We made some serious progress

We worked hard last Wed, Thursday, and Friday and then I was able to get the same days off this week so we're cruising.  All the rot's been replaced, the sills were replaced on the windows and door.  Just the center section siding to go! 

Now you did it...

We started working on the front kitchen wall, didn't want to, mind you we had to.  We've known there was rot there for far to long.  You see the water comes off the kitchen roof onto the living room side roof and splashes, and pours right down the siding to the ground.  Being the siding there is a hundred year old pine some of it has seen better days.

Off with the siding, er. clap boards, off with the tar paper, no plywood here, 8" to 20" wide pine 1 inch thick rough cut boards applied at a best we can tell 50 degree angle, oh good, more fancy boards to cut.  The 50 degree angle did no one any good, as the water that got through the rotted clapboard(s) above now ran diagonal across 10 feet of wall taking out all the two by four studs along the way, sometimes you just gotta laugh...  

We are sorer than we've been in a while, bent, grunting, oh that hurt, slow down I'm hobbling here... We're almost done though,  we wouldn't be this close to finished without the help of a friend of Jarrod's,  he worked tirelessly for three solid days, as did we, except without the tireless part. That's our helper in the pic below.

The house looks better (I'll post the after pics tomorrow if I'm up to it...), we'll soon be ready for paint, a sage green with tan trim we've been talking about for years as soon as we've healed up a bit.

 What did we get into here, a whole mess of rot, worse than it looks thankfully.

Yes sir we had us some fun!  The house is now ready for another hundred years, me I'm not so sure about.  Don't get old, just sayin'

I'm tired, and I'm going to bed!  Night all!

Harvest days are here

Let the "end of summer" games begin...

We're picking almost daily now, the tomatoes (mostly sauce varieties like Roma) are coming in bowls at a time.

We picked Buttercup this morning, the Butternut have ripened too.  The last of the summer squashes are winding down both the Yellow Croockneck and the Zucchini are close to finished.  The couple Patty Pans we planted have outdone themselves providing the first and probably the last squash of the season.  We picked a few peppers, there are loads more small ones on the plants still.

It's almost time to start preserving, saucing, and drying.

 Summer squash blossoms

 Mr. Stripey just starting to blush

 Yellow Summers picked a little to big, a Zucchini, a Buttercup (L) and a Butternut (R)

 Patty Pans, and a few Peppers

 Tomatoes and Peppers

 More  Tomatoes and Peppers

Tomato Sandwich Season has finally arrived

Tomato Sandwich Season 

Seems to me that everything in the garden is earlier than normal this year, Rosie says "no we're just about on schedule" with Labor Day in two weeks on Monday, September 3, 2012.  Wow, it's almost fair season already.

Tomatoes are something I impatiently wait for each year.  My Mr. Stripey I've been watching carefully the past few weeks as the rains and the heat came in finally ripened up yesterday.

That first tomato sandwich of the season on a good white bread, slathered with mayo, is surely one of the best things in life!  

This year my schedule was a bit much, I didn't get in as many varieties as I'd planned.  Roma for sauce and Mr. Stripey for eating right off the vine and in sandwiches, Big Boys and a few odds and ends round out the tomato patch this year.

Mr. Stripey 5" across, slabs 1/2" thick make for some fine sandwiches.  Mayo and some good bread, Mmm, it doesn't get a whole lot better than this!

I'm off to have another one...  

The Blue on Vimeo - Dolphins

The Blue on Vimeo

Amazing video caught while Tuna Fishing off the coast of Santa Cruz, this Pod of Dolphins just showed up.

Between the storms...

   Saturday started Hot and humid, here in the Northeast, soon the clouds came in and the rumble in the sky started.  Hail first, then rain came fast, it cleared in a half hour or so, taking down a few trees in Goffstown on the way through.  


  We threw some chicken and a couple potatoes on the grill, right between the two afternoon storms the doe appeared, soon thereafter her twin fawns!


  Not sure if this is a new doe, I don't think we've seen her before.  She was hungry and seemed to enjoy the block. 

 Where are the kids?

 There they are!

 Move over...

 A horsefly (They are huge this year!) chased off one fawn...