In the meantime, I also kept busy brewing beer for the upcoming Super Bowl party at Camp Willow Creek. And yes, of course you are invited.

It started with the gym. Class started at 9:30. I didn’t really want to go. But I went. I was running a few minutes late, but sometimes class starts a few minutes late. So when I got there, I drove by the window twice to see if I could see if they started yet. This made me more late. It didn’t look like anyone was in there, but I figured if I made the effort to get dressed and leave and drive around the parking lot twice, I should go in and at least see if there really was a class I was missing or not. So I went in. The instructor told me I was 10 minutes late, but no one was there, so no class.

Since there was no class, I figured I had some extra time to kill. I went shopping at the garden center to see what they had. I found a few things, but apparently I took too long to decide. I got home and had about 10 minutes to get ready for my hair appointment. So I ended up getting there about 10 minutes late too. It didn’t seem like a big deal since the place wasn’t very busy, but it turned out that there was a woman who was supposed to go after me and she ended up leaving before getting her hair cut because she had to get back to work. Oops.

After a quick stop for a mini sushi lunch, I headed in to pick up our shower gift from Mom & Dad – a patio set. The pick up went smooth and easy as did the getting home, getting it out of the truck and the putting it together. The only problem was that I was about finished – just had to tighten the bolts on the table, about 10 minutes of work – when the skies opened up and the rains came down. If only I had started 10 minutes earlier.

Happy Hunting!

They stood nearby planning, plotting, pining.

They warned us last April. As a tornado passed through, they sacrificed one of their own to send a chilling message to us through the Dollhouse. Landing just inches away and pushing her from her foundation, they taunted, “Next time it could be you, or even your big friend up there with the electricty and running water and the people inside.”

Though the summer and winter they dropped hints and brown pine needles. They leaked secrets and green goo. It didn’t take long to figure what they had in mind.

“Just make it through the winter,” they thought. “Just make it to spring.”

Between March’s lions and lambs and April’s showers and flowers, the rotting, dying, evil pines hoped to fall fall fall out of their misery and into our master bathroom. But we beat them at their own game. We called Bob and Bob sent men and the men over-powered the trees and won the battle. Many wounded soldiers were carried off when it was done — an ugly, muddy mess.

But today there is sunshine. Sunshine for the dogwoods and other who could not see the light of day for brown pine needles. Today there is a clear view of the southern sky for the satellite dish who had battled first-hand with the mighty trees.

The day after those mini tornados rolled through here, JDB and I were out buying chainsaws and things at Sears for a better part of the afternoon. When we came home, I found a smashed monitor and crumpled computer case lying on the laundry room floor. Quickly, I calculated that the shelf which was once home to these items had given way and came crashing down along with them.

I already ready hated the vinyl flooring that was shrinking and pulling away from the edges of the room exposing the particle board beneath. I was also disturbed by the tale told by some random spackling of some shelves that once were, but were no more. The fresh electronics carnage on my laundry room floor was the last straw.

Armed with channel locks, a can of paint, a box of flooring and a new shelving support system, I engaged in battle. After evacuating the civilians (laundry detergent, ironing board, networking cables and cat treats) from the war zone, I tore the shelves off the wall.

That left me with four walls that appeared to be riddled with bullet holes. I filled the holes, sanded them smooth and painted the walls. I put down half the flooring and then I pulled it up and started over as I realized I didn’t really measure in a way that would cause the squares to be anywhere near square with the walls.

Finally I hung the new shelves. They are on a track system instead of the arm supports and they seem much more stable. I also have more space, so I can spread the load out a bit.

The other update I have is just a few new pictures of the Mailbox as a sort of progress report. There are actually more plants in bloom now, but the grass needs to be cut and I don’t want the 4-foot tall weeds to overshadow my mailbox garden in photos.

Dead trees fell down and only hurt a few other dead trees. We got to buy a chainsaw. This helped us produce tons of firewood. Most of the dead trees were once pine and therefore, not really fit for in-home fire consumption. We hauled some down to the curb for the county to pick up. But that was a lot of work. We found a much less demanding solution after a short drive to our local Home Depot.

