Sunshiny Days in the Yard

It was so lovely to get outside and enjoy some sunshine working in my flower gardens.

This is MomMom's goose. She used to sit on MomMom's front porch greeting everyone with her seasonal outfits. Now she sits next to my back porch welcoming us home or bidding us good-bye each day. I love having her to remember my grandmother. She's going to be receiving a new coat of paint in the very near future.

We took a trip to the garden center to pick up some bags of mulch for the flower beds. Matt figured we needed 16 bags of brown mulch. Who would've guessed that Lowe's was having a sale on mulch, four bags for $10. Yippee! We bought our 16 bags, and I backed the car up to where some helpful employees loaded it up. These bags were huge! It's a good thing Michael decided to stay home and play otherwise he would be riding on the roof. The trunk was packed to the gills as was the back seat. I couldn't see out the back window so I let Matt drive home. We took the back way along the lakeshore instead of the freeway. It was slow-going. Our poor car, we really should get a truck for as much hauling as we do.

We started with the largest of the flower beds under Michael's "moon window" in the front of the house. Michael loves marigolds so before mulching we added some to the front corner in front of the boxwood. I love the smell of boxwood. It reminds me of Williamsburg.

Pansies are a perfect spring-time flower. This purply one looks like she's got a little face peeking out at us.

This is Peter Rabbit. He's a new addition to the front flower bed. He also came to our house from MomMom. I hope he likes his new home.

Sadly I had a jasmine bush where this Southern Comfort plant nows sits. I forgot to bring the jasmine in before winter. Ooops. Jasmine doesn't fare well in northern Ohio, especially in the winter.  I don't much care for the beverage Southern Comfort (that's another story), but I do love the color of this plant.

This is the end result of the front flower bed. Ta-dah! I still need to add some annuals for more color. But we're going to wait because the weather hasn't been cooperating around here.

Next came the second of the front flower beds. This one I'm nervous about. Jack, my black lab who never listens, likes to walk in this particular bed and wrap his lead around my Bluebeard bush. That would be the rather twiggy looking thing to the left. Over this past year I have found numerous pieces and parts left laying in the yard or caught in Jack's lead. I would rather tie him out back, but Matt doesn't want Jack's poop where we spend most of our time. I guess the poor mailman doesn't rank and therefor must maneuver through the landmines in our front yard. A new chore for Michael, scooping the poop! Sorry Michael, but somebody has to do it, and I know I scooped my fair share growing up. Then I used a shovel. Now they have actual scoopers with claws that grabs it up. I wonder if Lowe's carries pooper scoopers? I digress. I hope my Bluebeard bush rallies.

We continued our mulching down the side of the house where my lovely rosebushes reside.

On around the corner to the back stoop where Mr. Toad lives under the Hastas.

I love this goose planter. Matt found it in the rafters of the garage when we first moved to our little blue cottage of a house.

Isabella was a huge help today. She kept me company while I dug in the dirt, planted flowers, and spread mulch. We used my little red wagon to haul the flowers from bed to bed.

My little red wagon was tucked away in the garage at MomMom and PaPa's house. My aunt found it for me. Yes. It's old. At least 45 years old because PaPa used to pull me around in it behind the tractor while he mowed the lawn. I used to squeal with delight when he turned a corner. I couldn't wait to drive the tractor myself. Once he did teach me, I mowed the lawn any chance I got. Yea, I know. I'm weird. I would ride around for the two hours it took to mow listening to music on my walkman and singing at the top of my lungs. I don't think the neighbors appreciated that much.

While we were working the first sun tea of the season was brewing. When we finished we poured ourselves a tall glass of tea over ice and walked around the yard admiring all of our hard work.

I'm a Murderer (Quite Unintentionally)

This is our aquarium that we've had for quite a long time. Many moons ago it housed numerous colorful fishes. Then one day we brought home the MONSTER - our Angel Fish. He was no angel. He (I'm not for certain if he was a he or a she) started out as a good housemate to the other fishes in the tank. He swam around with them, ate food, seemed quite content. BUT he grew! He got bigger and bigger and bigger. And meaner and meaner and meaner. Pretty soon our other little fishes began to disappear. Yes. The Monster ate them - all. of. them. I wish I had a photo of this monstrosity of a fish to share with you. He used to live in the aquarium pictured above. Imagine if you will his top angelic (cough) fin touching the top of the tank while his bottom fin touched the gravel. His body was about the size of a baseball. No kidding. Not thick wise just around wise. Does that make sense?

