So before I headed off to Virginia, I had moved all the potted flowers I worked on growing to the barnyard area so they’d be easier for John to water, everything in one place. Yeah, unfortunately some rodent creature also decided to make them into a tasty treat. Seriously? My growing plants/flowers are more appetizing than a field of growing plants and veggies? It’s like shoplifting from KayBee when Toys’R’Us is nextdoor! I was FURIOUS! So I had to cart all the pots, some giant, back out to the front yard where they first started. What sucked was the gobbler decided to choose the day after I transplanted a lot of them from the larger containers to smaller ones, to keep the larger containers from being over crowded. I’m pretty sure it’s a groundhog. So far since they’ve been out front, no real problems. I just have to see if they heal from being chomped so much. I am planning to plant stuff in the ground next year, once the ground is cleaned up and ready of course. I just decided to give some potted flowers test runs this year.

The front porch, which you can see has been stripped of ivy, and the ivy stripped the paint. Also the front bushes, the bricks I’m gunna eventually use to line the garden area then mulch.

Thanks to the heatwave, the sixth one we are on now, I basically stopped doing yard work. It was just too nasty. I figured let the heat kill all the weeds, overgrowth and crud; it will make it somewhat easier for me. I’ve sense moved my focus indoors. Most people never realize unless I show them that we actually have a second bedroom downstairs, aside from the Wonder Woman room. It however has become a storage nightmare. The Wonder Woman room is too honestly. I can make it look nice, just don’t open the drawers or look in the closet 🙂


Even opening the door to the room is a nightmare . . . . don’t because the cats like to rush in here and then it’s a bitch to get them out!

I have wanted to organize it and the other room for YEARS now. In fact I had told John over the winter we were to get things in order . . . it didn’t happen. So I went out and bought a second bookshelf. I had wanted, and blogged, about a book shelf for the living room/dining room corner for awhile. Especially during the Christmas season to put the never ending nativity on. I never got around to it, and never wanted to make the purchase. I had been eyeing a nice looking one at Le Tar Jay for a year, but then I saw the cheap 26 dollar version. 120 dollars for the exact same thing, just with molding to make it look pretty . . . or 26 dollars for the plane jane version. Hmmmmm. Yeah if I’m paying over 100 dollars for furniture then assembly should not be required! I went cheap.

John of course did not like the cheap. Ewwwww pressed wood! Ewwwww! Well the 120 dollar one was pressed wood too, just like anything from the Swedish Superstore would be. I told him he was welcome to go out and buy something nice and fancy if he wanted. He also complained that I wanted to stack it with DVDs and videogames. Currently they are separated and either on an bookshelf in the Wonder Woman room, or in several different drawers in the TV cabinet. It can be a bitch to go searching for what I want, but John’s point is “they are hidden away rather than on display, which makes us look like grown ups.”

Well first, the only people who see inside our house are my friends. They look through these same things as much as I do, so I feel they’d appreciate the organization 🙂 Second, who cares what the inside looks like when the outside looks the way it has for years 🙂 Third, John is the King of Clutter and has no room to talk here really, cause I know I’ve blogged about his mountain sized piles of unopened mail that cover his desk. They get so bad that I end up having to go through it all and throw out (sorry recycle) countless dollars worth of unread magazines he subscribes to. I just glanced over there right this minute and their are packages on the floor and stacks on the desk I can see. Pfffft!

I told him that I would eventually move the book case out of the living room (though I might need another for Christmas!) and into one of the other rooms. However before those rooms can be cleaned, shit needs to be put in order! I want to put the DVDs/Videogames in the living room, use the Wonder Woman Room bookshelf for actual books, and the TV cabinet for CDs (which again are ALL over this house). From there I can begin dealing with the closets and drawers (which ALSO have CDs, videogames, old computer components). I’ve bought a few plastic bins for some of this stuff. The drawers which hold a good number of my clothes are actually collapsing. I need a new set of drawers honestly and soon. The ones I’m using now? “Pressed wood furniture” from Ikea . . . that belonged to John . . . yeah . . . . grown up stuff 🙂

My eventual goals for the two rooms, probably not to be fully realized till next year cause I only work on them in spare time, are to use the cluttered room as a guest room and turn the Wonder Woman room into an office and if needed a guest room. There is a pull out couch bed in the cluttered room I’d move into there.

As for other stuff, the second boot camp begins in four weeks and runs two weeks up until the start of the fall semester, when I go back to teaching. It’s my last hurrah of getting a bunch of stuff done and in order. The jobs for fall look good, 2 classes, both the same class, both I’ve taught before. I had tooled with changing the books, but killed that idea. I have the lectures and class done as is, I don’t have the time or desire at this point to change it and all the lectures. Yeah I’ll tweak them, but I don’t have to rewrite them. Then 2 classes at least in the spring, hoping to get one more.

3 Replies to “Garden Muncher And New Shelves!”

  1. First of all—wonderful to hear from you. I know it’s a pain in your butt–but I miss the tweets. It seems like forever since we have heard from you. Hope your trip home was relaxing.

    The front steps are amazing–just hope the plants survive. But look at the crazy weather they have already survived–what’s some chomping!

    Ambitious aren’t you! I do understand about organization–can’t stand clutter, messy drawers/closets, and wasted living space taken up by clutter. Sometimes it means biting the bullet and downsizing. The way I see it–if it’s heaped together and in the midst of clutter–how important is it? I guess John and I would never see eye to eye becasue, like you, I’d constantly be going through his stuff and organizing/pitching!

    Your schedule for fall sounds very do-able. Why change the book–this gives you the time to tweak and maybe expand your work. You are not student teaching–you’ve earned the right to be the teacher not the student. I tweaked for 30 years–adding and pitching as the needs changed–but the basic information never changes or it wasn’t correct in the first place.

    So glad you are back in touch with your viewers.
    Cyber hugs,
    Lin aka WV Nan

  2. You’ve been busy, and are putting me to shame. Er, inspiring me, that’s what I meant to say. *G* My spare bedroom looks like yours- it’s become a storage room. So much work to be done, so much motivation, not enough get-off-my-butt-and-follow-through. 😉

  3. Hey, Dustin, am really missing you on twitter….its funny how much following you guys makes my day…..or just hearing about your miserable day makes it seem as though no one is alone in their misery….we are all here and listening…hope you guys are all ok and doing well….love to hear about the animals as well; and you are doing so much outside…..wish I had the energy to do that……Hurry back soon….

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