I sort of got an idea today  when I took up the offering in church .  I always get to the back of the church before the choir finishes with the offeratory hymn so I just stand quietly at the back until they are done.  Today I was standing there and something sort of buzzed by me.  A minute later I got buzzed again.  I looked up at the ceiling and saw these black blobs on the ceiling tiles.  I also noticed some blobs around the windows.  I had to have a closer look so I sort of backed up quietly and looked over my sholder.  The blobs were moving.  They were lady bugs.  Actually they were Asian Lady beetles.

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In January of 2010 I got up early one morning and ran down my hall to get the telephone.  In the process I tripped on a carpet runner and took out a speaker – with my head.  I woke up on the floor, looking at the baseboard, and wondered, “How did I get here.”  After a minute I remembered what had happened.  This is a good point to point out that if I had bought the 2 sided carpet tape, aisle 14 in the paint department, I probably wouldn’t have missed the last year or so.  Anyway a sane, sensible person would have called the paramedics and gone to the hospital to get checked out. Being neither I just went back to bed.  I did go to the Doctor the next day but was worried more about my hip and elbow than that little insignificant bump on my head.  I did end up going to the emergency room – 2 months later.

I discovered that  when you go in to have a CT scan the guy who told you to, “Hop up on the table and lie down flat.” when you went in says,” Hold on.  Let me get somebody to help you.” after the scan,  that is not a good sign.  When they were pushing me by the CT control room, on a suddenly appearing strecher, and all of the doctors and nurses are running in there to look at the screen – thats not a good sign either. When the Doctor, who had been joking, comes in and says, “you have a Bi-Lateral, Sub-Dural Hematoma.” That isn’t good.  He must have thought I didn’t sufficiently grasp the situation because he then said, “This is a big deal.”  Another not so great sign.

Surgery was discussed.  To my relief they decided that we could try something first that might negate the need for surgery.  That sounded good to me. I didnt sound so good when I heard what they were going to do.  I got my first inkling when a Doctor came in and said, “Can you hold still or do I need to tape your head down.”  He was holding a roll of what looked like duct tape to me.  Another hardware tie in.  I then discovered that their plan was to drill a hole in my head and relieve the pressure inside the skull.  OK, I guess.  Then they pulled out a Fiskars hand drill.  They are on aisle 15 in the store.  Another hardware tie in.  Well they tried drilling the hole.  It really wasn’t so bad.  It didnt work though.  I eventually had to have surgery.  I ended up having 5 in fact.  A staph infection, paralysis, the inability to walk or speak followed.  It has been an interesting year.  I am 90% recovered now.  I have to say it has been a miracle.  So many doctors and nurses now tell me that people who had an infection like I did don’t make a full recovery.  I have to thank the Doctors and Nurses who treated me.  I also have to thank everyone and every church who prayed for me and put me on their prayer lists.  It made all of the difference and I am greatfull beyond words. . I still have a little weakness but my recovery is mostly complete.

I went back to the doctors office this week to get checked.  I have a Lorenz plate that replaced the part of my skull that was removed during the infection. The plate is attached to my real skull with what are basically mending plates. It is pretty big and lately at night I have noticed it is moving.  In the morning it is sort of sticking out.  The doctor did a CT scan and had me come in to get the results.  He is a nice guy, and a really good doctor but you know, Neurosurgeons aren’t the most humorous people around.  He looked at me with the most serious of looks and said,  ”well you have a few screws loose but it isn’t any big deal.”  I don’t think he understood why that was funny.

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 We sell every mouse and rodent control product imaginable.  I have experimented  with all  of them. 

Poisons

I am not a big fan of poison.  We have always had pets and almost all rat poisons will hurt animals if they eat the dead rat  or mouse.  Every time I have ever used a poison I have had an odor problem.  I know they all say they have ingredients that will prevent odors but they have never worked for me.

Sonic Rodent Control devices.

We used to sell these in the store and we will order them if someone really wants us to but I don’t think they work.  We sell a lot of bird seed and have fought the mouse battle for years at the store.  When the sonic devices first became available I set them up all over.  One night I came in and a mouse was sitting on one.  I guess he liked the warmth. That pretty much ended sonic traps for me.

Live Catch Traps

I am sorry.  The logic of live catch traps just escapes me.  I dont want to catch them, I want them dead.  Rodents have been the enemy of humans since the beginning ot time.  A pretty tough enemy too.  Remember the plague.  I just saw a show on the History channel talking about rats attacking babies.  No thanks.  I want them gone.

Snap Traps

These work Pretty good.  I have found that the best bait is a snickers bar.  I don’t especially like snap traps since they are messy.  I had a  rat once that did’nt die right away and had a  BIG bleeding problem on a snap trap.  That was not fun to clean up.

