Project Progression

The weekly mowing was completed on Friday morning. I had heard that there was a 30% chance of rain, so I wanted to be ready just in case we were in the 30% zone. Thankfully, we did get a nice shower Friday afternoon that lasted about 20 minutes!

The 30% chance for remains for today with a 40% chance tomorrow, so the hope for more rain remains!

Last week's main project was getting more of the main living area painted. I don't work very fast, so everything seems to take forever! The portion that was finished last week enabled me to tackle one of this weekend's projects - hanging window shades!

Shade up                                          Shade down

Top down/bottom up cellular shades should help to keep out  the late afternoon sun and provide privacy at night.

Being an educator made me think about the skills needed to be able to hang these shades. Two primary skills involved reading/following directions and converting decimals to fractions and fractions to decimals. I was able to manage both tasks, but it helped that there were online fraction/decimal conversion sites available for reference. Following instructions required some common sense to fill in the details that were lacking.

I hope this means I am smarter than a 5th grader!

Out On A Limb

As I pulled into the driveway this afternoon, I knew there was a problem!

The neighbors on one side of our cabin are never there...it is a rather sad story and too long for this posting. There was a dead tree on the edge of their lot that I have been watching since we finished our house. I had thought about calling them to ask that they take it down or see if they would reimburse the cost if we arranged to have it removed.

My hesitation to make that call came back to bite me today!

Yes, the tree came down on my new fence!

I don't think the damage is too severe, but I've got to get some someone to remove the tree and then see if the fence guys can come back to repair the fence. It is always a challenge to get repair people to come out of town this far. I think I have managed to get it fixed up well enough so the dogs can't get out until I can get some help.

Speaking of the dogs...the placement of the tree has them stumped. They are used to flying down the ramp and then running down the fence line to the end of the fence. No chance of that - the trunk limb-its their range.

...and Frank is definitely barking up the wrong tree!

Sorry...just couldn't resist!

I'll leaf it at that.

Fourth of July at the Lake

This year's 4th at the lake is a bit different from many.

The majority of cabins on the lake are weekend getaways rather than full-time residences, so the Fourth of July weekend is typically when lots of folks are here. There are fewer boats on the lake this year, which indicates fewer weekend visitors. The lake is very low, and stumps that have been safely below water are now exposed or very near the surface.

If you look over the roof of our boat house toward the fishing platform, you can see the black dots of stumps now exposed by the low lake level. (Click on the picture for a larger view.) This poses obvious hazards for boaters and skiers.

There will be no fireworks this evening - a disappointment to many but necessary because of the severity of the drought. We can usually sit on our dock and watch folks all around the lake shooting off their own shows over the water.

Another big event is the annual boat parade. It was held this year as usual, but I was so preoccupied with watering the lawn, giving dogs much-needed baths, and getting a head start on preparing some things for a chili dog/hot dog lunch at work on Wednesday that I forgot about it!  I wouldn't have entered the parade by myself, but it is quite fun when we have visitors here! The fence guys cut the electrical line to the boathouse, so I could not have gotten the boat hoist to function anyway!

Here are some pictures from our last effort a few years ago...we did not win but had a great time!

Terry and his sister, Grace, working on the flags and streamers

...adding the pièce de résistance

We obviously did not have enough balloons on our boat! (This is one of the winning boats.)

After parading the length of the lake, the boats pass by the judge's stand in the swim and ski area of the lake and then await the announcement of the winning boats in each category.

After the parade, it is nice to do a little floating and fishing...

...followed by food and beverages. I think this "Uncle Sam" had one two many beverages and lost his top hat!

We hope that we can have a celebratory gathering next year! Here's hoping for the gift of 30-40 inches of rain between now and then!

Fence Progress

The new fence is coming along slowly. The weather has been very hot and apparently our fence builders don't do too well in the heat. They don't seem to be real fond of starting early to beat the heat either, so it makes for a rather limited time frame!

Other than cutting the electrical line to the boat house (Oops!), all has been going well...and to be honest, I forgot about that line coming up from the boat house, so it wasn't all their fault!

