Has Been Quite A Day

This post tonight will be just an update about my painting projects. No hound photos but I will say that we all had a busy day today and all three are sleeping by the computer desk in 'their' freshly painted computer room with no lingering paint fumes. I had planned to start around 9am but the porch was dry enough to start painting the porch earlier than planned and I am glad I did. When I finished at 9:20am it was only a muggy 81° but felt like 100°. I cleaned the brush and roller then headed inside to paint the living room.

It Was Paint Primer Day Today

With rain yesterday morning before we woke up that lasted until 10am, painting the porch was not an option. Now today some readers might think I am insane deciding to paint today because our weather was going to be in the 90s today and Wednesday and then on Thursday the temps drop to highs in the 70s. I started today thinking I could get the primer on the porch before 11am when it would be hot and then in the afternoon I could move inside and start painting my living room while in the AC air.

Sadie Sprints With Eyes Skyward

It was the normal calm daily morning walk with the bloodhounds, starting with wet grass while in the shade and not quite as wet out in the sunshine. In the past it has been deer that lead the hounds to an immediate sprint and a chase ... but today there were 4-5 small birds flying just above Sadie like a WWII fighter planes in a dogfight that drove her to edge of insanity.

We started the walk with Stella leading the way on the left side. That has been her recent path and then close to the first turn she will veer right to join Sadie and I. Since we only took two walks yesterday instead of three, she may have had a little extra energy today.

Sadie did her normal investigation along the edge of the field and woods. With the hay and other stuff growing taller you can see a distinct path of where the deer travel through the night or early morning hours.

Stella is no longer interested in chasing deer (missed last chase), nor chasing birds ... it seems she only walks in the field to find and eat deer scat. In spots like this she will ignore everything I say and will not budge even when I say 'let's go' or tug at her collar.

One the way back home, she did get a little trotting in but no high speed runs like she used to. That was until today, although it was a short burst of speed.

They were both walk along 5' feet to my right side, when Sadie does an unusual bark and takes off sprinting full speed. I saw no deer anywhere in sight and whatever she was chasing was at ground level. Before I could barely get the camera up and focused, Stella sprinted after Sadie but slowed down soon after reaching her.

During this time as I was trying to catch Sadie's chase on camera, I did not see anything that she was chasing ... to the point I was a little confused.

Here Sadie as sprinted from the middle of the field back close to the far right corner where we past during our walks. By this time Stella was totally out of the chase, slowly walking back to that place she never moves. She stayed there all through Sadie's chase and until I walked over to get her to move.

Picture 4-5 small birds flying and darting all over the sky just above Sadie's head as she sprinted after them all over the field. Sadie never stopped one time after the chase started, until the end.

Those pictures don't capture how fast Sadie was running.

Then the birds were gone ... Sadie watched as they flew NE over the next field behind us.

She still made sure not a bird was left before she ran back to me.

While walking from where I was directly to Stella I ran onto a spot toward the back/middle of the field where it looks like a possible deer bed.

With the shaded area on our return path still very wet, these past few days the hounds and I have been staying in the sunshine, walking in the directly to the north side of the yard. Stella likes the new path in that part of the field and in the meantime I found a few new flowers to photograph.

I finished my trim painting early yesterday afternoon. I ended up doing more than I planned on by trying to use up that last 3/8 can of paint. I was at the local hardware store just as they opened up at 8am. I needed to buy some more of that 4-star dog food they sell and I wanted to buy some calk/silicone along with my first purchase ever .. Gorilla glue.

You can see the red foundation paint I pictured the other day is covered up again. It's pretty amazing when I power wash the house next spring that some new spots might blow off where the green paint has bubbled up but that red paint will always be there. It does not move even with a direct hit of the power wash water.

I missed this spot in August 2010 and again yesterday. I will have to lie down a little lower to see and paint over that small spot of gray just left of center and below the door trim.

It wasn't until this morning as I was taking pictures of what I had completed as a reference for future years to see if I am having damage in the same spots every couple of years ... when I noticed I missed another spot on the green paint. I am not sure how I did that. With my new plan for green paint, it will not be a problem to paint over that spot at the same time I paint under the door.

