The Realm

So what have I been up to other than dog stuff. Lots of good things have happened too. Well yesterday was very productive. Chris and I worked in the yard and tore down the old rotten fence along the very back. He exposed the beautiful new white fence the back yard neighbor installed on 95% of that side. I LOVE it. I've been using the reciprocating saw to get rid of bushes, small stumps and baby trees that have popped up everywhere. I saw a video that showed how to do that if you can't dig it out. My goodness. Once I learned about this I wish I had known about it years ago as I've had the answer in my own garage for years to fix these problem. I dont' care if I have to crawl on my hands and knees to clean up our big yard I will. I already have started to anyway. BTW if you want to see the video here is the link https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3yesFy3odAk

We saved the poles that were still good and placed about 4 or 5 I think along the short side of our house to make a temporary fence for our future chickens. Like all things we can't afford to do things all at once and with the price of wood this may take a few weeks. Chris's mom was awesome that on mother's day she gave US (the kids) gift cards to help buy hardware (like hinges) and wood for our fence and gate. That's so awesome. So we got the first struts on the first panel. I'm trying to salvage the best pickets. And not have to buy new ones. We should only have to buy the hinges (which we did with the gift cards) and 2x4's for the struts on each panel.



Actually here is a pic of the new fence from the longest view. That wood part on the left is all that remains. You can see some of the panels Chris knocked down. My largest lotuses in the distance in their tubs. And in the lower left are a bunch of plumgago bushes I have been removing from the roots with the saw like in the video. We have tons of work to do. We're nerds so we don't have a lot of strength and endurance. Chris also doesn't have time. He gets two days off and usually he's tired. The heat gets to him so he can only work around a couple of hours a day when he's here. This is why it takes so long for anything to get done. Two hours a week and for me what every tiny minutes add up to over the weak as I work by chipping away at different projects at a time. Oh and about the heat. I tell Chris not to work during the day. Really the window for healthy work before the heat starts is from sunrise to around 9am and then 6pm to sunset. I hope this fence can get done with time to spare before the chickens arrive next month as we need to start on the coop. Anyway that wood section I plan to paint white so it kinda looks like the rest of the fence.



So this is the small fence we're building. Hoping to put a gate in the center. Once this is sealed it will be safe to have outdoor pets. It's a shame we're losing half the yard though. Again we're not strong enough or have time to make a fence in the front. If money was no object my I would ideally hire a fence company to do a complete front fence with sliding gate so the cars can get in. Anyway, I'm planning to paint this once it's built since the pickets will be so ugly and old.

Ok so I have also gotten back into my carnivorous plants. I have been ordering different breeds of flytraps. Flytraps are like dogs. There is only one species but many MANY breeds or cultivars. I have been making little bogs and reworking the existing ones that got over grown.



Here are some of the flytraps and Sarracenias. I think the reason some of these sell so well is the names they are given. So far I have

Wild type or typical from Lowes
B52
DC XL
King Henry
Dente
Red Dragon Akai Ryu
WIP Slim Snapper
Alien

I've got a few more coming on the way like Low Giant, Big Mouth, Wip long snapper and Jaws. Yeah these names you just want to buy all the cool ones. There are hundreds of cultivars. Maybe I can get into breeding flytraps and name my own. We need a Scary Fear out there. Definitely needs to be one that has long thin stems and long teeth. I don't think it's possible but ideally it would be cool to have a dark red with green mouth. The green mouth on a red form is what I don't think is possible.

And another thing I've been up to is I got a journal to write out the book of Romans. You guys know I love journaling. This LJ was started in 2004 I think. And I have been keeping journals since around 1984 actually.



So here's my new journal. I'm loving journaling again and hopefully this will help me remember where things are in this book better. Writing God's word daily is actually a kingly thing to do. Even if you just write one verse or a part of a verse daily and toss the paper away it's a good thing to do. Here is where the passage is for kings to write the word before Israel even had a king. God knew the people would screw up and ask for a king.

