Dread Pirate

I have a spider living in my house.  I've named her Dread Pirate Roberta, because every day I walk past her and say to myself, "I really ought to kill that spider," then I don't.  And I say, "Maybe tomorrow." 

Although when that egg sac hatches and I've got hundreds, nay thousands of baby spiders running all over my living room, I may regret that decision.  If I could kill the sac without killing Roberta, I would.  Hmmm, let me think on that a bit. 

In other news, there I was Saturday evening or Sunday morning -- I don't remember which -- shoveling dirt into my little pail, painstakingly picking out the rocks by hand when I said to myself, "There really ought to be an easier way to do this."  

Naturally, I did what any red blooded American would do.  I came inside, jumped onto Amazon, and found a better way to do this.  I wasn't expecting them to arrive until tomorrow, but imagine my surprise when I got home from work this afternoon to find that they'd gotten here early!  

And just what are they?  Sieves, of course. 

Heavy duty mesh sieves specifically made for sifting rocks from soil.  Even though it was pretty hot outside, I couldn't wait to try them out, so I did, and in less time than it takes to work up a heat stroke, I had a nice little pile of sifted, rock-free soil. 

I'll definitely be using this more, given how easy it is.  Even in the garden spot, I can sift the rocks out of the soil and leave the dirt where it is.  Much better than picking them out one by one with my fingers. 

That was with the smaller mesh sieve.  I'd gotten the set of two, thinking I could use the larger mesh to sift my compost, separating the stuff that's ready to use from the larger bits that need to break down more.   I'll do that as it cools off a bit, weatherwise, I mean.  For now, I got out the five gallon bucket of spider lily bulbs I'd dug up from my garden spot earlier this year, and put those bulbs into the sieve, then washed the dirt off of them.  

By the way, these are made to fit a five gallon bucket perfectly.  

I spread the bulbs on the old concrete slab to dry, and will probably end up burning them later on this fall, because I've got more than I need as it is.     

The whole time I was doing that, I had a very interested supervisor. 

Really, she was just impatient for me to leave so she could get at the corn I'd scattered behind the fence.  It didn't take long before I was done and she was able to nibble her little snack. 

And I came inside and took a shower.  

And finally, there is a bit of sadness in the weather community today, as Reed Timmer's little storm chasing buddy Gizmo has crossed the rainbow bridge.  

So long, Little Giz.  We're going to miss you.