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The wheel barrow dumping of fill continues…
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With an extremely unsecured ramp of random wood pieces.
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And as you can see,
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Hedges and rhododendron have been butchered to allow access.
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Sigh.
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The fill is heavy, the boards are narrow.
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And the noise ?
Like fingernails on a chalkboard all day long.
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😳
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It’s as easy as answering a question.
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Thinking about my answer to this question, I realize I’ve lead a charmed life.
My childhood was innocent and idyllic with two loving and supportive parents.
My adolescence was a little wild, but I always knew right from wrong and when too much was too much.
My married life started at age 20 and continues 40 years later, well loved and well cared for.
I have never been to war, been assaulted or been in a bad car accident. I have never had serious physical health issues and my mental state is stable. (Though some might disagree)
Mortal danger?
The closest I can come is being stuck in river mud up to my chest when I was 10 years old. I crossed what I thought was a dry creek bed when my mother wasn’t looking and got seriously stuck. Every time I tried to move I sunk further down and my mother… ever useless in a crisis… just screamed hysterically from the bank. Thankfully some local college guys came to my rescue with picnic blankets tied together like rope. I remember being freaked out, not to mention filthy… but mortal danger might be stretching it.
Of course my husband drives like a raped ape and some say I take my life in my hands every time I get in his car… so there is that.
How about you?
How close have you come to mortal danger.
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My first baby chucker count was off by two. There are five baby chuckers and my flower gardens are doomed.
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I try to make friends by sitting on the barn porch and giving them apples.
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I do this so they’ll leave my carefully tended blooms alone.
Sometimes it works, other times I’m left with a bed of bare twigs.
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It seems there’s always one brave little fella in every litter… the one who edges closer and checks me out more thoroughly.
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Yes, they munch my flowers.
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But damn, they’re cute.
❤️
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My husband had 4 yards of pea gravel delivered. And because he didn’t want to ruin the lawn or the new driveway, it was dropped at the outer reaches of our property.
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Good for the lawn, but bad for his back.
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He built a little ramp.
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And proceeded to haul small loads back and forth…
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All day long.
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Dumping them under the torn off porch…
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To try and level things out.
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It may not look like a long way, but when you’re his age? Trust me, it feels like a mile.
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Wheelbarrow after wheelbarrow.
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Dumped and spread.
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It’s hard to tell in the pictures but the difference in land height from right to left is a foot.
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Here, left to right.
And filling in 12 inches of a 30 foot span?
Is more than a one day job.
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I found a few more of these adorable drawings..
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So you know I have to share.
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These dogs have the most beautifully expressive faces.
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I just melt.
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And smile…
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💕
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The husband and I planted three flowering cherry trees last year.
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Two of them were eaten and absolutely destroyed by deer over the winter.
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This one, planted closer to our house survived… even if it is looking a little spindly.
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🥴
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We had our first baby woodchuck sighting of the season the other day.
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Momma gives birth under the Man Cave/Barn Mahal every year and this summer it looks like three.
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They really are adorable.
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Scampering around trying to convince mom to share her apples.
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I know my flower gardens will suffer.
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But damn, they’re cute.
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😊
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Because nothing is ever simple at Casa River.
Tear down of the front porch is complete…
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And this is the composite decking color I chose.
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It’s called Rocky Harbor, clay toned with a little grey. I thought this would be the next step in the replacement process but my husband had other ideas.
See the wall behind the porch with 3 windows and a door?
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Husband will have to remove some of the lower siding and since he can’t find an exact color match he decided he wants to change it….
So he came home with this.
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A catalog for fake stone siding. Easy to install and lightweight…
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It gives the look of stone without the hassle or high price.
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He chose the Santa Fe color, which admittedly looked pretty good… and brought home a sample.
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Which looked anything but good in real life.
Cheap, plastic-y and not convincing anyone it was stone… it looked like the skirting they put under trailers in the 70’s.
And since my motto is if you’re going to do something you might as well do it right….
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I took my husband to the store to look at actual stone. He wasn’t thrilled as it’s a lot more expensive and much harder to work with…. but since it was his idea to replace the old siding (instead of carefully removing it and putting it back on) he couldn’t really argue.
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I brought these two samples home.
There are going to be issues. Three windows and a door to cut around. Depth discrepancies. And the conundrum of how to marry corners- one edge stone and one edge vinyl siding.
No one seems to be able to answer our questions but the lumber store is having a trade show with the stone distributors soon, so we’ll attend and hopefully learn how to install stone properly.
Wish us luck.
I have a feeling we’ll need it.
🥴
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It’s been slow going but the tear down of our old front porch is fully underway.
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All the decking has been removed and even though the posts are not load bearing my husband propped up a temporary support .
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In his typical professional fashion.
Sigh.
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Sure.
That looks stable…
🥴
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Lots of rotted wood had to be removed because there was no j channel under the door, or under any of the porch siding.
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He’s trying to keep as much of the old frame as he can. Even if it is a wee bit crooked. Those cement posts are buried 3 feet down and there’s no way we’re moving them.
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Does my husband know what he’s doing?
Not really. Just enough to be dangerous.
That’s what makes it blog worthy.
🥺
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Because I’m here to add more uselessness to your life.
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We used to a family of crows in our backyard. They’d visit the bird feeders and eat seed that had fallen on the ground.
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Whew.
Now I’m twice as glad I made friends.
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Sheb Wooley was right!
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I really don’t care. And even if it can, that seems like an awful waste of time and money.
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Great. Something else to worry about…
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River's world..... 