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?

Welcome Rain!

Last night there was a small shower that allowed me to skip watering this morning. This afternoon, more rain came through and brought additional relief! The grass definitely liked it!

The hummingbirds have appreciated someone feeding them. When my neighbor came over she said, "I wondered why I didn't have many hummingbirds at my feeder. They are all over here!"

Just as I was getting ready to add the pictures to this blog post, the power went out. It was off for about 30 minutes. Guess this is one of the joys of living in the country!

It's a Lawn!

The last couple weeks have been very busy! It is hard being split between the two houses, and I inevitably find that the one thing I really need is at the other location!

Mattresses for the 2 guest bedrooms were delivered last Wednesday, and I spent Thursday getting a lot of cleaning and odds and ends done.  Ten pallets of sod were delivered late Thursday afternoon, and the last pallet (for a total of 11 pallets) was delivered early Friday morning along with about 900 lbs of rock. Our first work crew...I mean, house guests arrived early Friday afternoon and were put straight to work!

Just for the record, laying sod is not fun - especially in 90+ degree heat! Terry's sister and brother and their respective spouses, along with Nick and Matt, were all troopers and hard workers! We knocked out a good portion on Friday and the rest on Saturday morning. It looks great! The biggest challenge will be to keep it alive since we are 16 inches below average for rainfall and are currently at the highest drought level designation that they have.

Where you see green inside the fence (and some of it on the outside too!) is all  part of the "sodbusters" handiwork...

...and here...

 ...and along the side of the house...

...and looking toward the road.

A boat ride to enjoy the sunset was relaxing and very enjoyable after a day of hard work!

There is another project waiting...looks like fun, doesn't it?

The movers are here! The movers are here!

It may not be quite as exciting as the new phonebook was to Steve Martin in The Jerk, but seeing the movers pull in the drive was a wonderful sight...especially since they got lost because they followed their GPS!

They did a great job moving things that I knew I couldn't manage - like our bed, dressers, TVs, some antiques, washer and dryer, etc.

The bed looks good against my newly painted wall.

I will paint the rest of the walls as I get the. The dressers fit in the his and hers closets, so the room will stay fairly open and uncluttered (hopefully)!

This is a rosewood chest that is a family piece.

Living room will get painted too...just one more thing on a long "to-do" list! Why did I think that the completion of construction would be the end of the work? It is really just the beginning!