3-Star Day

zuhg Cw

I did my yoga practice to earn one star, then my husband and I took off the fragile tarps and bungee cords from the garden planters and replaced them with new tarps and cords. We also put new tarps on the cement mixer we use to mix our Mel’s Mix for the garden planters and the pile of potting soil bags we keep to replenish the brick planters around the house. With temperatures in the 60s and bright sunshine, it was the perfect day to do it – earning a second star. The third was for the scales smiling a bit at me yesterday.

We have another stellar weather day today before things deteriorate tomorrow and into the coming week. I’ll make sure to get outside and walk around the yard this afternoon to show my appreciation for the day.

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I actually just came in from walking around the yard and taking a few pics to share. I can’t tell you how much I’m looking forward to spring. As we uncovered the planters before covering them up again yesterday, I wished I could start playing in the dirt.

Here are our raised-bed square foot planter boxes. I was pleased to see only a few weeds in the Mel’s Mix of the planters. They’ll be ready to plant when the time comes. I’m having trouble waiting. :0)

These are the trash cans that hold all the ingredients of Mel’s Mix for my garden: peat moss, Vermiculite, and three different kinds of compost. You can also see a tarp over our used cement mixer. I throw all the ingredients as I measure them into the mixer, then mix and pour the contents into containers to haul over to the planter boxes to fill them up. The mixer does a great job and saves a lot of effort and time.

I also took some pics on the way back to the house from the shop and garden –

Some of our “emu” planters waiting for me to fill them up with potting soil and plant some flowers.

I’ll have to clean out this planter, but I’ll plant some colorful flowers around the feet of our ‘peacock.’

This is on one side of the top of our driveway. We have a sign in the tree saying, “Trespassers will be composted.” Our ‘watermelon’ propane tank is in the background toward the top of the picture. You can see colorful pieces of the peacock and one of the emus at the top on the right, plus our ‘crow’ shovel bird on the right, standing on the boulder.

Our “turkey” helps a ‘guard dog’ with a rifle stand guard on the opposite side of the driveway.

shovel bird that doubles as a bird feeder in one of the trio planters that are between our driveway and the front yard.

I love wandering around the yard. I had to stop myself from spending time weeding and getting ready for spring, since I wasn’t wearing a jacket and it was in the 40s out there now. I’m still hoping the weather people have it wrong and we won’t get ice Wednesday and Thursday….

Thanksgiving 2021

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It’s just the two of us this year. It’s 36 degrees, gray, and rainy here. Great time to enjoy being warm and dry indoors. We’ll have a quiet day (hopefully), I’ll cook our turkey breast, stuffing, slice cranberry sauce and make deviled eggs for this evening.

I’m thankful this morning that our son left a message on the chat program, wishing us a happy day. I found a wonderful performance of a man playing two guitars at once masterfully and sent it to him yesterday. Maybe you would enjoy it, too. The musician’s name is Luca Stricagnoli.

This Iconic Rock Song Has Been Covered Many Times, But Not Like THIS. Unbelievable!

If this doesn’t provide a way to listen, here is the URL – https://amazingpandph.com/coolest-song-cover/

RumiArt-etsy.com

This is the turkey who stands beside a tree at the top of our driveway.

Have a wonderful celebration!

Clean Teeth and a Robot

We are back from our trip to Ft. Smith for our dental cleaning. We are still alive, with clean teeth, a good report, and I didn’t bite anyone – a good thing because, although I’ve had my Covid shots and a booster, I have NOT had a rabies shot. :0)

As we left, I took a pic of the refurbished greeter robot at the bottom of our driveway. No green. No rust.

As I type, we have not had the predicted thunderstorm, though it looks darker and darker outside and looks like the rain could come any time. Until then, we’re enjoying having our doors open to welcome a truly wonderful breeze.

I’m going to enjoy some time with a good book and a cup of coffee now.

