SageHill
Herd Master
Yup!! I've found that to be exactly what my sheep do. They eat a little of this, a little of that, go back, repeat. They seem to know what they need and don't over due it on the super tasty things either!
Ridgetop - our place and how we muddle along
- Thread starter Ridgetop
- Start date
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- #4,792
Ridgetop
Herd Master
Sadly, goats do not eat goat weed. Neither do cows, horses, sheep or even deer. The botnical name is Croton Catitatus, commonly kown as Wooly Goat Weed or Dove Weed. As the name implies doves quail, and other birds love it. Goats, sheep, cattle, horses and deer don't, and it is mildly toxic to them.
I will relay Farmerjan's info to DH about not spraying until the new plants come up in the early spring. He will have to mow now. Where there are isolated plants he can continue pulling them up since he is enjoying that. Next spring we will spray. The seed has a long life in soil. Will have to be careful what poison we use. Picloram is recommended as a pre-emergent BUT it will kill all legumes so it would prevent the clover from coming back. We had beautiful stands of thick cover last spring and I want to sow more this winter so will stay away from Picloram. However 2,4-D and Grazeon should do the trick. If we keep on it next year we might be able to get a handle on it.
In the meantime DH has almost cleared the 1/3 acre area that was originally the McDonald's vegetable garden. We are using it for the rams and won't need such a large garden. Some raised beds should be enough for us.
Wooly Goat Weed about 2' tall already gone to seed. Still considering burning the area with a controlled burn.
Amazing that there is good, thick grass pasture under the goat weed. Just 2 small areas to pull up.
More tomorrow.
I will relay Farmerjan's info to DH about not spraying until the new plants come up in the early spring. He will have to mow now. Where there are isolated plants he can continue pulling them up since he is enjoying that. Next spring we will spray. The seed has a long life in soil. Will have to be careful what poison we use. Picloram is recommended as a pre-emergent BUT it will kill all legumes so it would prevent the clover from coming back. We had beautiful stands of thick cover last spring and I want to sow more this winter so will stay away from Picloram. However 2,4-D and Grazeon should do the trick. If we keep on it next year we might be able to get a handle on it.
In the meantime DH has almost cleared the 1/3 acre area that was originally the McDonald's vegetable garden. We are using it for the rams and won't need such a large garden. Some raised beds should be enough for us.
Wooly Goat Weed about 2' tall already gone to seed. Still considering burning the area with a controlled burn. Amazing that there is good, thick grass pasture under the goat weed. Just 2 small areas to pull up. More tomorrow.
Such a beautiful property!
SageHill
Herd Master
So greeeeeeeen !! 
- Thread starter
- #4,795
Ridgetop
Herd Master
Even more beautifu when it is goat weed free!Such a beautiful property!
Yup, that goat weed is certainly that color! LOLSo greeeeeeeen !!
We do have lovely pastures, and enugh rain to keep them that way. We just have to mount a comprehensive war against the goat weed.
Hopefully DH wil understand more about what that means. Anyway, I finally got in touch with the local bridge players who meet in Minneola. Contract bridge on the second and 4th Friday, Duplicate on the 1st, 3rd, and 5th Fridays. Lovely people and we had a great time. Fridays will be sacrosanct to Bridge from now on. LOL Most of them live in Mineola but at lest one person lives in Emory so hopefuly we can find some players locally to play on other days.
After Bridge DH decided to go to Camping World in Tyler to look at small BBQs. Ours took a dump last week. I mentioned that we could look at Lowes and get 10% off with no tax but he insisted so off we went. They had mostly propane griddles instead of BBQs - apparently griddles are all the newest rage in camping. DH said they were the same as BBQs but I tpld him that I had several skillets and I could cook steaks on them for free. DH sai we would go look at Lowes. They will have a sale for Labor Day. Naturally since we were there we had to look at new 5th wheel trailers.
