Day 57 - New Deck - Ready For Rain

 On my walk with Morgan this morning I came across this pile of logs.

And then this stack of pine. 

Then I heard a chainsaw start up and saw Tom and his friend.

They are going to cut dead trees and clear the downed trees away later.

There are a lot of dead trees, sick trees, trees in the wrong place and

trees that are growing too close to each other.

They have a lot of tree work to keep them busy.

It's supposed to rain tonight!

Tom blew all the leaves off the deck.

Soggy leaves are bad because they make for slippery walking.

Falling is bad. I really don't want to do that.

No leaves on the deck back here either.

The leaves are falling so fast he will need to blow the leaves

off the deck twice a day.

We need a good wind storm to blow all the leaves off the trees at once.

I remembered to bring the owl in and store him away for Spring.

He did a good job of scaring away birds and squirrels away from the garden.

There is room for a battery that would allow his eyes to glow

but I never put a battery in him.

The owl worked just fine without flashing eyes.

I'm posting a bit quickly and early because the power has been going off

and I want to post while I can.

Happy Halloween!

~:>

Smiles

Day 56 - New Deck - Lots Of Railings

Follow me as I walk around the house and check out the railings.

We came out the front door, across the deck and down the new stairs.

It's going to look so good when the gates are built.

I looked to the left and checked out this side of the house. 

Then I turned to the right and took a photo of the front deck.

Continued on to the right and this end of the house.

Stopped of to say hi to the chickens.

My neighbor told me there is a bobcat prowling around.

She has seen it twice.

I'm glad the chickens are locked up.

Continued on down the end of the house past stairs being built.

And around to the back of the house, deck and railings.

Wow! Kristine's little porch looks so good!

Stairs!

These stairs are at the far end of the deck above.

And now I don't have to walk around to the front of the house to get onto the deck!

The deck workers won't be back until next Wednesday

but the deck and stairs are useable until then.

Love the stairs! 

Back inside trying to take a photo of the smiling pumpkins.

Then it was time for Morgan to go off to the groomer

So I washed the floor again and washed all her doggy bedding.

I need to wash some windows tomorrow.

Rain Wednesday?

Well, I can wash the windows inside.

Happy Halloween!

~:>

Smiles

Day 55 - New Deck - Halloween Decorating

This little scarecrow has been saying Happy Halloween since the 1980's.

I had a lot of fun putting fake cobwebs and spiders on the window.

Morgan is not impressed.

Old and new decorations.

The black cat is from the days when the girls were young.

I like these happy pumpkins!

Tom put out the haunted house and I found the decorations

that Kristine made last year and stuck them in a vase.

I only put up half of the decorations in the box.

And Kristine has some packed away.

I think I will get rid of some of the stuff when I pack it back up this year.

A lot more railing got put up today.

Even Kristine's porch got some railings.

Railings... what's railings?

We want corn.

~:>

Smiles

Day 54 - New Deck - Chicken Escape

 It was a beautiful day!

A lovely warm and sunny Fall day.

I had a lot of fun putting up a few Halloween decorations.

Photos of them tomorrow.

This morning as I filled the hen's feeder with corn

one of the black Australorps kept

making mad dashes for the door and succeeded in getting past me 

even though I managed to catch her three times and put her back inside.

On her fourth try before I could shut the door she gained a day of freedom.

For a while she wanted back inside but wouldn't let me catch her.

I hope she had a good time.

Silly hen!

I had my days switched around.

I woke up this morning thinking that it was Monday

and I hurried up and fed Morgan and took her for a walk before

I realized the workers weren't coming to work on the deck.

Silly me!

I spent a lot of the day playing with my iPad.

I was learning to use it and downloaded a lot of game aps.

I am familiar with how Safari works on my Mac

and everything works a bit differently on the iPad so I need to spend

some time figuring out how to do simple things.

Like how to move the cursor with the arrow keys.

A better question would be...

where are the arrow keys?

Yep...

I need to learn about stuff like that.

~:>

Smiles

Day 53 - New Deck - Birthday Party

No deck work or photos of deck work today... it's the weekend.

We went down the mountain to a birthday party.

Here we are farther down.

Further down and there is the bridge ahead.

And into Auburn past the historic courthouse.

There is a farmers market behind the courthouse.

There is much farther to go to get to the valley.

And Joe's birthday party! 

Here we are on the way back home.

We all had a wonderful time.

Bill prepared a delicious dinner greatly enjoyed by everyone.

The workers will be here bright and early tomorrow

so there will be deck update photos coming up in tomorrows post.

The chickens are fine.

I gave them lots of corn before we left.

Thank you, Bill!

~:>

Smiles

Day 52 - New Deck - Chicken Pumpkin

Chicken-O-Lantern

Here's how I came up with the stencil.

I traced around my saucer for the circle

and around the bottom of the cup for the eyes.

I drew the other parts, cut them out and then traced them.

Taped the drawing on the pumpkin.

Poked little holes along the lines.

Then cut along the lines.

This morning Morgan and I stopped by a tree that had fallen...

and gotten hung up over the path.

I don't think it will fall because it is really stuck in the surround trees.

The chickens tell me they want out.

I tell them the deck is still not finished.

Poor hens!

No more deck work until Monday.

Only one worker for a few days this week.

I'm going to Joey's birthday party tomorrow.

Don't know what photos I may take tomorrow.

?

~:>

Smiles

Day 51 - New Deck -Walk In The Woods

One of the first thing I saw this Morning when I took Morgan for a walk...

was this tree trunk steaming away in the sunlight.

There is a lot of mist in the forest from the rain evaporating.

The forest canopy is still covered with lots of leaves.

But there are open spaces that let light and warmth through.

Looks warm out but it is cold.

I love the crisp light and shadows cast by the sunlight.

Sometimes the light is filtered through mist caught in the trees.

I love old fences.

This fence needs to be replaced before it falls down.

Next year?

Well, look what I found when I got back up to the house.

The workers are starting to install the railings.

There is still deck and stairs to build

and other stuff to do.

I didn't cut the pumpkins today

but I did draw and cut out chicken stencils.

And I took photos.

Tomorrow there will be chicken pumpkin photos posted.

The chickens got carrot peels and grapes for treat.

~:>

Smiles

Day 50 - New Deck - Wood Stove

I love my wood stove!

It is so nice to be warm and cozy near the fire

and watch the rain fall outside.

We are finishing up the stew I made yesterday.

Food tastes better cooked on the wood stove in the iron dutch oven .

The Fall leaves are getting ready to drop.

The roof is not covered with leaves yet.

Pretty soon I'll be up there raking off the leaves.

It is too warm for Morgan next to the wood stove

so she camps out next to the slider.

The electric cord is waiting for the deck workmen to come back.

Morgan is going to the groomer tomorrow.

And I'm going to wash all her bedding while she is gone.

I think I'll wash the floor too.

I've been washing all my clothes today and I so appreciate

having the dryer working!

Clean dry clothes are great

but warm fluffy dry clothes are even better!

I'm so glad Tom put in new ducting for the drying.

Works great!

The pumpkins are keeping cool.

I think I should carve them up tomorrow!

It would be neat to make a Chicken-O-Lantern.

I'll give it a try.

The sun is supposed to come back out tomorrow.

I wonder if the workmen will come back to work on the deck?

~:>

Smiles