The paint was looking pretty bad on the west side of the house, so I’d decided that was to be my “holiday” weekend project….and a project it was, indeed!

Just getting started; the paint didn’t look too bad until you got to the lower two courses of siding. Looks can be deceiving, though; I’d flake a little piece at the lower edge, then discover that the whole thing wanted to peel off. I scraped anything that was loose enough to come off; it looked like shit, but new paint over loose paint would mean I’d get to do it again next year.

I scraped until I got tired of doing it, then decided to take a break and do some primer. I left the bottom course because I knew the caulking between the bottom of the siding and the concrete ledge was brittle and performing no sealing function at all, so it would all have to come out. This is what I had finished by Saturday evening.

Quelle fucking mess. I had to half-ass it because I had no time, but considering their repair for a (broken? rotted?) end of the trim board was to jam the hole full of Liquid Nails and call it good (for the record, it had gone brittle and I was able to flip it right out with my finger), I think my little chunk of plywood is okay. I couldn’t make it fit perfectly without sawing the ends of the trim piece straight, but I said fuck it because it was hot, and I wanted this done over the weekend.

Not pretty even with caulking, but at least not leaking. It’s in the lower corner of a window on the back side of the house; functional is more important than fashionable.

All of the days kind of blended together, so I’m not 100% sure what day I did what, and I don’t care. 🙂

I had the new paint computer matched from a section that hadn’t been sun-bleached, so it’s at least pretty close to the original colour…which is more than can be said of the paint that was on there. For the record, this faded piece is the very same colour as the “Love Story” pale pink paint that we ended up with when I built OK’s hoce.

Caulking and primer all finished. Looks pretty bad, but better than peeling paint and leaking caulking.

First coat of paint! I had torn down the old phone wires; nobody uses copper landlines anymore, and the mess that Charter made with their wires looked bad enough, so I didn’t need more fucking wires. I don’t care if it’s the back of the house; I still painted the ugly black wires that Charter strung all over the goddamed place; he didn’t even make an effort to be neat, but painted, they blend in fairly well. I didn’t paint the Charter box, though; I taped that off and wrapped it in plastic. I can live with it, I suppose.

I made one HELL of a mess with all that scraping!

On Monday, I did the second coat of paint, and also the window frames.

I taped the frames off, which is more than can be said for the previous painter. I know my trim paint is darker; it was the best we could match with the piece I was able to chip off from an un-faded area. Even un-faded their trim colour would have been lighter.

They had painted these lines (yes, I know the pipe insulation needs replacing) all the same colour as the house, but I used trim paint on the bottom so it blends in better with the brick. Still not beautiful, and I have a couple of little repairs to do on the brick, but it’s an improvement.

FINALLY! Hours of work and gallons of sweat (holy crap, was it hot out there!), but the siding on the back of our house is protected from the elements. I even threw down some clover seeds in the bare spot; since it’s so dry, I’ll have to water them, but it’s right by the tap anyway, so it’s not like a lot of work. Words cannot express how relieved I was to get this finished.

Considering that I spent three out of my four days off for the long weekend, scraping, caulking, priming, and painting the west side of the house, I don’t have a great lot of garden-y stuff to post. Still, I found a couple of pretty critters, and flowers are always welcome!

Cute, tiny damsel. Looks like a female Fragile Forktail. I’ve seen Blue Dashers around the pond, Widow Skimmers and Common Whitetails around the south flowerbed and Sarah-Flah’s Giant No-Mow Flowerbed…I’ll take dragons and damsels wherever I can get them!

Eastern Tigers are also welcome anywhere, anytime!

Phlox, phlox, phlox! Just fun to say, even though I have no recollection of having planted these in the raised bed around the dogwood out front.

Nasturtium ‘Jewel Mix’. I’m enjoying these while I can because they don’t do well in the heat, and I expect them to crap out any time now.

Orange crocosmia. I have the red ‘Lucifer’, too, but these beauties are ‘Montbretia’.

