Sights and Sounds

So, the sights and sounds of the porch this weekend were quite busy.  Sometime during the day on Saturday, we saw a fire truck go racing by.  Not terribly unusual, since they are normally first responders in our area...  But when the second, and third, and fourth ones went by, we knew something was up.  D walked out on the porch, and looked down the street and saw big black bellowing smoke pouring into the air.  We threw on  coats, and walked down to see what was up...

What we found when we got there, though, was not a house on fire, but an RV.  A good size driving kind.  

It had been fully engulfed, and there was still a lot of smoke when we made our way there.  The firefighters were doing their best to keep the damage away from the house that the RV was parked in the driveway of.  From what we could see, it appeared that a shutter had melted, the corner of the roof was a little discolored (charred maybe?) and their city trash can was melted.  

The family appeared to be home, and were outside.  The firefighters went into the house a couple of times, and looked like they brought out two cats.  But all in all, it did not appear that the house sustained much damage.  
The street was blocked off for quite a while, and even when you though it was all out, there was still smoke coming from the RV.  I imagine there are a lot of things that could burn in there.  We don't recall ever seeing it parked there before, so it's possible someone was in town for the holiday.  I think a total of 5 engines, 2 rescue, and tons of support vehicles showed up.

As if that wasn't excitement enough, on Sunday night, we heard sirens again.  We looked out, and there was Rescue parked in front of our next door neighbor's house.  We ran out again, to find thick smoke blowing our way.  It was hard to tell if it was from our neighbor's house, or the one next to it.

Multiple fire vehicles again show up, and it was determined that an outside trash can had been on fire, and was extinguished without spreading any further.

Our neighbor asked the firefighters how many fires they were going to put out on LaSalle, and he answered, "Hopefully all of them!".  

Hopefully!

Sorry about the picture quality.  They are from the phone.  In all the excitement, we forgot to grab the regular camera.  I think enlarging the pics helps see the detail...

AMW

Weekend update

This weekend was really nice out, so we decided to put the plants out on the porch for a bit.  Got them out there, then watered them all with rain barrel water, and let them soak up the sun.  

I also repotted a couple spider plants that were getting out of control, and cut off some babies to root them as gifts.  

While at Trader Joe's on Saturday, we saw some beautiful mums, so I got two of those, and repotted them into larger pots.  The mums along with a couple of pumpkins, and two other plants (that I don't know what they are) are giving the porch just a splash of color for the winter.

As I was watering and messing with the plants, we had a visitor.  J saw me working, so pulled into the driveway to say hello.  It's always nice to have visitors to the porch!  

As she was leaving, we noticed a squirrel tucked into the window of the neighbor's house.  He was just kind of hanging on the inside of the frame.  I walked over, and he scurried out of the frame, and just hung onto the side of the brick.  He looked to be fairly young, and he was completely freaked out by me standing there watching him.  Almost completely frozen with fear.  Only after I started backing away, did he scamper off the side of the house, and into the yard.  

Sorry, no pictures.  I forgot to take the camera out there, and have since moved all the plants back inside.  I'll try to get out this week and take a couple of the "winter porch".

AMW

Halloween

Right now, there isn't a lot to talk about on this blog, because, well, the porch is empty.  And when it's empty, it's not someplace we go a lot.  

At the last minute, however, we decided to hand out candy for halloween.  So D ran across the street to the chain pharmacy, and bought some candy.  (On sale, she might add...)

I went out to tidy up, and in the swing, I found a dead bird.  Not sure if he/she flew there itself, and died, or maybe the neighbor cat left it there for us, as he frequents the porch, or someone else left it there.  So, after snapping a pic, I disposed of it.

Then, we sat about in the Adirondack chairs waiting for trick-or-treaters.  We had NO IDEA what kind of turnout we would get as we were one of the only houses with our light on, and our driveway is quite the hike from the street.

First group of kids arrived, and there were 4 or 5 of them.  The got their treats, and the older ones made sure that the younger ones all said thank you.   I thought that was really nice.  

The second group arrived, about 6 of them, and again, they were all thankful.  One thing we noticed, though, was that most of the kids (in both the first and second group) had backpacks instead of pillowcases, or pumpkins, or any other traditional item in which to gather candy.  Just thought it odd.

The final group (and yes, that was it) was our two little neighbor boys.  They hadn't planned on trick-or-treating the neighborhood, as they were going  a couple blocks away, but we had seen one earlier and told him to make sure he stopped by.  So they did.  Cute boys, I tell ya!

After sitting on the porch for another 45 minutes, with no one showing up, we finally called it a night at 7:00 p.m. and went inside.  Now we have a TON of halloween candy to eat....

It was fun.

AMW

Winter Plant Removal

This weekend, is the weekend.  I'll be pulling in all of the porch plants, and finding homes for them throughout the house for the winter.  We've pulled them in twice for storms, and they consume the living room, and that is when they are all bunched up together sitting on tarps.  Now, I will try to find homes for them to spread out, and try to survive the winter.  I've not done a great job with this in the past.  I've lost or nearly lost plants due to the transition, or just due to being inside.  Not exactly sure which.  BUT THIS YEAR WILL BE DIFFERENT.  I will keep them ALL alive and healthy.  You heard it here first.  I'll also try to post where they all end up in the house.