Deuteronomy 17:18 And it shall be, when he sitteth upon the throne of his kingdom, that he shall write him a copy of this law in a book out of that which is before the priests the Levites:

19 And it shall be with him, and he shall read therein all the days of his life: that he may learn to fear the LORD his God, to keep all the words of this law and these statutes, to do them:

20 That his heart be not lifted up above his brethren, and that he turn not aside from the commandment, to the right hand, or to the left: to the end that he may prolong his days in his kingdom, he, and his children, in the midst of Israel.

What blessings come just from writing and thinking about the word that was studied. These two other verse reinforce this for me.

Proverbes 3:1 My son, forget not my law; but let thine heart keep my commandments:

2 For length of days, and long life, and peace, shall they add to thee.

3 Let not mercy and truth forsake thee: bind them about thy neck; write them upon the table of thine heart:

I love the last part. Write them on the table of thine heart. In other words memorize them.

2 Timothy 2:15 Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.

I've always been good about remembering the main gist of verses and almost quoting them right. What's hard for me is memorizing the book and chapters they are from. Chris and I have always used the funny quotes "Somewhere in the back." or "Somewhere in the front." Well that no longer flies with me. If I can at least get the right book I'll be happy. But I need to memorize everything so I'm working on that. The Bible is a sword and you're not a good soldier if you don't know how to use the sword properly.

Lastly a fun pic. Chris took this on one of his jobs.



Chris has a heat gun to measure temperatures on his job. I always tell him that birds are the hottest animals. A long time ago we made a video where we filmed Hot Budgies. But I think that was a UV gun. This is a thermal gun. So yes this chicken was blazing hot in the "cold" surroundings. I would have so much nerdy fun playing with these guns. The average bird has a body temp of 107F and you see this was in the morning when it was a cold 73.
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I have been very busy with my pets and stuff. The usual but things are very good right now. I'm reworking my first frog tank because my clean up crew died a long time ago and the soil went bad. Plus I made a few dumb beginner mistakes and plants started dying. The frogs are in a temporary home. My dart frog tank is much better as I was more experienced by then. I'm still a beginner though. BUT this one I think will be better than the first time. I'm currently adding little shelves for the froggies to jump on.

I have finished my Valentine's Wreath. This is the best wreath I have made. I'm still a beginner at this too and made some mistakes. But the curl method as I like to call it the tube method is the most difficult. Typical I'd go for the hardest stuff first. Here is a video on it.


https://youtu.be/sig_FJ7777o

So we just had our 26th anniversary Feb 4th. Amazing but it does now feel like it. I'm ready to start work on the next wreath. I want to make a 4th of July next. It will be much easier than this one. Can you guys believe this huge wreath was on that small 14 inch frame?

My puppy saving and gathering is going well, but I'm at the temptation stage of things. There are so many cool plants I really want to get still. I keep thinking "Just one, or two. Cheap ones." You know, excuses like that. I'm very tempted right now. I felt this way as a kid too when I was saving up for Joel my macaw. I must resist. I said I had to put my foot down. No matter how much I want a plant or something else unless it's a necessity like pet food. Because just that "one cheap plant" with shipping and tax becomes an expensive plant that's over budget. And I'll never mean my goal this way. The goal can be met in a few months if I say 100-90% each time. All of it is preferable of course. I shouldn't even do 90. It's not easy. Also I am spending but it's part of the goal. That can lead to temptation and self tricking too. "The pen is on my list but since I'm getting that I should take advantage of this deal for this other thing." ARG no! Well, do I want this dog or not? I have to remember that because when I add something else not on the list it becomes "or not." But yes it's hard right now. I'm struggling with this. Oh the other distraction is the thought that says, "Ok you'll meet your goal. You'll get all the supplies and the money, but there won't be any puppies in the state left." So I end up looking at for sale ads when there's no way I can do it now. And there is the possibility I may have to go out of state to a near by state when the time comes. I don't want to go further than two states away though; Georgia, Alabama and the Carolinas. I don't want to go beyond that. But hopefully it won't even come to that. That's still far in the future.

