Upside Down "V"

About half of the stuff we put in the soil blocks on April 29th did not make it -- carrots, espanola peppers, watermelons. Some of the problem was probably the moo-doo-based soil I used (which dried super hard), but we did plant some things in potting soil in little pots, and some of those still haven't sprouted - notably, the watermelons and windowsill peppers.

Most of the stuff that did make it is now in the garden. There are also still a few things that are still coming along.

The tiny little sprig is the first sign of life from our slower-growing clematis variety (Planty the Plant is also a clematis.), which will go on the side of the house and hopefully grow into the lattice work of our yet uninstalled fence.


Thyme


These are the four o'clock flowers. Once they get a little bigger, we'll have to figure out where to put them.


Here's how the garage is looking at the moment.


The painters came on Tuesday, and they did most of the garage and part of the interior of the porch. It's looking pretty good, but unfortunately, they made a handful of mistakes.

A) In the garage pic, you can see there's moulding in an upside down "v" that follows the roof line in the front. That should be trim-colored. B) The door to the garage should be semi-gloss, and we don't think it is. C) The porch (maybe I'll take some pictures tomorrow) was all pink/orange previously, and we wanted it to be treated like the rest of the house, with both trim and body colors. When we came home Tuesday night, it was in the process of being painted all gray/purple.

I called Tom Brady yesterday to explain our concerns, and he said he was flexible. They would manage it how we liked, but he wondered if these requests I was making were written down. I shared detailed written instructions (even with some diagrams!) when the job started, and he said he had been keeping the written instructions in the garage. Funny, because he had followed all the other written instructions (like the pillars and dental work in the front) precisely. When I got home from work yesterday, I found the instructions in the garage, and all of our requests were outlined on that sheet of paper, except for the upside down "v".

Starting Saturday, the weather is supposed to be sun and more sun for a week. We expect the house will be done then.

PS
Corinne, thanks for the comment to yesterday's post, you're so right! I guess I knew that, too, but had forgotten!



Here's the article from which I grabbed the pic. Thing is, the moss apparently loves the fermentation - either beer or buttermilk.

I know the sluggers don't like salt, so I put up a thicker-than-ever-before salt shield comprised of sea salt, flour, garlic, habenero peppers, unknown red pepper powder from Hatch, NM, and water.


Another challenge is, when the previous shields have dried out, long trails of hungry ants have appeared to carry away the salty goodness in chunks. Ah well... who will outlast who? Grow moss grow!