leatherman's log   April 2010 Week One |   Week Two |   Week Three |   Week Four

Week One: If you're a new visitor because you saw the blurb about me in the Catawba Care Clinic's newsletter, you might want to go back to the first week of March to caught up a bit and to read the welcome I wrote for ya. A Different Kind of Speaking Event Speaking of my friends over at the Catawba Care Clinic, I've volunteered for another project - and this one is right up my alley. On April 15th, CCC is hosting two classes for the clients. One class will be about the artistry of watercolors, and the other will be about "Container Gardening". Since I have no artistic abilities towards painting or drawing, can you guess for which class I'm going to be the instructor?   Thanks to Google, I've been doing a ton of research and now have a slew of projects (self irrigation, drip irrigation and hydroponics) that I am anxious to try out for myself; but for the class itself, I've got a nice lesson planned out. Although the Clinic will be supplying soil, cups, seeds, etc. for this demonstration, I am going to design my presentation, after some general guidelines about container gardening, around one item that I always have in abundance - empty Coke bottles!   Many of you may remember how Jim and I, along with our friends, used empty pop bottles to build pool floats for our annual Pooltag event. (A contest to build a themed float that would get across the width of the pool with a rider. This event was based on a Redbull-sponsored event called "Flugtag" with themed flying-craft were pushed off a pier.) Now, I'm going to demonstrate in this class how to use pop bottles to build . . . . . . a terrarium, a greenhouse, a hanging basket planter, an upside-down hanging planter, a hanging strawberry planter, a self-irrigation planter, and a drip irrigation waterer. Terrarium Self-Irrigation Planter Upside down Hanging Planter After I get all my pictures taken, lesson plan worked up, and materials ready, I'll post instructions here. Of course, I hope to also have pictures to go along with the story of how the actual lesson turns out. The Yard and The Gardens I am just amazed at the weather lately. Although I've been hearing about the record-breaking heat back in Ohio, I know that it's only early April and there's sure to still be some cold - and maybe even sn@w! - yet to come up there. But down here the "sunny South" has been living up to it's name. For nearly a week, it's been in the 80s, bumping up against 90, and the plants and I are loving it. Within just three days, the apple tree went from bare naked to having leaves to being covered in blossoms!     Right on time to celebrate the holiday, this yellow Easter Rose burst into bloom out beside the driveway One of the projects that I've been working on is the "Mexican Garden" out in Mom's backyard. Over the years, the poor cacti in this garden have gotten overgrown with weeds, the lava rock has washed out, and the whole thing was covered until a ton of leaf debris. So "Gardener Leatherman" has been busy digging, clearing and sifting out lava rocks while trying (and not well) to avoid the prickly spines of the few remaining living cacti. To try to not get so pricked, I've been staking and tying up the cacti that are still living.   I have good plans to finish fixing up this garden too. Since there isn't going to be enough lava rock left over, the plan is to make a border at the rocks (perhaps with nice matching red brick) and fill the rest of the garden with sand. The sand will be perfect too, as I have a lot of new cacti for this garden. My friend Bill, who has been growing cactus all around his house for years, sent home with me after a recent visit boxes and boxes of cacti. There are big cactus and small cactus, light green and dark green, short spines and large pokey sticky ouchie spines. (Bill tells me that no gloves are immune to cactus spikes and the best tool to use when planting are barbeque tongs.) Daily more and more of the azaleas buds are bursting forth in bloom.   