Not A Lot Done....

Actually, I did get a lot of the sock done.  I am down to the last half inch before the toe decrease of the first one... Then I have to do it all over again!

The way I am going, I may have to look into the two socks at a time method of doing things! That involves a LONG circular needle... Not sure that I want to do it. I can't quite see how that saves time... You are just doing both socks at the same time and it still takes you the same amount of time, as far as I can see.

I have been moving things around the past couple of days.  Zar's  Den in a box came to rest in the bedroom by the phone.... He is already complaining.  He wants to switch places with the phone.  He can't see the TV unless I switch the positions.

He is worse than Tessie when it come to wanting to watch whatever is on.  If the TV is on, he is in front of it. 

Tessie actually cooked his breakfast this morning... Now he is hounding her for lunch... Dinner or whatever else she is willing to make. 

I do wish that she would cook for me once in a while... No... Wait.... I don't want the whole kitchen in a mess. I will do the cooking.  At least I am only cleaning up after myself if I do it.

Back to work. See you tomorrow.

Cleanest House On The Block

Walter did most of the planting. I just held Oscar upright.  I decided to name the new saguaro Oscar because he is green, prickly and a grouch. 

The photo was taken from our driveway.  He is planted next to the driveway so that we can see him as we go in and out and other people can see him as they go by.

This little guy was trying to grow under the prickly pear.  He was struggling.  I got him out of there and put him in the back yard.

I don't think that he is a saguaro.  Maybe a barrel.  I am just going to have to wait and see how he grows.

Evidently a seed from somewhere in the neighborhood landed under the prickly pear and was caught.  I can't wait to see how he turns out. If he is a saguaro, it will take him about 20 years to get to the size of Oscar!  The saguaros only grow an inch or an inch and a half per year!

I went and inspected Zar's trailer this morning... He is way ahead of Tessie in the cleaning department!  If I go by who is the best cleaner, he beats ALL of the witches! 

He is going to get his He Shed finished before I do Tessie's She Shed.

I am going back to work now.

See you tomorrow.

The Loco Weed Is In Bloom!

Jimson Weed, around here is known as Loco Weed.  The stuff is only around for a few weeks during the rainy season here...

It supposedly makes cows crazy when they snack on it.  Since I have no cows in my yard, I let them grow. The flowers only last a day and the plants only last a few weeks.  If you have cows, you don't want the weed. 

I let these grow every year. I don't have cows and I think that the plants are beautiful.

My kumquat tree is coming along nicely. After the set back, I was not sure that I was going to get any fruit. It seems now that I am going to have some after all. The little white blossoms are the start of new fruit.  Wish me luck!

OK. Now for what you really came to see.  I have the tower covered with rocks!!!

I still need to cover the top and put some fancy stuff around the edge of the top, but essentially the tower is covered. 

No. The Terrible Two didn't help.  They just sat there and watched K-Dramas and heckled me while I worked.

Anyway, I am almost finished with the tower as of this afternoon. Back to finishing it. See you tomorrow.

Missing the Terrible Two...

NO. I don't miss them... They are missing.  As soon as I start doing stone work... They disappear...

So. I didn't expect their company today... Yesterday afternoon, I made the mistake of telling them that I was going to finish the stone work today if I could.

I am doing pretty good, but I don't think that I will get much more than the tower finished.

 The two of them didn't even come in and say "Good morning" today.  I haven't seen hide nor hair of either of them.

Anyway, it was to be expected.  They do NOT like stone work.

Anyway, I have never gone through all of the steps for good stonework.  So I will just go through it photo by photo.

The first photo shows me measuring to cut another strip to finish a row.

The second photo shows the curve that I make in the pieces if they are going on something circular as in a tower. I simply bend the piece to a bit steeper curve than the wall. Then I lay it against the wall to see if it is going to lay right on the wall.

The third step is to start cutting the pieces and put them on, one at a time.

I do NOT spare on the glue.  I put on a good coat. It is going to have to hold for years!

Then I fit it into the next piece that I just laid.

The row with the blue tape is one that I just finished.  The one above it is just getting started.

That one will now have a piece of tape started to hold the stones in that row.

Usually one strip of masking tape will hold the tiles in place until they are dry.

I let them dry at least 24 hours before I start painting and shading the stones. 

I will continue with that part when I finish getting all of the stones glued and dry.

It may be a few days until we get to the next step.  Without the help of the Terrible Two, I may be able to finish a little faster.

I do think that it will take a few more days.  If they were coming along for the ride, it would be more like a week... or two.

Back to work.  See you tomorrow.

Out to the Garden...

This morning, I spent time out in the yard...

What did the Terrible Two do?

They stayed inside and made more cracker crumbs for me to clean up...

I did a bit of planting and a lot of watering.

When I came back inside, I started rocking again... I may never get all of the rocks on this thing at this rate...


I thought you would rather see what the squirrels are up to, rather than more photographs of rocks.

This is one of the first batch of babies for this year.  He is almost as big as his parents. 

As you can see, he has his cheek pouches filled and is ready to go back to the tunnels and relax. He is going to be a big, big squirrel if he keeps it up!

