I’m too cheap to turn on the A/C unless it’s absolutely necessary, and even when I do, I imagine dollar bills floating out through 45 square feet of west-facing windows at the back of the house. Enter…heat control window film. I got it last Thursday, and installed it yesterday. The roll was 3′ x 15′, so I did just the large ones at the top (and had exactly enough), but if it doesn’t fall off in the next week, I’m going to get some more and do the small windows at the bottom, the west window in my closet, and (at least–it’s daytime privacy film as well) the west window in the Man Cave.

I skimmed the installation instructions, but figured it couldn’t be much different from the bamboo pattern film I installed in the front room, and I was right. There was a clear protective film I had to remove, which was kind of a PITA because this stuff is thin, but I managed it. P said he’d help, but he went to Walschwitz, so I decided to give it a go on my own. The pieces were about as big as I’d want to handle alone, and cat hair made it interesting, but it’s on there, and at least so far, hasn’t fallen off.

First window. Not a huge difference, at least from the inside.

Big difference from the outside.

All three finished. Inside…

And outside…

Put everything back where it belongs. Done!

It still looks a little wavy, but not as much as yesterday, and that’s supposed to go away once the water/detergent dries (they suggest baby shampoo, but I just used Dawn dish detergent). We’ll see. The blinds will go back down; just left open as they usually are except when I’m trying to block heat. The sun did peek out for a bit yesterday, but not very strongly, so I can’t yet tell how much difference it’ll make. I used P’s thermometer on bits of the carpet where there was unfiltered sun, and sun filtered through the film, and that suggested a temperature difference of about 20 degrees. It’s sunny today, though, so I’ll check it again.

If they’re going to kill Net Neutrality (and they are), then at least I’ll be able to stream my own media to whatever device is closest. I am the proud owner of a used small form factor PC with a 3.2 GHz Core i5, 3GB RAM, 160 GB SATA HDD, built in Wi-Fi, no power cord, no OS, and a noisy fan. I’m going to install the latest Ubuntu LTS release, use a dongle for BT, and put both Plex and Calibre on it. I like Kodi, but my Roku boxes don’t, and replacing them with Kodi-friendly hardware would cost more than this computer. P or I can replace a fan for a few bucks, and I’ve got extra power cables up the wahoo, so those are non-issue. 3.2 GHz Core i5 and 3GB RAM is enough for Plex to do the heavy lifting, and I have Plex on everything already except my Win tablet, but I can put the player on that if the browser doesn’t work. I refuse to register for the stupid Windows store. Might end up dual booting that tablet anyway, but for now, I just want to watch my shit when and where I want. 

I think I did this on Tuesday (maybe Monday…I forget), but I’m practically a perfeshunl door repair guy. After I figured out that the handles were held on by set screws, I could change the latch guts. Duh. 🙂 Now, I can have the window in that door open to let in some air, but Miffy can’t ‘scape!

Once again, either due to laziness or being too busy, or too hot, or whatever, I’m playing catch-up again!

After seeing orioles at the feeder, I went out and bought them a jelly feeder, and expensive BirdBerry jelly…virtually guaranteeing that I will never again see an oriole (and so far, I have not!)

I gave up on seeds (though I do have half a dozen microscopic grass sprigs now) and bought Northern Sea Oats plants from J at EW. Great plants, and he packages them very, very well, but I was hot and irritable after work, and the soil is not great there, so for whatever it’s worth, I planted them. We’ll see how that goes.

Missouri sundrops are doing well on the southeast side.

Tornado honeysuckle seems to be making up for the aphid attack that ruined its blooms last year.

Partridge pea seeds didn’t look great when I planted them (they started to get mould during cold stratification), but at least some of them were still viable.

Water hyacinth blooms again. I know…I don’t get credit for theses ones, but I still think they’re pretty.

I got Christmas fern (and common milkweed) from G on EB. They look kind of sad above ground, but the roots are nice and healthy, so hopefully they’ll do well.

