The end...of Summer and other things

Squeezed between our vacation trips and afterwards, things have been changing in Longville...mostly for the better.  We had the big sick-amore tree removed and the stump ground up.  We also took the occasion to have two more rotten sycamores removed, along with a couple of water oaks on the south side of the house.

Here's a few of the before and afters...the first is from the driveway -

Here's the sycamore in the big azaleas right out across the front porch - 

And the big sick-amore where we parked (front porch view this time) -

It was quite an operation, and it took the crew most of the day,  They did a good job cleaning up and left us a mountain of a burn pile in the pasture...I won't run out of backlogs for my trash fires this winter.

Meanwhile, while we were on vacation, Brian resurrected his woodsman skills to clean up some of the old fenclines in between house sitting and walking the dog.  It's starting to open up nicely and look like someone's living here.  Note the nice firewood pile (mainly from the two small oaks we had taken out and supplemented by smaller oaks Brian had removed from the fencelines).

...and we've been burning the mountain of sycamore trash along the way...

Another ending was for our kitchen porch.  We contracted Joe to design and build a screen porch so we could enjoy being out without being pestered by the myriad bugs that call the pinewoods home.  Jack helped with the demolition - you can see we took it down to the deck...

Then Joe and I jacked up the porch to make it level...dirty work with spiders...

We did get delayed by a light shower or two (note the burn pile status), but Scott squeezed in a couple of days to help notch and raise the heavy beams.

The next step was to re-establish shade (it was some kind of hot and sticky after the sun had cleared the trees).  It was nice to start the work under the roof, like building the frames for the screen and the walls.

Then it was time to put in the oak walls, build some new steps, and trim it up to be ready for stain/sealant.

Finally the screens were installed, we got the stairs finished, applied the stain/sealant, and reinstalled the lattice.

...and we finished in the nick of time...

The end of summer is also marked by the re-appearance of spider lillies (a.k.a. naked ladies) and morning temperatures in the low 60's upper 50's like we had this morning.

Sadly, there was another ending today.  Buckwheat had to be put down due to to a virulent and fast-spreading cancer.  He had lost 20 lbs in the last few weeks and would not eat or could not drink anything in the last few days.  It is very sad, and we will miss him terribly.  I've included a few pictures (many very recent) to remember what a happy and vital companion he was.  We have a spot out by the deer feeder to bury his ashes when they come back to place him on permanent "critter watch", his most favorite pastime since moving to the country.  He was only 7 1/2 years old.

Now, who will protect us from the squirrels?