A little cabinetry repair and a big windstorm

I have four large lower drawers in The Palms, and they have all failed.  It's the only thing I've had a problem with in The Palms that I can think of.  The two dinette benches have long drawers under them, that's where I store miscellaneous things and electronic stuff.  They went first; I could still open and close them, but it was obvious they were off the tracks or the plastic rear mounting brackets the tracks fit into at the back were broken.

Then the large drawer under my fridge, which only holds long pants - jeans, khaki slacks, sweats, etc. came off the track.  Finally the drawer under the stove that holds my good, larger pots did the same.  They were still all opening and closing, just with a little difficulty and honestly, I don't open any of those drawers that much.  I seldom wear long pants and I have a smaller pot and pan that I store in the oven to keep them handy, and I use them for most of my cooking. 

Yesterday my jeans drawer came completely off the track and then the track came off the drawer -  so I pulled it out and couldn't put it back until it was fixed.  I put it on the couch wondering how in the world was I going to fix it.  I just didn't feel like even going there at that point.  Having that big drawer sitting on my couch, though, was taking up a lot of room and I needed to fix it soon.

This morning the pot drawer fell apart.  The bottom came completely off.  I was able to pull the side structure of the drawer out - and then got the bottom out and pulled all the pots out of the drawer opening and placed them on the floor.  Obviously today was the day I had to do some repairs.

The photo below shows a "before shot."  This was the best I could do closing the dinette drawers before the fix. The problem with these drawers is that they are long and can't be taken all the way out, the couch is in the way.  So I took the cushions and backs off the bench seats, then removed the plywood that holds the cushions to get to the inside of the drawer space.

There was a lot of wiggling around to get the right positions to do the fixes, some tracks were off and I had to bang on the sides with a hammer to force them back into the tracks, and also the mountain brackets that hold the drawer tracks were broken, so I did some work-arounds to make the tracks stay in place.  Surprisingly, it was easier than I thought it would be and they both work great now.  I'm thinking a good wooden brace going from side to side under the tracks would be a good idea to hold things in place.

The next photo shows the mounting brackets that the tracks fit into.  I think the weight of the filled drawers is too heavy and some of these were broken and/or the screws were out and the bracket wasn't connected to the wood, so they needed to be fixed and screwed back in with longer screws.

This is what it looked like after the fix - the drawer closes completely flush and it runs smoothly on the tracks:

The photo below shows the two drawers in the kitchen - one under the fridge and one under the stove.  They were both fixed, as well as the dinette seat drawer on the kitchen side of the table:

Below is the pot drawer - I had to nail the bottom back on - it was stapled on before - what a horrible way to put cabinetry together!  Especially in a kitchen - where one would put pots, pans, maybe even cans of food.  No wonder the bottom fell out.  Then I screwed the track back on with longer screws and it's all holding just fine now and sliding in and out as it should.  It's so nice to have all the drawers working again!

So...  if you have some drawers that aren't running smoothly, it's not really a hard fix to get them "back on track."  And if your rear mounting brackets are ruined, you can get new ones to install.

Elephant  Butte Lake was covered in white caps during our big windstorm - there were even little waves coming up onto the beaches.  Boy, the wind and gusts were really something!

I didn't see a single boat out on the water all day.

Katie and I stayed inside as much as we could, with just a few short potty walks when necessary.  It was time for a little comfort food, so I made on of my favorites, New York Pie (I just named it -I make it so often, it deserves a name). It's a dish I ordered when I was in New York City at a vegetarian restaurant.  One of my friend's sisters worked there and she recommended it.  I've posted it before, but here it is again: 

Cook some rice and put it on the bottom of a plate, add a layer of cooked broccoli and cauliflower pieces on top of the rice.   Pour some Marinara sauce over the top, cover with grated cheese (I always put a LOT of cheese) and microwave until the cheese is melted.  Then top off with sour cream.  OMG, I love this dish and it's so easy to make!  I always cover the plate with it, thinking I'll save half for a leftover meal, and I always finish the whole plate.  YUM!

Below is a photo of the western sky the afternoon of the big storm.  I thought there was a fire in the west and the sky was filled with smoke, but it turned out to just be dust.  That's how fierce the winds was.

There was a pretty moon rising amid some clouds in the eastern sky, which was mostly a pretty blue.  The western sky was dark and dust-cloudy and the eastern sky was pretty and blue.  Weird.



















As the sun was setting, it glowed in the orange sky.









I took a bunch of photos of the sun as it was going down. I used a couple of different settings; don't these almost make your eyes feel like you're looking right at the real sun?

We know it's not safe to look directly at the sun, and the last time I took photos like this I did some research and learned it's not safe to look right at the sun even through the camera lens. 

And the sunset skyline with the dust clouds all around:

Here's The Palms in the glow of the orange sunset as the clouds were blowing east over the lake:


WELCOME to our newest Follower, Jan!  Jan is one of our followers who has no information and no photo, so I can't give you the scoop.  Katie and I appreciate you following along with us - Welcome Aboard, Jan!  :)

From me and Katie, have a great Tuesday, everyone!  :)

Wordless Wednesday - Dogs and Cats

Tiny hot dog:

Can he breathe???

