And Done

54°f/12°C, raining. Rain all night, the world here is thankful!

It felt good to get two pieces finished up yesterday. 

I am really pleased with this cabinet. I would have preferred old glass knobs for it, but couldn't justify the cost. Maybe its next owner will do that. This is a nice piece, but probably less than 15 years old. Still, it's Amish-built and sold wood, and I feel good about reclaiming it from its damaged condition.

This chest of drawers has taken me a while. Although it was only $10, it has exacted a lot more than that in aggravation, sweat, and work. It needed structural repairs, was missing the bottom of one drawer, and had a gazillion coats of paint. I am not thrilled with my decal choice or the original pulls either. The decal was supposed to be blue, but it sure looks purplish to me...and I painted the chest a dark blue. The pulls are cool, but not quite right. Again, glass pulls would be awesome, but finding them the right size and price was impossible. So I am calling it done, and won't price it too high. I am just glad to get it out of my house. Note to self: do NOT buy anything that has layer upon layer of old paint!

Today is booth day, but I am not sure if we can take either of these pieces in because that big, heavy, rustic cabinet I bought Saturday is still in the van, and neither of us feel motivated to unload it in this weather. Procrastination, much?

On the refrigerator front, I decided to just buy another one.  I am tired of fooling with this one. The new one is about the same as the one we have, just a different brand. I would have liked to buy something better, but right now cash is too tight for that. So I expect in 5 years, we will be buying yet another fridge,  since these new ones are not made to last.

Meanwhile,  this big ol' guy is waiting for me. Now to decide on color. I'm thinking maybe green? If Catalyst was still with us, he'd be teasing ne about that,  since I do seem to paint a lot of things green!

Copyright Susanna Holstein. All rights reserved. No Republication or Redistribution Allowed without attribution to Susanna Holstein.

Random Wednesday

64°f/17.8°C, cooler and cloudy with rain expected today. I sure hope that happens!

A few random pics today.

Cherries are getting close! We covered what we could reach. It looks ugly but maybe we can keep the birds out. The new tree we planted last year also has a few cherries on it.

My current project. A dog (not ours!) chewed the top and one side of this cabinet, so we replaced the top and used body filler to repair the side. It's now in the process of getting painted, white this time with a natural finish on the top. We picked this up at Goodwill for $2.99. I guess they thought it was not fixable.

I am painting it white because this black was the style a few years ago when everyone was into the "prim" decor, but now I have trouble moving black furniture. I am still planning on the distressed finish though.

The herb garden is all planted, but still needs a little mulch to finish it up.

This bank is planted with oregano as a ground cover, with some wild yarrow, red clover, daylights and asparagus that self-planted there. There are also black raspberries along the fence that I planted last year.

I let the wild daisies stay too.

A little miniature rose that made it through the winter. I have one that is 10 years old.

I can't remember the name of this plant. I put in two of them last year, and only this one survived. I really like it.

Coreopsis also self-seeds around here, which makes me quite happy!

The grape arbor that is in the herb garden, and drift roses, which I still need to trim to get rid of winter-kill.

Last night was open mic night, and I had agreed to be the guest host this time. We had a great evening with 10 performers, three of them spoken word, plus the featured artist. A local preacher joined us and read the Gettysburg Address and Lincoln's inauguration speech, both fitting reminders for this Memorial Day weekend. 

This guy was passing through, on his way from Maryland to the Midwest, and found our event online, so he came and joined us. He did some fun rockabilly-style songs that invited singalong. His name was Dino Delray--- wonder if that was just his performance name?

The featured presenter was interesting but I couldn't understand a word of her songs! Beautiful voice but she needs to learn to enunciate, in my opinion. 

I always find it intriguing that most women tend to dress up when performing, while most men show up in whatever old thing. Why is that, I wonder? I did the same when I was storytelling, or even just doing workshops. 

Today is a much slower day. I did some watering since the rain has not yet appeared, did laundry, and tidied up in the cellar a little. It will soon be time for the annual cleanout, not a job I look forward to but necessary. The only other thing on my radar for today is to finish up the dresser I have nearly completedcx, and work on that cabinet above.

Larry is working on the fridge, again. That evaporator fan stopped working, again. We put in a new one Monday but it has already failed. Not sure if it was a defective unit or what, but it worked for a day and then quit. Fortunately these little fans are less than $20 and easily replaced, but we seem to have to do this every 6 months.  I ordered another one Monday and it should be here tomorrow. Time to be on the lookout for another fridge, I think. I hope it is just the fan and not some other issue right now.

Onward and upward! Stay well, friends.

Copyright Susanna Holstein. All rights reserved. No Republication or Redistribution Allowed without attribution to Susanna Holstein.

In the Garden

67°f/19.4°C, breezy and mostly clear, but clouds moving in as I write this. Put in 2 hours in the gardens and stringtrimming.  It was 80° by the time I finished up at 10am.

I went out yesterday evening and took photos in the vegetable garden. Not the best light for it, but here they are.

This is the middle section.  In front right is a row of gladiolas and marigolds, along with a few radishes.

Then onions, a mix of red, yellow and white, then Tenderette bush beans, and beets and kale. The back is planted with the wax and the purple beans and a row of flower seeds, but none of these are up yet. 

This is the front end of the garden. I have a few cheery-type tomatoes in here, a row of dill and a row of basil.

The dill and basil are still tiny.

I only planted one hill of yellow squash and one of zucchini. Last year I planted 2 of each and we were overrun with squash.

The girls were curious! I have to think about having them here. They are a bit....smelly.  Not terrible, but I think we need to move them further up the garden. I am a little worried about the smell come high summer.

The broccoli and cabbage patch. Some plants have holes in the leaves. I treated them with diatomaceous earth, and am watching to see if I need to do something different.

The rattlesnake beans are on this arch over the brassicas.

My teeny tiny onions, started from seed! This photo is much zoomed. They actually look like thin new grass.

The lettuce patch, green ice and red sails, with radishes in between. Above that is the kale the cat dug up, and spinach.  Somewhere, either here or in the middle section, I planted bok choi, but can't remember where!

And above the kale and spinach, a row of carrots and leeks (the leeks disnt get in the photo, but they're tiny anyway), the peppers, then a row of ornamental corn. That's horseradish in the top left corner. Running at right angles to this area is two rows of sweet corn and the purple asparagus patch. The asparagus is completely overrun with ground ivy, which we will have to deal with soon.

Looking down through the garden. That first arch is where I just planted lima beans.

A peek at Larry's garden, complete with Mr. Blowy on duty to keep critters away. The front row is onions, then a row of potatoes, then 3 rows of tomatoes, and 2 rows of sweet corn.

The cucumbers are on the first arch. They are struggling.

These, on the upper side of the arch look okay though. Under this arch I just planted the rest of the onion sets I had, along with more lettuce, and radishes 

Just wanted to show this interesting plant. It's a type of henbane, an ornamental variety. It looks pretty with the Mexican primroses.

And last, my only David Austyn rose, 5 years old and nowhere near the large shrub it was supposed to be. But the blooms have the most heavenly fragrance.  The chair protects it from Larry's weedeatee and the dogs!

That's about it for the veggie gardens. Now, we need Mother Nature to cooperate,  and she can be a very fickle lady!

Copyright Susanna Holstein. All rights reserved. No Republication or Redistribution Allowed without attribution to Susanna Holstein.