My Days - Fabric and Other Things

I'm linking to:
http://kate-life-in-pieces.blogspot.com/2012/06/15-minute-challenge-june-12th.html

Fabric

Tuesday - June 5 - Nothing with fabric
Wednesday - June 6 - Nothing with fabric
Thursday - June 7 - Nothing with fabric
Friday - June 8 - Nothing with fabric
Saturday - June 9 -- Nothing with fabric
Sunday - June 10 - Nothing with fabric
Monday - June 11 - Watched Leah Day tutorial and sewed sample on polar fleece


Too Much Information

Tuesday June 5 - Took mom for her exercise - we were a little late as had to talk to VLM about general stuff.  Mom did great.  The new student asked me to stay so I missed out on the walk I have gotten used to doing. Took mom to have her manicure and pedicure - then I went to store to get stuff for B who was making dinner for Al and his friends.  We were supposed to be seeing the transit of Venus, but B couldn't find the viewing glasses so Al and An tried to make different old fashioned viewing devices - they didn't really work.  The dinner was nice: stuffed peppers wrapped in bacon, steak, asparagus and A and I made a spring roll salad (we didn't have time to make spring rolls so just put in salad format).  We chatted a bit outside as we ate, the came inside for a little TV and ice cream drum sticks.

Wednesday June 6 - B & I were going to paint again, but Jo called and said he really wanted to bring the mulch over on Thursday  - a whole week earlier than I thought he would be coming.  B didn't feel great - and I got sucked into working on my organization event stuff - but didn't finish anything really. A man came by to give us estimates for the rain gutters - told me about something called rainchains, and recommended Overstock.com for water collection and rain barrels.  His plan has five or six downspouts - sounded like we could have rainchains in most or all of the spots.  I hope the estimate will include some more details than his diagram as it was a little unclear.  I like the idea of having a little cup rainchain by the front door and have the double chains at the other places.

Thursday June 7 - Jo came to work on the yard - he moved the rocks and the blocks to the side and front, graded the back yard again, dug up the dirt around the fig tree, put down 3 yards of mulch in the back yard after spraying with round up, and dug trench to put the line for the irrigation for the planters.  Whew!  I asked him if he could replace the little triangle board by the garage that I could see had termite damage and he said sure - and then pointed out that we were missing a bunch of extra support under the over hang - and how the facia board was going crooked.  So I got price for him to fix all that - he said he'd paint it too if we had the paint. Decided to do that.  He was going to also paint the fence and gates but when I saw A he said he wanted to do that with us so I cancelled that part of the deal.  Because of the talking with Jo I was late in getting my mom and meeting A - a bit of miscommunication as A had texted me but without my glasses on I didn't see...  It worked out okay. My mom was fine - A and I had lunch together - and chatted - then I drove home to do paperwork and A took mom to have her hair done.  Then a little chatting at home and he left and B and I went to dinner and show with a meetup group.  It was nice.  The Avengers was pretty loud - the special effects were great though. Looking forward to trying out the new FMQing  'assignment' from Leah Day - Circuit board!

Friday June 8 - Today was delightful.  Started with the workers putting the little triangle sort of pieces of wood under the overhang.  It feels good to have those all secure - how unfortunate that the Home Depot roofers did not do that when they were replacing the facia board and roof.  how unfortunate that the painters did not point out to us that these pieces were something that should be there!  Another man came to give estimate on the new rain gutters.  I liked the way he explained things.  He said it was important to have the downshoots as far as possible away from the foundation -so with his plan we would only have one rainchain in the front.  There would be one downspout at the left (with a diverter to catch the second story water so it goes in this one. Later if we wanted to have a rain collection point this would be a good place to do it. There would be one downspout at the left rear with a diverter to catch the water from the second story and the regular roof line - then the water would be directed to go in the new drain.  He had a little display of the different designs of gutters and downspouts too.  His price was $900 - the estimate from the first business came in at $1400. J is associated with the first guy so he said he could meet the second guys price and could do his ideas.  But it was up  to us who we used.  I guess I have to figure out which locations we need. The second guy said for every inch of rainfall I think it was 650 gallons of water came down - so that's a lot of water that is being wasted.  But the rain barrels are so large and so expensive.  I think we need to start with a smaller one to see how we like it and use it.....

Saturday June 9 - Went to Water Conservation Garden for irrigation workshop.  Summary: We are okay with the sprinklers we have now as will need to water alot to establish the new grass.  Will need to schedule for one minute then wait an hour and schedule another minute - repeat as needed until the grass is established.  We will need to learn how to replace sprinkler heads - we can put different types on the same line so for example the trees would be on bubbler that lets more water out but the grass would get less.  I think J should have put the trees on a different line, but hopefully swapping out the heads will make it all right.  For the front yard I will draw diagram of the sprinklers - I don't really like the way J laid the lines out - do not understand the decisions he made.  But they were already made by the time I saw diagram - there was no discussion with him - he just did it.  Which in other places that has been okay - just not here - as we are really trying to conserve water.....

Sunday June 10 - In a funk all day - so barely did anything.

Monday June 11 - In the AM the third rain gutter company came to give estimate.  He came up with a different plan, but it was still around $900.  He had five down spouts - we are thinking two would be rain chains - can best put them on spots where the chain is away from the house.  I liked the way he showed us the gutters, discussed how it would be installed, and the materials.  Spent the day cleaning downstairs - with lots of breaks. In the late evening felt like I had done enough so watched the Leah Day tutorial for this week (Circuit Board) and sewed a sample on polar fleece.  I hadn't remembered that I needed to make more practice sandwiches, and in my cleaning had moved things around so I couldn't find them easily.