We saw 2 models - the frst one was too small but the second was the style we liked with several slideouts, plenty of windows, 2 ACs, king bed, large closet and plenty of storage. DH says that he is getting to the age that he wants automatically levelling jacks on trailer. Getting VERY hard to get down to level manually. However, after getting a trade in value of $12,000 on our current trailer the one we liked was pretty expensive. Particularly since adding a generator is after market. However, we liked the style so DH had the salesman write up what it would cost with our millitary discount, and trade in. The original cost of the one we liked was $75,000 but we qualified for some additional discounts along with our trade-in amount so I let DH have some fun. When we looked over their offer, they had marked our trailer trade-in down to $4,200, the generator add-on was $9,984, and taxes were over $5,000. Somehow although they showed that they were giving us a "DISCOUNT" of $21,500 the out the door final cost was $85,000+! No, we did not whip out our checkbook and write a check for the new trailer. Instead I told DH that when we got too old and decrepit to travel with the current trailer (which is in excellent shape by the way) that we would rent a new RV with all the bells and whistles and travel for a month or so. For the amount of years we have left it will be much more economical - and if t breaks down, the rental company is responsible! In the meantime, our trailer is really comfortable. I did tell DH that we would get rid of the horribly uncomfortable sleeper sofa and buy him a new RV recliner. We will also buy a new RV table and 2 chairs, and carry 2 additonal folding chairs for guests. It will replace the dining banquette I removed. Another problem wth the new travel trailers is that they don't have propne heaters any more, only electric heat which means you have to be in a full hookup park. Having a propane water heater is an option. None of them come with generators - it is an after market add-on. Some of them come with solar panels, on soe it is another aftermarket add-on. We already have all those things on our trailer so why bother? Our upholstery is in excellent shape and I can rent a carpet cleaner to shampoo the carpets. The new trailers have vinyl strip flooring which is nice but camping will really tear that up with sand and dirt, and the finishes were al painted instead of wood. DH and I had a good time together and stopped at Eastern Buffet in Lindale on the way home. We always used to eat there when we visited Baymule and BJ.
When we got home we found that it had rained in Yantis lightly.
Good for the pastures. More later.
SageHill
Herd Master
Ya' know, the "in thing" now seems to be remodeling RVs! Some up to the point of stripping the inside down to bare walls and floors, others new furniture and appliances, wallpaper and tile. Some of the ones I've seen (online for sale) are WOW. Maybe you could do something with your current 5th wheel. Yeah - in all that "spare time" you have. But it is an idea.Even more beautifu when it is goat weed free!
Yup, that goat weed is certainly that color! LOL
We do have lovely pastures, and enugh rain to keep them that way. We just have to mount a comprehensive war against the goat weed.
Anyway, I finally got in touch with the local bridge players who meet in Minneola. Contract bridge on the second and 4th Friday, Duplicate on the 1st, 3rd, and 5th Fridays. Lovely people and we had a great time. Fridays will be sacrosanct to Bridge from now on. LOL Most of them live in Mineola but at lest one person lives in Emory so hopefuly we can find some players locally to play on other days.
After Bridge DH decided to go to Camping World in Tyler to look at small BBQs. Ours took a dump last week. I mentioned that we could look at Lowes and get 10% off with no tax but he insisted so off we went. They had mostly propane griddles instead of BBQs - apparently griddles are all the newest rage in camping. DH said they were the same as BBQs but I tpld him that I had several skillets and I could cook steaks on them for free. DH sai we would go look at Lowes. They will have a sale for Labor Day. Naturally since we were there we had to look at new 5th wheel trailers.
