First Order of Business...

Those of you that have been reading for awhile know that I'm a list maker. Going to the cabin is no exception...there is always a list. Usually more than one.

This trip we hauled a new (well, new to us) hot tub from Florida to TN. We picked it up for a couple hundred bucks on Craig's List best place ever to pick up expensive toys, for not expensive prices. First order of business was to get that hot tub off the trailer and drop the trailer down at the club house parking lot as our parking area hardly accommodates the F350...plus the trailer is too hard for the two of us to push up hill to be able to hook it back up. 

Time to do some engineering. #1 our street is one way. Frankly, it's the WRONG way for backing the trailer up to the deck. So we drove up there and blocked the road (it's not like it's busy...) turned on the water, did the quick potty run and then Mr. P looped back around to the exit of our street and called me to make sure the road was clear for him to come up the wrong way. Once again, we block the road while the TWO of us walk like Egyptians errr WORK like Egyptians. Yes you read that right...the two of us unloaded a 5 person hot tub by ourselves.  How you might ask? First, the trailer is a car hauler, so the last 3' angles down (still need ramps to drive the car onto it). Mr. Paisley is a genius after all. He cut up some scrap PVC pipe 1/2" or 3/4", I don't recall. Since it was just the 2 of us...there are no photos of this entertaining event. Visualize...


We shove the hot tub far enough down the trailer that the edge is over the section that angles down at which point Mr. P lifts one side just enough for me to shove 2 sections of pipe under it. A few more shoves and it takes off like a Hoveround (not quite rocket status) and thunders down onto the front deck...sort of. At any rate, it's off the trailer. So Mr. P then continues down our street the wrong way to take the trailer down to the parking area...I could hear it bouncing as he took the sharp corner and the trailer wass really pretty much off the road and going over the rocks (err mountain) that is in the curve. Whatever...he made it ok and was back in 15 minutes or so. It's dusk at this point and the Tennessee mosquitoes are out and I can't take it anymore. The hot tub is nearly as wide as the deck...barely fitting between the window trim and the deck rail...so of course to get into the cabin and away from the mosquitoes, I have to climb in and over the hot tub.

Later - after donning jeans, sneakers and a long sleeve shirt - oh and half a can of OFF! I ventured back outdoors and we more or less repeated the previous steps only I was shoving more pipe under the tub and Mr. Paisley was pulling them out the back and tossing them back to me as we pretty much effortlessly rolled that sucker to the far end of the deck for the night. Actually, it ended up sitting there for 2 days because I had more important things on my list...

Plus we still had to rip out the old hot tub.

See that small lighter color rectangular piece of wood right under the date stamp? There's a hole  under it...where the old hot tub plumbing went down to the basement. Someone thought it was a good idea to move it...and then promptly stepped in the hole...at which time much swearing was heard echoing thru the mountains of East Tennessee. On the bright side said person landed on his good knee and thus didn't do any more damage to the bad one. Then he screwed the scrap board down...over the hole.

All the junk cleaned out! Still not ready for the new tub - we're trying to insect proof the screened part of the deck. I mean why bother screening the "windows" above the rail when there are gaps in the floor and walls that will let the bugs in? So we stapled in nylon screen above the privacy slats (those are already screened) and below the rail - in the hot tub area. Still have to do the rest. Next trip we're going to put Cedar boards over the lower walls because it just looks messy and unfinished to me.

The old hot tub...not at all light weight I might add.

Ta da! New hot tub. Ghetto fabulous purple marble (guess which one of us didn't pick this out...) Once again, I was bad about taking photos. In this one, the corner piece hasn't been put back on and it was taken before Mr. P built the surround for it...just to make it look a little more custom. It actually has a ledge around it on the back and both sides. The front has doors for access to fix it and to store the chemicals out of sight.  There are also steps.

And this was your sneak peek photo - that's Mr. Paisley enjoying the fruits of his labor. I tried to be sneaky - thus no flash and the bad picture. At least we know it'll be ready to go for the November trip when there's a good CHILL in the air!

My Facebook Status was something along the lines of...

"I have a new appreciation for the ancient Egyptians - all I did was move a hot tub. They built enormous pyramids out of giant blocks of stone, each of which i'm sure weighed much more than this hot tub"

Wow - today nearly slipped right by me!

It is nearly 11:30pm - holy cow the day flew by! 

Today i'm going to share my weekly garden photos. I take photos every Sunday afternoon - or at least I have been since we planted the garden this year. Sometimes I throw in random other plants that are in bloom around the yard. Since we live in Central Florida - stuff grows year round, flowers, fruits and veggies are no exception. Since the suspense is killing you - i'll get on with gettin' on...

Strawberries....the two ripe ones that you can see in this photo were picked this afternoon!

The vine that is taking over is my cucumber. There is actually a black wrought iron garden ornament that is roughly 30" high in there. If you look real close, you can see the sort of spiral "ball" on the very top of it (look just below the red petunia that is farthest to the right). Lots of blooms, no fruit. This is the first time we have planted a cuke. Evidently, we're missing something. 

This is an acorn squash - there is another smaller one in the background. It fell off today...so sad for my little acorn squash . At least the larger one seems to be thriving. LIVE little squash - I can taste you now! All sweet and roasted with a little brown sugar and balsamic glaze...

This is basically all of my squash and zucchini plants. At the bottom left you can see some of my collard greens (and that tall one poking up thru the squash). That is 6 plants. Insane isn't it?!

How cute are my tiny little squashes?!

Red petunias...I have a basket hanging at each end of the garden - the flowers help attract bees and such to do the pollinating!  

 Pardon my split leaf - it's just happy to see you.

The aloe is also blooming. Evidently...nothing will kill purple queen Not even a real winter in Florida...as you can clearly see, there is still a mass of that. The pathetic dead thing in the clay pot was a pineapple. The sticks in the ground were an 8' tall corn plant (Dracaena Fragrans, not like corn on the cob corn). Not much left of that. Rainbow Curly Leaf Crotons at the far end .