This week saw us completing the painting of the peak on the west wall of the laundry room, a milestone for us. A few other events of note passed as well.
In my last post I included a few photos of Pam on the scaffolding and painting the ginger breading on the west wall of the laundry room. I am pleased to say that painting is now complete. Below are before and after photos of that wall.
We think this project turned out very well and will serve as a model for doing the other ginger breading on the house. Bob the Builder picked up his scaffolding a couple days ago and charged us only $75.00 for the use of it, a very reasonable price.
I am going to include a photo of Heart House taken from its Southeast corner as I think it shows off more of the house painting and siding replacement accomplished this year.
The scraping and painting has taken a toll, however. I am still fighting a very tender back and had to take a day off to recover. Hopefully this is a passing ache and I will be able to get back at it tomorrow. I had started scraping the north side of the house, working from the ground. I was able to prep the wall part-way up around the bay window and got the first coat of paint on that area, but there is much to do yet. I want to get the north side done up to about two boards above the bay window, the same as we did on the east side of the house, before winter sets in.
A major irritant, over the last few days, has been an outbreak of mosquitos. Pam and I have had to use a fogger and Deep Woods Off mosquito repellent in order to do any work outside. The mosquitos are very aggressive and, no matter how much we prepare, they always seem to find an unprotected body part to attack. We suspect the swarms are the result of the massive rains we had a couple weeks ago, as up to now, the mosquitos had not been much of a problem although a few were always present.
Another phenomenon involves our oak trees. This year we had a bumper crop of acorns, not seen in either 2019 or 2020. I was raking up – literally – snow shovels of acorns and putting them in the trailer for disposal at the dump. It was hard to walk in parts of the dog pen and yard because of the loose footing below our feet. And we are not alone; it seems our neighbor’s trees are producing as much as ours. It may be a good year to be a squirrel!
Fall projects have begun. Pam removed several of our sunflower plants as the heads were maturing and dragging the plants down. A few plants remain to provide some color to the garden.
Leaves are beginning to fall at an increasing pace, a portent of a leaf-covered lawn to come. I’ve ordered a new battery for the leaf muncher and performed some maintenance on it as I know I will need its services before long. Just for the record, the old battery was the original in the unit, purchased in 1999 or 2000.
We are heading out to an antique and craft fair this Saturday. (I am writing this on Thursday night.) The show is in Osage, 25 miles or so away from Elma, at the Mitchell County Fairgrounds. My next post should have a few photos of this outing. We are not looking for anything in particular but it will be good to get out and look over the tables and vendor offerings.
Photo Archive
Since fall is in the offing, I decided to include a few “fall” photos. As a reminder, we lived in Mt. Horeb, Wisconsin, before we moved west. All these photos are “Wisconsin” fall colors.
That’s it for now. Thanks for looking in!
Pam’s Penny
I’m trying to get motivated for another round of exterior painting, all the while battling swarms of mosquitoes. (The temps are cooler, that’s something.) For some reason, after four days of scaffold climbing, my joints are reluctant to engage in continuous trips up-and-down ladders. Go figure.
A second wind would be welcome right about now.
Happy Trails.
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