New Window Treatments

When we moved in, the windows in my studio had brown faux wood blinds. After we had the room painted, the brown no longer matched the rest of the room. We also encountered a problem where the blinds were difficult to let down all the way. This was due to the fact that the windows have trim about 1/3 of the way up the bottom of the window. This caused a discrepancy in width if you were to measure at the very top or at the bottom of the window. The person who ordered the previous window treatments did not account for this and simply measured at the top where they would be installed. As a result, you could never really get the blinds to come down all the way in a smooth, easy manner. 

The original blinds (and windows).

When I was teaching, I noticed the sun would angle in through two different windows depending on the season. In the fall and winter, the sun would come streaming in through the left window. In the summer, the sun would come streaming in through the right window. Sunset in the summer months are more of a northwest sun vs a southwest sun during the winter. My solution over the years was to hang curtains to avoid the problem of the trim and to block out the sunlight during the various months.

The curtains did their job...but didn't add much for aesthetics.

The curtains sufficed for a long time, however, they've always looked unkempt and messy. They also gave the room an illusion of taking up more space because of the puffiness of the curtains. 

This summer, I was enlightened to zebra blinds. I like to call zebra blinds the contemporary version of a roller blind. Roller blinds have been around for a very long time. In fact, there was a rainbow colored roller blind covering the window in one of our bedrooms when we moved into the house. That has also since been removed and replaced. I also realized we could hang the blinds with an outside mount instead of an inside mount. This way, we did not run into the problem of the varying widths from the window trim. 

I ordered blind fabric samples months ago and we had discussed which kind of fabric and color to choose for my studio. After a while, the idea got put on the back-burner because it was a lot of money. One day, I saw in my inbox an email from the blinds website saying they were running 45% off zebra blinds! Normally, their site consistently has them at only 25% off. I told my husband and he told me to get them. I had to rummage around the house and dig for where the samples went because I'd misplaced them for a few months. After successfully finding the samples and measuring the window, I placed the order. 

On the day the blinds were supposed to be delivered, I took my children out in the morning for a bike ride around the neighborhood. When we came back, my daughter alerted me to a tag on our front door. FedEx had come by to deliver but did not leave the package because it required a signature. I was disappointed, but I made a mental note not to leave the house the next morning. 

Later that afternoon, I saw a FedEx truck stop in front of our house. The delivery driver came back and delivered it! I don't know if they're actually allowed or supposed to do this, but it was nice of him to make a second attempt on the same day. We ended up storing the blinds for a few days before we could install because it was going to be a minimum two day process. 

The first day, we were going to uninstall the curtain rod, remove the curtains, fill the screw holes, and touchup the paint. The second day, we were going to drill new holes for the new hardware and install the blinds. Everything was going great on the first evening as we uninstalled the rods and took the curtains down. Then, we opened up our spackle to fill the screw holes only to discover it had molded.

I wish I could tell you this was rocky road ice cream...it's not

In order to get our project going and keep the timeline, we needed to patch the holes so we could paint over them and let the paint dry. That evening, I tried a new trick - toothpaste! For holes 1/4 inch or smaller, you can use a white toothpaste in place of spackle to fill screw holes. Because we had small holes and we were not going to be making new ones anywhere near the old ones, we had no problem substituting toothpaste to fill the drywall holes. 

Thankfully, our five-year-old can of paint was still good and did not go bad. We do store it inside in a temperature-controlled climate rather than in the garage where it can get excessively hot and cold. Google says latex paint can keep for up to 10 years when stored properly so hopefully we can double its longevity. After touching up the paint, we walked around the house in search of places on the walls to touch up. There were a lot more than I had thought. Between stains from contractors, crayon on the wall, pen on the wall, and scuff marks, we were able to use up most of the paint I poured out. 

I forgot how beautiful the windows are exposed, but sadly, it is not practical for what I need.

The next evening, we measured, drilled new holes, and installed the zebra blinds, and by we, I mean mostly my husband. I am super pleased with the final result. These blinds do everything I want them to. They let in light so it doesn't feel like a cave of a room, but they also block out a good amount of light so my piano doesn't get damaged and I can keep the glare out of the room during sunset. 

Much more streamlined and neat.

