WHY YOU SHOULD BUY A HIGH HORSEPOWER MOWER
When I had to buy a new lawn mower because my old one was stolen ($%@#!@#), I was trying to stay on the less expensive side of things. The higher the horsepower, the higher the price, so the mower I have is like 4.7 horsepower or something. It turns out that the lower the horsepower, the more often the stupid mower clogs with stupid grass and chokes. You spend half your mowing time yanking on the stupid starter cord.
WHY I WAS EXCITED TO SEE A BUG
I was outside collecting seeds for next year when I saw it: a praying mantis. Actually, yesterday morning I saw two of them, so this was the THIRD. Mantids (Isn’t that weird? That’s the plural), Mantids are a GREAT sign in your garden. Seeing them means your garden is healthy and hospitable to wildlife. It also means you have fewer pest bugs, because the mantids eat them. Yay! Here’s a picture.
WHY I NO LONGER FEAR MY FRONT PORCH
The deck boards of my porch are very warpy. The steps right next to my door were particularly bad. They were warping so much, they were pulling the nails out. I was afraid that one of these days I would fall down the stairs, knock my head on the sidewalk, and drown in my pond. This would have been particularly embarrassing because my pond is only a foot deep. How would they write the obituary? “Idiot drowns in one foot of water. Tombstone will read ‘He was no Einstein’”.
Anyway, I decided to replace the step boards. After a harrowing visit to Home Depot, where I barely was able to pretend that I knew what I was doing, I got started. They had already cut my boards to the proper length, so all I had to do was pull off the old ones, and screw on the new ones. It was incredibly easy! I have new steps! I am quite sure I would be able to re-do all the decking on my warpy front porch. The only problem will be the cost. I spent $65 just doing the steps. How freakishly expensive would the whole porch be? I know THAT project will be waiting until I recover from the kitchen remodel.
Before (Well, actually during):
After:
