Please Sir, just 3 more holes!!!

Ola peeps! A short week for us here in the US as it was Thanksgiving week, so 3 days on, 4 days off - and yes I did give Mr M 4 days off, although we have still been busy busy busy!

The garage transformation is moving along, the ceiling is mostly insulated...

 

Mr M spent some time putting his free scaffolding together, he made new cross braces and wooden platforms and I heard him muttering about how it needs painting - ummm NO it doesn't!!! Focus, Focus, Focus!!

 



It is a good job he has it as the middle of the ceiling is wibbly wobbly high!  Next he has started putting wall board (plasterboard, dry wall blah blah blah) on the ceiling using his super duper mega clever lift - each piece of wall board is 12ft  by 4ft so I am not sure how he would do this without this clever gadget!

And then Thanksgiving happened so we have been doing some more outside work!  My chicken run fencing was only meant to be temporary and it was starting to look a bit like Tilly would be under it soon, so we decided this weekend to make the most of the excellent forecast....

See the weather was outstanding!

......and dig 3 MORE holes and concrete in the corner posts and get the gate posts in.  Mr M will be making me a wooden gate to finish it off, but for now the fence is up and much more stable - HA try and get under that now Tilly Dog!

 

 

Whilst Mr M was busy messing around with more fencing I had another bonfire, we have such a huge pile of stuff to burn that I think this will be an on going adventure.. we had our picnic lunch sat by our fire.

 

When I showed this picture to Mr M he just uttered "Ha Brian" - I'll take that as a compliment!!

 

And in response to that I have just 3 words for him "Health and Safety"

Until next week folks!

A picture tells a thousand tales.......

Week 7 of the big adventure, week 7 already? OR.... only week 7!

Woohoo! the fence is finished! the dogs are able to be out and about with us and they were so happy, there was lots of running!  Lots of exploring!

We have insulation for the garage........................

Clouseau: Does yer dewg bite?
Inn Keeper: No
Clouseau: Nice Doggy (bends down to pet a dachshund - it snarls and bites him)
I thought you said yer dewg did not bite!
Inn Keeper: Zat... iz not my dog! 

 

Mr M spent a day putting on additional rafters for the wall board to be screwed to, which will go over the insulation!  Got to use his new scaffolding and didn't fall off, so that was a bonus!

And then there was wiring, more wiring, each garage bay needs 2 light fixtures, and they all have to be wired in, plus we are putting on 2 more outside lights!

Today we made a start on clearing up ALL the sticks we have on our property.  When he was doing the fencing Mr M had cleared a lot along the fence line and I had been gathering and raking up as I go about doing garden type stuff!  So we finally got around to having a bonfire, what a perfect day for it! I think we will be having a lot of fires this winter, it is a bit over whelming with how many sticks we have to burn!

Good opportunity to have a snarf around for deer poop!

Stick collecting got a bit much for some....

Finally everyone crashed out....

Daisy loves a good fire!

Weather has been glorious, warm and sunny, does NOT feel like the end of November and here we are heading into Thanksgiving!

The Saw Horse it's like the War Horse but more entertaining!

The hardest part of the blog writers life - deciding upon a "catchy" title!

This week has been another whirlwind of activity for him and her! Mr M has been continuing along with the fencing, so nearly done! Hopefully we will get a couple of drier days this week and then it will all be fenced - Daisy cannot wait!! 

And he has been clearing out all the dead wood and fallen branches and sticks between the trees, so it looks much more like a garden and less like a wilderness, and we have lots of piles of stuff for bonfires!

The other big task that got completed was the garage is finally empty of everything (apart from motorbikes) and the container is now full of all our furniture, boxes, bags and everything else.

This means now that he can start on the garage transformation! as much as I am loving living in the airstream I know I will be just as excited to get moved into the garage, mostly I miss my sofa and my large bed! 

