March 29, 2010

Up with the alarm - we need to get ready to leave since we both have to work tonight.

Garry and Bernie arrived before we left which worked out great - we were able to review the days menu, exchange valuable information and take the time for a quick photo op!

Unfortunately, the drive home was not without incident…I was sleeping away – quite comfortable I would like to add, when some horrible noise woke me up. All I noticed was the semi-truck in the lane just left of us. Thinking the truck dropped something from it, or lost a part that we were driving over, Carlo tells me that was not the case. In fact, it was the drive-shaft of the Tahoe that was making the noise. He safely pulled over to the side of the road, and got out to inspect the truck. After checking things out, he got his gloves on and then went back under the truck and removed this truck piece that was a good 30 – 36 inches in length and 6- 8 inches in diameter. He explained that the front wheels would need to pull us since we no longer had rear wheel drive. We had to get off the highway, luckily (if you would want to call it luck) we were at Rte 59 (and not still in Wisconsin) and ended up driving home via Irving Park Road since we could not exceed 35 mph. It took nearly as long to get home as it did to get there last Friday. Another lucky thing is that Carlo knows about cars and trucks and knew how to get us home safely. What a trip! As I said earlier...truly voted number one for this trip being "the longest in traveling time" EVER!

March 28, 2010

So - we have this space ~ that we shall refer to as a void ~ between the original cabin and the addition - left for us by short cut Bob. Just this past year, we have been noticing some wood and insulation debris falling into the addition (aka the bedroom). Since my diversion of birds building nests in the eaves of the porch was to use empty egg cartons, I came up with jamming plastic bags into the void...about a dozen bags sealed it up pretty well...Yep, during the last year I was very pleased with my inventions of warding off pesty critters and the debris falling and even came to and end - or so I thought.

R-E-W-I-N-D: When we got to O'Wich on Friday, the bags were gone from the void. I put more in there AND during the night, there was a lot of noise of scratching and the pitter patter of little animal paws and sounds of movement coming from the ceiling. Carlo took the newly replaced bags out, hoping whatever I "trapped" up there would just decide to come out, since the weather was pretty nice. Wish we knew *WHAT* was up there. We have a plan to find out - stay tuned!

We are loving the drive chime that Rick and Katie gave me for Christmas. It works much better now that the weather has warmed up. It works so well that it chimes when vehicles drive down the road and animals wander past it during the night. But it serves its purpose when the visitors continue to arrive as did Paul this morning for his little visit.

After breakfast, we watched a little DIY and felt motivated enough to get out in the sun and re-build the flower boxes next to the stairs. After a lot of muscle, hard work (for me), re-planting two bushes, buying five bags of dirt, four hours of time and the planting of some gladiola bulbs we were soon admiring our work. Oh, yeah, Carlo knocked me down too! No, not really, but as I was falling, he was kind enough to PUSH me away - he claims in an effort to keep me from hitting my head...I think he was just concerned I would land on him!

before photos from 2007

after the stairs were removed

after our hard work; sans the mulch...it floats away when we flood!

The skies became a little cloudy and of course we had even more visitors - repeats from yesterday, but the question remains...why? Seriously, this place is like Grand Central Station. By 3:00 we were pretty much done with our version of Yard Crashers or Desperate Landscape - where the hell were Ahmed or Jason...not at O'Wich!

We cleaned ourselves up and got ready for dinner at LaTolteca, first stopping by to drop off a birthday gift for Steve...since he was the one visitor we were hoping would stop by! Dinner was incredible, as always, however by the time we got back, my cold was really beating me up. I took a Benadryl and was able to rest (well okay, sleep) for the entire evening without any discomfort. Sleep was going great until the "scratching on the ceiling" noises began. After waking Carlo up to check out the noises, I, luckily, was dopey enough to fall back asleep!

March 27, 2010

Of course since I slept so much during the evening and through the night, I was up around 7:00 - Carlo by 8:30 - and since we missed dinner last night, we were looking forward to breakfast and running some errands. With Norm's, Tractor Supply and Walmart under our belts (literally on the Norm's, since that's where we ate), and the truck full of purchases, we headed back to O'Wich. We were glad Josh took some of the much begged for wood *while* we were gone.

We watched a squirrel for a bit as he stopped several times to pose for the camera!

Since it was such a gloomy day, we stayed in and watched a movie. Our restful afternoon ended quickly when our "visiting neighbor dance card" was ready for punching. Rick stopped by; impressed on what we have done with the front porch, I'm sure he left impressed with our craftsmanship. Glad the conversation was short, still it was packed full of B$ - coming and going!

Good- bye!

We grilled dinner and ate around 8:30. Part of dinner was very disappointing but the blame is all pointed at the cow! Looked good but the taste was not so good - worst cut of meat ever...time to find the meat trucks that hang out in town.

March 26, 2010

This trip was voted the "longest traveling time" EVER! We made lots of stops along the way and the ride still seemed to fly by. We left around 9:15 and made our usual stops, adding Walgreens and Dunkin' Donuts. We stopped in Janesville for lunch, gasoline, a visit to Shopko and Farm and Fleet.

We purchased our fourth set of cushions for the dining room chairs since the comfort of the tush is paramount to enjoying time sitting at the table. I think we may have finally found a suitable cushion! I also bought a pair of jeans and a top too!

We got to O'Wich just after 3:00 and it was AWESOME pulling into the driveway and seeing the porch and steps were as far along as they were. The layout is exactly what I planned and envisioned! I can't wait until the entire project is finished.

before after (but still sort of during and this was taken on Monday after we left)

And a close up of the wrought iron piece! Love it!!!

On porch looking toward the stairs - the porch seems so huge...glad we chose to move the stairs all the way to the edge of the porch.
before after

At the stairs looking toward what will soon be a screened in porch.

before after (or really during)

When we were done admiring the work, I brought in firewood, tightened up the screws on the bench, and swept the leaves off the porch and the back deck while Carlo hung his "new" squirrel peanut dispenser, filled the bird feeders with seed, put leftovers out by the tree and got the fire pit ready for a night-time burn.

Of course, Josh snooped by, I mean stopped by looking to get our old stairs and attempting to work a trade...what part of "just have at 'em - we we're going to burn them" was so hard to understand? So he said he'd return the next day with his little ATV pull-along - Geez! Then Tom stopped by with his 'tales of woe'. Will this be another fun filled weekend of visitors???!!!

We watched a little TV and (I) napped until Carlo could start the burn. He was kind enough to wake me to take a photo of it and the 7/8 moon he saw up in the sky. Awwww! I was back inside and in bed by 10 - and was glad the day was over!