Day 54 - Hairdresser and Finished Pergola

It is day 54 of our self quarantine. I really had no idea it would last this long. But I think it needs to last as long as it needs to last, until we have some answers or some proof that things are declining and we will be safe again.  Wisconsin numbers are slightly dropping, even with the newest increase in Green Bay at the meat packing plants.  Let us hope they continue to decline.

Of course, being quarantined this long, that means it's been more than 54 days since my shaggy headed husband had been to his hairdresser, Kelly.

Although I do like it when Steve's hair gets a little longer and a little softer and a little more 1970s-ish style hairdo... I think it had reached a point where he really needed to get it cut. It was getting in his way when he worked on things and blowing around into his eyes... Or so he said.

This morning he had had enough. He sat down on the little footstool in front of my chair, and let me get out my scissors and my comb and a spritzer bottle to try and get it under control a bit so I could trim it.

I figured if I just took each little section and cut off an inch all the way around the entire head, the hairstyle should remain the same? That is, if his hair grew one inch everywhere and every direction? It seems good in theory anyhow.

snip snip snip

He said that he noticed when I groom the dogs, they come out looking pretty good. So I should probably do all right when I do his hair???  He trusts me.

clip clip clip

He took out a little mustache trimmer and let me buzz off the curly hairs on the back of the nape of his neck. He giggled. I asked if he did that with his hairdresser Kelly?  "No", he said, "just with you!"

And here is my handsome man.

