Trees...

Yeah, I know, I'm supposed to be cleaning out the retractable, cleaning the sewing room and embroidering. And here I am blogging again. I swear, I'll do at least two of those things today, even though it's almost noon. LOL!

This is Robbie. He's a very sweet guy. He's the tow truck driver we use when we buy cars for our Australian friend. Robbie is important to this story.

This is Robbie's business partner. She goes everywhere he does and is soft, gentle and loves to be stroked.

A few weeks back, D's clutch went out on the truck. We called Robbie to come and tow it home for us because he has a nice big tow truck. Now remember the nice big tow truck phrase and it coming up our driveway and going down with our big truck on top without a lick of trouble.

Now part two of the story. A day or so following Robbie bringing our truck on his tow truck up the driveway, D was under the portico working on repairing his clutch. He kept hearing loud exploding noises and found a huge J.B.Hunt truck trying to make a u-turn in the circle, without being noticed.

D went to investigate and started yelling at the guy. What D was hearing was the branches exploding off our trees as the idiot came up the driveway.

If you look carefully you can see limbs hanging off the trees further down. This is the first tree on the right as you go down the driveway. You'll notice a large portion of it is laying across the brick light pillar.

Look carefully and you'll see the light fixture among the branches. I was amazed when D moved the branches off, the light was not only unbroken but the bricks were also okay.

This shows where two large limbs snapped and partially snapped off the tree.

These are the trees just past the light pillars. The damage goes all the way to the base of the driveway.

Apparently the fool driving the truck wasn't smart enough to figure, "Duh, if I don't fit down here and I'm destroying trees on this flat section, maybe I won't fit at the top either." He was definitely not a brain surgeon.

Anyway, when D saw this guy trying to make a u-turn in the circle he investigated, saw the damage and started yelling at the guy. The driver just kept saying, "Call J.B. Hunt, call J.B. Hunt!" Which of course gave D the impression this wasn't the first time this guy has destroyed property.

Ya ready for the best part? He was at the wrong address. Yep, Einstein was delivering a washer and dryer to our neighbors. Apparently he failed to notice the 3 foot yellow sign part way up the driveway that has our name, address and an arrow in bold black paint on it.

D contacted our neighbor got the delivery information and has been in contact with J. B. Hunt. He said at this point he wants them to pay for Davy Tree to come and inspect the trees. If they suggest making some trims here and there then D will do them. If they say some of the trees won't make it through the winter and will go into shock because of the damage, then we will expect J. B. Hunt to replace them with full sized trees. Considering these threes are over 25 years old, it's the least they can do.

We aren't even dealing with the gash the boob put in the aggregate driveway, bricks he broke off lining the circle or the juniper bush he ripped limbs off of.

I'm telling ya, common sense is a dying thing when it comes to those who practice walking upright these days.

Fall is in the air....

Fall is upon us and it's been raining pine needles the past few days. It looks like brown snow.

They blanket everything from the patio furniture, shrubs, ground and roof.

The rain gutters are filled with them. Guess that's on the list to clean out before the rain starts.

It's Saturday so time to go work on the deck next door. First thing on my list is to grab my favorite cup and fill it with ice water. This cup goes in the freezer and has a gel that keeps everything cold for awhile.

What I don't like about it is, after awhile my water tastes like plastic. I hate that and I can't believe it's really good for me if it leaches into my water.

D's been busy on the deck this week. He's got the outside framing done boxing in everything that was done the previous week.

I spent awhile today putting screws in specific spots for extra strength.

This is the 3rd and last side of the deck D ripped out last week. It's connected to the front of their house. There were only a few support uprights holding this thing in the air and they were pretty rotten.

Remember the rickety steps from a few posts back? This is what D ripped apart.

This will be an interesting corner. I don't know if D is going to angle it or just make it a square corner. I'm not going to ask him, I'd rather be surprised.

This is a bit out of order but it shows the frame we worked on week before last (on the right) and the new outside wall D added last week (on the left) and how he pulled them together.

I bought this radio for D years ago. It's been a real trooper. He's dropped it more times than I can count and it's even spent quite a bit of time in the rain. I think it might be on its last leg though. I couldn't get it to work today.

I find that funny since D showed me yesterday it has a built in battery charger in the back. He just figured out it will charge two sizes of his batteries. It took how many years to figure that out? Hahahahaha! I think Santa might have to buy a new one of these this year.

Okay, what is it? Come on...it's my homework from next door for the day.

Give up, they're patterns. D. wants to add steel support brackets to some of the beams of the outside wall he created last week. Each one is a bit different so he had me make custom patterns so he can cut the brackets and install them next week.

Another case of overbuilding from my dear husband.

Well, that's it for today. I'm just shooting the breeze waiting for D to come home so I can make some scalloped potatoes. I have the meat, cheese, onions but not the potatoes. Minor detail.

What can I say, the cool air blowing put me in the mood for oven baked food tonight.

Yawn......it's Tuesday

Sunday we went to the kids to put up the crib and came home to a larger swarm of ants. This has been going on for over a month now. Where's the darn queen?

I think it's time to figure out how to get D up in the attic to spray. They aren't coming from outside. I've sprayed the foundation around the house twice and D once. There are no trails anywhere. These little creeps are living in the rafters. Oye vey.

I came home last night and there were even more. Talk about breeding like crazy. I do like the fact that if they leave this corner I kill them by spraying 409 on the kitchen counter. It snuffs them out instantly.

When I was changing to go to the kids I found this on my leg. It's huge and I haven't a clue where or when I got it. Usually I'll bump myself and then think I'll remember what I did later. Not this time. It just appeared by magic. I think it looks a bit like South America. LOL!

