A WONDERFUL MORNING WITH FRIENDS

Tuesday, June 25 – We met fellow bloggers and traveling friends, Margery and Paul, Living Our Dream,  this morning for breakfast at Der Dutchman in Walnut Creek. We enjoyed lunch last year at this same Amish Restaurant with them. Since we wanted to do some exploring in Amish Country today, we opted to meet early so we could look around later.

We really enjoy visiting with Margery and Paul. Not only are we both RV'ers, but we have many other common interests. Thanks for a wonderful morning of fun and fellowship!

After breakfast we headed into Berlin to do some strolling through the many shops and enjoyed people watching. We left town pretty much empty handed right before a big rain shower opened up. The shower followed us most of the way home, which is good since we really do need some rain.

Some sights of Berlin.

Thanks for stopping by. Hope to see y'all back real soon. Have a great day!

SIPPO LAKE PARK

Monday, June 24 - We took a little field trip and break from working around the yard and visited Sippo Lake Park this afternoon.

The park consists of 202 acres of deciduous forest, wetlands, old fields, and mixed shrub areas. The area features a variety of habitats for wildlife viewing.

There are over 5 miles of hiking/walking trails through the forest and grasslands. There is also a 100-acre lake where one can fish (bluegill, crappie, carp, catfish, yellow perch, and bass), launch a boat, or simple enjoy walking around the beautiful grounds..

We found the Sanders Wildlife Rehabilitation Center especially interesting. Located in the Sippo Lake Park, The Rehabilitation Center is fully dedicated to wildlife rehabilitation. A trained staff of volunteer veterinarians care for over 2,000 sick, injured and orphaned native animals each year with the goal of releasing them back to their natural environment. The center also houses non-releasable wildlife that are used as program ambassadors.

The Center is open to the public and you can see most of the animals in pens. There is an intensive care unit that is closed to the public.

The Exploration Gateway at Sippo Lake Park is a center of nature, culture, and life-long learning established in June 2007 as a partnership between the Stark County Park District and the Stark County District Library.  Portions of the facility are available to the community, including three banquet and meeting rooms and a Video Conference Center.

The Gateway also is home to Perry Sippo Branch Library, Congressman Ralph Regula Canalway Center, FeLeap’s Lily Pad Gift Shop,  and Herbert W. Hoover Foundation Science Classroom.

The only wildlife we saw during our visit.

We walked the mere five miles of trails. It was a beautiful day and a great day to take a break.

The End

We apologize for not thanking our readers in our last blog for giving us the name of our new little bird.

Male Rose-breasted Grosbeak

Also, thanks to those who tried to help us with out unidentified weed. We are using full-strength Roundup with some Dawn mixed in. Marsha sprays everyday. We THINK we are finally getting a hand on this pain-in-the-neck.

Thanks for stopping by. Hope to see y'all back real soon. Have a great day!

 

OUT WITH OLD AND IN WITH THE NEW…WINDOWS

Friday, June 21 - Paul tackled replacing the living room windows today with the help of his trusted assistant, Marsha.

Very old windows

It was interesting to see how the old windows were held in place. Very different than the modern windows in today's homes. They almost seem to build the windows in place using all kinds of nails. One almost needs to totally destroy the windows to get them out.

What a mess. Ignore Marsha's feet in the photo.

Paul did manage to remove the windows in one piece. Pretty heavy wood windows too! Once the windows were out, Paul had to reconstruct the openings to accept the new windows.  Of course we got a rain shower while the windows were out but no harm!

With Marsha's help the new windows were placed in the openings and shimmed to be level and plumb. Marsha's job is to keep the window from falling out of the opening and place the shims from the outside.  Pretty good looking carpenter's helper!

Once Paul is satisfied with the installation, he screws the window in place.

Marsha then stuffs insulation around the window for a tight seal. She then chisels off some of the old caulk. The previous owners smeared caulk all around the windows making quite a mess. Marsha was able to remove most of the caulk that will not be covered by molding.

Paul finished the installation by nailing filler boards around and between the new windows. These will be used when he finishes the installation by installing vinyl brick molding on the outside. He also trimmed the windows on the inside with vinyl jamb extensions and window casing.

The job wasn't all that bad. If you undertake this job, allow yourself plenty of time.

Before

After

When the money comes rolling in next month, we will replace the end bedroom windows, and we then done with the front of the house. Stay tuned to see what we are doing in the backyard.

