Beach-Club - July 2005
This Month will be a 'watershed-month' (yes - that means it will RAIN A LOT - it's been talking about raining for a couple of hours, here, but then thunder and lightning don't make the plants grow fast (though in two-weeks in June we had 14 inches of rain - pretty good soaking we got...

our 'mascot' - available photogenically - having found this in the 'stuff' in the shop that was being re-organized in order to make-room for all the OTHER STUFF we've brought-home from Jacksonville, when Mom & Chuck moved out of the house they've been in for 25 years!...



for a change - the first-web-page-picture this month is NOT a cat-picture - BUT - see-below...

Ms. May in her kayak...
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and a couple of pictures of our kayak-outing on the morning of Sunday, 17 July...
you can click on either picture to get a larger version...

AND: here's Ms. May's "Tropical Garden Pictures" - pictures are all 'clickable' for a larger-size image

     

   

   

Our Mango Tree (1 year old in our yard, - it was 3-4 years old when we bought it) - 12 Mangos;
a wonderful pink flower;      and some REAL Limes for Mr. Bill's Tea



we also have a picture, here, of the stove that was on one boat or another - but is now our 'spare-stove' for use after a huricane, - when we will no longer have any electricity...

We have (the traditional / always here on the web-site / web-page(s) some cat-pictures:






Ms. Tigger manages to get one gold-fish cracker out each time she goes in to look, then she attempts to eat it here on my computer desk, always leaving a few 'crumbs' to get into the keyboard(s)... - Such a thoughtful cat - something that Mr. Bill can do any time - clean-out his computer-keyboards of the goldfish cracker crumbs!...


and Ms. Tigger here, doing what she does best (sleep and shed at the same time (at least she has some friendly sleeping partners!))...

Today is 1 July - the Friday - and we did a LOT today...
We'll post more as the month develops!

not many pictures, though, yet, but we'll find some VERY INTERESTING things to take pictures of, later in the month, however, in the meantime here's some pictures to 'tide-you-over' just in case you're having withdrawal from not enough cat-pictures...
we have, now, just a 'few' boats around - and boards and other such nautical things, in no particular order

Mom's 20-plus-year-old "Donzi 18' Classic 2+2 (seating)"
and the "Donzi-Boards" - an independent Donzi web-site - better for the more 'classic' (older) models


our Boston-Whaler 14' 'Rage' jet-boat







well - that's about it for the first of the month... - up-coming is the 4th of July on Monday, then Tuesday, the 5th we'll drive back-up to Jacksonville to take care of Mom & step-Dad...

Step-Dad should be home on Sunday, 3rd, and Mom is doing physio-therapy a couple of times, daily, in a 'Skilled Nursing Center' at the "Westminster Woods at Julington Creek" where we moved them on 18th of June) and she'll be back in the apartment by about the 11th or 13th of July, we hope.   Mr. Bill was there from 10th to 27th June dealing with the move and other such things...  we have acquired a LOT of things from Mom & step-Dad's and hauled-them-home-here (to Stuart), now:



we borrowed step-Dad's "BIG" Lexus 470 (that means 4.7 liter v-8 engine) to tow the Donzi home from Jacksonville, but we'll take this BIG Lexus 470 back to Jacksonville, and get Ms. May's 'mini-Lexus 300 back from them)

AND took a few pictures in Jacksonville while there during 5-9th of July...



one out of Mom & Chuck's apartment window of their 'Mr. Squirrel' - (who has MANY MANY friends (some of whom are CATs). - so there is MUCH to view / watch out their window...




a 'general view' out Mom & Chuck's 'living-room' window (actually taken before Mom got her knee-replaced on 21 June).





a 'general view' of Mom & Chuck's parking-lot (for building "H" (as in Hibiscus)), where there 'slot' is slot '26'...(on the left, behind the tree)



Mr. Bill took his kayak and did a bit of kayaking while in Jax (5th-9th of July)

Back in Stuart, now, for more pictures of the "STUFF" we've hauled-home from the "place" in Jacksonville.

