No one burned down your she-shed, Shannon.

GailD

Still chasing plot bunnies.
Kind Benefactor
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Feb 25, 2011
Messages
12,128
Reaction score
4,691
Location
Somerset East, South Africa
Yikes! That must have been a heck of storm. Glad to hear that nothing was harmed by flying granaries.

I acknowledge my ignorance, but how wintry are winters there? Sure, I could look it up, but I rather like chatting with humans.
Meanwhile, the uncomfortable part of summer has begun. Not the heat. The freakin' mosquitoes. I'm their very favorite person ever.

Down here, we don't get the quite the freezing winters of the northern hemisphere but it gets pretty darn cold in midwinter. Night temps can drop to freezing or slightly below, with day temps around 15C/59F. Snow is very rare on the ground but the mountain behind us often has a light dusting of it. Homes in SA don't have central heating. My cottage was built circa 1890 and has thick walls and high ceilings. Sometimes it is colder indoors than it is out. Right now, my hands are so cold, it's hard to type. Our summer temps can exceed 100F and yes....we get mosquitoes here too. They are such a nuisance!!! I try to cover myself with repellent cream. They must like you because you're sweet. :D

Shakey, I hope your daughter gets a great new car. I'm driving a 1994 Hyundai Elantra. Fortunately, it's still surviving as I can't afford a new (used) car right now. I also have a 1992 Hyundai Accent. But I might have to sell it. :)
 
Last edited:

Friendly Frog

Snarkenfaugister
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Sep 23, 2011
Messages
4,098
Reaction score
4,943
Location
Belgium
I haven't been online much lately. Partially because my parents are travelling (safely) and that leaves me in charge of our garden-with-delusions-of-Kew and the small zoo, which is bordering on a day-job. And partially because that also leaves me full custody of the TV and I have a backlog of dozens of things to watch. :Ssh:

But I have one project lined up that I really want to finish before my parents return. My dad had a tiny pond in the veranda, with a stone toad for water sprout. Him, my sis and I painted it when we were young. Now the pond has been dismantled because the wooden outer frame pretty much rotted away but dad had plans to build a smaller new one. Now the paint job on the toad was not great quality, as I said, we were young. Enthousiastic, certainly; and creative too; but skilled, somewhat less. And with age and all the water some of the paint flaked way.

So I want to repaint it. Which is why I have been researching green-eyed toads for a while. Back then we painted it like the common European toad, which was about the only toad we knew. The trouble is the common toad has very distinct golden eyes, the stone toad water-sprout had inlaid bright green eyes, and so the combination rather left it looking weird. The trouble is there seemingly very few toads out there with bright green eyes that have the typical toad-build. This was rather surprising. So I compromised and decided to go for natterjack toad, which, while not bright green, has green-ish eyes and hey is even a native toad.

:hooray: Congrats on finishing the project! Maybe the different colors in the mortar give it an interesting look - like the Japanese art of Kintsugi (repairing broken pottery with gold*). I love the idea of embracing flaws and imperfections, rather than trying to hide them. :D
Ha, yes, it has some of that. :) But mostly, any look is better than the mess it was before. And with each bit finished it really motivated me to tackle the next bit. The last bit of joining is now done, I had to wait out first the rain, and then the short heat-wave because it was too hot to work with the mortar, and finally finished it just in time to set before another down-pour. Which leaves, if you want to be really picky, just the flaky-paint gutter pipe to be sorted and then really nothing can be improved.

Now that it is finished I wonder how we could have lived with it in utter shambles as long as we did. It's nice to get things fixed but it is hard to get started. So many repair projects demands your attention that sometimes you can't seem to give it to anything. I may not have done this one without the COVID lock-down. But I'm very pleased I persevered. Now I get a warm glow of satisfaction every time I pass the front entrance of the house, which is rare because mostly when something gets finally repaired around here we quickly forget it had been broken because there are like still a dozen other things that need fixing that immedately take your focus. I really should dwell on the joy of having something fixed longer than I normally do. It's nice to feel the accomplishment.