I'm also making good progress on sorting things in the house. I still found some of my mom's old stuff. It's so annoying. It's like her things will never disappear. But we went to Orlando and managed to sell a lot of plates that were finally worth something. But I think that other than all the tons of photos, everything that's left now is our stuff. At last we're in the home stretch as far as getting rid of stuff we don't need and shouldn't even have anymore. Things are still cluttered but I think it's because I'm sorting. I can't wait to get to the point were we have more space so when I'm sorting it won't look so cluttered. I want my house to be a normal house before we buy the puppy.

So yes lots going on but it's been rather good.
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Happy Feb everyone. I love this month even though it's the suckiest as far as weather goes. This year we plan to celebrate Valentine's instead of anniversary. Both fall on crummy week days. Anniversary on a Fri and Valentine's Day on a Monday. Since our week starts on Wed, Valentine's is easier to celebrate as far as getting a day off or a day off early.

I should probably be using my Malcolm icon "Boy I hate being right all the time." I'll talk about icons in a bit. Well I was right. LJ are being commie jerks about and block DW when people mess up their passwords. I'm not going to go into detail you can read about it HERE. So I just finished manually backing up my posts to DW today and I can now make a post here. I'll have to manually transfer comments to by replying to myself. Extra work but I need to stay on top of it. It will be totally worth it. The ship hasn't sunk yet. I'm just bailing water. I also deleted and uploaded some icons on DW. There is a limit there for free accounts to 15 icons like it used to be here. I wish DW would give you a few free spaces every year for being a loyal user. LJ used to do that. Probably not anymore. But I was a paid account for a long time and was lucky enough to buy a permanent account when they would offer those about once or twice a year. That means I'd get extra icons on top of the free ones you got yearly and hence that's how I now have 192 icons of a possible 262. I'm spoiled and I'm a Livejournal veteran. I should probably prune the icons here and free up space. I should only keep the ones I absolutely use the most. That includes seasonal ones that do get used one a year for that particular month. I should probably lose most of the Ophidius ones as he no longer represents me other than my artistic side. Of all my characters he's my artist. I need to update the old icon of his to using my new tablet. It's a monitor so I should do something like him drawing a really bad tongue face. Anyway, so DW only allows 15 icons but I forgot you can buy spaces for a dollar each. To me that's totally worth it to build up my fave most used icons there without having a full paid account. The free account does everything else I need it to that this does. I need to figure out what icons I really use most now. Of course most of my Fear ones, though there is one I don't use anymore. I think it was the first one I uploaded because I just needed something of his at the time. Minion's icon for sure and some expressive ones. Funny enough I love how some of my Owen icons will always be around always have a use even though I don't draw or write about him much anymore. Owen is a character I'll always love very much as he is just an extroverted version of me and a much bigger jerk. But he's the kind of guy you always want on your side and not against you.

So here is an outdated Vlog of what's been going on.

https://youtu.be/FB2iIv4rwWE

We had a second frost for two nights since this update. I have finished putting up the top panel of mylar on the garage. Here is a video of when I first finished my dart frog tank and when I moved my little frogs into it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wjsJpb-HNmI

I'm working on rebuilding the greenhouse frog tank from last year. The soil went bad because my frogs ate the entire clean up crew. They are in a temporarily box right now. Hopefully the new tank will be an improvement. I plant to let the clean up crew establish and I hope I can offer better hiding spots for them other than leaves.
Savings for my dog is going ok. We hope to get our taxes done this week so hopefully we'll get a return. I don't know if I can put it towards the puppy fund though because we need to get the jeep paid off. We're very close to finishing and really want that over with. It would be a better move to do that despite what I want. I really need to get a new breeder stand (budgie appartment) for the over flow birds. Minion needs to be alone. I have him in with Nautica now. He's doing way better with her, but again she stands on his fave perch and he can't talk to his mic much. There's so much going on right now and it's all going very slowly. I really can't wait to move things around by switching my computer room with the bed room. But I need to finish the walls in the master bath first. At least the parts where the sink goes. I work a tiny bit on it everyday when I feel well. The cold hasn't helped with that as when it's been really cold in the house I haven't done much.

