Silken Highways

One or more very industrious spiders overnight...  I was out with Rose and she noticed these in the garden. 

"We've Heard It All Before" - Obama's 2008 vs 2012 Campaign Rhetoric - YouTube

It's Sauce Season

It's sauce season again tomato sauce that is.  

We cooked up another 5 gallon pot today, our third batch this season.  Garden ripe tomatoes, peppers, onion, sausage, ground beef, and several spices are all it takes, oh and time, lots of time.  This batch simmered for almost 6 hours.  Came out good too!

The main ingredient

 The Sauce

2012 Herd The Girls...

These five came through tearing up the field, jumping, chasing one another and generally carrying on for about an hour the other night.  They had a ball in the field before heading off for the evening.

House paint is progressing

We finished painting all the creme trim on the front side today.  Rose is working on the sage green front tomorrow, as long as the weather holds.  More pics (wait'll you see) tomorrow.  It's already looking great!
We've been talking about this color scheme forever and it's finally happening...

Willow a Remembrance

Willow A Remembrance

Our horse Willow was ill recently and passed in the night, we will miss our friend, his memory remains in our hearts. 

Willow came into our lives 11 years ago on Father’s day 2001, and forever changed our lives. 

You didn’t know horses could fly? Willow could fly, we'd go for walks and if you'd never seen it you wouldn't believe it.  We'd run up the road me at his side holding his lead and he'd put his head forward and just smooth out in a perfect flat run that had me believing that horses could fly, he was stunning at a full run, if he wanted to, if I just let go of the lead, just for a moment I knew he’d fly..  He was an amazing horse.

He'd chase the goats around the field and run from you in the fields when he knew you were in a hurry and needed to get him into the barn. A punk at times, he'd take advantage of me at times realizing I’d left the barn door open, he’d make me chase him all over the neighborhood then he’d realize at some point it's time to go back to the barn for dinner and put himself back in the stall.  He'd pinch the donkeys rears when they weren't looking (Rose’s too if she wasn't careful),  he was a gentle giant in the barn.

He'd say "hey" to all passersby with a nod of his head and a quiet Winnie. Bikers, walkers, strollers and cars driving by would all stop to say "Hi Willow!".  He was the unofficial street mascot.

We will miss him dearly, his friendly greetings in the morning, his laughs in the evening.

He was so big, so tough and at the same time a kind gentle creature.

I miss you already big guy!

 WILLOW

Willow

1999-2012

9/11/01 Never Forget

9/11/01 -  Lets Hope We Never Forget 

Quite the illusion...

No I'm not talking about Obama...  Hah Fooled ya!

Check this out...

Scotts Miracle-Gro sold bird seed contaminated with toxic poisons, class-action lawsuit seeks damages

Scotts Miracle-Gro sold bird seed contaminated with toxic poisons, class-action lawsuit seeks damages

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!