Her Side Funnies

This post follows “Brandy swamp juice at day 60.”  To see that post, click here.

Wow, wow, and wow!  For the last 90 days, I have had two gallon jars of cheap vodka (the cheapest I could find) fermenting with fruit that was falling from the trees.  I have endured ridicule, taunting, threats of jail time if I poisoned anyone, and skepticism that the new “hobby” would be a disaster.  Now, the verdict is in.  I have had a chance to taste the wicked brew and, oh boy,  was I surprised!   Look who’s laughing now!

First, let me go back a little bit for those of you hitting this blog out of order from the first two.  I had two full trees full of fruit that were going to waste.  I had fed the family all the fruit products I could concoct, and needed another fresh usage.  I went online to get suggestions and found apricot leather (too much work with the risk of my kids hating it), cookies (didn’t use a tree full of fruit) and then I saw a homemade brandy site.  Hmph, I thought, I’m not much of a brandy drinker, but the labor looked easy – pick fruit, add sugar and cheap vodka, put in gallon jars and turn once a day for three months.  I could handle that – and the shelf-life was very good.  (more…)

Hey all.  I know this posting is still not as clear as a direct download would be, but I am still monkeying with how to get these up and so far, this is the easiest.  Again, I’ve made some adjustments and would love to hear whether 1) you could read the text in the bubbles, and 2) if the appearance on your computer was great, good, fair, poor, or made you think I should keep my day job!  Wait, this IS my day job!  Maybe by now they’ve got an opening in Animal Control….

This post follows Slipforming, part 14 – Cold seam repairs.  To see a complete index of slipforming posts, click here.  For an index of comical posts, click here.

Houston, we have a landing…SNOW!!!

Despite feverishly throwing cement in cracks, holes, gaps and spider nests, and working on the shed in between, the weather has closed in on us.  This morning marks the first snow of the season.  About three inches is atop the patio table.  Still falling.  Cider anyone?

We’ve not gotten a good shot of the house lit up at night, so I decided to try to get a shot of it this morning because it was dark enough that I thought I could get snow and the lights in one shot.  Haven’t dragged out the snow shoes, so wore my crocks.  Poor planning on my part! (Slosh, slosh) (more…)

This post follows Slipforming, part 13 – Kitty’s take on it.  To see a complete index of slipforming posts, click here.  For an index of comical posts, click here.

If you have gotten this far in my posts, you have read about how to slipform, what the concrete looks like fresh out of the forms, how to scrape it off for a smooth joint and the dangers of using mixed sources of cement.  An area that I have not covered is how to repair cold seams.  Cold seams are the bane of a concrete slinger’s existence.  They are deceptive.  They are not forthright, they make promises they do not keep.  They should die.  And now I’ll tell you how I really feel.

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The following post is a guest post from my dear friend Kitty, who constituted one-third of the initial work “crew.”  This post follows Slipforming, part 12 – Repairing masonry blunders.  To see a complete index of slipforming posts, click here.  For an index of comical posts, click here.

First let me start by saying I have known Dani since high school. I was not all that surprised when she said she was going to build a house.  In many ways it is so “Dani.”

When we first met on the site we went into a little camp trailer where she enthusiastically showed me a copy of “Mother Earth” magazine and outlined the project to me. I had a hard time grasping that we were going to use these Styrofoam panel things and later do rock work. I was available to help Dani in the mornings because my middle son David was going to a nearby preschool. I neglected to tell her I was pregnant with my third child.  My husband and I had not broke the news to anyone yet.

Even though I could not grasp the entire project, I signed on to help explaining to Dani I was a little confused but could certainly follow directions and be a good grunt. The footers had been poured and you could tell where the windows and door were going to be. I painted many a panel with linseed oil as Dani mentions in a prior post. (more…)