Morning In The Garden

Norma's Peeing Boy is keeping watch.

SCOTUS Decision in The US

I am SO happy for all LGBT people in the US. Today's decision by SCOTUS is truly landmark. They can now legally marry in all 50 States and have their marriage recognized. One more step to equality. I have tears in my eyes today!

Today will go down in history as a day similar to the Roe v. Wade decision.

I am without words, not a common occurrence for me.

Add this to the other momentous decision on the ACA or "Obamacare" and it has been a historic week! 

Me, checking the news this morning!

Linux Revisited

I had trouble with my little Asus Windows XP Netbook over the winter when it refused to charge. I did without it till I got home where I had a spare charger and cable. It is working fine now, well fine as it can with a no longer supported Windows XP system. Yes, I know it would keep on working for years more but I wanted to play with Linux Mint.

I downloaded the latest Mint 17.1 Cinnamon and loaded it onto an 4 GB thumb drive. It is the "Live" version and will run off the thumb drive. It is better than loading it onto a DVD as it will save files and allow changes while I play with it. I set the BIOS to boot from a USB device and it loaded,

So far, so good. Everything seems to work. I tried to install it onto the hard drive both ways, as a dual boot system and by replacing Windows, Neither way worked. I got hit with errors both times. This will take some more study.

But not this weekend as we are having company, Some old friends are coming up for the weekend! Life is Good!

A McWhat?

Yesterday we were looking for something simple for dinner and I suggested trying McDonald's new McLobster sandwiches. Norma was willing so I drove down and went through the drive through, paid my $15 something for two and took them home.

Well, save your money! They are about four inches long and consist of about a tablespoon of lobster mix on a bed of way too much lettuce on a doughy bun. In other words, a complete fail. Norma was not interested in hers after seeing it so I struggled through both of them. Not great. I probably should have taken them both back.

The idea is great. I love lobster and the idea of a lobster salad on a bun sounds great but the actual item is, what can I say? Not great! I will not be ordering another.

Well Then...

The patched deer fence seems to be working. There have been deer all around the property but none inside the fence. Good thing because Norma has spent a small fortune on plants. So far, so good. I have to tackle rebuilding the small garden shed that got destroyed by the landslide. It is broken but still on the foundation and it 'sort of' keeps the rain out. I need a plan. The foundation is too small and I want the shed a little bigger. I also need my son to help. This is what he does and it would be a 3 or 4 hour job for him. But he is in Mexico right now. It would take me a week and $500 worth of material.

I went to the doctor for my six month checkup and lab result consultation. My numbers are all good and well within limits. Everyone is happy. On the way out I asked the receptionist if I could use their new hi-tech scale and got on it. She pressed a couple of buttons and up came 242.7 pounds (fully clothed). A huge improvement over the 260 pounds I clocked in at last September. I have no explanation for this weight loss which I first noticed in Palm Springs when my pants started falling down. I have not changed my lifestyle or my eating habits.

Property taxes are due on July 2 so I went down and paid them $2,150. That is after the two deductions (grants) we get, one for being old and the other for living in the house (as opposed to renting it out).

While I was in London Drugs waiting for my prescriptions I bought Norma some gardening gifts, a new pair of pruning shears, a pair of gloves and a watering wand. $50 and she likes me again.

That is about it. Life is Good!

Back To The Nursery

Norma made a trip back to the nursery with her credit card and replaced the plants the deer feasted on. Here is a partial view.

Deer Like The New Garden Too!

Wouldn't you know it! First day after the new garden went in, so did the deer. At 7:30 this morning Norma noticed a pile of poop on the lawn before she saw several of her brand new plants were nipped off. Needles to say, she was not happy! There was no sign of any remaining deer in the yard and no sign of where he/she/they got in.

At about 1:00 this afternoon Norma did another circuit of the house and started yelling for me. There was a yearling deer inside the fence at the back of the house. I came out and shot it in the rear end with a BB to get it moving and it sauntered over to the wire fence, stooped down and walked right through it!

A closer inspection found damage to the wire fence where the landslide had torn it in half lengthwise, leaving a section that could be pushed far enough apart to get in or out, albeit with some scratches from the broken wire. This was not visible from a distance but if there is a way in, they will find it. Specially with a crop of tasty new flowers to reward them. I got some repair supplies from the workshop and got in between the bush and the damaged fence and made the repairs, rewarding myself with a few scratches. One more place where they can't get in. For now.

New Flower Garden

Norma and her friend Nancy spent most of the day yesterday planting the new flower garden. Beau was here for a while to do the heavy work like moving the boulders around and digging some holes but Norma and Nancy were at it for several hours.

They got most of it done (there are still several left to plant) but that is for tomorrow. When they finished, Nancy phoned Garth and he and the two girls came over to pick her up and stopped for snacks and a couple of drinks while Garth and I watched the hockey game. A nice evening.

My back is not fully repaired yet, the chiropractor says it will be another ten weeks, but I have cut off my visits to him. They are $42 each and I can feel improvement every day so I am going to see how it goes.

Here is Norma's new garden (not quite finished).

Flower Garden

Flower gardens are so much more fun and rewarding once the deer are convinced they are not welcome. I have actually only seen deer twice since we got home and both times on the condo side of the fence. Norma has been busy working almost every day in her new garden. The photos I have posted the last few days are all flowers from the older established beds that escaped the landslide we had over the winter. Here are a couple more. I hope you are enjoying them half as much as Norma is enjoying growing them or me photographing them.

I am working through the back pain which is still very much there. I have another chiropractor appointment for tomorrow morning. Hopefully he will help me out. Right now it is so painful it is sometimes difficult to even breathe.

Another Rose

Norma's Rose

The light was right.

Oh, Woe Is Me

I did something really dumb a couple of days ago and am suffering the consequences! Norma came home with a bag of garden lime in the trunk and asked me to get it out for her. It was not a large bag and did not look all that heavy so I reached in with one hand and lifted it out. It was much heavier than it looked, I did not lift it properly and I could feel something 'snap'. A while later I was suffering severe back pain.

Now, a couple of days later, it still hurts to breathe and is difficult to find a comfortable position. Luckily, my recliner is about the most comfortable spot so that is where I am spending my time. This used to happen to me often when I worked as I was always dealing with heavy tool boxes and test gear, usually hauling them in and out of helicopters with spinning blades so I was forced to carry them stooped over, a recipe for disaster and as a result I was on a first name basis with my chiropractor! Since I retired this has only happened a couple of times but this one is bad. I will try a couple of extra strength Tylenol and if that doesn't work I will see if my chiropractor has retired.

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Live Writer with photo


OK! It works again! Live Writer stopped working a week or so ago when Google changed their sign in protocol and Microsoft did not update their writer program. After thousands of complaints a solution was reached! Good to see.