I think I'll stop here for now. If I remember something I'll just make a new post.
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Bad stuff first. I'm hurting again. I hurt my elbow pretty bad working in the pumpkin patch. I haven't worked out there for days now. I can't, but damage is done. It's been hurting for like four days now. I hope it will be ok. And today is a bad day as far as fibro and pain goes. It started yesterday with the storms. Seems I react to weather changes at times. And my leg is hurting. I guess I sat at my desk too long. No more than usual and I've done that for years so it's annoying it decided to act up. I changed chairs and it's helped a bit. So please pray for my health to improve. I've got too much stuff I need to be doing to be down because of health issues.

But despite that things are great. Minion is talking right now and he's saying some funny things. One day he said, "Not again chickain." He made up a word to rhyme. So funny. I've been reinforcing that so it's becoming a new phrase. I've made a cute little custom mic stand for Minion. So far he hasn't used it. But it goes with the T stand when he was talking in the last video.

So the organizing and decluttering of the house continues. Chris is very happy with how I made a custom drawer insert for him and how I fixed up his spice cabinet. I'm so glad he's liked that. Things are looking better but still not what I would really like. I hope we can get there. I cleaned up my desk which is how I manged to make room for Minion's Mic stand. Chris's birthday is the 29th. I'm very happy about that. Well in a way one thing I got for both of us that can be like a Bday gift (it is coming on his birthday) is a new bed frame. Remember a few years back I bought new mattresses for us and set up our Jurassic Park bed. But the frame I got from my mom's house though it's nice I've never liked. It's too big. The head rest is too far from the wall. We can't reach the outlet back there. I don't like the dark color. It's heavy. And no room under the bed. The new one is metal, white and has a 12 inch clearance for underbed storage. That will be great. Yesterday on our day off we got back to work on the art in the master bathroom. The bamboo wallpaper fell apart in there because of the humidity and the horrible orange peel texture of the walls. But I'm going to be painting the bamboo on the walls. I'm drawing the black spaces first. But I can't do it myself. I could not hold up the level and trace at the same time while standing on a ladder. So Chris helped me with that. We can only work on it on his days off. But now we've figured out how to make perfect straight lines down an 8 foot wall. YAY. Then I will paint those black and start to shade and form the bamboo itself. I need to finish two sections of wall so we can put our sink back in. So I'm working hard to get that done before the end of the year. Then I can take my timing drawing on all the other walls. Once that bathroom is done I can start to work on the bedroom and make that into JP. I'll start with the ceiling and try to draw a sky. I've also organized a bunch of small tool boxes in the garage. I'm very proud of that. The garage is looking so good. I can't wait to finish it. I want one more plastic closet in there and I think we'll be good on the storage in there.

Speaking of Jurassic Park. I'm having quite a fun time playing with my new Mattel toys. So I searched up the scale of toys. The Legacy Collection is 3.75 inch and that's 1:18 scale. The Amber collection is 6 inches or 1:10 scale. I love my Mr. Arnold and the desk I got him from the wrestling toys which is 1:18 toys too. The wrestling toys are great because you can buy all kinds of accessories in scale for Amber collection. And I found out that there is a 1:12 scale for doll houses that can work with the 3.75 inch Legacy toys. I've been having a blast adding props to my JP Amazon list that I hope to use with my toys. I think all of you have seen the movie so you can see how a lot of these thing will work as scenes from the movie. I also found out there a military toy called Click N Play that their props will work for this. Here is the list. I don't think I ever posted my review of Mr. Arnold. Well here it is.


https://youtu.be/2XASVhXlmoM

And here is a funny scene I made in Chris's room.


