Monday, June 30, 2014

Hard to believe...

...that we've owned this property for a year.  We closed on June 13 last year, but didn't move in full time until the first of August.  With all of the work still to do (I see it every day) it's easy to forget just how much we have already done.  First, a retro topic...

I went down to Richwood and cut the grass for the first time since October - I was fearing the worst.  It wasn't too bad.



There are two completed houses across the street...




And the other house on the two acres next to me is also complete and occupied...here's the front and back.





And my lots looked better after a good mowing, although I had to make a few burn stacks - since they're funny about fires in the neighborhood, I had to leave them that way.  No need to raise the ire of the POA Nazis!



We'll list the lots again to see if we can't unleash some cash that could be put to better use.  I am pleased that the neighborhood is developing with nice houses and not ramshackle fish camps.

Meanwhile, in the land of freedom to do whatever the hell you want on your property, we've continued with "improvements".  Joe and Jack built shelves in all three bedroom closets (My prophecy about the desire resulting from the nice pantry shelving came true!)  Joe spent a day planning...



Then after I acquired the proper tools, they cut and installed all of the frame supports in a few hours.










The next day they cut all of the shelving out of 3/4" cabinet grade plywood.  The pieces fit like a glove due to Joe's good planning, and Jack nailed up all of the shelves while Joe and I ripped the old 1X12 pine shelving for the edge trim.  We were all very pleased with the final results, and we now have the extra storage we needed.



The Ozzie & Harriet room closet...



The middle room closets (breaking news...I might be getting an office/man cave in the middle room...so, I'm starting with the closets).




The master closet had a high enough ceiling to put an additional wrap-around shelf up top...perfect for seasonal decoration storage.




An added bonus was that we (finally) got all of the replacement closet doors in place!  Closet shelving and rennovation may not be sexy, but it sure is appreciated.

It hasn't been all work and no play; we did squeeze in some fishing.  We went two evenings in a row, but only had a redfish, two flounder and some big croakers to show for it. The girls had a blast catching big hardheads, and Audrey fought a big gafftop for several minutes, but it broke off right at the boat.  The first evening was at one of my old spots in Black Lake, not too many fish, but it was pleasant in the late afternoon breeze.



We also got Mount McTrash hauled off...and we had the guy do a little stump clearing with his bobcat while he was here.  It sure saved me a lot of digging.  We also got a couple of loads of limestone and began to expand and rework the driveway, but got interrupted by 5 days of heavy rain.




There are some war zone looking spots in the yard, but we started straightening it out after a couple of sunny days.

However, the vegetables sure liked the rain...



The tomatoes are especially nice...and so tasty.  It looks like the lemon tree still has a quite a few fruits after the June Drop.



The watermelons don't look so good...I heard it was tricky to grow them, so I'll have to do a little learnin' before next year, I reckon.  I'll close out with some critters...from the porch,



...and from the feeder. (The first one shows part of Buck's Big Adventure - he got out of the yard when we were building shelves).  Our old friend the Black Squirrel made an appearance after a long absence.  And various other wild critters are enjoying the corn.






I'll try not to wait so long before the next blog post.  I didn't realize how easy it was to lose track of time when the corporate overlords no longer have deadline authority over you!  Happy, happy, happy... .

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