Wednesday 11-17-2021

Marcus Westberg-ComedyWildlife-Forbes

I guess you can tell from the expression on my face above – it’s the height of being spoiled to admit that, when I’m lucky enough to have one of the best dentists on the planet with a full crew of good hygienists, I still HATE going there for our twice-a-year appointments.

Other than braces as a teenager, until this year I had never had a cavity or anything else done. One of the perks of getting to be older-than-dirt is that you start falling apart. Now I’ve had one cavity filled and one tooth pulled.

One of the things that scares me the most is the cancer check. My mom died of oral cancer. Hers, I think, was due to smoking. It still worries me that there MIGHT be a hereditary factor at play. Thankfully, my hygienist now does that screening for me first. (Did I tell you what wonderful people these are?)

I did the repainting of the greeter robot at the bottom of our driveway yesterday afternoon. He doesn’t look ‘new,’ but it definitely looks as if he is a treasured member of the family now. I’ll try to get a pic of him to show you later as we leave for the dentist this morning.

We’re due for thunderstorms and colder temperatures starting this afternoon, so I’m glad I got that little project finished.

Have a wonderful Wednesday!

Perfect Afternoon!

metro.co.uk

We have finished our errands for the day. We will have some lunch and relax a bit, and then I’ll head down to the bottom of our driveway in the truck with the supplies needed to refurbish the greeter robot.

I was surprised to see how well the mold/mildew/elephant remover spray worked. I hosed him down twice and the green disappeared! Now the sweet robot is showing his rust. :0)

He is basically black and white, but there is a lot of masking to do so that I can see if I can use the spray can of white I bought. I’m hopeful that I can. This would make his refurbishment a lot easier. I have a can of hiding white and a brush, otherwise. I hope to do this all this afternoon, as we are scheduled for a cold front tomorrow afternoon with colder temperatures and rain.

Mother Nature is smiling on us today, though, so I’ll try to take full advantage of that.

Have a terrific Tuesday!

The Hunt is On

ClipartKey

The hunt is on for two things:

THING ONE – The spray container of the stuff I bought awhile back to kill mold/algae/fungus/elephants.

THING TWO – the actual gallon container for the rest of the magic stuff.

I bought this ‘stuff’ particularly to treat some of our yard art – and in particular, the “Greeter Robot” at the bottom of the driveway. He is much too big and heavy to bring in for any type of refurbishment, so cleaning and repainting will have to be done down there.

It would SEEM that a gallon container of something – anything – would be easy to find. ALSO easy would be the finding of a large spray container. And yet the ‘elves/gnomes/and other mysterious critters have made finding whatever you’re looking for a character-building exercise around here.

We came through our severe storm last night well. It’s truly gorgeous outside and I haven’t found any damage yet. It’s a PERFECT day to drive down to the bottom of our hill and hose down the robot -IF I could FIND the magic stuff….

Oooooo!

Michelle Loving

Isn’t this little guy cute?!

I drove to the bottom of our driveway yesterday afternoon and started another refurbishment project on one of our yard critters. This will be a multi-process refurb –

• He’s outside and as far away from supplies as possible while still being on our property
• He weighs about 150 pounds and is chained to a tree.
• He is almost buried in branches and weeds
• He is covered with algae/mold/fungus/mystery.

I’ve been putting it off for quite awhile, but since our weather is finally cooling off, I decided to tackle it.

I took some branch loppers (large and small) and used both to try to cut back all the ‘greenery’ around the robot so that he is no longer buried. Here are some pictures of the sweet “Greeter Robot” (before refurbishment) –

The weather really does a number on our critters and this is no exception. Now that I have the greenery cut back around him, I’m going to try to find the spray container of algae/whatever spray I bought and start hosing him down and see if that does any good.

Working on the Wart-Hog

Raising Children Network

This is Wonder Wart-Hog, one of my husband’s favorite comic book characters, marked for painting. The piece is about 2-1/2 feet tall. The outline for cutting him out on the CNC set up with computer-guided torch, was pretty simple this time. The painting – front and back – is intimidating because of all the detail.

