Somewhere Over the Rainbow

Okay so maybe while not technically, over any rainbows, it is still pretty high.  Oh, maybe I should explain what it is I am talking about.  Bill is on the roof.  That makes me pretty uncomfortable.  We have really good insurance, but still, its a very tall house.  Yesterday, he had to install a new vent, and because we are expecting rain, he needs to make sure its sealed up, so nothing leaks.  The roofers will flash around it when they get up there.  Today, he is going to install my new dryer vent.  Finally!!!!!!  For the last several months, I have been venting the dryer out of the window, which is an amazing pain in butt.  Its a long story as to why, but in a nut shell, the old vent wouldn't work with the new dryer, something about where it was located or something. Whatever, now it will be fixed and I won't have to deal with it.  Progress is awesome!
Managed to get the Wal-Mart run done early.  As suspected, no one was there, and they still had the stuff I went there to get.  Awesome.  Bill broke down and bought a new weed eater.  The old one was stolen last summer. Someone was going around stealing lawn equipment.  Maybe they wanted to start their own lawn service or something.  I just can't imagine what you would need 15 weed eaters, half a dozen lawn movers and 8 chainsaws for.  I finally just broke down and bought a Rosemary plant.  I hate admitting it, but I am completely incompetent when it comes to Rosemary.  I have no reason why, other than for the past 6 years I have tried to grow it from seeds and just can't seem to either get them to even sprout or if they do sprout the seedlings are so weak and pathetic they don't make it.  So, I got a very nice, good size plant, that hopefully, if I baby, it will live.  It better, if it dies, I will just give up.
We got most of the stuff moved out of the way yesterday and several more rows of beans in.  We are going to hold off on the tomatoes another week or so.  I think it is still to early, and my luck, we'd get them planted and then we would have a freeze.  I'll just wait:)
I got the wandering Jews re potted and outside, the tulips & irises weeded and a few herbs planted in pots.  And for the most exciting part of my day, I went into the house next door.
I was gathering up my pots and saw that there were about 10 of the gallon size black plastic pots laying around the yard next door and since no one is going to be using them, I snagged them.  Bill said since I was over there to look and see if the kitchen door had the hardware still on it.  So, being the dutiful wife I am, I did.
OMG!  We haven't been in there since early last summer.  I could not believe how much damage occurred over the winter.  I understand why the city said they wouldn't be responsible for accidents.  The first room I walked into was the kitchen.  The floor in the center of the room was gone, as was the ceiling over that part of the floor.  Since I am a pretty nervous nelly, and I am pretty familiar with where the joists are, I decided to stick near the wall and old step where the joists should be.  I went partially into what was the dining room and no further than that.  The ceiling in the living room and the front room as also partially down and big holes in those floors as well.  I could see into the hallway, and it was a mess.  The whole staircase had collapsed.  Their staircase was just like ours and the banister and spindles were all on the floor. With a huge hole in the ceiling.  I could see the sky in several places.  I can't even begin to describe how utterly sad it is to see that.  Their house is almost an exact copy of ours, alot of the woodwork was carved by the same man, and to see it, just rotting.  Each spindle is hand carved and so beautiful, to see them laying on the floor like that was really depressing. I am not sure why it struck me like that, or why that one think was so overwhelming.  Maybe its PMS??  who knows, but it is just really sad.  What's really bad is, the guy who owned it was a roofer!  When we moved in they had tarps on the roof, and never did anything other than put up more tarps.  I had heard that they had 50 gallon barrels on the 2nd floor to catch leaks.  I have to imagine  that it was true, since you can now see parts of barrels that are now in the basement. The basement is completely full of water.  Anyway, it doesn't look like much inside will be salvageable, there was some door hardware , but Bill will have to go and check that out. 
So that's it for now, I need to go and get the boys outside before they riot.

Gardening, Historical Issues & yet a few more Issues :)

So, we met with the Roofer yesterday.  Everything is set up and ready for them to start.  Colors have been picked, shingles are ordered, all other misc materials ordered. They will be out about 8 am next Tuesday to get started.  Since we are the first big job they have, we get a big crew to work.  With such a big crew, the sofits and fascia should only take 2 days for the entire house.  As soon as that is done, weather permitting, they will start the roof tear off and rebuild.  With a crew of 20 guys, he thinks that they can bang out the roof in 3-4 days, remember its an entire rebuild.  When that is complete, the gutter guys can start.  That may take as long as a week, and because of that they are going to set up a temporay gutter system thingy, in case it rains while they are trying to restore the Yankee gutters.  I can finally see the light at the end of the endless remodeling tunnel.  So, here is the Before picture. Hopefully, next week, I'll have a much nicer After picture.

