Worm hitchhikers and Shade posts

So there's this arthropod we see around sometimes, usually underground (ie we find it when we're digging) that's red and black, and strangely, we figured out it actually glow in the dark.  Well, I was picking miner's lettuce for dinner the other night, and I saw this little snail carrying one of these things around on it's shell. I wonder if that's a positive or negative relationship they have. 

Today was the first part of building the 'sun porch' for the patio.  I hope to get some hops roots from the neighbors and have them grow up and over this thing to create shade later in the summer.  I will probably also get some cloth or something to create shade while the vines grow.  

It just covers the main part of the south side... I might build onto it later, but I wanted to get some of it up and get 'proof of concept'.  That horizontal in front is 27 feet long. 

Signs of Spring

The clothes line with one batch of diapers on it:

A selfie I took on my phone to rub it in to my MN friends who were dealing with more snow:

The greenhouse on its first day:

The Greenhouse today, with many things already taken out and put in the ground. 

another self portrait. I felt something on my neck, and since Melissa isn't here, I used my phone to check, and sure enough, a tick was crawling.  did not get a chance to bite me. 

More Footwear Repair

 Melissa's slippers:  with the first stitch of dental floss to fix the front end:

The completed fix.  Not bad, if I do say so myself.

Artsy

nice shadows on the slightly curved wall behind the dresser from the sun reflecting off the mirrors in the back of the house onto Melissa's carved animals.

of course, the problem is how you can see all the dust built up on the dresser. it has since been cleaned.

Basket repair

So I took the old laundry basket - I believe the one my mother used most of my life back in Oshkosh - in which the handles and top edge had disintegrated and fallen off and made it new!  I took green hazel sticks and wrapped the top edge as well as making a hoop handle (that goes all the way around for support) and then, in a blaze of artisticness, I used tank oak bark that I had peeled off a (downed) tree for another reason and wrapped the edge to make it look better. 

It actually seems pretty solid now.  Can definitely haul produce from the garden.

Chest and complaint

So I have this little leather and metal bound chest of my mother's.  It's been holding old letters (like from the 40s) for a long time.  The leather side handles (similar to front lift strap you can see) have rotted away and I need to decide what sort of handles to replace them with.  

I could do leather straps made from old gloves (I have plenty of old leather gloves around!) but that might not last that long, and it would be a struggle to get the pieces from the gloves to be long enough to be good handles.  I could easily do rope handles... or I could do wooden bent-branch ones... or scrounge up some sort of metal ones (which I sort have tried already and couldn't find anything easily) 

Anyone have any input?  I'm open. 

and here's just a little detail I'd like to complain about: our gas stove, a small 'apartment size' model with 4 burners is quite nice. works great for what we need.  One flaw is that the on/off knobs, made of a solid molded plastic, have a stupid groove down the middle: 

All that does is give dirt and grime a place to reside that's difficult to get at.  The groove is totally useless. It doesn't even indicate what direction the thing needs to be turned (the 'off' etc is printed on the edge) . it would be easier for the manufacturer to leave the groove off!  I think I'm actually going to call the company. yep, I'm that guy.

Chicken coop in the making?

Plans for a mobile Chicken coop:

Morel mushroom coming up between the stones on the patio.  so weird, as the patio is so new, and wouldn't seem to have any of the conditions they talk about for morels.  Now that it's foggy and wet again, I'll have to do some 'shroom hunting.