AMW

Fall/Winter

Well, it's almost time to bring the plants in for the fall/winter.  It will be a sad day, as it will be really empty.  I think for the fall, I'll get some pumpkins to provide a little bit of color, and then try to find some nice big mums to round it out.  I've seen some nice ones, but they are so stinking expensive, I can't the sheer number I'd like to fill out the porch.  I guess some are better than none, though right?

Still no word on the gutters.  Can't wait to get the whole makeover complete!

AMW

Empty Porch

With the Nor 'Easter that blew threw this week, we decided once again to clear the plants off of the porch, and bring them inside.  Mostly because we didn't want the wind knocking them down, or even off of the porch.  This is the second time we had to do this (the 1st being for TS Hanna), and I don't like it.  It's not that I don't want to protect the plants I've worked so hard on, it's that the porch looks so.....  EMPTY.  I don't like it at all.  It's sad looking...

On the flip side , the inside of the house is bursting with color.  So it will be nice in the winter time when all the plants come in and find a home for the winter.  But still, judge for yourself...

AMW

Rain Barrel

A few months ago, I went to a Rain Barrel workshop. For the price of the workshop (which was VERY reasonable), we got a barrel, all the hardware, and the training to turn it into a working rain barrel. Complete with instruction on how to tie it into your gutter system at home, and start collecting rain water for your garden or plants. Now to me, this sounded like an AWESOME idea. I could not wait to get started.

The main problem I was facing, was that the gutters on the house were in bad shape, and in some instances had come off all together. I wasn't sure where I would be able to tie it in to our system where it would actually get water (as most of the gutters were clogged).

So it sat. On the side of the yard. Weeds growing around it, and just generally looking pathetic.

Now, new gutters are on the way (part of the makeover...) and the gutter company saw my rain barrel sitting in the weeds, and actually told me that they have incorporated rain barrels into several jobs. YEAH! Validation! But I didn't want my ugly rain barrel to become a focal point. I also didn't want to move the rain barrel to the back yard, because we all know, the plants are on the FRONT porch.

What to do? What to do?

I opted to PAINT my rain barrel. Some scoffed at the idea. And were skeptical that it would help. My hair-brained idea was to paint it red, a brick-red so it didn't stick out so bad.

And then paint brick lines on it, so it blended with the house. I thought it would be cute.

I cleaned out part of the flower bed (where the barrel was to reside) and got some retaining wall blocks to raise it up. I also put a LARGE paver on top of the blocks to provide a flat surface. Then I surrounded the area with small white landscape rock to polish it off just a bit.

As you can see, it ended up more on the "artsy" side of cute. But I certainly think it is MUCH better than the drab grey barrel that it started out at.

Stay tuned for a final update picture when the gutters get put on. (Incidentally,that's when the final makeover update for the house will happen as well...)

AMW

POTW - Plant of the week

Almost forgot about this one, although I have no idea how! Here is another schefflera plant that we have. You may remember the post about THIS one. Same kind of plant, but way different. (That cleared it up, right???) This one is HUGE. We've had to move it several times, cause it takes up whatever spot we put it in. Right this minute, it's behind the small table that is inbetween the two adirondack chairs. It has actually spilled over onto the table, it's gotten so big. But it's a pretty one, and extremely healthy!

AMW

A new one - TBD

This is a new one.  What is it?  I have no idea.  My best un-plant-educated guess is pothos plant, but we'll have to wait and see.  When I went to repot the corn plant, it was in the pot, on the edge.  I knew it wasn't a corn plant sprout, so I decided to grab it, put it in a small pot and see what happened.  Well - it started as the two outer leaves, and within two weeks, that third middle leaf came up.  So it's growing, and healthy and happy by all accounts so far.  I promise to keep you updated on this one, as I can't wait to see what comes of it as well.....

Plant Updates

Thought I would take up some bandwidth today to update some of the plants of the day that have been featured previously.  I mentioned on some of them that they had been repotted, but I still had old pictures.  I finally got around to some new pictures, and here they are.  I'll link to the original post, so you can go and see the difference if you'd like.

First up is the one I call the "Purple Plant".  As you can see from the this picture, it's actually a lovely shade of PINK.  HERE is link to the original post.  This one is still in it's original pot, though, so not much of an update other than it's colors.  And man is it a pretty one!

Here are two of the beloved Palm.  The ORIGINAL post showed it in another pot, that is now home to the corn plant.  (More on that one in a bit).  I reuse pots I already have, and just move them to plants that will suit them.  This one I had to buy, cause it is especially large.  Most of the pots are made out of a really light, but strong material.  Almost a styrofoam, but not.  Helpful, huh?

This one hasn't been repotted, I just wanted to show how much it has sprouted since the ORIGINAL post on it.  So much, that I can't get all of it's little spidery legs all in the picture.  I'm thinking that these will make nice little houseplant presents to give friends and family...  Watch out, you could get one too.

