Up On The Roof... Again

Time to rake the leaves off the garage roof. The orchard ladder makes a safe and easily climbable stairway.

I always think of this song when I'm up on the roof and it hums around in my mind while I'm up there.

When I lived in San Francisco and Los Angeles I didn't have a roof to escape to, but I did have the beach and nature trails available that gave a sense of quiet and freedom.

There is something magical about just being on a roof! I highly recommend a trip to a rooftop... (as long as it is safe.)

After I raked off one side of the roof I climbed to the ridge  and surprise... a tree was laying on that side, but thankfully hadn't punched a hole through the roof.

I climbed down there and hauled on the tree to make it slide off, but it was caught on some other trees.

I had to go get help.

But first I sat down and rested and sang a bit of Up On The Roof. It was so nice up there.

Here is a photo of the roof without leaves.



And here are the chickens taking me home.

I think they wondered what I was doing up there... raking up good things to eat? I often wonder if they don't think I am a big chicken with an unfair advantage and want rakes of their own. 

PS. I didn't have any ice cream last night. Thought about it... almost as good.

Checking On Stuff

Tom emptied out the wood shed so he could fill it completely with the wood he is stacking. Seeing the bale of straw sitting outside along with other boxes, bags of kindling and stuff. I thought I would top off the chicken's nest boxes with a fresh layer of straw. The broody Wyandotte seems to like the new cushy place she has made. Morgan just wonders what I'm up to and if perhaps there might be anything to eat. Treats are always welcome. I tied up the leftover straw and put it on the barrel where it will be handy when needed. I've given up putting the chicken feed in the barrel at night. I didn't notice any difference in the feed level.

I went through my photo library looking for a picture of the big tree that went down a few years ago, but no luck. This tree went down before we moved here and is so big it is still here next to the hole it left when it fell. It was fortunate that this tree fell in the opposite direction from the house. Today when I was walking around I took photos of some of the tree stumps on the property. I like the looks of stumps, especially the ones that have weathered and have taken on interesting shapes. One of them even has a little tree growing out of it. That's another post.

Tom got the chickens a new pumpkin! I set it down next to the dregs of their old pumpkin in hopes that they would get the idea and work at opening this pumpkin on their own. We don't let Morgan out early because she will bark at squirrels or something she thinks needs barking at and we don't want to bother any neighbors who want or need to sleep. Morgan and the chickens don't get outside until ten or later. So, I like to have something that will interest the chickens and keep them busy. Hopefully, the pumpkin will be a puzzle they will crack.

Kristine has been studying for a test tomorrow, Tom watched football and stacked wood, and I didn't get any painting done. I think I will build a planter box tomorrow. I've got lots of projects that are waiting, kitchen projects, quilting, etc. I'll save the quilting for cold winter days.

[5 eggs today]

I put twelve wooden eggs in the nests.

Smiles

~:>

Someone Forgot to Lock the Gate!

One of my birthday cards had the saying, "Celebrate like someone forgot to lock the gate!" There was a picture of a little dog running across a field.

 That's how I felt today when I saw sun instead of rain and I could go outside.

First thing was to work in the chicken coop and clean up the area and refill the feeders. They really didn't make too much of a mess considering how long they were inside because of the

snow and rain.

I put the buckets of chicken stuff in my little flowerless garden. After I get the paths finished I will do some posts on me fixing up the garden.

The blue plastic circles are lids from large containers that we use to haul trash to the dumps.

Chickens are very messy and wasteful eaters.

They flick the feed around with their bills when they are

eating and a lot of it ends up on the ground.

I would like to feed them their feed in pellet form but they don't seem to want to eat it and I have always given up. Maybe I will try it again this summer.

After I finished with the chickens, I went out to walk some of the paths. I took the rake because I thought I would find small twigs and leaves to clean away. 

However, I was not surprised to find large limbs and trees down along the paths and in among the trees.

Here is a before and after photo of a limb that came down in the storms.

I moved the limb and...

now it is behaving itself as a border guard along the path.

Lining the downed trees and branches up along the paths is my solution to the debri removal problem. 

If the branches are too bushy, then we have to burn them or I can pile them up for the tree people to chip.

This is a tree that fell down.

I checked and saw that it had rotted away at the base where it had suffered what looked like burn damage from a long time ago?

It was getting late so I locked up the girls and...

went inside to relax and have a last piece of cake.

That was yummy cake!

Smiles