My birds are finally coming back! YEAH! Sorry for the interruption, but I've had seed out for days and no birds. We've had a hawk in the area scaring them off. I just looked up from my screen and there are two house finch on the bird feeder. WOOT!

Okay back to the fish. Monster finally died last September. This is going to sound awful, but I was NOT sad to see him go. My husband and I cleaned out the aquarium and brought it out of the basement. Wasn't that the perfect place for a monster fish to live? We placed the aquarium on the back porch. I love having it back here. I love to sit and watch my fishes swim around. It's so relaxing. For my birthday my husband decided to buy me fish for the aquarium. I've been wanting Oranda goldfish. They're the fish that get the big heads. The proper name for their large head is wen.

I borrowed this photo from google images.

Isn't he gorgeous? Well, we went to the pet store. I won't say which one. I selected four goldfish. All four were supposed to be Orandas. It wasn't until this week that I found out that NONE of them were Orandas. Again, I wish I had photos to show you of my adorable fishes. Their names were Harvey, Lucy, Marylin, Poseidon, and Ollie. Harvey came to us via the Fish Festival. Michael won him playing a game.

All of them were doing nicely until we decided to bring home two snails. We had an algae problem and I didn't want an algae eater. The last one we had grew to monster size like the Angel Fish. We brought the snails home in January. (So we had success with the tank for four months.) The snails seemed to enjoy chomping away at the algae, and the fish didn't seem to mind them. Two weeks went by, and Lucy didn't seem to be feeling well. She wasn't eating, and her beautiful tail looked like it was being eaten away. At about the same time the snails sealed themselves into their shells and wouldn't come out.

I removed the snails and treated the tank for bacteria, like ick and tail rot. I read that snails can die from the treatment. Unfortunately, Lucy died the next morning. This time I WAS sad. My poor Lucy! It happened so fast. The other fish seemed to be doing better, and we continued with the treatment. By the end of the week everybody seemed back to normal, swimming, eating, and playing tag. I placed the snails back in the tank because the algae was getting out of control. It was layered all over the glass and my decorations. The snails wouldn't budge out of their shells. Still sealed tight. I even picked them up and smelled them. If they smell fishy, they're dead. Eww! Luckily there was no fishy oder.

I waited a few days until the weekend, but the snails were still sealed up tighter than a drum. I decided I couldn't stand looking at all of that algae. I took out the decorations and scrubbed them off with water in the sink. I used our magnetic scraper and cleaned off the glass sides of the tank. Much better. I left the decorations out. They were only collecting algae afterall. By Sunday all of my fish looked AWFUL! What happened? I took out the snails AGAIN and began treatment. But the next day Ollie was dead. Ollie was black with telescope eyes. Sniff. I kept the treatment going hoping no one else would die. Sadly the very next morning Harvey, Poseidon, and Marylin were floating at the top of the tank. We had another fish funeral.

We cleaned out the tank again. Set everything up AGAIN and ran the tank for a week with no fish. Matt talked me into it, really. At first I didn't want anymore fish since I seemed to kill them all. Matt didn't think it was my fault. We went to a different pet shop in Amherst called the Ben Franklin store. The fish are kept in the basement of the store. The gentleman was quite knowledgable when it came to fish. When we told him what happened he asked, "Did you do weekly water changes?" Water changes? We thought that was more of a recommendation rather than a requirement.

He explained to use that the ammonia levels probably built up to the point where the fish couldn't survive. He said we need to do weekly water changes of 20 percent. What he didn't say was that I got rid of the algae that helped to break down the ammonia levels in the tank thus keeping my fish happy and living. I read about that later. We left the store with a water testing kit (I'm becoming quite the chemist.), an underwater filter and pump, live plants, food, and various additives for the water. Oh...and four new fish.

