WRAPPING IT UP FOR THE YEAR PART 2

NOVEMBER & DECEMBER

Vangie continued with meals, laundry, cleaning, watching the girls......and "grubbing!" Grubbing took forever due to frequent rain (and mud) on the days she was free to work, plus lots of clay in the soil, deep weed roots, and lots of sprouting sassafras roots. Also, this bed is 107 feet long and about 5 feet wide.

During a few dry days, Frank stained the deck and the outside stairs.

He also stained the steps by the front door.

Vangie planted vinca below them.

Frank decided that three sides of the house and the gazebo needed to be resealed.

He put up two pieces of marlite in our mechanical room to stop the misuse of the dry wall.  He added a shelf for our convenience.

We enjoy watching the wild life here. We were visited several times by 26 wild turkeys!

After John & Tonya's belongings were moved to the far side of their garage, Frank began on the near side. Lights, outlets, insulation, and dry wall were installed. He built a small closet around the "in-house vacuum" in the back corner. Next came the taping.

The girls, ages 9 and 6, had been begging to paint something. Their dream came true when they were allowed to learn on the near side of the garage. Tonya gave it the final coat on New Years Day!

Vangie's grubbing finally came to an end when she had all the perennials and bulbs planted. As you can see, she ran out of mulch.The first picture is looking west: the second is looking east.

The front of the bed needs to be evened up, and a few more perennials and bulbs will be added. Hopefully, with some annuals, next summer it will be colorful and filled until the perennials take over! (Reversed: east, then west.)

Since Tonya and the girls were planning to paint the last half of the garage, Frank went back to working on the wood shop. At the end of the year, it looked like this.

Happy New Year everyone!

WRAPPING IT UP FOR THE YEAR PART 1

SEPTEMBER, OCTOBER & EARLY NOVEMBER

While Vangie kept doing all the usual things--meals, cleaning, laundry, and "grubbing," Frank began working on John and Tonya's barn. He added electricity and lighting.

He built storage for all the wood we had left over from building the house, as well as the lumber he made with his "portable mill."

Next he began to work on the last bay in John & Tonya's garage--the bay designated to become a wood shop. He partitioned it off from the rest of the garage. He added more lights and outlets. Then he insulated it; plus he began to put up dry wall.

John and Frank built a lean-to on the side of the barn and the end of the garage.

John and Tonya decided they wanted him to finish their garage. After they moved their belongings to the near side of the garage, Frank began by adding lights, outlets, insulation, and dry wall to the far side.

Next came the taping and two coats of paint. At this point, one day as Tonya drove into the garage, Jenna remarked, "Oh! It's so beautiful!" Here it is before the paint job.

DOWN MONTH

FOR AUGUST

The house is finished. Nothing was pressing. Frank decided it was a good time to have bunion surgery on his right foot. This happened on the 27th of July. The first part of August he mostly sat in the recliner and watched ball games and movies. Because he didn't need to use his right foot, he did go down to the mailbox on the lawn tractor. Later in the month he worked on two of his Cub Cadet tractors. I kept on with the usual things--watching the girls, grubbing, meals, laundry, cleaning, etc.

We did go to see Daron and family at their new house near Green Castle. It is a nice looking ranch house on about an acre of land in the country. They have an eat-in country kitchen, living room, bath, and three bedrooms on the main floor. There is also a breezeway between the house and the garage, which is nice-sized. Both front and back entrances are located there. It is the full width of the house and maybe eight to ten feet wide.

The basement is finished. It has a laundry room, bathroom, extra bedroom, and a big main room with a free-standing, wood fireplace. They have put all the boys toys in this room, which works out nicely. It has a smaller space beside the stairs, where I think the office will be placed.

The house is a nice distance from the road, and has a front porch. It has bricks part way up the front. There is a big wooden deck in the back with a nice back yard and an apple tree. Denise has plans for a garden and more fruit trees next year.

We exchanged Cub Cadets because Daron's wasn't running. We met their new dog, Shadow, a black pit bull, whom they rescued. Christopher lost his very first tooth while we were there.

From there we went on out to Ephrata and Litiz to see Dad, other family, and friends. We stopped in at Daron's on our way home. We celebrated our anniversaries--#14 for them and#46 for us--by going out to eat.

Once home, Frank again worked on Cub Cadets--mostly Daron's. I had been having pain in my right knee, which led to orthoscopy for arthritis clean-up and a torn ligament. Then, I, too, was mostly sitting, watching movies with Frank when he took breaks, reading, and doing paper work.

August was not exciting, but the activities were necessary.

IT IS FINISHED!

FOR JULY

We have had what we call "spaghetti wires" around here for months. They are connected to the exploration of gas in the Marcellus Shale. They had taken them up once, but they put them back down. When they took them up this time, I talked with one of the workers. He gave me a phone number. They were to have given us one when the wires were installed, so we could call if/when we needed to mow, etc. They dropped bundles of sensors and other materials by helicopter. People would come on foot and string the wires according to grids, through the woods, lawns, across roads and driveways. Since we had no way of contact, when we did mow, the wires inadvertently were cut in several different places. The telephone number was useful for the removal of the last couple packages of materials, however.

We are displaying more clocks. Frank fixed my Humming Bird and Uncle Dan's Swinging Girl clocks. We also needed a clock in the bathroom. Of course, it had to agree with our theme in there. I think we now have 25 clocks around the house, plus eight on things from the weather station to the computer to the microwave, one in the basement, and two in the garage!

I keep the girls a couple times a week while Tonya works. After John's mother died, we kept Kali, their dog, while they went to the memorial service. They left after work on a day I had the girls, and Tonya dropped off Kali's things when she left for work that morning. This is the way I watched the girls that day! Actually, the girls love to play in Kali's cage.

Frank took out the fireplace and put the stones on the wall behind it. We have both man-made stones and some I've collected from here and there over the years. Do you like it?

With that project completed, our house is officially finished!!

FOR JUNE

JULY, 11, 2011

These are pictures of our "park." The first is looking toward our Poplar Ridge Lane. The second is toward the meadow. The last is in the middle. My row of trees and ornamental grass is just in front of the woods.

I have been weeding. The first picture shows my row of bushes and flowers to the south of the house by the meadow. The second picture shows about 10 feet of it mostly completed.

Frank moved our shed farther back from the house to be even with his row of bushes. He then rebuilt the floor and fixed the leaks in the roof. The second picture shows his leveling of the ground before he moved it.

We wanted to add a couple safety features, and Mom's coming put them on the front burner. Frank installed safety bars in the shower. (The front one is not yellow. That is reflection from our canary walls.) The other is a hand rail for the couple steps up to the main floor--under the carport.

Frank painted our three outside doors. He painted the outside Forest Green. He tried to match the inside with the color of our walls.

Frank used the pile of large rocks left over from building the base for our lower driveway, to make a stone wall between our lower driveway and one of my flower beds.

Last week Frank and I drove down to Philippi, WV, to pick up two used fuel tanks. Frank took one of these to make an incinerator for our (both families) use. He set it out by the compost bins.

Frank needed to replace/fix the south west post under the deck. This led to the beginning of steps from the bottom by the basement up to the deck.