2013 Review. It Was a Busy Year!

It was a very busy year, for all of us.  So, here goes:

January

I had the flu.  Even after a flu shot!  It was so light that I didn't realize it in time to get a prescription for Tamiflu.  It still wasn't fun.

Otter decided not to continue with college at this time.  She almost didn't go back in the summer of 2012, but decided to give it one more semester to be sure.  She made the decision on her own and we supported it, given her reasons.  She decided it was time to start looking for a job.

I reorganized my stash closet.  Which has now outgrown the closet!

First flat tire of the year.  Caused by a WOOD SCREW.

I crocheted a lot.

Second flat tire.  SAME REASON AS THE FIRST ONE.

We celebrated our 28th Wedding Anniversary.

I discovered (the hard way!) that I'm allergic to Acai.

Bill followed by lead by coming down with the flu himself. But he never got the flu shot, so it wasn't a surprise.

February

It was a short month, but it was busy.

The daffodils came up and brought a few tulips along for company.

Otter got a job!  At a party store, where she discovered that she absolutely hates to inflate helium balloons.  :)

I made a few scarves for the local yarn store which was collecting them for Tulsa police officers.

I discovered that a bird's nest from last year had an interesting construction supply:  YARN!

It snowed, a couple of times.

The last book by the great Maeve Binchey was released.  I got my copy immediately.  I didn't want it to end.

We had a snow/thunderstorm and also sleet and hail - all in one storm.

It was the 20th year of our move from TEXAS.

March

Otter got her first paycheck!  She bought me candy and bought dinner for Bill at Dairy Queen to celebrate.

Bill discovered his driver's license had expired - several days after the fact.

Otter was sick, we thought it was strep but that was ruled out after the test for it.  Although the doctor thought it was, until he got the results back.

I got my new glasses.

I got a lot done on the afghan.

Bill got tires on the El Camino.

He also got 16 pachinko machines in a single transaction, a local-ish collector sold his entire collection.

Otter saw her allergist, she got a terrific report.

I got my driver's license renewed, but I was on time with mine.

We had a severe rain storm. It was B.A.D. and I was on the road at the time, Otter worked late and I picked her up.  We should NOT have been on the road, but nobody knew it would be as bad as it was until it happened.

Otter turned 21!  We had a small party with her local grandparents, which was exactly what she wanted and it was a lot of fun.  She celebrated with her first official "legal" drink:  Champagne!

Easter. Which also as Otter's birthday.

April

I got a dishwasher!  It was one that Sweetie didn't need any longer, as she was re-doing her kitchen.  It works and we are glad.  Especially Otter!

We got the first hint from Bill in SA that he might be thinking of selling out his (huge) pachinko collection.

The bluebonnets showed up!  And they kept coming up.

I made two scarf/hat combos for a lady Bill works with.

The first of the Spring Storms, this one went north of us.

But the storm the next morning was tornadic! And it was also just a couple of miles from us.  It took out the roof of a house but nobody was hurt.

I accidentally gave myself a mild concussion, by hitting my head on the corner of the washing machine when I was attempting to get something out of the dryer.

Finally, after 21 years, I got to take the traditional Texas "child in the bluebonnets" picture!  Of course, the child in question had just turned 21 and the bluebonnets were in my front yard in Oklahoma!

We ordered new computers.

May

We had sleet.  In May!

We found out some unpleasant facts about Frasier's life before he came to us, and how badly he was taken care of by the so-called rescue group that had him.  A lot of their dogs didn't live.

Mother's Day.

Nana came to see us for Mother's Day weekend. :)

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(the dashes are courtesy of a very large, furry dog who leaned on the keyboard).

The first spoilers were released about a certain movie that made the BorgQueen (and most of the drones across the UNIVERSE) very unhappy.

On the 20th, we all got a reminder of what exactly "tornado alley" really means.  It was not good, the worst was in Moore and the OK City area but we got a series of bad storms.  Many deaths, including many precious children at an elementary school that was destroyed.

On the 30th, the storms were even closer but the Tulsa area was spared.  At first.  At 8:45 that evening, the sirens went off and they were for our area.  It was very close, but not directly in our area although it was within just a few miles.  No injuries, but lots of damage.

June

Bill turned 52!  We celebrated by having dinner at a Mexican restaurant and then by coming home and trimming tree limbs that were in our yard courtesy of a storm with lots of wind.

More bluebonnets!

I nearly got speared by a dive-bombing hummingbird!

Froggy's sweet doggie, Cookie, went to the Rainbow Bridge. :(

We saw the Memphis Belle!

Construction started on the house directly behind us.