It was a little painful to have to move the furniture back in front of the blinds because I use a round table as a desk in the corner of the room. I am now browsing various desks/secretary desks to see what I could use to better fit the space and still meet my needs for organization, storage, and infrequent writing use.

How many of my students do you think noticed and said something to me? 😆

Garden Updates

As the weather is starting to cool, I've been thinking of how to protect my plants for the winter and/or what to do with the plants I don't want to overwinter. First, some updates.

So the original basil growing in cups that I thought was basil is not actually basil. It's actually a tomato plant! I have no idea how I ended up with a tomato plant. I'd never intentionally planted tomato seeds, but we have composted some tomatoes that went bad or composted portions of the fruit we did not consume. There may have been a few seeds in there which didn't sterilize or die over time. Otherwise, I have no idea how I came to grow a tomato plant.

Unfortunately, tomato likes hot temperatures and we are winding down for the hot season. I don't know how much growth this tomato will get before I need some serious blanketing for winter, but we will see. If anyone has any advice, I am open!

As for actual basil, I actually tried again for the 3rd or 4th (I lost count...) time to grow them from seed. I had purchased seeds in the spring to grow my own basil, but about a month ago, my sweet neighbor gave me a ton of basil she'd cut from her garden. She purposely left the flowers on top so if I wanted to save the seeds to attempt to grow myself, I could. 

Yup, she was right. I saved the seeds. Basil seeds are really tricky to get out of the flower. Each flower has about 20 seeds in it. However, these 20 seeds are grouped in pods of about 3-4. And each of the pods has to be opened for the dried seeds to fall out. I tried simply shaking the seed pods in a glass jar fully expecting the little seeds to pop out and separate from the flower. No such luck. I used my fingers and separated the flower pod and removed all the seeds by hand.

Before separating the seeds.

After separating the seeds.

I'm sure actual seed farmers have a much more efficient technique for how they remove basil seeds. Unfortunately, I don't. 

We'll call this my 4th attempt. For my 4th attempt at growing basil from seed, I took two styrofoam cups and grew one with my neighbor's seeds and one with the seeds I purchased. Within 4 days, I saw seedlings sprout from the seeds I purchased. The following day, I saw one seedling sprout from the seeds from my neighbor's plant. 

Basil! Actual...basil...

Now this time I know for sure these are basil seedlings...they are the only seed I put in. AND the stems are not furry. I do plan on continuing to grow my basil indoors through the winter because these plants are too small to make it outside and basil is not frost hardy. However, I've noticed after the initial sprouting, I have a hard time getting true leaves to grow.

From reading online, I've seen others say plants will take some time after sprouting to focus on growing roots so it looks like the growth is stagnant from the top. I've also read basil needs moist soil but doesn't like to be overwatered. 🤔 That's a tricky balance...

Lastly, an update on my peppers. I harvested some! Dixie cup is for size comparison. 

Harvest #1 These I ate.

Harvest #2. Pepper on the left started going bad so I had to remove it.
The two on the right went to my dad. 

They're definitely on the smaller side, but my first harvest was a forced harvest. One of them actually became too heavy and broke off the plant so I had to harvest it or trash it. The second one, I decided to remove because I had noticed it was not growing, but the same plant had two more peppers coming in. Rather than have this tiny pepper continue to take nutrients from the other two, I decided to cut it off early and allow the other two peppers to continue growing - they have grown in size every day when I check so I think I made the right call in this decision. 

They don't taste the same as store-bought bell peppers, but they're pretty tasty. Quite satisfying getting to eat something I grew myself. 😊

Mortified

15 years ago, I wrote an embarrassing note on Facebook asking my friends to vote for me in a piano competition. This competition had a voting aspect in addition to the live performance, and let's be honest, you have to play the game to even have a chance at winning it. 

"hey you guys. vote for me to win this piano competition my teacher submitted my cd to :D:D:D:D:D please please please omg.

go to krld.com

scroll down on the left and click on the section that says something about a young artist's competition
and then vote for me :D

and tell all your friends at college/school/work to vote for me too :]
(i had a late start on this, my teacher submitted my cd late...-.-")

if you have questions IM me/comment and i'll help you (i'm at the library writing this and i can't open multiple windows to show you guys....)

omggg pleasee vote for me thanks so much :D

and if you're friends with jason wang...well, our friendship is questionable then.

just kidding. but don't vote him, vote me :[
thanks."

