The Dream Construction Continues

Last week while I was teaching, most of the screen room was completed in one day. Unfortunately, the screen for the roof that was brought was not what we had requested and so we had to wait until Tuesday to get the screen in the roof. We had decided that we wanted a tighter screen for the roof since we get pinestraw and sweetgum balls that blow in, even though there are no trees directly overhead. With the tighter screen, theoretically, the poky parts don’t fit through and just roll off or slide on off the roof.

B took the earliest pictures.

This is where they were when I got home.

We appreciated the fact that the contractor swept up the bits of metal shavings.

After they left last week, you can tell that the roof is only screened in a couple of sections---and it was the wrong screen.

We also appreciated the custom cut to make the aluminum frame fit the vinyl siding…..

As well as the soffit trim.

 

So even with the roof still open, we enjoyed spending some time out there when the mosquitoes weren’t too bad. The mosquitoes were not fooled. They flew right over the top of the side walls.

The Invention

When older son, D,  came last weekend he brought us his invention. It is actually his version of someone else’s invention. It is a TV antenna that he made.

We do not have cable and our TV is old enough to not be digital. We had bought our converter box, but still had many issues with reception. Later we bought an amplifier but did not see much improvement. We are not much in the way of TV watchers anyway, so it was not worth it to us to invest more money to improve it. But D saw it as a challenge and came up with this solution. He and B hooked it up and tweaked the placement and we ended up with better reception AND we now get SIX new channels, including the PBS channels that we had lost when the digital switch occurred---that we had missed.

This site was his inspiration.

http://www.tvantennaplans.com/

 

Thanks, D! Now we can watch the Ken Burns National Park series on PBS at the end of this month!

Mailbox Monday: Airmail and Snailmail

I have seen a number of airmail boxes like this one. They are on very high poles. This one has seen better days.

But this is the only snailmail box I have seen.

  Such clever folks!

Little Green Guys

Last Sunday morning, we spent time before church, working in the yard, taking advantage of the cooler temperatures and trying to pretty up the place in preparation for the new screen porch.

B was feeding his arms to Cherokee roses that do not get enough sun to do well and were being cut out ---while they in turn were cutting B. We have other Cherokee roses that are happy out front.

I had a much less painful task: removing Mexican petunias and freesia bulbs, both of which become invasive here. As I was working, I spotted a tiny little green anole resting on a Mexican petunia leaf.

I will admit I took more than a couple of shots of it.

But it was SO cute!

Especially doing push-ups!

Now look at the fence board behind it. Very gazelle-looking, don’t you think?

Frog Fur

B found this rather large tree frog clinging to an old iron plant stand that holds baskets.

I was focusing on the frog. It was not until I looked at the pictures on the computer that I noticed the Virginia Creeper. It has been chewed and there in the picture is the chewer. Not the frog, but the furry caterpillar that appears to be scratching the frog’s back.

Just look at that expression of contentment!

“Ahhh! A little more to the right, please?”

But the frog is thinking:

(Do it right or I’ll eat you.)

Not a Moccasin

After target practice at the range, we took some dirt roads to get home the long, scenic way. We were looking for passion vine to get some eggs and caterpillars to grow some gulf fritillary butterflies in my kindergarten classroom. We didn’t have any luck with that but we had an adventure anyway.

I was out of the truck picking a few branches of early goldenrod, when B said, “Come here!” As I have said before, that means “grab your camera and get here fast if you want any shots!”

Yep, it was a snake. This one we were not absolutely sure about until we got home and looked at the pictures. It is a dusky pigmy rattlesnake, sometimes called a ground rattler. This one was large for one: about twenty inches long. And a feisty twenty inches it was!

Nice pattern.

Here is the zoom that shows the tiny rattles on the tail.

Here is a better look at the head---or as B says, two heads (counting the shadow).

I called this entry “Not a Moccasin” because of the five we have had in our yard since last summer. Guess we can be thankful not to have pigmies, too.

Target Practice

Sunday afternoon, we were invited to go to a shooting range south of town. We had a good, if hot, time.

I got to shoot my favorite .22 pistol, a Ruger single six revolver. It is the larger one in this picture. But I also got to try the little one, an H & R. Both of these guns are over 50 years old.

They load differently.

We were the only ones at the pistol range and we enjoyed moving up closer; I was about 15 feet from the target.

This target shows my shots with the little H&R. The holes off the target are from previous shots, when there was a target placed higher or lower. They are not mine. My shots are the little green spots on the black target.

This is with the Ruger. One of my shots had rat shot in it, as can be seen by the tiny scattered dots on the target. The rest were .22 short shells, making larger holes.

I was told that I actually shot better with the big old Ruger than the little H&R but it looks about the same to my untrained eye.

Three of the men in our group of six, are NRA certified instructors. This includes B. I like shooting with people who think of safety first.