We saw 2 models - the frst one was too small but the second was the style we liked with several slideouts, plenty of windows, 2 ACs, king bed, large closet and plenty of storage. DH says that he is getting to the age that he wants automatically levelling jacks on trailer. Getting VERY hard to get down to level manually. However, after getting a trade in value of $12,000 on our current trailer the one we liked was pretty expensive. Particularly since adding a generator is after market. However, we liked the style so DH had the salesman write up what it would cost with our millitary discount, and trade in. The original cost of the one we liked was $75,000 but we qualified for some additional discounts along with our trade-in amount so I let DH have some fun. When we looked over their offer, they had marked our trailer trade-in down to $4,200, the generator add-on was $9,984, and taxes were over $5,000. Somehow although they showed that they were giving us a "DISCOUNT" of $21,500 the out the door final cost was $85,000+! No, we did not whip out our checkbook and write a check for the new trailer. Instead I told DH that when we got too old and decrepit to travel with the current trailer (which is in excellent shape by the way) that we would rent a new RV with all the bells and whistles and travel for a month or so. For the amount of years we have left it will be much more economical - and if t breaks down, the rental company is responsible! In the meantime, our trailer is really comfortable. I did tell DH that we would get rid of the horribly uncomfortable sleeper sofa and buy him a new RV recliner. We will also buy a new RV table and 2 chairs, and carry 2 additonal folding chairs for guests. It will replace the dining banquette I removed. Another problem wth the new travel trailers is that they don't have propne heaters any more, only electric heat which means you have to be in a full hookup park. Having a propane water heater is an option. None of them come with generators - it is an after market add-on. Some of them come with solar panels, on soe it is another aftermarket add-on. We already have all those things on our trailer so why bother? Our upholstery is in excellent shape and I can rent a carpet cleaner to shampoo the carpets. The new trailers have vinyl strip flooring which is nice but camping will really tear that up with sand and dirt, and the finishes were al painted instead of wood. DH and I had a good time together and stopped at Eastern Buffet in Lindale on the way home. We always used to eat there when we visited Baymule and BJ.
When we got home we found that it had rained in Yantis lightly.
More later.
- Thread starter
- #4,797
Ridgetop
Herd Master
Already did some remodeling by removing the dinette table and booths. Used the oak veneer sheets to cover where the booths were attached.
First picture is after removing the banquttes and table. You can see where the banquettes were by the lighter area of carpet and the circles were the locations of the table bases. I recut the pieces of oak that backed the builtins, and attached them on the walls to cover the outside doors to the under banquette storage areas. I used the molding I had removed as well as some oak molding strips Dana removed from her new house when she had the walls plastered. The third picture shows the paneling where I took it to the end of the banquette area. The rest of the wall behind the sofa (which we plan to remove and replace with a small recliner for DH) has the standard trailer recovering in good condition so no need to panel over that. Good thing since I was out of paneling at that point! The carpet needs to be shampooed. I will replace it eventually with vinyl strip flooring. It is not a very large trailer but works for DH and I. We have lived in it for 6 weeks at a time when traveling, and renovating MJ's house in Yelm. Got more storage by installing additional wire shelving, slide out shelving in the pantry, and have a smaller sofa with tons of storage under the seats. Also storage under the bed lift up. We will be keeping it. And our $85,000!
Getting more stuff done in the house. Measuring for the Murphy bed we will be putting in the spare bedroom. Saw some interesting Murphy beds on line that have a fold down sofa in front of the bed fold out. The bedcomes down and th sofa back folds down. The bed comes down and positions over the sofa. Really cool for a single apartment or super tiny vacation home. Since we wont be using the room for a sitting room, I just want the one that folds up into a cupboard. Sadly the room is not large enough to accomodate a queen size sofa bed if we put built in shelves on each side. I need to do some more measuring and decide how many times we will need to have a queen bed as opposed to a full bed for company. If the kids are too comfortable they may stay too long! LOL I can order the bed ready to put together and instal, or plans to make our own with the hardware. We would have to supply the lumber. On the other hand, we would use real wood instead of press board. I will discuss it with DS1 before deciding. Will have to order a mattress as well. The Murphy beds only take a certain thickness mattress. First thing to do is choose a paint color and paint the room. I have the bedding to use so it needs to blend with those colors. Once the room is painted, I can move the bookcases and dresser in and hang some of the paintings. They are currently in picture boxes taking up room. Then order and make the Murphy bed. (I still have to strip the wall paper from my bedroom walls, patch any holes, and paint but that can wait.)
DH has another couple weeks of goat weed pulling to finish the /3 acre plot. We have probably paid as much to dump all the goat weed as it would have cost to spray an entire acre. Luckily he has listened to Baymule and Farmerjan. He has informed me that he will be spraying in early spring or when any new goat weed shows up. He plans to mow the rest and also the pastures where the grass is over 24" high. He is dissatisfied with the sheep who are not eating the tall grass, but looking under it for the new tender shoots. Oh well, at least he is now telling me that he has decided to spray and mow from now on. 