The link doesn't exist anymore and the recording of my performance is long gone. I have a master copy of the audio on a CD, but that CD doesn't play anymore so there is no actual remaining version of my performance from 2007. 

18 tracks...and none play

This post was from October 10 of 2007. Just over a month later, I stopped taking piano lessons. I was still arguably at the peak of my piano career, and potentially the start of something greater. But why? A lot changes when you're a teenager, and I acknowledge my portion of responsibility for why I chose to stop. My interests were changing. I wanted to see my friends on the weekend instead of spending them at a piano lesson. But that wasn't the breaking point. 

At the awards ceremony for the same competition this voting was for, my dad and I sat in the auditorium and waited for the ceremony to begin. My teacher was not present as he was on a trip overseas. As I flipped through the program and read the different bios for the other competitors and judges, I noticed that my teacher was listed as a judge for this competition. I was in shock. He had told me he was involved in the competition but reassured me he was not a judge. And yet, here he was, his photo, his bio, on the judges page. Moments later, I heard a parent comment from the row behind me: this girl's teacher is a judge. 

I was mortified. 

How could he do this to me? I didn't care I wasn't a winner that evening. All I wanted was to leave and not have anyone notice me or see my face or recognize me from that horrid program book. 

When he returned from his trip he told me we could resume lessons at our normal time. I told my dad to tell him I was quitting and not having anymore lessons. My dad sent him an email and received the angriest reply filled with bitterness and hate. My dad forwarded me the email.

I would like to know exactly why Cathy wants to quit her piano lesson? Something has to do with my teaching?  To just thank me for all the years and say nothing else are completely unconscionable!

 

It's a waste that she quits piano altogether before she finishes her high school years.  She has such a great potential, but I guess her priority has changed.  To be honest with you, she could have won the first prize with The DALLAS SOLO PIANO COMPETITION if she had tried a little bit more harder [sic].  I didn't think she was focused on the competition because all she talked about was her birthday party, her friends, her homework, etc........

For the past three months, the only other piece that I asked her to work on is a movement of a Schumann's piano concerto.  She absolutely refused to work on it, and regarded that piece of music as a piece of shit.  I couldn't believe thay kind of disrespect exhibited to a revered Classical composer by any piano student.  I could have given her another piece to work on, because I thought she would change her mind if she tried a little bit harder.  But no chance! 
  
Cathy, all I want to say to you is that if your mother were alive, she would be very disappointed that you quit studying piano with me because if she knew I wasn't the teacher meant for you, she could have told me to stop teaching you long ago!

Before closing this e-mail, I just want to make it clear that I accept Cathy's termination of piano lessons, and with such an acceptance she will also no longer be my student in the near or distant future. 

For more than 10 years after he sent this email, I've held onto this forced guilt because I've always felt like I did something wrong. It's only been in the last five or so years when I've been able to understand that I was not at fault at all. In fact, 99% of what he wrote about in the email is just an angry rant with no truth basis to it. 

1. He said I could have won 1st prize at that piano competition (different one from the voting submission) instead of the 3rd prize I was awarded. That is incorrect. He was not a judge. He did not hear how the other competitors played. He didn't even hear how I played. He wasn't there! To make that statement is an assumption and completely wrong. I actually met the young man who won 1st prize a year after that competition completely by chance. He had moved from California the year before, and he was very talented. We are friends on Facebook.    

The other thing my teacher never knew was I drove myself to that competition. Having an awkward relationship with my father, I did not tell him I had a competition until the morning of. He told me he had a conflict and couldn't drive me to the competition. My dad just shrugged and told me not to compete. I told him I'd drive myself. I'd never driven into the city before, but I set my mind to drive myself and take local roads all the way down. Because I had practiced and worked hard for the competition. If I was going to lose, I was going to lose honorably and take my chances instead of skip out. My teacher never knew. 

