Half Over

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What? The year’s half over already? I don’t recall seeing 6 full months go by!

I did get a lot done this weekend. Yesterday in the yard: edging and mowing the lawns, and weeding the garden boxes. It was the only good day for the outdoor chores, as it was the only rainless day likely in the next week, and we’d had rain for the prior 8 or 9 days straight. Today, thunderstorms and downpours started before noon.

Today was mostly filled with shopping, cooking, and woodworking.

Building drawer boxes

Building drawer boxes

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Our condolences to the families, friends, and units of these fallen warriors:

  • Spc. Javier Sanchez Jr., 28, of Greenfield, California, died June 23, in Sar Rowzah, Afghanistan, of wounds suffered when his unit was attacked with an improvised explosive device while on mounted patrol.
  • Sgt. Corey E. Garver, 26, of Topsham, Maine, died June 23rd, in Zormat, Afghanistan, of wounds sustained when enemy forces attacked his unit with an improvised explosive device.
  • Sgt. Justin R. Rogers, 25, of Barton, New York, died June 28, in Bagram, Afghanistan, from a non-combat related incident.

Sad Zucchini

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Sad Zucchini

Sad Zucchini

Yesterday that plant was FINE! Today, not so much, and I can’t tell why. Sigh. And it’s too wet (rain every day, nearly) which makes the tomatoes unhappy.

Summer daze

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Shedloads of yardwork and housework yesterday, leading up to Linda Rose and Mike over for supper and a couple rounds of Ticket to Ride. Much fun had by all, good food, exhausting. I overslept this morning, so was shopping late, then working remotely on some patching late, and so on. I never really caught up.

Oh, hey, one bit of yummy: we had freshly killed zucchini from the garden with supper last night. Sliced, steamed, then sprinkled with Parmesan cheese: superb!

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Our condolences to the families, friends, and units of these fallen warriors:

  • Lance Cpl. Jared W. Brown, 20, of Youngstown, Florida, died June 16 while supporting combat operations in Helmand province, Afghanistan.
  • Sgt. Justin R. Johnson, 25, of Hobe Sound, Florida, died June 18, in Bagram, Afghanistan, of wounds suffered when enemy forces attacked his unit with indirect fire.
  • Spc. Ember M. Alt, 21, of Beech Island, South Carolina, died June 18, in Bagram, Afghanistan, of wounds suffered when enemy forces attacked her unit with indirect fire.
  • Spc. Robert W. Ellis, 21, of Kennewick, Washington, died June 18, in Bagram, Afghanistan, of wounds suffered when enemy forces attacked his unit with indirect fire.
  • Spc. William R. Moody, 30, of Burleson, Texas, died June 18, in Bagram, Afghanistan, of wounds suffered when enemy forces attacked his unit with indirect fire.

A goodbye, and a garden

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Barbara Thompson’s dad died this morning. I had the honor of meeting this retired marine a few times, he was a kind bloke with a good sense of humor. Sad to see him go, but everything in its time. Goodbye, Dutch.

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The garden is progressing nicely, given the late spring. I’ve got tomato sets on nearly all the plants, the zucchini is starting to be productive, and I expect great things from the peppers and potatoes this year.

Bilbrey garden - June 20, 2013

Bilbrey garden – June 20, 2013

I got the lawns mowed after work, weeded a bit in the garden beds, and roasted some coffee this evening. Overall, a good day. Time to go, ciao!

Powerful storms … crap predictions

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The news leading into Thursday was designed to instill fear … only 10 times in the last 30 years (or was it 5 times in the last 10, but whatever) had the mid-Atlantic states had such a powerful storm prediction laid on in advance. I noted at the time that the article had neglected to mention the success rate of those prior predictions. I, however, predict that based on the overall low impact of these current storms on our area, the prior prediction success rate was also low. I indict the MSM as a messenger that tries to instill terror in our population.

Thursday I was in the District at a VMUG conference. I bailed out a bit early and got home in time to fire up the generator when the power went out – a tree had taken out a power line nearby. Two hours later, the power was back on. There had been a tornado, an EF0 that had been on the ground for a fair stretch, and damaged a few houses and cars by knocking trees over on them. Last year’s derecho was much, much worse than what we had this week. Oh, yeah, another tree fell in about the same place today, and we were power-out again for another two hours.

I got some more herbs installed this weekend in the garden, did a fair bit of weeding, and got the face frames and backs fabricated and installed on the last two cabinets, down in the woodshop.

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Our condolences to the families, friends, and units of these fallen warriors:

  • Lt. Col. Todd J. Clark, 40, of Evans Mills, New York, died June 8, in Sharana, Afghanistan, of injuries suffered from small arms fire received at Zarghun Shahr, Afghanistan.
  • Maj. Jaimie E. Leonard, 39, of Warrick, New York, died June 8, in Sharana, Afghanistan, of injuries suffered from small arms fire received at Zarghun Shahr, Afghanistan.
  • Staff Sgt. Jesse L. Thomas Jr., 31, of Pensacola, Florida, died June 10, in Helmand, Afghanistan.

Rainy days and Mondays

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Or both, as the case surely has been. In this back yard, we’ve had 4 inches of rain in the last four days. Locally around the area, lots more, I hear. But everything is pretty squelchy outside. It’ll be a few days before I can mow again… But the garden, it grows like topsy, and the first small tomatoes and peppers are making an appearance.

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Sorry for the delay. Saturday was building cabinet carcasses in the workshop. Early Sunday morning was upset gastric bits and lost sleep, followed by patching work at 0700. It turned out to be a distracted, dead day for me. Seemed like a good choice not to go back downstairs and work with fast-spinning bits of metal, so I didn’t. In the evening, issues at work kept me focused outside myself, but I missed being here. Today? Feeling better, resolved the technical difficulties, and made progress on a couple of projects.