Every day more cosmos (above) and morning glory (below) plants pop up their little heads and begin the start of the growth towards flowering in just a few more weeks.   The dogwood tree has put out some buds, but the flowers are still just small and green yet.   Miscellaneous flowers scattered throughout the woods and around the property   The magnolia is losing it's beautiful purple flowers and beginning to gain more and more leaves every day.   The pear trees too are losing blossoms in exchange for leaves. I was getting worried. All up and down the highway, and out beside the big backyard, the redbud trees were all blooming; but not the redbud that I planted this fall after I moved in. So I was beginning to worry, either though it's branches didn't seem dead, that my poor little stick of a tree wasn't going to make it. However, little bitty red blotches along the branches have burst forth into leaves just this week! Pooltag 2010?!? Speaking of Pooltag, maybe we'll see the return of Pooltag!! Debating between a hot tub or a pool, Mom finally found a cheap 18ft diameter pool (as seen in this picture from the internet) for sale through craigslist. Taking both cars, we drove over to York (another small city here in York county, SC) and picked up the pool/liner, ladder, filter pump, skimmer, etc, and all the pieces for this pool. Now I have another project on my list - leveling out this nearly level piece of ground before I can set up the pool. It's a shame it'll take a while to get things together, as it's already in the upper 80s. Then again, we never opened Jim's pool up until mid-May and almost never got in it until June (and even then the water was often pretty chilly). (Hey, there's a picture of myself - in shadow form) Though I'm saving up pop bottles to use for my gardening projects, since Leatherman has a pool of his own now, I'm going to have to start saving those bottles for the next Pooltag!! Hoppy Easter For Easter this year, Mom decided to cook a meal and take it over to share with Nana. Mom and Nana get the meal together and drinks ready to set on the table After dinner, since I totally forgot to take any pictures of the table set up or the excellent food (hey! the food was great and I was hungry. That's my excuse for being a slacker photographer. ), I decided to take some pictures of Mom and her Mother. But who's that in-between the two ladies??? MouseOver for a CloseUp Well, using mirrors is one way to get pictures of myself for my updates. Since the ladies didn't want me in their picture, they switched to the other sofa and had me take another picture. Look how happy and healthy this mother and daughter pair look. I love you Mom and Nana! He he he. They don't look quite as happy when they aren't posing. (Don't complain Mom. If I didn't post these pictures, it was going to be that GBS shot of you in the kitchen. But you made me promise not to use that, and Nana made me promise not to use the "surprise" picture I took of her, so this is what I was left with - both of y'all looking bored and a bit sleepy after that wonderful meal you made for us.) Like GrandMother, Like GrandSon A couple months ago, I mentioned how my brother realized that I, with my blog, was following in the steps of our GrandMother. Our grandparents used to go on frequent trips and have visited all 50 states and 17 foreign countries. When I was over at Nana's house this Easter, I noticed and took this picture of her "photo albums"/notebooks from those trips. (Wonder how many notebooks my 12 year blog would take up if I printed it all out??) Just like my blog, Nana's albums are filled with photos along with the tales of their travels. GrandDaddy aka Alex GrandMother aka Nana aka Peggy Maybe though I should say that just like Nana's albums, my blog is filled with pictures and stories too. At least I come by this pastime of documenting my life naturally. Who knew that Nana was far ahead of her time?

