Paradise ponders, recoveries, flowers, stairs, and risers edition...

Paradise ponders, recoveries, flowers, stairs, and risers edition...  Debbie had a milestone day yesterday for her post-surgery recovery.  Her bandages came off in the morning (she couldn't do it – got queasy – so I did it for her :).  Then she took a shower; oh, so good.  Then she got down the stairs to our basement cattery to see her babies.  Then we had a steak dinner.  Then we went up to Aggie's Creamery and got ice cream cones.  A great day for her!  But she was tired for some reason after all that.  :)

We've got a few flowers in our yard.  The daffodils have started to bloom, and then the ground cover (at right) we have in several places is also out.  After all the destruction of our yard last year (and continuing this year), I'm amazed anything at all has survived.  The sweet peas are starting to come up, too – probably another two or three weeks and they'll be a big burst of color to the west of our house...

Yesterday I completed the installation of the stairs I built into our sun room (photos below).  All my careful measuring paid off: the stairs fit perfectly on the first try.  The landing is level with our bedroom floor, as intended, and the little “lip” I machined out fit over the door sill exactly as intended.  I'm very pleased with the way the finish blends with our tile floor, too.  Next step: some more careful measurements for the rail (it will be on the left side).  Once I make those, I'll send them off to the folks at Lazy K Wrought Iron to get a rail made.  At that point our sun room will (finally!) be complete.  We'll make another road trip up there to get them!

Mark T., Dave, and Dave's three sons were here all day yesterday installing 6" diameter irrigation pipe to move the line of risers that used to be in the middle of our back yard to just outside the fence.  The new line of risers (visible if you embiggen the photo at right) is a couple of feet onto the property of our friend and neighbor Tim D.  Once my sprinklers are installed (that's the next thing Mark T. will be working on), I won't need them at all – but Tim will, to irrigate the 2.5 acre field to the left (north) in the photo.  It's a big chunk of work to move all that, and Mark and his helpers did a really nice job of it.  The only bit they have left is the easy part: gluing the risers in place onto those vertical 3" pipes.  Then it's on to the sprinklers in our yard!