        

This is the Gravely 8122 model yard-tractor with a 12 hp Kohler engine that's 22 years old, but with a few hours of maintenance when I got it home, here, to Stuart; - it runs, mows, and pulls like there's no tomorrow, an EXCELLENT addition to our yard-work-tool suite.  Be careful, though, one could mow-down the house if you're not sharp about driving this thing.   Mom admitted to mowing-down a grapefruit tree years ago, (to say nothing of other things).  Ms. May's done some mowing but agrees with Mom that this thing may be a 'menace' in the wrong hands!




AND - we found (and spent several hours re-building) this DoneRright String-trimmer-mower,  (by "Country Home Products") it'll cut down anything that gets in it's way - another great addition (it HAD a battery-start, but we decided to forego the $50 battery, replaced the pull-string (replaced the pull-string twice, now (maybe I need a new kind of pull-string? (like Kevlar or something?) and now it starts on the first 1/2-pull!)... the other very useful and unique characteristic of this yard-tool is that you can 'cant' the head / body of the unit so that it will cut OUTSIDE the track of unit, meaning you can push it down along-side the fence - 3-4-5" from the fence but the cutting-head will cut right along the fence-line and give you a very very nice cut-line along the fence.





AND:  we also acquired a 'pressure-washer' with a gas-engine - one of the most wonderful tools God ever invented.  I wish I'd had one YEARS ago; and I've washed just about everything except me, the cats and Ms. May.

AND - while Mr. Bill was working in the northwest-corner of the yard, 'clearing' things - he found a few Palm trees we didn't know we had - so he's cleaned-up even more, (and will do more, again, as time & effort permit) - here's some pictures of our newly-found palm-trees.
  
these are two of the three palms - the third one is a smallish palm - similar type, though, and behind the ones in the left picture - eventually I'll get the weeds, vines, etc. from around it cleaned-out and provide a more distinct picture...

Just a quick aside here about clearning land / weeds / vines / trees / palmettos, and other such things to get-at Ms. May's new palm-trees. 

I seem to have contracted 'poison ivy' twice in the space of 4-weeks - and both times it 'seems' to have come from working in this corner of the yard, then running-off-to-Jacksonville to take-care of Mom & step-Dad... - So now everyone in Jacksonville thinks I have a 'chronic' case of Poison Ivy and they are all sympathetic.  IT was, however, GREAT to stay in the Log Cabin and be able to wash all my clothes every day so they didn't get ickey with hydrocortisone cream I was putting on all-over every day...

so - Poison Ivy - now we KNOW - and Ms. Takako at the Fish & Wildlife Service in Vero Beach gave me something called "Tecnu" lotion  that I'm supposed to try if / when I get poison ivy again (lets just hope I don't get it again!

Ms. May's decided to stay FAR AWAY from this area until we figure out what did it and how to 'deal-with-it'???

Most web-sites say that Poison Ivy is something that's almost impossible to eradicate unless you use something called "Brush B Gone" (by Ortho) - some other web-sites say that 'RoundUp' may do the trick but the consensus seems to be that Brush B Gone is the better-bet.

Our friend Mr. TorToi's new home in our north-yard!



AND - we found someone to help out in the north-yard / the 1/2 acre that grows a lot of weeds, vines, miscellaneous boats, and other such things (such as the above palm-trees) - and this guy said he's 'ride-herd' on the north-1/2 and let us know when / where things were.   BUT - we have to provide him with a place to live.

Hurricane-panels (finally):



and we 'FINALLY' found the 'hurricane panels' (strangely-enough not subject to the 'hurricane-tax-holiday' during 1-12 June, 2005) - and installed a few of them (just for a trial) - note the headers and footers were already installed (in early June)...   NOW we have metal-panels for all four of our sliding glass doors and that will make us feel a lot more 'secure' during the upcoming hurricane season  - the only 'preparation' item left is to get a new roof on our shop-studio? - the shingles were significantly damaged last year, but didn't leak (after Mr. Bill put in a couple hours of labour up there and replaced 3 shingles and used a 1/2 tube of (rain) gutter-goo!

So - that's what's transpired around here lately - and what is likely to transpire next week...

ya'll take care - now - write when you find work - and behave yourselves...


last updated: Sunday, 17 July 2005;      revID: 4f;     by: Bill Schell - in Stuart, Florida, USA