Week Two: Every Yard Needs a Water Feature Ever since I left my house on 14 St. and left my fountain behind, I've been wanting another one. At Jim's house I had a whole swimming pool, so we didn't really need another lawn water feature there. I had made some plans for one at the house on Miami Ct.; but by the time Summer came around and the weather was nice enough to do some yard work, things were going bad with my (ex) friend Joyce and (ex) roommate John, and I wasn't long to stay in that house. Rounding up a stack of bricks and some pots that Mom had lying around, along with purchasing a new pump and an appropriate container, I got to work on putting together a fountain right outside my door. I know it's not really a permanent fountain yet, but it's a start. My first fountain started as a hole in the ground where a newly planted dogwood had died. It started out as just a kiddie pool. A few years later, after the pool cracked and broke, it became larger when I used pond liner material. Eventually, I cemented it all up and made it the nice permanent fixture that it was.   x   Since this is the first year that I'm trying out this fountain arrangement, I decided to try something different in the pots. I've planted white radishes in some pots, dill in others, and a variety mix of fancy lettuce in the remaining pots. A glance over the porch railing at the fountain Kat and Dogz Joxie enjoys his favorite spot of the shady spot right beside the deck.   Aries watches me, through the fence, as I work further out in the yard. (More about the project I'm doing that Aries is watching in just a little bit) Mr. Kitty doesn't care that I'm trimming the hedges, Mr. Kitty just wants to know where the food is!!   Mom's dogs sit inside the nice air conditioned house, while they watch leatherman out mowing the yard in the 90 degree heat. In another week, the front of the house should be covered in pink blossoms when these azaleas finally open up. More From Around the Yard The dogwoods are blooming.   The trellis rose is budding.   The cosmos are jumping right now. Give them a few more weeks and we'll be seeing buds and blooms. Growing in the Garden Radishes were the first things up in the garden and they're doing really well.     Watching and waiting, I didn't thing the cucumbers were ever going to grow. Then finally one day I saw just the tips of green poking from the soil (the picture on the left). Only one day later, suddenly there were nearly a dozen cucumber plants poking up nea (in the picture on the right).     Every thing is doing well in the large garden. At the back of the medium garden, the sunflowers are nearly three inches tall now. Although the radishes, cucumbers, and sunflowers seem to be doing well in the medium middle garden, I haven't seen any lettuce or spinach coming up. I'm not certain about the dill, tarragon, chives, cilantro or leeks either, over in the segmented garden. Of sure I see little green sprouts; but are they herbs or weeds? I just don't know yet. Another Project   The project that Aries was watching me work on was enlarging the fenced in part of the yard. Right now the dogz have an area fenced in from the deck to almost even with the sunroom. Soon that area will be doubled as the area is expanded to well past the apple tree. Not only will that give my dogz a much, much larger area, and some much-needed shade later in the Summer months; but the fenced-in back yard and this side yard will now be accessible to one another through the existing gate. Now that I have all the posts pounded in, I've started raking out the leaves and planting grass seed in this area. Dennis is building a gate to put down here at this end of the yard and soon, it'll be time to wrap the fence around the posts. Once that is up and the "middle" section of fence removed (the section that is the back side of the area fenced in now), the boyz will have a HUGE yard in which to play. Around the Rest of the Yard Since it's Spring time, not only has there been planting to do; but clean-up chores too. I've been ripping out honeysuckle from all around the property (and probably will be ripping it out for another 20 years before it's all gone! There's a lot of it here!). There were trees out front taking over the holly bushes that had to have dead and live branches removed. And I've still got that "Mexican Garden" to finish cleaning up. As I've been doing all these chores around the yard, it seems like every day more flowers blossom throughout the yard.   My redbud is still doing fine, putting out more leaves daily. (that's the apple tree in full bloom in the background) Mom's clematis growing outside the back door These orange azaleas are native to the Carolinas A Quick Update As often happens in Spring, I can hardly update you before I need to update you again. Just two days again, all these azaleas in front of the picture window had not opened up. Now the front of the house is covered in beautiful pink blossoms. The two blueberry bushes are covered in small white flowers Finally the white roses, on the trellis by my yard, are starting to open up. And they smell beautiful! Looking at Myself I've been working on taking pictures of myself. While I had the tripod out (taking pictures of the steps of turning a Coke bottle into a terrarium), I used the timer function to get some pictures of myself. MouseOver either of these pictures for CloseUp pictures of Leatherman the Gardener Using the trick I learned over at Nana's, I got a good picture of myself (wearing headphones) using the mirror in my bedroom. (I see a couple doggies in the picture too!) Seeds of Hope (Catawba Care Coalition Volunteer Appreciation Luncheon) Did someone say barbeque?? Of course, since invited, I would have gone to the luncheon Catawba Care Coalition (CCC) was holding to honor it's volunteer workers; but offering BBQ sealed the deal for me. The luncheon was held in the Rock Hill Arts Council building, in the main floor gallery. Mary Alice Bucher, CCC's Volunteer Coordinator planned the luncheon around the theme of "Seeds of Hope" using the colors of purple and green.     