Catching Up Around the House and Mr Cleaning RV Awning

Now that we are home for a couple days it was time to catch up on a couple things around the house.

Every spring, I put red geraniums in the front window boxes on the edge of the porch. We usually try to pick them up over at the Mennonite Garden Spot greenhouse near Oconto. They have the best plants and hearty well-grown landscape shrubbery as well. 

I have always wanted a hydrangea tree! I have the hydrangea bush on the corner of the porch that is really a nice full thick bush. It was started from shoots from my friend Charlotte when we lived out on the river. I have transplanted the hydrangea bushes twice now each time we have moved. 

But I've always admired the full trees. We looked at them one year and they were over $100 at a nursery up in Marinette. Ouch! 

While we were at the Garden Spot, getting the geraniums, I just wondered aloud to Steve about a hydrangea tree. He said we might as well ask. Sure enough, they had eight or 10 beautiful ones all in a row. And the price was really doable at only $59!!!!

We looked them all over to find the one that was most balanced with the branches that would grow into a nice evenly shaped tree.

Technically, it's called a common snowball viburnum tree. It will get up to 12 ft tall!!!

We carefully brought it home and set it outside--- planning to take care of planting it the next day. It looked like rain and maybe a thunderstorm coming, so we didn't plan on planting it right away. It was so heavy we had to use our dolly cart to transport it.

But you know Stevio... He said let's git 'er done, and within the hour we had it planted in our chosen spot. It is gently staked upright with soft paracord ropes that are loose enough that we can move them up and down the trunk as it grows.

Since planting, the smaller green tufts of blossoms have gotten larger and turned white. It's gorgeous!

It got a good drink of water from my rain barrels. Now that danger of freezing is past, we have the rain barrels out underneath our gutter downspouts. I love using rainwater on my garden plants and flowers. So much better than city water.

I walked around the yard a bit, admiring everything that's coming up and in bloom. These beautiful bleeding hearts I got from my daughter's friend Barb, are just starting to blossom. As a child we loved to pick the little teeny hearts and play with the strands, much to my mother's dismay.

Some of our kids gave me this beautiful basket of flowers for Mother's Day.  It was so thick and full of flowers that it was actually already root bound. So I cut down into it and had to saw through it with a drywall knife to take out some of the plants to transplant elsewhere.  I ended up filling four other planter pots and still had enough left in this basket for a nice array.  By adding more good potting soil, the rest of this basket will have room to grow for the summer.

We just love sitting out on the front porch. The three big ferns I had bought a couple weeks ago at Menards were so huge that we also sawed them in half with the drywall saw and moved the other halves of the ferns into baskets to hang in the backyard. Again, we added more dirt because they were so root bound to begin with. We hung the little reflective prismatic streamers on them to dissuade the wrens from building nests in the ferns. Last year that happened and it was quite difficult to water them without harming the babies in the nests.

Alas, while watering the ferns the other day, I see that one determined little couple did make a nest! There is only one egg in it and I don't see the mommy and daddy flying back and forth at all or sitting on the nest. I noticed a little leaf tilted upright resting against the egg. Each time I looked back in there, that leaf is in the same position, undisturbed. So I don't think they are coming back to sit on the egg and I think it's been abandoned. I hope so. I will wait another day or two and then pull the nest out if I can, and discard it.

The hummingbirds are back! They are zooming around all of the lilacs that are at the other end of our front porch. I filled up the hummingbird feeder and so far we have only gotten one or two buzzing around. Sometimes there will be a whole congregation arguing for a chance to eat.

The lilac smells so beautiful! I snipped off a bunch and put them in a vase to bring inside of the house. I know it always makes a mess all over the countertop or the island. But it's worth it. I walk in the house and I can just smell lilacs the moment that I open the door.

Fond memories of the row of five common purple lilacs and the one large round white lilac growing at my childhood home in Cedarburg.

Over by the pergola, that stretches between the she shed and the garage, the ivy has made it through the winter again. I am so surprised. It is all bursting up with new growth and lot of green leaves.

The next morning, Steve helped me plant up all of the window boxes. He sets up the table and hauls the big bag of potting soil out for me. Once I get each window box planted, he carries them around to the front and puts them in place. It makes the flower gardening so much easier when I have help.

In between helping me, he was taking care of a little task along the edge of our roof line. For some reason, we have a little leak again. He's tried a couple different things and hopefully this will solve the problem. Otherwise we may give up and just call in a roofer to replace the entire section. I think now in our 60s, we don't need to be up on a roof!

Although, we were just up here on this section 3 years ago replacing all of the siding and putting in the attic vents. We also reinsulated that portion ourselves. So we have gone up there and crawled around. But the part that he thinks is leaking is up above where he is standing. I don't want him up that high or where the pitch is steeper.  He thinks he can still do anything!!! At age 65, I think it's time to pass on these type of jobs and pay the professionals.  He has a hard time doing that.

When we bought the used pieces of the pergola 5 years ago, the seller tossed in these two crazy bird nest planters. He said his wife liked them but he thought they were ugly. So he stuffed them in our vehicle at the last minute and said take them with us. Lol! I think they are ugly, but they are kind of funky too. So I planted some of the vinca vines in them that came out of the Mother's Day basket. We will see how they grow. I have one hanging on each side of the pergola where it leads into the backyard.