The garbage can is the wrong scale, but close. Chris found that at a Dollar Tree. I removed the logo that was on it. It's meant to hold pencils. He wanted trash bags so I made these and then added my Toxic Waste candy barrels. It's so funny. I think the simple DIY bags are what make this scene. It's so mundane and everyday and that's what makes it funny. I'd love to make more things like this and make some play sets and backgrounds.

I also want to make some custom figures by modifying others. I hope to make a jacketed Malcolm. I need to get a Nick Fury doll and take his jacket. Plus I have some other ideas. I saw how to make a Genaro figure. Well that's what the toilets will be for.

I've been thinking about RipTalon a lot. I need to finish his drawing and also make some new art. With the way the world is going I think he'd be a big hit with his origin story of him trying to resist a world that forces you to be a cyborg. I can relate to him so much now than ever before. Ok so lots of stuff in the works.

EDIT: I forgot to mention. I ordered a SDCC Final Scene Ray Arnold figure on Ebay. The guy said in the description Same Day Shipping. I ordered on the 20th. I sent him a PM and haven't heard back. I gave him the weekend thinking he'd ship today, Monday. Nothing yet. I PMed again and nothing still. He's supposed to be here in Florida which is why I ordered from him thinking it would be fast within the state. Well not if he doesn't actually do anything to start. I'm already quite mad and ready to leave negative feedback and file a complaint to get my money back so I can order from someone else. Last year it was Nedry I had issues with. Seems like each year the SDCC figure gives me a hard time.

So today Oct 26 the guy canceled my order without a word. At least I got my money back but still here's what I wrote him.

Why did you cancel my order? Did you not even have the item on hand? You have lousy customer service to not even respond to my questions in a timely manner. I know you got my last messages, and no you cancel without an explanation. You place false information by saying you ship on the same day. And apparently you also send used goods. At least you gave my money back. I shell find a more reputable seller.

You guys know I hate lack of communication more than anything and I let people have it for that. The one thing I hate about canceled orders is I can no longer leave feedback. I would definitely have left negative feedback. I just ordered another figure. Wish me luck this one makes it to me.
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Things have been so crazy busy since the whole thing with the roof started at the end of last year. The ceilings were done on March 3rd, three days later. I had a doctor's appointment during that mess so they took lunch while we went to do that. I was not happy they were smokers and though they didn't smoke in my house, I'd never allow that, they stunk and the smell got everywhere. I'd rather deal with paint fumes. They were surprised I told them this. I hate that addiction so much and they could have been done sooner if they didn't take so many smoke breaks too. We had lunch on the patio because our kitchen was separated from the rest of the house. So that was an adventure but kinda nice to eat in the greenhouse with all my birds. I'm glad it's finally over now. I think today I can start working on the video. And so began the clean up work on the 4th as there was dust and debris EVERYWHERE. I started by cleaning the two hanging lamps in the livingroom and kitchen that they didn't cover and got covered in ceiling mud. But yeah wow all the rooms look WAY better now. The only rooms left that still have popcorn are the entrance way which is tiny and Chris's room. After seeing how they did it I think we can do it ourselves and take our time with it. It would be an undertaking of itself because we would have to box up our huge collection there. But it may be good too as we majorly need to dust in there.

