It sure has been awhile since my last post and paging through the photos on my phone it’s a bit daunting to make this post but I’ll just grab a few so I can say we’re caught up!

Summer was extra hot this year in central Texas. One thing that’s nice to have is a pool, however, we had big problems with it starting mid-summer. The green (algae) and stuff started to become harder and harder to avoid. Part of it may be that we used Baquicil rather than chlorine (as prior homeowner used it) but turns out also the sand filter is due to be replaced. Anyway, we kept taking samples in to test and getting advice from the pool place. Rob explains things very thoroughly every time. But basically, the pool people don’t actually seem to know what they are talking about. We’d get different advice, sometimes contradictory…especially as our saga carried on over several weeks. This was end-of-summer which would have been peak pool time but alas, between the green and the chemicals we were pouring in we didn’t get in.

We got to see many chemical reactions. This is one of the more dramatic periods :)

Sometimes we’d get our hopes up that THIS time we’d get it solved but nothing was working. Finally, we decided to switchover to chlorine but even that wasn’t fully working as it was cloudy for awhile. It was like 3 weeks before they mentioned adding flocculent or whatever. There’s even more drama in the details, but I will spare you. Just FYI, as Rob mentioned to me this morning, The Pool is now a source of mild PTSD.

Today our pool is finally blue and we are back to using it! We will reassess what it needs in the spring, such as new sand for filter and what system to use, etc. Theoretically we could just call someone else and get answers. Or get regular maintenance. But it’s not that simple, because of things like:

Most businesses, including pool places, don’t bother to call you back
We have an above-ground pool, and if you can pick and choose your clients, we end up bottom of the list
We were not using the typical stuff, chlorine, and no one seems to understand Baquicil. And transitioning from one to the other….just forget it
They may “help” but the advice is wrong.

You get the idea but anyway, hopefully we’ll get off to the right start in the spring. We also plan to watch youtube videos which apparently give you all the information you need to do it yourself.

Chickens very broody all summer but now no one is broody and Isis and Sisi are laying eggs.

The other backyard hassle was the trees that needed trimming. One tree was in bad shape due to the dirt pile the former owners left which had suffocated the tree’s roots. Anyway, Rob got on a ladder and started to trim but a big branch fell and then bounced up and kind of knocked him off the ladder which sounds crazy/awful but I didn’t see it!! He wasn’t “hurt” seriously but he sure got a big BRUISE! After that incident we hired an arborist and his team to finish that job and trim all the other trees in the yard (mostly live oaks).

Using the Merlin app I’m up to well over 70 bird species! Currently many are migrating over this area. I recently looked up in the sky and saw tons of birds passing over which I later learned were about 2,000 Swainson’s Hawks migrating to Argentina! Eventually we hope to take the data and make it into a cool data visualzation on a poster.

One day I found a baby rabbit that the dogs had found before me and it died. So I moved it over by the trail cam and the next day when reviewing the trail cam images I saw that a raccoon found it!

I have kept up using the gelli plate for image prints (and image transfers) which I like to glue cut-out-images on and then embroidery on. Made SO many of them! Then recently at a trip to Half Price Books I got a huge book about dolls and so I’ve been trying to focus on using these to make a series of Halloween pieces. I’m kinda of stuck now but I’ve done several and they’re in my Instagram.

One challenge when adding embroidery on paper is if you put the holes too close the paper tears.

I did one more botanical print using the dye pot because I want to keep the dye pot active and not throw it away. It had mold or whatever but I just boiled it and it worked fine. Not so many wildflowers now so I don’t think I’ll do much of that again until springtime.

This is not the pool. It’s the dye pot but they do kind of look similar at times.

I saw a paper microscope mentioned on the internet so I ordered one and had fun using it. Mostly though I want to look at more stuff that lives in pond water so I put stuff in my purse so the next time I see a creek or whatever I can grab a sample. What I like is that you can place your phone on it and take pictures.

Pangea had a vet checkup and all went well although the vet never could see past her shell and she kept herself inside the whole time. She’s steadily gaining weight. In fact, she’s almost to where she can no longer fit through the fence gaps which is handy when we’re on walkabout.

Dogs are fine, we hope to get them out for walks outside the neighborhood soon. We weren’t doing that this summer as it was so burning hot. We would like to now but the pickup is in the shop for some kind of recall and they keep having to delay completion because of parts they need and whatnot. We prefer not to put the dogs in the other car as they’ll get it yucky straightaway.

Rob made a super dart board cover out of wood which he painted black and then we put the Austin FC logo on the front! Makes the whole room look super cool! And now when we play my misses will hit the inside of the case rather than damage the wall :)

Notice Woody’s tail. He follows me EVERYWHERE. Stoney doesn’t do this.

We have new neighbors who are a young couple with a 1.5 year old daughter. They seem nice. Further afield, along 290 even closer than Suds Monkey, they are building a bunch of new buildings- all of them will be fast food! Across from this there is already a sub place, chick fil a, tacos but soon we will have a P Terry’s , chinese, and I don’t know I forget, some other fast food we’ll never use. It’s already difficult for the existing places to staff their places so who knows how they’ll find employees. Anyway, not places we’ll probably ever visit.

I saw on-line where an adult tortoise would purposefully hit the wind chimes in the yard. So naturally, we hung a small set of chimes in Pangea’s habitat and sure enough, she chimes them! The first day she did them many times. Nowadays, we’ll hear them on and off. Yesterday she rang them several times, today not at all. So I guess just when she’s in the mood.

The usual cooking happens around here. One of our newer additions is homemade pizza that Rob puts on the big green egg. We used to get pizza from Suds Monkey or Pizza Cave or Jester King but honestly we’re disappointed with all of them so now we usually do it ourselves.

I was recently flipping through a community mag and liked the cover art which was a collage done by a local artist. In checking her out, I learned that she also curates an art space across 290 from us. It turns out that this hair salon, Salon Mystique, has an art gallery space throughout! I decided to go check it out and I found that the hairstylists all have separate rooms and work independently. So there’s long hallways connecting them all and that’s where the art is. Many artists were represented and some were selling for like a lot of money!

Anyway, I ended up messaging her and she said they will have a call out for work in the spring. Perhaps I could slap a frame on some of these gelli/embroidery things and see if they could hang in there? One thing I’d say is these gelli prints are not like the other art they have in there now. Most of the stuff is more traditional painting. Probably my favorite one I’ve made so far is this fish. I had glued an image of a fish down and then embroidered over it. I think the paper tore a little in places but you can’t tell. ;)

Gee I think my embroidery has gotten worse since I did this. Not sure I could do this again. Ugh.

More images below. By the way, Pangea was just ringing her chimes!