I didn’t take pictures of the milkweed because it was rootstock, and also because I’m not holding out a lot of hope. I think it was Sunday when I doused random spots with bacterial fungicide, and when I planted the rootstock, I doused the ground with more of the fungicide. I found an affected leaf on the swamp milkweed, too, so I’m also going to drown everything green with sulphur fungicide. Whether it’ll be enough or not, I don’t know, but I think that just in case, I’ll throw a few cosmos seeds into the milkweed bed so it doesn’t look nekkid like it did last year if I’m not able to get the fungus under control. I know those goddamned oleander aphids caused it; may the little yellow bastards rot in whatever hell they came from.

P was the one on fahr this past weekend, but I did pretty well myself.

On Saturday morning, I finally broke down and started the trench for the fence flowerbed border.

The honeysuckle looks so pretty in early morning sun.

This is all I got done; cutting the 45s on the pieces took a fair amount of time, and since the saw is so loud, I couldn’t start early, and it was getting hot. Still, it’s a start.

I’m cutting all of the ends at 45 even though it’s a pain in the arse; a butt joint would show a gap even if it moved only a few millimetres, but a 45 will hide it better.

VERY dusty work; I looked like Mark Twain in a local theatre production where they’d used powder to make grey hair.

Missouri primrose isn’t very tall, but it’s absolutely beautiful, especially in sunlight.

The lens didn’t focus well on the Husker Red, but bees don’t mind how pictures look, just as long as the real thing is there and in bloom. I like seeing fat bunglebee-butts sticking out of the flowers.

Microscopic Dacotah switchgrass on Saturday. Hopefully, it’ll grow big enough that I can dig up that ugly Miscanthus.

Took this Sunday; Dacotah is less microscopic already!

Still not tired of photographing the pond. I love how the moss has grown over multiple rocks.

Since I couldn’t make a lot of noise on Saturday morning, I started the trench, and then switched over to the dogwood flower bed out front. I wanted the ugly old chicken wire gone, but didn’t want cats (I’m looking at you, Boo) to turn it into a big litterbox. I had got some Bird Block netting for that purpose.

First mulch, then the Bird Block. It’s nearly invisible even from a few feet away.

You have to get up close to see it, and since I went all the way in to the dogwood’s trunk, even the inside ring is off-limits to kitteh poop (although it’s mostly kitteh pee that I don’t want because it’ll burn the plants).

Yet another shot of ‘Daybreak Charm’ because it’s fucking beautiful.

Another of blue flax for the same reason.

Tiny mountain mint seedlings in Thug Lyfe. The self-heal sprouted, too, but I forgot to photograph it.

The Rose of Sharon P got me last year seeded itself.

New water hyacinth didn’t waste time making a flower. I know this is stored energy because it was grown in sun, but I’ll take flowers whenever I can get them, however they come.

Paw was feeling well enough this weekend to guard the feeders from marauding starlings. 🙂

These are from the day before yesterday, but I didn’t get them posted. 

This is a volunteer; it looks like a Grey Stick or a Cliffie Bush. 

After work yesterday, I potted some Dacotah switchgrass, and one small pot of Northern Sea Oats that will just sit there, doing nothing. 

When I got home today, my water hyacinth had arrived. When I looked at the box, I thought, “Uh-oh…” 

Turned out that they were fine; big and healthy. I corralled them for now. I’ll turn them loose once they’re adjusted to the pond. 

Pink-urple penstemon again. It’s so pretty. 

Yellow gaillardia in the southern bed. 

The tornado honeysuckle got a better start this year than last year. 

Pretty-pretty! 

I got these today; I forget the variety, but they’re “supertunias”. I had to have them! EDIT: The name is ‘Daybreak Charm’. 

The rarely seen view of Canadian columbine. 

Pink-red heuchera. 

EDIT: Forgot the Indian grass I potted after work yesterday. We’ll see what that’s worth. 

Also found this down on the west side. I was pretty sure it was elderberry, but waited for an ID from botanists. Nature did a pretty good job of landscaping where I went medieval on the honeysuckle. 

My accomplishments after work yesterday were few, but I still have photos. 

A little Zelus friend in the Jerusalem artichoke. 

First Husker Red blooms. 

Borage, not fucking around. 

Pink penstemon. 

Purple on the other side. 

Pink-urple balm of bees. 

Purple penstemon in Sarah-Flah’s Giant No-Mow bed. 