Each table was decorated with a large clay pot of flowers and several gardening implements (gloves, trowels, hose sprinkler nozzles). Each place setting had a napkin and program along with a small clay pot and packet of seeds. Mary Alice puts the final touches on the table decor as the caterers set up the food. Having the luncheon in an art gallery gave quite a bit of culture to the affair. All around us hung large paintings (6x6) of woodland landscapes done by Jeremiah Miller. http://www.jeremiahmiller.com/   CCC Staff, client volunteers, board volunteers all gathered for the luncheon The fare included BBQ, mac-n-cheese, cole slaw, salad, and rolls. A large half-n-half (vanilla and chocolate) cake was decorated in the theme colors of purple and green. The caterers served the meal, and sure weren't skimpy with their portions. Now that's the way to serve BBQ!   MouseOver CloseUp As we finished up lunch and were eating cake, Mary Alice took to the podium to speak about the them of this luncheon, "Seeds of Hope", which was very appropriate for this time of year. She spoke to the group about how all the little things that the volunteers do plant "seeds" that grow into the large works that the agency accomplishes. Whether it's stamping envelopes, transporting clients, or manning the booth at a health fair, each time a volunteer handles the duties, the agency is able to not only take care of those issues but still has the time and free staff to do HIV testing or to help HIV clients. Though there were still plenty of chairs, close to 30 people were in attendance. MouseOver CloseUp The Executive Director of the clinic, Anita Case, spoke for a few minutes, thanking the volunteers, and Mary Alice for putting the luncheon together. Anita also very happily commented on this being the tenth year for CCC and how much this ASO (AIDS Service Organization) has grown and improved throughout this last decade. She spoke to us about how many people the agency has been able to test and how many people (like me!) that the agency has been able to help. On a personal note, while I am very happy CCC is able to celebrate it's 10th anniversary of helping those in the community dealing with HIV/AIDS, I also find that a bit scary from my point of view. I mean I've been positive close to 3 times that length of time and had AIDS nearly double the amount of time this organization has even been in existence. Why this blog, which I started in 1998 to prove "teh Aids", PCP, and pneumonia hadn't killed me, has been in existence longer than Catawba Care Coalition I guess not moving back home after Randy died or after my hospital stays was the right thing, since there would not have even been services in this area for me to use. We had a special guest speaker, Tanya Gregg, a longtime volunteer at the clinic. Tanya is a senior at Winthrop College and has been volunteering her time through her college years. Even when her studies got tough and took up her time, she found time to help the community by helping CCC. MouseOver CloseUp Picking up the theme of "Seeds of Hope", Tanya told an inspirational story of how a person touched the lives of others that he met by doing simple things. She continued the analogy, in her speech "The Seeds We Sow", by explaining how all the little things the volunteers do touch the lives of other either directly, or by giving the staff the time off from menial chores to handle the big tasks of helping those with HIV in the community. Mary Alice Bucher (CCC Volunteer Coordinator) and Latisha Jackson (Director of Support Services) passed out several special awards recognizing the college student who had volunteered the most time, the volunteer who had helped the most with client transportation.... MouseOver CloseUp   MouseOver CloseUp After the special awards, the ladies handed out certificates of appreciation to all the CCC volunteers.   Student Volunteers, Board Volunteers, and Client Volunteers all received award certificates. Here's my award, along with the program, and my "leaf" from the display of all the volunteers. Oh my! Who are these two cuties? Why it's leatherman and his case worker! Yeppers, that's Christine, who has helped me navigate the issues of getting SC services after moving down from OH. She's been making sure that I'm signed up for the right things, and getting my medical issues taken care of. She's also been the one to suggest that I join the clinic's Speaker's Bureau and other volunteer jobs.   (I took this picture of the two of us, so my self-portrait-taking-skills are getting better and better.) Closing Out the Week with..... More Yard Work     To close out the week, I did a few more things around the yard; but my main project was to work on making the new yard ready for the boyz. After raking the dirt, I spread grass seeds. To keep the seeds from blowing away, or getting all eaten up by the birds before it has the chance to grow, I pulled out the chipper and make some mulch to spread over the area.   After I had the yard all seeded and mulched, I watered it down really well, so the little grass seeds would be happy. We'll see how happy they are when/if I see little green shoots in about 5 days. Afterwards, I used the chipper to mulch up all the leaves I raked out of the yard. I used the chopped up leaves to start a compost pile! Leatherman is becoming such a country boy.