So my poor birds. Physically they are fine. They had no ill effects that way other than Whitey got a bit of dieria. She might have nibbled on a plant out there. She's better now. BUT Minion took it hard and was not happy to be separated from me. It was very clear he was mad at me. He stopped talking to me and went into a corner and would not step on. He was always so happy to jump on my finger. Or if I walked in he'd jump on the walls of the cage and follow me around. He LOOOOVES me. The second day on the patio he started talking again but only to his swing and still didn't want to come to me or come out. Emma and Nitro on the other hand reacted favorably wanting to be with me and would jump on me and were both kissing my face. Emma and Nitro fight a lot and Whitey has become very stressed because she gets picked on. This was going on before we moved them to the patio. So once I cleaned the budgie apartment and brought them back inside I added a new cage. Here's what it looks like.



Nautica is not in the top cage. She was visiting Minion. Second cage down is a blue one that belongs now exclusively to Whitey. Minion is still in his pink cage on the second floor. And now Emma and Nitro have been demoted to the first floor. That's what I meant by Whitey has moved out. She got better almost instantly. I have started working with her because despite being a hand fed baby she's almost wild. She's afraid of everything. I guess mean sisters can do that. But fast progress was made and she now has learned to step up and stay on my hand almost 80% of the time. We're working on touching her which she lets me with the question of "Can I touch your ______________ ?" Fill in the blank with whatever body part: foot, wing, back, tail or beak. This works incredibly well. I call it "asking permission" and my birds that learn this won't let you touch them first unless you ask first. I first started this with Minion as he used to be a scardy bird. It's a discovery and never seen anyone use this training method. I didn't set out to use a training method I just treat my birds like people. I act as though they already understand me. Also with Minion I have learned that he is learning a language. English and they do understand things. I've always known this but never had a bird of any kind with such a huge vocabulary. I know a lot of people learn languages and can't speak but understand. Seems budgies are this way too. Anyway, Minion is not quite normal still after being "banished" to the patio. He's talking like normal but he's hesitant to step up, doesn't seem to have the enthusiasm he used to have at seeing me. One thing he used to do all the time that I loved was when I entered the room if he was on his swing was, he'd jump off making the swing hit the wall loudy and he'd scream. I don't know if he was saying YAY or if he was trying to scare me each time I came in the room. Whitey began to do this too so it was quite the greeting having two budgies scream and jump out at me just for walking in the door. Minion doesn't do this anymore. I miss it. I used to say, "What the, budgie? Are you trying to scare me?" So now I come in the room and make a big deal about Minion. I hope I can get my out going budgie back.

It has dawned on me too that I can slowly start to bring stuff out of storage. Yesterday we finished fixing up the garage and were finally able to put the jeep back inside. The garage is loads better than when I started cleaning it back in 2016. But I feel like all I do is clean and fix the stupid garage. Luckily this time it only took four days to fix and not years. All the work we did since getting my mom's junk did help us a lot for this. We're still getting rid of stuff but wow do things look better than ever. Will we ever be done? I think so. It took my mom 50 years to "collect" everything she owned. Stands to reason I would not be able to be rid of it in a day. A year per decade I guess makes sense. We've been focusing on the stuff we've accumulated and I think once we get rid of that stuff, nowhere near what mom's things were, I think we will finally be done. This is the smallest storage unit we've rented so that's a good sign. As for the work we still have to dusk and mop everything. Our shoes are white underneath from the powder mess that was left behind. But we were so sick of everything, remember we're both 100% introverted, that we sent off the workers and told them not to bother with final clean up. We just wanted to be left alone after 3 non stop days of "company".
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Ha it's been a long time since I've used the Nicholas Cage icon from Face Off. Well I am going a bit crazy. So I finally transfered all the files from the one 2TB drive to the 3Tb drives. I had kept transfering files after the one broke but had stopped deleting off the originals in case I had a second failure. Unlikely but I got paranoid at that point. The bad thing about that is that of course now I have to check what has already been copied and hasn't folder by folder. I'm doing very little transfering now, just double checking. But it's too risky not to check. I already came across one file I could have sworn I had copied but I had not. That's scary so it's now safe and backed up. It was an important one too. Our 2013 videos of the Oasis of the Seas. I can't wait to start on 2017 because all that will be "new" and I know I can just grab and transfer things for the most part.

