What’s the Haps?

In a mere couple of hours, the Capt. wrapped up the left side and we simply adore the perfect asymmetry.

The Capt. forged ahead with over-painting the center area (no priming needed as it was on the stuccoed wall) where he has decided to replicate Kim’s geometric under-pattern. He sketched in the new pattern and flew into action painting the checkerboard and the ultimate finishing curlieque.

Perhaps we are still on the zenith-like high of the completed faux redux but for whatever reason the creative tsunami continues and Capt. Allen has launched into his unique but blended contribution to this masterpiece.

We are literally down to the last several snippets of squares to be completed – 3 that fall over the step under the gate - and the remaining portion of the design nearest to the house which is temporarily currently covered with foliage that would have to be destroyed so we shall await mother nature’s bidding.

As we near completion of this masterful restoration, the really nasty, pitted area turned out to be not as daunting as we thought. Much contemplation on behalf of the Capt. was needed to plan the chronology of the upcoming final steps

The other day we were scouring with copper scouring pads and hot water the stove top, warming shelf, and all outer surfaces in our monthly deep clean. We were so jazzed at the regeneration – nearly rebirth – of the old cooker girl that I was left with the scouring notion stuck in my head.

Is it even possible that a person could literally LIVE WITH anything for nearly 23 years and only just recognize a new aspect? Well, I can tell you I experienced that very thing. While admiring and reviewing yesterday’s progress which constituted about 20 days into the project with 90% done not counting application of the topcoats, a pattern just leapt off the surface to me – duuuhhh!

All out-of-doors projects are subject to the whim of Mother Nature and our faux mosaic restoration is no exception. Joshua’s repair of the other concrete corner as well as Capt. Allen’s continued restoration efforts were stalled for several days by the gusty winds creeping our way from hurricane Illiana carrying all manner of debris.

With his routine now highly-refined, the Capt. is systematically moving from right to left and top to bottom. Precision rather than speed is the key word for this redux in general but surely for the small squares and the grout finesse.

Even though it seems Mother Nature always wins, we remain vigilant in our attempts to keep the rain outside where it belongs. With each hard downpour, the garage roof continues to pose maintenance issues in the garage proper and in the garden garage loft studio apartment.

Water in general, water use, and water conservation are of prime concern to all of us in Jerome and no one is more strongly cognizant than we are since our gardens are one of the larger consumers. Hence, we are ever-vigilant when we see overflows.

Day 5 – hard to image – brings us to astonishing accomplishment! Go Capt. Go! We wanted to document the detail of the finesse of painting the ‘grout’ area first and then filling with the tiles. Also of incredible note is the contrast of the old & discolored image where the topcoat yellowed along with the worst deteriorated areas against the brilliance of the restored areas.

This year provided a challenging and heart-felt adjustment in that we lost 5 of our 6 bee baby colonies over the winter which is always a heart-wrench. We believe the colonies were simply not sufficiently populated to keep the hives as warm as needed and then all varieties of varmints moved in – oh dear and what a disgusting mess!

The weather is blessing us and Capt. Allen’s ‘big mo’ is growing in momentum so he/we are screaming ahead amazingly with the redux of the faux mosaic – yea! Joshua did one of 2 required repairs on the concrete surrounding the work and the other repair will happen shortly. It involves scraping, sanding, priming, and repainting those surfaces.

As with all creative projects and endeavors, notions and paths shift as things come together. As fate would have it, the original artist involved in this redux project is no longer available to us so Praise Be the ‘Capt.’ stepped up to the plate – yea!

We had a close call a day ago with a bizarre complete splitting of the UV light housing for one of the pumps that supports the large upper pond. Joshua arrived to find the depth of the upper pond just shy of 1.5 feet rather than the typical and desired 5.5 feet.

A few weeks ago, our food bank had a windfall in what seemed like millions of packages of bacon. So many in fact that even after patrons stocked up, a large number remained and our food bank gurus Ann and Liz were concerned that it NOT go to waste.

An overlooked but intrinsic aspect of our food bank adventures remains our discovery that we could and should use all the veggie and meat scraps from our food prep to make our own broth!

Some months back, I suggested that we embark on a new creative adventure to attempt to capture photographically the heart & soul of my home.

For many years our personal guardian dragon, Plantagenet, a descendent of the dynasty of kings of which Richard the Lionhearted was the last, stood as protectorate of my home.

Man, oh man are things ramping up with activity around here. Maggie McDonald and I are inching towards a month-end collaboration to repair and revitalize the faux mosaic that her mother and in-house TSH artist created way back when.

Our latest addition to the series This Is Your Life: The Surgeon’s House is so divinely-guided as evidenced at the warp speed we are moving it along and withOUT the encumbrance of a completion schedule – yea.

I’m back with the intention to get on track with the story-writing part of my stewardship here and the first step is to document the chronology of what has and has NOT happened since 2017, my home’s 100th birthday that inspired the compilation of the binders of This Is Your Life – The Surgeon’s House.

I simply can’t believe that it has taken us so long to re-build, seal, and complete the painting of the steps leading to the honey shack and the veggie shed. Nonetheless we FINALLY COMPLETED that task to the joy of all of us who use those stairs.

The advent of the Chinese new year 2/10/2024, which in Chinese astrology is The Year of the Wood Dragon, caused TSH staff to jump in whole hog for a year of AUSPICIOUSNESS, IMPERIAL POWER, AUTHORITY, DIGNITY, HONOR, SUCCESS, LUCK & CAPACITY. How is that for a mouthful of a big order?