Fresh Paint



The house is looking fresher these days - not from the front, but definitely from the back. Cecil, the handyman, painted the three sides of the house that comprise rough cedar siding (although, one of those sides is nearly as much brick veneer as siding). The back side of the house faces southeast and the garage side faces southwest, so those two sides really take a beating from the sun and from the prevailing southwesterly winds. The whole house had been painted when it was built in late 1999, of course, and again in 2008. The front of the house, facing northwest, is nearly all brick-faced and gets little sun and wind, so I decided not to bother the environment by having it painted this time.
With the heat as bad as it has been, Cecil was smart enough to have himself and his helper here at 6:30am to work until a bit past noon each day - plus - the first day, Cecil worked for a couple of hours in the afternoon on the side of the house that faces northeast - in the shade. They were so quiet that we never knew when they were here or when they were not.
100' of hose - Front Yard

200' of hose - Back Yard

It seems that all I've done for the past few weeks is water, water, water. Except for one day, the temperatures during the past two weeks have been in the mid-to-high 90s (Fahrenheit) and I don't want to lose our new little trees. On Sundays, I water all of the trees that have been planted within the past 18 months - plus - rose bushes and the three largest tomato plants. That is accomplished by stretching out the back yard hose and setting it to water the base of each of 13 trees for four to twelve minutes, depending upon when the tree was planted, how large the tree is, and the species of the tree. The roses are watered using a separate 75' hose, for four to six minutes each, depending upon how distracted I get in watering the trees. Wednesdays, the three trees that were planted in May get two 9-quart buckets full of water each, and each rose or tomato plant gets one bucket full each. The front hose is used to water the tropical plants that are summering on our front porch, the plantings along the front of the house, and the plantings on the far side of the driveway. [I note that, since 2:00am, today, we have received over one inch of rain - and the heat is supposed to abate somewhat for today and tomorrow. Yay! I shan't need to water plants this weekend. The rain stopped for a bit a couple of hours ago, but it is again coming down. The sump pump has been activating every minute or two since I woke at 2:00am.]
Note that in the left, bottom area of the above photo there are small (tropical) airplane/spider plants coming up beside the sedum. Last fall, I gambled that those plants would come up from roots that had over-wintered for several years now and did not re-pot any of the plants to over-winter inside. Not only did the "established" roots over-winter; a root from a plant that had established itself from a potted plant that I had put into my basement escape window well (see the photo, below) did as well. The window well root took so long to come up that I had given up on it; but, there it comes.

The photo, below, shows the tropical plants that I am summering in the window well this year. Too small to show up in this photo, the airplane plant is in the far corner.

First visitor since February

For the first time since February, we had someone inside our home: Elder Brother (above photo from a visit in 2018). As paranoid as he is (and who wouldn't be who had experienced two heart attacks and about five cardiac arrests?) we felt that he would be as safe as anyone to invade our spaces - and that we would be a much greater risk to him than he to us. EB had phoned a few weeks ago to let me know he would be birding in Kansas. (He had promised me to always let me know, rather than visiting Kansas without letting me know.) I had consulted Hunky Husband, and we had invited EB to stay with us for a night or two - with the proviso that, should he die of CORVID-19 after catching it from us, he wouldn't haunt us.
EB drove in just after 4:00pm, on a Friday, and left at 8:00am, on that Sunday. We enjoyed his stay, but none of us left the house in the time that he was here. Normally, we would have eaten one or two meals out; but, we had pizza for dinner, Friday; leftover pizza for lunch, Saturday; and I put together a chicken salad for dinner, Saturday evening, with EB opting to have a shredded turkey breast sandwich, instead. We had soft-serve ice cream (vanilla with fresh, sweetened strawberries for EB and me and chocolate with chocolate syrup for HH) for the two meals. EB always has the same breakfast, to which he helps himself: bowl of shredded wheat cereal and four ounces of orange juice. He also helped himself to the treats (photo, below) scattered around the house - dark chocolate coated almonds, brownies, etc. EB eats very little and has always been so thin that it is painful to look at him when he doffs his shirt; but, he's a big boy (84 years old) and can take care of himself, I think.
Left-to-Right: plain M&Ms, lemon cookies dipped in dark chocolate & almond pieces, and pecan candy made from left-over dipping chocolate
At our ages (and with the state of EB's health), HH, EB, and I find that our risk factor is not as worrisome to us as the thought of our not getting to see one another. It should be understood without my saying so that HH and I went into isolation for 14 days after EB's visit. OTOH, EB went on to spend a few nights in motels in Kansas and Texas, his intended locales for birding. EB also isolated himself when he arrived home from his journey.
Birds Fledged

The wren nest among the foliage of a house plant that is summering on the front porch has one egg left in it - abandoned AFAIK. It was probably not viable. The second brood of five house finches in the miniature swing on the front porch all left (the two laggards are shown in the above photo), and a second brood of bluebirds was fledged. I don't expect any more action in the nests during the heat of the summer. I was properly amazed at that second brood of bluebirds since we have been in the mid-to-high 90s during all of June (but for one day when it was 89 degrees Fahrenheit).
Strawberry Moon
We had few strawberries, this spring, my having ripped out our strawberry patch in order to plant HH's roses; but, I did get to watch the Strawberry Moon rise. As you can see (photo, below) the moon had to rise to about 20 degrees above the horizon to clear the tall trees along our creek.

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