September 2014

The main project this month was the fireplace alcove. Rog tore out the window in the family room wall, extended the wall out about 3 feet to make an alcove for the new Harman pellet stove we bought. Sounds easy enough, eh?? But it meant placing piers for the foundation, framing and roofing the alcove, drywall, texture, paint and a tile floor. Ryan came over after work and helped place the stove in the alcove. We are now ready for cold weather. There will be two windows in the alcove and Rog finished one before moving on to focus on the French doors that will replace the glass slider.

Our monthly trip to ReStore resulted in the purchase of a large mirror that we cut down for the splash behind the cookstove. We bought a piece of smoky gray glass to put in front of it. It looks nice leaning against the wall, waiting for install. While we were there, we also picked up 4 ottomans on casters for the family room. They were in great shape and will work out well in the corner under the new windows.

I also put the finishing touches on the patio table and chairs. Rog helped me reassemble the table and we now have a completed project!!! I spent a week putting together family pictures for a gallery wall in the office. I bought frames at ReStore, Goodwill and Dollar Tree. I just love going into the office and seeing them all hanging on the wall.

Meanwhile, I started digging out for the new pond. I figured that after 3 years of drought, I needed to do this in September and October or it would never be dry enough to dig. Even so, I am hitting a lot of muddy clay. By the end of September, I was about 1/3 done with the Big Dig and have about 3 inches of water in the pond. Time to get some bentonite to seal it as I go. Hope to have this done by the end of October. I also finished the kitchen tile…we put tile to the garage door and finished off the tile into the dining room.

September was the month for Max’s date. He wanted to go back to the ice rink. We had lunch at Woody’s deli and played a game of chicken foot dominoes as well. Fun day. For projects, we made shaving cream paint for paper plate butterflies, painted some animal masks, and tried an experiment with milk, food coloring and dish soap.

At the end of the month, we decided to build a vertical hydroponic system. I started some seeds and ordered 5 plastic 5 x 5 fence rails with caps for both ends. Rog cut 3 inch circles out of the top of each rail and placed fill and drain pipes from one rail to the next. He built a frame so that we could put all 5 rails at the big window in the garage. Meanwhile, I burned small holes in the bottom of 40 plastic glasses and filled them with lava rock to hold the new seedlings. We bought a pump that was a bit too weak for the system, then replaced it with one that was a bit strong but did the trick. After fiddling with the size of the system and fixing a few leaks, we hope to get the plants in and growing in October. It brings back memories of the first hydroponic system we saw…Leslie’s lettuce garden on Manjack. Hope ours does as well.

September means that school is back in session. Max started at a new charter school with a teacher that he loves and Karissa is in Montessori 3 days a week. Michelle is also taking classes at Sierra College. She starts at 8am so I take the kids to school on Mondays and Wednesdays.

We are glad to be on land…La Paz got hit hard by hurricane Odile this month. Three cruisers died and the hurricane caused a lot of destruction and chaos. The airport in Cabo remains closed as the locals work hard to get things back to normal. Guess we left just in time.