Nice 3 day weekend. It was a small bundle of misc projects. - We keep a small (tiny) tree nursery in our backyard at home. More like a garden; maybe 15' x 25'. It's fenced off with 4' chicken wire, mostly to ward off the rabbits. I buy the mail order bundles of seedlings for next to nothing and grow 'em out for transplant. 2 springs ago, we plugged in 25 river birch seedlings. I should'a plucked em' last spring after 1 year's worth of growth, but the LNP project won all my attention. Waiting one more year until this spring wasn't my best decision. Removing them was a bear. In fact, I had to leave 3 of them in cuz the taproot was too large and strong. In the 2 years that they were in our nursery, they went from a bundle of 25 sticks that I could hold in my fist to small trees with trunks that went from 3/4" - 2" in diameter. The 2-inchers found a permanent home within the nursery. The rest of 'em got bull'ed outta the ground with a shovel, wrapped in burlap, and transported to the pond project. We created 4 clumps to separate the gar/apt from a picnic area. They got chicken wire protection, since the rabbbits are the least of my worries in the land of white tails. - - Each clump follows a run-off line created by 2 slopes that converge right where they are plugged in. We hope/expect that they will grow like weeds....assuming the deer don't mow 'em down first. The various crappy pole timber behind them are marked for removal by the backhoe when my excavator returns for the next set of excavation projects. - - We got an aluminum storm door installed. This project moved up the priority list quickly after seeing the amount of rain water that splashes up after falling from the short gambrel roof eave. Then...the stairs...they're finally done....kind of. We ran over to Menards and grabbed a gallon of porch/floor paint and Dski put the roller and brush to work while I goofed around running a couple more electrical circuits. I say "kinda done" cuz I'm holding back on handrails to facilitate movement of larger, clumsier objects upstairs. Also, I have to decide how serious I need to get with filling in the backs of the risers to meet the "four inch maximum gap" code. - - The siding and trim are due in this week. I have mixed emotions on that one. I'm excited cuz it is a really big step and I'm carrying high hopes that it will look great. But...by the same token, I am not looking forward to having to frame in 20 windows (11 of them at the 2nd floor) and installing 20 square of lap siding. Oh yeah...and the vinyl soffits and fascia, too.