I’ve been doing a bit each day. I think I will finish one side of him today after we get back from Lunch Bunch and errands. I hope my husband is pleased with my efforts. If he is, I’ll try to get a pic when the paint is dry before I turn the piece over to paint the second side.

Latest from the Art Room and the Shop

Dragonfly Yard Art Refurb

Our “Peacock” is Preening Again

When we got home from errands this morning, I brought the finished “peacock” out to his place in the yard.

This was a pain to re-paint, due to how wide and unwieldy he is. There are lots of angles that hide from you as you paint, and he doesn’t want to ‘sit’ quietly, making it easier to work on him. He also had lost most of his beads, so those had to be replaced.

He used to be high up on the tower above where we put the “Belly Vested Whapadoo,” –

but I thought he could enjoy a new view.

There are some other, smaller pieces we’ll have to take down from the side of the house, and some larger ones, like the robot at the end of the driveway, but we’re due for summer to come roaring back, so I’m going to take a bit of a break.

A LOT of Fun

Exploring Your Mind

My drafting table is covered with paint. I”M covered with paint. One wrap-around canvas is covered with paint. I splooped some dots of paint on my shirt, even though I wore my denim apron.

I’m letting my mess dry now, waiting to see if I got any “cells” in my paint. Even though I basically made a mess of the “Acrylic Pour” technique, I had a lot of fun trying.

Next time I try, I’m going to try a different technique that I also saw on YouTube. As usual, the result was not at ALL what I pictured and I’m at the “learning-what-NOT-to-do-NEXT time” part of the learning process. That doesn’t keep me from having a blast playing. :0)

On a more successful note, I finished painting our yard art “peacock” yesterday and glued on lots of beads today, around his neck and on his ‘feathers.’ If the glue does well, I’ll bring him back out in the yard tomorrow and take some pics.

I hope YOU are doing something fun and/or challenging, too!

Beginning of a New Week 8-2-2021

Dolceluna

I’ve been using a new face cream. What do you think?

We just got back from doing errands and I’ll fix our lunch in a minute.

The scales are finally beginning to notice my efforts to lose the lard more. I’ve lost 2 pounds in the past 2 days. Re-losing – so no confetti thrown until I’m in new territory.

The new addition to my exercise regimen starts this week, too.

• Monday – yoga stretching plus exercises with weights
• Tuesday – yoga stretching plus 15-30 minutes on the elliptical trainer.
• Wednesday – yoga stretching plus exercises with weights
• Thursday – yoga stretching plus 15-30 minutes on the elliptical trainer
• Friday – yoga stretching plus exercises with weights
• Saturday – yoga stretching plus 15-30 minutes on the elliptical trainer
• Sunday – yoga stretching

Yesterday I cleaned and started re-painting the “peacock” yard art critter in our shop. The biggest part of the refurb project on this one is gluing new beads on the ‘feathers’ and around his neck. I’ll show you when he goes back outside.

Yesterday I also cleaned off my drafting table in my art room. I gathered my supplies for my “acrylic pour” experimentation. I also watched several YouTube videos on various techniques several really talented people are using. Today I bought some Minwax Pre-Stain Wood Conditioner to add to my supplies. I will find a heat gun or grab my hair dryer. Later this afternoon I hope to gather my intimidation and throw it in the trash.

I hope that you’re having a great day, too.

Mama and Baby Snail

Mama & Baby Snail are refurbished and living on our front porch now. I finished repainting these yesterday and brought them out late yesterday afternoon.

Next will be cleaning and repainting our “peacock.”

We have Lunch Bunch this morning, so I don’t know whether I will start the peacock cleaning today or start earlier in the morning tomorrow.

UGH

Our mailbox decoration represents a return to our ‘normal” summer in Arkansas, rather than the cooler, rain-filled summer we’ve had this year. We’ve gotten quite spoiled, not fearing heat stroke as we mow, weedwhack, tend our flowers and square foot garden veggies.