He also brought some scaffolding, which he is going to need when working on getting the roof insulated and boarded, plus I think it is going to be well used through all of the project!  Dennis happened to see one of his neighbors throwing out some old scaffolding, so he brought that round too, so we are set for scaffold!  Exciting stuff right???

Mr M made some Saw Horses this week - apparently they are needed! I am not sure what for, but so far they have provided us with lots of entertainment!

Normal Saw Horses....

Racing Saw Horses....

Hunting Saw Horses....

And finally Mr M thought this was hilarious *tuts and rolls eyes*

 

I have been doing some more work up in my garden, I ordered some fruit trees, I have a plum and 2 apple trees.  So I spaced the planting area and cleared a spot for each of them...

 

Then I planted each one and mulched it with some straw....

And finally because we are inundated with deer living around here, I had to cage them! Mr M said they look like they are in prison! poor things... but hopefully they will flourish and in a couple of years provide us with some fruit!

I also brought a redcurrant bush, and that will be planted with my raspberries that came with me from Maple Valley...... This is the next project, the raised bed for the berries!

We have had quite a bit of rain this last week, the thing that amazes me is how mild it is for November, and we have seen the sunshine every single day since we moved! last night we had a terrific storm with forecasted 80mph gusts out on the Cape, not sure what actually got recorded, we are snug as bugs in the airstream under the carport, and Thankfully the trees are used to high winds! 

We made the most of the low tide this last week and walked on the beach after work, we were treated to some spectacular sunsets!

 

 

So hopefully this coming week will see an end to all the outside projects we had set Mr M the task of completing!  And then it will be inside the garage and full steam ahead!

 



'Cor Blimey Mr M - that's a big'un!

This week has been ALL about fencing, so much so we had to find some other entertainment to be able to fill the blog! and Oh Boy did we find something GOOD to talk about!

But first back to the fencing, poor Mr M, it does look like really hard work, all that digging, and then clearing the run for the fence, but it is really coming along and we are all fenced apart from the 300ft along the roadside!

We are using basic "pasture" fencing, which isn't the prettiest of fencing but will do the job, mostly you can't see it as it is running through the trees! 

So apart from fencing and working we have been getting out and about walking the dogs and this week although we haven't seen any porcupines, we have seen lots of seals!

Found some interesting mushrooms! Mushrooms are all the rage round here, you can attend a class on identification etc. This is the time of year for Fungi Fest!!

 

 

And then the biggest excitement to hit the area for the year, we had a Blue Whale wash up about 20 miles South of us, on the beach near the town of Ophir!  The whale is 78ft long and estimated weight of 100 tonnes, so a real big'un Mr M!

Obviously this has been the talking point amongst everyone.  I think pretty much everyone in the surrounding area has taken the entire family out for a day trip, including Granny!  Not much else to do round these parts in November!

So to make sure we are integrating into the community we stopped by and took a look, by the time we were there they had stripped it down of all the blubber and there were lots of people wandering around with small knives hacking bits off of it, at first I wondered if this was some surreal ritual but then I got home and read up a bit more.  It is the Oregon State University Marine Mammal Institute who are stripping it down so they can eventually display the skeleton.  You can read all about it here.. (ironically on a UK news website)

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3309128/Rare-100-ton-blue-whale-washes-near-Oregon-s-Gold-Beach-experts-warn-year-s-El-Nino-blame.html

And here is Mr M's contribution to the newsreel!! It was quite spectacular and also VERY smelly, we didn't hang around long, and left the dogs in the car!

Tonight whilst Mr M was out cooking dinner on the BBQ he had an owl watching him, it was also pretty big, not sure what make of owl it is... and it was hard to get a good photo considering how close it was to us!

 

 

This week we found time to go to Brookings to get our OR State drivers licenses, that involved us taking our knowledge (theory) test again, for both cars and motorcycles.. so we spent the night before doing some last minute cramming and reading the Oregon Drivers manual and fortunately both passed both tests so we are now "officially" Oregonians!

 

Finally I will leave you with some pretty pictures!!  Despite having had a lot of rain the sun still shines almost daily!