okra: Slugs and Other Delicous Things

Well, this weekend was busy again. But, as always, there's still more to do. I put up green roll fencing around nearly all of the flower beds or places with mulch to keep the chickens out. They reeeaaly like to play and scratch in the mulch, dumping half of it out onto the lawn in the process. They did dig up the flowers in one of my pots as well, but that seems to be more unusual for them. I sure hope so, anyway. The fence seems to be working so far. They are big, fluffy, and kind of plump, which seems to keep them from venturing over the little fences.

I planted flowers on our patio and started seeds in my lettuce box. My lettuce box is really just an old giant drawer that I found in the garage; I painted it yellow and filled it with dirt. I planted a row of mixed greens and a row of cosmos. I used bamboo stakes and twine to mark out the rows. I put a little length of fence around the lettuce box as well, for good measure. I drug out any houseplants that would benefit from being outside for the summer. My poor, somewhat neglected airplane plant seems much happier on the patio. I also took out my big tropical "corn plant" and put it in a much bigger pot and underplanted it with impatiens.

Chicken proof!

A shot of the (hopefully) chicken proof rows of seeds.

I found a nice wire planter basket for a very cheap price. However, it wasn't the color I was hoping for. Keith spray painted it white for me. I got out the screw gun and hung it on the fence. It looks pretty good. Keith did a good job with the spray painting! Keith also hung a new hose rack for me on the side of the house. No more tangled hose.

I decided that the side of the garage could use some fixing up. I weeded, repurposed some concrete edging (I originally used it in the front, received from freecycle), put down layers of newspaper, and mulched the whole thing. All in all, it cost about $4, for two bags of mulch. Ha! I then moved my little portable garden table to the new mulched in spot and put some potted plants on it. It looks so much better. And the chickies really enjoyed eating up the slugs and rollie pollies that ran out from under the bricks that were stored in that spot previously. Yummy.

Ahh, the garage wall looks much better. And yes, that thing on top of my garden table is the giant fake praying mantis Keith mysteriously found in the yard last fall.

Oh, and one more thing. We installed our new bathroom faucet! It was part of Keith's birthday present from his parents. I know that probably doesn't sound very exciting, but it is super exciting to us! It is so much better. Oh man, the old one was pretty bad. The finish had corroded and was flaking off, plus the old sealant/putty was leaching out from underneath, making a perpetual mess. Keith ripped all of the old stuff out and put in the new drain assembly. I reconnected the drain, sealed the faucet in place, reconnected the water supply, and got the stopper working. Whew! The cats were very perplexed that we would spend so much time in the bathroom.

Our new (MUCH improved) faucet.

Today I tried (rather unsuccessfully) to order a new storm door for the back door. We went to Lowe's, but then I realized that I hadn't measured the door. Doh. So then, we went home and measured the door. I went back to Lowe's with measurements in hand, only to find that our door was an odd size and would have to be special ordered. That would make it over $100 more. So, I went back home to think about the problem. Keith helped me remeasure the door, and apparently we had mismeasured. Arrrrrrg! But, that is good really, because then there isn't a problem since our door is actually a standard size. Anyway, tomorrow Keith is going to arrange for the door to be delivered and installed. I think I've been to Lowe's enough for one day. The guy in the door department probably thinks I'm crazy by now.

This is the door we will be getting. Hopefully. If I can get it together, haha.

Of course I still haven't finished painting the concrete base of the porch. Heh heh. Nor have a I removed the plants I want to save before the landscaping crew gets here Wednesday. Well, you know what I'll be doing this week. Sigh.