I present to you, THE FIRE PIT!

Ok. I’ll get right to it: This one scared me. I woke up at 4am to howling winds and flashing strobe lights. I feared going to the window and look. I contemplated going to the downstairs bathroom to hide. I stayed in bed under the covers too freaked out to do either.

A few hours later, I woke again, this time to the whirl of chainsaws. The calm had returned although the power had not. I ventured out to see if anything was left in the neighborhood. Across the street a tree had fallen on a neighbors’ truck and was covering his entire driveway. Next door the very top of a 40-foot pine crashed down in the back yard, narrowly missing a brand new car. Debris was everywhere.

In our backyard, most of the dead trees were now horizontal. A 20-foot top section of what was (just yesterday) a 50-foot pine tree crashed down behind the dollhouse. A double-trunked (also dead) tree right next to the dollhouse fell down and came to rest in the “V” of a living tree, breaking one of its trunks. The dollhouse, much like our own house, remained unscathed.

In the afternoon, we ventured out of the neighborhood and found downed powerlines and trees. Friends and news stories confirmed we were spared the worst of what was apparently 2-4 small tornadoes hopping around.

That pretty much sums it up.  Pine bark, not straw, if you were wondering.

I went to Target the other night in search of a solar-powered low-voltage outdoor lighting set.  But not just any solar-powered low-voltage outdoor lighting set, an ON SALE solar-powered low-voltage lighting set.  I couldn’t find it.  I was very successful in locating $83 dollars worth of other products, including, but not limited to, this.  I couldn’t wait to fire that bad Larry up this weekend for at least 3 reasons: 1) it promised to make my plants twice as big 2) I am very impatient and 3) my mom scared me into thinking I had doomed my freshly planted mailbox neighbors by using something other than Scotts brand topsoil.

So, I got up early this morning and donned my yarding garb and went outside to play in the dirt.  That’s when I found out it was FREAKING COLD OUT.  I fed the plants and then ran back inside to my warm kitchen to cut up strawberries and marinate some ribs.

Later, when the sun made it round to the front of the house, I ventured back out to work on the mulch.  So now there is mulch to hold in all that yummy plant food they got this morning.  I expect to have some ferocious vegitation in the coming days.

Ok.  Maybe this is a little more work than i realized.  I am dead tired, but  Project mailbox is pretty much in the books at this point.  On Saturday, J helped me — after riding 6+ miles on mountain bike dirt trails — dig out the bed and move the dirt and grass we no longer wanted.  It looked like a much smaller area before we started working it.

Then on Sunday, we went plant shopping.  The store we went to was great.  Everyone there was really helpful and didn’t treat us like dirt (pardon the joke) because we didn’t know what we were doing.  The first woman was especially great. She helped us find everything on our list that the store had in stock, replaced the one thing they didn’t have with another suggestion and replanted a plant that was in a mixture so we could complete the list.  The cashier helped us pick out the top soil and additives we needed and then 3 strong young men loaded it all into the tiny neon trunk for us.  For a shopping experience, it rocked.

I will go back….for some mulch. That’s really all that’s left for the project except watching the plants grow and fill out the bed.  And maybe planting a clematis around the mailbox for mom.

Oh and don’t be fooled by that last sentence into thinking I know what I’m talking about when it comes to what I planted out there.  All I know is that everything is a perennial which is french for “you don’t have to do anything next year and there will still be flowers” and that the varieties in the selection are scheduled to bloom at different times of the year.

…Before and After.

I came home from work last night and Molly was missing. Well most of Molly was missing.  J had the day off and went ahead and got a head start on her.  I was so excited.  I couldn’t wait to check it out this morning and see how it looked.

I love it.

I think this weekend I will work on taking those little shrubby guys out of there.  I don’t know what they are, but just in case there are baby Holly and Molly seeds lurking in their midst, I want them gone.  Plus I am kind of enjoying this destructive side of landscaping.

Is that wrong?