Outside work

LOOK WHAT I FOUND!

Me, Cosmo the Magnificent, and Delta... I was the one driving... were on our way to the Lake to take lunch to David and Jerry and I saw this fawn walking down the road! A truck had just passed along the road before me, so I bet it scared Momma Deer off and the baby was left standing alongside the road. I could hear it crying, and it could barely walk... but it knew enough to climb up off the road into taller grass where it laid down and held vewwwy vewwwy still.

"Shhh. No one sees me."

The fawn held so still I stopped the truck, closed the windows so my beasts would not escape, and ran up and to take some pictures.... and of course pet it.
It is just about Cosmo's size, her little noggin was just like his when I held it in my hand.

I made sure to keep my eyes peeled because I was afraid Momma Deer was going to sneak up behind me and kick my ass. Couldn't you just picture it? This big old doe chasing and kicking at me... yikes. How embarrassing!

I just took a few pictures and then left. I didn't want to stress it, or Momma Deer out too much. When I checked later it was gone, I am sure Momma Deer was watching me the whole time.

Jerry and David framed out the patio and with Bart and Khris Kennedy helping, they poured the cement.

Then the guys all went down the road and poured a sidewalk for Khris and Brenda. Our patio is a big patio and I think we are probably going to screen in that area so we can enjoy it without bugs... Oh, did I mention. Michigan has bugs. Apparently, this area does not have venomous spiders like we had at home, nor do they have rattlesnakes... but they have bugs.

Ahh.. if only they were this cute.

They are not cute... there are seasons of them. Now its sandflies and mosquitoes are starting.. then its mosquitoes and black flies (they bite), and then I think they die off around fall time. The little guys buzzing around now do not bite but they swarm around you... when I swallow a couple I leave the lake and go back to the house until the temperature changes a bit.

Maybe I will get some new duds... um... nah.

Oh, I found out what those big white flowers were in the woods. They are Trilliums... Trillium Grandiflorum to be more accurate. I guess they eventually turn a bit pink before they die. They are all over the place here in the big woods. Very pretty!

In on the ground floor

After what seemed like a lot of preparation, the floor slab of cement was poured. The truck was ordered a couple days ago and yesterday they showed up around 10:00 am to start the job. My froggy supervisor... who has followed me from house to house for years... watched over the operation.

Cement pouring is a lot of prep work, and then some hurry up and wait... mixed in with a do it right now kind of issues. Remember those cartoons where critters got their feet stuck in the cement? Well.. its not quite that fast but you do have to get stuff right before the mix starts to set. Anyway, I did not show up until the truck was there. The guys were standing around waiting... here is David and Dickie Bird

and here are Bart and Khris Kennedy

and then the truck arrived... right on time I might add.

I showed up on my scooter just in time to start snapping pictures as soon as the cement started to flow.

Here is David and Jerry and Dickie starting the floor.

That board is the edge of our back door! Not only is it great having Jerry there with all of his knowledge and experience, but its great having good neighbors and friends to help...
hired or not. A lot of stuff is done on trade and that is fine with us. David and Jerry will be helping Khris with a sidewalk in a couple days after we pour our patio area. David has been working so hard.
Here he is screeting or skreeting or whatever you call it. Smoothing out the cement. It is his birthday today (5/28) by the way... I gave him a nice card and baked him a cake. As far as my participation in the cement pouring and smoothing situation... I handed David a shovel and dropped a bunch of sand onto the wet cement.
Everyone just looked at me... geez...


Well anyway... David and Dickie cleaned off the equipment while Jerry and Bart Kennedy did finishing stuff. I am amazed by the trees in the background...
they have gone from sticks, to sticks with buds... to BLAMMO....
Next is the patio area. That will be poured on Thursday. We are just going to pour a cement slab for a couple of reasons. Cost, and strength under the deck as it will be supporting the deck upstairs and stability from the heaving of the freeze and melts of the snow. Its a good sized patio... and I will be planting around it. I dunno what yet.. it is all a part of my imaginary garden.

Memorial Day Weekend

Wow.. when I was getting my pics ready for the next entry I had not realized I had skipped a few days blogging. Been kinda busy. We fixed the plumbing issues that the plumbing inspector had issues with. He preferred white pipe over black apparently and he also liked the 2" over 1 1/2" pipe. Oh well.. gotta get it right or it will not get approved. So that was taken care of and now David and Jerry are prepping the floor .. again... for the next cement pour.

I took a picture from the lake looking back at the house. We moved the 'access' path/road from one side to the other. You can see it in this photo. I will be able to ride my scooter down there and in a pinch if we need to we can get the backhoe down that road. It runs along side the house. Its going to run along the patio and now, before we finalize the landscaping ideas I am trying to decide what to do with that slope. We will have a patio but then should I terrace it slightly? Or leave it as a slight slope. Hmmm.. I am leaning towards terracing it.

More usable garden space that way. But how... sigh.

The guys and dogs have been fishing, of course, and I have been taking pictures.
That one of the sunset is un-retouched in any way. I am having a hard time picking how to display these photos on the blog.. be patient with me.