Same squirrel... Different cheek to fill... He or she is going to be one BIG squirrel if he(or she) keeps filling those pouches and running back to the nest and to eat it all.

I had the tail end of a bag or ice and I put it in the water bowls this morning. They seem to like a little cool water whenever I do that. 

Anyway, I just looked out the window and there are still a bunch of squirrels running around the yard and laying in the shade relaxing. 

I do love looking out and seeing them.  They are very relaxing and entertaining when I get tired of typing. Back to work... More stoning to do.
See you tomorrow.

Wednesday and Witches...

I took the witches on a guided tour of Tessie's new Trailer.

They seemed to like it.

After they left, Kota tried to do some work on the bedroom... He was not successful. All he did was get his nose dirty.

The Terrible Two seem to be having a good time.  I am not.

Now I have to straighten up the mess that Tessie and Zar left on the roof....

Kota seems to have made a new friend.  He likes the dragon that keeps the tape.

I think that I have done everything that I am going to do today.

Tomorrow I will start over.  I am a tired witch!

See you tomorrow.

Leaning Tower Of Tessie.....

I am working on the tower.  The inside is finished. The outside has a way to go.

As for the Terrible Two? They sat on the roof and watched K Dramas all morning.

I was looking at them out of the corner of my eye, but I didn't have time to put my feet up and watch like they did.

 When I started taking photos, they both jumped right in and posed.  They both made like they had been working right along beside me all morning.

It was more like they were sitting there watching K Dramas whilst I worked...

Zar posed in the front hall. 

Then Tessie took a turn and suggested that I put in some front steps... So that she wouldn't have to use her pogo stick to get in the front door.

Sometimes she is an ungrateful wretch....

Anyway, she then posed coming out of the upstairs door. 

No steps needed there.... I know.  Because she said so!

Anyway, she is still talking wall to wall shag rug in the living room.

How am I going to get out of that one.  I did suggest that she do it herself... She whined and whinged that she didn't know how...

Strange... The last time I worked on one for her, she was right in there trying to see how to do it... She even did some stitches here and there...

I guess she forgot that part...

I still have a lot to do on the outside of the tower.  Back to work.  See you tomorrow.  Probably with not a lot done.  The witches are coming here tomorrow. See you after they leave.

A Little More to the Left!

I got the hair brained idea to put a tree trunk in the middle of the hallway.  After all, people need something to hang onto when climbing stairs.

Tessie liked the idea and told me that she and Zar would take care of putting it in.

I went out to the wood pile and found the perfect piece.

Zar kind of wanted me to stick around, but Tessie kept trying to get rid of me.

I snuck in a couple of times to see how things were going.

I still have to put the top layer of the stairs in.  That is the landing.  It covers about half of the area in a teardrop shape.

I wanted to make sure that the floor would fit around the tree. 

Tessie kept quiet while I measured where the tree would hit the floor and cut it out.

Then she told me to leave.

She said that I was "Dismissed!".  Then she totally ignored me.

I did keep my eye on things.  I pretended to read a book while watching what was going on.

She sat on the top step with her arms folded. Every once in a while, she would shout down to Zar, "A little more to the left,".

She was driving both Zar and I a little crazy.

He would get it a little more to the left and she would immediately want it back a little to the right.

She finally got to her feet and started pushing the tree back and forth.

I will not show you the part where Zar and I got together and locked her out of the bedroom where we were working.

We got the tree where we thought it looked best and then totally ignored her when she came back in and started making suggestions again.

I am going back and glue in the tree so that she can't move it around. Then I am going to put the top floor in, glue it in place and lock her out until it dries.

It's my tree and I will put it where I want it.  Glue it in place and let her just try to move it.  It's not going to happen. Zar and I put a ton of glue on it.  It is not going to move even if she gets a tow truck and tries to pull it out.

I am going now to put in the upper floor.  Then there will be no way for her to budge it even an inch! 

Back to work.  See you tomorrow.

Not As Much As I Thought...

I had other things to do today... Laundry and gardening got in the way. I am up to the sixth step and I got the floor finished.  That's about it...

Tessie and Zar are mostly getting in the way and taking way to many breaks.  So far today, they have had coffee, bug beer, cookie and rest breaks.  I am not sure why they need rest breaks. I am the one doing the work.

At one point, I started watching TV and fell asleep.  That is not helpful when doing stone work.  It takes a lot of time.

Tessie and Zar are going someplace else to spend the day tomorrow.  Maybe I will lock them in the hall closet for a change. 

If I throw the two of them in there, maybe they will get bored and clean instead of interfering  with what I am doing.

At least, so far they are approving of the stone stairs. The trouble is, they both take the break part of the day seriously and then they can't figure out why I am not further along in the process.

After I finished the floor, they even had to sit on that and try it out...

They are NOT helping!!!

I am taking the rest of the day off.  Let them work on the stones. 

I QUIT!!!!!

See you tomorrow...

Another Break... And Another...

Tessie won. She is getting the stone steps.

It is very hard to get anything done with the Terrible Two involved.  They are insisting that "we" take a break after every layer of steps. 

They have to test them every time I get a new layer done.

