really want to, I said I would because I can't turn down overtime.  But then, shortly after noon, she came back around and said, "No work tomorrow."  She said they couldn't get enough volunteers in Fin Press to run even the one line they wanted to, so they gave everyone the day off. 

I suppose they could have just made everyone come in, but in an extremely rare moment of humanity, they just canceled work.  

That being said and done, the plan was first of all to sleep past 2:30 AM, which amazingly enough the cat let me do.  Then I was going to get up and go to Batesville, go to the Walmart up there, then Lowe's, and finally go walk the trails at the Mounds. 

Alas, when I got home yesterday, I checked the forecast and it said it was supposed to rain all day long.  The good news is that it's been mostly light drizzle so far, so I jumped into my little old auto and whizzed on up to Batesville.  Even alas-er, I would end up disappointed because they didn't have much more up there than my local Walmart has had.   Nothing really, not even at Lowe's.  

I don't know what's going on.  Last year, I was spoiled for choice.  This year, the choices are few and far between.  Oh, they had plenty of tomato and pepper plants, plus a few melons, but I'm not ready for those yet.  It is the herb selection that is so poorly.  I came home empty handed, and because of the rain, I didn't even go to the Mounds.

So I jumped back into my little old auto and drove back home where I cut and hung some more orange mint, then I cut some spearmint, and spent the rest of the day knitting.  And watching TV as always.  The movie Grease is up on Hulu now, so I watched it for the very first time.   It was OK, but not my cuppa tea.  But it did have Sha-Na-Na was in it, so that was cool.  

I remember when I was in the Navy, they came and did a concert at Festa Americana -- which was the big Independence Day thing the command put on out at Carney Park.  And amazingly enough, I was not on auxiliary security duty that day and I was able to go see them.  

Oh, and I watched an episode of Dr. Pimple Popper and one of her patients was an NFL player named Marcel Darius.  As soon as they showed his name, I said, "I remember you!  You're the one that messed up Colt McCoy's shoulder!"  In that National Championship game between Texas and Alabama.  You remember, when he laid that dirty hit on McCoy and knocked him out of the game. 

He had a lipoma on his forehead, and I said, "That's what you get for messing up Colt McCoy's shoulder!"  

I still haven't gotten over that...

Anyway, while I was watching, I made a little progress on what I've come to call my 50 hour sweater.  I've gotten one sleeve done, and am about to start the second sleeve as soon as I'm done here. 

In other news, since it seems tornado season is just about over, while I was doing laundry, I went ahead and washed all of the blankets and pillows I'd had in the safe space and put them away.  I know you're thrilled to hear that, but that is my exciting life. 

The only other thing I did was get some of my sunflower seeds from last year planted. 

The fun part is, I don't remember which sunflower I harvested them from, so whatever grows will be a surprise.   And of course, I'll be sure to share that surprise with you.  But I did mess up one thing.  I'd ordered some of what I'd thought were peat plugs, but they ended up being more hydroponic sponges.  The only thing about them is that I don't know if they'll biodegrade or if I'll have to dig them out of my herb beds every year.  I guess we'll see...

That's about all I have for today.  It's still raining, and I have another sweater sleeve to knit, so I'll holler at you later. 

'Bye

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.