What’s been happening in our neck of the woods?  I’ve been pretty quiet, and, frankly, I haven’t really been busy enough to warrant the silence.  But I haven’t been doing much that’s noteworthy.  Just in case you were wondering, here goes (in no particular order):

– Hubby and I got three sixteen foot boards made for the house.  This entails planing a one inch deck board down to 7/8″ of an inch of thickness; shaving just a little off the sides to ensure it’s 5 1/2″ wide; notching half the width of the board out of opposite sides the full length of the board with a router; and routing an angle onto each notch — one outside and one inside.  This is called “shiplap.”  You can still buy this siding new, but it’s the wrong size for the siding on our 111 year old Victorian house.  To get siding that fits exactly when a board needs to be replaced, we have to make it.

– Hubby got the front wall painted in color coat as far as we have the boards reconditioned or replaced.  Here’s a photo:

He put color coat on the next four boards tonight.  Due to some other things in the queue, we probably won’t get the bottom four boards replaced until early next month.  With the exception of a little paint scraping and sanding, hubby has done all the work for this job.

– We’ve had no rain in Texas.  I’ve been working sprinklers in morning and evening hours (when evaporation is least) to try to get the grass growing and salvage what little St Augustine grass is still left.

– I’m getting a little work done on Polar Bear on the Loose.  I’m still working through the How to Revise Your Novel Course.  I’m on Lesson 8.

– Dazzle, our 18 year old chow/spaniel cross, won’t be with us much longer, and we’re trying to ensure she’s as comfortable and healthy as possible.  She’s always been an outside dog, but she was diagnosed with what amounts to a bed sore today, so she’s in the house recuperating to keep it clean, dry, and fly-free while she gets medication.  Last week, upon discovering she’d lost nine pounds in the last year (she was a 40 pound dog, so that’s significant), we decided to switch her from dry to canned dog food.  She likes that idea.  She also was having trouble eating her vitamins, so we got a grinder and are grinding them onto her food, making it easier for her to ingest.

– Sometime last week, I managed to screw up a hip/ lower back muscle.  I strained the one on the right side two years ago.  Last week, I did the one on the left side.  According to a neat app I found last night called iMuscle, it’s the gluteus medius muscle.  The app has fine quality photos and includes exercises and stretching for each muscle which will allow someone to strengthen or rehabilitate.  At $4.99, I think it was a bargain.

I guess that should mostly bring you up to speed.

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