Catching up

Spent most of the first weekend in November cutting, splitting

and stacking wood. Bill measuring to find out how much we have in.

A little over 5 cords in the shed, more outside and underneath

the barn. Thanks Mike for all your help.

Mike brought over the rototiller to turn under the garden.
Very sad :0(

Returning the tiller.

Garden in fall.

That Time of Year Again

Bill had a few cut trees to bring to the house so Russell let

him borrow his dump trailer.

He and Mike loaded it up and dumped it in the yard.

More than once.

Bill moved and stacked with the Bobcat.

This is my favorite part of Russ's trailer. Do people actually lie down

on the trailer frame with the dump body up ?!?

Manda and Cait learned to use the splitter.

I had to take pictures because this is so out of character.

Bill brought the wood to the splitter, they split it, I stacked it

in the shed. Moved right along.

Trimming out the windows

Mike came over Saturday to help with the window trim. He

set up his little woodshop on the patio.

While he measured and cut the wood Bill used the sawzall

to cut off the casing that stuck out into the room.

Mike showed Bill how to use the router for the edges of the windowsill.
They made it extra wide so I could put plants on it.



Measure twice, cut once.


Mike and Bill trying to get the reveals even.

Mike primed everything after they were put together. They are

beautiful. We are building some good mojo back into this

old house, one little step at a time.

This project has been a little (rather large actually) labor

of love. Everyone that's worked on it has been

someone close to us - not someone we hired. It makes a

difference.

Since the Rain Never Stops

Thinking we were going to have a great boating weekend

we went to Rowe with the idea that Sunday would

be the perfect day.

The overcast skies lead us to thinking about an indoor project

so we finished cleaning out the library and began working on the

physical cleanup of the ceiling and floor.

Bill and I took turns using the shop vac to take

off the big chunks of paint.

I have to tell you this wasn't a lot of fun.

Cait goes up on Tuesday and Wednesday to spend her
time with a paint scraper on a ladder. She'll have even less
fun, but she's willing.

Next a little floor clean up to last us til next spring
when the entire floor will come out and the floor
joists (and maybe a sill) will be replaced. A wide pine floor
will go in the place of this one.

Another Fun Filled Weekend

Paul's back, broken leg and all. The guys were relaxing after

a day of mowing the lawn.

Then it was off to the Shelburne Falls Bowling Alley for

Semanie bowling.

Last time until September.

A lot was done around the property over the weekend but

Paul was not as able as willing.

Bill strapped Paul and his walker in the garden wagon

and gave him a tour.

He used a rachet strap to tie down both Paul and his chair -

for safety's sake.

He used two tie downs for the walker. Hmmmm.

View of the perennial garden.

I've found stacking rocks to be mildly addictive.

I spent Sunday digging out the wall around the patio

and the beds.

Saturday morning I cut all the brush overhanging the driveway,

then weed wacked it on Sunday. Looks good.

The lilac was hurt bad this past winter with the ice. We cut

most of it down this weekend. It'll be fine, I can remember

cutting it to the ground on 5 or 6 other occassions.

The jack-in-a-pulpits survived their upheaval last fall and

I was thrilled to find 2 volunteers on the north end of the shed.

Another shot of the driveway cleanup.

Another angle of the perennial garden.

Close-up of the iris. This iris is one of my favorites.

The Adirondacks overlooking the back forty. This is the afternoon

cocktail spot.

One of our favorite views right now. Last year it was nothing

but trees. Veggie garden in the foreground.

Sophie zooming through the yard. She loves it here.

Weekend of Work

We worked our butts off this past weekend.  Bill worked on splitting

some of the wood cut along the bank.  Much discussion went into

where exactly we would be storing this wood since every

available building is full.

This was taken from the patio looking towards the back forty.

My garden, as it stands now, is to the right.  The poles

are for the Scarlet Runner Beans and Kentucky Wonders.

I mulched in between the beds to keep the weeds down.

Bill's wood pile and my tomatoes up against the garage.  They

liked it there so much last year I made the bed larger by

moving two huge flag iris.  Bill actually moved them

with the Bobcat.  I never could have dug those up by hand.

Another view of both projects with the Adirondacks in the background.

We sit there and admire what we've accomplished at the end of 

the day.

Another view of the garden.  It looks smaller in the pic than it

really is.  I dug 6 beds about 3  1/2 x 12'.  Have a much better

idea of what women of 1830 were going through.  Can't say that I

would seriously consider a return to an earlier time.

Ahhh, the smell of burning brush

Cathy and Joe arrived Saturday at about 9:30 AM ready to work.  The beginning was slow

going - the brush pile wouldn't light, the stuff we were trying to clear out was

completely tangled with grapevines, chainsaws needing to be sharpened.

Once Mike arrived the big trees began coming down.  The plan is to completely

clear down to the back pature (it's been done twice before).

Bill used the bobcat to move the wood to split for next winter.

Leave it to Mike to find a little greenhouse buried in the leaves.

There are ferns growing up into this bottle.

Bill moving more wood.

The photographs don't do justice to how steep this bank is - the trek to the

fire got a little old after 50 trips or so.

You can see some of the broken trees that have to still come down - maybe today or

next weekend.

It'll be a great view to Adams Mtn. once done.  We won't have to go to the beach for fireworks,

just onto the patio.

All in all everyone was a great help!  We thank Cathy, Joe and Mike for helping

us to make some headway on a really big cleanup!