2. He said I wasn't focused on the competition because I was too focused on my birthday party, my friends, and homework. Can I not prioritize my birthday? Is that so wrong? Should I not value my friends as important? I don't want to be friends with someone who doesn't! I valued my homework and thought it should have a priority to get done! Wow! Blasphemy! 😑

3. He said I regarded the Shumann concerto as a piece of shit. Those words he made up and said himself. I never said anything to slam the Schumann concerto. All I did was not practice and make 0 progress on the piece. Now you have to understand, I was working on other pieces. I had other competitions with other pieces to continue practicing. I just did not learn that new piece. I was still practicing and playing other pieces. Those are two very different issues at hand. He said he could give me another piece to work on but he never offered. I never got offered another concerto. He was focused on me learning the Shumann, and when it didn't happen, he kept pushing. If I thought this concerto was a piece of shit, I would have burned it a long time ago. I didn't. I still have the music on my shelf in my studio. A part of me wants to learn it, but I haven't been able to bring myself to because of the memory it holds. What a shame...the one person who was supposed to foster and encourage has destroyed and uglified. 

Irony - if I had told my teacher I didn't want to learn it, he would have given me some response as to why I should learn it and me not wanting to learn it was my problem. How do I know he would have said this? At one of my piano competitions when I was around 14 or 15, he asked me if I was ready. I actually decided to answer honestly and shook my head "no". His response? He scowled at me and told me that was the wrong answer! That's the kind of person he was. 

4. He said if my mother were alive, she would have been very disappointed that I quit studying with him because if she knew he wasn't the teacher meant for me, she could have told him to stop teaching me a long time ago. Well this one takes the cake. He doesn't know that before she died, she asked my brother and me if we were progressing with our teacher. She asked us if we wanted to switch teachers. We said no because switching teachers and getting to know someone else is hard and takes work. My mother did not believe he was the teacher meant for me and she would not be very disappointed that I quit studying with him. In fact, I truly believe my mother would be so proud of me today for everything I am and everything I've done. If she were alive, she'd probably have given me an earful about quitting piano at the time. But I would have told her the truth. I would have told her everything. And she would have understood. 

She definitely isn't disappointed in me if she could see me now.

You know what I hate the most about him? This was 2007 when he said this about my mother. My mother died in 2004. He didn't go to her funeral. 

He didn't go to the funeral of the mother of two of his very best students. My orchestra director was at her funeral. My 7th grade science teacher was at her funeral. My algebra teacher was at her funeral. My English teacher had already told me she couldn't make it but she had shown me her condolences in other ways. My school principal was at her funeral. These four women took a day of their own PTO to come. My piano teacher could not rearrange his schedule to come.

Let's let that sink in. 

And to think he has the nerve to say what he did to me in 2007?

5. As if I want to be his student in the near and distant future. I'm ashamed to even tell people I was his student at all. 

What kind of a heartless jerk was teaching me piano for 12 years? 

There were a lot of red flags over those 12 years. I just missed them all or didn't notice them the way an adult would have. After all, I was 17 when I quit. How many 17 year olds have great intuition? How many 17 year olds are perceptive enough to read people? Not to mention, my own father did not defend me. It took almost another 17 years to begin to see everything clearly for what it was. For how abused I was in this student-teacher relationship. 

I still cry thinking about this and reliving these memories. I cry because I was once this excited little teenager wanting to get votes for a music competition who is now filled with anger and hate at these memories. I still cry because I know I will never be separated from these memories or from him unless I cut music and piano out of my life completely. And I know I will never do that. But I don't give him any credit for anything beyond textbook knowledge. I went from someone who swore off music at 17 for the rest of her life to someone who made it into a career.

He didn't create any of that. 

The Garage Saga: Part 3

This is the third part of the Garage Saga series. If you missed part 1, and 2, you should start there first. 

Last time, we left off with the garage company not having us on their schedule. This was Wednesday, September 21st. The office called us back later that afternoon and said they could install Friday morning the 23rd. 

So my husband rearranged his PTO and swapped Thursday for Friday. On Friday morning, the installer arrived around 11:20 am and began installation. As he was installing, he informed us that there were no studs for a portion of the wall where the track was going to be installed so he would need a piece of wood. We told him we were not supplying this because we did not know we did not have studs behind the wall where the track would be. 

