Wednesday, September 6, 2023

Today.

 Steve? This might be something that you could use. 


If it is not enough of a deterrent, you could slap up a few pictures of this: 
 It is an extreme close up of an ant.



The door. Please note, it is not yet stained. 
    
 Window on the front side of the house. 

You can see one side of my retaining wall in front of the basement door. It is not done. We will have a pretty good idea whether it is high enough or not after the rain this evening. If it is high enough, it will be capped with some flat pavers and then it will be done. 

Tim got a call from the surgeon's office. 
His surgery is scheduled early in the morning on October 27th. 

Late Edit: 

Because I just had to:

https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/watch-man-calmly-ushers-giant-180032422.html

33 comments:

  1. Your house looks amazing, even more so because you two have built it yourselves.

    As for that stupid bunch of people, they're all damn lucky they weren't mauled. That poor bear was stressed.

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    1. I have chased bears out of the yard or off the deck before with a broom. But I would NEVER dream of standing eyeball to eyeball with a bear. That is unnecessarily provocative. When a broom was waved at them, they were running. Only two bears did not. One growled at me. I left him to his business. The other one had broken into a neighbor's outside icebox and had a case of coke. He was biting into the cans and throwing his head back. He had a bit of a caffeine buzz, I guess, because he was not going to move from the blueberry patch. I left him be as well, after dragging my dog back to the house.

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  2. That bear was just a kid. Just kidding; Pocono bears are the worst. Way too big.
    You sure have plenty of zip tape zipped up there. Waiting for more pictures.

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    1. We do have lots of zip tape up. Here, we have a thing called Asian Lady Beetles. They look like a lady bug, but they are so NOT a lady bug. In the fall, they look for a place to winter. They will seek out any cracks in a house and they will move in. In the spring, you will have them in your house, and it is no exaggeration: hundreds of them. When we lived in the woods the last time, they were the bane of my springtime existance. I'd be vacuuming the windows 2 or 3 times a day, and getting scores of them. It was awful. We are being very careful not to leave any cracks that they can get into. There's not much we can do to keep them out of the attic, but we can try our best to keep them out of the main house. We are zip taping and screening that house like crazy people.

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  3. I love your new door, and great job on that retaining wall! I’m crossing my fingers for you that it’s high enough. And it must be good to have a date now for Tim’s surgery, so you can plan your weeks ahead of it. Good wishes sent your way❤️Ricki

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    1. It will be stained later. It is sun damaged a bit. But since we are not sure what we are going to use to side the house, we have decided to hold off on staining until we've got that part figured out for sure and for certain.

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  4. "I love it when a plan comes together". You seem to have your own ATeam Debby.

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  5. Replies
    1. No. That isn't the plan. We are making it winter tight. We will return to it in the spring.

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  6. The late edit rather freaked me but then our worst enemy in the Outer Hebrides is about the size of a pinhead - just one helluva lot more irritating.

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    1. Okay. I have to know. What is the worst enemy in the Outer Hebrides?

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    2. The Scottish Midge. I've blogged about them but there are a a million articles both serious and funny about them

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  7. I have to say, ants aren't high in the handsome stakes are they?!! House is looking great, and thanks for the explanation about the zip tape. Could do with the bat version here!!

    As for the idiot and the bear . . . No comment!

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  8. Love the sign...and the enlarged ant!!
    No, your retaining wall is not high enough.
    Sending positive thoughts (((0)))

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    1. There is quite a bit of gravel poured down into that trench under the eaves. The goal is for the water to percolate down into the soil underneath, which is lower than the wall. In the end, we will have a gutter system which hooks into a french drain and carries the water away from the house. It won't matter then.

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  9. The first time I used the zip system, I wasn't aware at how insanely expensive a roll of that tape was. But whatever they use for an adhesive is really good stuff. I have a full and a partial roll left over and I have occasionally grabbed it to use elsewhere around the house because I just know it will stick and stick well.

    When I saw that bear video on our evening news last night, I immediately thought that "Mike" had to have had many beers in his system before that incident occurred. Watching it again this morning, I still think this is the case.

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    1. He had to be drunk. He came very close to being disemboweled.

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  10. That's a lot of good insulation. I missed that step in your ongoing story about constructing your house. Make your file folder for Tim's surgery. You'll have to keep reminding him to get his chores done before surgery. Those instructions for post-surgery might need to be tacked to the wall as he'll probably forget (accidentally and intentionally) what he's not supposed to do after surgery. Following those instructions will result in a nice outcome. Be careful! Linda in Kansas

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    1. Unfortunately, there isn't a "nice" outcome to this surgery. We can only hope for cancer free. We do have a medical folder for him. It is the only way I can keep on top of things.

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  11. Your door looks rather stained to me.
    Having a basement seems to add much complication to a build but you never know what Putin might do.
    The clip was great. Drunk or not, the guy seemed to have the bear under his control, aside from the half hearted swipe as you might expect from a cat at your ankle.
    Tim's surgery seems a while away, which tells me there isn't great urgency.

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    1. Here, urgent is defined as life threatening. Tim's cancer is not yet at the point of being life threatening, but it is considered something that needs to be done right away. When I questioned the two month wait, he said that they are comfortable as long as it is done within a six month period. It was mind boggling to me. No one asked us what we are comfortable with.

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  12. I had the same thought as Andrew about the urgency factor but, yeah- no one asked you and Tim. I am sure it's urgent to you.
    Your house is going to be the tightest, warmest, coziest, pretty house in the world. What great comfort you will take in living there!
    That guy in the video is damn lucky the bear just gave him a warning.

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    Replies
    1. This is not a bright man.

      It will be our house, and that's good enough.

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  13. You are making good progress. Glad you got a surgery date. It's a worry to wait but hopefully it will go quickly.

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    1. I'm sure it will. We're keeping pretty busy.

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  14. I think it's the SF short story collection by Clifford D. Simak (City) that has intelligent ants.

    I like your front door.

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    1. I'm not a fan of science fiction, Kelly. I like a world where the ants are not smart! Quite ridiculously, I liked that the window was not the old half moon shape.

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  15. The ants can't make more of a mess of the world than some of the humans. Glad that Tim has a date for the surgery.

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  16. YES! I am totally stealing that poster! Is that from your local library? That ant is terrifying.

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    1. No. I have a friend who's a librarian, and she posts librarian type stuff on facebook. This post seemed to tie in quite nicely with your dilemma at the library.

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  17. Oct 27 gives you a lot of time to get stuff done.

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I'm glad you're here!

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