Scattered Thoughts . . .

O ne of my latest projects has been to install rainbarrels to collect rain water coming off the roof.  We use this water to water all our flower gardens and potted flowers.  I also use it for the lawn.  This free water allows our house to look like a colorful and lush flowering oasis. I had actually purchased the rainbarrels last summer.  Unfortunately, one of them arrived with a fast leak in the barrel itself around the spigot valve so that rainbarrel sat around empty until this season.  I set them up on a stand anyway, rearranged the downspout off the gutter so it will fill the rainbarrels with rain water, plumbed both rainbarrels, and then attacked the leaking problem first thing this spring.   My first attempt at fixing the leaking rainbarrel last summer was a failure.  Finding the right adhesive to seal these barrels was a problem.  After my first failure, I ordered a tube of roofing cement and a small sheet of black acrylic.  First thing this spring, I cut the acrylic to fit over

A couple of weeks ago during Thanksgiving weekend, Sheila and I spent the bulk of the weekend in the Adirondack Mountains in Saratoga Springs with friends. The main purpose of our visit to Saratoga was to see the Canadian Pacific's Holiday Train but we had a little time to do a few other things as well. We had a really great time and, as usual, we left feeling as though we didn't have enough time there! Among doing all sorts of things in the few days we had in Saratoga, Sheila and I went for a walk through Congress Park one afternoon.  This particular park is home to war memorials, veteran memorials, multiple fresh water mineral springs known for healing and curative properties, an historical society museum (I'll write more about this museum in a future blog entry) , and a carousel. Although the calendar may disagree, it is pretty much wintertime here in the northeast so this wasn't exactly the best time to visit this park but we enjoyed ourselves enough to want

We had another beautiful day yesterday (today too, but I may write something about that tomorrow). Liza and John visited in the evening to have dinner with us and spend the night.  Dinner was delicious... Kansas City style ribs (two full racks), corn on the cob and homemade fries. We've been eating well at the lake house! The weather was great so we spent much of the day in the water. We had some thunderstorms through the night but the weather was hot and humid yesterday during the day... Another day of teaching Lukey how to sail...

Although the weather is beautiful today for working outdoors, I am in 'recovery mode'. My spinal pain, at rest, is in the 7-8 range on the 10 point pain scale.  Yesterday, I dug and installed footings for the roof covering our grill/outdoor kitchen area. Then, I jacked up the adjoining playhouse to raise it four inches to match the roofline I need for this new roof over the grill/outdoor kitchen area. This work proved to be far too much for my spinal injuries.  Anything I do adds inflammation to my spinal injuries but I've been doing a lot of things lately which require a lot of bending over and that is never good for my spine. I don't think I slept more than a total of one hour last night! My spine was so inflamed that it was excruciating just lying in bed. I spent the night very carefully and very slowly tossing and turning trying to get comfortable enough to sleep. It didn't work. I simply could not sleep. So, today is a down day for my health.  As I s