Car stuff, mostly.

Song of the day: “Fidelity” by Regina Specter. It is rather annoying to have going through my head all day, but there you have it.

So yesterday…yep, it involved yard work, of course, sowing, planting and whatnot, but on the most part we worked on the car. Apparently, the night before, after we went out to get three massive MDF boards that we had to transport on top of the roof, we ended up with a flat tire. It looked rather funny coming up the hill seeing the strange slant of the car, right before I saw the utter flatness of the tire. Hah.

It was a little tricky, what with the incline on which it was parked, but after we were done we spent the majority of the morning putting the panelling back in place for the doors, cleaned the floors, etc. etc. All in all we managed cleaning the lot up and made the car look pretty again.

Afterwards it was going into the yard, weeding, watering and all that. Had a nice harvest of chard, red cabbage, and broccoli…the latter of which we lost one to the dogs, I’m thinking. I know I was walking up with two broccolis, but when it was time to eat, only one remained. Bet some lucky little mutt enjoyed himself.

We had to go to the village, to have the tire fixed at the local neumatico. Took the guy only fifteen minutes to get the job done, and big brother and I killed time, looking at the huge selection of tires and the almost livesize calendars of naked or practically naked girls. Yikes. I doubt they actually had them hanging for the fun of it. It seemed like they did it for traditional reasons, almost. Hah.

But anyways, afterwards we headed over to the local hardware store to get the supply of tubing that we ordered last week. Soon we’ll start putting it up, on top of the roof, so we won’t need to use the boiler during the summer, and thus save money for the next ten years or so.

Of course the tubing didn’t fit into the car, so we had to put it on the roof, tie it up and then head back home so we could put the fixed tire back on the car before the sun actually set. Managed it just barely, but the car was ready for today…the younger sibs have decided that they want to try for going to the market and selling their old toys and mom’s quilts and such. They seem determined so it is pretty much a done deal. Glad to see that they want to contribute.

While they (and mom) were checking out the market, I headed into town to get a few groceries, we don’t want to do the big one until ten days from now, so some necessities were required. Since I had enough time, I could also go to the big hardware store for a garden hose and fuel up the car right before little sister called asking me to come pick them up where I dropped them off.

I was pretty darn happy to be back home afterwards, I’ll tell you. I greeted my dogs, helped tenant down to my terrace where she could sit in the sun and shade at the same time. Then I went down into the yard, Knight II going ecstatic around me, to join big brother in watering the plants and pulling out more weeds.

At the moment we’ve got iceberg coming out of our noses, seriously, it is doing really well and considering we had to harvest it (again) today’s meal consisted out of grilled sandwiches with cheese, peppers, iceberg (lots of it), tomatoes, onions, zucchini, and loads of yogurt sauce. It was delicious…and now, well, this is the end of my recount, considering I really would like to get another batch of rocks tonight, and then some edits, since the past couple of days were abysmal when it involved getting some serious work done on the book.

Which reminds me, I did get around to sending out the new letter to an agent. I gotta admit that I am very curious as to what the response to the letter will be, seeing as it is definitely different from the last one. The “good one”, that’s what I call it anyway, considering I got three publishers interested in seeing more of “Saving Nina”. Okay, so it wasn’t the “yes” I was hoping for, but the response was more than I’ve had in the past ten years. Ah well, we’ll see, I guess.

Well, I’ve got to get going…

I missed it.

Song of the day: “The Key” by Matt Goss.

So yeah, a lot went wrong after I wrote my last blog. Big brother had to pick up the paint for the car, and we suddenly realized that what with the unexpected trip planned, we were going to have to do the spray job after checking out the dog. Blast!

The trip to the kennel ‘bout sixty miles away from home, turned out to be a complete loss. The place looked neat enough, even though the obviously overfed their dogs, and the dogs were clean and everything, but the people appeared completely inept. Heck, the lady helping us couldn’t even get the dog in question out herself…added to that, the dog they showed us was not the one they had put up on their website. Talk about false advertising. It didn’t even look like it.

Added to that the trip wasn’t snot either, three traffic jams and a reroute for naught…ah well, luckily the trip wasn’t a complete loss. On the way back I was able to visit the hardware store to get supplies for the rush paintjob that was waiting for me at home.

Since we were out already, we decided to visit another dog…one that we’d seen an add of at the vet’s and found a black dog who looks a lot like Sita did. She’s a cute little dog and little brother and sister appear to be happy with her, so that should work out well.

Afterwards, after five, we got home, which was when big brother and I started on the rather trying experience of cleaning, sanding, polishing and covering anything that shouldn’t be painted. So okay, it took us until eleven in the evening, but in the end the four doors, the hood and several panels of the car were neatly sprayed and drying in the cool evening air.

It looked good too, or so I saw the next morning when I did a quick check of the progress before starting on my day. They look splendid, thank you very much.

