Garden pix

We've hit the hot & dry part of Kansas summer, so I decided this morning to put some water on my shade garden in the backyard. And the light was just about perfect for some nice photos of the lillies.

This one is my favorite:


Another angle of the same two. This is the first time in several years they all haven't had just the whitish color to them:


Another favorite:

Impromptu project

I bought a new grill recently, and really want to use it this summer since I have such a nice backyard. So I thought it'd be nice to set up kind of an outdoor kitchen.

Late last year, I, um *salvaged* a tabletop from a broken food court table at the mall. I had no idea what I would do with it, but thought it might come in useful. Last week, I was contemplating putting it out with some trash for our city-wide cleanup, but kept it. Glad I did.

I was cleaning up my dining table to set up and another piece I've got plans for earlier this evening. I looked at my old microwave cart and wondered what I could do with that. It's been just kind of a catch-all to put stuff on in the garage, but I like reusing things so I cleaned it up, too.



The top of it was pretty nasty, however, and not really suitable for the outdoor kitchen idea. And then I remembered the salvaged tabletop.



I turned the cart upside down so I could remove the top and threw that away.





Then I put the old tabletop on it and more or less centered it.


I marked where the screws should go, and predrilled the holes, then put the tabletop back on, lining up the holes, and attached it with the same screws from the cart's original top.

And here's the outdoor kitchen setup. It's got everything but a kitchen sink (I wonder if I can find a wine barrel?) and a fridge. And that table in the foreground of the picture? That's my next project. But you'll have to wait for that.

Life is too short

A co-worker of mine will likely die tonight. He's about 32. He always partied and drank pretty hard, and that may be what did this.

I was on vacation last week, so didn't know much about what was going on, but it seems not a lot of people at work didn't know much either. I saw a Facebook post about it Monday, but didn't find out how serious it was until Tuesday afternoon.

He was sick all last week and went into the hospital Saturday. At some point, by Monday at least, they put him in a coma, as his kidneys were failing. And then every time his sister posted an update on his FB wall, it got worse and worse: His intestines weren't working, his pancreas and liver were both failing. Blood pressure extremely low and blood work all over the place. A surgeon saw him, but he was too unstable to move out of ICU.

This morning, they gave him last rites. But they also opened up his abdomen, right in the ICU because they still couldn't move him, to relieve pressure and clean out his intestines. His sister this afternoon said they hoped it would help his blood flow, but they could see how damaged his pancreas and enlarged his liver was.

Then about an half hour or so ago, I checked his wall, and it was full of farewell messages. I finally found the post from his sister. All his organs are shutting down, and they don't expect him to last the night.

I wouldn't say Matt was a friend of mine, but he could always make me laugh. He was the guy everyone went to when they needed to know something — where something was, how to do something on the computer, whatever. He was the go-to guy at work.

He was raised Catholic, but he was also an ordained minister off the Internet and performed marriages and even funerals. For a biker wedding he performed on Halloween, he dressed as Charlie Manson. Another Halloween, he was Jesus. He wrote and played music.

He's a great guy. I hope the doctors are wrong and he holds on.

ETA: Update from his sister at about 9:30 is that he is "fighting like hell"! Hoping it's the start of good news.

I helped save hawks today

This story actually starts yesterday.

I was walking Buster on our usual route, across the creek near my house, then following the dirt road as it goes around south, maybe a quarter mile or so, then back west over the creek again and back into town and then home.

We got to the bridge south of my house, and Buster was looking at something near the end of the bridge. He jumped back as a hawk flew out of the trees there and down the creek. I looked at where it came from and saw another hawk on the ground, maybe about 20 feet from the bridge. I thought maybe it was trying to protect its food or possibly had a broken wing. I was a little concerned, but after I got home, got busy and then had to go to work, so kind of forgot about it.

So today, we're walking by there again, and when I looked, there was a hawk, in the same spot, kind of flapping around.