Week Three: What?!? More Flowers? Haven't You Run Out of Yard Yet? No way! Spring is just starting to get kicked in, so there'll be plenty of more flower pictures for a while yet. And aren't flower pictures MUCH better than all those sn@w pictures I used to post from Ohio??   From the bed across the front of the house to scattered locations throughout the woods out in front of the house, the azaleas bring blasts of pink, orange, white, purple, red, burgundy, and lavender   There is a small pet cemetery (definitely not the scary kind of pet cemetery) on the hill in the woods out front of the house. Recently I planted a row of asters that Mom and Dennis were given by the same friend of theirs that provided the irises that I planted early months ago in front of my deck. Out front near the cemetery, Mom's irises are growing and budding; but not blooming quite yet.   from my side yard, by the garden, looking out through the trellis to the azaleas in the front yard from the front yard, by the cosmos, looking through the trellis back to the vegetable garden     There's a single rose blooming on the single rose bush in the front flower beds. and a rose soon to bloom in my garden   Everything I planted in the pots to go around the fountain is growing well. I can't remember and I can't tell yet which pots have the lettuce mix and which ones have the white radishes.   Any day now the morning glories will put out shooters to start climbing up the strings and up the trellis. Oops! Turn around and "any day" is here already. The morning glories put out their tendrils just 2 days after the previous picture Out back, I've been working on getting things ready to expand the fenced-in area for the boyz. I pounded posts in the ground, hung the the new fencing and unhooked the old fencing. Last week, I raked and seeded the area with grass and afterwards chipped several piles of branches, old wood and leaves across the area to mulch the seed down. I can happily report, a week later, that grass is poking up and greening up the area. Ok, so there's no buds, no blooms, and no beautiful flowers; but I planted it, nourished it, watered it and it's growing. It's grass in the newly finished-in area of the dogz backyard.   Once I remove the big fence and extend the whole area for the dogz, I am afraid that Joxer and the boyz will just walk right over Rose of Sharon plants that I transplanted this past Fall. Recycling old pieces of fencing and some boards that Dennis had thrown away, I made a fence to wrap around these plants But until the grass has gotten taller, ready for the dogs to trample it down (and for me to take pictures of LOL), there was something else I needed to do. On either side of the backyard fence, Mom had peonies planted. Knowing how bad Joxer's eyesight is and how the other boyz will just walk over small plants (not knowing that they will grow up to be produce beautiful flowers), I "recycled" some old lattice into "planter fencing" and created two matching flower beds on either side of the fence. The Boyz side of the yard The little dogs (Mom's dogs) side of the yard   Speaking of the other side of the fence, I did another planting project out back too. Mom was concerned about how bare the back of the house looked (behind the sun room). After digging up a strip of ground and turning into the dirt the compost of leaves I cleaned out of the gutter, I planted a line of seedlings extending the Rose of Sharon bushes that are growing up in back of the house. Soon that lattice hanging up will be covered up in these quick-growing flowering bushes. Right outside the back door, leading from the kitchen, is a clematis that has been growing up for nearly two decades. A few days later, even more flowers began to bloom on the clematis vine It's really hard keeping up with these plants in the yard, and with my blog. No sooner do I add a picture of something, than I have to turn around and add an updated picture. Remember the irises out front that hadn't bloomed yet? Well, two days later and they're already beginning to bloom.     and that rose by the garden is now blooming. Speaking of roses, the rose bush by the front corner of the house, has seriously outgrown it's trellis. To help it along, I ran some lines of yarn from the roof and tied up the long branches.   