When I started looking

Hidden

This week's GBE2 prompt is Hidden

I enjoy blogging but my summer time activities and shenanigans occur so quickly that most of my wacky experiences overlap.

Sometimes, I find that situations develop hidden from my daily observations only to slap me in my face when I least expect it.

Hidden Victories

I have been working with the trainer since May. I completed a second fit test to gauge my progress. I have only lost 9 pounds. I figure that is about one pound a week. Since focusing on weight loss did not help my ego, I looked at my body fat percentage.

In May, my body fat was so high that it didn't warrant a category on the chart. Now, at 35% body fat, I am consider Well Below Average for my age group. I will take that D-.

That is progress, right????



Well Below Average



This means that while I went from 41.5% body fat to 35% body fat, I lost more than just 9 pounds I lost a few inches. When asked I will say, "I have lost about 16 pounds of fat." And offer no additional explanation. I like algebra.

Hidden Dinner

Last week, I weeded the garden and found the lettuce I had planted from seed. I thought the bunny had gotten to it all earlier this Summer. I picked the lettuce. It seemed pretty hardy and long. Brought it into the house and couldn't figure out why it was so long. So, I tasted it. They were turnip greens. I picked the roots and made dinner with garden okra, jalapeño peppers, chives and onions. I didn't grow the turkey leg which added flavor to my pot of greens but I could have.


 Dinner 

 Garden



Hidden Creatures

I learned something using my GoogleFu the other day.

Did you know that groundhogs have a Summer burrow and a winter hibernation nest? Yep. True facts. Now think back to the possum which had taken up residence under my den last winter.

You got it. The possum was a squatter. The borrow that had an opening into my basement belonged to Sir Groundhog and he returned this summer. Story starts on Tuesday the 31st. I had been weeding the garden for two days and I finally had made my way back to the house. I saw it then. I filled in a small hole a back corner. Google suggested that I place epson salt around the hole and around the garden to discourage the groundhog from returning.


evicted


As you well know, if that had worked, I would not be writing this blog entry. It failed spectacularly. On Friday, I was sitting in my den, reading a book looking out over the garden and I spot movement. I ran out and found that all of the blue collard greens had been eaten down to their stalks. I was pissed. I had just eaten half of my turnip greens the week before. This was the second season in a row that the groundhog ate my Georgia collard greens.

My chat rooms suggested that I place pinwheels around the garden. I sprayed the remaining collards and cabbages with my pepper mixture (local garden store). I jumped into the car and ran to a few stores. Picked up some pinwheels.

By the time I returned, I caught the groundhog in the act of eating my zucchini vines.

NO, I didn't spray the zucchini vines. Sir Groundhog was sitting on the fence and only had to slightly lower his head in order to eat my zucchini vines. I screamed at him and watched him slink away into his newly expanded burrow under my den.





 bombs away   I have been bombing his burrow every day for the past four days. He just returns and reopens it. I am out of bombs. All the area stores are out of fox urine (the natural enemy of the groundhog). I may be beaten.

This morning, I bought granules that allegedly discourage groundhogs from crossing over and into the garden. Likely story.  Spreading repellent 


As I got out of my car, I heard desperate mewing. The most adorable kitten was in my backyard. As I approached it with some soft cat food, it ran into a hole in my neighbor's garage. I dragged her outside to help me save the kitten in her garage. She has just returned from a long trip, only to learn that this kitten had been hiding and living in her garage for days. We tired to coax it out to make it safe but the groundhog ran past... scaring the little kitten into another neighbor's yard.

I hope it comes back. I could use a good outdoor cat to handle my garden pests.

Jizz inside her again and again

Ownership The joys of homeownership.
This week's GBE2 prompt is ownership.

I thought this would be the blog entry to update you on the Possum Occupation of 2011. This is the hole dug along my foundation.Uncle Handyman felt that since he was digging along my foundation then he should check for leaks.

This is the worker looking for the possum entrance.

So much for the garden. Contractors don't respect anything. I got a call saying that they were there, I rush home and my clematis is already destroyed. Uncle Handyman determined that the possum must have dug a hold under the house addition.