I brought my camera with me today, and I thought I'd try to get closer — although not too close, in case the hawk wasn't really hurt or anything. I didn't want to wind up with those talons or beak in my face!

Here's what I saw:




It looked like it was caught in a trap.

And then I saw another one:


I'd also brought my cell phone, so I called a co-worker, Steve, who's an outdoorsman and works with the Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks a lot. He said he'd call the game warden, and called back a while later to let me know someone was on his way.

When Buster and I got back to the house, Steve drove up and I went with him to show him exactly where the hawks were. Being a trapper himself, he was a disappointed to see it. He talked to the game warden on the phone, telling what he saw and where we were, and dropped me back at home.

He called a bit later to let me know the one closest to the road didn't even have any wounds on its leg, so they released it and it flew away. The second one had some scrapes on its skin, so to be safe, the game warden was going to hold on to it for a couple days and make sure it didn't need any rehab, but it did otherwise look OK.

So all in all, this was a pretty good day.

Giving it up

I didn't really plan on making any new year's resolutions, since I never end up keeping them, but I guess in a way I have made one. That's to quit eating so much crap.

First step: giving up pop. Well, not entirely. But I'd like to quit being so dependent on the Pepsi, Dr. Pepper, etc. So I'm going to try and go through January without any. My main concern with those soft drinks, really is the high fructose corn syrup. Don't let the HFCS people fool you. There are plenty of reasons to avoid that stuff.

So far, I've done pretty well. I've had one 8-ounce can of Dr. Pepper (the last one I had in the fridge; hate to waste stuff, after all) and maybe about 5 ounces from a 20-ounce Pepsi bottle I bought earlier this week when I got lunch at the grocery store salad bar. And that's it.

As far as substitutes, I've been drinking more juice — orange juice and V8 Splash, specifically — and a friend convinced me to try Sierra Mist Natural. It's not too bad, and actually tastes better than the original. On a trip to the grocery store this week, I also realized that the sodas from Mexico (like Jarritos and Sangria Señorial don't have HFCS (and a lot fewer ingredients anyway).

I really haven't had any caffeine withdrawal effects, either. I had a slight headache when I woke up one morning this week, but that's about it. I won't cut Pepsi and such out completely, but I figure if I can go a month without it, that should break the mental part of it, and I can treat myself once in awhile — dinner out or something like that. But getting away from the "gotta have a little every day" mentality will be a big step to getting even healthier.

Out with the old

Good riddance to 2010. Really. I had had some high hopes for what kind of year 2010 would be. It didn't take much for it to turn sour. Or maybe I just remember the bad more than the good. So I thought I'd try to weigh it out.

Bad ... Thought I'd made a good friend; turned out to be a jerk.
Good ... Met the best friend I've had as an adult and made other good friends.

Good ... Went to the dentist for the first time in more years than I'd rather say.
Bad ... Went to dentist, had tons of cavities, paid about $1,000 out of pocket. $5,000+ car repair early in the year, with the car out of commission for 2+ weeks; $300+ furnace repair bill with furnace out of commission for a few weeks early in the winter. Money got real tight.

Good ... Lost almost 10 pounds.
Bad ... Gained it back at the end of the year.

Bad ... one of my doctors was diagnosed with Alzheimers. A good friend was diagnosed with a rare, aggressive form of breast cancer. My dad started out the year with some serious health problems.
Good: My friend found treatment for her cancer that's better than what her initial prognosis was. She's fighting like a girl. Dad is doing much better.

Good ... Buster started snuggling; main job feels more stable; went to social media conference for work; five years of survivorship; entertainment blog gained lots more readers; built a compost bin; cleaned out my garage; fixed my kitchen sink myself; saw Second City live with a good friend.

So OK, maybe there was more good than bad, but the bad was pretty bad (and there's some things I haven't mentioned because they're more personal than I'd like to share here). And some still have some repercussions rippling into 2011. A year ago, I had a lot of enthusiasm for what I'd hoped would be a great year. This year, I'm more reserved. Hopeful, but reserved.

