beginning ice sculptures

We have a small ice sculpture display around our main entry.  The ice shapes are from a large rubber watering pan we use for the chickens and a smaller silicon Bundt cake mould. Candles at night make pretty sparkles.  The watering pan is over 2 ft in diameter and some of the ice we have from it is 6 inches thick.  With temps below freezing for the past week, lots of things are frozen solid, and our ice sculptures are a fun way to mark the cold.

I got my Christmas present: a new Grizzly floor mount drill press. I drilled my first hole sidewise in a 2x4.  The drilling was like going through butter.  I need to get some clamps or a table and vice to hold the objects I will be drilling so that the wood doesn't pull out of my grip and do some real damage. Bring on the bee houses.

A neighbor, Ray, came to let us know that Gambol has been dangerously close to his coyote traps.    He has trapped 20 so far this season!  Stay home, Gambol, or suffer very unpleasant consequences. 

Reading: The Killing Room Manning *** Generations of a family meet every 10 years only to have one of their own spend the night in a haunted room and die.  Mystery solved.

What a difference a week makes!

The 3rd week in October is apparently Ladybug swarming time. The house was covered; a rainwater bucket has layers of the red beetle floaters; we couldn't open the door without hundreds getting in; the vacuum cleaner fills in one go. Just like last year.
Our neighborhood bat is still around (but not eating ladybugs.) I've seen it at dusk the last 2 evenings. I may have heard a coyote howl about the same time. And this morning the owl was in close, but it quieted before I let the chickens out.
Gambol and I are doing OK without Paul around. He's visiting Bill and Patty so I come home for lunch and a walk in the woods. I could get used to this. We take a long evening walk. Gambol goes to bed at his regular time, so I guess he's getting enough stimulation.
Temps have approached 70 with clear blue sky; it's hard to be inside on days like this. Some of our rainbowed trees have recovered somewhat and we have most of the trails mostly cleared of downed branches. There's still a 12" diameter waiting for the chain saw along the east lower Jennifer trail. Looking across the valley the colors are still brilliant and it's hard to see the damage that the heavy snow caused on the leafed out trees.

From the Baron in an email to the mortgage company:

The hemlock timbers are all cut with the mortise and tenon joints and stored in our shed here. Panels for the roof and walls are ordered and should be available by mid-Nov with the electrical chases installed and the door and window openings already cut. Windows already ordered from Andersen--doors are next on the selection list. We have visited appliance, cabinet, countertop, plumbing fixture suppliers and have quotes from them.
We have looked at some floor/wall tile, but no decisions on that yet. Electrical fixtures are hanging fire, with Whitehill's move complicating connecting with them, but that isn't time critical stuff.
The excavation is scheduled to take place within the next two weeks--last weeks rain and snow backed up a lot of construction jobs, so we are slipping a little in our scheduled ground-breaking. The excavation footprint has been staked and painted on the ground and the electrical utility line has been marked, so we are ready and waiting on the weather. We were hoping for last Friday but the snowstorm changed that.

Coyote

We heard a shot early this morning. Ron came up to warn us that he took a shot at a large coyote running in our meadow. He missed so Gambol and the girls should beware. This one got away from the Mosquito Creek Coyote Hunters last weekend.