Friday, October 7 - Bat House

We have not heard from John (landscaping) since he promised to be out two weeks ago.

This morning, Morgan assisted me in installing the bat house on the side of the main house. He has a hammer drill and offered to let me borrow it to drill into the bricks. In retrospect, we did not use the hammer function as the bricks are pretty soft. It was good to have his help and advice however.

The bottom of the landing board is about 14 feet above the ground. Now we will watch and see if anyone takes up residence.

I also received and installed a photocell on the the landscaping lighting. The transformer is a Kichler 200W Pro Series SS (15PR200SS). The photocell is also a Kichler product (Photocell Remote
15534BK) which I ordered via Amazon.

It was easy to install. I've set the lighting timer to come on at 3:00 pm and off again at 11:00 pm. Then on again at 3:00 am and off again at 9:00 am. However, the photocell will not allow the lighting to turn on unless the outside ambient lighting is at a specified level. Tonight, T will tell me when the twilight is such that she wants the landscaping lights to come on. I will then close the photocell aperture until the lights come on. After that, in the evening, the lights will come on (and in the morning turn off) when that level of twilight is reached. This will eliminate the need to make seasonal adjustments to the timing of the lighting.

Yesterday, I got an email from Joann at the Glass House. This is the company that fabricated and installed our glass ceiling above the hot tub. Joann asked if we had any additional pictures of our project. The ones I sent previously were in the dead of winter. I sent her some pictures I took this summer.

We have been very impressed with the okra we planted this summer. The plants are about five feet tall, have blossoms that resemble hibiscus and have provided us with a lot of okra.

Monday, October 3, Weed n Feed

Started working on the garage interior today. The weather is cool and it is very nice out there with all the doors open. My plan is to have the garage organized and the basement cleared out before winter. Doing a bit every day or so will achieve this. I am still considering installation of a "heated" cabinet in the garage for paints or other things that should not freeze.

I applied the first treatment of Weed & Feed to the fescue grass. I am using a product which says to apply it in early fall while the weeds are still growing. I used our Scotts Easy Hand Held broadcaster on a setting of "2". The stated dosage rate was 2.8#/1,000 sq ft.

Yesterday, our new pond de-icer arrived. We bought one last year but it arrived DOA and it was returned. This new one is from a different company at about 1/3 the price. It is only rated for 250 watts where the other one was rated for 500 watts. Both had very good reviews. so I thought it was worth a try. So far, the only thing I am concerned about is that it only has a 12 foot power cord which may limit where I can position it. I also notice that, due to its design, this product may be more susceptible to problems of orientation. The other one I bought had a "just throw it in" design. Unfortunately, when I threw it in, it did not work.

I also applied the third and final coat of paint to the bat house. Getting close to the point of actually installing it.