Lawn front and back is looking wonderful. Mowed front and back on May 2 and two weeks earlier. Irrigation has still not been turned on since November, but good spring rains have done magic.
New tiny (7 inch high) viburnum planted on south side for privacy. This will ultimately block a view to driveways and doorways across the street through the neighbor's yard. I had planned to put a viburnum here two years ago, but the big viburnum from nursery couldn't be planted in this spot because of dense array of (mostly obsolete and unused) telecom wires that run along the south side of my yard. So a tiny viburnum which wouldn't interfere with the wires (while being planted anyway) was needed, and obtained last week from mail order through Gardener Direct, which apparently got it drop shipped from Liner Source Inc.
New 2 zone temperature monitor was installed on top of the blank switch cover in the King's Room. The blank cover was originally where the room light switch was, but 6 feet into the room and around the corner it was useless, and controlled an outlet on the opposite side of the room where I've never wanted to put a light. 22 years ago I removed the switch and put on the blank cover, but that cracked the sheetrock below the cover, so there was always a small gap. It looked bad. I replaced the cover with a jumbo size cover that covered up the gap. I also filled the gaps around the plastic electrical box behind the cover with Duct Seal, the specific fireproof compound approved for this purpose. I vacuumed the box but must remember to do that more carefully next time…despite the vacuum my shirt got covered with sheetrock dust and debris as it was being sucked out of the box. I used a new 1 1/2 inch 6-32 stainless steel screw for the upper screw holding the cover. That screw was long enough that it could be exposed sufficiently to fit into the hanger hole in the temperature monitor. The screws go into long slots on either side of the box and do not endanger wires. The other screw is 1 inch because of how the box is recessed, that is the minimum length. The temperature monitor shows the temperature in the room and also in Lyndhurst Garden House, with min/max displays for both.
A very fancy wreath hanger was fixed and hung on the door of the hall bath. The way the hanger came from the factory it was useless because the front plate rose above the door top support. That way you couldn't close the door because the front plate would hit the door trim. What were they thinking??? I had to re-bend the metal to a very small radius going straight up from the front by 1/2 inch, and the only way to do that was with a small hammer. Then I had to re-bend the top and back of the support metal but that was easier and I simply put the metal in a vice and bent it. I had to do this a second time because the first time the wider radius of the top bends prevented the hanger from resting on the top of the door.
I installed the Dual White LimitlessLED bulb in the back yard flood light reflector, replacing the RGB bulb. The Dual White allows me to play with color temperature, which is interesting in the back yard, instead of pure hues, which are not very interesting (though they might do for the patio light). I need some kind of remote control bulb to get the light output just right to make the back yard look relatively evenly lit, which has a cool effect. I hadn't been able to get the Dual White bulb synced until I went to a computer club meeting on Saturday and fiddled with it some more.
The Dynatrap mosquito trap was set up in the exercise (garage) room. I had to clear a small space on top of the two drawer wood filing cabinet for it. In so doing, I cleared away junk that had been sitting there for years. Every little thing there required deliberation or special handling or testing before it could be properly dealt with (that's why the mess had staying power--every time I looked at it I found stuff that needed to be worked on first).
I will need to be doing a lot more organizing/sorting/discarding like that this year. Finally! I have two almost useless rooms that need to be cleared out, and I'd like to clear out my $80/mo storage unit also. I have a big storage building (Lyndhurst) but it's already filled up and needs cleaning and organizing too. So this clearing of the wood filing cabinet was a little start. I need to be doing this every week to make progress incrementally. I know from experience that when you start clearing, it's far harder than you ever could imagine, but it gets easier.
No comments:
Post a Comment