I Really Didn't Like The Bird Nest Block

The more I looked at that new piece of stainless steel over the thermometer, the less I liked it. I didn't even like it when I visualized it painted the same color as the wall. So to get a better idea I decided I'd sleep on it ... like a mid-afternoon siesta. (Can I say the word siesta and still be politically correct or is that offensive?) j/k?

The siesta didn't last longer than a hour or so because I was restless ... a sure sign that something was going to happen and it was going to happen today ... whatever it was.

I had my answer!!!  Turning my email on I see a reader named Cat M has made a comment ".... just probably taken the thermometer down ...".

Why didn't I think of that? I guess that is one disadvantage in being single, you never get the 2nd opinion that might be a good idea. The hounds try but they are really only interested in food, sleep and walks. I looked at the official temps online ... 57°. That is warm enough to paint. The breeze will dry the paint even faster ... but I got to move.

The cost of that sheet metal was a little more than the large Dairy Queen Blizzard I would have bought today, plus you never know when you might need it again to ... block a bird nest project.

Taking out the two screws on the bottom brackets that were hidden under 30 years of different paint jobs, were actually easy and the thermometer lifted up and over the screw at the top.

I plugged the screw holes with some exterior caulk, took a putty knife to take off the rough edges of worn paint. I found some sand paper in my drawer of paint supplies and sanded the surface down to a fine smooth painting surface. It was time for the primer.

I needed to let this dry so by the time I cleaned the paint brush, put my tools away along with the brand new bent sheet metal ... Stella decided she would help me with the drying process. You may be wondering how would she do that???

Well let's sneak off out of sight and refuse to come when I am called ... for starters. Sadie and I looked everywhere. I walked out into the field next to me and down to the drainage ditch she visited months ago ... it had overgrown and she wasn't there.

I picked up a tree limb and was walking to the burn pile while calling her name. I don't see her next door, nor in the field anywhere. Sadie and I will follow the dog walk path hoping to find her on the way. But ......

Just as I turned from the burn pile I see Stella standing at the kitchen door looking inside. I have no idea where she was. She wasn't out front when I checked but it was nice to see her at the door instead of out in the woods.

To celebrate .. the hounds and I took off for a walk.

Even with cool temps and a steady breeze, it was still a beautiful day. I liked how blue the sky was. I didn't edit the photo of the sky. I also liked the clouds today.

Sadie spends most of her time near me when walking lately. There are still scents in the air that interest her.

Stella decided she had better run since she was being left behind. Since she knew she was already on "double secret probation" from her disappearance, she ran a little faster today.

With all the green I thought the Voodoo Blue really stood out in this photo.

By the time we hunted for Stella, did a hound walk and put up the tools, the primer had dried for me to put a coat of house paint on the missing thermometer.

It's still drying when these were taken but I like the look of not having it on the wall. Thanks to Cat M for the suggestion.

Still drying and the camera needed part of the FJ to have something to focus on. With the weird reflections from the setting sun, it looks almost like I need to paint the whole wall again.

Quite a bit accomplished in 24 hours -- such is life in the world of retirement.

No snow but cold tonight in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana.

Hounds Supervise Some House Maintenance

When Sadie and Stella saw me pull the FJ out into the drive, they came sprinting from the field thinking we were going somewhere. We did but not until later. They have become addicted to riding in the FJ, the distance does not matter. 

Heidi went to the door a little early today wanting outside. She will do that when she has to relieve herself but today she just wanted to wander around the yard. Her rear hocks looked fairly good today, stomach was a little red and her neck was a mess. She got a bath later in the afternoon.

I needed to do two things for a little house maintenance before the next storms blow in, forecast says on Tuesday. While on the roof I wanted to inspect because of the hail storm we had last month. This roof is on it's last legs so to speak and has been through a lot of storms, wind, snow and ice. I also needed to clean out any leaves and sticks that was blocking the flow of water in the gutters.

Stella took her normal supervisory position. Since she was in charge, Sadie decided the field was all hers.

My roof isn't really high nor steep. You do have to pay attention though. I love the views from being on the roof. The hounds look a long was off from that rooftop angle.

I saw some hail damage to the shingles. Nothing major but more than I had last year at this time. The wind had tore a couple of pieces off in the last storm. I have a package of shingles left over from the repair in 2008 after the tree top feel on the corner of the house. I got to the point of replacing a sheet (3 shingles) but couldn't find my roofing nails.

So the hounds got their FJ ride for the day. Total mileage was two miles round trip. I grabbed just a small handful and knew they were priced by the pound. The scale showed an 1/8 of a pound. Here is when the fun started. It's one of those @$&%$^ moments.

The cashier didn't know how to enter 1/8 of a pound into the register. She was talking to herself that she knew how to enter a 1/4 pound (.25). So I suggested her to try .125 or .12 ... that got her mumbling even more. So I offered to go back and get more nails to make it a 1/4 pound so it would be easy for her. She didn't want me to do that.

She yelled at the manager asking for help. I was pretty sure that .12 would work. The manager and I were on the same page and it's what my receipt shows also. It does make you wonder though what's being taught in schools anymore ... or maybe math just came easy for me.

Once the house maintenance was finished and all the tools were put up ... the hounds needed a walk. They slept this morning so there was only one walk this afternoon.

When they took off I was preparing myself that they would be chasing something and would be out of sight by the time I made the turn around that first corner.

They both sprinted for Stella's corner and no doubt there were fresh deer scent by the way they acted. It was also a day where Stella was going to ignore any calls that had her name and would come running only when SHE was ready to.

I like the color of these next to photos hidden in 7 acres of green.