Angry cat -  or pouting cat?:

This looks like Chica:

This kiss brought a smile (to me, too!):

From me and Katie, have a great Wordless Wednesday, everybody!  :)

Oh, poor thing, she at it!

There has been very little going on for a week or so - nice and quiet, great weather (lots of wind, and a little hot for a couple of days, but overall really nice).

I was watching some Bullock's Orioles playing and flying, landing, jumping around, etc.

Here's a male in the tree above:

One of the females landed on a post and seemed to be trying to pull something out of the top of the post.  I thought it might be an insect, but was too far away to see clearly.  

This morning when I pulled up the photos, I could see it was fishing line with something on the end.

As I pulled up and cropped each Oriole photo, I noticed this bird seemed to have fishing line around it in the photo below - you'll have to click on it twice to see the fishing line.  Did she eat the fishing line, thinking the thing on the end was an insect?  I think so.  I hope whatever it was will soon digest and she will be able to pull the line free.  Poor thing.

Don't you just hate it when these little creatures get caught up in man's garbage?  Come on, fishermen!  Dispose of your fishing line properly!  I always did when I fished, and I know most people do, but I've seen so much line along the lake sides.  Remember all the bird nests that were made of fishing line at Pancho Villa and Caballo Lake State Parks? 

Here are some photos taken here at Elephant Butte State Park in New Mexico.

Here's our site - nice, huh?   

Some beautiful flowers from our walk today:

And I finally got some shots of a Jack Rabbit.  He crosses the street every day in front of The Palms, then later goes back across the street, but I never get his picture because he's so fast.  Finally I got him.  Look at those long, long, legs!  And is he skinny?  Or is this the normal size for Jack Rabbits - it looks like you can see his ribs under his skin.  Poor thing.

Makes me feel like I should plant some lettuce out here for him.

WELCOME to Shelia Wedegis!  Shelia and her husband and three dogs are soon to be full-time RVers, at least they will be as soon as they are done downsizing and purchasing their rig.  Sheila is an artist, and her blog is going to be about their RV adventures and her painting.  Love her header, a cartoon of the three dogs, who she is putting into a comic strip about their travels.  I think Living the Artist's Dream is going to be a fun read.  Check it out.  Thanks for following along with me and Katie, Shelia!

From me and Katie, have a great Friday, everyone!  :)

Almost Wordless Wednesday - You're going to love this one! :)

Edward, retired blind guide dog and his (and his owner's) guide dog, Opal.

When Graham Waspe’s loyal guide dog of six years was diagnosed with a rare form of glaucoma, Waspe was devastated. The local animal hospital did everything they could to preserve Edward’s sight, but ultimately had to remove his eyes to alleviate the pain and prevent further damage.
 
Graham was at a loss. He knew he needed a new guide dog to help him navigate his surroundings, but he didn’t want to abandon his loyal friend whom he loved dearly. Enter Opal, a two-year-old female that would soon guide both Edward and Graham.

The duo became a trio, and the three of have gotten along harmoniously ever since. You can read more about this touching story at the East Anglian Daily Times and Daily Mail.

 

Isn't that the neatest thing?

From me and Katie, have a great Wordless Wednesday, everyone!  :)

 

Hummingbird in the Ocotillo

There's a large Ocotillo across from the Visitor's Center at Caballo Lake State Park.  I was waiting for the office to open again after lunch and was walking around looking at the flowers.  I looked up and saw this Black-chinned Hummingbird feeding from the bright red flowers.  I must have taken 100 photos and when the office door opened again for business, I could hardly straighten my neck. 

I was standing at the base of this large Ocotillo and wanted to get a shot looking up:

Then I took another photo and noticed this tiny bird near the top:

See him on the right side, about halfway down?   I zoomed in on him and took all the photos.  Lots of tummy shots from this angle - see how his tiny feet and legs are tucked up out of sight?  Fun, fun, fun! 

I told the Volunteer in the office about all the photos I got and he said one day that bird was caught in the office when he went to lunch.  It must have come in the open door and wasn't noticed when people left.  As soon as the Volunteer came back and opened a window, the hummingbird flew out and went right to "his" tree.  I guess he guards it and keeps the other hummers away.  I wonder if he was peeking out the window watching his rivals stealing all his nectar.

That's all for today.  I haven't seen many hummingbirds lately and wanted to post the best shots I got of this Black-chinned little guy.

After posting all the cactus flowers in the last post, I remembered a large cactus on the side of my San Diego condo - it was a while before I even realized it was there.  Then one day I noticed it was blooming - I think these were the first cactus blooms I'd ever seen.  It funny that I thought this was a very large cactus - little did I know when I took these photos that I'd see many, many HUGE cactus plants in the near future.  :)

I think it's interesting that cactus plants have two different color blooms on the same "leaf."  

From me and Katie, have a great Sunday, everyone!  :)

PS - I've been getting a lot of spam e-mails from people - at this point it's pretty easy to figure out they are spam and I just delete them.  Now I'm noticing a lot of "Delivery Notification - Failure" messages in MY spam folder telling me that some messages that "I" sent didn't' make it to the recipients.  Just a reminder that these spam e-mails are in the rise, and if you get one from me that doesn't look right, please just delete it. You can e-mail me at sm92078@aol.com if you are unsure.