When I was about to finish yesterday I had between a 1/4 and 1/2 gallon of green paint left. It had been opened and closed a few times over the past 7 years for touch up work. The paint can lid was to the point it was not sealing all the way after I would tamper it down with a hammer so I decide I'd paint on the back side of the house until the paint was gone.

I still have one never opened gallon of paint on the shelf left from the house painting job in 2010. So it wasn't a big deal about getting rid of what I had left in the can I was using. It shocked me I was able to paint the exterior side of the carport and still having just a little paint left in the can.

From the way the attic looks they built the carport the same time they built the house, yet the exterior back side of the carport has wood siding instead of the aluminum siding the rest of the house has. I cannot say I have ever been a fan of the lattice design here on the front between the living room windows but I've never figured out what else to do with it.

I am up for suggestions for that area.

By the time I put the ladder away, cleaned the paint brush and my hands, I couldn't remember what day of the week it was ... Thursday or Friday were my guesses. I had also lost track of time. There was still plenty of daylight to mow the yard and the sun was much higher in the sky than I would have guessed. I found out it was only 5pm and my paint project had been put up and away.

Then ... I saw again ... I had forgot to paint the trim inside the carport, very similar to me forgetting to high pressure wash the fence until I was about to put that equipment away. No big deal, because my new plan with the one gallon of paint that has been sitting on my shelf since 2010 is to paint the carport, the front of the house and whatever I have left in the can.

With my lawn of green grass, clover and weeds I thought it was looking pretty good since March when it looked the worst ever from the mild winter and high mole activity. This morning it was sad to see that the moles have returned. I've tried everything over the 19 summers that I have been here, to kill the grub worms thus keep the moles out of the yard. Probably impossible to do living next to a field.

Due to the hounds paws, I am not a fan of spraying chemicals of any kind on the yard or driveway so the weeds grow wild and the moles tear up my yard. What's the solution?

I was so tired and sore last night that I told myself I'd take the day off today. I have so far and it's already 11:30am. I usually get a burst of motivation right after the hounds have their lunch kibble and I must admit I have a "slight urge" to paint the trim of the carport today. With no rain in the forecast until Sunday night I would also have Saturday to do the same thing and still recoup for a day.

Weather so far this spring and summer has been unbelievable good in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana.

Another Productive Day As The Hounds Sleep The Day Away

It was during the lunch for the hounds on Tuesday that I changed my mind for the 2nd time in 2 hours about power washing. It was perfect weather for it. Not too hot and just warm enough that I would not freeze as the water spray drenched me based on wind direction. Heidi gave me the okay to get started as she enjoyed the front yard.

While I was stretching out 100' of electrical cord and 100' of garden hose to connect to the power washer on the north side of the house, I realized I had not done this last year. In fact I used an extended handle brush connected to the hose that I bought for washing my Class C in 2014. That took less than an hour to wash the side of the house and the overhangs. It took longer with the set up and washing this year.

I still wanted to use the power washer to not only clean the house but also peel any loose paint off the wood trim. The paint on the aluminum siding never moves and it does not matter what the weather does nor how many times it changes. I figured I could wash, scrape paint, sand it, prime it and paint it within 6 total hours spread over 2-3 days.

Of course with any old house and maintenance, one job might lead to two new ones. Mine wasn't that bad but it turned it from a two day affair to a three day job, yet it looks like it will be around 8 hours total labor time.

While I was moving both cars outside away from the house and then trash cans, a chair and anything else left standing in the carport so they would not get wet ... Sadie was more than a little concerned about what was going on. Maybe she though we were was moving or going somewhere ... being a confirmed 'homebody' ... she did act a little anxious as I was setting the project up. She does not like any kind of change .. even moving her food dish 6".

Stella didn't care. It was too hot for her, she wanted inside and she can't stop scratching even after another bath. My blog shows that in May 2016 she had the same itching problem ... so it's allergies.

Heidi wasn't going to move when I called her. She had found a spot she had never tried for sunbathing and was content to stay right next to the driveway as I started work. But on this occasion I did not have time to babysit hounds while I was out of sight. So Heidi headed for the couch and Stella was thrilled she could go back inside for her afternoon siesta. I confirmed it by looking in the window to see all three hounds sleeping while I washed the house.