After a full day without being in the garden, it was rather wonderful to spent the majority of the morning working in the lower garden pulling out weeds, getting my hands and knees dirty again…well, wonderful is the word I was looking for.
Tenant came down for a bit too, liking the outside air, even though there were clouds overhead the temperatures were very pleasant.
While we were weeding, we also managed to put in some plants, melons and four grape bushes in this case.

The sun disappeared behind clouds, awarding us some clouds and rain…which meant that we could head inside early with a harvest of Swiss Chard for dinner. It was good too.

We had a solid edit, followed by a hurried dash up the mountain so we could put the doors back on the car and put the hood back in place. It took us only half an hour too, giving us enough time for a scavenge and a full load of wood by three in the morning.

Which brings us to today: I overslept by thirty minutes, of course but then it was on to the day of laundry, more weeding, harvesting a red cabbage, leek and two broccoli. We worked some more o the greenhouse, plastering the walls underneath the wooden ribs. Apparently I made a miscalculation when I put it in, ‘cause now I need to add a layer of at least an inch on something that I had already plastered, darn it. Maybe I should pounce on big brother a little, just to get back at him for giving me wrong measurements in the first place, aaaargh.

Well, there are more edits to do for me, so I better get the heck outta here. I’ll post a picture of Sita soon, like I said, she’s cute.

On the move.

Song of the day: “Shake shake senora” by Harry Bellafonte. So much fun, and I always see Winona Ryder float to the ceiling with a bunch of dead football players swinging behind her. Hah…Drat, I really should watch Beetlejuice again.

I wish I could say that the past few days were downright exciting, but since we’ve been having a lot of rain that would be an outright lie. Today I am feeling a little under the weather (pesky emotions going haywire, grrr) for some reason, so don’t pay me no heed if a snarky remark escapes me…hmmm, I better stay the heck away from politics, ‘cause, seriously…oh my Gawd!

Using what we could of the rain there was some sowing going on. Filled two full seed trays with a variety of veggies. Also, considering we had to go to town yesterday anyway to get paint for the car, we picked up four more grapes, which I put in the ground down by the fence. They’ll do nicely there, I think, lots of room to grow…as long as the dogs keep their teeth and paw out of it. Hah.

Whenever the sun is gone the weather is remarkably cool these days. It’s freaking me out a little, considering that by this time of year the temperatures should be gradually rising instead.

The edit is once again going slow but steadily. We managed ten to twelve pages in the past three days or so, so it isn’t bad, I guess. Tension, for some reason, is high though, so concentration tends to overshoot the mark at times. Hah.

But anyways, I don’t have much time today. Little brother has a dog to save. The mutt will fill the gap dead Sita III left behind, and though I hoped to postpone this event a bit longer, it is in the end his and little sister’s choice. Ah well, I consider it a holiday, seeing as I will be playing chauffeur for the day. Hah.

So I’m going to leave it at this, there still is lots to do before I head out, and I better get to it.

I'm cheating. :-)

So, considering that the past couple of days basically involved re-grouting the pool, I'm going to save you the descriptions of pruny hands, scraped and bruised knees, cold skin, achy backs and an upper bodies severely sunburned, and get right down the to the fun stuff. Pictures! (Isn't cheating just marvelous?)
As to the other stuff, there were hauling trips, edits and taking care of the dogs, of course, but who cares, I'll shut up now. Hah.

First off, the greenhouse is up.











This is the before shot...doesn't look like much, does it?










Always reminds me that I want to put up one of those old fashioned sheds this way. *sigh*










I love carpentry.










This is basically what we're at now. Considering that we can't actually start putting the glass in until after the summer, this is how it is going to stay for a bit.











This is the terrace roof, which allows for some shade down there while we're working.











And the path little sister laid in front of the pool house, of course.



Gardening, isn't it grand? Let's do some shots of it. Hah.










The nursery, yep, they're doing rather splendid.










Our very first spinach harvest a little while back. It was yummy.










Our first cauliflower while it was still a baby. We ate its big sibling just yesterday, and it too was wonderful.










The courtyard garden looked so wonderful, I just had to take pictures of it.











You should smell the Jasmine, it's amazing.











The big terrace, now it is basically filled with veggies (and weeds of course)












Finally a good one of the gate, yay.









Sitabah doesn't care where I am, as long as she's right there with me. This is her idea of working by the way. Hah.









Remember when Chaos got bitten by Knight II, this was the effect. All healed now though, just a tiny little line left.








These are a few of my personal pack whenever I'm working in the garden. They really don't like being locked out, can you tell?










So here's the progress of the wall for the water basin...you remember the 100 pound concrete blocks we were hauling, right? Well, there they are.










First day...slow but steady.











Second day...still going, nice height to work with.









Day three...beginning to get a little harder.











Day four...friggin' blocks are heavy.










Day five, last one...big brother could do half, thank you very much. Hah.

That's is for the day. I've got stuff to do.