In addition to the lack of studs, he had also brought the incorrect length of track with him and it wasn't tall enough for what we needed it to be. So by 12:15 pm, he left, we had 15 holes drilled into our drywall, and no installation once again. My husband again called the company and explained to them this issue. He told them it was their job during the quoting process to figure out if everything was present - they are the experts. They should be telling us what we need, not the other way around. 

Holes shown in photo are larger than they appear.

On Friday afternoon, the office called back and told us they would be able to return on Saturday to complete the install. Third time's a charm? 🙄

On Saturday the 24th, the same installer arrived once again at 2:30 pm, and this, time he had the correct length of track as well as the wood we needed to make up for our lack of studs behind the drywall in that location. He immediately got to work taking out our existing garage track and swapping out the new ones.

I took the kids to church that afternoon while my husband stayed at home and supervised the install. At 6 o'clock as I was leaving church, my husband texted me that it was complete as well as a photo. I drove home with the kids and returned to a newly installed high-lift garage door. 

When we bought our house seven and a half years ago, we noticed the higher ceiling in the garage. At the time, it was also piled 10 feet high with the previous owner's stuff and a narrow walkway two sides around. I wish I had taken a photo of the mountain of possessions they'd shoved into the garage to show the house to sell. 

Before

Now, it has been modified so that we can potentially park four cars inside in the future. 

After

My husband has dreamed of this for years. I never thought much of it because it didn't appeal to me in any way and we didn't need more than two cars. I still drive the very same car I learned to drive on with my learner's permit as a high school student 🤷🏻‍♀️. I think this is more a testament to the reliability of my car than my driving skills, although my driving record is clean. 

I have to say, I love the high-lift more than I thought I would. The space feels larger. The opening and closing of the door itself is much quieter (I think most of this is due to a new system more so than changing to a high-lift). I feel like I'm driving into an industrial warehouse when I pull into our garage. It's actually really refreshing to come home to such a large space even before stepping foot into our house. 

It feels huge, even when the door is open.

Now, does the story end here? I. Wish. It. Did.

So on Saturday when the installation actually happened, they did not pick up the horizontal track for the garage door. The installer reused our old parts to complete the installation. When we called the office to notify them that the job was complete, my husband pointed this out to them and we did not pay our remaining balance because the work order had listed new parts to be used. If they didn't use the new parts, we weren't paying for them. The manager was not in at 6 o'clock on a Saturday so we were told to call back Monday to discuss the issue.

On Monday, September 26, my husband was working all day so he did not get a chance to call the office until 5:00 pm. The manager was gone by then, but at least we had called to show that we are doing our part. On Tuesday, September 27, he received a phone call from the manager at 8:25 am and they spoke for 5 minutes. 

She informed us that without using new parts for the install, they would not honor their warranty. In order to swap out the parts, they would need to send out their installer again with the necessary part, uninstall what's currently installed and swap the parts. I have no problem with them doing that, but I think from a business perspective, it is in their best interest to not waste their time doing so and to leave the part, honor the warranty, and give us a discount. That's just my personal opinion viewing this situation in what's best for both parties. 

As of today, Thursday the 29th, this has not been concluded. 

A saga, indeed. 

The Garage Saga: Part 2

If you missed part 1, read it here.

I waited nearly 24 hours for a response from Electrician #1 we were going to hire to compensate for the handyman who flaked on us. I never got one. So I searched online again and called another highly related company (Company A).

He picked up the phone on a Saturday and spoke with me about what we needed. I told him we were on a time crunch and needed this done by Wednesday of next week. He said they had some time Tuesday morning and they could come by and take a look. He did not give me a quote over the phone because he said all projects are different and they'd give the quote after looking at our specific house and project. I thought that was logical and fine and left it at that.

I texted Electrician #1 back, notifying him we would no longer be needing him because I did not receive confirmation he was going to try to get us on the schedule. Now this text he responded to in a timely manner. Strange why he didn't even text me an "ok" after my text the day before...

If he had only responded to my text promptly like he did
to all my other texts....he might have gotten hired for the job. 

The electrician Jonathan contacted (Electrician #2), did not respond with his availability until Sunday evening, and by that point we had already scheduled with Company A. We told him Monday that we had already booked with someone else.

