Sniffles

I'm sniffling right now due to the pollen. I mowed the yard - front, back, and behind the fence today. I also edged the driveway and the front walking path. It was sprinkling as I was doing it, but it never really rained enough to get things soaked. It's supposed to rain today though. My privet hedges are still growing, flowering out with leaves and my pyrocanthus hedge is covered in tiny white blooms. I'm hoping for good growth out of them and the rose of sharon hedges this year. Four of my six fruit trees have leaves on them. I'm going to try shedded paper mulch around them this next week, we'll see how that goes. I bought $15.00 worth of supplies to fix my rain barrels, new taps (again), PVC threaded adapters to go inside, PVC cement, and construction adhesive. I'm got one completely new barrel, and I need to turn it into one, and then fix one of the barrels using plastic from the one which I am going to retire. I'm gonna cut the bottom out, and cut it into two pieces and use them as composters.

I got my grandmother's old Magnavox stereo yesterday. Sitting on the turn table was a 45, Chicago. :-) Talk about taking me back. I used to love Chicago. The music always seemed dreamy and romantic to me. Songs about love, love lost, those kinds of things. I took the back off of the stereo, vaccumed it out, dusted it, and then wiped the whole thing down with Honda Spray Cleaner and Polish (it's what I had on hand). I then wiped the tubes off, cleaned the electrics inside, and plugged it in. It worked like a charm. It has such a rich sound since it has tubes, and I never realized the speakers inside were so BIG. I reinstalled the back and the sound was even warmer. It looks almost like new, except it's from an era 50 years in the past. It picked up KLove really well. I'll need help hauling it into the house, and I've got a spot set aside for it where I can plug it in and listen to it. It'll give me a place to put all my old records. The only thing I need for it to be perfect is I need to get a needle for the stylus and wipe it down with some furniture polish. I'll post a photo when I get it in the house.