May 2007

This post is from from my other blog here

Today is a day of picnics, family, sales and BBQ.  Whether you think it's right or wrong it's also a day to remember the men and women that have paid the ultimate price for our freedom.  I can't even begin to say it better than this guy .   

This post is from from my other blog here

I have been overwhelmed with laundry and struggling with the daily task of where to put it.  There is only one closet that is finished in this house and it's just not enough.

I was going to tile my closet floor in our master loft but that was really holding me up.  So much work, many other things taking precedence.  Dave suggested vinyl.  I hadn't really given that any thought but today as I was filling another chair in the living room with laundry I thought, what the heck, I could finish that closet today.

So I went to end of the roll and picked up a scrap that fit almost perfectly.  I had to do a little trimming but I could do it with scissors.

I moved all the crap out of the closet, cleaned and sanded the floor and put the adhesive on with a notched trowel.  I did not put down floor leveler.  I would have if it would have been the kitchen or a more prominent room but for my purposes today I just wanted to get it done. 

It took one hour to get the floor in.

I went to home depot and picked out some shelving and storage containers and in about three hours and $150 I have a usable closet!

I am doing laundry like mad now and getting it all put away.

I still need to trim out the edges and the doors but we cut the door so close that we can't trim it until we get my washer and dryer in there as it won't fit otherwise.  That tray in the corner is where they will go when the budget allows.

This post is from from my other blog here

We have a really strange leak in the roof.  It's right over one of the main beams in the great room where the roof comes together in a complicated way.

We ordered some Iron Coat which is a kind of rubber patch stuff.  We had it tinted the color of the roof.  That should take care of it. 

The strange thing is that the leak found it's way between the drywall and latex paint.

The paint has completely slid down.  That ball of water is about half the size of a basketball.

I don't even know how I'm gonna fix this wall.  The paint peels right off but so does the texture.  So, I'll have to peel off as much as I can, sand the edges and re-texture it I guess.  I'm not going to do anything until the roof is fixed.   

This post is from from my other blog here

My husband thinks I'm crazy.  Well, maybe just a little.  I had to go to the dentist today.  I have kept our same dentist that we had since we lived downtown.

I like her and all but the main reason is that she is near the Edmond's Ferry terminal where the Brant Goose migrate through in search of it's favorite food, eel grass.

   

Sure, it's takes an hour and a half to get there but it's worth it to me.  This year though I missed them both times.  My teeth cleaning was in February and while they have been here as early as February they were not there the day I had them cleaned.  Then, today I needed my last two silver filling replaced.  I knew it was probably too late.  They always come through mid April but I thought there might have been stragglers.

There was lots of ell grass but only a few young Glaucous-winged Gulls and a Mallard drake.

This is what I was hoping to see.

The tide was out so there was lots of stuff stranded on the sand.

This is a sea sponge.

This rock was only about 1" across and just look at all the barnacles living on it.

Later I went for a walk with Dave in the Narbeck wetlands area near where he works and while we didn't see any ducks we did see several frogs.

So, a nice relaxing day away from the computer, wood and house stuff.

This post is from from my other blog here

A lot if you rent one of these.

We tried splitting them the old fashion way with a maul but they were just too big. 

This hand dandy log splitter is $62 a day and well worth it's weight.

We managed to split everything that would fit under the wedge.

This was a picture from Saturday.  By Sunday I had that stacked 5' high, 12' long and two rows wide.  I was stacking it as fast as Dave could split it.

Here is another must have toy.  A wagon from Harbor Freight that carries 1000 pounds.  I was able to move a lot of wood that I could barely even lift over to Dave at the splitter.

We are saving all the really large rounds for seats around the property and on our trails.

Here is the reason that the trees had to come down.  It's the moss.  It completely covers the bark in a carpet that is two or more inches thick.  Ferns grow on the moss.  It's really pretty but it slowly kills the tree.

They rot from the inside out and the branches get very weak.  The moss holds a lot of moisture too which adds to the weight on the weak branches.  Then we get a wind storm or a lot of snow and down they come.

Looks like we might have a lot of blueberries this year.  Last year was kind of a light year.

Caught this bee doing some pollinating.

All in all a very productive weekend.  There is still a lot of wood clearing to do but all the splitting is finally done.

This post is from from my other blog here

That is one way to get the kitchen floor cleaned!

It's 70 today so I had the deck doors open.  I was working in my office so I never saw them come in.  Beulah and Mona were busy cleaning the kitchen floor and finishing up the cat food!

Silly chickens.

Egrets Nest  wanted to know about my chipper.  Well it belongs to our neighbor Chett , he has graciously loaned it to us so we can chip up our branches.  I don't know what he paid for it but it sure is handy.  If you have a lot of branches you might just want to check them out.

We really lucked out in the neighbor department.  We are sharing tools, workload, security and enjoying each others company. 

This post is from from my other blog here

We have spent the morning chipping up the branches of the maple.  We also hauled over some larger branches to frame in a walkway.  The chickens are helping to spread out the chips.

This post is from from my other blog here

The tree guys finally made it out on Thursday. 

We took down two dangerous maples that were leaning over the propane tank. 

It was sad to see them come down but every time the wind blew, more branches would come down.

We topped one maple that is far enough away from the tank and the cars that it would not matter when it sprouts out again.

We also took the dog leg off this fir tree.

Dog legs or crotch trees as they call them can really be dangerous as they twist in the wind, loosening their roots. 

We took the smaller side off.  His bucket would not reach so he actually had to clime this one to get the top off.

These guys were pretty skilled at what they do.  There were only two of them.  One in the trees and one on the ground as a helper.

It really opens up the slope down to the creek. Our neighbor Chett, loaned us his chipper so we can chip up the branches for our walkways.  We will use some of the rounds as seats around our fire pit, my Dad will snag some for his wood working projects and the rest we will split for our camp fires.

The tasks at hand now included clearing up the wood mess, filling the dumpster with the balance of the construction debris from building this house and then finally getting the fence and gate up. Whew, I'm tired just thinking about it.  Once we are done though this house is going to look so much better.  Well, we still have to sell a few vehicles, touch up the paint and do some landscaping but then it will start looking pretty nice.