On the other side of the fence, just behind my fountain, I finally finished digging up another area to turn it into a flower bed. In this new bed, I planted 5 hollyhocks that I purchased at Walmart. Though the outside of the bag says they are guaranteed to bloom this year, I have my doubts. (Usually hollyhocks bloom the second year after planting) There "plants" were nothing more than a glob of roots off a tiny nub of what I guess was once a hollyhock stalk. However, I did plant some other "roots" that were packaged in a similar way; and lo and behold, they really are growing into hostas. Hopefully, I'll see some hollyhocks this year, though I won't hold my breath on seeing flowers this year. Since I had 5 root bundles, I planted them in the corners and the center of my newly dug-up area. In-between those plants, I scattered seeds that I collected years ago when I lived on 14th St. Now I just have to wait, give everything time to grow, and see what happens. Of course, as I've been telling you, with this being Spring, the waiting time isn't too long right now. Sure enough, less than a week later, those little hollyhock nubs are putting out several green shoots all around.   The redbud tree is still doing well. Little projects keep us all busy around the property. Recently Dennis installed this railing on the deck. I have more spaces for plants (pots and hanging) along with it being more or a barrier to keep nearly-blind Joxer from walking off the porch and into my iris flower bed. ROFL MouseOver the Boyz for CloseUps of the Boyz   So far, all of my Coke bottle plant container projects are doing well. The tomato plant is growing by leaps and bounds and is nearly as large as the ones I planted in the garden from the same seedling container. The morning glories will soon be spilling out of their container. And the strawberry plants have put out some more blooms, and some more small berries. Most things are growing well in the gardens; but there have been a few causalities. For some reason in the center bed, no spinach and no lettuce has grown. In the sectional garden, no tarragon has come up either. However, we did have some plant deaths though. The three seedling cantaloupes that Mom got at the store all croaked two weeks ago .   But, never fear! Even though not everything came up, my garden won't be having big holes in it. Bill (who gave me that ton of cacti - and more about that shortly! - gave me a ton of seeds too. So using a leftover tray the tomato plants came in and a couple of Coke-bottle greenhouses, I've started some seedlings to transplant to the empty areas of garden. I'm going to try growing a butternut squash and a pumpkin plant in some containers at the back of the garden; but I'm hoping to have some bell peppers, cauliflower, pimento, and okra plants to transfer into the main garden sections. WooHoo! The okra and some pimento plants are already out of the dirt. The Vegetable Garden The Mexican Garden I've been working hard on finishing up Mom's Mexican Garden. I finally got all the lava rocks dug up, cleaned up, and put into the back half of the area. Then Mom got some nice red brick and we formed a wavy line dividing the area into a front and back section. Filled with the lava rocks now, I planted a couple Yucca plants in this back section. I also planted some small cactus in pots which I placed about, sitting on top of the rocks. Before planting the rest of the cactus that my friend Bill gave me, I first laid out the boxes of where I thought I would put each kind of cacti. Then came the task of trying to put all that stuff in the ground WITHOUT getting stabbed, jabbed, poked and pricked. Using a pair of BBQ grill tongs, I was almost able to get everything planted with being stuck - well without getting stuck too much.   Now that all the cactus is planted, we just need to get some sand to fill in this front section to have this garden finished. Ole! Break out the marguerites for a toast, the Mexican Garden is finished! This new improved Mexican Garden features potted cactus sitting in the lava rock area, and a wide array of cactus in the sandy area.   Some close-ups of the cactus in the garden.