There was a water main break in our small town.  We had enough warning to get water into every available container so we were ok, but it lasted a few days and wasn't pleasant.

Father's Day!  We made a pineapple upside down cake for Billyboy.

Hailstorm, tree damage.

The rain barrel overflowed.

Bill started working on shelf plans for the pachinko machines.

July

Vacation!

We mostly spent the week off working on the shelves Bill came up with for the pachinko machines.

Otter and I did escape a bit, we went to a local acquarium and to a nearby town for shopping.

July 4th was celebrated with burgers and dogs grilled by Billyboy.  They were good.

Spectacular news at work, I got a humoungous raise.  I was very surprised.

We had another storm, lots of wind and lots of tree damage.  Our gate was blown open and part of it broke off - which we didn't find out until after the dogs had been out in the back for a long time.  We were without power for a few hours, but parts of Tulsa were in the ark for a day or so.

We saw bats!

I had a few asthma issues, due to the wind.

August

Otter went off for a weekend, she went to a cosplay convention and had a great time.  She worked on her costumes for days beforehand.ma

The annual sales-tax free weekend occurred.  Now that I don't have to buy school clothes, I didn't need all that much.

Otter decided it was time to look for a better job.  One where she wasn't obviously, extremely taken advantage of because she is a hard worker and dependable.

Mosquitos!  We eventually figured out that we were growing our own, in a plant that we were rooting in water.

We got a 2nd rain barrel.

The builder behind us realized that the fence was in the wrong spot. They decided that it had to be moved a couple of feet into our yard.  We didn't protest, it wasn't a big deal.

Bill (finally, after literally months of arguing, resisting, threats, etc.) decided it was time to see the dermatologist about the spot on his nose.  The first attempt did not get it all.

We got the trellises put in place behind the house and the 2nd rain barrel hooked up.

The dermatologist had (another!) lesson in the care of Redheads.  Specifically, the part about how much we bleed!  Bill had several days of sleeping sitting up on the couch, not being able to do much of anything and being grouchy!  But I would have been grouchy, too - 18 stitches!

September

We got our flu shots.  Well, Bill didn't.  But I did and so did Otter.

Otter was offered a new job and she took it.  Much better environment, better pay, better hours, better future...

For a week, she worked both jobs.

I made several baby caps for a local charity.

Dead battery in my car.  It was still under the warranty so we got a break on the price.

The world had a Star Trek Moment!  V'Ger left the solar system.

We got new cell phones and switched companies.

We wore out the Ice Tea Maker we'd had since before Otter was born!

The bats were back, they hung out on the front porch around the light.  They were happy bats, but I don't think the bugs were happy!

Bill is SA finally decided to sell his entire inventory of pachinko machines.

October

Bill went to SA to get the inventory from Bill in SA.  Well over 100 machines.  The shed is packed to the gills and beyond.

I finally finished the afghan!  The one I started a few years back.

Bill got the first of several truck loads of firewood.  And several more.

TEXAS BEAT THE STUFFING OUT OF ou.  36 - 20!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I had a bug that I thought might be the flu at first, but I don't think it actually was.

The cars were frosted for the first time one morning.

Found a coffee table at a local "garage sale" store.

The driver's side window in the El Camino messed up.  Bill had to block it in place.  It's still blocked as of 1/1/14 because he can't find the replacement part anywhere.  For a 1976 vehicle.

I had another screw in a tire.

November

I had to get a new ATM card, the bank notified me in October that my card might have been among a group that was hacked.  Nothing funny in our account.

First of several mice in the house.

We got the tulip bed planted.  Around 100 bulbs.

I went to Otter's store and bought a magnetic tool to use in the driveway.  I found lots of screws, nails, misc. metal pieces that have more than a passing resemblance to pachinko parts!  Bill claims to have no knowledge about how it all got there.

We got the first freeze of the season.

Bill got a chain saw sharpener!  No injuries, though.  Which is a very good thing, with Bill it's almost a given that he'll hurt himself.

The vet put Frasier on antibiotics, they did seem to help his deadly breath issue.

Otter got good news at work.

We had our first winter storm, the roads were ok but it was very cold.

Chevy diagnosed a minor oil leak in my car.

For the third or fourth time this year, the phone company had to come out and fix our phone lines.

December

I had another "flu-like" bug, but it was not the flu.  Just a bug!

It turned out that it was a very good thing that we spent a week in July working on a shelf system for the pachinko machines in the garage.  Because our hot water heater failed!  Major leak, water all over the place.  But the bulk of the machines were up out of the way.

The first ice storm of the month started the afternoon of the day we had to get a new hot water heater.

