The guy on YouTube made it look like it would take ten minutes, so of course it took me half an hour, but I did correctly identify the problem, find the part on eBay (discontinued, though there is a substitute), get the door panel off and back on without breaking it or electrocuting myself, and replace the door switch. Most of the half hour was spent trying to get the switch contacts out of the clips; putting the new switches in place was easy, but the old ones did not want to come out, and I actually hurt my bad elbow doing it, but I got them! P came home while I was working, so he wrangled the door handle into the new bracket while I wrestled with the contacts. Took a few minutes to put it back together, and we were good to go. I like a $27 part from eBay much better than having to buy a new dishwarsher! This is the old one, and the package from the new one (minus the actual switches because I had to break them to get the contacts out). FWIW part number is 99002254. 

Christ on a cracker! I hate political correctness, and people’s pwrecious widdle baby special snowflake feelings be goddamned! I’m trying to read reviews for a product, and three people have so far said, “For smaller people” and a couple more have said, “Not for larger people”. Thanks to PC bullshit, I have no idea whether that means for people who are actually smaller, or for short people, or for people who just aren’t giant fucking hamplanets. What is a “smaller” person anymore? I’m tall, but not a fatass. Am I “smaller” because I’m not fucking fat, or because I’m tall, am I “larger”? How the fuck would anyone know anymore? Reviewers should say, “I’m a huge, fat fucking slob and last saw my crotch in 1997,” or, “I’m so short I can’t reach the top cupboards in my kitchen,” so I’d know whether any of whatever they’re saying applies to me.

Not that I accomplished an enormous amount, although I did manage to get the neighbours’ side of the fence trimmed. I’m very surprised they didn’t complain; it was pretty jungle-y over there. Anyway, for whatever reason (might have been Stranger Things on Netflix), I didn’t get these posted on Sunday, so I’ll do it now and change the date. Hee!

The weekend was beautiful and very warm, so I guess the water hyacinth wanted to make one last wave goodbye to summer.

Out of the 25 pine sticks I planted last spring, 8 remain. Not too bad, considering how small they were, and the fact that Eastern White Pine very often doesn’t survive the first year, and I didn’t water them, or give them any special treatment. This is the strongest-looking of the ones in the “grove” by the creek.

For whatever it may be worth, I unpotted the mulberry cuttings and put them (sand-infused potting soil and all) in the ground. One was dead for sure–it broke right off when I bumped it–but we’ll see. I potted them on 05 August, and put them in the ground on 30 October. I kind of had to wing it as far as location was concerned, but I’ll be very lucky if even one survives, let alone lives to mature and bear fruit. I don’t know why the second shot is blurry…fire the photographer.

I thought this little dude was an ant, crawling on my arm, and I felt badly because I thought I’d injured him when I swiped him off. He was okay, though, and I know he’s a Leptoglossus, but I don’t have a vegetable garden, so they’re no harm to me, and their babies are downright adorbs!

I finally found out what kind of grass is planted at the front of the house, and (predictably for the old lady) of course, it is invasive. FlowerChecker ID’d it as maiden grass, which is pretty much what I’d thought after doing a little research on my own. Vinca, wintercreeper, Chinese lilies, maiden grass…it’s like she went through a list of introduced invasives and thought, “Yep, I’ll have that, and that, and some of that, and…” Anyway, it can stay for the time being, but now that I know it’s invasive, I won’t feel bad about killing it when I find something else to go there. Big bluestem, maybe…it does want a grass of some sort.

Sarcasm definitely intended. It was a nice day, but I just didn’t feel like doing anything useful…so I played Bookworm Adventures 2 on the computer and Peggle Blast on my phone. I think it was because I hadn’t slept well Friday night, then was overtired on Saturday and couldn’t even nap. Anyway, I love my little worm game…he’s so cute. 

For the record, I know hundreds of  thousands of entomologists, biologists, and spiders who would disagree with the game’s opinion that “Argiope” is not a word.  HMPFH! 

Somewhere along the way, I acquired a Time Helmet that manages to make my little worm look both badass and hilarious. 

Each level has five opponents, with the last one being the strongest.”Boss Battle”. One of the higher levels has as its “Boss” a small,  rainbow-hued… butterfly? Ooookay. He was a tough one to beat, though, because he had the ability to call each former opponent from that level to attack my poor little worm. 

ORRRRRR…. 

Literature? Literature? Gee, why don’t I read the news? Literature. Bob Fucking Dylan? We’ll, I suppose at least it wasn’t Niki Minaj or someone like that. 

This first one is actually from work last Friday morning, and the picture isn’t great, but it was such a lovely animal–juvenile Red-Tailed Hawk–that I had to at least get some kind of photo. (S)he let me get quite close because (s)he had a squirrel and was very reluctant to let go of it!

