Long Time No Blog!

It is just one of those times. You know, things get wrapped up in knots and you are swept into the currents of everyday life. Time slips by. Next thing you know it's been months and you've ignored the blog. Until today.

PROGRESS REPORT:

We have survived the idaho winter, the glaciers have receded and spring has sprung. The last snowfall was day before yesterday. It was 22 degrees this morning, but we were out this afternoon working in the yard in t-shirts. Glorious balmy breezes were blowing. It was time to continue the clean-up.

Since the snow has melted and the ground is dry we have gotten most of the shingle debris from the fall taken care of, but the rear of the house still has a pile left. We loaded the truck again with shingles (I think this is probably around ten loads at least, not to mention the load that our neighbors helped us take to the dump. If you ever choose to strip shingle off of your roof, for goodness' sake, GET A DUMPSTER TO SHOVE THEM INTO! Lessen learned.

Notice in this last shot the pile of cinder blocks? That is actually stabilizing our internet dish antenna. The hurricane force winds we get on a consistent basis were enough to loosen the pipe in the ground causing us to lose our connection, so I piled blocks around it and it has performed fine ever since. I chose the location for the dish so that it was out of the wind, but apparently mother nature had other plans.

The place is beginning to look like we actually care about our appearance. The front is fairly debris-free and flowers are springing out of the ground everywhere. Karren has begun a rock drip strip around the house to prevent mud from splattering the siding. We removed the gutters last fall before we put the new roof on. I think we'll leave them off. Do you really need gutters in Idaho? We'll find out.

What we need now is a mower. Badly. I had no idea we would have this much grass growth in the spring. Looks like we'll have to go into hock for a riding mower. A tractor is still way too far out of reach until I can pick up a better job. More on that later.

Here's a shot of the rear of the place with Old Tom mountain in the background. Notice the burn scar on the pasture. Morgan (our neighbor) and I did some burning to improve the pasture out back sothat he can graze it this year. It is foolish to own prime pasture but let it go fallow, so I offered to let him graze it with his horses and we will get the benefit of his expertise and labor to help us keep it in good shape.

The white box is the telescope trailer. The main building on the left is the barn. It needs a lot of work too, but it will have to wait its turn. As you can see we've got a few piles of brush to dispose of, but I will wait until I can get a machine to move them far enough down the pasture and away from the house. It would be good to wait for a wet day too. Fires can get out of control quickly here.

This weekend we should be able to finish the shingle clean-up and we may have a solution for the mowing figured out. Our wood pile is beginning to grow for next winter and we have lots of work to do before we will have enough wood. I've got to drop a couple of large fir trees at the end of the house that are too close, and they will provide quite a bit towards our goal.

See you next time!