Dog Days

Here are some of the latest pictures of the cabin.
It is noteworthy that:
A: The Garden filled in quite nicely despite the weekly hail storms and frequent un-announced frosts
B: The carport arrived and was built the day before we left. Hopefully, this will protect the truck enough so the engine block doesn't freeze. The installers complained that the ground was too rocky and they could not pound the anchors in the ground. I told them I would pick up the hammer and show them how its done after I saw 6 bloody hands. I was paying for an installed carport, and it was not installed until the anchors were in the ground.
C: I left one project for next summer. Even though I got a partition wall up in the basement, we have not decided on flooring yet for the bedroom down there. And I need to put paneling or siding up on the walls built. It is nice cool work. I wish I was there now...

Finished the deck on the back of the house. The style was to let it flow out the back door. No handrails, just kind of spills you out-of-doors.
The decking and trim is made from a recycled fiber. I hammered the grain raised to cover the screws. How was I supposed to know the cat was under there?

garden

I am humbled by the growing season. I am used to a long hot growing season in Texas. And good deep soil. Here, in South Dakota, I deal with 6" of top soil, rocks, sloping ground, and 30°-40° nights at any time of the year. Here is our present solution. Doing remarkably well. But I can't but think all we are doing is growing veggies for the neighbors because none of it will be ready before we leave.

Rainbows

Scott came up to spend some time with Trevor last week. Here is the last haul they brought home.

Deck

We are nearly complete with one of our summer projects. We decided we needed a deck on the back to have a spot for the BBQ and to keep from tracking in too much dirt in through the back door. Here is a couple of pictures of the progress. We used Choicedek recycled materials because this is the north side of the house and it may get a good coat of winter snow.

picnic

We get side-tracked sometimes. Glenda said yesterday morning that we have this nice umbrella but we need a better table for the porch to put it in. To make a nice place to sit and eat lunch and enjoy the day. Maybe coffee in the morning if it is not too cool. And then a spot for a glass of wine and peanuts in the evening. One of our favorite things to do.

So I spent the better part of Sunday scrounging around for materials for this new picnic table.
Turned out rather nice.

June update

It was pretty bad when my dad scolded me for not updating my blog. And on Fathers Day, no less. So here it is.

We had 3 or 4 projects planned for this summer. One of them was to lay tile in the bathroom. Check!

These pictures are before I put the toilet back in place. Glenda MADE me put the toilet back. She said she has had enough of the "plein aire" toiletries.