I know some people don’t like them, but planted in a pot where they can’t seed themselves anywhere unwanted, morning glories are wonderful!

First of the hardy hibiscus have started! This one is (I think) Midnight Marvel.

Cranberry Crush or maybe Fireball (I don’t remember which I planted where, and they’re both red).

Not a lot of words, but lots of pretty!

The background is bad, and it was night, so the light is bad, but she was beautiful (by stag beetle standards)! 

So far, they have not made it through the very expensive RFID cat door, but they did pull off the trim again, so I had to put it on with Liquid Nails. Not pretty, but I couldn’t use silicone because the smell would repel the cats, and it’s their door. Anyway, who looks that closely at the edge of the cat flap?

So…a raccoon did get into the garage. Somehow, it managed to get the door unlatched, and the hasp allowed just enough room for it (probably a kit) to get inside. He ate some cat food, but the problem occurred when he discovered he couldn’t get out. He certainly did try, and eventually succeeded, but not before he made one HELL of a mess. Tore up the (admittedly awful, but it is the garage) paneling.

Clawed and chewed the door itself.

Door was not easy to work with because I could swear they planed it with a fucking AXE. I had to get creative with some 1/4″ plywood and a leftover piece of 1/2″, but the door does close, and there’s no place for little trash panda fingers to enter. I just cut off the ragged panelling and slapped some 1/4″ plywood on that spot. Not pretty, but hey–it’s the garage, and since I’d taken an afternoon off to do it (too beautiful a day to be in an office), I damned well wanted it finished. For the record, thank Christ I own a belt sander because trying to cut something to fit the fucking mess they made of this door would have been impossible.

Since I did have the afternoon, I slapped one coat of paint over the door; it looked kind of trashy with the “portal” I had to make for the cat door, and then the repairs to the trash panda damage. I did tape around the window, which is more than the previous painter had done.

Doesn’t look too bad; I even cleaned the window. Not the prettiest thing I’ve ever seen, but the door is old and beat up, so I didn’t have a lot to work with in the first place. There’s still a spot at the bottom where I think I’ll put some reinforcement so they can’t tear up the door any more, but that’s a cosmetic thing, and my sole concern yesterday was keeping the trash pandas out of our garage.

I actually did this two weekends ago, but I’ve been so busy that I just hadn’t got around to posting. I fixed P’s Man Cave Window; the frame had pulled away because a screw was missing. I didn’t find the screw, but I had one that was the right diameter and too long, so I put it in as far as it would go, and then cut off the end with baby bolt cutters, and ground it flat. Then, I put on the reflective film, and finally, I did the window in my closet. P said not to bother doing his south window because the honeysuckle on the fence gives enough privacy. I didn’t really have enough film to do it because I wanted to do the small windows in the front room (Miff won’t like that), so I wasn’t heartbroken. Anyway, the west side of the house has gangsta tinted windows.

Okay, so I’ve finally caught up to the point of last weekend. Whew!

I had thought that no bees used my mason bee house, but turns out I was wrong!

Bebe toadally. OMG, this thing was cute. Also angry.

Queen Anne’s lace. Technically a weed, but Black Swallowtails will use it, and it’s not invasive here, so I’m leaving it for the time being.

Spicebush poop-a-pillar!

Bigger Spicebush poop-a-pillar!

Cute little jumper with her breakfast.

Trumpet creeper again because I like it.

More bebe bugs (also coreids).

These strange-looking, fuzzy, six-legged orioles keep showing up at the feeder.

So…my bright idea for Roxanne’s Turtle Power Spa and Wellness Centre was to paint it, and use landscape foam to make a ramp. It looked okay.

However, the paint didn’t last (I figured that, but had to try), and the foam didn’t want to stay down, so I had to go “quick and dirty” with some 4 mil black plastic. It ain’t pretty, but this is just my test pool to see whether water for boxies is worth the destruction it will receive from the stupid trash pandas.

Now…some friends. Bebe bugs; most likely coreids.