I am going to put Gail's poem on the buzz saw blade. With Gail's permission, of course. I will have to consult with a couple of crafter friends to get the right medium (did I use that correctly?) and then I will find someone with a neater hand than I have. Maybe with an edge of sunflowers and poppies.
Oooh, that's a cool idea. Lovely to see people inspire each other on AW.

Winter is starting to bite here. I really should get my slow cooker out of the cupboard, dust it off and start making some soup. :)
It took me so long to understand even Africa gets winter. Just because that imagine of the sun-beaten savannah is so powerful. (I have fortunately since then learned that Africa is a far more diverse continent than that.) But pretty much the only thing that convinced younger me that Africa could get cold was that it had penguins. Penguins as my all-time favourite animal when I was young, were pretty much the only thing with enough authority to make me accept the idea of cold in Africa.
 

shakeysix

blue eyed floozy
Super Member
Registered
Joined
May 1, 2007
Messages
10,839
Reaction score
2,426
Location
St. John, Kansas
Website
shakey6wordsmith.webs.com
Ganging Agley:

You know how you have such great plans for something in the spring and then August rolls around and all you can see is that the best laid plans of mice and old gardeners aft gang agley?

Things are agley here.

First of all my brother--I love the guy but his nieces do not call him Uncle Weed for nothing-- decided that I needed a riding mower. I do not. The neighbor kid mows for me and I pay him well because I hate to mow. I told my brother this, several times. Still he had a riding mower in his garage that he had never used. Now the mower actually belongs to my sister. She and her husband hauled it to Kansas from Texas when they moved after Hurricane Ike. Remember Hurricane Ike? They had no room for it so gave it to my brother. He has had it in his garage all these years and never used it. Before that my sister never used it. Well, someone must have used it because it doesn't run.
Despite my saying that I don't want the thing my brother hauled it some 60 miles on a trailer and gave it to me.

Again I said I didn't want it. He said that he had spent a lot of time and money fixing it up for me. (Smoke dream or blatant lie!)
and now it runs perfectly. He just had to show me how to start and stop it. If it isn't stopped just right it chokes out and won't start again. Only he knows how to do this. (Smoke dream or damned lie.) So he started the thing up, made a couple of rounds around the lot. I was beginning to think this might be okay when he stopped the thing and it choked and died, right in the middle of the lot, an acre from his truck and trailer.

He thought if we waited an hour it would start right up. (Smoke dream.) So we had lunch and tried again. Nothing worked. We finally managed to push the wretched piece of junk, both of us, and we are too damned old for that much pushing, into my shed. He said that he would be down to take it home next week. (Damned brazen lie.) It takes up a good bit of space. I cannot get to my potting bench or pots. Everytime I have to step around it my blood pressure goes up. I told my sister the neighbor guy would fix it if he could use it. She had a heart attack because it is a valuable piece of equipment and she doesn't want anyone to SCREW IT UP.

In the meantime Beto keeps building the fence that should have been a compost bin but now looks like something from King Minos' basement. I have tried to get him to stop but he just keeps building. August!--s6
 
Last edited:

mrsmig

Write. Write. Writey Write Write.
Staff member
Moderator
Kind Benefactor
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Jul 4, 2012
Messages
9,884
Reaction score
7,172
Location
Virginia
Oh shakey - laughing because you told the story so amusingly; wincing because...well, because.

Hoping the damn thing is out of your life ASAP.
 

Maryn

Sees All
Staff member
Super Moderator
Moderator
Kind Benefactor
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Feb 12, 2005
Messages
55,446
Reaction score
25,466
Location
Snow Cave
Sell the mower. Just sell it, as is. If somebody gives you something, it's yours.
 

frimble3

Heckuva good sport
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Oct 7, 2006
Messages
11,574
Reaction score
6,396
Location
west coast, canada
If that mower was such a 'valuable piece of equipment' she should have kept it home, with her, shouldn't she?
Because I think your idea is excellent, let mower-kid fix it up and use it.
:evil Or, wrap a big bow around it and send it to your sister for Christmas. She is also in Kansas, yes?