Snow.  Ice.  Cold.  We were very glad that Bill got so much firewood.

My (new) debit card was used at Target during the period of time that they were hacked.  I got another one issued at the bank.  Infuriating.

The neighbor behind us has two dogs.  We think that they might be doxies.  Frasier and Maggie seem happy to have friends to talk to!

More rain and sleet!  The ground is very soft from all the moles we have to deal with, the rain didn't help.  I stepped through the ground up to my ankle!

Because of the soft ground, the shed settled a bit.  I'm sure the overload of pachinko machines had a lot to do with it.  Maggie Boo got stuck under the shed!

Vacation!

Christmas!  We had a nice day, Grandpa and Sweetie came over for the annual Bill Breakfast.

Motorcycle Day!  I turned 52.  We went shopping.  All day long.  I found a few Fenton pieces.

Maggie Moo got out of the back yard.  There is a small spot where the gate had a gap which is from the storm in the summer when it was blown open.  We didn't realize it was there.  But Maggie did!  She didn't go far and she came back when I called her.

 

2013 was a busy year.  I managed to get quite a few crochet projects done.  I acquired a few Fenton pieces, some of them fairly rare.  Otter turned 21.  We didn't take any trips, other than a couple of nearby towns for a few hours of shopping.  We had visits from family and that is always enjoyable.  I had 4 migraines this year, some of them were stress-related and happened around the time of Billyboy's skin cancer surgery.

 

Happy New Year to everybody, and may 2014 be a good year!

Rain Barrels & Bat Houses

OK, Froggy.  Pay Attention!  There may be a test later.  :)

Rain Barrels. I strongly recommend them.  You need to have rain gutters, as the rain is collected from the roof and needs a way to flow down into the barrel.  For some reason, I can't get the pictures to load so here's the original post where I have the pictures:

Rain Barrel Pictures

You can reroute one of the down spouts to the barrel.  Bill cut a hole in the top of my barrel, then he pushed the end of the downspout into it.  There is a filter at the top of the downspout - a knee-high hose works really well and is easily replaced because it will get dirty.  The filter is to keep leaves and debris out.  The hole the downspout goes into is also a possibly entry place for mosquitos, so you can see if you can rig up some type of a filter at that point as well - again, knee-high hose work great.

Rain barrels can be made out of a couple of different kinds of barrels, but a big 55 gallon one works well.  You can probably find a supplier of barrels just by looking on the internet or possibly in the phone book.  He also installed a twist spigot.  You can have the barrel sitting on the ground, and it can be sitting up or laying on it's side.  It's going to depend on where you want to put it and how much room you have.  Mine is on it's side.  You'll want to have the spigot towards the bottom, since gravity will be how the water will leave it.  The spigot is sealed around the edges, Bill might have used silicon caulk.  It's pretty much a necessity to seal it, otherwise it will probably leak.

My barrel was originally white, the "natural" color the plastic was that it was made from.  I painted it a dark green because I was having a problem with mold caused by the sun/warmth and dark colors will block a little of the sun's light.  At times, the water will still develop a smell and discoloration.  When that happens, I usually drain it then it gets rinshed out.  To rinse it, it just has to be moved away from the downspout and then Bill sticks the garden hose in the hole where the downspout goes.  You can use things like bleach, but that pretty much defeats the purpose of having natural rain water to water your plants with.  The best place for one is probably a shady area, since the sunlight will help mold/mildew grow but I didn't have a spot that was shady enough.

Bill built a wooden frame for my barrel, but they aren't necessary.  We didn't want it sitting on the ground so he built the frame/stand out of some scrap wood he had.

I strongly, strongly suggest a product called Mosquito Dunk.

You can get it at any hardware store and possibly also at places like Walmart.  Put one in as often as the directions say to - I think it's 3 months for the type I use.  It will dissolve and the water will still be healthy for plants, but it will kill any mosquito larvae that hatch from any eggs that survive.

You can also buy a pre-made rain barrel, I've seen them at Lowe's and places like that.  But they might be pricey.  I don't remembe what my barrel cost but I'm thinking it was somewhere in the neighborhood of $10 or thereabouts.

As of this morning, my rain barrel is pretty much empty.  We've been using it to soak the morning glories since the summer heat is here already.  But I think it's down to the last few drops so Bill's going to take it off the downspout this weekend and we're going to rinse it out.  It needs to be rinsed out periodically.

Also, if you ever do get a hard freeze (yeah, I do know where you live!), they can freeze.  Mine is usually dry by the time winter gets here, but any rain in the winter will flow right into it.  I don't usually worry about it in freezing weather, but I would imagine that if it were 100% full it could be a problem if it were to freeze because the plastic could split.  But it would be easy to replace.