Great recipe to share

A couple weeks ago, I bought some sweet corn at one of the local farmers markets. I had a little more than I really needed, so I went looking for some recipes to use it all up.

I found a couple at allrecipes.com, and this is by far the best one. I had to make some adjustments, because I didn't have all the listed ingredients, but it was great. I used green onions since that was the only kind of onion I had. I also didn't have fresh cilantro or any garlic, so used some dried cilantro and some garlic powder.

I've had it as a side dish and tossed it into a salad, but my favorite way to eat it is with chips, like a salsa. Next time I make it, I'll probably throw in some sliced jalepeño to add some heat to go with the sweetness.

This one was pretty good, too, especially with some leftover grilled beef sliced thin and tossed in.

Bad dog

Sorry about the darkness at the beginning.

Fun project

With the all the garage cleaning, you probably think I'm not having much fun on my vacation. Well, if you think the only way to have fun on vacation is to be on a beach or something, then I guess you'd be right.

But I am getting to some things that I've been wanting to do for awhile that will make life a little easier if not enjoyable, and that's fun for me. Yes, I'm kind of a geek.

Anyway, here's one of the things I'm doing.

I've had this metal bistro table for about 10-12 years. It's a little well worn, as you can see.




I scrubbed it clean Tuesday morning and let it dry, then brought it into the garage for a couple coats of primer.

Then came the color. I wanted it to be red with black legs, because I think that's a pretty cool color combination, but it didn't feel like I had enough red spray paint. So I went with yellow for the top.


I was still going to go ahead and do black for the legs, but realized I had a LOT of green spray paint, so went with that.



Maybe I'll get some brown craft paint and make the top look like a sunflower. That'd be kinda cool. I'll need to seal it, too, to help protect the paint, but that's not real important at this point.

I put it on my front porch, so I've got something to set a cool drink on while I sit on the bench on nice evenings.



Anyway, I've got one more big, fun project to do, but I don't know if I'll be able to finish it before I go back to work. I still need to do a couple things inside the house, too (replacing the bathroom faucet, for one). But I think I could at least get a good start to where it will be usuable. More on that later.

Great Garage Cleanup 2010 — Final Day!

At last! It's done! I got the tools/work area all straightened up and somewhat organized this morning.



I also sorted through some of my boxes of stuff and ended up throwing a bunch more stuff out. I don't think I'm going to let another eight years go by before I do this kind of purging again.

I still have some stuff to get rid of. It just needs a lot of cleaning up. What I can just hose off, I'll do that in the morning and let it dry, then see about taking it to the local community thrift shop. There's some of Mom's stuff, that she said I could get rid of, so I'll have to get those and see what could be donated and what needs to be tossed.

But it's done! And now I have all kinds of room in the garage again. Which is good, because I've got a project or two I'd like to do before my vacation is over. But that's for another post.

A little side project

I've had this hanging basket thing for several years. Something I picked out after my grandmother on my mom's side (step-grandmother, really) died, but I've never really done much with it. I always thought it would make a neat planter.

So today, I cleaned up the copper basket and drilled a few holes in the bottom for drainage.





I stopped by Home Depot today and got this little geranium (98¢) and this little vinca vine ($2.98. I'm betting the Weather Channel label is about $2. Who knew the Weather Channel was selling plants?)



Then I put some broken pot pieces in the bottom to help with drainage, a little soil (from the four or five almost empty bags I found while cleaning the garage today), and the plants. Hung it up and placed it on the front porch.





And one other side project I got done this week: a pegboard in the laundry room next to the back door. Since this is the door I use most of the time, I thought it'd be nice to have a place to hang hats, my keys, Buster's leash and especially my bag I take to work, instead of just dropping it on the floor next to the computer table.

Great Garage Cleanup 2010 — Day 3

The planting/gardening table, all cleaned up and organized.