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Our condolences to the families, friends, and units of these fallen warriors:

  • Spc. Ray A. Ramirez, 20, of Sacramento, California, died June 1, in Wardak Province, Afghanistan, from injuries sustained when his unit was attacked by an improvised explosive device.
  • Spc. Kyle P. Stoeckli, 21, of Moseley, Virginia, died June 1, in Maiwand, Afghanistan, from injuries sustained when his unit was attacked by an improvised explosive device.
  • Pfc. Mariano M. Raymundo, 21, of Houston, Texas, died June 1, in Sharan, Afghanistan.
  • Warrant Officer Sean W. Mullen, 39, of Dover, Delaware, died June 2, in Lashkar Gah, Afghanistan, of wounds sustained when insurgents attacked his unit with an improvised explosive device.
  • Staff Sgt. Job M. Reigoux, 30, of Austin, Texas, died June 1, in Ghazni Province, Afghanistan, of wounds sustained when insurgents attacked his unit with a rocket propelled grenade.
  • 2nd Lt. Justin L. Sisson, 23, of Phoenix, Arizona, died June 3, in Tsamkani, Afghanistan, of wounds suffered when his unit was attacked by a suicide vehicle-borne improvised explosive device.
  • Spc. Robert A. Pierce, 20, of Panama, Oklahoma, died June 3, in Tsamkani, Afghanistan, of wounds suffered when his unit was attacked by a suicide vehicle-borne improvised explosive device.

Postal flowers

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Last year, instead of installing annuals at the post box, I put in some perennials. Frankly, they weren’t stellar … but they didn’t die. And they’ve come up wonderfully this year:

Perennials by the post box

Perennials by the post box

Next year, I’ll put some more here and there, and see if I can cut down further on the planting of annuals. I spread some of the tiger lilies over to the blue spruce island left of the driveway, but something ate the tops off of those this year, grrrrr! Anyway, I just stopped in to show off the pretty. Ciao!

Garden doings…

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I’ve been pretty good about weeding out the garden, while preserving volunteers for replanting around the beds. I’ve got three volunteer tomato plants and several peppers. I have no idea what specific variety of either is likely to result … but yummy is as yummy does. Here’s the garden in progress, from a couple of days ago:

Garden on 30 May 2013

Garden on 30 May 2013

As I write this, the wind is up, lightning all around, and rain the size of small hatchbacks is falling. The good news is that the garden is young. Big wind when the plants are large tends to blow things over, or even out of the raised beds altogether. The rain is good, though – the lawns are thirsty.

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 Our condolences to the families, friends, and units of these fallen warriors:

  • Spc. Christopher R. Drake, 20, of Tickfaw, Louisiana, died May 26, in Bagram, Afghanistan, of injuries sustained when his vehicle was attacked with a rocket propelled grenade.
  • Staff Sgt. Joe A. Nunezrodriguez, 29, of Pasadena, Texas, died May 30, in Wardak Province, Afghanistan, from injuries sustained when his vehicle struck an improvised explosive device.

15 years; Table done

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Those are unrelated topics, as the semicolon indicates. First (as my lovely Marcia points out), I neglected to point out to all and sundry that we celebrated our 15th wedding anniversary yesterday. We went out to Sly Horse Tavern for supper, to celebrate. It’s good to be happy, eh?

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Table done:

Table in the sun

Table in the sun

I brought the table bits halfway up, and setup on the lawn, to show how pretty this is in full light. Then I hauled it back inside and upstairs, and properly attached the top to the apron.

Table in my office

Table in my office

I’m nearly 80% done with this project. I’ve got two more base cabinets and a counter top to fabricate and install. Then the office is done. Yay!

Memorial Day Weekend

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A three day chore marathon, closing with the annual remembrance of those lost to us in active military service. I choose to be a bit more OCD about my duty to honor our losses. (Or, as @xeni noted the other day on twitter, CDO, because it SHOULD be alphabetized!)

Saturday: I got the table apron and legs completed and assembled:

Table apron and legs assembled

Table apron and legs assembled

Next on Saturday, but without any photographic evidence at this time, I got our hanging baskets populated and hung up on the front porch. The watering outlets are in the baskets, but that isn’t set up with a supply yet, that’s held for Monday.

Final Saturday task – I applied gel stain to both surfaces of the cherry table top, to even out the look of the wood:

Staining the cherry top

Staining the cherry top

Sunday was a power run: I did the shopping, then applied a first coat of polyurethane to the bottom of the table. I mowed the lawns, with a dog walk as the halftime show. I evened out the first coat of poly with #0000 steel wool and a bit of 320 grit sandpaper, vacuumed, cleaned, and dried, then applied a second coat of poly. I watered and weeded out back, and took a little break. I then prep’d the bottom one more time, and applied a third coat of poly. That’ll cure overnight, and I’ll flip the work piece and start coating the top surface tomorrow. That and watering system setup will fill my Memorial Day, as will my thoughts of our fallen warriors…

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Our condolences to the families, friends, and the 29th Infantry Brigade Combat Team on the deaths of these fallen warriors:

  • Sgt. Eugene M Aguon, 23, of Mangilao, Guam, died May 16, in Kabul, Afghanistan, of wounds suffered when enemy forces attacked his unit with a vehicle borne improvised explosive device.
  • Spc. Dwayne W. Flores, 22, of Sinajana, Guam, died May 16, in Kabul, Afghanistan, of wounds suffered when enemy forces attacked his unit with a vehicle borne improvised explosive device.