Monday, May 28, 2012

Brick Oven progress - Chimney

Alan has been hard at work on the front of the oven. He finished the arch, and today fitted the chimney. Look, visible progress! Here is the base plate.



The base plate gets bolted on, then the chimney pillar fits by twisting it into place, and the cap attaches to the top in the same way.



Looks cool, doesn't it?



A bit of heat sealant caulking and we are done.



Next up, to finish the dome. Onwards!

Wednesday, May 23, 2012

May Flowers

And beasties. Here's a Sticky the Stick Insect, about eight inches from tip to tail. We have had loads of these recently. And Katydids too.



Our cactus is in flower, which is nice. And each flower seems to have an attendant insect of some variety.



These are some of the last wildflowers to bloom during the season. I like the colouring on them.


Monday, May 14, 2012

Reclaiming the Patio

This is what our gravel patio looks like in the Spring. It gets taken over completely with Bluebonnets. Which is very nice and pretty, but not enormously helpful.



After a few weeks, they all die off, and drop seed pods everywhere so next year we should have even more.



And then it becomes time to reclaim what is ours... it always seems so much bigger once we have all the gravel back!


Sunday, May 13, 2012

Smokey likes my Jeep

First he wanted to drive it...



And then I find him sleeping in it :-)