All that ended about a week ago now. The rain stopped, the sun came out with a vengeance, raising our actual temperatures to 100 or more in the afternoons, and the heat index to surge even higher. UGH.

The only thing left in the garden now is sweet onions, weeds, and our two planters of tomatoes.

My husband managed to get the civilized part of our yard mowed, mowing right before dark one evening and then first thing in the morning the next day. I followed that with weed whacking right before dark night before last, and then finished it up last night and blew the debris off our sidewalks and driveway pad with our leaf blower. I was planning to use our push weedwhacker this morning in the area behind our shop and beside our garden, but we talked about it and decided I would really be risking heat stroke. I walk outside, with my headband on, and I’m instantly wringing wet. I think we will only do what is absolutely necessary until this “Punishment from Mother Nature” passes. We might even wait until fall…

I WILL pull the sweet onions and start drying them soon. I don’t know how much longer the tomatoes will make. Even with our irrigation system, the tomatoes are almost boiling on the vines. Happily, my elephant ear plants and phlox or doing well, even with the heat. I’ll try to get out and get pics for you.

When I get out there early enough, I’m still working on the refurbishment project of of our yard critters. Right now I’m repainting “Mama and Baby Snail.” I post a pic when they’re ready to go back outside.

Every summer I regret the fact that we ran out of money when we were building our home over 30 years ago. We managed the main house and the small shop, but we had to give up my dream of a pool. I taught swimming every summer from age 14 through college to help pay for my education. We live on top of ridge line, and had to dynamite several times to be able to have our basement, septic system, and the pool. We got the first two, but not the third. Every summer I dream of a beautiful in-ground pool. Of course, I also dream of Sven, the gorgeous pool man, coming to take care of it – and me. (If I’m going to dream, I’ll include it all… :0) )

I hope summer is being kind to you.

Shovel Bird is Back

I brought out the second finished shovel bird and put him in place last night before dark. He is at one edge of the top of our driveway, ready to greet all comers.

It feels good to be getting our yard critters cleaned up and re-painted. Things were beginning to look at bit sad around here.

I hope he brings a smile to someone’s face.

“Dog with Bone” is Feeling Frisky

Our “Dog with Bone” yard critter is back up and feeling frisky. With the rains we’ve had, he had been in three pieces in the shop for quite awhile. In fact, when I took our dog Amber out with me, she wasn’t used to seeing him and barked, running over to check him out.

I plan to start cleaning another “shovel bird” today.

One of the reasons I was outside with Amber was to check on our elephant ear plants. They seem to be happy.

Super-Busy, Good Day

ebaumsworld.com

We’ve been super busy since I wrote my first post today about 9am. It’s been a good day – full of errands. We got most things accomplished and made it home for a late lunch. It’s very hot, so it was wonderful to get back into the air conditioning. We had lunch and a nap.

Yesterday I finished the refurbishing of the 4 ’emu’ planters. They are ready to come out, but it’s WAAAY too hot now to do it. We’ve figured out where we want them to live, and maybe it will cool off enough before dark for us to get them out. We get gusty winds here, so we got some U-bolts we can use. I plan to put one over a ‘toe’ of each of the ’emus’ pounding the U-bolt into the ground to make them steadier. I’ll take pics when we get them back together outside.

My husband is having a bit of trouble welding now because of shaking hands. He got upset the other day, thinking he would have to give it up. Since his shaking varies from day to day, I reminded him of that and suggested he just wait until he’s have a ‘good’ day and weld then. Today we got a full cylindrical bottle of argon to replace the empty one we took in. He was able to finish making a brace to make a beautiful, specialized welding table yesterday. :0)

I have finished 10 yard critters so far, and we now have 3 more in the shop for me to clean and refurbish – a ‘peacock,’ a shovel bird, and a dog.

We’ve had SO much fun making these wacky critters!

