It was a very busy week. Painting was begun, we began to move Becky to her new house, a new piece of furniture was assembled, and the catio received a major reduction. Here are the details.
As mentioned in my last post, the painting season began this past week. First up — painting the west end of the garage.
We painted as far up as could be comfortably reached from the ground. Pam did the detail painting around the edges and windows and I filled in the large areas. The next step will involve ladders and won’t go as quickly. This side of the garage is mainly only visible from the alley approach.
Another painting project belonged to Pam, as she spray-painted the top cover of the propane tank. This is a trial run, to determine what challenges painting the entire LP tank will present. Coverage isn’t perfect, but certainly improves the overall appearance.
The next few days are supposed to be rainy and cool so it will be a bit before we resume painting. There is a lot to do yet.
Pam had ordered a small piece of furniture, a rolling cart. Intended to fit under one of the library windows and provide a platform for Pam’s large birdhouse, it was one of those “some assembly required” units.
Unfortunately, we discovered the cart had been damaged. It appears the cart had been returned prior to shipment, as the exterior of the box showed no shipping damage. At any rate, a repair was attempted instead of returning the mostly-assembled unit.
The damage was with the inserts that hold the casters. Both of the struts that hold the casters had broken off the side boards. With some Gorilla wood glue, some clamps, and wood screws I repaired the struts.
The cart is now performing its intended duties in the library.
Another project was the disassembly of the catio tree surround. When we first moved to Elma with 5 outside cats, the catio was a worth-while addition for containing the relocated animals. Now that there are 2 regular cats, Ink and Cloudy Day, the surround itself is less utilitarian. After one of the young squirrels ventured into the surround (and had to be freed by removing part of the screening), Pam decided it was time to reduce the surround to a small entry / exit ramp.
Here are a few photos of this portion of the catio being taken down.
The removal will make it easier to mow the lawn in that area and is a noticeable visual change from the yard and street. The two remaining cats are already using the ramp and don’t seem to be upset by the catio exit relocation. Hopefully tree bark cuts and disruption caused by the construction haven’t impacted the growth of the tree long-term. (This particular oak was probably on-site when the house was built in the late 1800’s.)
The last big task of the week was to get started on Becky’s move to her new home in Greene. Becky closed on her home Thursday morning. The first trailer load of home goods was loaded and moved into the new house on Friday.
We moved about a third of Becky’s gear by volume, and have (mostly) her larger pieces of furniture to transport. Becky has arranged for some local help for moving these larger and more awkward pieces. We hope to complete the entire move by the end of next week.
Last week Pam mentioned the young squirrels in one of our oak trees. One evening I went out and took some video footage of them running around the tree near their nest. The clip is 4:41 and you can see it here. Note there is little audio; I did an intro at about 43 seconds but it is mostly just watching the young ones play. A couple of squirrels have discovered the corn cob feeder; they are quite entertaining to watch through the kitchen window.
Along the week we did routine work — normal lawn and flower bed maintenance. I used the new pressure washer to clean the trailer and truck bed prior to loading. Several web pages were made more mobile-device friendly and formatting was standardized across the pages. Outside and indoor tasks were many!
The next few days are projected to be wet and cooler so outside projects may be curtailed a bit. That is OK as we need to recharge after the past week’s activities. There is always another project to occupy time and energy at Heart House.
That’s it for now. Thanks for looking in!
(Due to the large number of photos in this post there will be no Photo Archive this week.)
Pam’s Penny
Yupp-er, we broke out the buckets of red paint for the season.
Happy Trails.
You have been busy!! Pretty soon it will be too hot to paint! When I painted my LP tank I used a paint brush and it worked well. Have a good week. More rain coming.
Deb:
Thanks for the note! Yes, we are trying to get stuff done before the weather turns really hot. And there is much to be done. (Rain is also an issue.)
Pam intends to paint the upper part of the LP tank white and the bottom blue. It should look good when done.
Biggest project this week is to get all of Becky’s stuff to her new house. This will require a couple more loads in the truck and trailer, but should be done by the middle of the week depending on weather. There is rain in the forecast, as you mentioned.
Thanks for looking in and dropping me a note! Have a good week.
Jerry