I warned you...

When I posted about tackling the very long (and getting longer daily -- how is that possible?) retaining wall for my front porch, I also mentioned I would be boring everyone with the partially finished project. The weather has cooperated and tiling has proceeded fairly well. Alas, starting tomorrow, it'll be too cold for at least a week so the project is halted for awhile. On the bright side, the top of the wall is almost complete and the corner is done. The inside is in progress and considering it takes approximately 2 hours to complete one row, it's moving along fairly well. 

Mind you, it also takes a few hours just to cut nice large tiles into tiny pieces. Looking at this box, you'd think that amount would surely be enough to finish up the wall --even the tricky bits. Well, you'd be wrong. I've already gone through a couple of similarly laden boxes, and will need to cut more.

Then there is the seemingly endless expanse of the wall itself. And while curves are definitely sexy, they become troublesome to get just the right pieces to fit. Fortunately, the corner at the top of the stairs is done:

And then the interior wall -- languishing in a state of perpetual incompleteness (is that a word?).

So perhaps a week off from fiddly curves is not a bad thing.

This year has been so unkind -- add another tragedy

Ninja was killed today by what we presume was a coyote. As I came out to do the morning feeding in the critter station, I noticed a large pile of feathers. They were Ninja's. We searched and couldn't find her. 

We are devastated. I know on the scale of this year's suffering, this is in the small potatoes category, but to us, she was family. A wily, stubborn member, but family nonetheless. 

In memoriam: 

Too cold for tiling, but not cold enough to keep me from craziness

As I've mentioned before, the weather has to cooperate for doing mosaics or any tiling outdoors. If it's too cold to even wash the tile to prep for cutting, then it's too cold to actually get creative. So I turn to other activities to move other projects along. On a whim yesterday I decided to tackle the infamous thicket behind the mosaic planter box. It needed a good clearing out (just how much I'm still not sure) to realize my cunning plans for it's future look. Well, as whims go, not a bad idea. 

I happily started on clearing out the plastic and cardboard I put over cactus roots so they would die off and not re-sprout. So long to the large, decaying jade plants that were carelessly tossed in the area after the first clearing out to make way for the planter box. But here's where I should've stopped and been content. More cactus needed to be cut back. As always, the idea is to keep the most distance between me and cactus as possible. In this case, a loooong pole with a saw blade. To get the cuttings into a pile and the large tub for disposal (unlike jade and other soft plants, cactus is not allowed in yard waste bins) a long rake and shovel were used. Clever right? It seems no matter how carefully planned, cactus spines find their way into my skin. There must be something in the laws of physics that defends against such perfidy, but it doesn't work! 

That aside, now the only decisions are whether to cut back more jade or leave as is and work around it for my art installation. BTW: "art" is probably too strong a word for what I hope to do, but it sounds classier than putting stuff in made from rusted barrel hoops and other cast-offs. So yeah, we'll go with art.

So this is the thicket mess before clean-up:

The area cleared enough to make more decisions:

It's gonna be a long slog.

Ninja's questionable choices

Ninja had a wonderful routine. She would run to be fed every morning and afternoon, she'd hang out on her dust bath tire or scratch in the backyard, and then she would go to bed on her roost in the big tree near the back gate. Every night I'd say goodnight and tuck her in. (Note: she still refuses to go into her designer house). Last night that all changed.

I was doing the weekly watering in the backyard and tried to stay away from her as much as possible, knowing she would be heading for bed around 4:15 or so. After all, one does try to respect her space. But, instead of heading toward her tree, she kept hopping the fence to the dreaded back of beyond and then would come back, only to hop the fence to the front yard. It was as if she reverted to her behavior when she first arrived. Puzzling, annoying, and not least, worrying. The front yard is home to cats, coyotes and people who often make poor choices. OK, she'll come back when the watering is done. No problem. 

Problem. She not only didn't reappear, when I went searching for her, I found her in a tree in the thicket. Now, perhaps she just wants to savor the season by having a good view of Christmas lights. Or she wants to enjoy the beautiful decorations and lights from the neighbor across the street. Since we have no outdoor decorations, I understand her appreciation for the display. But...so not safe. Of course there was nothing I could do but go indoors and worry about her, but she's her own chicken and I was certain she would go back to her safe routine once I wasn't in her way with the hose. 

Good theory, but the evidence said otherwise. Tonight, as I was watering the front yard, I see Ninja hop over the fence and start strutting right toward me. Oh no! I tried to shoo her back and she finally went, only to come flying back over and heading into the thicket. Again, tried to cajole her out of her folly, but she wasn't having anything to do with good sense. Nope, she is now roosting in the tree, dreamily looking at all the twinkling lights, and planning the next thing to drive me crazy with. 

Anyone want diva hen? If you can catch her, she's yours!

A bit daunting, but exciting

I'm guessing somewhere in my DNA is a masochistic streak. Eons ago, when we had to re-stucco the house (mostly to get rid of the hideous pink paint), I had an ambitious idea. Well, not so much ambitious as suicidal. I wanted to leave the front retaining wall as is so I could tile it. I also decided to tile the front porch all by myself too. So what happened? Well, as luck would have it, I did get the porch floor done, but my lazy gene kicked in and I only got a teensy-weensy bit done on the wall. And there it has languished for years, and years, and years. Now I could use the excuse that working full-time and recovering from joint surgeries made it difficult to get back to -- except it's not true. So now I'm confronted with a 15 foot wall that is nearly 4 feet high and I have to do both sides. Fortunately, one side is partly stuccoed, but it still means weeks of work to finish the project. And rainy season will come eventually. We hope.

The past week I've been cutting tile and tackling one side of the project and I'm pleased to say that section is compete. And yes, I'll be boring all and sundry with updates from time to time, just because I can.

The front porch mariner's star:

The completed (as of yesterday) small side of the porch entry (house number is blurred).

The interior of the porch wall with years of dirt down the stucco:

The daunting, intimidating, giant WALL:

One bit of good news, the main design is on paper. I just have to figure out how to transfer the idea to the wall. And work around the shrubs. And get to the bottom of the wall without hurting myself. Mmmmm. Maybe I'll just go grab a cup of tea.