Eggs #4 and #5 arrived early this morning.

Last night Toothless was in the moss hut digging. I was quite certain she was going to lay her eggs sometime during the night. So when I woke up at 6am the first thing I did was check for eggs.

I gently nudged her and encouraged her to come out of the moss hut.

Toothless was pretty tired she was wiped but her job was done.

As I removed the moss hut from the aquarium one of the eggs rolled slightly. It is important to keep the eggs the same side up as found because the embryo attaches to the top where there is a small air pocket and if the eggs are turned there is a high risk of drowning the embryo and losing the gecko.

To make sure I had the right side up I put a flashlight up to the bottom of the box and turned the egg until I had the embryo on top. You can see the embryo very clearly in this pic. the circle on the right hand side of each egg is the embryo.

Now the eggs are labled,  and the date of birth for egg #4 and #5 recorded and in the incubator with the other 3 eggs. Now we wait for a min of 30 days and up to 65 plus. 

Retro Chair update!

1.  Two very old chairs found at Salvation Army for $30 each. The chairs do a full 360 degree turn and are very sturdy.

2. The fabric I plan to recover them with!

 3. Unscrewed and unbolted the backrest from the seat.

 4. Started removing all the upholstery staples to remove the old fabric from the backrest.








5. and from the seat.

 6. Then used the old fabric as a pattern to cut out the new fabric and began to put it all back together.

7. To get the fabric on the seat to fit correctly I put it in place inside out over the seat and pinned it. Then I removed it and sewed it.

8. Then stapled the new fabric back over the wood and padding on the back rest and the seat. 

9. Then screwed and bolted the chairs back together.

 10. The rose chair is done. Now I will repeat this process with the gold chair and then I will have a matching set!!!!

WINNER!

Just before supper I was cleaning out my purse and almost threw out a Winning Safeway instant win.

NOPE this pic isn't it!! It was better than a chocolate bar. But 

I did get  this WINNER chocolate bar card today too after I went up to Safeway to claim my first Instant WINNER prize. . I think the guy at the customer service desk was more excited then I was. He was double checking to make sure he did everything right*******************************************************************

So I won one of these prizes. Any guesses which one. 

Here is my Prize Release Form.......

Ahh too bad you'll have to wait to see what I won for a couple of weeks!!!!!

Another less exciting part of my day was Ironing.

 31 Dress shirts piled up. I gave James back the responsibility of ironing his shirts. He got a little behind so instead of helping him at the Primerica Office today Rayne and I set up two irons and two ironing boards. Yes I have two sets. Can you blame me?????????????????

 Two hours later all the shirts were pressed and hung. Thank goodness for Netfixs and Rayne. I would have never attempted to do them all on my own. I just have to say WHO HAS 31 DRESS SHIRTS THEY ACTUALLY WEAR? Yikes. No wonder I have a strong distaste for ironing. Well I am not much of a fan of laundry in general after it gets out of the drier. Before that I don't mind it but sorting and putting it away is kind of a drag. It never ends......................................................................

2nd Problem Solved (spray painted fridge handle starting to chip and peel)

Just over a year ago we got a new wall oven and cook top both black with stainless steel. At that point I decided to paint the black handles on my fridge to silver to match. I used spray paint and it worked for quite a long time but had started to chip and/or peel in spots. Having noticed that underneath the factory black it was silver I decided to strip my spray paint silver and the factory black.

        Above  is the handle with the 2 coats of silver spray paint, you can see a few small chips mid left.

Above shows my attempt to scrap both paints off. It was taking to much time and effort and scratching the metal underneath. So on to plan B.

 Above-Varnish remover was plan B and it should have been plan A. It worked wonderfully!

Above- The black factory coat as well as my two silver spray paint coats started bubbling up within 30 secs.

Above- the newly stripped and polished metal. After I wiped the gunky paint/varnish remover away with a rag I did very fine grit,long stroke sanding and polished it with stainless steel polish and it looks pretty good. Should have done this instead of the spray paint to begin with.

