Ab-Staining-Mowing

Below: Heirloom amaryllis from my great-great-great grandmothers ancestral farm in western Pennsylvania. Before the farm left the family, Mom got some of the bulbs and they have multiplied like crazy in her back yard.
After they finish blooming, I'm moving some to my yard to keep the chain going.


This will be a jumbled post in which nature may or may not be mentioned, as I have no plan, just a few items.

(I know the masthead says if it's not nature, it's not here, ... but I think it mentions culture too,
right? ... I know, you folks with REAL culture get a little chuckle out of that every time the PF page loads ...)

Anyway, let us proceed.


I finally received my bonus check for earning National Board Certification. It was delayed for months as the Florida state budget for just about everything was slashed and burned. For awhile, it was in jeopardy and I feared I had earned my NBPTS certification in the year the bonus was cancelled. That would be just my luck.

It came on April 15, just in time to soften the blow an IRS tax payment caused. This is after a huge slice was taken out of it for taxes of course ... I'm whining.
Forgive me.

So, we are planning to restain PFHQ using the two dollars and 98 cents that was left after our contribution to funding the economic stimulus big bank bailout plan. I won't be stimulating any local painters though.
FC will be doing this himself with the help of his now older children and a VERY long ladder.


Here she is, wearing her outdated make-up from about 6 years ago. The greennicty of her surroundings are tinting her basic, but faded cedar stain a bit in that picture, but she DOES need a good powerwashing and fresh stain.



I didn't do it.

I know Flounder ... it's Feather ... not her fault though.

We are also planning on putting a hard enamel porch paint down on the porch boards. They are only stained with the same stain as the siding now.

Our very old lady dog Feather has some tinkling issues and our thinking is a good paint seal on the floor boards will make cleaning up after her more effective.
Am I oversharing?

We have a new arrival at PFHQ, a new lawn mower that is so hip and cool that the box said, "MAY BE SOLD IN CALIFORNIA".

We are all about being hip here at PFHQ so this was a big selling point. I believe to meet California's strict eco requirements, a mower must suck carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and spew out tree seedlings behind it as you mow.

I'm pretty pumped about this and will be firing it up for the first time this morning. It's a walking mower, although it is self-propelled, which seems kind of like cheating.
Where's the mow-flex workout in that?

Speaking of working out ... which gets us to the Ab part of the post title ... any of you athletes using the P90X fitness program that keeps tempting me from the tube?
Any personal experience or opinions on that one?

Other stuff:

• My tomatoes are blooming ... the ones in Jr's Science Fair project that is.
• The garden is mostly a peppers/tomato garden right now, although there are some pretty collards out there still.
• The atamasco lillies I divided a few weeks ago all bloomed and seem to be thriving, so I guess I did no serious damage.
• The swallowtail kites have been back for a few weeks. Perhaps this is the year I get a perched STK picture.
• The pileated's are just shredding the old horsey swing turkey oak log that we park next to each day. They are a pair and are nesting somewhere on the property I believe.
• Emma made the Dean's List at USF! You go girlie!

So, that's about it for this morning.

I believe I actually did squeeze some nature in there, so all is not lost.