Glue Traps

These work.  I dont like them though.  Last time I used one I walked in the door and heard a pitiful squeeking sound.  There was this little mouse completely stuck staring up at me with his sad little black eyes.  What do you do with a mouse on a glue trap.  There aren’t any good options.  I mean, do you just throw it away.  How long will it live – until it starves to death.  That doesn’t sound like a good option.  One of my neighbors drowns them.  It worries me a little bit.  He seems to enjoy it too much.  I eventually just started putting them in a zip lock bag and throwing it away.  That seemed to be the most humane way to do it. 

Victor Electronic Rat Trap.

This is my favorite of all rodent remedies.  It takes 4 C cell batteries.  You put a little bait (A small piece  of snickers bar works best) in the back of it and sit it next to a wall.  The rat or mouse will go in to get the bait and be electrocuted.  A light flashes to let you know there is a dead mouse inside.  You just dump it in the garbage and put the trap back in place.  I caught five this week.

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 You can see a big bare spot where the clover was.  I am trying to be particulaly vigilant waith my fertilization and pre-emmergent applications in that area.  The are still some grassy weeds that I have to work on.  Some of them I will just dig up.

Unfortunately I have a pretty good crop of what to me is the one of the worlds worst weeds.

I will post on that battle soon.

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As I was mixing the herbicide solution I decided to do a little experiment.  You know, anything to put off  actually doing the work.

We always recommend that our customers add a surfactant (High Yield Spreader Sticker) to their herbicide mixtures.  A surfactant breaks the surface tension of the solution being sprayed and allows it to stick to the plant better.

Without Spreader Sticker

Notice in the picture above that the sray beads up and a lot of it runs off.  Only a small part of the leaf is actually in contact with the herbicide.

With Spreader Sticker

Notice that in this picture the solution sticks to the leaf without beading up.  All of this leaf is in contact with the herbicide.

I finally got the yard sprayed after I took these pictures and put up the camera.  Some strange looks from the neighbors though.  I guess it did look strange.  Spraying leaves and then taking pictures of them…

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They had a really nice yard.  They had a couple of trees that I had never seen before.

  The customer told me that they were Magnolia acuminata or Cucumber tree.  I looked it up and found that they are common in the north but arent often seen in the south. 

Anyway, I thought they were interesting.  I apologize for the pictures. I didnt have my camera and had to use my phone to take them.

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There have been news stories talking about the problem.  Ethanol supposedly causes a breakdown of some parts and also releases built up sludge in the fuel system.  Everything gets clogged up.  The gas companies claim that as long as the percentage is low there wont be a problem.

I don’t know which side is right.  We do have a product that will prevent the problem though.  It is a pre-mixed gas and oil that contains no ethanol. 

The only catch is that it costs a good deal more than mixing it yourself.  I think it is worthwhile for people who have a small yard and don’t use a lot of mixed fuel.  The shelf life is about 2 years.

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On of the things our store is most known for is giving gardening and lawn care advice.  We take classes, go to seminars and read trade publications all of the time.  So I know how to have a virtually weed free yard.  Guess what?  This is a picture of my front yard.  It wasnt always like this.   A few years ago there wasnt a weed to be found anywhere.

So how did I get to this point.  One year it was the drought,  then last year I was so entangled in the Springville disaster that I didn’t have time for anything else. 

I have really felt bad about the conditon of the yard.  After all if  our customers saw it they wouldn’t think I had a clue about weed control.  I am getting strange looks from the neighbors too.  I am afraid the lady across the street is about to come over and start pulling.  She once emptied my mailbox for me when she thought there was too much mail in there so it is a possibility.  It is time to get it done.

Over the last few weeks I have decided that I am not the only one in this predicament.  Many of our customers have asked how to get a yard that has been let go back into shape.  I thought that I would share the process.

The first thing I an going to do is get rid of the bulk of the easy to kill weedsand prevent new weeds from germinating.  Since the weather is still not too hot I am going to spray with Fertilome Weed Free Zone.  It is the best weed killer I have ever used.  It wont get everything though.  There isn’t any one product that will do that.  Next I am going to put out a Fertilome granular fertilizer and weed preventer.  That will help the grass (Zoysia in my case) get healthier and fill in the gaps left from the dying weeds.  It will also keep new weed seeds from germinating.

It takes time to completely get rid of all the weeds in a yard.  There are many different varieties that require different treatments.  My plan is to start with the simple and move to the more complex.  I will share the steps along the way. I have sprayed with weed free zone today.  I will take another picture in a week to show the difference.  Then we will look at the weeds that are left and how to control them.

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The church that I go to is over 140 years old.  Sometimes keeping a building of that age in good repair is a challenge.  We are always working on something.

This winter our utility bills have gone up dramatically.  I am not talking a few dollars, they have almost doubled. We have had this come up at our last two monthly meetings.  Many different ideas have been discussed.

