Some PIctures from Port A

Some fun with TC

Sunrise Tuesday

BTW no Gnomes were hurt during this fun.

Saturday Morning

I returned from CA Thursday evening.  Friday we spent most of the day working on the house.

Saturday morning it was going to rain. IT DID. Inches!

Here are a few pictures from just after sunrise.  Tonight is more of the same - BUT great weather for next week.

This is the beach!

They will go fishing no mater what!

People were still in there!!

They did better.

Road trip

The road trip munchies have started, let the feast begin!

From the Gnome: " I love driving with my buddy "

On the road again!

Real trucks do not have Spark plugs!!

Fixed

The trip start

Gnomes worry to much!

The Bear and Liz Fun

Here are three pictures of the 100 Liz shot today of the "little bear". Yes, he walked all around the railing of the deck. Then went down to lay at the bottom of the stairs and took a nap!

Yep 35 miles to mid-town

He likes the railing and deck

He likes the new deck!!!

More pix later.

Bob & Liz

The New Truck

Hi All,

Here is a couple pictures of the new, well 2008 truck.

It's a XLT Super Duty Crew Cab - with the twin tubo 6.4L diesel  - Short bed - 58K miles

We drove it back from Cincinnati - it was great.  Towing the trailer to Oshkosh will be a piece of cake!!

The deck before and after pictures

Here are the before and after pictures of our new deck.  I really like the new railing - which Liz designed!!

The Deck Afternoon

The deck is done - now we have to setup everything again. Here is the view from this morning, But Rich showed up with 5 guys!!

The deck at 7AM

The deck at 5PM

The deck from the other direction

Deck Not Finished

So it's Friday.  It has rained every day for a couple of weeks.  It is so foggy, wet and still drizzling. I doubt Rich and his team will finish today. Bummer for the long weekend.

Bob

Taking the Trees Down

So, this project started because we needed to rebuild the deck. Liz and I figured looking at some of the trees leaning towards the house and the deck that about 1 min. after the deck surface was rebuilt one of the trees would fall and destroy the deck.

We asked our contractor for recommendation for a tree guy, “yeah they got a pretty big truck”. A number of these trees were hundred feet tall and I wondered how they would get to the top to cut them down. They arrived at 8:30 in the morning and 8 very large trees and all of the men and the debris were gone by 2 o'clock in the afternoon.

Here are some of the pictures from that day.

That tree was hollow!!!

Attach a HUGE crane and cut it off 

Bob

Always carry a camera!!

I needed to get to Lowe's to finish a project.  So I arrive at opening, 7AM.

I took the long way home, it was still foggy, but it was warming up.  Driving past a small lake there were two Swans and a bunch of babies (cygnets).  If you think I'm smart enough to know what the heck a baby swan is called - you would be wrong.  On the other hand Liz knew (of course)

Well, the iPhone was not up to the task of the family picture.  I went home got Liz and the 5D.

Here is what I got:

Why we have bird seed

This is why we go to all the trouble with the bird sed and the "Bear Proof Bird Feeder"

How strong is that bear?

Ok, I now have it all figured it out.  The bear could not get to the "Bear Proof Bird Feeder", he got the Raccoon to take out one bucket of seed.  He then dragged the other bucket 200 feet into the woods.  He did not get any seed.  So then he went out to the road to trash the trash!!

The bear was cranky over the bird feeders

You can tell if it's a raccoon or a bear. If it's a raccoon the corner of the trashcan is pulled up a little. If it's a bear, the trashcan is 50 feet from where you left it

Dad Helping with the cleanup

Bear Proof Bird Feeder - Survived the BIG Bear

Many of you have heard my stories of the  bears wreaking the bird feeders.  Then I built the “Bear Proof Bird Feeder”.  It has been up for 4 years and the bears never got a single seed. Until...

Here are the hanging feeders

The picture above shows the swing arm with the hanging feeders, you can also see the squirrel dome.  The arm is 8 feet off the deck.  The feeds hang out over the edge of the deck, 25 feet to the ground!! Last week during NAB Olive call in a panic, "there is a BIG bear on the deck and he's breaking the feeders.  The whole deck and house are shaking".

I clamped a piece of wood to the support

Sure enough one of the feeders was missing. I first noticed the arm was closer to the trees, than when we left for NAB.

Then it was the OH MY GOD moment.  The bear had twisted the steel uni-strut.

I clamped a piece of wood to the side to show how much the bear had twisted the vertical support.  That piece of wood WAS parallel to the railing of the deck!!! It's a good 20 degrees of twist!!

I found the missing feeder and it's parts and snapped them back together.  All is better!!

The Bear Proof Bird Feeder - WORKS!

(scroll down to the pictures of the SMALL bear)