Not too bad.

~~~~~~~

We've been working on
a couple more projects
around our national folk farmhouse.

If you recall, a few months ago Steve was working up in our attic. He finished the electrical wiring and spread new insulation and added vents in the soffits. It's much easier to get in to and out of our attic through this front window on the gable by climbing a ladder up to the window by the front porch.

He got an idea.  Instead of opening the window in the traditional way like a normal casement window, sliding it up, then he has to get down on his hands and knees to shimmy through just the lower open portion. He decided to create a different type of full window that could open up like a door and he could access the entire space to step right inside.

He decided to look for a window that would fit that space. We did not need to buy an expensive insulated window because the attic is not heated.  It is a strange size and would have to be custom ordered. We do have in the future plans to put new windows all around on the main floor of the house. I would like to get them with the little individual panes or the grids between the layers of thermalpane glass. So that is what he looked for as a style of window for this upper portion of the gable.

Of course, he found one that was the exact size he needed while browsing on his wonderful Facebook Marketplace. We picked it up by social distancing for a mere $25.

He touched up a few spots with new glazing, and I was able to give it two good coats of a heavy exterior paint.  I cleaned it up with a razor blade scraper and it was ready to hang.

Today he popped his ladder up against the front porch roof, and went up there to replace the window.

It can now hinge open like a little door and latch back securely into place. I think this makes the best sense, considering the alternative of having to crawl up through a small scuttlehole inside of the house to get to the attic. It's not often we should ever have to go up there again, now that the new insulation is spread and the wiring is done... But having easy access like this makes it a lot better.

I think that looks so cute up there!

We still have to do a few little tweaks on the gable, including some new siding and touch up paint on the eaves. Then I don't think we'll need to go up there again for a long time.

Speaking of paint, I finished painting the fourth side of red lattice of these two panels we had on hand.  These two panels are being recycled from a garden structure that was here when we first bought the home. They were just plain grayed-out wood that was put up as an array backdrop of a flower garden in back. We decided to take it down, as we enjoy the natural trees, shrubs and woods view.

It took quite a while to paint the lattice on all four sides and catch all the edges and cover everything in the red paint. We set them up on saw horses out in the garage. It ended up being a "sit-down job" for a number of hours, with my tunes blasting on the radio as I worked my way around each panel on both sides. I used a small roller and then a bristle paint brush to get in all of the tiny spaces.

We erected two outer frames with the same dimensions as the frames we put on the two front sides of the pergola.  We made sure everything was level and plumb and square for both of these back panels that face out to the backyard.

We screwed the lattice into place using coated screws that won't rust. Once they were into place I dabbed paint over each screw head so they would remain invisible.

Soon both sides were done that face out to the backyard. I think on this back side I'm going to plant the ivy plants in two white cement pots that I got from my neighbor Sheryl.

On the front side, I may try to plant some red and white clematis plants, and see if they take off. They're rather tricky to get started. If I can have success with those, year after year growing up and over the top, I won't need the ivy from behind.

(see Steve out there in the mud puddle?

more on that later)

This is such an inviting way to get to the she shed to the right, straight ahead through to the backyard, or into the garage to the left.

I really like how the red lattice behind helps to set off the white grids of the trellis that faces the front. I know we could have just put four pieces of lattice on both sides, but I wanted something that would be a little different and eye-catching.

Now the pergola was almost complete. We had discussed about putting some clear plastic plexiglass, polycarbonate, or fiberglass on the top to keep some of the rain off as well as snow in the winter. Just to make it a little more pleasant to dash between the house and the garage...

Again, Steve with his handy dandy Facebook Marketplace listings, located a guy selling new sheets of exactly what we wanted, at a fraction of what it would cost at the home improvement store!

Tada! With social distancing in mind, we were able to pull into the guy's driveway, load up all four sheets, and leave the money in an envelope on his horseshoe pit setup in his yard.  No contact needed.

Again, our neighbors Sheryl and Ed came through with the proper type of screws to mount these. Ed had mounted some of this at his own home and he used the screws with a little rubber washer on the end by the head. We only needed 14 screws, and it seemed a shame to have to go buy a whole box full of 100 to get what we needed.  Sheryl brought us some over.  We love our neighbors!

The panels easily went up and were the perfect size that we needed to create this unobtrusive cover over the pergola. It still lets the light through and doesn't make it dark, but somewhat protects the walkway below for rain or snow.

Ahhhhh look at that!

Now...
The pergola is finished!

Thanks to this creative guy
who helped make my dreams come true.

I think the next thing on our list of ideas for this area of our property is to get some better paving stones. The spaced-out tan ones in the pic above were some that we got free a while back. But they are a tripping hazard and we really need to get something better.

Maybe some that match the pretty grey ones that we have in the front yard leading to the front porch. Those are rather pricey at $5.49 each, and we would need about 40 of them! Ouch!

Perhaps it is time for Steve to keep an eye out on his Facebook Marketplace, and maybe he will find some?

But first, he has more pressing projects to work on.  He is having an absolute blast playing with his mud puddles each time it rains.  He gears up for the task:

Then he heads out with his little pump and hoses, and works on emptying the big puddles in the backyard, routing it over to the drain pipe he unclogged last week. From there it goes out to the curb and gutter, and drains off into the marsh at the end of town. He goes back and forth, checking his hoses, and watching the water move through the pipe and out into the gutter.  He is "gleeful" to watch it work.   

What a happy guy! 

Time now to go take the dogs for a walk. 

Day 46 - Scavenger Hunt Surprise

Yesterday, we were going about our putzing around doing some housework. You know, a little of this a little of that. Suddenly we saw some faces at our back door with a little tap tap tap sound on the glass.

What???

Oh my goodness! What a surprise!

It was our two grandchildren Chelsea and Clayton, along with a playmate Maddi, and their teacher from the Oconto Non-Profit Child Care Center.

 I was so choked up, even as I am typing this now, I am crying!

The kids were missing us, and they had decided to surprise us and put together a creative and thoughtful task to do at our house.  (the daycare center director who knows us, had called ahead to our daughter to make sure this was okay to surprise us)

They stood back six feet from the door and set down a paper bag and set down the instructions on the walkway. Then they told us to go back in the house and not look out the windows???

It was a 
"Social Distancing Scavenger Hunt"!!!

Here is a close up of their list:

They came here to hide things in our backyard!  Then they left another sheet instructing us that we have to take a picture of each thing we find.

We obliged and hid our eyes and didn't look out the windows.  Once they were done doing their little activity in our backyard, they came back onto the walkway by the pergola.

We opened the door to talk with them, at a distance while we stood in the open doorway.  I had just finished sewing three new masks with cute little woodland creatures that I gave to each of them to keep. Nolan helped tie them onto each kid.

They were so excited to have 

masks of their own 

to wear back to the daycare.

I also left a little bag on the walkway, at a safe distance, with some granola bars and chewing gum snacks.

We chatted for a little while, but my arms ached so badly because I just wanted to hug them. I mean I could feel a physical ache in my arms as well as in my heart. We had to be happy with what we could get, even if it wasn't actual touching and hugging. We were so blessed to even be thought of and missed.

Sadly, the kids got back in the vehicle with their teacher and headed back to the daycare.

Steve and I gathered up our little bag, and put on our gloves and read the list of items to look for in our backyard.

It was a lot of fun! Some things they put out in pretty obvious places, and other things were hidden really well.  It took us a while. They are good at this.

I just knew it was Clayton who had put this plastic cup out in the fence surrounding the apple tree. The tree is a special one that they gave us as a housewarming present last year. I just knew it had to be him, he would be the only one that would walk through the squishy ground to get way out there and stick the cup in the fence!

Bit by bit we found all the items except for the "2 pine cones". We looked high and low all over for any type of unusual pine cones. We finally gave up and just collected four little ones from our own trees and said good enough. That was the last item on the list.

Then we took pictures of everything and contacted the daycare to send the pics and show the kids that we did it. Chelsea then confessed that there were NEVER any pinecones! She said that they couldn't find any to take along and she forgot to cross it off the list before they attached the list to the bag!!

So the joke was on them, 

because we actually

 did find some pine cones!!

Thank you Oconto Area Non-profit Child Care Center!!!

You have no idea how this warmed up this lonely grandmother's and grandfather's hearts!!

