May 29, 2009

Another busy night out by the trees. All the birdfeeders were wiped out by four raccoons. They were swinging on the feeds like they were ringing bells – the seeds fell to the ground and they (again) gorged themselves. My “Ground Hog Day” saga continues, with this damn bird. I have served more eviction notices and I feel as though I work for the county – moving their stuff to the curb! It’s overcast today and starting to drizzle – hopefully the cool air will keep the mosquitoes away so we can work outside on the drive and the gutters.

There was a new critter on the feed pile this morning – it had a short tail but looked like a giant mole. Since nature is far from things I know about, I snapped its picture but he scurried away! There is a lot of scurrying going on around here!!!
Carlo got back to cleaning the gutters and when he was almost finished the first load of stone arrived. Ken is such a pro that there was minimal work for us to do with spreading the stone.

While Ken went for the second load, Carlo finished the gutters and I cleaned the deck with the hose. The second load showed up and much like the first…as Ken drove and unloaded it went right where we wanted it. I then cleaned the front porch. My feathered headache is still making me crazy – I’ve moved on to using the leaf blower, the hose, the broom and more leaf blower. You’d be rich if you had picked the bird! We finished up some little hobs – screwed the countertop to the cabinet, some last minute gutter work, screwed the deck box to the deck and then for the hardest part of the driveway work – Carlo drove the Tahoe back and forth about 30 times to pack down the stone. It looks very nice.

It’s not the circular drive I was hoping for…but without removing trees, this is my second choice! It’s great to walk and drive on too. Now we can only hope that water doesn’t accumulate and at least there’s no chance of mud any longer! After lunch I entered some of my written blog into the laptop and watched GH while Carlo took a quick nap.
I am trying, diligently, to out this frickin’ bird while Carlo burns the tree clipping that we had left over from yesterday. While the fire was going, Carlo decided to fix a piece of siding that keeps slipping from the track. It’s in an awkward location and can’t be reached from the deck. So up goes the ladder…up goes Carlo…and up goes the siding….ALMOST – just as he is getting ready to clip things into place and secure it with a little bit of liquid nails…out of a quarter inch of a gap comes what looks like a mouse. No, not a mouse…it spreads its wings and files away because it’s a BAT! WTF – we don’t know where it flew to, but of course there was a lot of screaming – no not Carlo….ME! But picture this…I am screaming, the bat is flying and all the while Carlo is on a ladder! Much to my amazement other than ducking to avoid getting hit or bit by the bat, Carlo never lost his footing or even looked alarmed! If it were me on the ladder – which of course it would never be, but if it were – I and it would be lying on the ground and I would still be screaming! I cannot believe the amount of wildlife we are encountering and I’m not liking it too much!

I decided to have an Arts and Crafts program for part of the afternoon. Wayne had lent me a wood burning tool and I decided to burn a drawing of leaves onto a piece of wood I bought and turn it into a clock for the bathroom. It turned out fairly well considering I have never burnt wood before. Attaching the mechanism was another story but it works okay. It sort of ties it all together!

We relaxed, mulled over the few things left on the to-do list and got ready for dinner. Tomorrow is Carlo’s birthday and since he won’t be here I took him to dinner. We tried the Hitching Post. Carlo had a steak and I had ribs. We will certainly go back there again. Slowly but surely we are adding restaurants to our list of places to go!