A Big Job

There's a lot about my house I don't like, but there's one thing I do like about it, and that's the wrap around screened in porch we have. I've written before about how our porch is like an additional room-how our kids played out there on rainy days, and how it was used for a "counseling" office when talks needed to be given. There's a lot of good memories connected with our porch, but, now, it's causing us some work. Every few years we have to take down all the screens (there are 20), repair them and scrape, prime, and paint the trim. It is a painstaking process at times. This last week we started on the windows to the south of the house-there are 7. They are all repainted, the screens are all repaired and the frames repainted, and we are waiting for them to dry in order to re-install them.

Today we took off 5 screens across the front facing the east, and are starting to scrape and clean the sills. Not only does the old paint have to be scraped off, but the sills and trim need cleaning before priming, which I do with a brush, a bucket of soap and water, and some elbow grease. It's a lot of work, and did I mention, there are 20 of them to do? Yes, yes, I think I did. I miss the screens. They offered some privacy, and some protection from mosquitos. I think it'll take us another couple of weeks to do all of them, but once it's done I don't have to think about it again for another 4 or 5 years.

I went to the farmer's market today and surrounded by hordes of people because it was "Tomato Day" at the extension building, I managed to buy some tomatoes and peaches. I got some yellow cherry-type tomatoes and some purple-reddish "heirloom" tomatoes that almost look like grapes. They are very sweet and very delicious. I didn't grow any garden this year, but plan to start working on putting in some raised beds in the fall. Have you seen the "topsy-turvy" tomato planter? You hang it up and the tomatoes grow upside down. I'd like to try one of those next spring.

Two weeks to go before school starts. I've received information from both schools about their inservice schedules and where I'm supposed to be. I also have gotten notice of 2 training sessions which are scheduled for school psychologists in August, so it's time to think about getting back to work. I'm grateful for a job, don't misunderstand me. And, I'll be ready to get back. I don't do well with a lot of unstructured time because I'm too much of a procrastinator. There's things on my list yet that I wanted to do this summer that I never got around to.

Speakiung of procrastinating, I'd better get moving. Maybe I'll have time to finish scraping a sill before I have to make dinner.