Week Four: Ye Olde Swimming Hole Starting up one of the projects that has been on my list for a while, I've been digging in the dirt. Little by little, I've started the process of leveling out an area in the backyard, so that I can put up the new pool that we recently got. mIkIe leatherman ComputerTutor Farmer Mike ConstructionWorker   After a couple days worth of work now, almost half the area is finally ready. Now to start on the OTHER half! The lower half of the area needed very little dirt removed, while the upper half had to dug out by about 6 inches. I've been dumping all this dirt down into a sunken area of the lawn, which very soon should be level with the rest of the yard.   I had a pleasant guest flittering about while I was out digging in the dig. Instead of buzzing bees, toads, frogs, inch worms, caterpillars, mosquitoes or spiders that I that normally run into in the yard, today my guest was this lovely butterfly.   MouseOver CloseUp   MouseOver CloseUp After a couple more days of digging (a few hours each day), I've made excellent progress. After "learning" from digging the first half of this circle, I dug trenches dividing the second half into sections. After making sure each trench was level, I called it a day. My "simple" task the next day was to cut out the pie shapes between the trenches. Of course, this simple task took over 4 hours of chopping, raking, and shoveling to accomplish moving more than six wheelbarrows of dirt.   Next came the part where I had to crawl around on my hands and knees picking up rocks and clipping tiny roots, to remove anything in the area that could puncture the pool. Finally, it was time to spread a layer of sand over the whole area.   Looking out across the backyard from the deck Since the pool didn't come with a ground cover, I created one using duct tape and a box of contractor strength trash bags.     Next I had to try to stretch out the liner and boy, wouldn't it have been nice if there had been three of me to do the job. ROFL While I started filling the pool with water and stretching it out, I also scrubbed on the dirty spots with a bucket of bleach water. Next, in anticipation of the finished filled product, I put the step ladder back together.     Oh No! A Major Problem! Without a hard wall for this kind of pool, it relies on an inflated ring to keep the sides of the liner up above the level of the water. Unfortunately, as I started filling the pool up with water, I noticed that this air ring was deflating! First thing the next morning, I got up and began to look for the hole. Starting at one spot, I worked around the pool, lifting the ring while holding the hose to let a trickle of water cascade over the ring so I could hopefully set air escaping. As I was nearly 90% around the pool, I was beginning to be worried that I would have to get into the cold 5 inches of water in the pool to go around the circle looking for the hole on the inside.   Thankfully, I found the hole(s)! It looks like something has scraped the plastic and there are two small holes about the size of the head of a Bic pen. I was very glad to see that they were in an easy spot to patch (though I really wasn't that glad to see holes at all. ) Thankfully, a patch kit came with the pool. Unfortunately, the vinyl cement was too old and had hardened. So I took a quick trip to the store, got some glue, and came home and patched the hole. While I waited for the glue to set, I continued and finished up another project. Finishing Up the Dog Yard Project While waiting on the glue on the pool patch to set, I finished up another project. Though I could have let the grass grow more before "releasing the hounds" (ala Mr. Burns from the Simpsons), I couldn't wait any longer. Carefully, I unhooked what used to be the back fence and stretched it out to become the new section of side fence. At first, the boyz were scared to come into the new expansion of their yard. Poor Joxer with his bad eyesight was leery of going past where the fence had been, especially when he kept bumping into the middle section still fenced off to protect the Rose of Sharon bushes. I literally had to go and pick up Zeus and then Aries to "make" them come into the new part of their yard.     But once I got them down into the lower part of the yard, they loved it!     Everybody sniffed about, peed, some even pooped, others ate grass, and all three rolled around in the new luxurious soft green grass. Joxer and Zeus enjoy their new shaded area of the yard Nearly Finished with the Pool Project After spending some time with the dogz letting them get used to their new expanded yard, it was time to return to the pool project. Thankfully, the glue and patch had worked and air was no longer leaking out! (does taking a pix of my shadow count as a self-protrait?) Even though there's only about 6 inches of water in the pool (thanks to nearly 2 inches of rain in the past two days), it was time to start adding the floats!This whale and dolphin are way too small to ride (I got them at the dollar store, so they aren't grown-up sized floats); but it's good to see some pool pets in the water already. To not tax the well too much, I'll be slowly filling the pool over the next couple of days - just in time for the temps to go back into the mid-80s.   