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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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Never let it be said my husband doesn’t keep life interesting.
The other day was picture perfect. Clear skies, bright sunshine and fabulously moderate temperatures in the low 70’s. The kind of day that lends itself to outdoor adventures.
So when my spouse told me to get dressed because we were taking a ride up the coast, I was thrilled.
But I should have known better.
Oh, we drove up the coast…
But not to a scenic coastal village.
No…
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My husband took me to the dump.
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But not just any dump.. the huge, drive your truck in and throw absolutely anything under the sun away dump… which for him consisted of the old front porch he’d just torn down.
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Lucky me.
The place recently implemented a hard hat rule so I had to stay in the truck and missed being narrowly hit by flying trash.
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As you’re dumping, they’re pushing the refuse back with bulldozers … which can get a little hairy.
And oh…
Did I mention the smell?
Let’s just say it wasn’t the beach rose and crisp ocean air I was expecting.
😳
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Lilacs.
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From a scent perspective they’re hard to beat.
We have two giant bushes on the edge of our property that were planted by the original owners in the mid seventies.
One is dark purple.
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One is white.
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So of course my favorite color is the pale lavender that we didn’t have.
But my girlfriend did and about ten years ago she gave me some of hers.
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That’s it in the foreground next to our old ones.
Alive, but not in any hurry to grow.
At this rate I’ll be dead before it blooms…
🥴
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Be careful when you open our front door.
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That first step is a killer.
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Tear down continues and as you can see, my husband is thrilled I’m photographing the process.
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There’s so much more rotted wood than he originally thought …
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Which means more work, not to mention money.
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Thankfully I’m the one who wanted to wait for the contractor to do this job, so he can’t blame me.
😉
Did I mention there were rocks?
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So many rocks underfoot, though I have no idea why. If it was to help with drainage they failed miserably as all the soil flows down from the lawn towards the house.
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It’s been a long time coming but my favorite apple tree by the road is in full bloom.
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Technically it’s a weird variety of crabapple that doesn’t fruit.
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But who needs bitter fruit when you have this preponderance of fragrant blooms?
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The scent is pure heaven.
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But be careful sniffing..
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The bees love it as well.
🐝
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River's world..... 