Battenin' down the hatches

Well! Apparently the mother of all storms is barreling down on us. They are calling it Frankenstorm. (groan). So we'll see. Just in case it really is (snort) Frankenstorm, I took care of a few things - with Jacques' help of course.

The first thing that needed to be safely stowed away is the Obama sign. Recycled from four years ago, this one is out in the yard. The other one is in the window on the second floor - for those who look up! 

 

I spent the morning running around the neighbor hood campaigning. I don't know about this Saturday morning stuff. There are a lot of people still in bed at 10am. Doing this campaigning has been very humbling. I've been walking around some of the poorer neighborhoods of Philadelphia and yes, well, let's just leave it at very humbling.

One of the nicer things happening is this vine that has started growing up the El's wall. I hope it goes unnoticed for a while and next year can take over more of that ugly wall. I'm sure if Mr. El was here he'd yank it down (not good for the plaster), but it will be beautiful if it covers that whole wall.

 

Matt came this morning and strapped the bees down. I'm also wondering what will happen since the big tree is gone. I'm sure it did some protecting of my property. We'll have to see... 

 The next order of business was to try to get as much water to run away from the house as possible. I don't know if I've mentioned this before but my yard is some of the only ground for several properties around - so all the run off water from my house and the El's house lands in my yard. Which of course makes the ground around my basement very wet - so - guess what? My basement will probably never by dry. I'm hoping I can get some of the water to run as far away as possible. Here's the first setup. And yes, that is the Hello Kitty duct tape because I couldn't find any of the other ones I've got flying around here somewhere.

This is the downspout that gives me the most trouble. I was trying to get the water to run away under the porch but that doesn't seem to be working. With Jacques' help I'm directing it way out into the yard. 

 I have a feeling this is not going to solve the problem either.

I'm sure I'll have to come up with something else.

 Not sure what yet.
While I was at it. I cleaned up all of the pots that used to have bulbs planted in them. They were perfect lunch for the squirrels. I found about five bulbs in 20 pots. I also re-potted the Night Blooming Sirius. It hasn't bloomed in two years - but maybe next year. Here's hoping...