Maybe sneak over, and stick it on her lawn, with eight wooden reindeer (or some symbolic beasts) lined up in front!
 
Last edited:

Friendly Frog

Snarkenfaugister
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Sep 23, 2011
Messages
4,098
Reaction score
4,943
Location
Belgium
Wait, wait, you mean to tell me that family members who have stuff that might be 'useful' (but sure isn't in it's current form or place) that you're at the same time not allowed to get rid of while it is in your way and/or generally a big incovenience to have around, occur in other families too?! Even on the other side of the ocean?

Mind. Blown.

Also, my sympaties.
 
Last edited:

shakeysix

blue eyed floozy
Super Member
Registered
Joined
May 1, 2007
Messages
10,839
Reaction score
2,426
Location
St. John, Kansas
Website
shakey6wordsmith.webs.com
unwanted family heirlooms that cannot be given away? what a great idea for a thread. I am thinking of a c. 1920, hideous statue of Rebecca at the Well that boomeranged around my family for 40 years. Unfortunately, I do not have time to write about it this morning. I am starting another part time job. I have a shed to paint and re-window, 3 new garden beds that need good dirt, and about 400$ in mower repairs. --s6
 

regdog

The Scavengers
Staff member
Moderator
Kind Benefactor
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Apr 27, 2008
Messages
58,075
Reaction score
21,013
Location
She/Her
Two thoughts. Tell sister if the mower since the mower means so much to her, she has to come and trailer it back to your brother's for safe keeping.


If she balks. Let the neighbor have the mower..
 

shakeysix

blue eyed floozy
Super Member
Registered
Joined
May 1, 2007
Messages
10,839
Reaction score
2,426
Location
St. John, Kansas
Website
shakey6wordsmith.webs.com
Okay. I thought out the defunct riding mower problem on my way to work this morning: I owe my sister 600$ for an insurance premium on property we own. I will have the mower repaired (400$ ? ) and then offer to have it hauled to her house which will cost somewhere around 150$ She will have to clear her garage of junk to make room for the mower. If my brother is Uncle Weed, my sister is known as "No Ball of Fire" I can't see her jump into that garage anytime soon.Talk about a mausoleum of family heirlooms. I will not remind her. If she doesn't ask for the mower by the end of February I will trade it to the neighbor kid for some free mowing and feign surprise that she is still interested in the mower. believe me, no one wants to clean that garage.
So PPMS--problem pretty much solved. nd thanks for the input everyone. It helped.

Now onto el laberinto. I had a long think about that on the ay home from work. It is a 16 mile drive but, except for the occasional tractor pulling a trailer of melons, there is almost no traffic on Friday. It it is about an 18 minute drive. Just right for a long think. I had forgotten how much I depended on drive time to solve problems. --s6
 
Last edited:

frimble3

Heckuva good sport
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Oct 7, 2006
Messages
11,574
Reaction score
6,396
Location
west coast, canada
How about faking drive time? Go out, sit in your car. Pretend you are stuck in traffic. Or waiting for a really slow pick-up clerk. Not only that, you can answer your phone freely, as you are not, technically, driving.
 

Friendly Frog

Snarkenfaugister
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Sep 23, 2011
Messages
4,098
Reaction score
4,943
Location
Belgium
But I have one project lined up that I really want to finish before my parents return. My dad had a tiny pond in the veranda, with a stone toad for water sprout. Him, my sis and I painted it when we were young. Now the pond has been dismantled because the wooden outer frame pretty much rotted away but dad had plans to build a smaller new one. Now the paint job on the toad was not great quality, as I said, we were young. Enthousiastic, certainly; and creative too; but skilled, somewhat less. And with age and all the water some of the paint flaked way.

