Oh Yeah...Birthday Week!

We finally did get around to painting the deck that week. Two coats, of course, each board done both by hand and by roller.  I believe we calculated that from clearing the crap out from between the boards to washing the deck and painting it twice, we put in about 12 hours worth of work each.

We kind of felt rushed at the end of coat two because it looked fairly certain that there was a storm coming, but damned if it didn't pass overhead.  So we got a bit of a break there.  And when it was finally done (except for the railing, obviously) it looked a little something like this.

A lot more clean looking.  It no longer looks natural, of course.  There's no question that it's been painted.  But you can still see the grain show through so we're pleased with that.  Here's a better before/after view against the as-yet-unpainted stairs.

Sacrificing the "natural" look was really a no-brainer.  A weathered appearance is nice but we were getting uncomfortably close to a point of no return there, and the last thing we need is to start replacing decks.

We're now tossing around ideas for the railing as well as trying to determine if we want to use different colours or shades for the other decks.  There's small comfort in knowing, at least, that the biggest job is done.

And now a couple of odds and ends to wrap this up (didn't think it would take me nearly a month)...

Project MK ULTRA is a success!  I first wrote about getting a small light house for one of the nooks in the dining room last November.  Kathy (if that's her real name) came through!

To be clear, I didn't anticipate receiving this prior to her return anyway.  And it would have been quite all right if she'd forgotten about it in the months in between.

As it it, she actually delivered it in person a while before our week off, but I had difficulty with my cameras and I only downloaded the shot recently.  Kathy is actually here as I write this (Hi Kath!!) so I was reminded to finally follow through and post about it.

I had bought a smaller light house in Westport a few weeks before in the meantime but it's been moved to the living room so now I have a coast-to-coast thing going on with my lighthouses. Mission accomplished!

Support for the local economy:  We bought the small picture below during that week.

A couple of kids down the road were selling trinkets and cookies (chocolate chip!  Also purchased!) so that one of them could invest in a chicken coop.  Is that "small town" enough for ya?  How do you not support that?  So now it's hung above the entrance to the dining room, right as you walk into the cottage.  Good luck, kid!

Real geese too!:  There was one aspect of the week that I found particularly memorable; For several days, right until our departure, there was a family of geese swimming from rest spot to rest spot.  We believe that it was the same group that visited (and marked) our territory in June.

Our evidence is a little dubious; we base ourselves on the fact that there were 16 of them, just like two months ago.  But in terms of age and size variety, it seems like a safe bet.

And speaking of evidence...They didn't visit our property as such this time, just swam around.  So we didn't need to deal with the fall out (in a very literal way).

We did get to have a giggle at the expense of the folks who arrived to find out that 16 geese had spent a couple of afternoons at their crib away from the crib.  It may sound lousy on our part to see humour in their dejection upon arrival, but those guys have probably told the story a dozen times already.  All part of the experience, player!

So whenever there was a quiet moment, I'd grab the binoculars and look around the lake for "my" geese.  We haven't seen them since, unfortunately, but I like to think they just found a slightly quieter area to gather their breath in preparation for a long flight.

Still, just one more time this year would be nice...

Oh, and I saw Harper at a football game.

That's about it.