Woodpecker having fun with dogs

The nerve, sitting on the eavestrough and tapping out his little tune....making the dogs crazier than they normally are...lol

This Blog vs Facebook

I spend a lot of time online and although this blog is handy when I really want to expound on something...Facebook seems to work faster in some regards....now it seems, I have to post in two different locations and this one tends to suffer...but I'll try to update this one now and again...hopefully I won't be as lax a I have been.

Birds

Birds, I used to laugh at old folks feeding the pigeons...here we call them doves...but occasionally you get real pigeons showing up, and compared to the doves they look like chickens...

 Now I realize I should have a picture of a Dove...lol

 Yellow Finch...also not a Dove

 Goes without saying...our Nemesis...but he doesn't bug the birds so he gets to live

 The smallest Woodpecker that visits us

I guess, I can't laugh at the old folks anymore, I've become one...

Signs of Spring

 Lillies poking through the dirt in the front flower bed...

 A new Rose bush amongst the older ones in the diamond

 Geraniums and Zinnias in their pots

The Yellow bush whose name eludes me, but I bought another one to plant somewhere too since it's the first bush to flower anywhere on our property.

Grass...the weed...

Our ditches didn't come out of winter all that well, ok I say ditches but they're not there anymore...but winter with it's salt n dirt took it's toll...Lynn says it will come back...I remember the little tractors in Edmonton, with the brushes cleaning the boulevards...I of course, don't have one of those...hopefully it will perk back up again....I have a lot of grass seed I bought for the back of the property, I may reseed the front as well...

Perhaps, I should just get raking....

Spring

Spring has finally sprung around here, which of course always means, what renovation will get done this year?  We had just paid off last years reno's, the bedroom and bathroom, so we thought we'd coast this year.  Ha!  What do you mean your well is having issues...sheesh....so the next few days we will be living out of water bottles while we get the well drilled deeper, which of course meant removing the front steps so the machine can get at the well.  It was obviously drilled before the house was here originally, now, well the house is just in the way...of course it is...hopefully we don't lose the cedar tree which is beside the well, cause if we do, then we'll have to lose the other one too or come up with some landscaping that will keep it by itself...getting this done is way more expensive than getting your brakes done but the idea is the same.  It's a cost that although it's necessary, it's not something that you see, like a tv or a car or a tractor....

Reno's and ditches

Someone asked about the ditches...well here they are slowly getting covered with grass...ignore the idiot whose shadow is showing......also, the finished shingling job, which I neglected to post....

Window Feeder

While waiting for the flag to unfurl, this little guy, caught my eye.....window bird feeder, what can we say?...we're old lol

Renos' cont...

New Flagpole...old flag....lol...check out the brass ball at the top!.....we're nothing if not classy!

Pre Winter Reno's cont....

The Cat is doing a test to see what kind of soil we have in the back of the acreage...we have a woodcutter coming in to cut down all the trees and the cat is going to bury the remains of the trees and level the lot....the test was good....now we just have to wait for honest abe to cut down the trees...

Pre Winter Renos

Garages done, shed done, woodshed done, house 99% done...soon I'll have peace in my valley, again :)

Pre Winter Renos

A little warmer today, but what a wind overnight and still gusting like mad today...

Pre-Winter renos

Once it's naked....cover it back up

Pre-Winter renos

I can watch men work all day, it's the paying for it, that irritates me. Garage first, then house, and we're good for a looooooooooooong time....with any luck :)

The Liberals have nothing on us

I know, I know, since we hail from the Conservative Province of Alberta, just typing Liberals makes me shake :) However, since we live in a Liberal stronghold now (even though we still vote PC) we feel it is our duty to invest within our community, creating sustainable jobs etc etc...and anything that makes my lawn cutting duties easier, is just icing on the cake. We decided to fill in the ditches in front of our property, to save my blood and sweat for more important things. Howard, if you still read this, you should have warned me about ditches! A couple of phone calls, some high tech financial wizardry and before you can say "hey! you need a permit!" We were off and running so to speak. Roy Excavation was hired to do the work and what can we say? A reasonable price, excellent attention to detail, competent and friendly workers, timely completion of the task, I would heartily recommend Norman (the owner) and his company in a heartbeat. See below for our adventures in landscaping :)

Lynn vs the Machine!

The digger operator says "we have men who can take that out for you" Lynn replies "no thanks" and takes it out herself!...that's my wife :)

Optical Illusions 1

Prior to filling in the ditches, you need pipes, in our case seven of them, and man oh man they are huge, I could even get my portly self into one and crawl around (but I save that for under the deck while staining).