Emily's Place

Tuesday, May 12, 2009

Mail Box

We moved our mail box today. We had some problems getting our mail last winter because the snow plow did not get close enough to the curb. The mail truck could not safely stop and get mail into our box. The box used to be on the post with the numbers. We added another post at the end of the driveway so that people can see our drive. [ we hope it works, get tired of people trying to re-end us when we slow to turn in ]. We also painted them white - makes our yard look a bit elegant ...... :)

Wednesday, May 6, 2009

Flowering Crab Apple tree

I had been up from a nap for about 15 minutes when Peter wanted to go out and see the roof and take pictures.

I am glad we took these pictures last week. The brilliant color is gone now. The flowering Crab apple tree in our front yard. It is totally gorgeous this year!

Tuesday, May 5, 2009

Our New Roof

This is what the roof looked like when we bought the house.

This picture is part of the crew of [6], taking off the original shingles. Next shows the amount of new plywood.

We are finally getting work done on our roof. The back side is almost finished in some of these shots! And they had to replace a lot more plywood than originally thought. But we suspected there would be more damage under the 2 layers of shingles. I asked if the first layer was original, and they said probably so. The house was built in the 1950's . As you can see the back is almost complete, they started on the front today and hope to finish up the job tomorrow.

The new roof is finished and looks great!

You can see a little bit of the new garden fencing and gate in the lower left of this picture.

The cage on the deck is full of seedlings that we started in the house. I just cover the cage at night now - don't take them in and out every day.

Front of the house.

Wednesday, April 29, 2009

April 2009

The month has been busy and it's almost gone. We have been doing some yard work - finishing the framing around the 2nd garden, cleaning up some of the winter mess, gently raking out the flower beds and finally mowing the first time yesterday [back yard only].

We still need to add a few more fence posts and add the fencing. It doesn't stop all the critters, but does slow them down a bit.

We started seeds in the house a while back and the tomato plants are big enough that they can be 'snipped' to encourage filling out and not growing leggy and tall. Pepper plants are growing nicely and some of the cucumbers and squashes need to be re-potted so they can spread out a bit more.

We have a robins' nest at the top of the rose bed 'trellis'. I keep telling them I won't hurt or bother with the nest, and they can spend time keeping the blue jays away! In the first picture you can see one of the parents on top of the fence post. Peter got brave and was able to take a picture of the inside of the nest. My question has been answered - there are eggs in there! The parents need to spend more time sitting on the eggs, and less time chasing me.

On the medical front: We will be going to Grand Rapids to see specialists that really understand 'belly issues' and will get their opinion on our situation. We are hoping for 'another' reconnect, but who knows. Time will tell.

Peter has been able to work on the MG [thanks to tax refunds] and now has good shocks and he traded the Fierro seats for real MG seats. He found someone on the OMG site that lives about 10 miles away from us. He also got a new top [the other one is in bad shape from living in Florida for so many years in the sun].

That is about it for today and April.