In the last couple of weeks since my last post, Spring has advanced. Our Daffodils are blooming, along with a couple of early Tulips. Trees are turning more green. Our Cherry tree has blossoms on it. Still, the water Pam leaves out for the outside cats froze a couple of times last week, so winter has not yet fully released its grip.
Now for the news from our part of the world.
Momcat Precious and her kittens are doing well. The kits have their eyes open now, and are starting to move a bit within the cage. Even at this early stage they show some signs of individual personality. Some are more curious, some cry more when handled, a couple seem more adventurous. They really are growing fast!
Precious and kittens on April 9th
Pam is holding 3 of the kittens
Our major outside project, the privacy fence, is (mostly) completed. Included are 3 gates and 88 linear feet of fencing.
Front fence
Back fence
The back fence is being held up with steel “T” posts. Putting these in was a major job, but we were able to borrow a pneumatic fence post driver. Here is a shot of Pam and me using the driver:
Pam and Jerry using pneumatic driver
That thing is really heavy and we had quite the time lifting it to the top of the posts! The install has 3 gates, one to the front yard, one to go behind the house for access to our grill, and the 3rd is hung on the original chain link gate that is the main entrance from the driveway. The cats are getting used to going under the 3rd gate to get in and out of the yard. While they were used to doing this with the chain link gate, the wooden one gave them a bit of a challenge which they have now overcome. I did have to cut a couple of the boards a little shorter to give them more clearance, though.
The fence still needs to have sealer put on to help protect the wood. We will be doing this over the next few weeks. The back fence faces a chain link fence and was sealed before the installation. Here is a shot of Pam applying the sealer:
Pam applying sealer to a fence panel
We are glad to have this project mostly done. It is nice to have the added privacy in the back yard. Next we need to work on cleaning and staining the decks.
Last, but not least, is the Land Hunt. Current status: On hold. In my last post I wrote that the land owner, Jessie, is going to meet with a realtor to establish an asking price for his lot. We think that will happen this week. In the mean time, we drove over to walk the lot and get a feel for the views. We also looked at a couple other lots while in the area. The day was windy and hazy, but here are a couple shots of Jessie’s lot.
Looking SW to the Collegiate Peaks
The fence delineates the western boundary of the lot. This would be a good place for a gazebo. We like this view because of the way your eye tends to zig-zag as you look from the fence back up the the mountains.
Driveway to top of lot
You can see some views through the many Aspen on the lot. There are some Pine trees mixed in, and we saw several young pines growing all over the lot. If the asking price is reasonable we will go for this one!
In family news, Toby is starting to referee ball games, and may get on with a local city’s summer program. He is looking forward to the extra income that refereeing gives him. Felicity has picked up a few more paying jobs for her business, and seems to be getting along fine. It will be an interesting year for all of us!
As usual, clicking on any photo will open a larger image.
That’s it for now. Thanks for looking in!
The privacy fence is quite a project, made a bit easier by fencing pre-assembled into sections, but still considerable work. Hopefully it will fulfill its purpose.
Also hope you’ll not need to re-seed your lawn, given the additional shading the fence will provide. Perhaps a “creative floral arrangement” or hedge along the fence?
Hopefully Jessie will return with an appropriate price — the lot hasn’t been developed, so it should be in-line with similar property’s price/acre. Very nice if this is “the one” — you can move forward with your plans, which probably including removing quite a few of the “young aspen”, giving pines room to expand.
Good to hear Toby & Felicity’s lives seem to be stabilizing. Our only “constant” seems to be change, but stability, for now, is a good thing.
glad to see things are moving along!
kittens are just ADORABLE!!
fence looks really nice
i hope it keeps the dogs a little quieter
they are a lot of work–but worth it in the end
excited to see what comes of this land deal
looks like it’d be a beautiful place to be!!
i hope you hear soon!!
ps–glad the kids are doing well too!! 🙂
Busy, busy, busy! Looks like a MAJOR project is 90% checked off the list. Yay for teamwork!
Good to hear Toby and Felicity are doing well. That’s ALWAYS good and happy news!