Having A House Is A Lot Of Work

So I've had one project after another around the house lately. I tore out the huge bush on the side of the house and repaired the sprinkler. I've been working hard on the pool trying to get the water at the right ph. That's coming along good but it's a lot of work. I've now had to clean the cartridge four times, and it takes a while to get it really clean. It's the difference of the barracuda just sitting on the bottom of the pool though and that thing going crazy moving around the pool sucking up everything in it's path. When the cartridge is clean and the intake is good the barracuda sounds like a jet is flying by whenever it surfaces. I went to the pool store Saturday and the guy said my water is doing better now with me doing it than with the "splash and dash" pool guy that had been doing it before.

I have been spending a lot of time on my yard too. All my plants survived the freakish cold we had last week, although a couple look like they are gonna need some work.I put in a second veggie garden on the south side of the house and added two "beef steak" tomato plants. Those are suppose to be good for salsa. I also potted up a couple ginger rhizomes, not the fragrant ones, the edible ones.

So here are a couple close up pictures of my flowers in the front yard. I said in a previous blog I am picky about the flower petals. These are the kind of petals I mostly like. Petals with irregular patterns or petals that look really bold. I don't like it when they look like one solid boring color, like a bed sheet.

I bought a water lily at Flamingo Gardens this weekend. I'm trying to attract more frogs to my pond.

Pentas. One of my favorites because of the center of the flower. These grow on small bush like plants with dark green leaves and hundreds of flowers.

My African Daisy (Osteospermum). I had one in San Diego that had purple petals, I don't know which ones I like better. These are called Ostica Blue Eye.

Plectranthus-Mona Lavender

Salvia Farinacea-Blue Salvia

An Orchid I bought at home depot. Thought it would look good hanging on the patio. I also bought one for indoors.

My Solenostemon plant. Commonly known as Coleus. Natalie's aunt gave it to me.

My variety of colored Kalanchoes. These grow like the pentas. On little bush like plants with dark green leaves and hundreds of flowers.

Sunday night I heard noises in the walls. Not normal house expand and contracting noises either. I was in the attic a couple weeks ago and spotted what I suspect are rat turds. So yesterday I got a staple gun and fixed the two opened screens into the attic and put four spring loaded rat traps with peanut butter folded in a cardboard taco between the springs. I also put up a couple glue traps. If I did have a rat problem, it's going to be a thing of the past. And these are the kinds of things that keep me busy.