The cabinet next to it holds (some) of the pots:



And in the drawers are the drip irrigation stuff:


And miscellaneous stakes and other stuff:


And I put up a couple extra shelves at my recycling center:


I think one more day of this, organizing the tools/work area, and I'll be done. But this:


is much better than this:

Great Garage Cleanup 2010 — after Day 2

More improvement today

Think I'll get some brackets and put up another shelf or two for my recycling center.

Yard tools all hanging.

Great Garage Cleanup 2010 — after Day 1

Getting better.

Great Garage Cleanup 2010 — before

What a mess:

Where am I?

I've been playing around with location-based social media sites lately, and I even though I don't go to a lot of different places, I'm having fun with them. Mostly, I'm playing with them to get some ideas of how we might be able to use them at the paper. But I'll keep that to myself for now, heh heh.

Anyway, the addiction started with Foursquare, and then I found Gowalla, then Whrrl. I looked at Brightkite, but haven't tried it, and I'm sure there's more I haven't even heard of.

These sites are designed to used GPS data to determine your location; however, since I have an iPod Touch that can use only WiFi to determine my location, I'm not having as much as I could. Sometimes, WiFi just isn't available where I am, like the grocery store, for example. And even if it is available, it's not always accurate. The other day, I was trying out something on Whrrl and used the WiFi of a local diner/brewpub. Their ISP must be some company in Kansas City, because that's where my iPod thought I was all of a sudden. And it stayed that way for three days — even using a signal from local ISPs — until I logged on to the hotspot at the mall, of all places. So at least I know where to go when that happens.

I've had the most success with Foursquare locating me. Gowalla seems to be more specific about how close you are to a location before letting you check in. Since the wifi isn't always accurate, I have lots of problems checking in on Gowalla. Whrrl is somewhere inbetween.

I like Gowalla's and Whrrl's interfaces best, though. They're just more fun. And here's something you can do with Whrrl that's kind of neat:

More check-ins at Hays Public Library

Powered by Whrrl

Even though I like those two best, I am still kinda proud to be the mayor of nine venues on Foursquare. =)

Friend me on:
Whrrl
Gowalla
Foursquare

Tulips

IMG_0528.JPG
Originally uploaded by junogle.

Blooming in the flower bed out front.

Compost bin, final chapter

The compost bin is done!


I had hoped to have it done by now, but after getting the pieces set in the yard where I wanted them, it got really, really REALLY windy (and I live in Kansas, so it has to be windy for me to say that!). And then there was a busy work weekend. So today, I have the day off from at least one job and could get it done.

First, after putting the pieces back together, since the wind blew them down, I screwed the L-brackets of each side into the back piece. That was easy.




Then came the trickier part: putting the door on. I hadn't taken one thing into account — that the ground in my yard isn't near as level as the garage floor, where I had previously fit the pieces together and marked where the holes for the screws should go. So I had to use some extra wood scraps lying around to line up the door piece as close as possible. I re-marked the holes for the hinges anway, just so it would fit better. Then I pre-drilled holes for the top hinge and put in the screws before doing the lower hinge.




Ta-daaa!



The last step was to put the eye hooks in the gate to keep it closed. I put one in the upper part of the gate and one in the lower half, because I thought about cutting the door in two, and still might, if I think I need to. That way, I could get to the finished compost at the bottom of the pile while the upper part of the pile stays behind the door. We'll see.



And to prove the gate really works:


UPDATE: And, the first load of grass clippings is in! I mowed the west side lawn, next to the garage, and since there's a lot of weeds, bagged it.



The clippings nearly filled up the bin the city provides, but I'm not sure exactly how much that is (it says it can hold 200 pounds, but today's wasn't near that much).



Anyway, the compost bin isn't even a quarter full with all that, so this thing could hold a lot! And since the grass hasn't completely greened up, there's a nice mix of "brown" and "green" yard waste in there to start. I even have a few kitchen scraps I could go dump in there!

I think I'm going to need a pitchfork, too.