Two weeks ago we hosted some very special visitors: Daniela Braun and her husband Joachim Braun. They hail from the Stuttgart area of Germany. It was wonderful to meet them! Joachim has been to the US many times, but it was Daniela’s first trip. Apparently New England is very different from Southern Germany! We did so many things while they were here, including the New England Aquarium, the Crane Estate, Salem, Rockport, and Walden Pond.
After finally going to the huge transfer station 2 towns away earlier this month, I made it to our local transfer station today. Last year our neighbor chopped her lilac tree down to almost nothing, and this year it was covered in so many gorgeous, bright purple flowers. Ours, which I don’t think has ever been trimmed, had about 4 very washed-out flowers. This morning I grabbed my hand saw and chopped ours back to almost nothing.
Birdie, despite being super sweet, very opinionated, and a good girl all around, is a disaster in the litter box. So I decided to create the litter box enclosure I’ve been planning in my head for over a year, which is designed to enclose a much larger litter box. Think “the size of a small boat” sized litter box.
I’m on a roll lately! First I built a screen door, then I went to the dump, and now I’ve replaced the window screen in our front hall using the spline/roller method. The window in the front hall has never been open, due to the old screen being ripped out before hubby bought the place. All that was left were the remnants of the old spline and the dregs of a metal screen.
Last weekend hubby was on the phone with his favorite Aunty and was telling her about the screen door I made. I heard him say “Alison’s philosophy is ‘why buy it when I can make it?’. My philosophy is ‘why make it when I can buy it?'” – that made me LOL 🙂 I do buy some stuff, but a screen door seemed an apt challenge for 2016.
Ever since cleaning the basement last year, and commandeering a non-used cubby for a bunch of our crap, I have been making a pile for THE DUMP. I have never been to the dump. At least not since I was little and went with my Dad. The dump near us is actually a transfer station/recycling center about 20 minutes north of our house.
On our last 2 full days in Oahu, Hawaii, we visited the Valley of the Temples Memorial Park and finally got to snorkel at Hanauma Bay!
Progress with the screen door has been slow. I kept messing up and having to backtrack to fix my mistakes, but that’s the beauty of learning. 2 weekends ago I painted the frame. The outside is black like our other outer doors – I used the same exterior semi-gloss black that I bought for the front door. I also redid the molding covering the edges of the screen.
I spent most of Day 7 in bed, but on Day 8 we hiked up to see Manoa Falls. The waterfall wasn’t much to see, but the hike was beautiful! And since hikes are always better with a hint of danger, the sign at the entrance said not to drink the water or even get it into your mouth or you could catch Leptospirosis. Yummy.
On our 5th & 6th day on Oahu, Hawaii, we visited the Aquarium, hiked Diamond Head crater, got mobbed by pigeons, tried to visit the Pearl Harbor memorial [too windy], and toured the the USS Bowfin, a WWII Submarine.
