We found our first monarch caterpillar on the milkweed plants we grew from seed last spring. It was so exciting!
We have since moved him inside into a protected habitat. I was worried the birds would eat him if I left him out in the garden area. 😱
We can’t wait for him to form his chrysalis and emerge a beautiful monarch!
Just another busy day on the rural DoCo roadways…
The local turkey family was holding up traffic again.
So way back on June 25th I saw that the wax ring on the upstairs (guest room) toilet was leaking and knew it needed to be replaced. I thought it would be a quick and fairly easy job.
Ha! I was so wrong.
I had the toilet out and was debating whether or not to replace the floor at the same time. The floor still looked good, but was getting older and it seemed to make sense to not put the toilet back in until I was sure the flooring was good for a few more years.
So I peaked underneath… (Yes, that is the original 1970’s linoleum under the vinyl plank flooring… that bathroom was a time capsule.)
…and found a mess of wet subfloor! (Thankfully it ended up being clean water from the valve, not dirty from the toilet!)
Which led, of course to tearing all the flooring up, letting the subfloor dry, adding another layer of 1/4” plywood on top to reinforce the damaged subfloor, and finally a new floor.
(Are we having fun yet?)
And while I was at it, we replaced the vanity too since that bathroom still had the original 1970’s era vanity, removed an old non-functioning baseboard heater, patched and repaired a bunch of drywall, and replaced the baseboards and door moulding. One thing definitely led to another with this job!
It took five weeks (about half of that was plumbing, Joe isn’t the quickest plumber 😂) but it’s done, and I’m happy with it. I repainted it with the same colors since I really liked this “blue sky” bathroom.
I’m so glad it’s done… unfortunately it’s the kid’s bathroom that really needs a redo…but I don’t have the energy for that just yet.
After missing last year’s poker party due to the pandemic, we took a little bit of a chance and let M have one this year.
It felt good to have a normal kind of event after more than a year of socially distancing.
We know the pandemic isn’t over yet, but we carefully minimized the risks (kept the guest count low, only inviting friends who were fully vaccinated, etc) and felt like… this time…the benefits were worth the risks.
I’m so glad M has such good friends,..
A hot air balloon softly floating over the neighborhood.
I’ve never seen one here before.
…you are so sweet and brave.
You tried to show those big dogs next door who is boss, but just needed a little boost to be eye to eye with them.
Thanks for keeping the yard safe from bunnies and other potential intruders. 😘