Even though it was warm outside but not really hot, Sadie still was in a hurry to get back inside the house. It was shaded and cool inside, just the perfect temperature for her afternoon siesta. All of them have been sleeping all afternoon.

I joke to friends that I only do one thing a day but today I did two ... repaired the shingles and cleared the leaves and sticks out of the gutter so they will work as designed. I clean them out every fall after all the leaves have fallen off the trees. It never fails they come from somewhere over the winter months.

I hope to wash the Mini Cooper tomorrow. I want to get it nice and shinny before it rains.

It was a good day in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana today. No ticks on either dog ... NexGard works very well.

Where Did All This Motivation Come From?

I believe you can see from the picture on the left that my camera has been fixed and returned in record time. If not, look closer at the center of the photo.

The Geek Squad at Best Buy, where I bought the camera, shipped the camera to the Nikon service the following morning and it arrived at the repair facility two days later. Along the way the notified me by email where the camera was.

While I was sitting at the kitchen table yesterday on July 6 I noticed the UPS truck stopping in front of the drive. With the long July 4th weekend, my camera shows up a week after I turned it in. Until I used it, I forgot how nice it was to see an automatic focus at any distance and with either lens. More photos to follow in the days ahead.

For one reason for more photos, I'll have more time again during the day to go out and take photos. During the last 8 days I've been working most days outside on my "to do" list. Plus the lawn mowing around the days of rain. It's been nonstop and on occasion I've done things I didn't have listed but noticed as I worked. It's just the way my brain works at times.

I believe in my last post over a week ago I mentioned a list of "to do's" for my house. Some of the things listed were things I've been wanting/needing to do for YEARS!! A lot of these things are not an annual thing. It was amazing to find out that when I actually started the repair just how little time it took. I've completed 11 of 13 items that were listed. I am down to my last two tasks and one I have no urge to do.

I have a crawl space that looks like a moon crater. I am able to walk around and will have to bend over at most of the time but it's not like I have to crawl on the ground under my house. So it should be ok and the hardest part might be getting to the entry window, which is now hidden behind the Yews I planted a few years ago.

You may be asking what kind of things am I talking about. Is it things that all homeowners have to go through? I'm not sure but I think I had a couple or a few things unique to my house. It ranged from washing windows inside and out around the 1970's style storm windows. (time consuming). Or with the RV washing brush with the extended handle, I was able to wash my house's siding, plus the overhang in less than one hour.

I missed a small spot that I didn't see until everything had dried, but it was good to see just how clean my house siding was after the siding was washed. When you live 80' from a busy highway and surrounded by fields of corn, soybeans, or hay ... dust/dirt tends to accumulate. Also in this area there tends to be more cobwebs attaching to different parts of the house, plus a couple of wasp nests.

It's common from the severe winter temps, but I had a few places on the overhang and the trim around my old windows, where paint had peeled. Those spots were scrapped, sanded, painted with primer and then trim paint. After a few days and the paint had completely dried, you could not tell where those spots were. The paint's color blended well even after 5 years.

I still had time on Sunday, forgetting what day of the week it was, to mow the lawn and trim the hedges. Since the Yews have grown into the desired height, it will be pretty easy to keep them trimmed from now on. I thought the traffic pattern on the highway was different but thought it might be from the holiday weekend. It wasn't until later that night when looking at my iPhone where I noticed it was Sunday ... LOL.

On the day it rained during the week, I worked inside and hand washed every inch of every wall inside the house. I won't go into details but the results showed it was time to do that task. It was shocking to say the least.

Of course as I have stated before, as I am doing things I find other stuff to do and in some cases will do them immediately. That's never a good thing. For example, while I was walking around painting the trim color over the spots I had repaired, I noticed the insides of the two doors on my shed were still white from the original paint job 15 years ago. So I end up painting both doors the same color as my current trim color.

That right there added a couple of hours to my day and away from something else ... but at least it looks good. There are also "hazards" of getting things done and looking good. I pressure washed my carport concrete floor Sunday morning after washing the house siding. Today it rained so much and so hard all day, that water that had flooded into the carport and flooded a lot of that clean concrete floor ... add in the number of times that Sadie ran back and forth through the standing water, it's back to a normal concrete floor.

As I was working inside I realized that at least one room needs to be painted. I like painting so it should not be much of a problem. It will take longer to move computers, bicycles, and desks out of the room or to the center of the room so I can walk around and paint the walls.

Heidi continues to improve. It's a slow process but hair is growing back to those spots that were raw months ago. Her stomach and armpits are back to normal skin texture. She would eat non-stop of I would keep giving her food, so hopefully that will lead to an increase in weight.

Winston is just Winston ... everyday is a laidback holiday to him. I have noticed a little stiffness in his back legs, lower back ... so I have started giving him buffered aspirin.

Sadie was doing some surprising things this past week. She wanted to stay outside while I worked. So I let her roam off leash, as I worked outside. Unlike a bloodhound breed, where some say they always need to be on a leash, there were different times where Sadie laid down in the grass and watched whatever I was doing. Since Winston kept wandering off, he had to go back inside the house.

I may have found out why I never got anything done in past years in the month of July. The Tour de France started July 4 and is on tv live every morning at 8am. Some of those races are 3-4 hours long, so that would take up most mornings. Three weeks later it would be too hot to work outside which leads into football season. Therefore a lot of the thing on that house list were never started.

Now, I check the internet while I drink my cup of coffee, shut off the computer, work outside during the day then watched the TOF at night at 8pm. That seems to work pretty well. It keeps me under my internet data for the month, I complete things that need to be done and I still see the day's race at night.

There is only one photo above that was taken with my repaired Nikon D3200, the others were taken with my iPhone 5S.

After my crawl space task ... the only things left to do on my list are things as if I were moving.

We'll see.