A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words.

(pk)

My birthday has come and gone (it was awesome!! thank you everyone!!!), we have helped Sonja out in her paddock, built a deck on the front of the house, lost another chicken to the Goshawk, pulled out three old batteries and installed four new ones, and attached the ledger board to the back of the house. I am tired and cranky. Jon is working overtime with the kids and projects. Here is the latest photo download.


Simon watches the chickens.


Sunrise from our bedroom window!!




Look close . . . those specks are hundreds of Sand Hill Cranes!! We watched and listened to the migration for over half an hour. We do not know how long they were flying before Jon heard them! It was an amazing site and sound.



Here is Xander digging a post hole!



Nothing like a good ole' family pee!!



Here is the last section of "our road" just past the top of the hill on the left is our place.



Here is Isabel picking raspberries at the top of our land. You can see the woodshed just behind her head. Our back door is just beyond the woodshed to the left. The raspberries are delicious and Jon and I both make exceptional raspberry muffins out here!



Here is Jon digging the post holes for the front deck.



Here I am working on the battery pack. A job that was a bit tense for me. Jon was a huge help and things would have gone astray had he not been there. It feels awesome to have these new batteries hooked up. I think the extra energy storage will be real handy in the cold dark winter!!




I am 'bucking' a log that was off to the side of the house. Jon carried it to the woodshed and split it. We have MUCH more of this kind of work to do. It will be great to finish the fall projects and spend a weekend or two just gathering, bucking, splitting, and stacking wood. It is our sole source of heat for the house and hot tub.

I am hauling down the posts and cement for the back deck.

Jon is measuring a post prior to cement and Xander is pouring water on a hole with the cement already in it.















The next series is of the front deck start to finish. Just as we finished we saw a gorgeous rainbow over our house and the caribou hills. The rainbow is in the second row and second photo.






When Jon and I flew up in March of this year to look at our house and land for the first time we found this "Welcome" dragonfly at the Portland airport. We purchased it before we had seen the place and now it is finally hanging on our gorgeous house!! (thanks Jon!!)



The Goshawk sitting in a nearby spruce after a meal of Kulhanek Rhode Island Red.



Nothing tells a tale better than a five year old and markers!!!

"Goshawk in tree and bearing down on Rhode Island Red"

The gray dot in the trees is the hawk watching. The black "u" shapes to the left of the Rhode Island Red are the Black Star hens.

"Goshawk dismembering Rhode Island Red"
Note the flurry of feathers and the huge talons!!

A final shot of the rainbow from the new front deck.

Here is a moose track in water on our road that makes a perfect heart if you turn your head!!

Have a great evening!! More later . . . .