Busy Bees

Along with working on the garden (see previous post), we've been busy bees in other ways. Here are some of the things we've been up to...

After the snow melted, we got out our rakes and gathered up all of the thatch, pine needles and other ublek (read "deer poop") that had settled on our lawn. For those of you who have graced us with your presence here, you know how big our lawn is. It took us over a week to get it all done. I got eleven piles out of the front lawn, and finished just as it started to hail.

Cody found it refreshing.

Speaking of Cody, he has been living with cancer now for 9 months (the vets gave him 6 months to live at diagnosis). This boy loves life! His symptoms are getting worse, however, so we got the boat out of storage early so he could have at least one more boat ride.

It was a chilly day but the sun was out and he had a blast.

"I'm King of the World!"










He's also wearing Shadow down with his charms. Shadow has been getting closer and closer to Cody lately, ALMOST letting Cody touch noses with him.

Shadow is the one looking at Cody. Isn't he adorable?

Sera, of course, loves Cody and is trying to convince Shadow that he's an OK guy.

He walked up to Cody right before I snapped this photo, but ran away as soon as Cody turned to sniff him.

Bruce finally did witness Shadow rubbing up against Cody's front legs a few hours later, so Cody won him over after all!

We're all going to really miss that boy when he eventually leaves us. But Ginger, his first human mama, will be waiting for him with open arms.

Meanwhile, Bella had three rotten teeth removed at the beginning of this month. We feel terrible that we didn't have it done years ago, but we got bad advice from previous veterinarians. Here she is using her "hands" to hold her bone.

Ahhh, a nice post-recovery chew.












Lastly, I've been busy teaching myself to play the piano again. I bought this piano about 20 years ago and took lessons for about 18 months. Hadn't touched it since, except to dust it and rearrange the photos on top.

Bruce had it tuned for my birthday earlier this year, so I dragged out my old music and started reacquainting myself with the keyboard. I surprised Bruce, and myself, with how quickly I picked it back up. The best part is that I don't have the pressure of lessons or recitals. I play for the fun of it, and I find that I actually enjoy practicing and learning new material. Eventually, I know I'll hit a wall and need to start taking lessons. But for now, it's just me and the piano.

So while I took a month off from blogging, know that we were not idle, cruising the Caribbean or taken by aliens. We were Busy Bees!  

The Garden of Weedin' - Phase I

I apologize for my long absence from the blogging world. We've been a little busy around here (as you'll see from the next few posts).

This year, the garden is our number one priority. We had too much going on last year to work on it, so we had to settle for a few crops in the existing rustic beds and walk over and around the tangle of weeds on the floor. Here's what the garden looked like when we moved in a year and a half ago:

There was no gate, just wire fencing about five feet high. The deer could easily jump over that (if they wanted to). A dirt floor and a few rustic, homemade beds were inside.











We grew some yummy potatoes, beets, onions and herbs last year. We also continued to contribute to the existing compost pile, which supplied us with a surprise crop of various kinds of squash.

But as I wrestled with the rolled up fencing every time I entered the garden, I yearned for a real gate. So Bruce made my garden gate dreams come true.

First, he added about three feet of fencing all around the top of the garden so the deer couldn't get in. Then he built the gate frame...











then he added the posts from our property (see previous post "Our Garden Gate - Part I" on 8/2/13 for details).

As you can see, that was about all we could do last year before winter set in. A few weeks ago, after the last of the snow and ice melted, we started weeding the garden "floor"...

Ahh, my favorite pose.










Meet my new best friend - the Truper!

Here I am with the Truper, moving one of the compost piles from inside the garden to the new compost location outside the back of the garden. You can see the new pile at the upper left. Bruce is going to install a gate at the back of the garden for easy access, and we'll build a nice little three-sided enclosure for the pile so we don't have to stare at (or smell) it while we're gardening.

Nice outfit!













Here's the new compost pile, composed of last year's delicious concoction and this year's still-in-the-works earthly stew.

Cody accompanied me on every trip between the garden and the compost pile. My protector!













The New American Gothic:

Manually removing all of those weeds was back-breaking work, but very satisfying.

Cody hung out with me the whole time. He's slowing down, but he still loves being outside and cleans his food bowl every night, so he's not ready to leave us quite yet.











Finally done! All but one bed was removed. The remaining bed's sides were raised by about a foot to make it taller (old bodies like less bending). Both compost piles were moved out. All weeds were viciously hacked and whacked and moved to the burn pile.

Take a break, Bruce.












Ready for Phase II!

Phase II involves installing the hardware cloth and garden fabric, then filling in the floor and entryway with 2" rainbow gravel (it's going to be so pretty). In Phase III, Bruce will build six 10' x 5' beds and we'll have a huge pile of soil delivered to fill them. Phase IV will be...planting! Stay tuned...