After the first layer, all that they could do is sit down on the first step.

As I go up, it will get better.

Mind you, I am not complaining. That just means that I get to take a break about every fifteen or twenty minutes...

The second layer.  Here you can see that I am building up the back of the steps with scraps. A whole sheet of the stuff is not needed.

I am using Styrofoam for a filler.  One half inch thick.  then I am covering it with the theatre trays.

I still have to cut them one rock at a time, but it goes pretty fast.

And with all of the breaks that we are taking, it's pretty easy.

ON the third step, they had to try it out before I got it covered.

If they keep it up, I am going to be taking a break after each stone.

Maybe I should let them be in charge more often.

Oops! They are demanding that I go back and do the rest of this layer.  Only about ten more layers to go.

Back to work! See you tomorrow.

Everything's A Blank!!!

This morning I did a bit more to the trailer/castle.... Then I had to get ready and go to Wednesday Witches...

It really doesn't look a lot different than yesterday, but I did do more to the inside of the tower and the bathroom.   

 While I worked on it, the terrible two sat on the table and watched TV.

No help at all!

About two o'clock, while I was still at Witches,  it started pouring. We Witches were doing our thing.  Eating, talking and generally having a good time. At 3:30 when I was coming home, it was pouring.  Raining cats and dogs.

I just now stepped out on the back porch.  I didn't get further than the doormat.

Water is now coming up on the porch.

It looks like this is going to last most of the night.

If it does, I will have an excuse to stay at home and work on Tessie's Trailer tomorrow.

I am going to ignore the rain tonight and start over in the morning.

See you then!

Never Go Back...

I have been reading old blog entries... Not a good thing.

I got as far as the Rya Rugs that I was doing last year.  Remembered that I didn't finish what I started as usual.

The only one that is really finished is the one that Tessie's snake sleeps on. he loves it.  So does she. 

 Oops! Not a good thing.

Now Tessie wants fuzzy rugs for the living room and bedroom of the trailer/castle. 

What is even more unfortunate, Zar is backing her up. He thinks that they would look nice in there.

I am seeing a lot more work than this castle is worth. I still haven't finished the ones that I was experimenting with.

Now Tessie wants more!!! So what else is new?


I searched and found the blades for Mr. Dremel. As soon as Walter wakes up from his nap, I am going to have him help me install a new blade.  I managed to get the old one out, but...
I can't press down hard enough to get the new blade in!

It takes force to get the part down to where the top of the blade will fit into the hole.  He is stronger than I am.

Did you ever have one of those days? I seem to be having one today.  Wish me luck. I may at least get the steps for the circular staircase cut out.

Back to work. See you tomorrow.

Getting Stoned...

Well, not really.  Not the way you think!

I went back to adding stones to the outside of the trailer this morning.

It is a slow process.  One stone cut at a time and then trimmed to fit beside the next couple of stones.

I have news.  Letty has given notice.  She is going back to her crooked cottage and wants clothes to match... She is going to have to wear what she has on for now.

 Tessie told her on no uncertain terms, that she was not to ever change bodies with me if she didn't want to die!  

With that, both Letty and I decided that we were not ever going to switch.  Not safe to do so...

I am just going to plug along with my work on the trailer and Letty is going back to embroidery for a living.

I have to change saw blades before I can do the stairs. So, I figured that doing rock work would keep me busy for quite some time.

With Tessie back to her usual contrary self, I am going to keep working.

Zar is back since Letty left.  They didn't seem to get along too well.

At least, with Zar around, Tessie seems to stay calm and collected most of the time...

She has been amusing herself by sliding down the back end of the trailer, over and over.

She ended up in a heap on the floor a couple of times. Then she just zaps herself back to the starting position on the roof.

Zar talked her into just sitting and watching the building process. I think that things are kind of getting back to normal.  The two of them have had their heads together all afternoon...

The last I saw of them, they slid off of the end of the trailer and informed me that they were going to look for Spike. 

If the three of them get their heads together, I will be right back where I started before I started the trailer...

I do believe that I am in trouble again!  See you tomorrow.

The Planning Department...

The Terrific Trio have been sitting all day and planning what to do next.  I cut the door in the tower to get to the second floor... That was about all I did.

They kept changing their minds on what to do next.  I am not going to start anything else unless it is something that I am going to do or something that they have all three agreed to.  I am NOT getting in the middle with something that I like and they don't.

For some reason, the three of them are in 

agreement on everything today... That's good for them, but I am not sure that it is good for me.

We all agree that the door to the second floor should be a bit taller.  Zar keeps bumping his head when he goes up there.

I think that Letty likes the day bed from my craft cottage.  She can't have it! I will be making her another one.

She also has been trying to talk me out of this bed.  Somehow, I don't think that this bed goes with a trailer.  I will make her something else.

The other item of contention is Spike... Everybody wants to claim him.... He is his own dog.  He tends to stay with the person with the most dog food... And the one that pays attention to him the most.

Anyway, we have a long way to go... I had better get back to it.  Their planning kind of was a step backwards for me.  I didn't get a lot done today.

That just means that I will have to do twice the work tomorrow to catch up.

See you then.