Strangely we have not had the Catalpa worms this year. I do hear the buzzing in the trees so maybe they are breeding late this year. There are hardly any Catalpa wasps either. They must both be late this year.
Tomorrow I take Ozel in for her OFA xrays. The vet had one bottle of Bo-Se left and are holding it for me. Apparently they are having trouble getting it. I will place an order for 6 bottles with them to cover the next breeding season. I need about 300 mls to do all the ewes. The dosage is 2.5ml/cc per hundred pounds of animal which should come out to 4 or 5 cc per ewe. I was short so only gave them 3cc to make sure I had enough. Hopefully it will be close enough. The first group were the smaller yearlings and the next group were coming off lactation so were not huge either. This next group have put on weight grazing and are in about a 3 condition - the dosage for them will be about 4.5cc. I need to do soil samples on the pasture and hay fields this year.
We used the cart we bought n California to transport the ram to the breeding pasture and remove the first ram.
The cart worked like a charm.
DS1 thought firsthe would have to push it over the grass, but they figured out how to attach it to the tractor and tow over. I will try to get a picture of it in operation when DS1 gets home. We have to sort out the new breeding pen and switch rams. The cart worked perfectly. DS1 thought at first that the wheels might be too small but when he saw them realized that they were fine. They are solid rubber too so no possibility of punctures. Only thing they don't like is that all 4 wheels swivel which can be difficult when pushing it but when being towed, it is fine.
DH and DS1 saw a hay cradle for sheep and goats at Atwoods before DS1 went back to Califrnia fr his vacation. Atwoods had 2 but one got sold so DH decded to buy the remaining one last week. It was $349 which is cheap compared to all the ones I priced on line. He is hoping they get more in. I will call the surrounding Atwoods to see if they have any. They loaded it in the truck with their forklift and we unloaded it ourselves with the tractor. We would like to put one in each pasture so we can feed the rolls without having to move the cradle from pasture to pasture. I wonder if we can build one into a fence using our portable panels so both sides can eat at once. It doesn't have a cover but I think we could rig something up with a tarp for the rainy season. We just set the rolls on the ground in the open last year though so . . . .
The distance between the pipes is about 10"-12" which is a bit on the wide side. The lambs can climb through them and some of the sheep might also be able to climb through. However, I think we can fix that by putting some stock panel over the bars, or attach a couple horizontal bars to the verticals. The side rails pin to the upper frame and to a welded piece on the middle bottom. DH thought they were adjustable but looing at them there is nowhere to adjust them to. On the other hand, removing the nuts and bolts from them means you can disassemble them which might make them easier to move around by hand. We will see how we like them this year. I do think that they will keep the sheep from wasting so much hay by pulling the bales apart and trampling the hay on the ground. 
First picture is after removing the banquttes and table. You can see where the banquettes were by the lighter area of carpet and the circles were the locations of the table bases. I recut the pieces of oak that backed the builtins, and attached them on the walls to cover the outside doors to the under banquette storage areas. I used the molding I had removed as well as some oak molding strips Dana removed from her new house when she had the walls plastered. The third picture shows the paneling where I took it to the end of the banquette area. The rest of the wall behind the sofa (which we plan to remove and replace with a small recliner for DH) has the standard trailer recovering in good condition so no need to panel over that. Good thing since I was out of paneling at that point! The carpet needs to be shampooed. I will replace it eventually with vinyl strip flooring. It is not a very large trailer but works for DH and I. We have lived in it for 6 weeks at a time when traveling, and renovating MJ's house in Yelm. Got more storage by installing additional wire shelving, slide out shelving in the pantry, and have a smaller sofa with tons of storage under the seats. Also storage under the bed lift up. We will be keeping it.
