Who knew carpet could be so disgusting?

I finally got all the carpet out of the bedroom. The worse part was in front of the closet and the doorway. The filth under the carpet padding between it and the carpet was just gross! At one point I smelled that powdered carpet deodorizer and really, it just kind of made me want to gag. Who knows how many years of human filth and dust mites are currently laying in a pile in the middle of the room right now. EWWWWW!



Several hours later (it's amazing how the color on the wall changes when the natural light fades), the exposed floor is full of staples and the room is edged with carpet strips.



Here's what I get to tackle next. Nasty adhesive! Apparently, at one time someone stuck tiles all over the nice maple floor. Fortunately I won't have to use any chemicals to get it up, just a lot of hard work. Mom said she'll come out and help me too.

You can see a little spot just about in the middle of the photo that I already started scraping. The wood looks pretty good too, I haven't found any major scratches or damaged wood yet.



Next: Clean the floor, finish the trim (some of the baseboard was under the carpet and has to be sanded since carpet was/is sticking to it) and then refinish the wood. Oh, and then curtains!

Paint is expensive

While Apollo's away, I'm going to try to do a little fixing up around here and surprise him when he returns. Yesterday Mom arrived and we moved everything out of the bedroom, including breaking down the bed and vanity. Aimee joined us and we applied primer to the main bedroom walls and ceiling. Today we painted the ceiling and put on two coats of a warm sage green. It's not quite the color I thought it would be but I'm warming up to it.



It was so hot today, the second coat was drying as quickly as we could put it on. After it had dried, I excitedly peeled back two corners of the carpet to take a look at the hardwood floors. I was disappointed to see adhesive all over the beautiful hard wood. This spells out hours...nay, days of hard work on my part.



I'll start on the carpet and floor tomorrow. The faster I can get that all done, the faster I can move back into my new room and start the other rooms before Apollo returns in a couple weeks.

I'm traumatized!

Now that Apollo is away on his trip, I can eat a lot more veggies without hearing complaints that there's nothing to put barbecue or hot sauce on at dinner. (Well, to give Apollo credit, he has been eating a lot of salads recently, no doubt helping him lose the 20lbs he's shed since we moved here.)

So today I fix my usual lunch salad, then threw some turkey meat on top and added some pineapple that I had freshly cut up. I turned the plate in circles while spritzing it with my Italian dressing when suddenly, I SAW A HUGE BEIGE SPIDER RIGHT THERE UNDER THE LIP OF MY PLATE.



Of course, my instinct was to spritz it to death! Unfortunately, this didn't quite kill it, as I saw it raise it's ass up in the air and attempt to crawl off. A napkin took care of that problem though, and into the trash he went!

So then I stood there, staring at my salad, wondering where that damn spider came from. Especially since some of the lettuce came from my garden! Did he come in with it??

After letting the salad sit for about 20 minutes while I did various chores and thought about what to do, I eyed it over and am now slowly eating the salad leaf by leaf and not with my usual gusto. I just can't let a dish like this go to wast. Seriously, I'm not a spider hater but I don't want to find one in my salad!

I'm a bit freaked out right now!!

Oops

Today while weeding, I accidentally pulled an onion. As you can see, it's not quite ready but very cute.



Also, my broccoli started blooming already! Apparently that's bad. I thought it meant they were getting ready to produce bigger florets. But unfortunately it means they're getting ready to go to seed and aren't edible. So I painfully cut the tops just above new florets that are growing. Too bad too 'cause I love broccoli! If I had known, I would have cut and ate them long ago. Hopefully not all is lost (like a family friend told us). If so, I'll just pull them up and move my brussel sprouts around. I learned they may need more space then I gave them. Next year I'll not only pay attention to the recommended seed spacing but I'll also eat my broccoli before it's too late.

First harvest

It's a bit of an understatement to say the radishes have exploded and are threatening to take over the carrots. I pulled up a few for tonight's salad and they have a nice bite! Some of them are starting to look like carrots due to my planting them too close together. They're crowding each other and growing down rather than out. The lettuce is prime too. I carefully cleaned it and looked for snails, after a friends story of eating fresh lettuce that unfortunately had a snail in it.



This photo doesn't look too bad, considering it's from my cell phone. Apollo has my camera and he's in Houston at the moment. He left last week and will spend a total of four weeks in Houston and San Diego before returning home. It sure is quiet around here!

I'm pretty proud of him too. He texted me this morning about how all the food is so greasy in TX. I don't think the foods that different from his last visit, I just think he's eating so much better now and has gotten spoiled by all the veggies. In fact, today he voluntarily went to the store and bought salads! Salad! I guess there's a reason he lost those twenty pounds since we left San Diego after all.

Hopefully I'll have better photos of the garden soon. Everything is doing real well despite efforts by the raccoon to dig things up. Oh, and except the broccoli which has already flowered. I've heard contrasting reports that it's a done deal by one person and from another that the broccoli still has some life left in it now that I cut off those flowering heads. I guess we'll see.

Mom's bush. (LOL)

So last weekend, Apollo and I went to Mom's to take care of this huge bush that keeps trying to over her sidewalk. Mom liked it because she could hide behind it when the elk invaded the yard and when strangers parked down by the barn. The problem is, the elk could hear or smell her and would take off. And the strangers down by the barn, well, what good was it to hide behind a gigantic bush that she couldn't even see through to shoot at them? After some "discussion," I was finally able to talk her into letting us remove it.



I called cousin Nate (owner of the Booty Pirate tattoo) and he brought over a chainsaw. Apollo used Mom's chainsaw and the two of them attacked the nearly 8 foot tall bush. Of course, Nate had to take several pot smoking breaks and a neighbor came to visit with some beer, so it took more than a few hours to get it cut down and the limbs removed.



Mom loves the new look but is now talking about planting a climbing rose bush arbor in its place. Apparently she hasn't learned any lessons. Then again, I think she'll be able to slide a rifle through the trellis to shoot at trespassers and thieves so it's a win/win in her book.

Dandelion

Aimee wants to add a dandelion to the other tattoos on her shoulder, including a few seeds fluttering away. Sure, they're pretty in a froo froo kind of way. It wasn't until we moved here that I started to understand the angst many lawn owners have towards them. Damn weeds.

Dogwood tree

We were surprised to see our neighbor's tree, with branches laying over the fence, suddenly splash into bloom a week ago. The Dogwood tree is gorgeous, a nice diversion from the odor of dog urine and poo you notice when you get too close to the fence. And no, not caused by the tree!