Once the house and carport are clean, it's like they have been repainted. The dryer it gets, the better it looks.

There of course is humor to this project. I thought I was finished so I am rolling the machine over by the fence to stretch out the electrical cord and garden hose, then disassemble everything and put things away ... then I remembered ... I wanted to pressure wash the fence !!!

So I turned around and started that job. I am not sure it's good to pressure wash a treated wood fence but I did about 10 years ago and the only damage this fence has seen is when my pyromania fires have caught the fence on fire. So I continued to wash all of the fence only on this side. I did wash 3 sides of every fence post and the top edges of every piece.

As the fence dried it looked better ....

But it really looked the best this morning after it completely dried.

The Z went back inside on a clean concrete floor, so clean I almost hated driving on it. The car cover keeps all of the yellow pollen and light brown dust from the highway off the car. It does not take that long to take off when I want to drive it.

The top front edge of the porch was covered in black algae ... my old friend with the biology degree named that stuff today and explained it to me and I have forgotten the name and every thing about it an hour later. The concrete steps and porch only had dirt to remove but it looks much better cleaned.

Funny story about that little red paint you see at the bottom side of the steps ... my great aunt built this house and her 'dream house' was a yellow house with a deep red foundation ... I'm told. I've tried over the years of getting rid of what red is left as there are other places on the foundation you can see it. I have tried different solutions, painted gray paint over it 22 years later and then green paint over it 13 years later ... and you can still see it whenever I scrub the paint.

Here is an example of some of the bare wood that results from a high power wash, intentionally set to strip off any loose paint. Easy fix with some scraping, sanding, put on primer and then paint.

This spot drives me insane every time I look at it. Evidently with the carport floor flooded in water I missed a spot to power clean. I have no doubt that very soon I will haul that machine out of the closet, hook up everything just to power clean this spot. Maybe I'll try a scrub brush and soap first with a fresh water rinse.

Today right after lunch Heidi gave me the okay to start the process of scraping all the bare spots as clean as possible, lifting more bubbled paint off. By the end of the afternoon I had primed all the spots I needed to and will paint the trim color tomorrow in less than an hour.

My total labor time today was 3 hours and 10 minutes.

Before starting any of this, I was curious enough and by suggestions ... plugged in my other 27" monitor into my new iMac so I now have two large monitors. I have used two monitors for the last 7 years but was more than happy with just one Retina display. Yet the 2nd monitor comes in handy at times. I think I'll keep it set up and am glad I did not sell it. A few of the "mac geeks" told me to do this.

It's never wise to paint on the west side of the house in the afternoon sun. The back of my legs, my neck and arms are feeling their first sunburn of 2017. It feels good to feel tired and another solid night of sleep.

'To Do' List momentum here in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana.

It's a Holiday Weekend But I Got a Lot Accomplished

As usually is the case with me, I don't have written plans for each day. I might have some things in my head that I am wanting to do but let me tell you, I hop all over the place once I get started. Luckily this weekend I finished what I started before moving on to a different project.

Yesterday I had my very first Craig's List sale. I probably gave those spare BMW Z4 rims away but I was to the point I didn't care ... get 'em out of here. I had an offer when I woke Saturday morning, I agreed to it over coffee and the buyer drove 75 miles to get here and took them away by 1pm. In the mean time I had decided I was going to trim one of the large plants on the north side of my house. I am not sure what it is, at times it will show medium size pink flowers. Anyway I trimmed it ... better than burning it to the ground like I did 17 years ago by accident.  lol

With the 100' electrical cord stretched out across part of the front yard, I decided on the spur of the moment to go ahead and for the first time, trim the Yews that I planted a couple of years ago. It was much easier than I had imagined.

Since I was on a roll, I decided to get rid of the 3 spruces on the south edge of my property. Last year my neighbor (no brains), caught my bank on fire (100' long) and in the process burnt the south side of my 4 spruce trees. He claimed when I asked, that he knew nothing about it and had no idea how that could have happened. It's a long story that I will not go in to, but here are a couple of photos from last year after they were fried. In the 2nd photo noticed the burnt grass close to my pickup truck. From that point to the base of the bank is 15' ... must have been a heck of a wall of fire.