I am feeling better today. I hope this means I'm on the mend. I'm still hurting but better. I was in a haze yesterday but managed to work on art. I might have RipTalon's character sheet done soon. But I need to finish these transfers soon and clean up the house again. I found out the roofers could come on the 1st through the 3rd. It pisses me off they don't give me an exact date. Luckily things are mostly cleaned up. Tomorrow is a day off. I need Chris to help me with that tomorrow.

The greenhouse is coming along great. So many plants are happy out there. I managed to make some videos today I need to upload. Videos I was behind on so hope to get those up today too. I'd like to make a Minion video but dont' know if I'll have time. I got some tomato seeds in the mail today. I had forgotten I ordered those so that was a nice surprise. I guess Totally Tomatoes is a company that doesn't give tracking. They just send them the old fashioned way. You have no idea about anything and then suddenly something shows up. Kinda nice actually. Not so sure watching tracking on orders is the best thing. I got a catalog from Oriental trading company. They are a holiday store. I used them a few times when I ordered rubber ducks for ducking jeeps. Well they sent me their Easter stuff and they have so many cool things. I'm going to have to order a few things. Ok, well I better stop wasting time and get back to these hard drives. Hope I don't lose my mind.
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So I unflasked the orchids yesterday. I hope I am doing this right. I don't have the coconut fibers yet but I remembered an obscure site where someone grew them on sphagnum. Well I have that. So Chris helped me a lot yesterday and one of the big things was he helped me deflask these things. We opened the bottle and poured them into a bowl of distilled water. That broke up the agar. I then seperated out the best looking seedlings by size. There are more than 10 for sure.



Here are the main ones. After that I took a clear box and placed a net basket that I've had lying around for years. It's amazing that I bought two of these like 10 or more years ago for nepenthes. I got them at one of the hardware stores in the pond section. They did not work for me for nepenthes and I just kept them in the garage. Now they finally come in handy. I was supposed to line with coconut hair but instead I used sphagnum until the coconut gets here on Wednesday.

( Orchid hardening box )
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Well our new roof is done. That's half the project. Next we have to have them finish the ceilings inside the house. Check out his video of what a crazy time it was.


https://youtu.be/4WSsQ6veIr4

Late Merry Christmas to everyone. I'm so late with Cards this year. I'm afraid this may be the first time in decades I haven't finish a card. That would suck. Perhaps I can get to it tomorrow and start printing. Lack of motivation and other things (always big legitimate things keep me from art lately) don't help matters. Anyway, Christmas was great. We celebrated on the 24th. We went to see family on the 25th. I'll do a haul video and pics later. The coolest thing was Chris got me Mars mova globe.

Ok I finally got around to making an amazing video for Minion and nearly all 200 of his words. It's amazing to see how his voice changes over time. I had forgotten what his baby voice was like. It's so much better now.


https://youtu.be/py2ScETcuU8

Minion is a one and only bird on the planet. Please help spread this video. The world needs to know about this amazing tiny bird. Show this to everyone I mean even in real life.
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New icon for when I make Bible post. I like it. Our galaxy in the background looks nice.
Ok so what's been going on? I might make this short because I have to go eat. Chris took the day off yesterday to help me around the house. I asked him to help me clean the patio and he went above and beyond the call of duty. I wanted some things taken off the patio and to switch the shelf with the pigeons and the plants. Well he did that but also took out the trash, put the many bags of soil in the shed and broke down the giant parrot cage we've had out there since we've moved. That cage has been eating room and no sense having it up with no birds to put in it. It's one I don't want to part with YET because I paid a lot for it, it's huge for macaws and I literally worked it off. My boss at the aviary sold it to me and I didn't have enough money at the time so I worked several weeks without pay. I did this gladly it it was paid off. Back then the dream was to get a hyacinth macaw and that was the first step. But things didn't work out with graduation from college and moving out from my mom's. But I'm getting off topic. Point is the patio looks amazing and I can start preping it for birds and plants. It's cold right now. I hate it. I also ran the idea by Chris to put up bubble wrap, with the large bubbles on the walls for insulation. Since the poly tunnel didn't work for the plants this year because we can't built a foundation I figured insulating the patio is the next best step. So we'd put up bubble wrap just for winter. I'll be losing visibility but I can put a small heater out there in winter and bring in ALL the plants. Chris ordered two rolls. I hope it will be enough. I hope they come soon. That's so cool.

