Saturday Was Relaxing

Fact:  A rat’s teeth grow five inches a year, only maintained by continuous grinding and gnawing to keep from outgrowing the rat’s mouth.

We got an early morning delivery.  We needed more construction materials.  Morning is terrific, and its only drawback is that it comes at such an inconvenient time of day.

I’m sorry for people who don’t drink.  They wake up in the morning; that’s as good as they feel all day.

More blocks are coming!

The backyard has been under construction for so long that we almost forgot where we are headed with this project!

Today we have dirt!

The final result will be similar but slightly larger than the Los Alamitos veggie garden.  We made the paths between the beds wider to accommodate the 90-gallon wheeled trashcans.  We also went to a square look as it is easier to build.  We have water in each bed, complete with a hose and a drip system!

The new garden will have an outdoor stainless-steel sink, a potting bench, and a place for holding the mulch or straw bales.  Lessons learned from the other garden!

In six weeks we will have a garden!

Our property is so big that the new garden only takes up about one-sixth of the backyard and cannot be seen from the house.

It was a great day!

We have been disturbing the local rat population.  Yes, we have some rats because every neighbor has fruit trees.  Scout, The Wonder Dog, has a nose for these little beauties.  We tried to teach him to point to them but to no avail.

Scout was on patrol; he was in charge of rats and mouses!

We went to the hair parlor today.  I got my ear lowered.  Nancy asked me, “Would you like a haircut?” Being a gentleman, I responded.  “No, I’d like them all cut.”

Dr. Mary did the whole shebang.  Mary has come to realize how bad hairdressers are to have as friends.  They are always talking about you behind your back.

So pretty!

We were not hungry, so we decided to go to Aces Bar and Grill and share a house salad with a steak.  It was pretty good, but I could not eat very much.  We hijacked the jukebox and played the 1940s-1960s music that was available.

We met the girl sitting next to us; she was a bartender at a local facility and came to visit Aces.  We told her about Odessey 1908, and she will try it.  She also likes to dance, so Mary sent me over to do a swing dance with her; she was pretty good.

Odyssey 1908; my drink of choice!

We returned home, and Scout had been outside chasing rats; there were;t any, but he had great stories to tell.  Scout asked us, “Where do rats go to replace their tails?  A re-tail store!” We will have to put up with Scout’s joke for the next few weeks.

He was so tired!

Mary made “Shipwreck Dinner” It’s not ‘gourmet,’ but it’s hot, filling, and straightforward.  The prep time is generally limited to how fast your can opener works and how hard it is to unwrap your meat.  The big bonus is that it’s a complete one-pot meal with no chopping unless you want to.

Mary made “Shipwreck Stew.”

After dinner, we watched a movie, and then the two of us went to check on our traps.  Success, we have caught two giant rats so far; more to come!  I drilled the trap and put a substantial piece of wire through the hole, tieing the other end to the fend or wall;  When the trap goes off, the trap generally flies into the air, and now I can retrieve it quickly,

Gotcha!

We finally crashed at about 10:30 PM.  Tomorrow is another busy day.  We are planning for a whole-house fan that will move almost 4,000 CFM per minute, the equivalent of a two-car garage.  Joe suggested upstairs about the stairway as it is far away, and the sound will be negligible.  That location will cool the five bedrooms, family room, and kitchen areas relatively quickly.

About Paul

Just an old retired guy trying to finish out my last years on this planet. I lost my best friend and wife in early 2020. I was blessed again by reconnecting with Dr. Mary Côté, a long-time friend. Mary and I got married July 28th, 2021, and are enjoying life together and plan to spend the rest of our lives being a blessing to our friends and family.
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