The first actual "swimming in the pool" pool pictures will probably come after the first of next month; which will be pretty amazing as usually we didn't even open up the pool until the middle of May and didn't get in until June. A Time of Laughter and a Time of Sorrow It's been a lot of labor and man hours, putting together these flowers bed and getting thing ready for a pool; but I have enjoyed all of the activities. I hope that you have enjoyed seeing pictures of the beautiful surroundings of where the boyz and I are living now and seeing pictures of what I've accomplished that I'm hoping will bring even more beauty into my life.   However, I must tell you that even though I have thoroughly enjoyed all of this outside work, I've done all these activities with a very heavy heart. Each day of April that goes by brings me a day closer to the anniversary of Jim's death, which was only two short years ago. Every time I lie on the deck, every time I plant in the yards, every spadeful of dirt that removed for the pool placement, were all things that I did without Jim's help and because Jim is gone. It's definitely a Catch-22. I can only imagine how each project would have been completed easier and sooner with Jim's assistance; yet I'm doing each of the projects simply because I'm no longer at Jim's house.   My life has been in quite an upheaval through the last few years. First I lost the 14th St house because of having to "repay the overpayment" to SS. Then I moved to Jim's house, only to lose not only Gabby, but also Jim and his house within another year. Unexpectedly a year later, I lost the Miami Ct house because of my roommate's stupidity and hatefulness, not to mention losing my best friend, my OhioMom, in the process. Though I still have a while before coming up on the anniversary of moving into my Mom's in SC, I'm happy, confident and thankful that I won't be losing my home this year. However having had so many years of stability and then these recent years of upheaval, my heart, mind and soul are all still disquieted by so many drastic changes in so short a time.   But right now, I'm just thinking about my Jim. Though I would just like to remember him like in these pictures, I can't help but remember the events of just two years ago. Two yrs. ago this past Thursday, I along with Jim and his doctors finally agreed on the decision to stop the treatment and let me take Jim back home so that he could die in the comfort of his home after a hellish 2 months in the hospital. Two years ago Sunday, I had to send the friend (Mary) who had come to help me with Jim's care to the hospital herself where she would find her kidneys were infected and shutting down. Two years Tuesday, I had to put up with another friend (Linda) who came to the house to prepare a meal and argue with her and her crying children about how Jim hadn't just "given up" and "just needed to eat" as much as the cancer and AIDS had won the battle (boy, was that a messy scene and it wasn't like having a dying partner wasn't a messy enough scene). Even with help from another friend (Sean), I would be awake for nearly the next 78 hours, only occasionally dozing, as Jim slowly inched closer and closer to his death. Two years ago Friday, my mom would come up from SC in time to see Jim one last time before he would pass away on the morning of May 1st. Jim's death at 5:55am would be exactly 14 yrs and 24 days since I had gone through nearly the same circumstances losing my first partner Randy on May 25th at that same time in the morning. Please take some time with me to remember Jim by looking at the memorial page I created to remember Jim and the life and love I had with him for nearly 10 yrs. You may remember from a few months ago, when I joined the Speaker's Bureau for my ASO (Aids Service Organization, the Catawba Care Clinic) that I tell my story by talking about how both of my men passed away from AIDS because they were undiagnosed and untreated for too long. On May 1st as part of my remembrance of Jim and his passing, I'll be manning the health fair booth that my ASO is setting up for the "Healthy Hometown" part of the Fort Mill, SC "Strawberry Festival". I'll be passing out candy, condoms, encouraging people to take the rapid HIV test to find out their status, and passing out info about the ASO (Catawba Care Coalition) and it's associated clinic (Christopher Clinic) which serve a tri-county area. Hopefully, my volunteer work can be the legacy of Jim and Randy and will cause someone to get tested and treated in time for a better outcome.

Updated: leatherman @reigningpages.com