I have also been riding with the dogs, and learning how to use the riding mower in Jerry and Karen's backyard. I behaved myself, but if it had been my yard I would have cut all kinds of designs and crop circles in the grass. The riding mower was really actually a lot of fun.. very zen-like. I contemplated many things including writing children stories about Cosmo the Magnificent as I watched him try to follow me around on the mower wanting a ride... I thought about the fantastic adventures he could participate in! But then realized someone already wrote Wishbone stories.

Curses foiled again!


Oh geez.. speaking of riding with the dogs, I almost forgot... Look what I got!

The beasts love it... precious cargo! Check out this next picture! Happiness is... with Momma on on the front of the scooter! He LOVES it. When I start it up, here comes Cosmo the Magnificent wanting me to put him in his box so he can ride along.

He was BORN TO BE WILD!

Today Ruben and Lonnie came by and wanted to know if I wanted to go and get some wild leeks... I jumped on that chance! I took my deadly looking garden knife... (which is fabulous by the way and you can get at Amazon along with a sheath. It makes me feel like Xena

well it would if I could figure out how to hook it across my back.)

Uhhh.... I digress.

Anyway, I got me some wild leeks! Or ramps depending on where you live. They are apparently totally edible, and they are oniony-garlicy flavored, I chopped some up and tossed them in the chili beans I am making tonight. There are a bunch growing wild around here so guess what I am going to be doing! I think I might try to get some started in a section of our forest.. it would be great to have a wild bunch coming up and not have to wander too far to get them.

Yesterday which was Saturday we went on a long 4 wheeler ride. It was great! I like the longer rides. We passed by several lakes... Lake Linda, Estes, Irish, etc.

I saw some cool wildflowers along the way. First big white ones, they look almost like dogwood flowers, and then the other much smaller but numerous on the forest floor.

I took pictures of all these little lakes but .. to be honest they all look alike in photos. They all are beautiful. Tough to beat the big lake though.

Here is a glimpse of Lake Superior through some pines.
I took it the other day when we went up along the shore past L'Anse.

Anyway, we rode a bunch of backroads and ended up in Kenton wanting to get an ice cream cone. What we did not realize is that the store in Kenton was having their annual cookout and feeding whoever showed up. So.. we got some bar-b-que chicken and ice cream cones. Quite a treat! and no.. they were not charging anything for the chicken. It is just a cookout they do for their customers every Memorial Day. People brought dishes to share so everyone can enjoy.

Pretty Nice Huh?

First signs

Surprise! Yayyy! I keep finding daffodils and alliums that I planted last year. They are popping up here and there in surprising places. How fun! I was trying to get a picture of a bunch of them in a path down towards the lake but Cosmo the Magnificent felt he needed to be in the picture. Giant Cosmo. Anyway... then I shooed him off and got the next picture and added handy dandy arrows so you can see where the flowers are coming up. :)

*Remember you can click on any of these pictures and a bigger one will open for you... just hit back to return to the blog. *

Only the leaves of the aliums are up, the daffodils have come first as they seem to be the first sign of spring around here... until I plant some crocuses anyway. Heh heh. Well, that is the first sign of spring and also the first signs of the house are coming up (foundation blocks) and the bones of my veggie garden. These chimney flues were part of a deconstruction site... I snagged them for the southeast corner of my garden for trailing plants. Remember this is a temporary garden so while the orange plastic is so VERY attractive in the landscape it is not a permanent fixture.
It seems so very obtrusive and as you may be able to see I am near the lake but when you look from the house where the patio is going to be... it is not really in the way at all. While I was "planting" the chimney flues (however you spell it) my little friends were busy at my feet. As you can see Delta has grown enough to have a bit of an unfair advantage over Cosmo the Magnificent when they are playing. Yes.. that is her mouth covering his entire head. When they run and play he 'knocks' her over and she rolls all dramatically and flails around. However, when he is done playing he gives her the evil eye or something and she is afraid to even walk near him. Ya know... my Dad said something to me about German Shepherds being quiet, and some hunters like their hunting dogs mixed with German Shepherds for that very reason depending on what they are hunting. That is turning out to be very true about her. When someone comes to Jerry's house Cosmo, Beau, and Chuck all get to barking and run towards the door from wherever they are in the house... however she is silent. I can be sitting at the computer downstairs and the only reason I know she got up and out of her bed to go see who is at the door is that I hear her feet padding on the carpet. She runs along with her head down low, ears up and alert, and slips upstairs to see whats going on. Good girl.

I had been getting water and loon poo from the lake to put in my garden soil and I noticed right under the water a layer of leaves, waiting to decay. It was so pretty and clear I took some pictures.

I did not notice at first that someone was watching me. Can you see him there?

Another sign of spring! Geez its about time, its only friggen Memorial Day... well almost. Oh and for the last pic of the day.. along with the Maples everywhere there are a lot of Birch trees and Pople trees. Pople look a hell of a lot like birch trees to me except the bark is not as papery. Anyway... it turns out when a birch dies it rots from the inside out! If you are going to use a birch for firewood you have to split it before you store it or it simply decays and leaves the 'paper'. You can be walking through the woods and see what you think is a nice piece of birch laying on the ground and go to pick it up and ... all you get is the bark paper. I have been told that Pople does not do that.

Anyway, here is a birch that rotted from the inside after it died... hmm.. interesting.