Can't Get Enough of This

I thought that moving from a brick house to one primarily made of wood would give me a long and possibly permanent vacation from masonry. The vacation lasted exactly 11 months. Apparently water is as corrosive as advertised. While not the Grand Canyon some of these gouges were 2"-3" deep and made me feel kinda icky inside as I walked by before and after work each day.



Fortunately the trowels and repointing tools from jobs past were not lost in the move. The bucket is what all of the best masons use these days.


The previous house required a trip to a few different mortar outlet stores in search of a soft-brick-friendly-extra-lime blend. I enjoy home improvement work but that wasn't fun. The bag above is a standard cement patch formula from the neighborhood big box home store. At least so far this mix and cinder block appear made for each other. We'll see when the freeze and thaw cycle returns.



And this home has allowed me revisit another past hobby. In high school and college I gave a number of haircuts to brothers and friends. That was fun. Now this is fun. Thanks to my dad for the use of the big clippers.





The wires are not as close as they appear.



Can you tell that we were a little eager waiting for the plants to arrive?