As far as inside goes we have done a lot too but not near the goal I want to be at which is nothing on the floor that isn't furniture. Photo albums are a big part of the problem unfortunately. Some are stuck so I have to use a hair dryer to get the photos out. That makes a tedious process even longer. Not pleased. But luckily it's almost done.

The roofing company called us though and they are ready to order the shingles. And a problem has arisen. Shasta white is not available because of corona virus. WTF? Chris and I were pissed as that's a load of BS that's causing things to be in shortage. People need to stop cowering and get back to work. Evil governors need to be unseated somehow. They're supposed to work for the people after all not oppress them and put them in bondage. Here are the colors again.

There's a color called Antique Silver. It's a little darker than Shasta White but still kind of white. I told them if they can get that OR I think then third choice is Harbor blue. What do you guys think? Should I just say go with Harbor blue if it's available. This is so stupid but also kind of funny that I may get my blue or green roof after all. Final choice is the green. I plan to paint the house a bright color anyway or each wall a bright color of blue or green. What do you guys think? Please comment.
Edit: They found the Shasta White for me after all. Hurray!! I don't have to rely on secondary choices now.
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Wow, I can't believe it's basically December now. Merry Christmas everyone. I have been working very hard to clean up the house and box stuff up. I have been very stressed. It seems like a huge task that will never end. You guys know I'm very cold and emotionless being INTJ. But when it comes to inanimate object I get feelings. In this case it's bad. I need to just keep being cold and get rid of stuff. I've got old broken VCR's I haven't dumped because they still look nice and have the faint hope they can be repaired. But no one does VCR repair anymore. WHEN will that ever happen. I think it's over. I have tons of things on VHS that still needs to be transferred I think. The storage unit is slowly filling up. But the house still feels like a disaster area despite making some big progress. Today has been one of those days where things have just been frustrating on a small level but it all adds up. I'm very frustrated that our first cold front is here and after months since I ordered my poly tunnel it is not installed because we can't make a foundation. I am not ready for winter. Makes me think of the dog joke in Up. "Once there was a squirrel that didn't save nuts for winter. Then winter came and he went dead." Ha something like that. Yeah that's me.

I ordered from an ebay store called Sophie's Orchids for the first time. Others I know have ordered there. I ordered 20 2.25 inch square clear pots. They were expensive even with the black Friday discount. I get them today and they're totally the wrong thing. I knew it when the box was too small. I wrote them about it and that I wanted a refund or replace with the correct things. I sent a photo. Without a word I get an email saying my order shipped again. I think they realized they screwed up. Or they tried to screw me and realized they couldn't. How can you not notice a square pot from a round one?

The one good thing is I got the new WD red hard drive I ordered. It's 2 TB for a redundant back up. But then I found out I accidentally packed my white hard drive and it was in the storage unit. So I had to drive out and get it. I took the opportunity to take a small load with me. It's just been a very annoying day. I'm trying not to lose my mind getting this place fixed up. I want nothing on the floors and nothing on counters other than the biggest furniture that will be easy to cover. I also want to be done with all this stupidity so I can go back to my life where everyday I have nothing but time for myself to do what I feel like, which would be mostly work on my art or stories all day.

Well I'm looking forward to December. I'm happy about Christmas. I love Christmas. One of my all time fave holidays.
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