Interesting bit of information.  The guy who we have been dealing with for the roofer, he's the owner of the company, is also the nephew of the people who used to live next door, in the house that is being torn down.  He told Bill that he really should go over and salvage what he can from the house, he spoke to his Aunt, who now lives in Texas, and she said it was fine with her.  That's nice and everything,but the city now owns the house.  So, I called the City.  They said no, at first. So then I called the historical society and told them the situation.  We need 3 windows, 2 window sills, and if we can get to them, we would like to snag 2 hardware pieces for one of our transome windows.  We would also like to see if they have any hardware left on any of the downstairs doors.  One of our doors doesn't have the original hardware.  After a few hours, the city called me back and said we could go and get what we need, as long as it is done in a safe manner, the house is condeemed after all and we get everything out by June first.  I don't think that will be a problem, seeing as how we need the stuff now. lol.  Since, the guy seemed in a generous mood, I asked about getting some of the brick, when they start knocking down the house.  He said that we can do that, after the basement has been filled in.  Outstanding!  That should give us plenty of brick to make the retaining wall in the back and a brick patio/bbq area.  Aden is still convinced that we should make him and Evan a brick playhouse.  He even drew up 'plans' so we will know how to build it.  We'll see. It would be kinda cute though.  I should post the picture he drew its a bit unrealistic.  But, then this is the kid, who thinks we should build a rocket ship out of brick too.  I don't think he really gets the whole concept of physics just yet:)
So, the Historical society will be out today, sometime to take yet more pictures.  They must have already taken several hundred.  I know that on the inital application, I sent 178 pictures. How many do these people really need :)  They are also going to be coming up through each stage of this roof thing, to take pictures of that.  So, that's that.
Next up on the list, the garden.  Man, this is turning out to be pretty tricky.  Since the roof materials will be dropped off in the back yard, where we normally put in the vegetable garden, we have to make sure the guys have a clear path to get to the materials.  So we have moved the garden over to the west side of the yard.  This does not give us enough room.  If I want to have enough vegetablea to put up for winter, I need alot more space.  It takes 5 rows, 20 feet long,  of green & wax beans, to give us enough to eat all summer and have enough left over to freeze or can, to get us through the winter.  I have enough space to do that, but then I don't have any room for anything else.  I eat a ton of spinach.  I am not kidding, we go through about 2 pounds a week of fresh spinach.  I also like lettuce, tomatoes, peppers, squash, cantalope and cucumbers. Not to mention the herb garden, which gets pretty big too, because what plants I don't bring in for the winter, I like to dry or freeze. Plus, we use them almost daily once they start coming in. That take alot of room.  I don't like it, but it looks like we will have to wait till the roofers are done, before I can put that stuff in.  Which means a longer wait till I can start eating :) Oh well, it is for a good cause.

The next big issue is the boobs.  The big squishing is Friday morning, and I am starting to get pretty nervous.  Not so much for the squishing, I think I can handle that.  I am getting pretty nervous about the results.  I had someone ask me what I would do, if the results of the test were bad.  Ah, well, I am trying not to think about that.  But, she mentioned that I may want to, just in case.  But, I don't want to.  But, now the idea is already planted in my head, and it won't go away.  Its like a cheesy song that won't go away lol.  Maybe I should watch the Wiggles for an hour or so, that way the only thing stuck in my head is that Big Red Car song lol.   Yeah, I like the Wiggles...What of it?
I also really enjoy Turbo Dogs and Jane and the Dragon.  I heard that they are coming out with a Smurf movie.  I frickin' love the Smurfs!!!!!  Although, I always thought it was a bit strange that there was only 1 Smurfette and all of the others were boys....  It totally makes sense to me now.  No, wonder all the other smurfs, did whatever Smurfette wanted.  I'm not going to say it, but I think I know what was really going on!
I have noticed that alot with cartoons.  I never picked up on the adult humor in them when I was a kid, obviously.   But, now watching them again with my kids, alot of them are just really frickin' funny.  But, I still think I am old enough to know what it is that the Road Runner is saying, they can stop bleeping it out :)
Alright, I guess I should get off here and get busy.  I am sure there is something I should be doing:)