Colorful Improvements

It's been 7 years since we had this house built and it was time to change up a few things that we were never really happy with from day one. Hello, hardware stores! Let's spend some money!

The first thing Mike wanted to do was paint. After 7 years it was due and this would also give us a chance to change things up, do some serious cleaning in all the nooks and crannies. Besides, he really enjoys it. 

It's hard to tell by the picture but he got with it and painted the entire living room, kitchen and hallway. Now, you see, Mike did all the painting because I am not allowed to. I'm only allowed to paint outdoors. More on that later. Just know that I did some knuckle busting scrubbing to get things more like when we first moved in.

Ace Hardware had a promotion online giving away samples of paint every day in March. It's one of those things that go "live" at noon and if you are not there to click exactly when it updates, well you don't get nuttin'. I managed to score 17 of the paint samples offered and since we were painting anyway, let's add some color.

Oh yeah, a nice blue complimented by an even nicer green.

Bright, bright green. I'm loving it.

And also a shocking yellow.

This is the "aquarium."

So while Mike was painting doors indoors I headed outdoors to do my thing. Dollar store to the rescue, these are small clay pots tied with a key inside for a bell. And I re-used an old rusted rake. It's amazing what a good coat of paint can do.

Not too bad for a gal who can't paint. And I can't. I don't have the patience for it. It seems pretty simple to me. The thing is one color, you want it another color, so just slob the stuff on and there you go. Right? (Yes, those are stickers, dollar store stickers.)

This one wasn't on the list to begin with. Mike went outside to cook us some steaks on the grill and the whole blasted thing caught fire. And looking at it afterwards it was rusted and dirty and broken all to hell. I'm surprised he used it as long he did. 

It was time for a new grill. This one is a bit smaller but that's a good thing, just cooking for two anyway.

Delicious!

I was never happy with the sink that we had put in 7 years ago. It was your typical average 2 hole stainless steel sink and it wasn't installed correctly to begin with. ("Stainless" steel isn't stainless now is it?) The squirt hose came loose within a month and the drains were too high so that water laid in the bottom and eventually started to rust and pit. 

I wanted a new sink and I wanted a pretty one and while I was at it I wanted one that was going to last. I found this white cast iron sink and added a new faucet. This thing is HUGE and deep and weighs a ton. I love it.

Another thing we were never really happy about was the front door. For one, it was never installed right to begin with either and didn't quite close properly. It was a solid steel door and had no window at all. Our little entryway is blocked on both sides from the bedroom windows so that if someone came to the door there was no way to see who stood there.

Fixed that! Brand new windowed door and a lovely splash of color!

Oh yes, this is coming together.

So now I have an old grill, an old sink, and lots of leftover samples of paint. What to do? Ya'll know I can't stand to let anything go to waste. So, let's just scrub this thing down, rearrange a few things, add a coat of paint and now we have a new birdbath/feeder!!

And here's Mikey, opening and closing that brand new front door, very proud of himself. 

Good job!

It's time to go, I hear my credit card screaming....

Spring at Low Roller Acres

We have been busy busy busy with some home improvement projects and I finally realized I hadn't put up a post in a while.

So here are some random shots of stuff here at Low Roller Acres

My night blooming cereus out in full daylight.

You know I have to include pictures of birds.

She's pretty...

Blue Jay...

Not sure, any guesses?

Boat tailed grackle...

Hm, something left a long slithering track in the mud.

Could it be this guy?
Nope, too small...

Yup, I bet this is the culprit.

He's looking at me looking at him.

Green looks like he's impaled himself on the tip of a mother-in-law's tongue.

Ibis high up in a pine tree.

And lastly, a dung beetle, rolling up a ball of....

Next up, when we get everything done, some bright, bright paint and a few new home improvements.

See ya'll then!

Ain't no Cardinals in Seattle

A friend of mine has informed me that there aren't any cardinals in Seattle. What? 

So I shall share some of mine.

A female cardinal, too.

(Maybe a young male, hard to tell.)

She also said there were no bluejays, so here you go.

I went back to doing what I do best and that's taking pictures at the bird feeder.

Cow birds are messy and sling the seed all over the place.

Lots of doves, pretty orange eyes.

The grackles always look mean and angry.

The mockingbirds don't come to the feeder but they do make a show of themselves.

Another cardinal.

Grackle high up in the tree, seems upset with someone.

And a woodpecker.

We had a group of storks visit the back pond picking off the fish in the shallow water.

Long legged and balanced on a limb.

So we've done the birds. 

That reminds me of a song.

"Let me tell you 'bout the birds..."

"and the bees..."

"and the flowers and the trees..."

Volunteer Iris

Plain old wild flowers.

"and the moon up above..."

And through the palm fronds.

"And a thing called love!"

That's it, guys. See you next time!

Everglades City Day Trip

Mike's day off, he looks over at me and says, "How about we drive to Everglades City and get some lunch?" I'm in!

It's pretty much a straight shot down Hwy 29. There are canals all along one side of the highway and we had our eye out for gators. We saw lots.

We drove all the way to the Everglades National Park. Just a tourist trap to get you to ride their boats through the bay waters. Pretty busy this time of year.

We did a little wandering around the area hoping to see something interesting. Found this dead sting ray. Ick!

Time for lunch so we stopped at a restaurant called City Seafood. It has outdoor seating facing the water and you can watch the air boats coming and going. 

Lunch was good. I had the shrimp basket and Mike had a burger and fries and this seagull watched us, patiently waiting for us to drop some food.

There's always a pelican around. 

Not much to see here so we headed back out Hwy 29 looking for a likely spot to see something a bit more "everglades-ish."

We found a dirt road leading into the Big Cypress National Preserve. As always there's a canal running along beside the road. We stopped at several likely spots and carefully took a peek behind the brush. Beautiful spot!

The birds are all over doing their fishing.

Anhinga.

Mike found this big old painted turtle alongside the road. As soon as he picked it up it peed all over him. I mean, it gushed about a gallon of pee on him. LOL! 

We also stopped at the Florida Panther National Wildlife Rescue. They have hiking trails and it was beautiful. Here's a bromeliad in bloom. These were everywhere.

There are fences all along the highway in this area and we were trying to decide if that was to keep the panthers in or to keep the people out. But when we were walking along inside on this trail we kept hearing something rustling along beside us in the woods....

All we saw were lizards, though.

Back on the highway headed home we spotted this huge alligator by the road. We stopped because we had to get a closer look.

This guy had to be at least 12 to 13 feet long. Wow!

I should have counted the gators we saw on the way back. There had to be at least a hundred. We stopped here and there to take a look and I found these snail shells. 

That's some huge snails!

A nice lunch, a nice drive, beautiful weather, good gator hunting. 

What more could you ask for?