The Woodshed Project

Last August, Bruce started working on finishing the woodshed. The previous owner had framed it and put on the roof, but never installed the siding. This is how it looked when we bought the house:

The walls were tarps. Effective, but not very pretty. Plus, our homeowner's insurance wouldn't include it in our policy until it had walls. That was a good enough reason to get it finished.

The first step was to remove the tarps.

Here's a view from the back.












Bruce got geared up and started adding supports to the frame for the siding. What a cute handyman outfit!

Cody was Daddy's Little Helper every day. He loved being outside where the action was.















The framing went up...

and then it was time for the siding to go on. We chose log siding so the woodshed would match the house.

The inaugural log siding is placed...












I went back inside the house for awhile, and when I came out, look how much he had done! OK, you can tell by his clothes that it was a different day, but it did seem like it went up really fast.

It wasn't long before the front was almost done and he was ready to work on the doors.












By this time, it was September. Bruce had a nice outdoor workshop. Cody's job was to stand watch in the driveway and guard his Dad from strangers. Rolling in the grass and exploring was done during breaks.

The massive doors were installed...

and painted. We chose Barn Red to match the house's front door.










Bruce took some time to reflect on a job well done. It was now October, and just about time to start filling that woodshed with fuel for the winter.

The large, castle-like doors needed appropriately proportioned handles. It took us awhile, but we finally found some hand-forged wrought iron handles.

As soon as the weather allows outdoor painting again, he'll paint the other hardware black to match the handles.














Fini! Bruce and his helper pose in front of their masterpiece.

Update: Kitty Condo Open House

Update 2/8/14: the kitties are using the condo! We have eyewitness accounts of both kitties hopping out of the condo, so that means they were IN the condo. For how long, we don't know. Do they sleep in there all night? Just go in for a quick snack? These are the burning questions of the day. Perhaps mounting a game camera to the garage will provide the answers. Stay tuned!

Original post:
The Kitty Condo is done. Perhaps I should say it's inhabitable. Bruce still needs to put up trim, install drip edge under the roof, and hang various decorations, but the inside is done and ready for Shadow and Sera to move in.

As of today, they're still sleeping on the front porch glider (at least, they're there when we go to bed at night). Cats have a hard time changing their routine. They're very cautious. It may take them a few weeks or months to figure out the condo is theirs, but in the meantime, they also have the log deck, the woodshed and the front porch from which to choose to snooze.

Bruce started building the condo inside the garage. To ensure the kitties were safe from coyotes, he built it on a four foot high base. He then added casters so he could move it around.

Oops. He soon realized that it was now too tall to move out of the garage. After disassembling it (which he was going to do anyway to insulate and caulk the inside),

he moved it just outside the garage under the eave to finish the construction.










He added insulation and caulked all of the seams. This condo is going to be toasty warm in the winter and cool in the summer.

Wow, hardwood floors! If you know Bruce, you know he doesn't do anything halfway. This condo is a mansion.

It got colder and colder, but Bruce kept gearing up and going outside just about every day to work on the condo.

Finally, the roof is on! That's an access door on the backside, so we can reach in to refill their heated water bowl and food dish, and do some light housekeeping.

There's snow on the ground now, but Bruce just puts on more layers.














So are you ready for the Open House Tour? Here's the front, complete with kitty door entryway and custom window.

The step is to make it easier for them to jump into the carpeted entryway, but still difficult (we hope) for other critters, like raccoons, to get in.













They can sit in their loft and look out the cat head window.

You can see through the open kitty door the carpet Bruce installed on the wall. They can stretch and sharpen their claws before having a snack and getting a little shuteye.











Let's go inside, shall we? We'll take the roof off so we have a better view :-)

Here we are looking down from the loft into the eating/play area. You can see the entryway peeping out under the loft at the bottom of the photo. The wall carpet is on the left, and the access door is at the far end on the left. Our picture is above the heated water bowl.

The access door is barely visible in the camouflage. That's Shadow and Sera in the picture next to the carpet.

Now the access door is open. Yes, the "wallpaper" is kind of Duck Dynasty, isn't it?












Looking from the access door side toward the loft, where the window allows them to see what's happening outside. And there's a photo of Cody and Sera, to make them feel safe.











The food dish and water bowl are within easy reach of the housekeeper's access door.

Bruce custom fit some rubber mats over the flooring so we can easily clean up any accidents.

From the kitties' point of view, looking up toward the loft...

















And the finishing touch - Bruce added the heated kitty bed onto the loft after the roof was installed. Cozy!

Let's exit through the access door. We hope Shadow and Sera like their new condo and make themselves at home soon. Bruce put his heart into building it and did a fantastic job (in my humble opinion).

I'll post some updated pictures after the trim and decorations go up. Hopefully, we'll have some permanent tenants by then. Thanks for stopping by!