Lang Gardens

1.31.09

Today I painted. I had a lot more on my list, but very little else got done. Because the painting took ALL. DAY. LONG. Really. I've never painted so much in my life. I really thought I was just going to knock this stuff out and move on to something else. Boy, was I wrong!!

Here's how the day unfolded...

I was out the door by 9am, and went to The Great Outdoors first thing. Got me some vermiculite and an insulation blanket for my first beds (to help them make it through the last of winter) and some nylon plant netting, for supporting my tall and vining plants. Plans were to work on all of the different projects that these supplies are ear-marked for. Next stop, HD. Needed just a few things, including a stop by the lumber department. Well, that stop derailed the day. Not a bad thing, but I'm going to have to look at my list later and reprioritize a few things. Anyway - back to the lumber department at HD... I was going to get two 2"x6"x8's to paint for the next square-foot box. I was wandering around, finding 1-bys, 10footers, cedar - everything but the pine I needed. I made a last pass through and hit paydirt. The "cull lumber" bin was full with 2"x6"x4' s, already cut, at "cull" prices. I got my lumber, precut, for $0.51 and $1.01 a piece. I bought them out, and ended up with lumber to make 5 boxes. Instead of just the one. Though I thought I was saving money in addition to time (not having to measure and cut the boards), it turns out I actually spent about $5.00 more by going this route. However, I never would have been able to fit ten 8' boards in my Civic, and as you can see below, I know how to pack that car. Not having to make the extra trips to HD, and getting all of that lumber into the car in a single trip was worth the few extra dollars. (Note - if they had all been at the $0.51 price, I would have saved about $5.00, so the cull lumber isn't a lost cause...)

So, I bought all the lumber, loaded the car, and headed home. I figured I could unload the car, set the wood up on some posts I have at the house for a future project, and get them primed and a first coat of paint on in a couple of hours. And that's where the day took a dive. There was no "couple of hours" about it. I started out sanding the gouges and rough spots, then I brushed away the dust. Then I started with the assembly line of primer and Peek-a-blue paint. I think I worked from about 11 until 6, with a short break to snarf some lunch and go out for more disposable paint trays and foam rollers. I don't regret taking on this part of the project, I was just surprised at how long it actually took.

Tomorrow the second coat shouldn't take too long. Fingers crossed anyway. The primer certainly helped the paint glide on, so I'm counting on more of the same tomorrow. I might be able to actually assemble all of the boxes tomorrow. The visual impact of setting them out in the yard among the markers holding their places will be well worth the deviation from my schedule. That list of stuff I posted the other day was no joke. I really did want to get all of that done this weekend. I set a super-human schedule.

this is how you load a honda civic. to the gills, baby, to the gills!

i gotcher wood right here, baby!

i got junk in the trunk!

Completely unrelated - when I got home from HD, I wandered into the back yard to find our little Nola, sunbathing her little tan self in the dirt. She was so sun-dazed that she wouldn't even look up when I snapped her picture. Little sun bunny...