Saturday, March 8, 2014

Project and More Projects

I am determined not to spend money this weekend.  All of my money is going towards truck repairs which is ok because I am terrible about my truck's maintenance and it is time that it got some attention.  I wanted to go out to my property and get a large dog kennel to convert it into a quail cage but that would just encourage me to get more quail and that isn't a priority at this moment.  I am perfectly happy with my 3 little quiet quail.
While puttering in the yard, pulling weeds and tidying up, I started to think about the shade in front of my bedroom sliding glass door.  The first year I lived here I tried a large tarp to shade the glass from the sun and keep a rain-free area for the dogs.  The tarp got a A+ for shade, D for wind, and F for rain.  During our Summer downpours, the rain came off the roof and filled the tarp so that I had to go stab it so that it would drain.  The wind eventually tore it to shreds.

The next year, I bought shade cloth.  It wasn't very dense shade cloth so it got a C+ for shade, an A+ for wind, and an F for rain.  I thought about buying a small tarp, maybe 4'x6' to just cover the door area but since I am not spending any money I decided to think about what I could use that I already have.  That's when I remembered the project that I started 2 years ago.  I bought a 24'x5' piece of awning fabric and grommets and attempted to attach the grommets but had a lot of trouble so I gave up.  I got the fabric and grommets out of the shed and started again.  This time I figured out how to put the grommets on correctly and I used scissors to cut the holes instead of using the worthless little punch that was included.

While I was working on it the wind picked up and tried to take the fabric away so I decided to cut it to 10' long to be more manageable.  Here's one of my dogs helping to hold down the fabric.

And here it is after I put it up.  Now, bring on the wind and rain!  I need to test this out while the weather is still cool.  Trying to reconfigure shade cloth when it is over 100 outside is no fun at all.

I am thrilled that I finally finished this project and that I didn't spend any money today.  I have a bunch of other unfinished projects around here.  I wish I had more time off.  Oh, and yes, those are weeds but I like them because they are green and anything green in Arizona is rare.  They will die off soon enough.

2 comments:

Lizzie@her MFW Homeworld said...

I know what you mean, when you manage to do something with stuff you already had but had forgotten or not joined up the dots. Warm glow!!

Daizy said...

Yes! Especially since I usually go shopping for supplies and then I'm too tired to work on the project. I had no excuses not to finish it.