Living

with Jim and Gayle

August, 2023

We continue to enjoy the bounty from my garden -- cucumbers, cherry tomatoes, carrots, petty pan squash, jalapeno peppers, and banana peppers.  The big disappointment is the honeynut squash.  Only a few small ones have set.

I made pickled jalapenos, pepper jelly, and cowboy candy with all the jalapenos from my garden.

Jim finished automating the house.  We can control, via the internet, the house heating and cooling, locking and unlocking the backdoor, opening and closing the garage door, turning on and off a light in the living room, family room, and bedroom.  Additionally, the security system (door open and motion sensors) can be armed and disarmed and alerts are sent when any sensor is activated.  The smoke detectors will alert us if any go off.  This was a fun challenge for Jim.  We also have cameras in the garage, living room, and family room along with a doorbell with a camera.  These aren't integrated with the main control hub but we can see them through another app.

This winter, our house caretaker noticed that a gutter had pulled away from the house.  This month, Jim went to add additional brackets only to find out that it wasn't the gutter.  The facia board had pulled away from the house.  To repair it, the long gutter had to be removed.  Because it was so long, Jim hired a gutter company to remove it, fearing that he wouldn't be able to remove it without damage.  Good decision!  When the gutter company removed it, it folded in half.  They had to make us a new gutter.

Fortunately, the issue wasn't as bad as Jim had feared.  Only the drip edge was rotted and had to be replaced.

We've had a lot of smoke from fires all around us.  Probably some of the worst air quality that we've experienced.

I've finished quite a few rocks this month.  This is one of three batches that I've resin'd.

I didn't notice that I dropped a tomato on the ground.  Bo thought it was a great toy!