Almost Duuuuun

October 20th or soooo . . . up go the walls.
Goofy . . . but great workers.

Trusses next. Glad I'm not walking around up there.

Roof on, door and window in, and now the hardy plank siding.

Painting and then a little bit of shingle to go above the big door and we'll be all through. For those of you who know what our house looks like you will notice the resemblence. This is a requirement by the community architectural committee. All out-buildings must match the architecture of the house. We could have done this a lot cheaper, but of course it wouldn't have looked as nice either.

Next week . . . pumpkin patch and Halloween pics to come.

Construction -- Again!

Arn has decided he needs an additional garage for storage and cars so we are building in the only space available. Unfortunately it's hard to see, but this pic is taken from the front porch and the construction is up against the trees straight back almost in the middle.
Pulling out stumps, digging ditches, filling dirt, and doing all that prep stuff.

The contractor came and framed and poured in the same day. Things are moving right along.

Pouring.

What a neat finisher. Problem was the temps were too cool and the concrete wouldn't set up so they ended up brooming it, covering it with huge sheets of plastic and now they will be back on Tues. to build. They say they will be done in four days. Arn tells me this is the end of construction -- I'm going to hold him to that.

Guess Who's Coming to Breakfast??

Monday morn the 12th I looked out the side bathroom window and spotted a baby moose. I ran and woke up Arn. It wandered away, but after a few minutes, Arn was in my computer room and started hollering that there were two in the front yard -- get the camera!! These babies came right up to the front window to sample the plants -- which they spit out.
But . . . . . . when they went for my baby tree I went outside (in my nightgown, 18 degrees) to chase them away. They barely acknowledged me, but they did wander off. Both tagged, 112 and 113. Never saw mommy and haven't seen them since.

No -- No -- No -- Not Winter Yet!!

Well, even if there's none of that white stuff on the ground yet -- we've had temps in the teens at night. Arn had some huge chunks of wood and Marc has a wood burning stove so they spent a Sat. morning chopping and splitting.
Ta-Daaaa. Nice pile. That will keep them warm for a good long time.

The Vacation

Mom went to San Diego to spend time with Gary and family on Sept. 16th. and we left for our excursion on the 18th. Our first stop was Leavenworth, WA. A quaint Bavarian village about half-way between us and Seattle. We spend 2 days there and then went on to Seattle. Here we are taking a ferry across to Bainbridge Island to (after 20 years) revisit a winery that we found out no longer existed. It was still fun and a great (windy) ride over and back.
After a full day in Seattle, we were on to Vancouver, BC, site of the 2010 Olympics. We took a trolly around town and then dined outside. The whole trip had temps in the high 80's with no rain. It was gorgeous.

Good luck to the Olympics. Here is a sample of downtown Vancouver streets. Very narrow with bike riders and walkers everywhere that ignore cars or actually challenge them. It's frightening to drive in this city.

One of the gagillion rocky mountains we took pics of. The scenery driving from Vancouver to Banff was breath-taking.

This was the view from our room in Banff. We took 2 days getting there and then spent two days touring the area. Fantastic!!!

Yes, we went horseback riding and to prove it we had to have pics taken. We took a two hour ride up into the hills which were very rocky and challengingly steep even for the horses. Boy was I sore.

Remarkable beauty at Lake Louise (not me). As you can see the color of the water is amazing and enhanced by the crystal snow and ice in the background.

Taking a drive in the early evening -- searching for sightings of wildlife we came upon this gathering of mountain goats (sheep?) just wandering down the middle of the road. We pulled over and they came up to the front of the car expecting us to feed them. A definite no-no.

We had just about given up hope of seeing any other animals when we came upon 3 female elk feeding off the right hand side of the road. We stopped to take pics along with another car in front of us. As we were sitting there -- from an abandonded camp ground on the left was a high pitched squeal and out charged (literally) a bull elk. He ran across in front of us -- charging the females. This time of year is rutting season. This pic was the best I could get cuz he kept in the bushes -- but he was beautiful and we were trilled at the size of him. Look at that rack!

We came home after 8 days on the road (and very little sleep). We took side trips around here and then mom came home on Sat. Oct. 3rd. She had a great time in San Diego cuz Gary told me so. Unfortunately mom doesn't remember. Thanks to Gary and Linda for letting us get away and rested.