the latest project around the house has taken a little while… we began discussing it in February, lol…
the actual work started on Thursday, June 8th, when my grandson and son-in-law took down the back fence as well as the small one in the front yard…
it involved hammering, using the car jack and a great deal of muscle… once it was down, all the pieces were loaded into a truck… then we moved soil, cleaned up the leaves from the cedars and Virginia creeper, and filled many bags of yardwaste…
midway through the day the lumber was dropped off, but had to be brought onto the driveway a few pieces at a time, and by the end of the day we were worn out, lol…
on Friday, my grandson met our handyperson at the hardware store where they rented an auger and picked up a big bag of screws and nails…
they used more muscle to get the old holes redug and finished the day with all posts installed…
Sunday, the oldest dug up excess dirt around the shed while we waited for the rest of the crew to arrive, including one of his brothers…
they worked well together and got the back fence 99.9% finished, with a nice wide gate and the framework up for the front portion of fence…
on Wednesday and Thursday my oldest grandson put the finishing touches on the fencing and both sections look great…
so pleased with the final result as well as how smoothly the process went and what great help we had from everyone…
had a delightful day yesterday… got to cook for my grandsons…
made stuffing (one of their absolute favourites), prepped mashed potatoes, boiled a turnip (to use the water in the gravy), cut up cucumbers, cooked mushrooms, and opened a can of cranberry jelly…
such a treat to have them for a home-cooked meal, lol… and fun to make dinner for more than one or two people…
put the chicken into the oven and the final piece was to make the gravy and pull out the cranberry jelly (only two of us like that)…
as always, while I work away making the pieces of the meal, I am thinking about the people who will be eating the meal with me…
dinner turned out delicious, although it was a bit on the beige side, lol… sadly, only one of them was able to come as the other was home sick with a stomach bug;-(… I did send home a goodie bag for when he feels better…
haven’t seen them for ages, so it was a wonderful treat;-)…
we caught up and they shovelled part of the driveway for me…
the shovelling was a big job as the driveway hasn’t been cleared for months, but it was a beautiful day… and, in the process, the youngest lost his AirPods… in a white container;-(… we spent quite some time digging through all the snow they had moved but did not find them…
we had Chinese food for supper…I’ve been craving it for a while so that made it especially good…
after supper I dug out a set of earbuds from my collection of ones that don’t fit my ears and gave him those… everyone played on their phones for a while as we chatted before they headed home;-)…
they have become lovely young men, although they still bicker like brothers, lol…
the wooden bird picture that my middle grandson gave me about a year ago has finally made it onto the wall… we had to pick up wire to use as it is heavy and the usual fishing line wasn’t going to hold it up…
looks great and I am so proud of him as he did a good job of making it…
then we put a new sweep on the bottom of the back door so that cold air isn’t flowing down into the basement… bit of a process, but it was finally complete… better than it was, for sure…
a strip of carpet got cut and repositioned so that feet won’t be on concrete on the way to the bathroom, lol…
the final piece of work was cutting and installing a tile over the light in the bathroom…
walking in the neighbourhood I’ve spotted a few cool Halloween decorations…
and came across a few fun memories from Facebook…
for many, many years, the kids came over on Halloween before heading out to collect candy, so we could get official pictures… too old for that now, lol…
no snow this year, and it is a balmy 8 degrees Celsius…
this morning I watched a couple of bunnies on the deck looking for something to eat, so I tossed out a few carrots that I broke up for them…
I checked back a bit later and discovered one enjoying the treat…
reminded me of the bunny in the den… it is one of those Build-A-Bear animals that the boys and I had made when my beloved had his heart surgery…
the staff in the cardiology unit had recommended a pillow for him to hold against his chest when he coughed and we thought the bunny would be great… it worked well and he liked it;-)…
it wears scrubs, although a few pieces of the clothing have gone missing, lol…
it is a sweet reminder of a difficult, but special, time…
then climbed into the main pond to clean out the pump…
after lunch my son-in-law and middle grandson came by… one levelled the waterfall stone so that water doesn’t leak out and need to be replaced as much… he also spread soil in the front, filled containers and tidied up the dirt pile…
the other mowed and whipper snipped the front and garden, including along the lane (sometimes we forget about that area)… he also helped with the soil cleanup…
they left, and the oldest grandson arrived to take me downtown where I got vaccinated for the second time;-)… as a treat we got ice cream cones on the way home;-)…
once home he changed a leaky hose and carried many boxes of books to the front step for pickup… we put them in plastic bags because they weren’t being picked up until Friday, but were too heavy for me to move, lol…