Bat Houses:

Contrary to popular belief, bats are not evil!  The are actually very good animals to have around.  They eat all sorts of unpleasant bugs, but they seem to really enjoy snacking on mosquitos.  This is not my bat house, I couldn't find a picture of it.  They are available at a lot of hardware stores, and they can also be ordered online.  They come in a couple of different styles, but this one is a lot like mine.  They have to be put in an area that the bats llike - they prefer eastern/morning sun and shady afternoon/evenings.  They have to be put fairly high up, I think it's somewhere around 12 feet but you can look that up on the internet and there will probably be directions with anyone you buy.

It can take the bats a few years to find the house.  They are natural survivors and they have places to roost, but they will eventually move into the bat house.  You may not ever know that they are there.  Sometimes, birds will build nests in them but not if there's a bat in it.

Sunday Turtles

To be strictly accurate, this should have been Saturday Turtles.  But it's Sunday and I'm posting now.  The turtle part, however, is from Saturday.  Frasier had another turtle toy that he found in the back yard.  He was very interested in something at the fence line and Bill could see that it was something dark.  He thought it was a turtle, but couldn't tell for sure that it wasn't actually a snake at first.  Frasier didn't have any better luck with this one than he usually does, he tried to pick it up but the shell was just too difficult for him to manage.  Also, this was a bigger one than he's had to deal with before.  It was a female and she was not happy!  I don't think I blame her, she was just trying to do turtle things and this large coyote dog was trying to play with her.  She has been liberated to the area behind the house, but she didn't particularly want to be.  The dogs had been doing some excavating and there was a spot that nearly went under the fence.  I scraped out a little more dirt, just big enough for her, and put her mostly through it.  She almost backed up, so I had to encourage her gently to go forward.  I thought she was about to turn around and come back under the fence, but fortunately she realized that she didn't really want to be in our yard.  Which is a good thing, because she was a fairly large turtle and I'd had a hard time picking her up - everytime I thought I had her, she would literally jump away from me.  Turtles have a defensive posture which includes opening their mouths wide and she was doing that every time I tried to pick her up.  She never did stick her head out of the shell, but it would have been the next thing she did.  Because turtle neck length varies between species and even between individual turtles, I really wasn't sure how far back on the shell to place my hands.  So I had to try to grab pretty far back and she would use her back legs to dislodge my hands.  They have long claws and very strong legs, so she was really hard to grab and then even harder to hold onto.  (Yes I know - tortoise not turtle!).

Otter and I did some thrifting this afternoon.  She found what she was looking for, she needed a blouse for a specific outfit and we found one that would work.  As well as a couple of other blouses and a skirt for her, plus we each found a couple of books.  No Fenton, which has been typical lately.  Also no yarn.

Speaking of yarn, I've given up on the crocheted dachsund project.  The pattern just wasn't workable.  I had attempted to make a couple of other things from that pattern book and had difficulties, and I finally just realized that it was pointless.  Crochet patterns are like any other patterns - if they aren't correct, then it doesn't matter what you do.  And this one wasn't correct.  I went over what I'd done so far and compared it to the pattern a couple of times and I didn't make any mistakes on it.  The book is now on Craigslist, and if it doesn't sell then I'll either donate it or let Otter turn it in for credit at the used book store we like.  I do have another book that I got out of the library, which is one that I'll probably buy.  It's fun, it is a pattern book for zombies, vampires, "aliens" and other creepy critters.  I started making something from it this morning and it was so nice to use a pattern that worked!  Otter has requested a few things out of it.

It's a cleaning & craft day today.  Sunday generally means laundry and misc. cleaning, and Otter's also got a craft project.  Which has taken over the kitchen table at the moment.  Bill's been working on pachinko machines and the dogs have probably been snoozing, which is 99% of their normal activity.

The hostas in front of the house are starting to bloom.  They have really spread out this year, which is what they are supposed to do and is what I wanted them to do.  The morning glories are doing great, there have been a couple of blooms but it's kind of early for that.  The vines are growing very well.

I heard a woodpecker this morning, I think it was in one of the trees in the back yard but I never saw it so I'm not sure.  I've seen a couple of hummers and two orioles.  And purple martins!  Someone down the street has a house, so we see them every year and they are enjoyable to watch.  Bill saw a bat the other evening, but I haven't seen any yet this summer.  Hope that the one he saw stays around and that it invites friends!  They eat a lot of mosquitos, so we always like to see them.

Besides, bats are just cool.