Thanks for stopping by. Hope to see y'all back real soon. Have a great day.

WILDLIFE, CRAFTS AND WEEDS

Thursday, June 13 – We are continuing our home improvement jobs. More on that in the next blog.

Marsha loves her bird feeder. But not some of the varmints that visit the feeder.

Now look what you did.

These she likes.

Notice the bungee. Our squirrel-proofing idea.

Anyone know the name of the bird on the left? We have never seen one of these before.

We have spotted a ground hog eyeing our garden. Even though we put a fence around it, we can never be too caution with that varmint. Paul put a live trap out hoping to catch and relocate it. Well, we did catch something but not a ground hog.

A face only a mother can love.

Relocation time.

When we were in Mission, Marsha learned another new craft, Swedish Weaving. She completed her first project. She made three table runners for our living room tables. She said they turned out perfect. Thanks again Donna and Suzie for introducing her to yet another hobby.

Marsha is pretty good with identifying grasses, flowers and weeds. But this one has her stumped. We sprayed them with Roundup but to no avail. It has a root system no bulb system. We dug up a few and took them to our local nursery. Several people looked at them and had no idea what they are. They suggested using Roundup at full strength and adding some dishwashing soap. The dishwashing soap will help the Roundup adhere to the leaves. If anyone knows what this weed? flower? is and how to kill it, please let us know. We appreciate your help.

Thanks for stopping by. Hope to see y'all back real soon. Have a great day.

 

 

 

ROCK WALL COMPLETED!

Friday, June 7 – Paul's been sent to the rock pile. No, not for bad behavior, but to gather rocks for the wall and fence along the rear property line. If you recall, Paul had the driveway installers pile the unused dirt along the rear line for this wall. He's now into building the wall in preparation for the fence.

Look who is playing King on the Mount.

He found a good supply of reasonably priced boulders at a local sand and gravel yard. The only catch is he has to select them from huge piles at the gravel yard and haul them home. That means he'll be handling every rock at least three or four times.....jeesh!

He ended up making 3 trips to the rock pit picking up 335 boulders, weighing 8,920 pounds. Now that's a bunch or rocks!

He actually enjoys the wall building process. Doesn't enjoy the shoveling of the dirt in preparation, but the wall building is rewarding work.

It's nice to see the progress as he places the rocks and dirt and advances down the line. It's a pretty good workout too! A little toooo good of a workout. After working all day....OUCH! (That's his back talking.)

End of Day 1.

Paul originally told Marsha that his job for June was to build the rock wall. Marsha knew better than to believe him. It took him only two days to build a 70' wall. She just smiled and thought…I knew you would get it done in a few days.

Look who thinks the grass is greener over the wall.

Now for the fence building along the top of the wall. He's going to put some vinyl fence like you see at Home Depot. A little expensive in the beginning but no upkeep and no painting in the future. Can't have Marsha adding “Paint Fence” to his "honey do" list, now can we... :-)

With the wonderful warm weather and a little bit of rain now and then, the garden is coming along great. The zucchini are growing like weeds. The banana pepper plants have flowers and small peppers already. Marsha pulled a few of the flowers off to get more strength to the plant. Not too far in the future, we will have tasty tomatoes also.

We have lots of grapes growing along the fence at the side of the house. Looks like we may get some good eating grapes this year.

So the “Summer of Work” continues for us. That's okay! We actually enjoy the work after four years of full-time relaxation. We keep making and then changing travel plans for this winter. We decide on exploring Florida, then changed to Arizona and the Southwest. We still haven't made up our minds. We do know we'll be in the Houston area for Thanksgiving and visit our daughter, Carrie. After the Christmas Holidays, we'll either continue West or head East. Time will tell.

Side note: The guys came and finished the driveway. After the initial widening of the apron at the street, we decided we should have had them widen the drive by about five feet. So the guys were willing to come back and make the change. It really looks much better and will be nice for backing in the 5^th wheel. They even gave Paul a discount because he did the prep work by digging out the sod and spreading gravel for the base.

This was just a little to close to Marsha's flowers for her liking.

The driver promised her that he would not hurt one of her flowers. She still stood and watched. He kept his word. In August, Paul will fill in the cracks and seal the rest of the driveway. It will look like new.

Thanks for stopping by. Hope to see y'all back real soon. Have a great day!