Satisfying Day

 Well, Joanne was sure helpful. I went straight out to our hardware 'stash' and got a package of two ceiling hooks. I can get those mandevilla hung sometime this week. It would be wonderful if I could successfully winter them inside, and it would be the icing on the cake if they bloomed all winter long. Thanks Joanne! (And Granny Sue, I will surely keep you updated on them). 

Remember our tenant with the bat problem? We got a call last night, about midnight. She had another bat! We trekked out down to her house and there he was, flying wildly about her bedroom. He was pretty active and the chase was pretty intense and our tenant was a shrieker. At some point, the bat decided the sensible thing was to exit the premises and he did. Luckily, Tim saw exactly where that access was. We closed it up for the night, and came back home to try to sleep. 

I lay on my side of the bed brainstorming. A good inspection needed to be done. The house is one of the oldest in town and it had old hand hewn wood beams. We even found a very old hatchet tucked up on top of one of them when we removed the ceiling. Those beams were so darn cool that we left them exposed. Their rough uneven texture leave little gaps. Bats don't need much of a gap, so in hindsight, leaving the beams open probably wasn't our greatest idea. The tenant loves them though, and so do we. 

I figured that going along stuffing those little gaps with steel wool would solve the problem. We could then go along and seal it with silicone (bats don't chew). That should keep them out of the house, but now we are left with the problem of figuring where they came in at. We thought we had that solved with the new roof. It has to be the eaves somewhere.

Anyways, I lay awake for quite a while, my mind going batty. I know that Tim was awake for a while too. Since his stroke, his legs jerk and this makes it hard for him to fall sleep sometimes.

We got up early to get William off to school and then got ourselves ready to head down to the new build. We were building the stairs from the basement to the first floor. I am not sure why Tim was having such an awful time with it, but he was. He was also tired and snappish, probably from our lack of sleep the night before. I quit trying to be helpful and backed off. I did some plant stuff. In the end, he came up with his plan and he was not happy with it. We cut the stringers and left it at that. He still had to cut out for the risers and treads. I kept still. 

In the end, we had to leave, because we had an appointment with Paula to work on those beams. 

Albert-the-produce-guy-down-the-road had tomatoes. We always stop to see what he's selling and to pet his dog. I was shocked to see that he had San Marzano tomatoes, beautiful and perfect, for $14 a bushel. Tomatoes are double that in every place that I know of.  We still had a lot to do in our day, so I just bought a half bushel. However, I was able to get them all processed and I have a large pot of spaghetti going, and another of plain stewed tomatoes. I'll go back and grab another half bushel tomorrow. 

I really had not planned to do a lot of food preserving this year. I had a few peppers and tomatoes, but we did not have a garden. I knew that there would be no time with the construction going on. We also need to rethink that situation, since we are having a problem with blight. However, it seems to have been a good year for gardens everywhere else, and when we see good produce deals along the road, we stop and buy. My sister is begging me to help her out with her excess garden bounty. It would be foolish NOT to make use of it. 

I worked in the kitchen. Tim took a nap to make up for the sleep he missed last night. He woke up and came out to the kitchen with a big smile. "I know how to do the stairs!" he said. "I don't know what I was thinking..." He does that. He goes to sleep with a problem on his mind, and wakes up with a solution. It surprised me when we were first married, because I do the same thing. I thought I was the only person who did. Not so. 

I also found time to lift my geraniums out of their concrete urns on the porch and put them in their new pots so that I can bring them inside for the winter. I did pretty well with them last year, which pleased me. They are a brilliant deep red, not the orangey-red like most of the geraniums I see, and I'm very fond of them. They are getting pretty big after two years, and I am eager to see what next year brings.