So I want to repaint it. Which is why I have been researching green-eyed toads for a while. Back then we painted it like the common European toad, which was about the only toad we knew. The trouble is the common toad has very distinct golden eyes, the stone toad water-sprout had inlaid bright green eyes, and so the combination rather left it looking weird. The trouble is there seemingly very few toads out there with bright green eyes that have the typical toad-build. This was rather surprising. So I compromised and decided to go for natterjack toad, which, while not bright green, has green-ish eyes and hey is even a native toad.
I finally got around to this project. I was trying to clear some floor space in my room, and found the frog and decided to get it off my floor, painted and out of the way. It came out pretty well. Will see if I can put up a picture if anyone's interested. It just needs a coat of varnish now.

My dad is already feeling pressured to install a new pond for it in the veranda. Heh. Win. :D

Now that summer has come and gone, I mostly see the projects I didn't get to finish outside. Ah well, I have to get over it. Can't get everything done.

Anyone have any projects for winter? I'm thinking of taking up knitting again.
 

mrsmig

Write. Write. Writey Write Write.
Staff member
Moderator
Kind Benefactor
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Jul 4, 2012
Messages
9,884
Reaction score
7,172
Location
Virginia
Anyone have any projects for winter? I'm thinking of taking up knitting again.

::side-eyes the unfinished manuscript that's been sitting dormant for months::
 

Maryn

Sees All
Staff member
Super Moderator
Moderator
Kind Benefactor
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Feb 12, 2005
Messages
55,446
Reaction score
25,466
Location
Snow Cave
Yes, I want the toad picture! If you need a how-to, I'll hunt down a link. The biggie is that it has to be hosted at a photo-hosting site or your own website if you have one.

In the past year my Pinterest board of crafts I'd like to try has grown massive. Recently I'm looking into stuff that could be over-and-done fairly quickly. I've got acorns to paint with nail polish, for instance, and recently I've gathered pinecones at various cemeteries, although they're not yet prepped for adding "snow" to the tips. (You bake them to kill vermin, mold spores, etc.)

Oh, and these blasted books. Yeah, that.

Maryn, who's in a period of my-writing-sucks
 

Friendly Frog

Snarkenfaugister
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Sep 23, 2011
Messages
4,098
Reaction score
4,943
Location
Belgium
I guess getting to see more of my room floor is the New (miltilayered) Project right now, since after the toad, I picked up the next item off the floor and got to work on it. Actually, I picked up two, since they'll be similar projects.

The first one is upcycling a wooden box that about 40, possibly 50 years ago was a display box for gloves in my parents' shop. The box, and several ones just like it, have spent most of the time since in somewhat damp basement. But I've always been struck by its potential. And I need something to put my few pieces of statement jewellery in. I figured it'd be a nice project to learn/experiment how to sand things down, stain or varnish them, and maybe finish with fabric on the inside. It's a low stake project, which is nice in a way. If I screw up, I won't have destroyed something I value. And there are other boxes left to try something else on.

Its project companion is another old box, again older than me, for which I haven't have found a goal yet. But it has a broken hinge and I will get to solder the broken lock, neither are things I have tried before. So, for science! (Yeah, it appears, I also have no shortage of crafts I want to try out. :roll:)

::side-eyes the unfinished manuscript that's been sitting dormant for months::
*shoves own manuscripts under the bed* ... yeah, there's that too.

Yes, I want the toad picture! If you need a how-to, I'll hunt down a link. The biggie is that it has to be hosted at a photo-hosting site or your own website if you have one.
Oh, yes, a link would nice, thank you. Is photobucket still a viable option? Haven't used it since I stopped posting on LifeJournal. I'm afraid it kinda shows I haven't shared any pics online since a very long time. *is clueless*

I've got acorns to paint with nail polish, for instance, and recently I've gathered pinecones at various cemeteries, although they're not yet prepped for adding "snow" to the tips. (You bake them to kill vermin, mold spores, etc.)
Acorns with nail polish? That's a new one for me. Do you then use them in another piece of decoration, or do you just put them in one colourful pile?
 

