SF visits AL

Wonderful visit from Chloe, Clark, Max & Nick!

We explored the forest:

Fed the fish, turtle, and doggies:

Worked in the shop, discovered a secret loft:

Visited with Yoda, discovered the wetness of the faucet:

Clark loved playing in the pantry, just like Max did 2 years ago when he was about the same age:

Chloe has a bunch of great photos here:

2019-02-18 President's Day Weekend in Vestavia Hills - Chloe Fan
I immortalize your best moments so you can focus on living in the present. I specialize in weddings, conferences, and…photography.chloefan.com

Nick and I had a weight lifting competition. I slightly bested him in the bench, we tied in the lift, and he crushed me in the squat!

Chloe says his massive leg muscles come from doing one legged hops when loaded up with boys:

I finished the basement renovation just before they got here:

A couple of time-lapses showing the epoxying of the basement and garage floors:

Elsewhere in flooring news, I discovered the joys of liquid floor wax. Before and after shots:

The other project this month is my continuing attempt to tame the forest. A couple of more trees agreed to move for me:

We can now see our house from across the creek!

Bruce

Trail Towels

Combining the forces of my drone and all the towels in our house, I have become a cartographer. Behold my new map of the universe (i.e. our backyard):

Even without leaves, it is hard to see the trail through the trees. If you look closely, you can see the towels (20 white rectangles) showing me key rocks or trail intersections. That was enough for me to draw in the trails (white lines), creek beds (blue lines), and lot boundary (black lines).

This is another view of the towels, laid out somewhat less strategically:

Here is a picture of our new garden shed:

That location by the street was not ideal, so I carved out a better spot:

Then learned the hard way the side panels have to be tightly connected, or else the corners do not fit!

Turned out nice:

This new storage gave me the excuse to empty out the garage and hire some pros with a big cement grinder to put in a nice epoxy floor:

Looks so nice now that we don’t want to put the cars in it:

We also finished the new garden terrace for the garlic bud I wrote about last month that started all this commotion:

Closing with two wild animal shots. This 10 point buck was caught on one of the trail cameras:

And this animal may not have impressive antlers, but she has the fortitude to bravely wear a new designer dress, lovingly crafted by Helen.

Bruce

A $2000 garlic bud

This garlic bud started sprouting and ended up costing us $2000!

Helen decided we should plant it, but we didn’t have any flat spots to build a garden with, so we decided to build a terraced garden. I clicked some internet-ed buttons and ordered $1k of bricks and soil which showed up today:

In the process I found an almost flat spot and figured it was a good excuse for a $1k 8'x12' shed. I prepped for it today, it should arrive in a few weeks, in a box of about 400 parts:

Tune in next month to see if I can follow assembly instructions!

We lost our leaves this month. Here is a photo from 12/1:

And another photo from 12/31:

We built the Russian tortoise an inside pen:

After experimenting with $100+ for every conceivable fruit and vegetable, Helen finally figured out what it likes to eat (endive, radish leaves, and romaine lettuce):

I started on the basement flooring project, ripped up the doggy stained carpet and disposed of an old un-used fridge:

Now debating flooring options: stained or epoxied cement, or tiled flooring:

We took the Amtrak train to Helen’s yearly medical conference, this year in New Orleans:

d festive town!

We met up with Aya and Eric there. Eric taught us how to run the penny slot machines:

Back home we replaced Helen’s makeshift standing desk with a fancy motorized stand:

Closing with a brain ice cube Helen made out of various spices. Pop it into your drink for an extra special experience :)

Bruce