And our $85,000! Getting more stuff done in the house. Measuring for the Murphy bed we will be putting in the spare bedroom. Saw some interesting Murphy beds on line that have a fold down sofa in front of the bed fold out. The bedcomes down and th sofa back folds down. The bed comes down and positions over the sofa. Really cool for a single apartment or super tiny vacation home. Since we wont be using the room for a sitting room, I just want the one that folds up into a cupboard. Sadly the room is not large enough to accomodate a queen size sofa bed if we put built in shelves on each side. I need to do some more measuring and decide how many times we will need to have a queen bed as opposed to a full bed for company. If the kids are too comfortable they may stay too long! LOL I can order the bed ready to put together and instal, or plans to make our own with the hardware. We would have to supply the lumber. On the other hand, we would use real wood instead of press board. I will discuss it with DS1 before deciding. Will have to order a mattress as well. The Murphy beds only take a certain thickness mattress. First thing to do is choose a paint color and paint the room. I have the bedding to use so it needs to blend with those colors. Once the room is painted, I can move the bookcases and dresser in and hang some of the paintings. They are currently in picture boxes taking up room. Then order and make the Murphy bed. (I still have to strip the wall paper from my bedroom walls, patch any holes, and paint but that can wait.)
DH has another couple weeks of goat weed pulling to finish the /3 acre plot. We have probably paid as much to dump all the goat weed as it would have cost to spray an entire acre. Luckily he has listened to Baymule and Farmerjan. He has informed me that he will be spraying in early spring or when any new goat weed shows up. He plans to mow the rest and also the pastures where the grass is over 24" high. He is dissatisfied with the sheep who are not eating the tall grass, but looking under it for the new tender shoots.
Oh well, at least he is now telling me that he has decided to spray and mow from now on. Strangely we have not had the Catalpa worms this year. I do hear the buzzing in the trees so maybe they are breeding late this year. There are hardly any Catalpa wasps either. They must both be late this year.
Tomorrow I take Ozel in for her OFA xrays. The vet had one bottle of Bo-Se left and are holding it for me. Apparently they are having trouble getting it. I will place an order for 6 bottles with them to cover the next breeding season. I need about 300 mls to do all the ewes. The dosage is 2.5ml/cc per hundred pounds of animal which should come out to 4 or 5 cc per ewe. I was short so only gave them 3cc to make sure I had enough. Hopefully it will be close enough. The first group were the smaller yearlings and the next group were coming off lactation so were not huge either. This next group have put on weight grazing and are in about a 3 condition - the dosage for them will be about 4.5cc. I need to do soil samples on the pasture and hay fields this year.
We used the cart we bought n California to transport the ram to the breeding pasture and remove the first ram.
The cart worked like a charm. DS1 thought firsthe would have to push it over the grass, but they figured out how to attach it to the tractor and tow over. I will try to get a picture of it in operation when DS1 gets home. We have to sort out the new breeding pen and switch rams. The cart worked perfectly. DS1 thought at first that the wheels might be too small but when he saw them realized that they were fine. They are solid rubber too so no possibility of punctures. Only thing they don't like is that all 4 wheels swivel which can be difficult when pushing it but when being towed, it is fine.
DH and DS1 saw a hay cradle for sheep and goats at Atwoods before DS1 went back to Califrnia fr his vacation. Atwoods had 2 but one got sold so DH decded to buy the remaining one last week. It was $349 which is cheap compared to all the ones I priced on line. He is hoping they get more in. I will call the surrounding Atwoods to see if they have any. They loaded it in the truck with their forklift and we unloaded it ourselves with the tractor.
We would like to put one in each pasture so we can feed the rolls without having to move the cradle from pasture to pasture. I wonder if we can build one into a fence using our portable panels so both sides can eat at once. It doesn't have a cover but I think we could rig something up with a tarp for the rainy season. We just set the rolls on the ground in the open last year though so . . . . The distance between the pipes is about 10"-12" which is a bit on the wide side. The lambs can climb through them and some of the sheep might also be able to climb through. However, I think we can fix that by putting some stock panel over the bars, or attach a couple horizontal bars to the verticals. The side rails pin to the upper frame and to a welded piece on the middle bottom. DH thought they were adjustable but looing at them there is nowhere to adjust them to. On the other hand, removing the nuts and bolts from them means you can disassemble them which might make them easier to move around by hand. We will see how we like them this year. I do think that they will keep the sheep from wasting so much hay by pulling the bales apart and trampling the hay on the ground.
SageHill
Herd Master
Great start on the remodel. Heck - it even looks like fun, especially since it's not like remodeling and living in a house at the same time!