I worked hard all weekend, and I do have a lot of photos, but the vast majority are not of what I did…if that makes any sense.

One of the new Echinacea paradoxa has a little flower bud on it. Bad light, bad photo, but considering how little time it’s been in its location, I’ll take even one bloom!

I threw clover seeds in a few bare spots around the front yard, and also in the bare spots at the front of the house that were caused by the ugly juniper, and by ugly maiden grass hanging down. I don’t know whether they’ll be sun-cooked now that it’s not raining all the time, but I have tiny sprouts!

Once again, I made up my mind to mow the clover field out back…and then half a dozen bees looked at me with sad little faces, and I left it. P did, too, when he mowed.

I’ve been inspecting the Tornado Honeysuckle religiously for aphids, but it’s been so cold that the flowers have been as yet unscathed.

The little sweet alyssium I planted under the Sweet Tea honeysuckle looks a bit better. Hopefully, it’s been busy making roots and that’s why it hasn’t made many new flowers. I planted a few nasturtium seeds there, too, which sprouted readily enough, but will probably crap out once the heat of summer comes. Nasturtium doesn’t like our summers much.

I think these were both supposed to be pink penstemon, though some are pink and some are purple. Not that it matters to me, or to the bees for whom I got it, but that’s what happens when you rely on plant tags!

I know they’re common–they are, after all, Common Whitetail–but a dragonfly friend is always welcome.

These may have volunteered here when the hateful vinca failed due to dampness and lack of sunlight, but I have always loved violets, and even when they’re not in bloom, they look better than vinca ever could.

Score! Finally, I found a wild plant (aside from the Virginia creeper) that I wanted enough to move! I actually found two clumps; I hit the first one with the weed whacker before I noticed the tiny blue flowers on the second clump of…Blue-Eyed Grass!

At some point in time, I will grow tired of admiring the Babbling Brook. That time is not now. 🙂

I took a shot of these before, but it was dull and cloudy, and pretty blue salvia deserves better.

I planted the clump of blue-eyed grass that I didn’t hit with the weed whacker out front. It’ll get morning sun, afternoon shade, and I hope it’ll be happy.

The second clump looked a little sad (I would if someone hit me with a weed whacker), but I thought it would be okay in a bare spot where the (very expensive) Virginia Snakeroot hadn’t filled in. Snakeroot is easily overrun by other plants, but I don’t think blue-eyed grass will be too aggressive.

Stinkhorns are kind of icky-looking, but at the same time, interesting.

Turns out these irises are Japanese after all, but no matter what, they are pretty!

First Eastern Tiger Swallowtail of 2017; a beautiful boy!

On Sunday, I woke up with the plan to finish seeding the cosmos bed, and replace the ugly chicken wire in the front flowerbed with Bird Block. I didn’t want to get into a big project because I had to do laundry as well. So…”In proving foresight may be vain: The best laid schemes o’ Mice an’ Men, gang aft agley…” I did finish seeding the cosmos, which took me maybe half an hour, total. Then, for reasons I don’t even recall, I went over to investigate the bush honeysuckle that still infested the north side of the property near the garage. Several hours of digging, pulling, cutting, poisoning and chipping, the honeysuckle (that was on our property) is gone, and I also chipped the pile of last year’s butterfly bushes. I was sweaty, dirty and exhausted, but if that goddamned honeysuckle doesn’t come back (one clump first got painted with Bonide 274, then soaked with Roundup after the Bonide dried), then it was worth it. Pictures might not look like I did much, but I know where that goddamned honeysuckle was, and I know what it took to get it out of there!

C gave me this iris last year (I think), but it didn’t bloom because it was newly planted. This year it bloomed, but it looks more like a native blue flag than a Japanese to me. I’d prefer the blue flag, of course, but whatever iris it is, it’s certainly a pretty one! 

My big accomplishment yesterday after work was putting down more soil under one shepherd’s hook, and putting some mulch out front. 

This beautiful little girl had a bigger accomplishment: she eclosed! There’s one chrysalis left, but it looks very dark, and I don’t think it’s inhabitant made it. Four healthy out of six isn’t too bad, though.