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Tuesday, July 12, 2022

Lame Duck

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Belladonna put a deposit down on an apartment in East Lansing. She will decamp our home in early August and Mrs ERJ and I will be empty nesters for the first time since 1990.

We already turned Kubota's old room into a "guest bedroom".

We are batting around ideas to repurpose Bella's room with combination library/reading nook leading the list.

Ironically, the one feature Belladonna keeps talking about is the solarium in her soon-to-be apartment. She plans to fill it with succulents and cacti and use it as her reading-unwind space. This is the same girl who wanted black-out curtains on her bedroom windows.

7 comments:

  1. Wife and I can relate having just become empty nesters ourselves. Our youngest son was living with us. Circumstances out of his hands (including us moving to Texas) made his road a bit longer. Living with us allowed him to work part time and finally graduate from UT Arlington. He just recently got to a position where he can afford an apartment. Smiles all around.

    So, wife and I have been busy converting his old bedroom into a sewing room/library. This involves moving her sewing machines, sewing table, and several full book cases. Those furniture sliders are the bees knees.

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  2. Belladonna sounds like myself or relatively introverted. I'm too cheap for blackout curtains so I use brown package paper to block my windows. Here in Texas, not even mini-blinds + bed sheets kept the sun and heat out this year, so the packing paper went up. Other windows get cardboard. Sleeping and napping was terrible while being blinded and baked in my bed.

    Spider Farmer is often recommended for cactus and succulent grow lights if the solarium / sun room doesn't get enough sunlight; I don't recall other brands. A T-5 LED shop light is sufficient for cactus seed germination. Texas sun + vermin destroyed thousands of cactus seedlings this year so that aspect of my business is coming inside.

    Go for the gold with a study. In the winter, I retreat to my greenhouses but in the summer, a study / library would be total bliss.

    -arc

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    Replies
    1. Kingsville, TX is the US Dept of Ag repository for Cacti genetic material. That is where the specimen at the top of the post was photographed.

      I know TX is a huge state but thought you might like to know about the resource.

      -Joe

      PS: Thanks for the comment.

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  3. Leave room for the turret press!!

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    Replies
    1. Reloading/Gun room ! You deserve it.

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  4. ERJ, we are about two months from having a bedroom back for good. While we are not trying to rush said inhabitant out, there is some quiet discussion of what will happen to the room after that...

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