Work Begins

Today some masons came and knocked down one of our porch columns. This is the first step towards the re-roofing project. When I left home at 12:30, the masons had propped up the porch roof, propped up the porch floor from inside the crawl space, knocked down the brick column, and poured a fresh cement footing for a replacement column. I got pictures but didn't have time to upload them. It's very exciting to have something actually happening, after all the endless planning and talk.

In bathroom news, the bathroom ceiling and walls are painted and done. Much of the trim is done, but I need to get Michael to help me take the towel bars down (they are hung from wood trim) so I can prime and repaint that part. I still haven't made a decision about the door and door frame, which are coated with layers of probably lead paint, with latex paint half peeled off. The possibilities are: peel anything left peelable, prime, and paint or strip all paint, prime and paint. We'll see. Lead paint is a huge hassle.



The garden is in full fall mode. I have a few tomatoes still on the volunteer cherry tomato in the front yard. Red cabbage and broccoli are growing in the back, despite depredations by squirrels and caterpillars. I have some small straggly seedlings of spinach and kale. The leaves are about half down, I estimate.

Today I worked in the side flower bed, digging in another bag of soil conditioner, moving the native Southern Prairie Aster to the front where it should get more sun and be less straggly, and moving an unknown bulb-ish plant from the side yard next to pour neighbor's. I need to look up what is it - the greens are a bit like an iris, but the bulbs are more like crocus bulbs, small and brown. The flowers are red. It's not a spider lily, though we had rain at just the right time this year and had a wonderful September bloom of spider lilies.