House Stuff

The front screen door is rather the worse for wear from ferrets, cats, and kids. I finally decided I’d had enough with repairing it, and just gave in and bought a new one.

I don’t know why I resisted so long, a new door was less than $20.00.

But resist and repair I did.

Before I install this new one, I am going to take some preventative measures with it. I have the wood to make both a push plate and a kick plate, which will considerably reduce the damage to the new door. I will then cover the inside with some heavy duty 1/2″ hardware cloth (metal), so the cats and ferrets can climb it with impunity and I don’t worry they’ll rip through the fine nylon mesh that keeps the bugs out.

I’m going to paint it deep blue and then embellish it with silver spatters and stars. That will nicely frame the door itself once I complete the mural I plan to paint on it. I’ll echo the paint and stars on the frame of the door. All of that will complement the crescent moon painted on the eaves of the front porch, and the starry fantasy theme-ishness of the front yard.

Then, I’ll bake a pineapple pie, a lemon layer cake, Venus Cookies, and prepare a cheese and fruit platter for a co-worker’s birthday tomorrow.

While the cake bakes, I’ll have time to mow the back yard – the parts that are accessible to mowing right now, that is. While the cake cools, I can sort the maple branches out according to the project I plan to turn them into. I have enough of the right size to make a bench, several obelisks, a patio fence, an archway for the gate to the back yard, and plenty left over for the rustic hut for which we’d originally planned to use the Zombie Maple droppings. The Zombie Maple had lots and lots of droppings, and there are many more to come. I am going to learn to build rustic furniture all because of that tree.

And when it dies all the rest of the way, the stump is large enough I can carve it into a a small circle of dancing figures and put a fountain inside it (with colored lights so it can look all flamish – I like the thought of making water look like fire).

And – I measured out the yard, figured some things out with the new Square Foot Gardener book I bought in Little Rock (and a good thing I bought it there – they haven’t got any copies at any of the B&N’s or Borders here), and there’s plenty of room to shape the raised beds into a labyrinth with a wrought iron gazebo in the center – leading off from the cast iron fire pit and the pecan tree on the south end of yard. That will have to wait until next year, because I have to prepare the yard for all of this and collect sufficient wood for the raised bed frames.

And I still want to put a bearded oak in the front yard, and fill it in with fragrant and cutting flowers and a hedge of nanking cherries.

My neighbor is having fits over the two rose beds I put in this year, but her grandsons convinced her of how nice it will be when it’s finished, and isn’t it great I’d do all that for a little dog? They adore Itzl and because they like Itzl so much, they convinced her I wasn’t evil for planting anything other than grass in my yard.