Love the idea with the murphy bed. We had one in the old house and it was fantastic. You might want to check out sleeper couches not the regular ones - but one that has a chaise. They come in different lengths so it ~could work in that spare room and still have it as a sitting room or whatever. We've got one in the tv room - sooo comfy. Way more comfortable to sit and to sleep than the traditional sofa beds.
Love the idea with the murphy bed. We had one in the old house and it was fantastic. You might want to check out sleeper couches not the regular ones - but one that has a chaise. They come in different lengths so it ~could work in that spare room and still have it as a sitting room or whatever. We've got one in the tv room - sooo comfy. Way more comfortable to sit and to sleep than the traditional sofa beds.
- Thread starter
- #4,799
Ridgetop
Herd Master
Friday DD2 and family came over. We celebrated Maysie's birthday wth a cake since she had to go back to California on Saturday.
After they went home it started to storm with heavy thunder and lightning strikes right overhead while we watched TV. Suddenly there was a huge crack and flash outside the front window! Really scary, lost power for a minute, then it came back on. We all jumped up to see what had happened. Lightning had hit something in the front of the house. DS1 and DH went out the kitchen door to see what had gotten hit. DS1 put on a poncho and went out to make sure that it hadn't hit anything else. I looked out the front window and saw that one of the Catalpa trees about 20' from the front porch had been struck by lightning! Luckily the rain was really sheeting down so nothing caught fire.
I opened the front door and went onto the porch. OTree pieces were scattered all over the porch, lawn, and out into the road. Cars kept hitting the pieces in the road. Apparently the lightning struck on the street side and ran down the trunk, spiraling around and exploding pieces of the trunk and bark off. One piece of the trunk that was on the lawn was about 5' long and the size of a 4"x4"!
We went back inside and finished watching the show while the lightning hit all around us for another couple hours before moving off north. Lot of close strikes around us, very exciting, and the rain came down really heavily for about 7-8 hours. We really need it for the pastures.
Yesterday I emptied out the spare bedroom getting ready to paint. I got the paint on Friday - pale soft green that will go well with the bedding. Most of the items in there were large picture/painting boxes and a couple mirrors. They are all stacked in the hall so I can wash the walls and paint them. The other boxes of pix and files are stacked in the office. There is also a pile of stuff that needs to go to the pump shed. I am wondering if I am ever going to get this house finished. Once the room is painted we will order the Murphy bed, move the white dresser into the room, and our dresser from DS1's room into ours. Then I can hang the pictures up and get rid of the boxes. I might just hang up the rest of the paintings in our room to get them out of the way. I need to strip the wallpaper and paint that room too, but it can wait. We have company coming the first of November and need the spare room finished.
DH measured the walls and we decided to put the Murphy bed and cabinet on the wall with the bedroom door. The other wall it would fit on is actually larger, but it would look like you were walking into the side of the bed when entering the door. DS1 checked out Murphy beds on line, as well as the DIY kits. He priced it out and decided that by the time we bought the hardware kit and then bought the lumber we could buy a Murphy bed and cabinets kit ready to assemble and install for the same price or less. He has found one that is a Full size that will fit well in the spare room and has storage. We considered a Queen size but it took up too much space. Most of the people coming to stay over will be individuals instead of couples, and a full bed will still be fine for couples. DS1 is checking the weight maximum on all the beds. LOL
After deciding on the Murphy bed and arrangement, DS1 and I measured his room for the furniture he plans to put in it. He actually needs a second room to store his collectibles in
but he will add shelves and shadow boxes for everything. I suggested that he use medicine cabinets since they would fit in the wall between the studs and save space but he said he didn't want to cut out any wall board. He decided to move his bed to the other side of the room. He said he would get good cross ventilation through the windows in spring and fall in that position. He will put his desk and 2 bookcases on the wall he currently has his bed on. The large, old-fashioned walnut office desk in California will go to the consignment sale, along with the desk chair. That desk is kind of cool, it has a cabinet that opens with a pullout shelf that an old typewriter would sit on. The shelf pulls up with a spring mechanism. The desk is at least 90 years old. Solid wood, but it is also 3' x 5' in size! Too big for bedrooms today. The drawers are set up for office stationary but no file storage. DS1 bought a new small desk since he has a laptop computer now, and our printer is wireless and in the office. The design of the desk allows him to put a small shelf across the bottom for extra storage. (As you know I am a big storage fan. LOL)