Two clumps of the red petunias ended up in these cement planters along the front of the she-shed. The Korean lilac is just starting to bloom. These blossoms last a couple weeks and are just so fragrant.

The weather had warmed up enough that it would be a good day to give a couple little fur balls a bath. They still are both stubbornly hanging on to their undercoat which is the soft creamy fluffy kinky hair that grows in between the smooth silky longer dark guard hairs. Especially Binney has grown a very thick winter coat. She is not nearly as round and roly poly as she appears. When you get her wet she really is quite slender!

They didn't appreciate the bath, but it needed to be done.

On the other hand, Binney absolutely adores getting brushed. She could lay here for hours if we would continue brushing her. Finally her coat was loosening up and I was able to get out quite a bit of her winter fluff. 

Nicholas didn't have nearly as much winter coat. But he had been a "Down South" dog since birth and didn't get transported up here to Wisconsin until late November at only 11 months old.

While at the Garden Spot, I also picked up some tomato plants. This year I'm going to cut way down on my tomato growth. Usually I do 9 to 12 plants a year and I just have way too many canned tomatoes from 2022 and 2023 in my pantry. 

Before we put in the tomatoes, I told Steve we need to build a couple protective fences to keep Nicholas's bouncy ball from smacking into my tomato cages. Also, we had started some raspberry plants from shoots that our son-in-law gave us, and our friend Joyce let us dig up some of hers. The raspberry plants are taking off but they needed to also be protected from getting whacked from Nicholas's active playing with his big ball.

Steve had some scrap lumber in the garage. I got out my paint roller and painted the boards before we even screwed them together. We measured and leveled them out and soon we had a nice little fence in front of the raspberries.

Before we put the one in place by the tomato patch, I gotten five little plants in the ground and cages surrounding them. Two are Early Girls, two are Better Boys, and one Grape tomato plant in the middle. I hope I don't regret condensing down on the size of my tomato patch??? But it seems like I can't keep up with them once it is time to harvest. They are all indeterminate so that means they just keep bearing until frost. I get a LOT of tomatoes from just one plant.

We had recently expanded the fencing panels for the back potty yard for the dogs. This way they have a larger area to play in, without having to be on leashes and harnesses. We just open up the side door from the she shed and they can run right out into the large area on their own.

Even though we have two and a half acres, we just keep only this part fenced in for the dogs. Until someday when Nicholas is more trustworthy and bonded to me, he must always be on a leash and harness whenever he is out beyond the fence.

Now it was time for some other maintenance of the RV type.... Check out this roller mop! We read such wonderful reviews about it and it took a little bit of searching to hunt one down at a price we were willing to pay.

It's called the Mr Clean Magic Eraser Roller Mop. On Amazon it's around 40 bucks. Other places we found it in the $50 range! If you already own a roller mop, you can just buy the replacement heads of the Mr Clean Magic Eraser variety. They also have a Mr Clean Magic Eraser mop of the flat version that you just squeeze to wring out the water like a big folded flap. We were told that's not going to work as well for our intended project...

We found it through Ace hardware for only $21.99. Our local one didn't have it, but we were told we could have it shipped free to the local store if we wanted one. Instead, we found the Ace hardware up in Menominee Michigan had one in stock. So we ran up and got it because we were facing a wonderful day to do this next project to our motorhome....

Steve rolled out the awning and lightly misted underneath with a hose that happened to be hooked up to hot water. I suppose you could use cold water. But we decided hot water might be even better??

Here is a little video I made and put on YouTube about the process:

By the way-----

I am trying to grow a YouTube channel of just RVing video clips. Instead of mixing in all of my quilting and weaving and grandchildren and family stuff. So if you're interested in subscribing and liking, here is the link: 

It's called "What-A-View" 

(just like this blog)

https://youtube.com/@what-a-view-ml2uq?si=Vm3udOfoMNLukZP_

It was very easy to lightly scrub the dirty awning. The long handle of the mop made the job almost effortless. The magic eraser scrubbing head took off absolutely all of the underside dirt and stains and smushed bugs etc.  On the top surface of the awning there were a few spots of sticky pine pitch. Steve said he will go back to that later with more intense scrubbing with a little Magic Eraser pad in his hand.

But for now, from start to finish it was really only a few minutes to have a totally clean awning. We will set this mop away in a spot in the garage to use it again in the fall for the exact same purpose. Now that we own the entire map, we just need to order more of the roller heads for next year.

I learned long ago, once you find a product that really really works, you better stock up on it. Because somewhere along the line, somebody is going to change it or it's going to get discontinued. 

I did a Google search and I have seen the single roller refills anywhere ranging from $10 to $22. 

I did find a seller on eBay with free shipping for a three pack for only $24.97.  That comes out to only $8.32 each. Score! Looks like he still has some available:

eBay seller with three pack roller mop replacement heads

(No affiliation, just a good deal I found) 

Well, coffee time is over and it's time to get my butt in gear. We have our granddaughter's 8th grade graduation this afternoon to attend. After that, camping is on my radar...