Laugh and Hug

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I’m giving myself a hug and smiling right now. I just had two sales (one yesterday and the second this morning) from my HandmadeHavenbyLinda Etsy website! A really nice start to the day and a spirit-lifter, for sure. :0)

I’ve been having fun in our shop, refurbishing 4 “emu” planters this past week. I need to paint their legs, and then they can go back outside when they are dry.

I’m feeling very motivated on my weight loss and exercising goals. I’ll do two sessions with weights today – one with 5-pound weights, and a second with 3-pound weights, where I follow a short video online. Then I’ll do my regular session of yoga stretching and abdominal exercises later today. I’m trying to drink FOUR bottles of water daily (trying to ignore the fact that my eyeballs are floating as I get more movement in) – running to the bathroom. I’m eating some raw veggies and a bit of dip mid afternoon as a snack. Keepin’ on keepin’ on. (So far. 30.2 pounds down and 26.2 inches off).

I’m finding lots of wonderfully creative people on the net who have created artwork that makes my mouth water. I’m so grateful I live on the same planet and can enjoy their work and share it with you.

Have a wonderful Monday.

“Emu” Refurbishing Project

If you look carefully here, you can see 4 “emu” planters. (We actually have 2 more on our deck, but that will be a different project.) We have faux terra cotta flower pots that fit in the circle parts of the birds.

There is a combination of dirt, mold and ‘whatever all over them. It will take quite a bit of cleaning before I can even THINK of starting to repaint them.

There are detachable heads, necks, and then the legs come off the circular part that holds the pots. The wings and tail feathers are welded onto the circles. Googly eyes are glued onto the heads. Some of them have plain ‘head feathers,’ and others have beads glued onto them.

You can turn the heads so they “pose”. Usually we turn them so they all look toward the driveway – all looking at whoever is driving up to see us.

It will probably take several days to clean them. I’ll take pics of them when they are back in place beside the driveway.

Sassy “Belly Vested Whapadoo”

This “refurbishment” (Is that a word?) took a lot of time and effort.

While I was cleaning him, his head fell off! My husband welded it back on, but that added to the difficulty of trying to refurbish him, with huge black ‘burns’ around his neck.

I managed to clean that up, as you can see here, and then I put styrofoam stuff in a gap between the two layers of his ‘neck” to discourage wasps from nesting in there. Finally, I added a bandana.

We used to have him wired to a tree. We moved him to this spot, putting his tail feather between the spokes of the tower. This should hold him nicely.

I’m glad to see him with his ‘sass” back.

Refurbishing Progress

I’ve been working on the “Belly Vested Whapado” bird for several days now. He’s finally finished and will find his spot in the yard later today. We’ll have to tie him to something wherever he lives, because he needs the extra help, but I’ll take some pics and post them later.

Next up will be a set of 4 “emus’ we built to hold planter pots. There are actually 6 emus in the set. 4 live together to the side of the driveway and and there are 2 more that live on our deck. We haven’t brought the other 2 in yet. Pics to follow on these, as well.

There are some yard critters that I plan to refurbish in place. One is the robot who welcomes people to our home and holds our house numbers sign. He weighs 200+ pounds. I’ll do him in stages, first cutting the greenery away around him, then using a mold remover to get him clean, and then bringing a large can of white paint and a brush to the bottom of the driveway in our truck. I will also use rust preventing spray paint on him, masking areas carefully.

I noticed the ‘Mama and Baby Snail’ that live on one of the brick planters needs to be repainted, and a shovel bird that perches on the edge needs work, too. Right now I am refusing to even THINK about the ‘Flying Pig’ that hangs over the driveway. :0)

I’ll go out to the shop soon and take some pics.

“Cleaning Robot” Feels Better Now

Refurbishing Progress

Our “cleaning robot” is finished and ready to be put back in place. We will do that later and I’ll take pics for share with you.

Meanwhile, I’m now working on TWO pieces simultaneously.

We call this the “Belly Vested Whapadoo”

As you can see, he needs a lot of work. My husband came out to give me moral support. He steadied the ‘bird’ as I started the cleaning. All of a sudden, his HEAD fell off!