I think we may need a new mower for the tractor. DS1 says the blades on ours are either dull or bent. DS1 and DSIL2 worked on it on Thursday while DH and I went to the VA. They think they may be bent since the mower does not pull properly and tilts. It also sheared a bolt when they tried to run it. DS1 is looking into getting new blades but is having trouble finding them. It is a TSC mower DS3 gave us when he bought a new one. It is a small one, and I am thinking we may just need a new bigger one. It has never worked really well and DS1 says that it is really to small for what DH needs,
Thursday DH went to the VA for the last cancer removal. He was also supposed to get the stitches out on the last one. The surgeon was not happy with the incision. DH insisted on going out and pulling out Goat Weed and had broken stitches open over the past 2 weeks. The incision was open, oozing, and had not healed. The surgeon removed the stitches, cleaned out the incision and told DH NOT to do any more weed pulling for 2 weeks. The stitches are in a bad place on his side and the doctor warned him that it would be easy to get an infection if he did not take it easy. He is on antibiotics now. If the wound continues to ooze or gets worse, DH will have to go back to have the wound opened, cleaned, and restitched. DS1 and I are making him stay inside the house since he keeps trying to sneak out and weed! He has a new 3" incision and stitches on his back as well. DS1 and I are considering duct taping him to his recliner since he isn't paying attention to the doctor's instructions!
After we get the spare room done an Murhy bed installed, DS1 and I will work on the tool shed. We have to remove everything, put up the shelving units, install cabinets, then sort and put away all the tools and hardware so we can find everything. We saw a small AC at Lowes that was cheap and are considering putting it in the tool shed so we can work in there during the summer. Not sure if we will bother but it is an option.
Next project after that will be running electric to the carport and moving the freezer onto the raised area against the house wall in the carport. We are considering how we can partially enclose the carport to keep rain out of it. Once the freezer is off the back porch we will buy waterproof garage cabinets (Lowes has some that are a vinyl composite) so the work boots, and miscellaneous tools that we always seem to have stored in the living room can move out there. I told DH I am tired of living in what feels like a mudroom/utility area! LOL One entire closet in the hallway is full of tools that will be able to go out to the tool shed once it is finished.
After they went home it started to storm with heavy thunder and lightning strikes right overhead while we watched TV. Suddenly there was a huge crack and flash outside the front window! Really scary, lost power for a minute, then it came back on. We all jumped up to see what had happened. Lightning had hit something in the front of the house. DS1 and DH went out the kitchen door to see what had gotten hit. DS1 put on a poncho and went out to make sure that it hadn't hit anything else. I looked out the front window and saw that one of the Catalpa trees about 20' from the front porch had been struck by lightning! Luckily the rain was really sheeting down so nothing caught fire.
I opened the front door and went onto the porch. OTree pieces were scattered all over the porch, lawn, and out into the road. Cars kept hitting the pieces in the road. Apparently the lightning struck on the street side and ran down the trunk, spiraling around and exploding pieces of the trunk and bark off. One piece of the trunk that was on the lawn was about 5' long and the size of a 4"x4"! We went back inside and finished watching the show while the lightning hit all around us for another couple hours before moving off north. Lot of close strikes around us, very exciting, and the rain came down really heavily for about 7-8 hours. We really need it for the pastures.
Yesterday I emptied out the spare bedroom getting ready to paint. I got the paint on Friday - pale soft green that will go well with the bedding. Most of the items in there were large picture/painting boxes and a couple mirrors. They are all stacked in the hall so I can wash the walls and paint them. The other boxes of pix and files are stacked in the office. There is also a pile of stuff that needs to go to the pump shed. I am wondering if I am ever going to get this house finished. Once the room is painted we will order the Murphy bed, move the white dresser into the room, and our dresser from DS1's room into ours. Then I can hang the pictures up and get rid of the boxes. I might just hang up the rest of the paintings in our room to get them out of the way. I need to strip the wallpaper and paint that room too, but it can wait. We have company coming the first of November and need the spare room finished.