On Tuesday, September 20th,  Company A came out to our house in the morning. Before he came, I received a text message with the name of the technician and a license number. Out of curiosity (and probably a good habit to be in), I looked up the number on the Texas Department Licensing and Registration (TDLR) website. The license number pulled up the company name but not the electrician himself. I called the office to inquire about this and was told it should have had the electrician's license number. She hung up saying she'd call me back after she figured out what was going on. I never got a call back. When he arrived, I asked him about this and told him I couldn't find his name or license number on the TDLR website. I asked him if he could show me his license. He couldn't because he didn't have it with him. The closest thing he could show me to prove himself as a licensed professional was an email dated January 2022 confirming his renewal for an apprentice electrician license. 

We put aside the license situation for a while and had him give us a quote for our project. Originally, we were wanting one outlet installed, but then it occurred to my husband if he wanted to complete the project in its entirety and plan ahead, we would actually need two. Company A gave us their quote and we looked at each other in shock. There was no way we were paying that much money for two outlets. I even asked the electrician if he could complete the job right then and there, and he gave me some wishy-washy answer which wasn't a confident yes**. After an hour and a half of going back and forth trying to see if there was any way we could get the price lower, we paid him his service fee and he left. 

My husband called Electrician #2 back and ask him if he still had availability for Wednesday. He said he did and could do the job for us and quoted us less than 1/3 of the price of Company A. Electrician #2 was also a master electrician and we were able to search and verify his license on the TDLR website. 

Electrician #2 called my husband later that day, Tuesday afternoon, and actually told him he finished his other jobs early and could arrive to install the outlets for us shortly. He arrived around 2:30 that afternoon and was done in an hour and a half. The same amount of time we spent going back and forth with the electrician from Company A was how long it took Electrician #2 to complete the job and charge us 1/3 of the price for it. 😐

We finally had two new outlets installed in the garage. The rest of it was smooth sailing, right?

Wrong.

On Wednesday, September 21, my husband called the installation company just to confirm the following day's installation schedule. When he called the company, they told him we were not on the schedule. 😳 We had paid the deposit of half the project cost over a month ago in August and my husband was told that the requested date (September 22nd) would be submitted for approval. 

What we were not told was that our request for that date was denied on their end and we weren't actually on their schedule at all. 😱

Tune in next time for part 3.

**I did my own research later and found that anyone with an apprentice electrician's license here needs to work under the supervision of a master electrician. I don't believe this company intended on sending anyone else out with him to complete the job so there's some questionable stuff there. 

The Garage Saga: Part 1

Preface: If you know what kind of degree I have, you'll know that I value good communication skills with proper grammar as a plus. If you know what kind of person I am, you'll know I am very thorough and think through multiple perspectives when possible.

Let the saga begin....

***

On July 21, I sent a text message to one of our neighbors who is a handyman in the area. I asked if he could install a new outlet for us in the garage. He came over a few days later to look at our project and told me he could do it in his spare time because he was busy with projects during the week. We weren't in a rush, so we agreed to have him do this for us.

On August 5, I sent him a text message seeing if he was available between the 13th and the 27th of the month to add the outlet for us because we needed to schedule with the installation company. No response. On the 19th of the month, we had another handyman over to work on a separate project for us. Just before the handyman finished, I heard a knock at the door. Turns out, it was our neighbor handyman. I went outside to speak with him, and he asked me if I still needed his help with our project. I told him we did. He lifted his arm to show me that his arm was in a sling. He had hurt his shoulder and would need time to recover. I told him that was fine, we had scheduled our project install date for late September so he had time. He told me that would work and would get back with me.

On September 7, I texted him again and said, "Our installation is September 22, so there's two more weekends before that install. Let me know if you haven't fully recovered yet so we have time to find someone else if needed. Thank you."

His reply: I will get im [sic] out of town until Saturday.

some punctuation would help...

I specifically worded my text to give him an out if he needed one without feeling guilty. And he didn't take it! So....I trusted him to get back with me. 

On September 16, I texted him again and said very directly, "let me know when you're going to install the outlet this weekend so we can plan around that time. Thanks." He sent me a reply two hours later, the fastest reply I'd received from him in the last nearly two months of choppy communication.