While my husband reattached the head, I switched to another piece. It was a smaller “shovel bird” that we use as a bird feeder in the front flower planters. We also drilled some holes in the shovel for better drainage.

I got about half of the shovel bird piece painted yesterday. I’ll finish that today, and then get started again on cleaning the Whapadoo.

Pics of the “Cleaning Robot” to follow.

“Cleaning Robot” Refurb Project

We call this yard critter our “Cleaning Robot.” He is ready to clean up any spill with his fireplace broom and shovel dust pan.

He has the usual fading or peeling paint, but he was also injured this past year, falling over and having his head break off. My husband did a quick repair, welding his head back on, but we didn’t take the time or effort to do anything cosmetic.

This morning I thoroughly cleaned him, threw away the completely faded and now brittle “red” bowtie, pulled off his discolored eyes, etc.

I painted the first coat, but am considering some color changes that might mask some f the weathering damage better.

Our humidity is still really high, making our rather moderate temperature of 88 right now feel like you’re swimming through pea soup as you walk around, so unless it rains, the robot will have to wait until tomorrow morning for more work.

The Turkey Lives!

Our turkey was just really dirty with all the paint fading or completely gone. I forgot to take a “before” pic before I started cleaning him up. I put him back in his spot beside the driveway last night.

My husband wants to change where the turkey lives, and I have no problem with that. He’ll probably move it today while I work on another critter.

It’ll be interesting to see where my husband decides he should live.

I’m leaving for Lunch Bunch in about an hour, looking forward to celebrating my friend’s birthday today, and hopefully it won’t be TOO hot to choose another critter, take a pic or two, and get started with the cleaning.

“Farmer Robot” Is Refurbed

Before

No Good Reason

Etsy.com

We did our errands and I went out to the shop to work on the Farmer Robot.

I replaced his ‘hands,’ having found an old pair of work gloves. I stuffed the fingers with plastic peanuts and the palm of the hands with plastic bags. I drilled a hole in one side of the gloves so I could screw them onto the arms – having learned the hard way that if you don’t do that, the hands ‘disappear.’ I then wrapped some duct tape around the bottom of the gloves – also having learned the hard way – that if you don’t, wasps make nests in the gloves.

I laid him on his back in order to be able to glue new eyes in and have them stay on, instead of falling off before they are dry. When I eased him down onto his back, water came streaming out! Apparently he filled with water during all the heavy rains we’ve been having. I left him on his back and finished painting the lower part of his overalls and legs.

Later today I’ll turn him over, seeing if more water comes out, and also so I can paint the lower part of his back and legs. When I stand him up again, I’ll use duct tape around his neck to keep as much water out as possible, then tie the bandana back on.

My husband will use our truck dolly to give him a ride from the shop to his spot on the right side of our driveway pad against the house. When he is back where he lives, we’ll take pics to show you.

I’ve almost finished the 2nd piece in our metal critters refurbishing project. There are 8 more in the shop, with more to come.

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,I think I told you that we got fiber optic Internet and TV when we finally got the opportunity recently. We’re very happy with the Internet. There is much less lag time than there used to be. The TV, however, is VERY upset when the system goes off, in a sudden power outage, for example. It takes forever (seemingly) to get to the point where it is up enough that our remotes again work. We decided to get a UPS that will live in the entertainment center with the TV plugged into it. Our power outages are of very short duration. We have a generator that comes on when the public power is out. It switches on by itself when it detects the public power is off for a certain amount of time. It switches off again when it senses we have public power back. A couple of mornings ago, our power went off and on several times in succession. I thought we would never get the TV back again.

The UPS we ordered came this afternoon and my husband hooked it up awhile ago. Now we’re waiting for the TV to resurrect itself and be able to watch TV again. Fingers are crossed that we have this small irritation solved now.

