Why I Oughta...

In November, I posted about how I had applied a second coat of concrete sealer to our driveway in an attempt to preserve it as best I can .  Part of that preservation is also trying to NOT use rock salt on it to melt ice and snow.  That's a best practice - not using salt - that was shared by our builder, but you can also find it online all over the place.    Some folks call salt the "#1 enemy of concrete" .  So, I try to take care of my driveway without salt or any other melting products.  The issue is that our driveway is on an incline.  You might not be able to tell from this photo , but we're uphill from the street to our driveway. Have you ever come across a concrete driveway that looks like this ?  Pitted and full of pockmarks?  That's very often because of salt damage.  From this story : The pock marks are likely from rock salt deterioration on your concrete drive. It can be caused by using rock salt (sodium chloride) to melt ice on your drive, or c

Over the break, I found myself watching this Toronto Raptors/Kawhi Leonard 'Return' and Ring Ceremony video on YouTube and that lead me down a rabbit hole of 'return' video tributes.  There's a bunch of Derrick Rose coming back to Chicago clips and there are other things like this King Felix steps off the mound for the last time in Seattle video .  And there's this Mariano Rivera All-Star Game entrance video - which might be the best tribute out there.  He trots in to his "Enter Sandman" intro music and the diamond is empty.  Standing there to a full team and stadium standing ovation he takes it all in.  Pretty awesome. But, on that journey down video lane, I also came across this video that I've embedded above showing Michael Jordan returning (for the last time) in 2003 to the United Center as a Washington Wizard.  Lots to like about this (including how they did a sweet little fake out with the "From North Carolina, at 6' 6"

This is the seventh post in the series on this year's (welp...technically, I suppose they're *last* year's) amaryllis bulbs.  The last time we looked that them was right before Christmas on December 21st and 20th .   On the 20th, I showed how the Star of Holland was blooming in a spectacular fashion with four blooms on two stems.  Then on the 21st, I included a few photos showing the progress of the other three amaryllis for the season; Cherry Nymph, Apple Blossom and Red Lion . We went away for a couple days for the New Year and came home to the four pots you see at the top of this post.  On the far left is the Apple Blossom.  Has fully bloomed and is a beautiful white with some red/pink lines running through it and a light green center.  It is much more pale than the Star of Holland.  I also had just one stem come up on this bulb.   But, it also was the one that was timed the best.  It had it's first open bloom arrive and open fully on Christmas Eve.  N

Not a better place to see the last one of these Star Wars movies than in the Tivoli - which I am guessing hosted all nine of them.  There are plenty of people out there that are saying the movie was bad, but I liked it.  And...I stayed awake the whole time.  These days, the theatres around us are all putting in this luxury lean-back seats.  Everytime I get into one of those, the movie has a hard time competing with my next nap. 

Today marks the 365th post on the blog - one per day - that spans the entirety of 2019.  And this marks the seventh year since I started counting that I've done that very thing: post online once per day, every day.  This also marks five straight years of posting on the blog - dating back to December 31st, 2014 when I posted from Coloma, Michigan .   Loved spending New Year's Eve there. This year, I'm posting from the "new" Lake - in a different state.   And I love spending NYE here, too! I posted 136 times (the first one this year was February 20th ) in the [ Garden Diary ].  Means that the garden diary accounted for almost 40% of the total posts here.  If I've hit five years, why not go for six, right?  Here's to a great 2020 in the garden.  And on the blog.  For those keeping track at home, here are the years that I hit a post-a-day: 2019 ( here's last year's post ) 2018 2017 2016 ( 366 posts due to Leap Year ) 2015 2012 - posted 35

We had a weird Fall this year - with some warm temperatures then cold temperatures then back to warm.  And then there was the early November snow event that came when many of the trees in our neighborhood still had almost all of their leaves on the limbs.  That caused a bunch of snow damage including taking down a good-sized major limb from one of the big Oak trees in our backyard .  When I say 'good-size', I'm talking about 40+ years old.  Check out the photos in the post to see the growth rings . But that tree damage was just one part of the lasting impact on the yard.  The other you can see in this photo above.  When the snow arrived, I did like I do pretty often:  created a little path out back for Lizzie.  If I don't make her a little path, she doesn't get out in the yard to do her business very easily.  Yes...she's a wimp.  Through and through. And...I also normally cut or shovel a path that gets us to our bird feeder so we can fill it in the mornin

This is the fourth in the series of posts about the Ash trees that were taken down next door that I've been processing with what they call CSS (cutting, splitting and stacking).  And this post brings us full-circle.  From tree to firewood.  Well....I guess, technically, "full-circle" will be when I actually burn this piece.  But...for now, let's call this 'full-circle'. Back in November, I posted a photo of my neighbor's Ash tree with a pattern under the bark .  In that post, I remarked that because they were planning on tearing down the house right next door, I wondered if I could scavenge any of the wood.  After talking to the crew taking down the trees, I ended up with 45-or-so Ash tree rounds.    After a few days of splitting and stacking, I have about 2/3rd of the wood processed and just about a Face Cord of wood put up . And in that post from a few days ago, I mentioned that there were a few pieces that showed off that same pattern we saw on t