"Hay [sic] I just had my arm worked on and cant [sic] lift it above my head fo 2 weeks. So if you need to get someone else it's ok im [sic] sorry I didn't tell you before.

...hay is what cows eat...🙄

Anyone else infuriated? This is supposed to be a professional. And this was what I got. Absolutely ridiculous. This was Friday September 16th. We had 6 days to find someone else to do this for us.

I texted another electrician (Electrician #1) I found online. He told me his quote and said he could rearrange his jobs the following week to accommodate if needed. My husband called an electrician (Electrician #2) he had found online. We told him we needed the job done by Wednesday. He told my husband he would get back with him about his availability.

At 4:30 pm that day, I told Electrician #1 that we wanted to choose him for our job and asked him to tell me his earliest availability for the next week. All day he had been great about responding to my texts in a timely manner. But after I sent this one to him, I got nothing.

I waited nearly 24 hours and then....(to be continued)

Gardening Updates

 This summer, I tried gardening again. We started by buying pots and planting seeds. Unintentionally, my "trying" turned into multiple different attempts for different plants. We are currently on attempt number 3 at basil. I last wrote about this in May. This is a continuation of that blog but can stand alone if you're just now tuning in. 

My original pot of basil seeds started to sprout, but something wasn't right about the growing conditions and so they failed to really take off. My little sprouts stayed sprouts for what felt like months and then they died off. Later, they started to grow again, but then my biggest sprout was nibbled before it had a chance to continue growing. For attempt number 2, I used a different soil mix to start my seeds. However, the temperature was much higher so the combination of the elements once again did not yield proper sprouting.

Attempt number 3 was actually an accident. I had mixed soils with ungerminated seeds when moving plants (yes...that's a big no no in gardening but I did it anyway) and then I saw the basil finally sprouting. Rather than pluck them out for the trash, I decided to repot them in little cups to continue growing. Risky as they could have died in the process, but I didn't have anything to lose at that point.

Since it is now mid-September and our temperatures feel more like comfortable summer temperatures instead of scorching ovens, these seeds were able to sprout and germinate.  

Let's see how big they can grow before temps drop below 60.

My other plant babies were my peppers. 

My original pepper plants which had sprouted from saved seeds have grown into very large plants. I did not top off my pepper plants this year just to see what would happen out of curiosity. Various gardeners online gave mixed advice as to whether or not you should. I decided not to because I wanted to see what the plants would do just growing on their own. Because I did not top off, my plants ended up with a taller Y split and ended up being very tall plants overall. 

These pepper plants have endured a lot with me. They started out in pots. These pots were moved to the side of the house when our patio was being installed. Then, these pots came back to the patio with me. After a few weeks, these peppers moved back to the side because of the intense heat. During our sprinkler installation, these plants were moved back to the patio again to evade the workers and their digging. After the sprinklers were installed, these plants endured a transplanting into their permanent home now in our raised bed planter with designated sprinkler system zone.

Half of these plants were revived from the dead...that's another story.

After a really hot summer, I finally saw baby bell peppers sprouting. 

Can you spot the pepper?

It was a beautiful sight. I think I was almost as heart-warmed seeing peppers growing on my plants as when my first baby was born....but not quite. I watched these peppers grow and counted them every few days to see if new ones were coming. 

And then some got eaten. That was a bad day when I discovered gnawed-off stems where I knew baby peppers were. 

I consulted some friends for advice, did some research online, and found a way to cover the peppers so animals couldn't just eat the fruit off the stem so easily. I used some plastic netting that comes with a package of Asian noodle thread I buy. (Anyone already know which one I'm talking about?) I wrapped up my peppers with the netting and used a twist tie to secure it closed. 

My husband said it looked like they had pink wedding veils on. What a great description. I hope this will deter whatever was eating my peppers long enough that I can take a bite out of one of my peppers before this year ends. They still need 2-3 weeks minimum to grow bigger before I should pick them. 

End of post advice from this experience:

1. I'll probably top-off my peppers in the future just to have shorter plants and a lower Y split, especially if I want to overwinter the plant for next year's growing season. 

2. Saving random things comes in handy if you have the space and capacity to store them in an organized fashion without turning into piles of junk.

3. I'm very proud of my pepper plants. They've been through a lot, and they've pulled through.