Does your garden hose...

...stick out like a sore bright green thumb?

Garden hoses are a necessity if you want your plants to live but it doesn't have to look bad while keeping your flowers happy.

I decided to add a hose hanger on my deck because dragging the hose up to the deck was a drag (no pun intended).  The hose hanger wasn't a problem because there are a lot of choices out there on the Net. If your favorite hose hanger is the wrong color there is always spray paint.  

I bought my hose hanger about 10 years ago so I don't have a link for mine.  But it was offered in a distressed black and I just can't get onboard the distress bandwagon.  Why would I start out with a hose hanger that looks like it needs sandblasting and repainted?  I, of course, spray painted the hose hanger in satin black.

 I hung the hose hanger and loved how it looked but I wasn't all that into hanging a bright green garden hose on it.  So off to the Internet to see what was available.  Isn't that where we start any project these days?

eBay had grey garden hoses and they were almost the same grey as my house.  Unreal.  What was even more unreal was the price, the length options, and free shipping.  I decided on the 50 ft length and it arrived about a week later.

Grey Garden Hose Nozzle Sprayer

Grey Garden Hose 50ft length

I chose this garden hose for several reasons beyond the grey color.  First it had brass fittings.  Plastic fittings are easily cross threaded and tend to leak.  On the other hand, brass is sturdy and less likely to leak.  The hose is 5/8th inch and 8 ply.  And finally there is a spring on the end that is attached to the faucet.  This spring keeps the hose from getting kinked.  And all for $25.34 plus free shipping.

We finished off with a grey garden hose sprayer.  Why ruin the look with a green sprayer?  The sprayer also came with an extra washer.  I purchased 2 with a 'Make Offer' of 6 bucks each and free shipping.

R drilled a 3/4th inch hole in the deck and we ran the new hose down to the hose faucet below.

Oh my, those deck boards look bad.  But that is another project for another day.  I have deck railing to stain white and wood buttons to glue in place.  It is going to take 2 coats of opaque stain but it already looks a million times better.

Reuse Repurpose Recycle

Wrought Iron Urns and Taking Advantage of Sales and Cash Back

I have been wanting/needing two of these 28 inch tall large wrought irons urns for the last 2 years.

After seeing one on Pinterest, that was filled with little pumpkins, I knew I wanted/needed two of these.  But first... I needed to find out where I could buy them online.  I searched on and off for about 6 months before I found them. 

I put the two urns in my cart on eBay and waited until they either went on sale, offered free shipping (these are heavy and heavy=$$$), or there was an increase in eBay Bucks or Ebates.

Almost a year later during the Christmas holiday of 2018, I received a code from eBay Bucks that for 2 days I could get 10% back in eBay Bucks.  I then checked Ebates and they were offering 2%.  So I pulled the trigger and bought them.

The price for two was $259.90 + $97.90 for shipping.  Not cheap inexpensive but they are very heavy and well made and they were exactly what I wanted.  I saved $5.20 on Ebates and $25.99 in eBay Bucks for a total savings of $31.19.  The shipping was a lot but when I buy heavy stuff I know that the shipping cost is going to be brutal.

On January 1st eBay Bucks paid out and issued a code for me to save $34.56 on any eBay item or items totalling $34.56.  I currently have $78.12 pending on Ebates and I think they send out their Big Fat checks in February.  So signing up for these free programs do have an upside depending on how much you buy online.   

These urns comes in a lot of colors including just a clear coat over the metal or in a rusty condition. The eBay seller also offers other items in metal including wrought iron gates. 

If you like the large cast iron urns (in freezing conditions you need to protect cast iron urns so that the dirt doesn't freeze/expand and then crack the cast iron) but need something that can handle being left outside all winter, then check out these urns.  I think that these could also work well with a modern style home.

I haven't decided whether I am going to use a coco mat and fill with dirt and geraniums OR fill it with my collection of round rocks (fist size and larger) in the summer and little pumpkins, gourds, and squash in the fall, and then faux small spruce trees in the winter.

I am getting anxious to plant flowers and paint the back of the house.  The fact that we are only 1 month into winter is a real bummer.

Sign up for Ebates and get a $10 gift card of your choice after spending 20 bucks using Ebates.  There are over 2K online sites that participates in the program.

Sign up for eBay Bucks by clicking on eBay Bucks on the left side of your summary page.

Reuse Repurpose Recycle

Gargoyles and Our Downspouts

It was about the same time that I was searching the Internet for a splash block that I came upon a gargoyle for downspouts.  I was excited to find another method to hide the hideous downspout extensions.

Gargoyle en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gargoyle

In architecture, a gargoyle is a carved or formed grotesque with a spout designed to convey water from a roof and away from the side of a building, thereby preventing rainwater from running down masonry walls and eroding the mortar between. Architects often used multiple gargoyles on buildings to divide the flow of rainwater off the roof to minimize the potential damage from a rainstorm.

The back of our house is fairly close to how it was when we purchased the house in 2004.  We removed a poorly thought out and non-original overhang over the back door and we re poured the step at the back door.  We also removed a large picture window with casement windows on the side.  It wasn't original and was badly rotted.  AND we planted hostas so they could get a foot hold and look good when we finally finish the back of the house.