April 2013

I had hoped when I saw some new green growth last fall, that all of them were in the process of making a comeback but by this May all of them had died. They turned brittle and brown. I tried to help them last fall and this spring with water and fertilizer but without success.

November 2013

I cut all of them down to ground level and tossed them on the pile to be burned in the fall with all the other brush, tree limbs etc.

That was my Saturday. I was in the mood to do that type of stuff so I thought I'd better take advantage of my surprising motivation while I had it.

My CL buyer was running a little late, so I backed the FJ and Mini Cooper out from the carport, floor brushed out what dirt had collected from the winter and spring winds. I stretched out my hose and did one of my favorite things ... hosed down the concrete getting everything clean. There is just something about high pressure water getting dirt out of concrete that I enjoy ... weird ... similar to watching the grounds crew at professional baseball games hosing down the infield dirt before the game.

Sunday morning while drinking coffee I decided I would take down my old tv antenna and steel pole that had been mounted to the north side of the house trim next to the crown of the roof. That antenna (worked perfect pre-HD tv days) and pole probably had been there for 40 years.

At first I thought I would dismantle it from the top, first taking the antenna off the pole while I stood on the roof and then unhooking the U-bolts holding the pole stationary to the house trim. I imagined after all of these years the antenna being there, that the pole must be in concrete. After climbing up to the roof I decided that wasn't the way to do it. I unscrewed 4 nuts to take off the U-bolts off the wood it was mounted to, told Sadie to get out of the way and gave it a shove away from the house. The pole was in the ground deep enough it barely moved but did sway a little bit. It moved enough to get away from the house where I could pound, pry and anything else to get those two pieces of wood off of the trim.

It was quite a "gun decked" piece of work by whoever installed it.  After climbing down the ladder, I was able to pull with the coax cable, hard enough to get the antenna and pole leaning toward me. As I kept pulling, I realized the pole was not set in concrete like I thought it was but after all of these years, was only buried in the ground. Easy stuff.

I disconnected the antenna from the pole, dismantled the antenna and broke it down enough where it will be taken away by my garbage collector Wednesday with no problems. I am going to cut up the steel pole and take it to the recycling center this week.

That led me to sanding, priming and painting that top center end piece of my house trim. While waiting for the primer to dry I remembered my mailbox pole also needed painting. So I primed that, then waited to apply two different coats of paint to the mailbox pole and house trim.

By the end of Sunday afternoon, I had taken down the antenna, a 30' steel pole, painted the north end house trim, the mailbox pole, the gray utility boxes up next to the house the same color as the house. I did this while managing a psychotic bloodhound that wanted out every time I left the house but wanted back in the house as soon as I would get to my ladder on the opposite side of the house. She's crazy!

A successful weekend ... except what is waiting for me under the house.  It's suppose to thunderstorm on Monday and Tuesday so it looks like Wednesday before I can get under the house to finish that project dragging out 40 yr old insulation (it was legal then) and spraying and killing any visible mold. After that will be laying 1000 square feet of 6 mil plastic on the dirt floor. I don't have to craw under the house, the crawlspace is deep enough that I can stand bent over. Still I can stand and not having to craw on my hands and knees to remove the insulation.

During all of these hours of doing house stuff this weekend, I thought of what it would be like with no house duties lurking around the corner. Do you get bored hanging out in beautiful country? I know you can move when you get bored but I just wonder how those days traveling would be spent, camping in one spot day after day. I may have a hard time getting started on projects but once I do, I enjoy them more than sitting around like I have the past couple of months just reading books or looking at the computer. Makes me wonder.

I do have 'hitch itch' though and nothing to travel in.

The hounds and I are waiting for the temperature to fall a few degrees before the daily dog walk. It looks like it might be one of those 8:30pm walks since we are back into the 80's today. They aren't really waiting, they are sleeping but will be excited when I say the word "walk" after they wake up.