Pergola: Then & Now

Back in 2009, we bought a pergola for the backyard. I blogged about it it my "Yard Thing" post on July 16, 2009. This is how it looked once it was assembled.

Back in 2009, it looked, well, bare. Even a few months later, when my husband added an accessory, it was still pretty bare.

Well, that was then. Now—five years later—the pergola is covered in wisteria and grapevines. You can hardly see it for the vegetation.

Here's a closer look.

What a difference five years makes, huh? Now it's a shady bower. But, wait! There's more. Finally the grape vines we planted two years ago produced fruit.

The grapes on one side are white and the grapes on the other are red. I forgot which is which. Once they ripen, we'll know for sure.

Here's a closer look:

This is the view from inside:

And, of course, there's some cat art.

 

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Late Spring Rain

On Wednesday we received some badly needed rain—mostly in the form of scattered showers. For a while, the region was under a tornado watch. One of the late afternoon showers almost looked like a tornado.

But it wasn't. Clouds formed and re-formed.

Across the road, the GMO corn crop seemed to grow a few inches. Only the corn grew; thanks to the heavy application of Roundup, everything else was dead.

Out toward Union Hall, on the far side of the toxic cornfield, you could see the rain falling.

After the storm passed, a rainbow appeared.

One end is in the toxic cornfield—definitely not a pot of gold.

The other end is barely visible as it passes over the house.

We have more rain expected  tomorrow and for the first half of next week.

I noticed the anthills were especially high (but I didn't take a picture of them).  High hills mean heavy rain. Some low-tech ways to predict the weather, including anthills, are here.

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Fixing the PT

When the driver's side window on our oldest PT Cruiser refused to close, my husband turned to his trusty iPad for help. A bit of Googling turned up a very helpful YouTube video that explained how to replace a broken power window regulator, which was apparently the old PT's problem.

My husband watched the video a few times and, again using his trusty iPad, ordered the necessary parts. This is what a PT door looks like when it's taken apart:

Fortunately, our wi-fi just reaches the garage, so the iPad was propped up while my husband messed with took the door apart. It only took a couple of days for the part to arrive.

The part of the door not being messed with worked on was propped against the truck's tire.

With a lot of stopping the video and rewinding, my husband was able to successfully repair the door.

Just in case you're interested (but I'll bet you're really not), here's the video he watched:

. . . and for those not interested in the PT but visit this blog to see pictures of cats, here's a picture of Tanner holding a flower:

Tanner, by the way, rode home in this PT when we rescued him at the dumpster back in March 2013.

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