This is our Red Capped Oranda. I read somewhere that the Japanese think she brings luck. I could use all the help I can get. I named her Madeline for her red beret. Remember the story of Madeleine? "In an old house in Paris that was covered with vines, lived twelve little girls in two straight lines. They left the house at half past nine...The smallest one was Madeline."

This is our Chocolate Oranda. Her wen hasn't quite developed too much yet. I named her Coco Chanel. I must have been in a French mood that day. Actually I was really thinking of CHOCOLATE rather than the designer, but I liked the sound of it.

This is our Butterfly Moor. I named him Morgan after Morgan Freeman. Follow me here...Morgan Freeman played a Moor in Robin Hood. Butterfly Moor, Moor in Robin Hood. I love Morgan Freeman with his adorable freckles! Morgan the fish has a beautiful tail that when viewed from above looks like butterfly wings.

You might be wondering where the fourth fish is... Well, our Lionhead, (His name was Bettis after Jerome Bettis, the Bus, from the Steelers because he looked like a little bus.) didn't make it to the first water change. It was the Friday two days before our first water change. That morning when I went to feed my fishes their breakfast, they were all lying on the bottom of the tank. Still breathing, but struggling. Matt must have heard my cry of dismay because when I when I returned from taking Michael to school, Matt was already changing the water. Once we were finished, we tested the water to see what the levels read. The Ph was 7.6, the nitrite was 0, the nitrate was 5, and the ammonia was 2. I wonder what the ammonia had been before the water change? I kept vigil all day praying that our fish would make it.

To make a long story short...we went back to the Ben Franklin store later that afternoon and asked him what we did wrong. He said our tank is cycling, and it will take four to six weeks. He recommended we do water changes daily and then every other day and then weekly. It's a building process.

Yesterday was our third water change. I'm HAPPY to report that everyone in my fishy world is doing fine.

Here's all three hams mugging for the camera.

Nothing's Ever Easy

Our friend Don, who's a retired certified mechanic, told my husband Matt that it would be easy to fix a rear wheel cylinder on our Ford Focus. If you read my earlier post on Midweek Confessions, this would be the reason that I've been driving with only two brakes working. Anyway, Matt's pretty handy so he decided to give it a try rather than pay someone to do it.

The first road block was getting the lug nuts off of the tire. They were rusted. Matt had to use liquid wrench and a sledge hammer to finally get the lugs off. Now what would we have done if we had a flat tire on the side of the road? I guess I better stock up on liquid wrench and be sure the sledge hammer is in the trunk. 

The next road block: the wheel was rusted to the drum. (My apologies if I call something by the wrong name. I'm no expert on cars or their various parts and mechanisms.) Once he pried the wheel off he had to take the drum off of the car.

The next road block: Matt didn't have the correct size socket to fit the bolt attaching the drum to the car. Luckily the Grand Prix started (It's also not working right. Read the post called Give me the Choice.) and ran so that Matt and Michael could go to Advanced Auto Parts to buy the correct size socket for the wrench. After roughly ten trips there and back and leaving the Grand Prix running in the driveway or parking lot for fear it wouldn't start again, Matt found the correct size socket for our 2004 Ford Focus.

Now I must say that usually Matt would be blowing a gasket by now and spewing what Michael and I call Daddy speak. However, he remained rather calm throughout this challenge with the Focus.

As daylight was diminishing, Matt was trying to pry the drum from the car. Yes. It's rusted too. Either that or there is something besides rust holding it in place. Either way Matt can't get inside to replace the part so that I can drive the car tomorrow. He's going to do some research online tonight to see what he needs to do.

So much for this being an easy fix. I suppose if one had the right tools to begin with it would have been easier. It's never easy. I'll keep you posted.

Hugs,

HopeAnn

Our Little House is Finally Finished

As most of you know it's been a long journey getting our house roofed and sided. But the day has finally come when all is finished. I'll let the pictures speak for themselves, mostly.

Blue band aid on the roof.

Before the new windows were installed. Notice one window had already fallen out and another was soon on its way to the ground. It actually fell out the day the contractor came to install the new windows.