We have replaced the old eave troughs and downspouts on the house except for the back.  There are two downspouts on the back of the house and both the downspouts and downspout extensions are very obvious and ugly.  So I was quite pleased to find a method to make them look better.  Enter the downspout extension gargoyle.

The gargoyle is cast resin and colored to look like concrete which is perfect for us because we love concrete items.  The gargoyle slips over the end of the downspout extension without the need of a tool. If you have plantings around your downspout extension, you can hide it and have just the gargoyle peeking out from the plantings.

In the photo above the extension is showing, but when we install new eave troughs and downspouts, the extension will be shorter so that you only see the gargoyle peeking out and not the extension.

 Isn't he cute?

The hostas are First Frost with Royal Krossa in the middle. Both have blue instead of green and both varieties have thick leaves.  Always try and buy the thick leave type as they look great right up to the cold weather and frost.  Notice the difference in the other photo.  Those hostas have thin leaves and show stress as soon as it gets hot.  Bugs and slugs eat the leaves and the heat burns the tips and they require more frequent watering.  They actually only look good for a month or so in the spring.  I will replace those hostas when we finish the back of the house.

Search eBay Gargoyle Gutter Spout Downspout Statue Stone and Resin Garden Home.  You will find two styles...Gargoyle and Dragon.

I also found them on Wayfair for almost half the price that I paid.

Don't forget to use Ebates for an additional 2% off.  Click here to sign up and receive a $10 gift card after your first $20.00 purchase.  I am at over $700.00 saved by using my Ebates account when purchasing at participating sites.  I recently purchased an item from an online store and will receive 12% back by using Ebates.  Etsy is currently giving 1% but I have seen it at 2% and 4% before.  eBay can be as low as 2% and occasionally 5%.

Also, make sure when purchasing on eBay that you sign up for eBay Bucks.  I will receive a code worth over $22.00 at the beginning of October.  I can use that code on any eBay purchase, but hopefully something on sale and when Ebates is offering more than 2% back.  Maybe I will buy more hostas!!!!

Follow us on Instagram

Reuse Repurpose Recycle

We might need to start building an Ark

At this time of year it is always better to have rain than snow but come on now, this is day three of rain.  I'm not talking about sprinkles or on/off rain but constant steady rain.  All the ACE fetilizer/weed killer has dissolved and the grass is already dark green which is good.

We have been busy with spring clean up.  There were two 12 inch in diameter, box elder trees that needed to be cut down.  A lot people do not like box elder trees but we don't mind them.  The reason we had to remove them was two fold.  First there was something going on with them and the top of each tree would die back and then regrow the next year.  Since we knew that they would not last we purchased sugar maples last fall when they were on sale and planted three of them along the drive way.

R and I cut down one tree last week and have already cut it up and burned the branches and cubed up the trunk for our wood pile.  Once the tree was cut down we noticed the beginning of rot in the very center of the trunk.  That actually made of feel better about cutting it down.

Yesterday R dropped the other tree when it was just sprinkling.  It is so much easier to deal with the tree remains when there are no leaves on the branches.  This tree also had some slight rot in the center of the trunk.

Later on in the spring or summer we will rent a stump grinder and deal with all of the stumps in the yard. It's not difficult just noisy and monotonous.  If you rent late Friday afternoon around 5pm you can get it all weekend if you return by 9am on Monday and they only charge you for one day.

We have been to two Flint Firebirds playoff games.  Exciting games but I will be surprised if they win on Friday night's away game. They are without their leading scorer and the team that they are playing is one of the best in the league.  But we are still very happy that in only their second year they were able to make it to the playoffs.

The SOO Greyhound's head coach (Sault Saint Marie....Sault is pronounced SOO...here in Michigan it is just call The SOO) had on polka dotted socks.  Very snazzy.

I was at the local wild bird supply store this last week to buy Baltimore Oriole food.  I want to have it on hand so when they show up they can eat.  The lady at the store told me that based on their sightings, they should be here in two weeks.  Based on last year's bird count, they used two bottles of the grape jelly formulated just for birds and did not eat even one orange so I won't bother with that this year.  Also we tried our best to count and we think we had about 10 pairs which was double what we had the year before.

This year we are going to try to build up the blue bird population and try to lure in the crows/ravens.  I know it sound weird but we have quite the group of crows/ravens and I have read how smart they are and if you feed them they will leave behind gifts like stones or shiny bits.  I actually know someone who's grandmother had pet crows/ravens.  Several years ago I purchased a wood platform feeder with a mesh bottom so we need to set that up for them.  I know they love the small fruit that falls off of my fruit trees so I will probably feed them fruit at fruit and then go from there.

We brought out the new large black ceramic pot that I purchased at Ollie's Bargain Center a couple of weeks ago.  I purchased bunny rabbit pot feet off of eBay to keep the pot up off the porch.  Plus they are so dang cute I just couldn't resist.  Looks like I need to readjust the pot and the feet.

Reuse, Repurpose, Recycle