~~~~~~~~

Speaking of mushy ground, here is how our backyard looked about a week ago.

We had a lot of water from runoff from snow melting, as well as quite a few rainy days. We have a very high water table the last few years around the Great Lakes, and we are located close to the bay waters of the Green Bay one mile away.

The water in our yard is so deep we actually have ducks and geese swimming around in the water. I kid you not!

Well, my last blog I mentioned how Steve was carefully working his way back and forth along our fence line to unclog some drainage piping that was buried there.  Our neighbor said it used to drain out from our yard into the curb via a small outlet, but it hasn't been working now for a few years and must be plugged up.

Steve got the line free of mud by shoving a sturdy rubber hose with the water blasting at full force. A couple feet at a time, and he would let it drain back out. He was finally able to run water completely through it all the way out to the curb. From there it runs down the street and off into the marsh. It does not go into the city storm sewer.

Now that he got the interior of the pipe freed up of mud, he was able to start draining some of the standing water in our yard. He had an extra old sump pump and a lot of hose. He was able to set the pump out in the middle of the deepest puddle and drape the cord up high along the fence line back to the grounded GFCI outlet in the garage.

He located the hose over to the drainage line where there is a sunken 5 gallon bucket as a chamber where he could set a pump into it if he needed to.

From there it drains out 

another hundred feet 

underground and then pours

out the opening 

in the curb.

At first it was a lot of sand, mud, and silt that came out of that opening. Now it's finally clear water being pumped through from the pond and out to the curb.

Just look at this happy little boy, in his rubber boots, sloshing up and down in the gutter. He was like a happy kid who was playing with toy boats or sticks in a little stream of water, making it go.

After two days of his creative pumping... moving the hose from here and there, he was able to drain our yard down to this!

Let us hope we have a normal spring and summer this year and have a regular yard without the backed up water ponds that we had last year for most of the summer.  This will help with the mosquito population and let us have a nice lawn without getting our lawnmower stuck (again).

This was all deep water 

across to the greener grass

the day before~ 

All of our neighbors around us said last summer was the worst in a very long time for standing water in the yards. It's not normally like that in our neighborhood.  Maybe this is a start to a good thing?

~~~~~~~~

Steve was busy with another project in the back yard this week. He had been cutting down some dead trees and odds and ends throughout our woods. He made quite a nice little pile of firewood. Our neighbor will take that because he uses it to heat his house. We might keep some for campfires.

Steve took all the brush and branches and hooked them with a tow strap to the back of the Tracker. He dragged them across the back part of our yard out to the edge of the gravel road that borders the backside of our property.

Even though it is gravel, it is still a city street, and the city does come down it with the tree chipper. They will take care of the branches for us. That is a free service to City residents, courtesy of our property taxes.

It sure beats having to drag the branches all of the way out to the front yard, at the other end of the property, by the street in front of the house.  This is at the back end of the Big Backyard.  The dogs sure like ramming around and playing back here. 

~~~~~~~~

I got out my paintbrush today and spruced up some more parts on the pergola.  Now the columns have a second coat of paint and the two back boards are now red. These are for the red lattice to attach on to.

Steve and I cut two panels of treated wood lattice that was left over from a garden structure we took down when we bought the house last year.

These two pieces go on the left and right of the back side that faces the backyard. Will make a nice backdrop for the white grids that are on the front sides. I started painting up the first piece, and I will work on it a little bit each day. It seems like I get a sore "tennis elbow" if I do too much painting in one day.


I already painted this cute white little plant stand that is going to go on the front porch, as well as this red base from a bird bath that Steve found in the woods. I'm going to set a pretty flower pot on top of it in our flower garden..

It's been a long day, and we got quite a few little projects done. Besides a bunch of flowerbed cleanup, I sewed up 10 assorted face masks for the neighbors. Then I made a creative supper of beef stew from leftover pot roast from yesterday.

I think now it's time to play a couple hands of cribbage with my hubby before I hop in the tub and relax these aching bones from all of my gardening and painting today.