Day 3 - more deck building progress

Well day three felt like we slowed down a bit, lifting all that wood, moving it from point A (top of driveway) down to point B (Deck area) and hammering, sawing, cutting, drilling, measuring, leveling, holding, thinking, re-thinking and pulling all those little trees and bushes and weeds takes alot of energy. We didn't exactly make it to where we wanted to be, but we got close. We still need to block around the tree and block the first row joist boards.

Something interesting happened after we stopped working while we took a rest in the gazebo before putting everything away. During the day, we had yet another run to Lowe's (you never have everything you need, no matter how much you prepare) well I decided to buy a fuchsia plant they had them there in a 10 inch pot for only $10. A great price from all the other garden stores I'd seen, I've seen them as high as $30 for a 12 inch pot. But going back to sitting and resting in our gazebo, I had put that fuchsia on a pillar stand in the area where I prepared for planting and while we were sitting there two hummingbirds came to the flowers and started feeding out of them. I was so happy they found it so fast. But here is the great part to the story, all the sudden a hummingbird came flying straight into the screen of the side of the gazebo. It got stuck and fluttered three times trying to get out. I thought his toes nails had gotten stuck in the screen, but Clayton was sitting closer and it was actually his beak that got stuck in the screen; poor little guy, I was just about ready to get up and help release him when he finally got out on his own. Of course he did not appear to be hurt, much softer to fly into a screen than into a window like alot of birds do here. But it certainly was an interesting thing to witness!

This picture above shows the area I pulled all the trees, bushes and weeds from, only leaving a few tiny pines, and some wild flowers and you can't see them, but I even left a few small (tiny even) oak trees.

Deck Progress - Day 2

We got quite a bit done today, considering we had to stop and make two Lowe's runs to get stuff we needed and didn't have. Well one trip was first thing in the morning before we started, but Oh and on the way to Lowe's the second trip, we saw a Black Bear! So cool to see it. It was not far from the road, and I did have my camera, but only had  my 55MM lens. So here is a picture of it but it's not very close.

Then here is our deck progress for the day and it was a perfect day today; Not windy and the temp just about 70.  The size of this deck is approximately 35 feet by just under 15 feet wide. We sort of went a bit big, but it really has to be big since the boccie ball court is so long. We are happy with our progress, however i was hoping to get a little further, but we are still on track for finishing the under structure by tomorrow. Maybe if we are lucky we will even get a few deck boards down. 

Then I got sidetracked for a moment and saw this spider, Clayton needed me too, but I made him wait. I just had to get a picture of this thing. I have no idea what kind of spider this is, but I sure am glad I didn't see him on me, I would have freaked. Look how scary he can make himself when he feels threatened. With a Butt like that; I will most definitely only get as close as this to take a picture.

the Deck Project has begun

Today, Friday May 14, we started building our deck next to our boccie ball court. And here are the pictures to show our progress so far. Tonight I'll probably post again of our progess from day two.

These last three however are from last weekend when we dug the dirt up and tossed in some peat moss to make a little flower garden bed. I'm not sure what will end up here yet, but I'm sure soon I will think of something; and if Idon't then I think it will just plant a hodgepodge of plants just to get some color here. Then there is the area to the right that still needs attention...but it's coming along and my goal is to keep is as low maintenance as possible.

My Bleeding Heart and Snow

This morning when I went out with Sparky for our walk I noticed our neighbors flowers, one of them was this bleeding hearts plant and I thought to myself, I have to go back later and take a picture. These flowers are so pretty, so perfectly shaped like a heart, and it really looks like it's bleeding and dripping. So incredible! Then this evening shortly after 7PM it started to snow. It had been raining all day and well if this snow keeps up all night long we may have a foot of snow on the ground in the morning.  Stay tuned for mornings outcome.

While I was out taking these photo's Clayton was in the kitchen making us dinner, yummy Chile. It was delicious. Then I helped get a fire started, we haven't had a fire in like two months and just thought well hey, it's snowing so we should start a fire....sounded so nice...so we did. And I enjoyed it while I ate my yummy chili and sipped some wonderful wine.

Then just shortly after 9PM, I decided to see how much snow had fallen. Well so far it looks like 2-3 inches. I keep thinking that if it continues at this rate, we will be snowed in tomorrow morning. We will have to dig out the snow blower; it will be just like that morning in December (I think Dec 9th when we had the blizzard and it dumped just over a foot). Well we'll see....I'll update in the morning. Maybe take another progress picture though before heading to bed....wow, this is great. It's Friday night, don't have to work tomorrow and I may have the chance to build my first snowman in Wisconsin in May. How great is that. On the down side, it is a heavy snow, trees are being weighted down and branches are breaking. There could be a lot of damage in the morning as well. While I took these pictures that follow I heard branches breaking.......

Thunder and Lightening and the RainBow Which Came After

This evening we had a really exciting storm blow in and out with an hour. I went outside to stand it the rain and watched up in the sky as the lightening flashed all over. The thunder was loud and rolled on and on as more flashes lite the sky; the thunder still rolled. I just love that! So soon after it passed the sun peaked. I thought it would be a perfect time to go see if there were any rainbows. There was one very large rainbow which was disconnected and all that was visible was the very left side and the very right side. Below are two pictures, one of each side. While not taken at the same spot in the road, they were taking a mile or so apart. Had it been connected....WOW that would have been incredible! I'm now looking foward to the next strom.

An Otter Popped Up!

What a surprise it was to see this little guy come along. I had been driving along a nice little road which followed the lakes shore. As I drove past I couldn’t help notice the reflection of the birch trees in the still mirror like water in a small opening through a field. So I parked the car and walked through the grassy field to the shores edge. I only had zoom lens and didn't have a wide angel, but I decided to take four pictures of the scene and would later stitch them together. (Noting to myself to go back with my wide angle lens cuz it really is quite pretty) While I was there I was also looking around for wild life, and at first I didn't notice anything, not even birds, no duck, geese nada. Then all the sudden I looked up, and saw the cardinal in the tree above me. He hopped about on the braches as he checked me out, and then flew across the water to the little island right across from me. Then I noticed the female; they landed on a fallen log and looked so pretty together. Just a bit too far for a photo though. I stood there and just watched...I slowly started to notice a few other birds flying around but nothing that came close enough to capture. It was right as I was getting ready to go that I saw it. I saw a head moving through the water, at first I thought it was a beaver, it was a ways away, but was coming in my direction and swimming along the shores edge. I squatted to get low to the water and waited. He didn't see me, until the moment I took the picture. He heard my camera as I snapped the photo. I took him by surprise too. He stopped right there in front of me and popped his head up to look at me more closely, then sort of circled around and went on his way....soon after, so did I.

If Only . . . . .

If only that tree was not in the way! If only the bird spotted a fish on my side of the tree...If only I could catch fish this easily...If only I had brought my tripod...If only I had set my shutter speed faster....If only I could eat fish whole...ok well not really but man this could have been a nice series if only he was fishing the other direction. Darn Tree. This is by the way my very first image where I bird catches a fish; when I was panning him as he flew off the tree branch he was sitting on, I really thought he was going to go up; I was hoping to get a nice shot of him in flight...but to my delight, I got to see him hunting for his breakfast then got to watch as he swallowed it whole. Previous shots I captured him throwing something yellow up; liquid type stuff...sort of gross but interesting non the less...




But at least nothing was in the way of this Red Winged Black Bird as he flew towards me to land in the tree behind me.