Brick Puzzle

Setting the bricks is like putting together a big puzzle. To lay bricks correctly you are supposed to use builder sand and compact and level the surface, etc. I'm not going for perfect. This is an old place and I'm going for an old weathered uneven look. After the bricks are down, I shoveled some dirt on top and worked it into the spaces between the bricks by hand and with the broom. I would use sand if I had any. I found a break in the chicken wire in the corner and fixed it so the critter that ate my rose bushes can't get in that way again.

All done. I will need to repeat this dirt step several times after it rains until the cracks fill up. I moved that white brick around to mark where the sunshine stops. The sun is higher in the summer so I think the sun will shine on all the area in the box. The sun has to make its way through and past a lot of trees. Some of this area gets morning sun when the sun gets high enough to shine over the roof. The rest of the time it is shining through trees.

One planter box seems like a good idea, so why not two?

I dug up the green stuff and moved it to places that were bare. Tomorrow I can start the fun part and get out my power tools and start cutting wood. I enjoyed moving the bricks around.

[1 egg today]

The chickens haven't eaten hardly any of the pumpkin.

Kristine and I are going to get our hair cut tomorrow.

Smiles

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Wind and Water Advisory

Plans changed overnight because of a Wind Advisory (winds over 40 miles an hour) and that oak tree in the middle of the photo. We also got an Advisory that our water was going to be shut off for maintenance.

Yesterday I hauled and stacked scrap wood under that tall scraggly old oak. The problem is that the tree has lots of dead limbs that fall and I don't want to be in harms way, so I didn't build planter boxes today. I wish the wind would knock all the dead stuff down. I don't hear or pay much attention to the branches hitting the house in the daytime, but Kristine says the noise the stuff makes has been making it hard for her to sleep.

Instead I worked in the green garden and pulled up bricks that I had laid a few years ago and made a place to build a planter box. Morgan came by every now and then to eat grass, for ear rubs and to check on me. She would stay for a while and then she would be off to check on the chickens and squirrels and other doggie stuff.

When we moved here my brother had grass on either side of a path of bricks. I didn't want to care for the grass and bricked most of it over. I also built the little deck area out of scrap wood. It's not pretty, but it works as an entrance to a storage building we call the spa house. My brother built it to house a hot tub so the family could use it in the winter. We use the building to hold stuff. Stuff that needs to be sorted through and got rid of. That's another project.

I got this far and quit to make dinner. Morgan is curious about what I'm doing and sniffs around when I pull up the bricks. I think she thinks I'm looking for something. I'm going to lay the bricks in the area behind where they are stacked. I'll do that before I start on the planters. The windy conditions are supposed to ease up for sure by Thursday. I lost most of the day to a migraine. All my fault because I ate a steak covered in all kinds of spices. Bad me.

The water is going to be turned off tomorrow so they can work on the lines. I filled two containers with water and put them in the refrigerator. I filled a pot with water for the chicken's waterer. I filled the tea kettle. And then I filled the bathtub with water to use to fill the toilet tank, so we can flush the toilet.

Happiness is being able to flush the toilet! I remember when we were building a house and finally got the water hooked up to the toilet. Wow! I could flush the toilet. Before, I would have to run up and down the stairs to turn the hose on and off to fill the tank. I remember flushing the toilet a bunch of times just for fun. Simple things. Such a joy!

[4 eggs today]

The chickens ate a little bit on the pumpkin.

Smiles

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