Does the Pope Crap In The Woods?

I have no idea, but apparently some large beast saw fit to do that very thing in our driveway.

Good Lord...Glad Chris spotted it before getting out of the car.

The first thought was that it had been left there by a bear, or perhaps the wooly mammoth.  It's certainly not an Oscar leftover since it probably weighed as much as he did (there's only so far I'm willing to go to ensure factual accuracy, mind you).

We did recall seeing a young girl go by on a horse once last summer.  Christine speculated that perhaps someone riding by on horseback took a moment to use our driveway as a lookout point, and the horse used it for something else altogether.

Awesome.  If ever I find out who the perpetrator of the crime is, I might be tempted to return the favour on his or her front porch.

Anyway, we'll let mother nature take care of that.  We were there to complete a specific project which began the previous weekend.

This is what the main entrance looked like.

Those containers are handy, but...not very attractive and somewhat space-consuming.  And if the couch-shaped one looks filthy, that's because it is.

The other one is just your standard plastic bin. We thought the space could be opened up, made more attractive, and those containers put to better use.

We recently came across a pretty good sale on similar containers and picked one up that we prefer. We put it together last weekend and though we took about five times as long to do it as we should have, it came out relatively unscathed.

Eh.  I should probably have removed the broom...there's always something...

So what about the two bins that were there before?  The one that was on the right was moved to the garden side for Christine to store some of her tools for easy access rather than having to haul it all from the shed.

The "couch" was moved to the lower level.  The original idea was to place it near where the canoe is stored and fill it with firewood but Christine wants to start planting in that general area as well.  So we went the other way.

What the hell, right?  Not the most attractive "furniture" but certainly functional.  We'll give it a good hosing at some point.  Toss a couple of (nicer) seat cushions on there and it's actually quite comfortable.  Besides, even filled with wood it can be moved around easily for anyone who wants to face the water, fire, whatever. With the lake (instead of ice) and the white cone flowers as a backdrop, it might end up looking all right but either way it's at least practical.

For size perspective, here's our model/mascot earning his keep...

In light of his recent heart issues, he had a great little day, sniffing, digging and getting into every nook and cranny he could find.  If nothing else had been accomplished, it would have been worth the trip on that basis alone.

And that scratches off an item from the projects list for the first time this year!

Unrelated to this specific topic, I've added a photography page at the top, under the banner.  For the time being, I've only uploaded a handful of the pictures that Rob and Deb took during their first (I believe) visit.  I'll add more from them and/or from anyone else who took some that we particularly like over time in no set order, rhyme or reason.