Whew!  Here's hoping the  humid tropical energy is done and gone after it caused havoc to my body and joints during the six or seven weeks it lingered out in the gulf and ocean.  

Recently we moved the fire pit from where it's been setting for years up near the garage down the hill overlooking the garden.  Cliff added so many containers for my kitchen gardens that the the pit didn't work there anymore.

He's cleared away debris and leaves and eventually we'll have rock on the hill.  Digging into a mountain is nearly impossible so he leveled the pit as much as he could.

It's a start.  He took resting breaks between digging and placing rocks. I couldn't help place rocks because it would have caused hand pain hours later. 

Now that cooler weather has arrived, we can work outside more and putter at our projects.

It's almost time to plant my fall garlic for a late spring harvest.  It can't believe how quickly time flies.  

We added mushroom compost to the soil for the garlic.  Garlic will be planted in a week or two.

I've been working slowly on my Nona's old dresser for about three weeks.  I'd strip a couple of drawers at a time, sand them, and do steel wool with mineral oil clean up, sand again and clean the wood with a tack cloth before applying the stain.

Top of the dresser before and after.................

Two of the drawers.............

Finally finished after slowly hand sanding each section.  I took my time so the repetitive sanding and staining movements didn't started any inflammation.  The project became enjoyable and a wonderful connection to my ancestors. Nona lived in a small white house with her vegetable and flower gardens between her house and our back yard.  She would work her gardens then sat on her bench resting between gardening.  When the three of us children were little, Nona would open up the top drawer where she kept some dollar bills nestled in the front left corner, give us a dollar and in her broken English, tell us to go buy ice-cream......