I didn’t think there would be enough sunlight in the pond to get more than leaves out of the water hyacinth, but a few of them disagreed.

When the Canadian columbine went to seed, I shook the pods out over the flowerbed in hopes that more of it will grow. It’s such pretty stuff; I’d have a whole field of it if I could. Anyway, if these little seedlings make it, I will have more!

Summer was so dry that the toad lilies didn’t fare too well, but they’re alive, and they did bloom. Seems like they should have a prettier name. I love toads, but they really aren’t “pretty”.

I finally got up on a step ladder and cleaned out the wrenlet hoce to put in fresh shavings for winter insulation. It’s so cute to think of those tiny birds, carrying every little stick and piece of grass (and one little rectangle of plastic) up there, one by one, and tucking it in place. There were no eggshells in the nest, but I know they had babies. I wonder whether the female ate them for the calcium. I remember thinking they looked as if they might have another brood in there. Anyway, the nest was cute…little fevvers to make it soft and warm. <3

So…the few little poop-a-pillar Black Swallowtail guys are still alive…are they ever!

C is on vacation, and I wrote her about the caterpillars, so rather than type it all again, I’ll copypasta…

I’ve had probably 25 Black Swallowtail caterpillars this year, the last lot of which you saved with the bunch of parsley that you brought in to work. After those caterpillars left, I found two more that were just tiny hatchlings. Small, and by then, the carrot had recovered a bit, and the root of the parsley you’d given me had produced more leaves, so I certainly had enough food for two caterpillars. Then, I found one more, but figured I’d still be okay.

Yesterday morning, I went down to check on my little dudes; I hadn’t looked in on them in several days. I noticed there was a lot less “green” in that spot; aside from about half of the parsley that had grown from the root, there was almost nothing left! I thought, “Damn…those are some VERY hungry caterpillars!” and I was right, but not only were they very hungry, there were also EIGHT, not three! They were, of course, no longer hatchlings, but neither were they in their final instar; they still had plenty of eating left to do. Since you’re on vacation, I couldn’t ask you for more parsley, so I called Alexis Weigel; she lives next door to Tammy’s old house, and she raises butterflies, so I knew she’d have food for them and thought she might be willing to adopt them. I’m sure she would have, but she didn’t answer her phone, and didn’t respond to the voice mail that I’d left. She’s a master gardener, and since her husband died, she often goes off for seminars, or to speak at schools/gardening clubs/whatever, and may be gone for days. I couldn’t wait any longer—the little dudes had enough food to get through yesterday, but not more—so I had to take a chance on “organic produce”.

I called Schnuck’s and asked the produce guy whether they had any organic carrots with tops on, parsley, dill, or fennel. He said that they had organic carrots that still had the tops, so I wrangled my hair into some semblance of neatness, put on a bra (you know I care about my caterpillars if I’m willing to do that on the weekend!), got in the car and drove to the grocery store. They had organic carrots, but also organic fennel, so I got some of each, brought them home and washed them, just in case. Expensive, but my little garden bed is the reason the female butterfly laid eggs there, and since my intervention caused them to exist, I consider myself responsible for them. So…on the table in the front room of my house is a 2.5 gallon white bucket. Inside that bucket is a bowl of water, and in the bowl is the bottom of a bunch of fennel. On the fennel are eight little stripe-y dudes who will eat for almost every daylight hour until they moult for the final time and turn into chrysalises (hopefully without wandering off somewhere in the house). When they do, I will place them into the screened cage I built last year for a Luna moth cocoon and two Spicebush Swallowtail chrysalises, and that will keep them safe from hungry mice and birds all winter. Next spring, I’ll open the top when they’re close to eclosing, and they will eclose, expand their wings and fly away while I’m at work because butterflies are little ingrates.

I got the downspouts back up, then cleaned up the mess that’s been hanging out by the gradge for…ever. I’m finally DONE! 

​I finished the gradge after work, but I didn’t have to do everything myself! (I put him over by the pond because I had to destroy his home in order to clean up.) 

P.S. P saw a MLB this morning. Six days later than last year! 

EDIT: Bonus Hogna carolinensis. Don’t know whether this is the same one, but she’s a beauty! 

I barely had enough daylight, but I finished the gradge, and it is now “Parview Peach”. Well, the west side. 

It’ll look better in full daylight, but I’m so glad it’s done that I’m posting a photo anyway. 

I discovered it’s not Parview’s original colour I don’t like; it’s the pale pink to which much of it has faded. You can really see the difference between the peachy-beige I just painted the west side and the faded petal pink on the south side. 

For the sake of contrast….

Before:

After:

Migraine and all, I damned well DID IT!