Home & Garden

While my folks were in town, besides seeing some sites and other family members, we did get a little puttering around the house done. Between the fertility issues and work and general inertia, more than a few things around the house have been put off for too long and the winter has made things to do in the garden fall way behind on the to do list.

As soon as he got into the house, my father homed in on the rickety banister on the stairs. I've played with shims some to try to help stabilize it over the years, but my father called for the big guns: four-inch screws at various angles. It's at least 98% better (there's a little give at the curve, but nothing like it used to be), but I need to patch the holes in the post where the screws are going in and the gaps around the shims are a little obvious from certain angles, so I may have to fill the gap with some sort of plastic wood, assuming I can find one that will stain correctly.

Actually, what I need to do is to inventory all the little things that need doing (fix the plaster in the guest room and then paint, etc.) and to get them done, instead of being overwhelmed by the big things that need doing (redoing the kitchen, retiling the upstairs bathroom, replace all the windows, etc.).

We also took advantage of the nice weather on Sunday to do some quick things in the yard. Evelin put out the Adirondack chairs and cobbled together a little table between them from an old flower pot and a stray piece of slate, and I finally dug out the rest of the carrots we planted last spring.

I was surprise that only one was severely frostbitten and gross. The others were mostly on the small side and more than a few were oddly shaped, but they are nice and sweet and taking up a small bag in the fridge, available for snacking.

Now if we could just get our seedlings started for the coming year. Our last frost date isn't until 15 April or 1 May (depending upon which nursery you ask), so we have a little time, but the beds need some prep work and I'm sure a million other things need doing, too.