Maryn

Sees All
Staff member
Super Moderator
Moderator
Kind Benefactor
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Feb 12, 2005
Messages
55,446
Reaction score
25,466
Location
Snow Cave
Here's the link to posting images. I'm a lowish-tech user and I can do it, so I'm sure can, too. If you have questions, I'll try to answer.

Mostly what I see with the painted acorns is either them in a pretty dish, often glass, or them surrounding a candle in a glass cylinder, holding the candle upright. My acorns aren't big and gorgeous, so I'm not confident they'll be worth the effort.

But I did bake them and the pine cones, so we'll see.

Maryn, who can smell the banana bread in the oven
 

Friendly Frog

Snarkenfaugister
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Sep 23, 2011
Messages
4,098
Reaction score
4,943
Location
Belgium
Thanks for the link, Maryn, you're a treasure as always. :) (That I didn't think of the FAQ myself...) I think I should be able to manage with that. Time to flex those atropofied internet muscles...

https://flic.kr/p/2jWfbzf

Let me know if I have failed this miserably...

I like the acorn-idea. I may try it. I wouldn't think to bake them, though.
 
Last edited:

Maryn

Sees All
Staff member
Super Moderator
Moderator
Kind Benefactor
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Feb 12, 2005
Messages
55,446
Reaction score
25,466
Location
Snow Cave
Your link worked great, for the record. And your frog is quite a charmer. Good paint job! Does he have a name?

You would think to bake acorns if you'd been traumatized in third grade by an acorn that delivered a thick wriggling creature on top of your pencils in your desk at school. I can still envision it, and that was a whole lot of years ago. If you bake your acorns and pine cones at 200°F (~93C) for 90 minutes, stirring every half hour, the eggs that spawn such a creature are killed. Apparently it will sometimes pop the caps off acorns (mine stayed on), so it's good to keep them together in some way or you'll never match them up again if you have a lot of acorns.

Hey, Shakey, because of this thread, I've given my female MC an outdoor firepit she built herself out of bricks she harvested from an abandoned property that's falling down.

Maryn, easily inspired
 

mrsmig

Write. Write. Writey Write Write.
Staff member
Moderator
Kind Benefactor
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Jul 4, 2012
Messages
9,884
Reaction score
7,172
Location
Virginia
Friendly, that is one handsome frog. And Maryn, I have an oak tree and am tempted to try some crafty things with acorns now.
 
Last edited:

Maryn

Sees All
Staff member
Super Moderator
Moderator
Kind Benefactor
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Feb 12, 2005
Messages
55,446
Reaction score
25,466
Location
Snow Cave
My master plan for acorns, as yet unrealized, is to paint them various shades of blue with nail polish. When/if I do it, pictures will be posted.
 

Friendly Frog

Snarkenfaugister
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Sep 23, 2011
Messages
4,098
Reaction score
4,943
Location
Belgium
Your link worked great, for the record. And your frog is quite a charmer. Good paint job! Does he have a name?
Thanks! No, he doesn't have a name. I noticed we usually only name things of which we have two, to keep the apart. Maybe if we ever get him a companion, we'll name him. But first he needs a pond.

You would think to bake acorns if you'd been traumatized in third grade by an acorn that delivered a thick wriggling creature on top of your pencils in your desk at school. I can still envision it, and that was a whole lot of years ago. If you bake your acorns and pine cones at 200°F (~93C) for 90 minutes, stirring every half hour, the eggs that spawn such a creature are killed. Apparently it will sometimes pop the caps off acorns (mine stayed on), so it's good to keep them together in some way or you'll never match them up again if you have a lot of acorns.
:Jaw:Well, I'd think to never forget about baking them now. Not with that particular mental image.

Thank you for having endured that so others won't need to.

And you've even included temperatures and time so I won't need to have to look it up! My entire street is lined with oak. Like Mrsmig, I'm am sorely tempted to try this now.
 

