This Place is Going to the Birds

Yes I know it's "Going to the Dogs"  However this last week we have been working on the backyard and many of the projects are for the birds.  While we like birds the real driving force is our cats.  The birds give them something to watch during the day from their indoor perches.

Here is the Purple Martin house I put up.  Don't let the claim on the box fool you.  They are not easy to assemble, though it is an ingenious design executed in all plastic so no rot to worry about.  I mounted it on a home engineered PVC mount so it also will not become a lightning rod.

Three of the 12 houses are now occupied.  I am pretty sure by Purple Martins.  I say pretty sure as the Martin is a member of the swallow family and I have only seen females the male is the one with the deep purple coloration.

Some of the other things we have in the backyard are for us as they draw humming birds and butterflies.  Perhaps my love of butterflies goes back to my father's father a world renowned entomologist.  Any way here are some pictures.  Not quite the Dallas Arboretum but nice this time of year

We added some new trees to the backyard as well.  Some Italian Cypress and a Spartan Juniper.  These should grow to twenty to 30 feet tall pretty quickly.

Spring is in full swing here and I am worried that we will have a hot and brutal summer.  The good news is for the first time in many years the local lakes are all full thanks to some pretty significant rain in February and March.

More Later

Bruce and Pam

A Change of Venue

Last Saturday ,Pam and I left for San Antonio on a mission.  Our project was to finish out a backyard Studio for her sister Linda.  Linda had the studio built (OK its a Tuff Shed) about 18 months ago and was having trouble finding some on to finish it for her.  So around the first of the year I told her I would come down and finish it out.  We arrived on Saturday at about 2:00.  by about 5:30 the building was wired.  Now an electrician is going to come and make the connection between the building and her existing electrical panel.  On Sunday we insulated and I cut a hole for the AC.  On Monday we put up wall panels.  We found a luan 1/4" panel that was perfect.  On Monday afternoon we installed the floor.  The floor was tongue and grove oak.  It had been left over from another project at our house in Murphy.  We then assembled some shelving for storage of materials and did a quick work around so she could have lights and AC until the Electrician got his part done.

As usual I took no before pictures and Pam took the afters.  They are a little blurry around the edges but will give you some idea. of the room now.  We returned to Dallas on Wednesday and have now moved to our back yard.

Storage was added at each end of the building in the form of 2ft platforms.  There is a third light in the middle and slightly higher so there is a good distribution of light.  We used daylight bulbs so the colors she is working with should run true.

Her drawing table

Storage shelves

We didn't get a picture of the floor.

To keep cost down we got creative with the trim.  The main trim is oak flooring and the window trim is the same as the paneling.  You can see the work around for the electricity.  Sine there are lines in the their back yard I was not comfortable with digging or laying electrical.  They need to call it in and have the lines marked and then hand dig the trench.  Digging is not one of my favorite things.

Anyway one more project down.  Many more to go.

Bruce and Pam

Oh My Aching Back

Spring seems to be synonymous with projects around this house.  With the Master Bathroom finished it was time to move on. So last week I put in a new garden border.  Castle Blocks of course, 100 were used.

Of course that meant new mulch and removal and addition of plants.  So that made the garden on the other side look bad so we redid it and added a bench and replaced our tired old legustrum trees outside our entry.

Which will eventually lead to a new front door and a new paint scheme but that is later this spring.

I also tore down 75 feet of fence between us and one of our neighbors and we built it back.  Nice new cedar fence.  That leaves me one more section.

Pam is checking out my work.  Normally Smokey is my supervisor but he doesn't go outside so Pam is picking up the slack.

We also set up a bench in the back yard. There have been new plantings in the back as well but it is far from finished..

A local golf course was cutting trees and I couldn't resist hauling back a chunk of tree that I am going to care a concave in and we are going to use as a bird feeder.

More on this project later.

Smokey and Blaze had a visitor last week as well and smokey could not resist trying out Sophie's crate.  We kept him in a crate at night when he was a kitten and I think he was having a flashback.

He has adopted a new perch in the last few weeks.

He only does this when Pam is sitting at her computer. This is actually an improvement as prior to this he would try to correct her spelling.

More projects are on tap and hopefully I survive the spring.

Hope all is well in your world.

Bruce and Pam