Andy loves me as big as my butt

So the other day Andy and I were walking back to the car after having gotten lunch down on Dickston Street. I asked him how much he loved me. He replied, "I love you as big as your butt." I instantly fell in love with him all over again. Then later that day I decided to try out the video camera on my new phone. And thus a new project was born! I am now taking a one minute video everyday for a year of Andy. It's massively fun (at least as big as my butt!) and what strikes me the most is how in every one of them we are just cracking up like five year olds. I heart Andy. All the time. More news and updates later. Right now I just wanted to get this video up. Because it makes me laugh. The volumn is a little low because Andy is soft spoken but you can hear him if you turn it up and listen closely. Love on!

Furry Friend Time

Stinky and Bubba have become good friends over the last few months. They have a sort of daily throw-down that lets Bubba play and lets Stinky beat the crap out of Bubba and everyone leaves happy. We call it Furry Friend Time.

Behind the two furry dummy heads you can see how much the flower garden in front of the door has grown. Morgan added a set of solar lights to the walkway that is really cool.

We really need to paint that door.



The garden gets very little sunlight during the day, but we're still giving it a try. I planted beans, garlic, cucumber, peas, hot peppers and corn to go with the herbs, tomatoes, onions, potatoes and even more peas that Morgan planted. Yesterday, I staked the beans and the peas and we caged two of the tomato plants.

So far it's clear that we'll have all the rocks that we can eat.



Probably my biggest accomplishment today was changing out the front tires on the lawn mower. This was no easy task, but with the help from the guys at the local lawn mower shop, I was able to do it myself. It steers so much easier now that it has inflated tires and grease in the steering sector.

I finally sorted out the float situation and have it running pretty well now. The Briggs & Stratton engine employs a gas tank that is lower than the carburetor. That's the source of our problems now. If we mow on an incline and have the tank lower than it already is, it runs out of gas and dies. Not sure how to fix this, but it does better when the gas tank is full.



Morgan also picked up a set of cushions for the redwood chairs. Now we can sit and watch the sun go down, at least until the mosquitoes take over. They were tested out today by a couple who was walking by. The woman had just had surgery and tired out halfway home so they asked to stop. I brought them water and they stayed for a bit before leaving.



The pump in the pond started to poop out, so I rigged up the larger pump that we got with the pond. The water was getting rather murky with just a little pump, but with this big one it has started to clear up. The waterfall is so much nicer now, too.

We added a fern or two and a few flowering plants that I'm not too sure about. The toads have set up shop in our pond which is delightful.

Morgan and her horses

Morgan has befriended a couple who operate a draft horse rescue out of their Greenland home and has made herself useful around their place. The couple work full-time jobs and welcome accomplished help that Morgan can give. Here she is brushing out a horse that she has been given responsibility for.



These two are meant for one another.



She also checks on the other horses there at the rescue and takes care of a horse that has been adopted by Cheryl Best, Morgan's best friend. These two are lucky to have Morgan and Cheryl. After a long while as work horses, they are totally spoiled now.


These are two of the other horses there at the rescue. Their hooves are as big as dinner plates.

Buttercup

Morgan is wanting a horse.

She's wanted one for quite some time now; 40 years or so. (The fact that she told me she is 29 makes this hard to believe, but I decided not to point that out.) We are looking at horses and places to put them.

The above is taken amongst a field of buttercups on a piece of land north of West Fork that is for lease.

Lazy bones

It's been a long time since I have posted any progress that we have made with the house, long enough to have to put up 10 photos.

Morgan contracted with a lawn care service which has sprayed a herbicide to kill the myriad weeds that have set up shop in our front lawn and a fertilizer for what little grass remains. We need to start overseeding once this cold snap moves through.



The plants that we put in during the fall have come up and we have added scores more in the front flower garden. It's starting to fill in, but we haven't had many days warm enough to get things going.



There are now fish in our fish pond and a very understated waterfall to keep them with enough air. The lily of the valley, Vinca and the ferns that we planted are quite happy. I'm not sure if we want to plant the Hosta and the coral bells here, though, since it gets a bit more sun in the middle of the day than I think they would like.



Morgan is not happy that there are ants on her peonies, and telling her that ants are always on peony buds hasn't helped much.



The pansies from the fall are still hanging around and the tulips didn't amount to much, but the peonies that we planted have come up and are doing well.



The shade garden along the east side of the house is coming along nicely, too. The first Hosta on the left side was tiny before we planted it in the nice soil that we made and now look at it!



Morgan's garden is slow to get going, but it's early yet. She has tomato, bean spinach and a bunch of stuff that we haven't put out yet.


We have been working on making a bed along the east fence in the back yard. I got a bad case of poison ivy after pulling all of the poison ivy out of the bed, but it's coming along. We're not sure what to plant in here once we get it filled with some topsoil, but I'm thinking some daylilies and burning bush.



We have bamboo that sprouts up overnight and grows so quickly. This has grown this much in a week.

Creepy.


The 2009 ice storm knocked down several trees in the back yard, this one included. I smoothed the ground around it and it's ready to be ground up.

The dummy heads

Morgan is in Arlington, Texas, for two weeks of training, so I thought I would upload a video of the cat and dog for her to see.

Isn't this fun?

St. Valentine's Day

For part of Morgan's present for St. Valentine's Day, I built for her a shelf in the garage where she can store stuff. Not very romantic, I know, but for someone who frequents auctions to the point where she has her very own seat saved for her for each auction, this might be a handy addition. She bought so much at the last auction that she put herself on auction probation. I didn't ask how much she spent. I didn't want to know.

Considering that I didn't sit down and draw this out before starting to build it, it turned out nicely, and should house all of her stuff once she gets off auction probation.



I even added a heart. In orange, no less.



Morgan borrowed a carpet steam cleaner from her parents that we used to clean the carpets in the wake of adding two pets to the family, though I'm not sure if our landlord cleaned the carpets before we moved in. I doubt it seriously judging from what this thing pulled up.



With the carpets cleaned, and they really look great, Bubba has to be good. His house training is going OK, but he hasn't yet started letting us know when he has to go outside. We work with him and have him on a schedule of sorts, but he's still only a few months old so it might be a bit.

While I was cleaning the carpet in Morgan's office, I brought Bubba in with me so I could watch him. Well, I was keeping an eye on him; I was too busy to watch him. The next thing I know, he'd made a pile right where I had just cleaned.

Groan.