This should have happened as the building codes stipulate construction should go to at least 5 feet below the ground. The previous owner only oversaw the depth of 3 cinderblocks. This makes sense to men. Have at it.

What remains of my collard greens. I think there is enough for one half of a holiday meal. That is a lot of dirt. When they attempted to fill the holes the backyard did not appear to be level. As if, more dirt joined the party. I am still trying to level the back yard before the frost.

They found it. Uncle Handyman compelled me to jump into the cavity in my backyard and see the possum hole for myself. I didn't want to do it. But here is the proof that I did.

A better view for you. I had to reach up to get this photo.

This entry makes me nostalgic. I began blogging shortly after I purchased my house. So many things went wrong in the first six months.
I would link you to those old entries but they went away with Yahoo! 360. That experience taught me to have two sites, one acting like a backup

I found some pictures that were used in the original blog:

Fall of 2004. I hired a company to remodel the upstairs bathroom. When they were complete, I complained that the water pressure was too low.I described it as showering in a rainstorm. Their attempts to review the problem and my plumbing resulted in a discovering that the water main had completely rusted.

Their manipulations caused it to rupture and the City issued a notice to me. My co-workers still refer to my homestead as the Lake House. One even took the time to create an neat image of my house with a lake in front of it. I started a blog not long after this incident.

This is how the front lawn looked in Spring 2005.It recovered from the excavation from the Fall. I ended up firing the original contract company and filing a complaint against them. Long story... that I can't link you to because the journal entry is gone.

I learned as time went by that like contractors, Handymen can be very undependable. Each would get so far in the repairs and then disappear. I hired my first handyman in 2006 and he addressed my curb appeal.

nThe new handyman, Scott, reseeded my lawn. He disappeared before he could build a rain barrel for me. I believe that was around Spring of 2007. I made one for myself using a chisel, pantyhose, grated pipe cover, roofing tar and a threaded hose. Uncle Handyman said that he never saw anything like that before.

This was the only time I have had a real lawn. I remember that Spring in 2005. Just look at it. Scott fixed the poor jobs that the contractors had left behind in my basement. I liked Scott. By the end of the Fall, I felt that I could handle all future home repair issues by myself.

When my bedroom closet, that I had PROUDLY hung, fell, I had to call back Scott to fix it. I sat on the floor crying after it fell. I almost fired him when he told me that I had too many shoes. HOW DARE HE.
In 2006, I redecorated the porch by myself. See the pictures here. Scott was out of the picture by then having left me hanging without a water barrel. I found a new handyman in 2008, Mark. He fixed some of the errors committed by Scott. He left without a word and with half the dining room molding stripped of stain.I think that was in 2009. The next guy that I used did his own disappearing act after not properly sealing the flat roof. After that incident, I decided to only work with family and Uncle Handyman.
After a few years of this I learned to live with the little inconveniences and the gray hairs.
This Spring, the light fixture in the kitchen crashes to the floor leaving two holes in the ceiling, it doesn't bother me. I ask Cousin L to install this light fixture.

I think it is a great fix. Uncle Handyman laughed.


Look at what this guy did




see more There I Fixed It

Let me provide you with a listing of my favorite home ownership adventures that survived the move to Multiply and Blogger.

1. Strays: I wrote about roommates that reminded me of stray animals. I have since learned to be more particular.
So, my recent roommate entries have been about great people.
2. Yard work:
*I have written extensively about my lack of lawn care management skills and; grass.
*My attempts at mulching, growing and gardening are documented
3. Outdoor pests: My feral cat problems, which continue to plague me, again
4. My life with my neighbors and that one annoying family across the street
5. That time my TV brokeDay 2 and Day 4
6. Changing handyman because they like to disappear. This is the only surviving handyman entry-the Case of the leaking bathroom vent
7.The mysterious pooing of 2008
8. The flying trashcan
9. The insane house cats: Fuzzy, Fattie, Halle
10. The gnome that protects my home and garden
11. The bat infiltration of 2010 
Blogging has been loads of fun and given me an outlet for my home ownership adventures. Thanks for reading.