Fact: Agatha Christie Has Sold Over 2 BILLION Books! The Queen of Crime was famous for her murder mysteries and characters like Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple. She’s one of the most popular authors ever, having sold an estimated 2 billion books in over 100 languages. Decades after her death, she’s still the most successful fiction author of all time. The whole world loves a good whodunnit!
Alexa provided a little relief today; when we asked about the weather, she said, “the high will only be 90 today!” She was somewhat correct as there was a bit of fog in the air, and it was in the high 60s when we got up.
It was so hot the other day that even the mosquitoes were dropping like flies.
We heard noises from the front of the house, and low and behold, the 10-yard dumpster #1 was being delivered. Ten yards is 270 cubic feet, and we will fill at least two of them by Saturday afternoon.
Da truck! Da truck!
The first to go will be the old grass and “topsoil,” which was pretty worthless. That will just about fill one full bin; tomorrow, we get another 10-yard bin (270 cubic feet)
Goodbye, old sod!
The diesel cranked up and the bin raised into the sky, looking like a rocket launcher! Looked like O’Slamma Bin Launchin’ was about to attack!
A tandem delivery; we got only one!
We had to keep a video of this process. Think about it; 10 cubic yards of dirt weigh 22,000 pounds or 11 tons. That means 110 wheelbarrow trips from the backyard to the front for approximately one-half of the dirt that has to be removed!
Ed came over just after the truck departed. He worked on the upstairs air conditioner. Incredible as it seems, a $13.75 part called a capacitor returned the air conditioner to work. After about 45 minutes, the upstairs was at a cool 75 degrees; we had to turn it down! Thank you, Ed!!!
Off to Girls Night Out at the Santa Ana Elks Lodge, where we enjoyed the company of many interesting characters; this is also where we coordinate the weekend activities amongst our friends.
Thursday, and it was GNO; Girls Night Out!
The ladies wear hats, and even some of the gentlemen dawn magnificent chapeaus. Linda had on a beauty this afternoon. The see-through mesh/lace was perfect.
What do you call a dinosaur that wears a cowboy hat and boots? Tyrannosaurus Tex.
Hello Linda, I love the hat!
We got a text from Colleen, which we passed around to everyone. She is going to a concert this evening and is wearing the new cowboy hat she got at the fair. We reminded her, “You know horses are smarter than people, and you never heard of a horse going broke betting on people.”
We had many comments from our friends about the nice notes she sent them, all thanking them for making her stay in California so enjoyable. Colleen does not mind hanging around us older folks; she learns a lot just listening to the tales of yesteryear, especially when George talks about his battles with the dinosaurs when walking to school from his cave.
Cowgirl Colleen gets ready for her concert!
Note to self: Send more iron-on patches to the poor girl!!
Progress, we gots progress. The beds are starting to take shape. Now I need to do some math because the bed does not have to be filled with “good dirt” clear to the bottom based upon the following:
24-30″ of composted dirt should be sufficient!
Each block is 8″ tall, so we will need about 3 yards of soil conditioner per bed, and there are five beds.
Coming along. This was taken in the morning, around 6:30 AM
After a day’s work, the second bed is forming nicely. Now I have to either remove the dirt or buy a few yards of compost/soil amendment. I will try amending the soil in bed #1 and see what happens. A lot of digging will be in my future; heart, don’t fail me now!
We might take a Master Gardners Course if they offer it on any day but Thursday!
At the end of the day, we enter the construction area and proposed a toast!
We toast the progress!
We popped over to Jan’s, brought some muffins, and joined her in a glass of vino before returning home. We were pooped, so no swim spa tonight; we crashed after Mary made a wonderful fruit salad for dinner. I assisted with dinner and told Mary, “No fig deal, I got this!”
I did remind Mary, Knowledge is knowing a tomato is a fruit; wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad!