The corn plant.  I don't know that you can see a significant change in it's size, but this pot just suits it better.  And was bigger to boot.  It was the original pot for the palm, as mentioned before.  The corn plant also got moved from it's original location on the porch as well.  HERE is the original post.

The Peace Lilly.  Not much new since THIS post, but wanted to highlight this beautiful bloom on it!  Enjoy.

THESE poor crotons were in rough shape.  In the original post, I mentioned joining them together in one pot.  Here is that pot, and their progress.

Coming up sometime soon - a post about my rain barrel venture, with pictures, and a new plant to the porch.

AMW

POTW - Pic of the Week

The Palm.  Here is another example of a pretty plant just sitting there at BJ's, calling out my name.  Got this one home, and right away potted it into this pot.  It started growing immediately as is evident by all of the new growth in the second picture.

It has since been repotted into a larger pot, and is showing signs of outgrowing it as well, but I just can't put it into a bigger pot.  As it is now, I have NO IDEA where this gal is gonna go this winter.  (Or some of the others plants either....)

This one was strategically placed at the end of the porch, with the large fern hanging over it, as kind of a "plant barrier" to the next door neighbor.  Not that we don't have good neighbors, but a little privacy is a good thing.  The top of the palm and the bottom hangers of the fern started to intertwine, so the fern got relocated.  It's ok, though, as the palm is quite large enough to be it's own barrier now.  

This one is undoubtedly, one of my favorites.

                                             

During yesterday's rains, I took two buckets and set them on the front step to collect water running from the front roof.  The front gutter is missing, and new ones are coming soon, but in the mean time, it's a mess.  But I was able to catch enough rain water to water the palm, the corn plant, two spider plants, one hanging fern, the peace lily, and all of the little tiny plants on the table.  That's a lot of rain water.

The next venture is to get my rain barrel painted and installed with the new gutters, but that's another post.......

AMW

Hanna

Well, as you've seen the last couple of posts, we're getting a new roof.  We were worried on Friday that they wouldn't finish before TS Hanna came through.  They kinda did, and kinda didn't.  They got the whole roof shingled, but didn't get the ridge vents on.  It started to sprinkle, so they made the decision to shingle the ridge, and come back today (Monday) and put the vents on.  

As far as we can tell, the roof held with no leaks.  Such a relief to know the roof is in good condition.  I promise some good pictures when everything is cleaned up.

As for the porch and the plants, we took nearly everything in.  We took down the wind-chime, the Hatteras Hammock swing, and brought in all of the plants (except one).  So what was left on the porch?  2 Adirondack chairs, and small table and our mammoth palm plant.  I have to say, it looked pretty bare out there.  Almost like the first whole year we were there.  

However - it was WAY COOL to sit out there at various times during the storm and watch the wind and rain, the pine trees sway across the street, all of the folks run in and out of 7-11 while trying not to get wet, and the very small amount of cars drive by.  

I wish I had had the forethought to take some pictures, but I was so entranced with the storm that I forgot.  Must do better.  

AMW

Makeover In Progress

These top five are the roof over the gameroom, progressively getting better.

The back side of the front of the house. Not much done here at all.

Two of the front (and the porch). Hopefully they will finish today

before Hanna blows into town!

Before pictures of the makeover...

This is tha back of the house. The roof over the "gameroom" was

in really bad shape.

This is a close-up of some of the area over the gameroom.

An angled view of the front porch.

This is one of the dormers over the front porch.

Makeover Update

As previously mentioned, a makeover is happening to the house. We are getting a new roof! The color is completely different... While it's not quite finished, there will be posts for before, in-progress, and after pictures. *NOTE* - Some pics may not actually of the front porch. But we'd like to post them here anyway...

AMW

POTW - Pic of the Week

These two plants, Crotons I think, are two plants that have struggled a bit.  They drop leaves regularly, but once again, are doing well on the porch.  You can actually see in the picture on the right, that the roots are coming up a bit, indicating that it needs to be repotted.  I've done this since these pictures were taken, and put them both into one large pot.  I'll try to post pictures soon, but it is doing AMAZINGLY well since joining together....

Yes, I know the title says Pic of the Week.  Pic of the day was too much, because I was running out of plants.  So, I'll space them out a little more now...

POTD -Pic of the Day

This is another of the spider plants we got from L.  This one is quite different, in that it's  "curly".  I don't really know how to explain it any differently than that.  The new shoots are curly at the end, it grows in a curly way.  It's just curly.  And I like it.  I may try to take some of the shoots, and root it, and pot it, and see what happens.  In the right pot, it could be pretty cool...  Won't be for a bit, so now pics of it for a few months.  But don't worry, I'll post an update...

POTD -Pic of the Day

Here is one of several spider plants that came from our friend L.  This one was in a container that was WAAAAAAY to small, and had to be repotted.  It actually got split into 3 different plants and containers.  It's now thriving, and will probably be repotted into a hanging container for next summer....