________________

I find it almost impossible to believe what a gorgeous day we’re having. It is normally in the mid to high 90s with a heat index in the triple digits. Right now it’s sunny and 78 degrees F. with a light breeze. Stunningly beautiful!

I hope you’re enjoying your day, too. :0)

Poor Little Guy

This poor little guy we call the “Farmer Robot.” He stands to one side of our garage door, keeping watch on the yard and our garden. As you can see, he needs quite a bit of refurbishing.

I started work on him yesterday. I scraped the peeling paint, removed the farming gloves and bandana, and generally cleaned him up as much as possible.

I’ll get him some new work gloves, stuffing them with plastic bags to give them some shape. I’ll replace his bandana, and his eyes.

I got a first coat of fresh paint on him yesterday and will continue the work today. I hope I can make him look reasonable again.

Our Box Turtle Has New Life

I finished the box turtle and put him out in the rock garden again. I cleaned him thoroughly, replaced his eyes, freshened the paint, and sprayed him with polyurethane to protect him as much as possible.

I started another critter this morning. We call him the “Farmer Robot.” I’ll show you pics of the sad shape he’s in tomorrow.

Box Turtle Refurb – Before

Years ago my husband and I start playing in the shop, making yard critters out of scrap metal. We chose the pieces as we decided what we were trying to make. If we couldn’t find it, my husband made it, such as cutting the feet on this box turtle out of scrap metal we had.

All this has become much harder because salvage yards and dumps don’t allow people to wander around anymore. There are liability issues, so it’s very hard to find scrap metal and parts.

We had a wonderful time making these critters and deciding where they would ‘live’ in the yard.

Sun, water, and temperature extremes take their toll on metal yard critters, so every once in a while, we take them to the shop for some much needed attention.

This is a “Box Turtle.” The pictures don’t show all the damage, but his eyes fell off, his ‘nose’ is peeling badly, and he has a lot of rust.

There is a lot of peeling paint on his back, and his feet had to be hosed down to get rid of ‘critters’ who wanted to live there.

More rust on his tail.

I spent 2-1/2 hours in the shop working on him this morning, and he is drying now. I spent quite a while washing him. I then freshened his paint, paying particular attention to all the peeled spots. I made him new eyes and glued them on. I will spray him later today with polyurethane to protect the paint as much as possible. I’ll take a pic or two and then we’ll put him back in his spot in the yard and I’ll start on another critter.

So far, my husband has put 9 critters in the shop for refurb and there are more than that to come. It’s a good thing I enjoy painting!

Thoughts on a Sunday 6-6-2021

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Our weather can’t decide if it wants to rain or let the sun come out. When we awoke this morning, it had rained very recently. Now the sun is peaking out a bit. We’re due for scattered showers from now through Tuesday, at least. We’re starting to get used to trying to get things done between storms…

THANK YOU to the people who have looked at my new site on Etsy HandmadeHavenByLinda and have written to make suggestions. Fresh eyes and new ideas are priceless. I appreciate your help. :0)

I’m gearing up to

1. finish clearing off the last of the greenhouse. We have one long, heavy 4×4 remaining. My husband has been carrying one at a time out to the shop to remove whatever is still attached and save the wood for another project. With the price of lumber now, this is a thing for us. Also remaining out there is the black plastic we put down on the cleared space that was supposed to keep weeds from growing inside the greenhouse. This had limited success, and was also invaded by fire ants. I will go out armed with Eight Bug Killer and will carefully try to gather up the plastic. And finally, I’ll use the weed whacker to neaten up where things had grown up.
2. It’s time to refurbish the metal critters we have created over the years that are all around our yard. We are taking them out to the shop, where I will clean, repaint, replace parts, etc. before we put them out again. The sun and rain and whatever are hard on things, so it will take a bit of effort to restore them to their former ‘glory.’ First up is our “Box Turtle” –

This is the way he is supposed to look. Right now he’s VERY dirty. Some of his paint is peeling, and at least one of his eyes has fallen off. I’ll try to take pics as I go to share with you.

Have a fun Sunday!