GailD

Still chasing plot bunnies.
Kind Benefactor
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Feb 25, 2011
Messages
12,128
Reaction score
4,691
Location
Somerset East, South Africa
Wow! I love that frog!

You're all so industrious - even though some things may still be in the planning stage. There's an oak tree right outside my house. It's late spring/early summer here and the tree is still flowering (*sneeze*) but painting acorns has got me thinking...

I finished renovating and reupholstering the two old chairs that I bought. Then I recovered the three chairs in my living room and I'm all upholstered out. Don't want to even see another staple or tack for at least a hundred years. I'm making cloth dolls now. LOL, it's quiet, sit-down work and I can watch television while I stitch. :D
 

Maryn

Sees All
Staff member
Super Moderator
Moderator
Kind Benefactor
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Feb 12, 2005
Messages
55,446
Reaction score
25,466
Location
Snow Cave
I try not to complain about Mr. Maryn, but that's been a bone of contention for some years now. When I was single, I could spend a pleasant evening watching TV and doing hand work. I did embroidery, crewel, hand stitching on sewing, once in a while some simple craft. I could be painting my acorns!

But he has to have the room dark to watch TV. I can't even paint my nails in such dimness.

Maryn, who loves him anyway
 

Friendly Frog

Snarkenfaugister
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Sep 23, 2011
Messages
4,098
Reaction score
4,943
Location
Belgium
Wow! I love that frog! You're all so industrious - even though some things may still be in the planning stage. There's an oak tree right outside my house. It's late spring/early summer here and the tree is still flowering (*sneeze*) but painting acorns has got me thinking...
Thanks! Can't speak for anyone else, but my latest creativity surge is pretty much all self-care. Life kinda sucks right now (Living in the worst pandemic part of the whole of Europe where it seems our politicians are extra incompetent, and our population more selfish than any other neighbouring country... Does. Not. Help.) And I desperately need some positivity in my life, so yeah, creativity it's going to be.
I finished renovating and reupholstering the two old chairs that I bought. Then I recovered the three chairs in my living room and I'm all upholstered out. Don't want to even see another staple or tack for at least a hundred years. I'm making cloth dolls now. LOL, it's quiet, sit-down work and I can watch television while I stitch. :D
Hah, I'm pretty sure I'll soon feel the same thing about varnish and wood stain too when I'm done with my latest tea box project! :D

Cloth dolls is quite another direction from upholstery. Handstitching or machine stitching?

I try not to complain about Mr. Maryn, but that's been a bone of contention for some years now. When I was single, I could spend a pleasant evening watching TV and doing hand work. I did embroidery, crewel, hand stitching on sewing, once in a while some simple craft. I could be painting my acorns! But he has to have the room dark to watch TV. I can't even paint my nails in such dimness. Maryn, who loves him anyway
To be honest I like darkness too when watching TV, or at least darkness surrounding the TV. My eyes get too strained otherwise. But I find having a little, bright reading lamp, just above my shoulder allows me to do small crafting projects, without the light interfering with my watching. Maybe something to try out with Mr. Maryn?
As for the acorns... I collected some acorns for a trial painting run, only to find my dad found them and planted them all before I could even get to the baking. :roll: Dude is serious about never having enough trees. But to be fair, I hadn't mentioned any craft projects and we have in the past always collected acorns for growing trees, so how was he to know?

I think that if the weather's more permitting again for acorn collecting I am probably better of getting american oak acorns. The neighbouring streets have some, the acorns are recognizably different enough, and it's considered an invasive species so no risk of finding my acorns planted!
 
Last edited:

MaryMumsy

the original blond bombshell
Kind Benefactor
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Jul 18, 2008
Messages
3,396
Reaction score
829
Location
Scottsdale, Arizona
Maryn, we used to have the lighting level discussion also. What solved it for us was an almost complete lack of compatibility with programming. I have my TV and enough light to read or crochet. In a different room (actually a different floor) he has his TV and subdued lighting around the edges of the room.

MM