DH measured the walls and we decided to put the Murphy bed and cabinet on the wall with the bedroom door. The other wall it would fit on is actually larger, but it would look like you were walking into the side of the bed when entering the door.
DS1 checked out Murphy beds on line, as well as the DIY kits. He priced it out and decided that by the time we bought the hardware kit and then bought the lumber we could buy a Murphy bed and cabinets kit ready to assemble and install for the same price or less. He has found one that is a Full size that will fit well in the spare room and has storage. We considered a Queen size but it took up too much space. Most of the people coming to stay over will be individuals instead of couples, and a full bed will still be fine for couples. DS1 is checking the weight maximum on all the beds. LOLAfter deciding on the Murphy bed and arrangement, DS1 and I measured his room for the furniture he plans to put in it. He actually needs a second room to store his collectibles in
but he will add shelves and shadow boxes for everything. I suggested that he use medicine cabinets since they would fit in the wall between the studs and save space but he said he didn't want to cut out any wall board. He decided to move his bed to the other side of the room. He said he would get good cross ventilation through the windows in spring and fall in that position. He will put his desk and 2 bookcases on the wall he currently has his bed on. The large, old-fashioned walnut office desk in California will go to the consignment sale, along with the desk chair. That desk is kind of cool, it has a cabinet that opens with a pullout shelf that an old typewriter would sit on. The shelf pulls up with a spring mechanism. The desk is at least 90 years old. Solid wood, but it is also 3' x 5' in size! Too big for bedrooms today. The drawers are set up for office stationary but no file storage. DS1 bought a new small desk since he has a laptop computer now, and our printer is wireless and in the office. The design of the desk allows him to put a small shelf across the bottom for extra storage. (As you know I am a big storage fan. LOL) I think we may need a new mower for the tractor. DS1 says the blades on ours are either dull or bent. DS1 and DSIL2 worked on it on Thursday while DH and I went to the VA. They think they may be bent since the mower does not pull properly and tilts. It also sheared a bolt when they tried to run it. DS1 is looking into getting new blades but is having trouble finding them. It is a TSC mower DS3 gave us when he bought a new one. It is a small one, and I am thinking we may just need a new bigger one. It has never worked really well and DS1 says that it is really to small for what DH needs,
Thursday DH went to the VA for the last cancer removal. He was also supposed to get the stitches out on the last one. The surgeon was not happy with the incision. DH insisted on going out and pulling out Goat Weed and had broken stitches open over the past 2 weeks. The incision was open, oozing, and had not healed. The surgeon removed the stitches, cleaned out the incision and told DH NOT to do any more weed pulling for 2 weeks. The stitches are in a bad place on his side and the doctor warned him that it would be easy to get an infection if he did not take it easy. He is on antibiotics now. If the wound continues to ooze or gets worse, DH will have to go back to have the wound opened, cleaned, and restitched. DS1 and I are making him stay inside the house since he keeps trying to sneak out and weed! He has a new 3" incision and stitches on his back as well. DS1 and I are considering duct taping him to his recliner since he isn't paying attention to the doctor's instructions!
After we get the spare room done an Murhy bed installed, DS1 and I will work on the tool shed. We have to remove everything, put up the shelving units, install cabinets, then sort and put away all the tools and hardware so we can find everything. We saw a small AC at Lowes that was cheap and are considering putting it in the tool shed so we can work in there during the summer. Not sure if we will bother but it is an option.
Next project after that will be running electric to the carport and moving the freezer onto the raised area against the house wall in the carport. We are considering how we can partially enclose the carport to keep rain out of it. Once the freezer is off the back porch we will buy waterproof garage cabinets (Lowes has some that are a vinyl composite) so the work boots, and miscellaneous tools that we always seem to have stored in the living room can move out there. I told DH I am tired of living in what feels like a mudroom/utility area! LOL One entire closet in the hallway is full of tools that will be able to go out to the tool shed once it is finished.
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Our big sycamore was hit by lightning once, 2008? It had a black streak down the trunk.
