I'm always fascinated by the fact that, every year, these two trees, which are the same species and age and planted about twenty feet apart, turn colours and drop their leaves about a month or more apart.
Took a much-needed break from yardwork today and spent a great morning at Ipperwash Beach with a friend and her children. Brio came along and found lots to sniff and explore. He chased a few seagulls and even got all four feet in the lake, which is a big deal for my water-hating dog. I hadn't been to Ipperwash before, and I loved the rolling breakers and "ocean" breeze. I could quite contentedly spend the rest of my life watching the waves. If I lived with that view, I would get very little else done.
Afterward, we stopped to check out Kettle Point on the way home. Such interesting rock formations and paper-thin layers of shale. Beautiful autumn colours. Perfect temperature. A lovely day!
Once again, I'm solving a problem with a shovel and a wheelbarrow. We had a back step (concrete slab) that had sunk so that rain water would flow toward the foundation instead of away from it. It was too big and heavy to lift to angle it away from the building. So a kind neighbour pushed it out of the way with his handy little tractor thingy (okay, I'm a city girl and don't know the names of equipment, okay?). That left us with a big drop from the back door.
We priced having pre-fab concrete steps brought in. We thought about having a big rock brought in to serve as a step. But the septic pipe runs right below that door, and we didn't want to put anything in place that would be impossible to move later if access were needed to the pipe. Also didn't want to damage the pipe by putting a lot of weight on it.
So this weekend my clever husband built a sturdy 10" tall wooden box and ordered in 6000 lbs of limestone screening. Yes. We filled the box, tamped it down well, and put four 18" pavers on it, and voila! A step.
Hubby has to return home today, but the hard lifting is done. I'm now using the rest of the screening to raise the ground level around the whole foundation of the church, just to help combat the sinking that occurred after all the waterproofing we've had done around the foundations. I have a few days to do it before I go back to the city, but it shouldn't be a problem. I'm becoming quite adept at using a wheelbarrow.
Happy Thanksgiving to my Canadian readers!
So...I've hosted three used book sales over the past while, and there really hasn't been much response. I expected at least the local conservation area campers would be interested, but no one showed, not even when I advertised FREE books. So I've hauled ten boxes of books to the thrift store in Sarnia, and I'm turning the room into my own personal library. I've got all the books I've stored away here at the church on two sets of shelves, and I'll get one more set to hold the books I'll bring up from the city. There's a comfy chair that I tried out this morning, snuggling down to read before dawn. Very satisfactory!
A shout-out and big thank you to Redick for doing a great job trimming our big old cedar trees. The trees had grown into the powerline and w...