Well, it's obnoxious grandma time. We put the crib up Sunday. D and S were supposed to do it. As you can see S handles an awkward box pretty well.

While D takes a minute to conference with the help on how to attack the project. I'm sure Cole had tons of ideas for D.

Let's see....box says, 'do not use knife to cut open box'. Explains why D is using scissors. LOL!

Confused? Hahahahahaha! How can one crib have so many parts?

Once a Manager always a Manager. Let the young tackle the grunt work while you read the directions.

The important keeper of the small parts. She doled them out perfectly except I want to know why we had two parts left over. Hmmmmmm.....

Now the mother of the child suggested doing this in the bedroom because the crib won't fit through the door and hall once assembled. The father of the child ignored her......for awhile.

Note the crib has been moved to the bedroom for assembly. I love it when the women are right.

Okay, okay...it was supposed to be a guy project but the Irish in me just wouldn't butt out. It turned out to be a competition between mom and son on who could assemble their corners fastest. I think it was a wash.

Just a few finishing touches and walla! A crib for one.

S stumbled on this crib set by accident at Ross. It matches the room perfectly!

Ya think they're gonna be proud parents?

Some of the animals S made and put on the wall. They're much cuter in person.

Okay, I'm going to work now so you guys won't have to deal with anymore baby stuff this posting. I'm leaving now....watch me leave....bye.....I'm moving....really I am.....

Friday, Saturday & Sunday....

They were making fun of me Friday at work because I was telling them how beautiful the sunrise was that morning.

Just before 6:00 I looked outside and saw this. Is it beautiful or what? At 5:30 it was pitch dark, just before 6 Mother Nature put on a show.

The moon was showing through the clouds. It was a quarter moon and just as bright as can be. It was so pretty I didn't feel quite so foolish running from the front to the backyard in my nightgown snapping pictures.

The top picture of the moon was taken in the backyard. By the time I'd moved to the front, the sky had lightened this much. It just teaches you to grab the camera right away because Mother Nature moves fast and in the blink of an eye.

Speaking of eye, Rene at work said the only thing he wants to see at that time in the morning is the inside of his eyelids. LOL! I'm thinking I won't be seeing him on any early morning sightseeing tours.

I was going to embroider all day Saturday but woke up to more ants. Technically they never went away. We just get new hoards of them. They thin out and then a new swarm comes through. I'd think by now, we'd have poisoned the queen but it looks like she's still alive and kicking in the attic somewhere.

If D didn't have a car blocking access to the attic, I'd send his tushie up there to spray. Since the car is on blocks, there's no way we can move it. Welcome to my world. sigh.....

I decided Saturday I wanted the house in that, "Companies coming!" mode. You know where everything is clean and pretty? So....I didn't embroider. Instead I spent all day cleaning, cleaning and then cleaning some more.

The house is beautiful and it feels good to know, I don't need company to come over in order get it in that condition. I was exhausted last night but so happy to look around at everything shiny, clean and polished.

When I was bleaching the kitchen sink, something caught my eye. I ran to get my camera and this is what I shot. See the tail?

This is the coyote that's been visiting the yard the past couple of months. When he first showed up he was very skinny and sickly looking. He's apparently been doing a terrific job keeping the rodent population under control.

He usually wanders through the hill in the morning. This was around 1:30 so I was surprised to see him.

He's the size of a large german shepherd, very shy and now very healthy. Only the bear is let out alone to go potty and now I have to keep an eye on her. The odds of this guy bothering her are pretty slim but stranger things have been known to happen.

It was nice to wake up this morning to a clean house. I got dressed, made the bed and my work was done. I grabbed a bunch of strawberries and a glass of milk for breakfast, then sat down and finished a book on my kindle.

I thought I'd catch up my blog before heading to my son's house. D will meet us there after work today and we'll put up the crib we bought for the baby. Now that's going to be a fun afternoon!

Another Saturday Gone....

Here's a little history with our neighbors. Years ago they used to brew beer. They were very serious and very good at it. They have this 'guest house' that had 3 rooms in it. They wanted us to help turn the kitchen and bath into one large room tiled from floor to ceiling and add a huge fan and industrial sink so they can brew their beer.

It's locked up so I had to take pictures through the sliding glass door. But here's the tile job D and I did for them on the walls. The pictures for the floor just wouldn't turn out but it's the same tile with them alternating light and dark for a checkered pattern. On one end is a large drain.

D had to rewire the entire thing which of course I find that part boring and just not in my realm of interest. This room is about the same shape and size of Shannon's kitchen. There's a larger 'living room' in front.

This is why when they wanted their deck rebuilt, they came to D.

Last weekend we ended up with this. Just turning the corner to the second side of the deck.

Saturday, when I got there, I was amazed how much D had gotten done. He leaves mundane chores for me to do.

See that big beam sticking out? Well there are three of them.

Here I am straddling one of them installing additional big bolts. It's too high up so I had to sit on it with my legs dangling. That makes it hard to get leverage because I have nothing to brace myself against.

I love this drill! It has so much torque, it'll send me spinning in circles if I don't use it at low speed. Even then, it could very easily snap my wrist. It's fun but I highly respect its power.

So my question is, 'How in the world did D get those beams up there and installed all by himself'. I asked him and he just smiled. So I think that means, "Honey, you don't want to know".

D wants to make sure this deck doesn't fall apart like the other one. Talk about sistering boards together! Does my husband over build or what?

I can honestly say, when he makes something, it takes an act of God to blow it apart. LOL! Well that's not completely true because the winds up here have blown our neighbor's gazebos and arbors apart and ours are still standing.

Cudos to you sweetie!