When I came home today, it was beginning to look like a real fence!

Instead of enclosing the entire house, as I originally planned, Terry thought it would be better to enclose only the lake side. As I thought about it, that ended up being the best option for now. In order to provide the best access to and from all parts of the property, the fence is going under the house. That will provide some additional shade and shelter for the dogs and will also give us an area to store yard equipment inside the fence and somewhat protected. (The plastic fence on the left is temporary.)

The deer are curious and don't seem to be thrilled with the obstacles now in their way, but they still have reasonable access to their normal paths. They don't know it yet, but they will be thankful that there is something between them and the dogs!

Lake Update

The inaugural mowing of the new lawn took place today! The grass was longer than I thought, so when the two little dogs attempted all things dog in their fenced area, it was difficult for them. After the mowing, they are much happier! Watering will need to begin again, since rain has been sparse. It looks like we will be hot and dry for a while. The water bill for last month was about three times normal, but it just had to be done! Even so, my bill was still less than my neighbor's.

It really does look nice!

The new sofa and chair arrived today after the delivery truck was taken all over the area by their GPS! For some reason, our road confuses the GPS units on vehicles. They are the fourth delivery truck to be lost by using GPS instead of my directions! They finally made it after driving all over the county.

This is the oversized recliner, and we also got the matching couch. It pretty much fills the living room, so I will have to do some strategic rearranging to make sure that the placement maximizes our space.

Fence building will commence on Tuesday, so stay tuned for updates on that project.

Painting

A thunderstorm dumped a pretty nice amount of rain on us last night. It was pretty wet all day and very muggy, so it wasn't a good day to finish my  flagstone walkway project.

Painting the living room seemed like a much better choice!

I didn't get it all done, but it will still be there for another day!

I cut up some watermelon rind to give to the deer. They sure love it! This one was chewing a piece.

It was The Day of the Buck today! I

New Resident

We have a new resident at the cabin. She/he showed up when I was working on the flagstone walkway on Sunday and has been here every evening since. The draw seems to be a nice roosting spot on the porch, but I also think she/he enjoys the fact that there is a human nearby.

Pidgy shows up every evening about 6:00 and just hangs out on the porch. I put a big bowl of water out and he just dunks his whole head under! As dusk begins to fall, Pidgy heads up to a ledge near the ceiling. I put a small board up in one corner tonight and he headed straight to it!

Both his legs are banded - I don't know exactly what that means, but he seems fairly comfortable around me. I suppose he could be a dropout from Homing Pigeon School...

He is a rather messy houseguest, but I'm afraid his stay won't last too long Once we get a new fence constructed and the dogs come back up, they will not be very tolerant of Pidgy's intrusion on their territory!

Pick a project...any project?

I had great plans to finish painting the master bedroom today, but it was such a BEAUTIFUL day that I didn't want to waste it inside! There are plenty of outdoor projects to be done, so it was just a matter of which one to choose:

1. Pick up leftover construction trash
2. Cut up tree limbs that are on the burn pile
3. Cut the cane that is coming up through the new grass
4. Move a pile of lumber
5. Etc.
6. Etc.

...nothing really sounds appealing, but I need to choose something!

And the winner is...

Three hours later, I'm thinking maybe painting wouldn't have been so bad!

Some progress was made, but there is still a lot to do!

At least I can get from my car, to the grass, and to the house now without walking through the sand.


Maybe I should just get a glass of lemonade and sit on the porch for a while...

New Table!

My new dining room table and chairs arrived today after a long 10-week wait! It is a 54" round table made from beautifully finished quarter-sawn oak. I also have three leaves so it will accommodate larger groups!

A Little Rain

It was very nice to have a few misty drops on my windshield as I drove from work to the cabin. The drizzle increased to a light rain, and I can almost hear the grass growing!

I definitely SEE it growing...and the deer and bunnies do too. They obviously think this new, tender grass is delicious and can't help but munch and nibble a little. I have decided that, as long as they aren't ripping pieces of sod out of the ground, it is okay. They are basically just "mowing" for me, right?