Packing Up

Since we only a few days left in the muggy, hot South, we are starting to assemble items we want to take North, items we want to stow away, and items we want to throw out.

We started the day by going over to Steve and Chris' house to check on their home and to add water to their drains before we leave for the summer.  All looks good.  We decided to take a walk in their neighborhood just to see some new scenery.  We had a delightful walk on mostly shady streets while the breeze was strong and the temperatures had not started to rise much.

From there, a quick stop at the Library for me to drop off the two books I had borrowed will now keep me in their good graces until the fall.  I was surprised at how busy the Library was just as it opened this morning!

Once home, I worked in the gardens a bit, trimming the Podocarpus, cutting out the dead branches on the front Firecracker plant, pulling a few weeds, and driving fertilizer stakes under the palm trees to give them a boost for the summer.  A bit of water kept them all happy.  I did not spend too much time watering because we are supposed to get rain for the next three days.  (Note: We were supposed to get rain for the last three days, too, but we did not get enough to even use the windshield wipers on the car! Meanwhile, Orlando is flooding because they have had so much rain.)  Pray that the rain finally comes here in the next few days... a good, slow, three-day soaking would be just fine.

While in the front yard, I noticed a lone Freesia plant blooming amidst the crab grass.  I emptied a cottage cheese container, added some potting soil, and transplanted the Freesia from the front yard -- where it would get mowed down on Monday -- into the new container.  If it lasts the summer, I will find it a new pot in the fall.

The Freesia I dug out of the back yard and put into a pot seven years ago is still going strong.  I usually get one or two blooms in the spring, but today I went outside and found a lovely surprise: five blooms on the plant!  This is the same plant that the bunnies almost ate down to nothing a couple of months ago.  The Freesia gave me one last look before we leave.

My Freesia plant blooms once again.

I love the pale pink blossoms.

We both are bummed because we had been saving for a lanai roof for next year; however, this week we noticed that the air handler in the garage (read: our air conditioner!) was leaking water.  We had had the whole system checked just a couple of weeks ago, and now it was leaking.  We learned that the pan is cracked and the insulation around the unit is soaking wet from the condensation.  Grrr!

We were quoted over $1500 just to fix that part of the system. Since we heard no guarantees, though, that the "fix" would work for very long, we decided to have a whole new, matched system installed.  We were told that our unit should have lasted longer than the seven years we have had it, and the current company we are using said that the problems we are having were probably due to a "poor installation job" and faulty equipment to begin with.  We went with a cheap company at the time because they were the only ones to offer financing, and we had a million places to go with our money.  Lesson learned.  My Grandfather used to say, "If you buy something cheap, you GET something cheap."  He was so right.  The new system will go in Monday.  We pray this one will work fine.

The only good part of the HVAC story is that we will get our money back from the "all is well" check from two weeks ago.  Not much, but better than nothing...

After lunch I helped a neighbor pick out new colors for her house.  She took one of my outdoor plants home for the summer and will water another of my plants that is too big to carry.  I "paid" her with a two-pound brick of cheese from Wisconsin.  Since she is a Minnesota gal, she loved it!

Since our garage will have to be open for the new air handler installation on Monday, we brought the two bikes into the Florida room for summer storage.  Rick put another coat of paint on our metal chairs today so they can dry in the sun today.  Then we'll bring them into the house for the summer also.  We hope that will protect them from getting too rusty.

As we continue to organize the house, we move closer to having the house ready to face the summer while we seek cooler weather in the North.  So far, so good.