Our New Green House

Monday: (11/03) the rain returned. It started sprinkling enough for me to stop about 2pm and then picked up from then on. I decided it must be time to do other things. Yesterday, I picked up what i thought was twqo pair of hinges to weld on the doors of the green house. Turns out they were not pairs so i need two more. It's not worth the drive to Lowes in Sunnyvale so I looked at our local OSH hardware. They didn't have any removable pin hinges. Not much of a store anymore but it is nearby. I then thought I'd try Home Depot but couldn't get to their store in East Palo Alto due to traffic being at a total standstill? So I turned around and went by a local rather expensive hardware store and found the hinges at a bit more cost though not as much as the cost of the gas I had already used. i also picked up a switch for a lamp that needs repair.

Since the rain wasn't letting up, it seemed a very good time to go by the garage and have the car smog check done. This older  car has had problems passing the past two times, both times requiring the replacement of the catalytic converter. kind of odd. Today, it passed, barely though it was excellent after the last repairs. 785 for NOX when it would have failed at 786. Next time I can assume it won't pass and will require the converter again. I really wonder what the results of the test would be if the tester were not connected directly to the Department of Motor Vehicles and or if they didn't reference the age of the vehicle as part of the test? I really believe they want me to get rid of this car since it's 22 years old. At least it passed for now!

I had a nice conversation with the office technician at the shop. He is from Hungary and this will be the first election in which he can vote. He bacame a citizen this past summer.


Tuesday: (11/04) A nice clear sky today though it did get chilly in the afternoon. I finished hanging the doors on the green house and did a little prep to hang the plastic. I also nibbled away at the tree branches that I pruned putting them in the compost bin. Tomorrow is garbage day and I didn't want the pile to remain with room in the bins. Since the time changed, it gets dark so much earlier. Seems like more than one hour earlier?

I then settled in to watch the election results. Since we usually are traveling at election time we're permanent absentee voters so the voting part was done days ago. Congratulation to our new President Elect Barak Obama. Hopefully he steers the country back on the right course.

Wednesday: (11/05) Another nice day. More of the same working on the green house. The skin on the roof was installed. Lou and Dawn left Fresno at Lou's sister's place and went down to Bakersfield to visit Aunt Helen. They've been making a haul at the thrift stores on the way.I would have liked to go but wanted to get the green house ready before it's needed. The temperatures have been getting down into the 30's at night. it won't be long before a freeze warning and the mad rush to protect the plants.


Thursday: (11/06) Left, Green house all finished. It doesn't look like much. It's kind of invisible with the clear Lexan skin but it should protect the plants. I'll probably use it for the garden space during the summer with the doors removed. There was some light left so I continued with more pruning of the trees next to the green house. The tree is in the neighbors yard but all the growth is in our yard. The limbs are large and low and my head is always locating them so I'm raising the roof some.

Friday: (11/07) Today was a day of rest, mostly. I installed a peep hole in the front door and worked on a leaky toilet. How exciting!

Saturday: (11/08) More rest for me. This is kind of nice!

Lou and Dawn returned from Bakersfield via highway 101 with a long stop in Salinas. Dawn wanted to check some books that were at the local library.

Sunday: (11/09) I fixed breakfast home fried potatoes, fried bologna (European style, more like ham), and fried eggs. We enjoyed it in the back yard. The weather was nice. I then started digging out the floor of the green house. I built it over a raised flower bed and removed the retaining wall Thursday. Those concrete blocks weigh 200-300 pounds each and I think that may be why my back was bothering me recently? Anyway, today i dug out the dirt and leveled the floor.

Lou worked on moving her treasures into her shop. She found a load of doll molds at one of the thrift stores and received a lot of doll making tools and materials from a friend of Aunt Helen's in Bakersfield.