It is a NEW YEAR.

Hello, Good Morning Everyone.

Yesterday was a crazy day for us.

Started out Monday night with very little sleep for me and Alvin.

He is/was/has/had diarrhea.

Needless to say that I was not in good condition to work or to write my blog.

Poor little Alvin.

Monday night and Monday day were the absolute worse.

Yesterday I was able to pick up some medicine for him (don’t remember the name off hand).

These pills are to help stop the diarrhea.

He remains on the bland diet of chicken and rice.

Also at the same time we (my neighbors and I) are working to get our shared fence fixed.

We found out yesterday that not only is one or likely multiple posts are rotted away so is about 20 feet of the fence.

So unless I change the deck, any future boards will rot as well.

You see on the other side is a backyard made of stone.

Without getting into too much detail as I am running late (I am sorry for this), moisture gets trapped and the wood cannot breathe, so it rots.

We are looking at the possibility of using vinyl instead of wood.

 

Anyway, I/We are missing our walks.

I long for the time when Alvin is back to his old self.

Has been a week today since this started.

 

The next few days are to be rainy so no work could be done.

At least we know that 20 feet of the fence has to be replaced.

My deck might require some changes or NOT.

Life ……

 

My mind is running like mad between Alvin and the fence.

So much …..

 

I hope that you are all well.

Continuing to live your life with kindness and respect.

 

I/We Remain,

As Always, Carol & Alvin

 

P.S. oh how I need coffee this morning.

 

Thought for the day …..

Good Morning and Welcome to Monday the 22nd day of October, 2018.

Well here we are back and Monday once again.

I guess that is a good thing compared to the alternative.

What a beautiful afternoon we had yesterday.  SO wArM.

I had an interesting and not quite as planned yesterday afternoon.

My friend came over to help/assist me in replacing two of the upper boards on my fence.

Upon further inspection (meaning when he went to pull off the boards) …. he found that some of the vertical boards were rotten.

Part of this comes from the way that the fence was built.

They left a opening at the top where all of the moisture could sit and eventually rot the wood.

SO yay.

Decided that as I did not have the boards to replace them right away that it would be a spring project.

My friend secured the boards that had loosened, the ones that we were going to replace with screws.

So Project #1 for next spring.

Then we set to work, well actually he set to work on making a trap door on the deck to access the dryer vent.

He loosened the board closest to the house so that he could find the exact location of the vent.

Voile located it.

Next step was to saw a couple of boards and ended up making a trap door.

So nifty.

The handle is off to the side behind one of the posts that hold up the pergola.

The handle is made with a screw.

When our friend first turned on the saw …. Alvin started to go to him as he thought he was in danger.

I quickly snagged Mr. Alvin as that would not have been a good scene.

I ended up with a cool trap door.

My friend’s wife ended up coming over and we chatted throughout the door making process.

Also found a few screws on the deck and tightened them.

We chatted about the other side of the fence which is leaning in to my side due in part to the stone/dirt garden wall on the other side and because they did not properly anchor the posts.

Project #2.

Project #3 will be replacing most of the deck closet to the house.

Project #4 will be clear staining the deck (suggested by my friend).

Inside of a couple of hours, I have my spring all lined up with projects.

Will have to work hard at petting sitting, selling Steeped Tea and NORWEX to pay for all of these projects.

But they will have to be done.

No doubt about it.

I am so grateful to have such good, no great friends.

 

After that outside, my friend looked at one of my kitchen chairs as one of the legs has loosened.

He will fix it later.

Then up to the bathroom to fix the drain assembly.

He had an extra assembly in the van (imagine that) but it needed one little part that was not included.

So that will be another day.

 

After they left for home, we left for a walk.

Whew what an afternoon.

Some projects finished but most outlined for the fall.

YIKES.

 

Well it is almost time to leave for work.

It was not easy getting up this morning.

Too much dreaming.

 

Have an awesome day.

So grateful for good friends.

Are you?

 

Special Hello to: my little brother who is setting off on new projects…..happy blogging.

Always, Carol & Alvin