Burn, burn, burn

 
In July, we started loading up blackberry canes to burn. Beth was here for that too, and wanted to see all of our hard work burn up. 

This was July, everything is much greener now.

As the months passed we added more and more to the pile. Then started a second pile. Due to the hot dry summer, the county expanded the burn ban. Thankfully it was lifted last week, before Beth had to go home. And before the pile got too big.

During our prepurchase inspection, we saw this scary pinata in the attic.  Then the previous owners left it in the shop. John wanted to take it to the dump, but I convinced him we needed to save it. And dispose of it properly - on the burn pile.  He didn't need much convincing.

We did what any reasonable person would do. We stuffed the pinata with sawdust and diesel.

Then had Odin pose for scale.

She took a minute to catch.

Then burned hot and fast

Fun times

We were joined by Beth for an extended visit at the beginning of the month. We were able to do many great things.

Beth and I built a manure shed. Then moved mountains of poop!

Some friends took us out on their boat.

We went crabbing too!

Tree trimming with John (this is by the cabana / pump house - the deck that we removed is on the other side.)

We also did dinners with friends, napping at the park (okay that was just me), stacking landscaping blocks, stacking lumber, and some general tom foolery.

Pictures from things

Here are some of the other early fall things that have happened.

New front door!

(old front door)

I did a little horsing around

Freki found an old hammer, decided it was a chew toy.

Did you know that Hope Depot has pet carts?

Decks

For the past month. I have done a great deal of work on decks around here. We fixed one, and then took another out.

The first project was replacing a few rotten boards in the deck off our our room. Then painting it with a deck specific paint.  As projects go, it was pretty quick and very cheap.

The door you see is to the master bathroom. The red chair is sitting on the hot tub pad. We have plans to get a hot tub, but it may be a little while.

Last week we removed the deck off of the cabana. I only call it that because the previous previous owners had an above ground pool, and the deck surrounded part of it. The building holds our well equipment and food preservation stuff.

I'm sure it looked great with a pool there. It looked pretty silly with a random herb garden gone wild .

We were able to save most of the decking boards. The support structure was a rotted mess. I am surprised it held the top in place. That all went to the dump, in our heaviest load yet, 1650 pounds.

Beth was here visiting - she and I took down the deck while John was away. More on her visit later.

There is still some work to be done, but we are much closer now.

Blood Moon

For once we had great viewing for a celestial event here! We enjoyed the blood moon eclipse with some friends on Sunday evening. Viewing for us was early, about 8pm, so the kiddos got to see most of it too.