We decided the meter was defective.  The company checked.  It was fine.  We thought maybe someone was coming in and adjusting the thermostats. I didn’t think this was too likely.   We had insulated a few years ago so we didn’t think that was the problem.  We never could come up with a good answer.

Today, I was walking around the building looking for fire ant beds to destroy with Results fire ant killer,  when I noticed some dried leaves blowing out from behind the air conditioning unit. 

No wonder the bills were high.  It isn’t completely clear in this picture but there is an inch and a half gap in the duct leading into the building.  It was putting out a lot of air.  I went in the building and almost no air was coming out of  the vents.  So we have been heating the great outdoors all winter.

It never occured to me to actually go and look at the unit.  I made the simple complex.  What really got me to thinking was the realization that this isn’t an uncommon occurence. I do it all of time. From now on I am going to try to remember, when trying to solve a problem, to start with the simple.

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One of our customers has a limestone fountain ( 30 – 40) years old that was broken in three pieces.  She had purchased it on a trip to Florence (Italy, not Alabama as I thought at first) and the cost to replace the bowl was prohibitive. I don’t remember if it was hit by a tree or frozen.  She asked me if I could find someone to fix it.  I asked everybody I could think of but they all just sort of smiled and slowly shook their head no,  in a way that just screamed “ARE YOU STUPID.  THAT CANT BE FIXED.”  Not a good sign.

There were several problems:

1.  Nobody was willing to try to fix it since a good long term result was doubtful.

2.  The fountain was about 4 feet in diameter and made of carved limestone.  It was heavy.  The limestone was also soft. Pins and anchors would tend to pull out.

3.  The fountain sat in the center of a 12 ft circular pond that was about 4 feet deep.

So I decided I would try to fix it.  Smart.

Note to Mr. Mountain Brook Business license inspector:  This was done as a fun project to help a nice customer.   No costs of material, fees, delivery  or labor were charged.   

Mr Business license inspector and I have met before.

So anyway I decided to fix this fountain. 

I guess at this point it becomes obvious why I am not in the handyman business.  I had great intentions.  I went and got the broken fountain pieces to test glues.  I ordered a book on working with stones.  Then I put the pieces of the fountain in the back room of the store for a year.  I thought about it from time to time.  Especially in the middle of the night as I sat bolt upright thinking of all the things I had put off.  Fortunately, she was very patient. 

Finally, when I got the courage to face her again I decided to get serious about this project.  I called one of the local stone companies and convinced the owner to tell me how he would fix it if he were dumb enough to try.  He suggested this super duper high strength epoxy made especially for bonding limestone.  It cost $50.00 a quart.  I thought hmm, this must be some good stuff.  So I ordered it. 

When it came in,  I decided to do a trial run with the pieces before we went to the actual site.  I very carefully mixed in the hardener and applied it, clamped the pieces together and waited.  When I took them apart they immediately separated leaving a thin sheet of the epoxy glue.  Not so Good.  “Moisture”, said the manufacturer.  Not a complete impossibility since it had been under water for forty years. 

So I was back at square one.  I am really beginning to worry.  All of my ideas have failed and even though the customer was patient there is a little edge to her voice now when she calls to see, “how it’s coming.”

What am I going to do.  I have to glue 3 heavy things together that have been soaked in water.  That is when I looked at the shelf of Gorilla Glue in the paint department.  I hopefully read the instructions.  Stone okay. Moisture not a problem.  Sounds good.  But could a 5 dollar bottle of glue really fix this fountain when my high tech special order epoxy failed.  I decided one way or the other I was going to glue that thing together.  It might last a minute or a day but I was going to get it done.

The first problem was how to get to the fountain.  I got a 2×12 pressure treated board 15 feet long from one of my buddies with a lumber yard.  We attached two 2×4 peices to the bottom of it for support.  This made a good walkboard. We still were pretty tight but at least we could get to the fountain without getting wet. 

The next problem was how to clamp the pieces together once we applied the glue.  The outside of the bowl was irregular and I couldn’t think of anything to use to hold it in place.  We finally decided to use a ratcheting strap placed around the center of the fountain to pull everything together. We applied the glue, tightened the clamp and stood back.  Everything was holding.

The only thing I didn’t take into account was the fact that Gorilla Glue expands as it dries.  I should have brought plastic sheeting to put under the fountain but I didn’t.  We got a few drops in the pond.  If you look to the left of the Lilly Pads you can see a film on top of the water.  I got a spoon and dipped out as much as I could while she was distracted.  To my knowlege no plants or fish were affected. 

So I left with high hopes that everything would hold.  The next few days I would anxiously call to see if everything was still together.  We did this late last summer and so far it is still holding. 

So if you have a tough gluing job I can recommend Gorilla Glue.

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