Old Barn Wood and Bugs .... but not together :)

We were able to score some old barn wood last week .... our intent being to make small boxes out of it and sell on Etsy. My first project, however, was to make a small table to sit next to the recliner in the living room. We had a long table there but when we got the new window it just had to go so here's a plank the wood being sanded and the finished table ....



I do as much sanding as I can outside because it's such a fine dust it gets everywhere in the shop ..... but whenever I'm doing little projects on the shop/basement porch it seems I always have company ... be it dogs, deer or bugs. Here's a couple unusual bugs from last week ....



We were without power for the past 2 days and right now we only have 1/2 of the electric working .... unfortunately the air conditioner is one of the missing :( ..... we had a powerful storm move through and it caused a lot of widespread outages but they were pretty quick on restoring power .... however .... for us the fuse blew in the transformer so we were left in the dark. They replaced the fuse yesterday but the storm damaged our breaker panel box and only one side is working .... being that there are two 120's coming in. Anyway .... we might be lucky and have it repaired tonight .... local electricians are very busy right now. I realize that I could never live on an island void of electricity ..... I really love my electricity and internet and I missed it. I really appreciated my Apple device car charger!!!!!!!

Alex and Fireworks .... but not together :)

I've gotten some emails asking about Alex our parrot .... he's just fine and highly opinionated as usual. Here's his opinion of one of the Snow Peas from the garden .... be sure to have your volume up ....


Some of the salad ingredients last night .... fresh picked from the garden ...


Yesterday we went to the Fireworks stand under the big tent in Hardy. If you like looking at fireworks (pre setting them off) then here's our walkthrough ..... I love buying them as much as setting them off :)


We tested a few last night so we'll be heading back this week to buy more. Here's what we've got so far ....

Plates, Windows, Doors, Friends and more ....

In Arkansas you can't just mail in your payment for your car registration ..... first you have to go to the Assessors Office .... so they can tax you a few bucks on your annual property tax I guess ... anyway the Dept. Of Finances (that's the motor vehicle dept) is right next door so it's easy to then pay for your annual tags. What we found out was that since we have a fish and game plate and we pay $35. a year extra for it (it goes to fish and game) we can get a different one every year if we want ..... for One Dollar .... is that cool or what? So here's our old one (which we're going to hang on a wall in our house) ....

and here's our new one ....

On a little side note .... we didn't know that you had to do the car assessment every year until Lea's brother in law, John told us that when he was at the assessors office last week, the assessor said "hey you need to let Lea and Marlene know that they need to get in here and have their car assessed" ...... small town stuff ..... oh and hey Diana .... the assessor said "Hi".

So we ordered a new living room window, a new kitchen window and 2 new sliding glass doors about 3 months ago .... well our job finally made it to the top of the list and now we have beautiful new energy efficient glass in at least part of our house. The old window you couldn't see out of and the sliders leaked water and the wind blew through them enough to blow the curtains .... kinda non energy efficient and they were really hard to open and close. So here's some photos ...



and some before and afters ....
old window

new window


one of the old sliders

new sliders


We're happy .... and Millie got her new chair

and a new friend

That is Trukha ... Marks Husky puppy who's about 4 months old now

I'll end with a photo of the Cucumber plant .... tonight we're having a fresh cucumber in our salads .... there's a nice ripe one in the middle of all this .....


Saturday we're going to buy our fireworks .... I love being able to have the classic back yard fireworks for the 4th of July!

Blueberries In My Cereal

Fresh from the front yard ....


and oh soooooo good .... sorry no video of me eating my breakfast :)

Sunsets

The weather has been beautiful ..... a little rain each day either in the early morning or late afternoon with days in the low 90's .... that's perfect for my tastes .... especially for a swim and float in the river come around 3:30 pm ..... back up on the deck by 5pm for "Happy Hour" and then a BBQ. We love having a gas BBQ upstairs on the deck instead of the charcoal BBQ downstairs .... just a little more convenient. Our new sliding glass doors are supposed to be installed this coming week which we're really looking forward to since the ones we have now we believe to be the original doors .... 1966 .... and they are really heavy and hard to open .... I'll be sure to post pictures :)

Speaking of weather :) .... here's Friday nights sunset ...


and last nights .... lounge level with a nasturtium from a deck rail basket in the foreground ...


and then a little later .... or maybe before

Perfect Weather For Getting Things Done Outside

Lea, Lynda and I went to Mountain Home on Tuesday to pick up some stuff at Lowes and check out a store that we just heard about .... "Mystic Forest" .... our kind of store



But the main reason for going was because we got tired of slipping on our front and downstairs concrete porches when they were wet ... plus the concrete was stained and kinda ugly .... so this was my project yesterday ....

It's like the coating you put around pools so you don't slip. I was able to get 1 coat on the front and back before running out so we'll be heading back to Mountain Home for another big heavy bucket of the thick oatmeal stuff to do a 2nd coat.

Meanwhile Lea's been setting in some of the flat stones we search for on the dirt back roads around here and here's how it's looking so far ...


Lea also finished this slab of wood that was laying under some dirt in one of the basements and now it's done and under her computer looking awesome!



And I can't not include a garden photo .... here's how it looked this morning when I let the dogs out ... yes .... my iPhone is always with me:)


One last thing .... we love "moon chairs" around here and even Millie has one down by the "cauldron" but she made it very clear that she also wants one on the upstairs deck .... this look was all it took to get one ordered from Amazon last night .... geez!

She looks like we're punishing her by making her sit in such a horrible chair .... what ever happened to dogs that laid on the ground?
Will post a photo of her in her moon chair when it arrives :)

The River .... The Gardens .... and more ....

Friday afternoon and we let the dogs run down to the river .... first time since the high water level ... now it's back to normal and all is good. Here's also a tour of the gardens and more :)

Sittin' On The Dock Of The Bay

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Perfect Weather .... Perfect Water For Tubing!!!!

Lea's sister Lynda joined us for an afternoon on the river ....

The Garden, The Wasp and The Pool

The continuing video journal of our garden along with the eviction of an unwanted renter in the BlueBird box and the ongoing re-engineering of the pool.

Today we rest .... in the river .... yay .... we're going tubing! I'll try to remember to take my head cam :)

Just One More

This is the kind of music that moves my soul and I'm compelled to share ....

Gimme Shelter

I loved this song when The Rolling Stones did it but this is way more powerful and it affects me right to the core. Incredible musicians .... incredible video .... beautiful!