Problem Solved! Runaway washer....

James made a pedestal for my washer and dryer with the help of a friend for Christmas last year. Or maybe his friend made it and he helped. Either way it has been wonderful. It's the perfect height for me to switch over the laundry etc. without having to bend down or kneel to do laundry.

In the above photo you can see a piece of silicone mat in the front right corner that was my temp solution to a washer that potentially could vibrate itself right off the front of the pedestal. So today I decided to make a modification to the pedestal to prevent a run away washer. 

1. I took a piece of scrap wood.

2.I cut it with my mitre saw and made 3 smaller pieces.

3. used this bit and drilled half way (two holes per brace)

4. This will stop the screw part way through the board so that it is well below the top of the brace.

4. Then I drilled all the way through with this to guide the screw without splitting the wood!

 5. Time to put them in place. I measure in an inch from each end of the washer and 3 inches from the front of the pedestal.

6. Then I screwed them all in.

7. The 3rd piece of wood was wedged on the right between the washer and dryer and screwed into place.

 8. Next time I run the washer it will vibrate it's way forward and hit up against the wood braces and hide them for the most part. Problem Solved!

WE ARE EXPECTING- Leopard Gecko's that is!

A November my brother Kipp gave us his three Leopard Gecko's. So far they are the best pet we have ever attempted. Seems strange but they are a perfect match for our whole family. I wasn't sure how i'd do with reptiles but these little guys are calm and cute and they are easy to care for if you can get past having to feed them crickets and worms. I've adjusted to having to buy crickets and worms.....

 The first photo is our yellow female Toothless.

 Second our orange female with a regrowing stubby tail named Starfly .

and our male leopard gecko Hiccup.

The girls named them.

On Friday Jan 9th we noticed 2 eggs under Toothless (Yellow female with full a full tail)  in the moss hut. The girls were so excited and to tell you the truth so was I.

These eggs were numbered #1 and #2 with a permanent marker. So we could keep track of when eggs are laid and also keep the upside of the egg up. This is because the embryo attaches at the top and if it is turned the gecko embryo will drown in fluid and die. It took a few days for me to figure out what to do for an incubator so at first the temperatures fluctuated and the eggs were handled more than is suggested. So these firsts eggs may not survive but so far they don' smell bad which is what other breeders say is the sign that they haven't survived and to give up. So far we haven't given up and even though they lost a bit of water and are wrinkly we are still incubating them.

all 3 eggs are inside this container, to hold in heat and moisture.

So I have a under water heater inside a cooler filled with water and a plastic basket upside down to set the glass pan on so that the container holding the eggs will not get wet. Inside the container (with the red handle) is moist perlite, the eggs and the thermometer ends which read temperature and humidity. We are keeping the temp between 80-84 degrees F to sex the eggs and hopefully get females. temp range during the first couple weeks of incubation will determine the sex of the gecko. It isn't a sure thing but the temp. range we have will most likely produce females.

Yesterday our second female Starfly (orange female with the recovering tail) laid an egg while we were at church Sun. Jan 18th) It is 1 3/8 " long and looks pretty good. I keep watching for a second egg but she may only lay 1. 2 is most common but 1 is not out of the ordinary either. 3 is rare but it does happen. Incubation can be anywhere from 30-105 days depending on the temperature. So in 1-3 months we should have geckos hatching. Each female will continue to lay eggs every 2-3 weeks and will have up to 10 clutches.  

WHY A BLOG?

I haven't been much for regular journal entries and I tend to forget a lot. So instead of missing out on documenting most of my life and regretting it I've decided to blog. For myself and my children it will be a place to look back and remember. For generations to come a place to learn about the family before. I do lots of silly, crazy, creative, important and unimportant things that might just be worthy of documenting. So since I am all over the map, as far what I do day to day, so will my blog. No set boundaries or topics just what's going on from this day forward Jan. 19th 2015.