Pretty Eastern Tiger lady, enjoying coneflower.

Cletus lives! Well, I think this is the missus, but at least I know the bullfrogs haven’t driven all of the southern leopards out of the pond.

One poppy. This is from the “floor sweepings” mix I got as a freebie for the “save the bees” thing that Vesey’s did last spring. I just put them in the ground to see what was in the mix, not because the half dozen flowers I actually got would be useful to actual bees.

I have two kinds of gaillardia. The normal one…

The ones with the funky petals are called ‘Fanfare’.

Trumpet creeper is starting to climb the osage-orange–YAAAYYY!

I’m something like two weeks behind, so I’ll get right to it, beginning with stuff I didn’t really do because I just plant ’em and water ’em.

Honeyvine milkweed I transplanted last year, which the goddamned raccoons have since broken in half.

Trumpet creeper blooms. It’s doing pretty well this year, in spite of the lack of rain.

Kankakee Mallow flower. Japanese beetles are eating these (and a lot of other things…I hate those bastards).

Sombrero ‘Flamenco Orange’. These are beautiful; I don’t know why they didn’t sell well at Buchheit last year, but that’s why I have so many.

Sombrero ‘Salsa Red’. Also didn’t sell very well. Not quite as tall as the orange.

‘Flamenco Orange’ again because it’s pretty.

Phlox that I apparently seeded in the concrete bed out front, though I have no recollection of this.

Sarah-Flah’s Giant No-Mow Flowerbed. Looks much prettier IRL; weeds and all, I like this flowerbed.

Oswego tea in the Bee Happy bed. Between Onje and this stuff, I have virtually no catnip left, but at least this is pretty (Onje less so, but he’s a nice kitty).

Crocosmia ‘Lucifer’. Planted for MLBs, but I think they’re beautiful, and probably would have planted some anyway.

Rudbeckia…Autumn? Becky? Dunno, but I love the susans with the burgundy centres.

That’s all for this one; I’ll start a new one for the next bunch.

I didn’t get to work on the Turtle Power Pool last night because when I got home from work, Boo was guarding the package containing the fiercely expensive cat door from the UK.

I’d just gone out at lunch and got the plywood, which was fortuitous, considering I expected the door to arrive next week. I’d planned to fancy up the “portal” and paint it to match the door (match-ish…door paint is oooooold), but considering we’d become reduced to putting two concrete blocks in front of the existing cat door to keep trash pandas out at night, I decided to go for it. Doesn’t need to be pretty, just needs to keep trash pandas out!

It was hot, but even so, the installation went okay.

Inside:

Outside (you can see where trash pandas have chipped/peeled bits off the door as they figured out how to move the bucket of salt we’d been placing in front of the door before we had to switch to concrete):

Box. “Scream and gurgle as they skewered his cat flap for want of a farthing…” Hehe.

I’d thought there was one tag with the door, but there was not. No big deal since I’d got two packs, so I still had one left over for the first time (of what I’m sure will be many) that one of the cats loses his tag and can’t get inside.

The cats are all scared of the latch click when it opens, but they’ll get used to it, and the trash pandas weren’t able to get inside (though they did try) last night. I just hope they don’t break it; the total for the door and tags was $152, and then I had to buy a sheet of 1/4″ plywood to make the “portal”. Expensive cats…or trash pandas…or both, I guess. Anyway, it’s installed, and P put on new Seresto collars and their RFID tags last night, so they’re all geek kittehs…that are afraid of their own door.

Okay, so turtle pool, but it’ll be “power” once it’s dry again (it rained last night…glorious rain!) and Roxanne (P calls her that) needs water, or another boxie, or a goddamned trash panda, or something.

It’s just a kiddie pool and won’t last, but it used to look like this:

…and after two coats of Krylon satin forest green, it looks like this:

I’m thinking that I can use landscape foam to make ramps for turtles to get in and out. We’ll see how that goes, but I might add another coat of paint. Don’t know yet.