Squirrels on the ground and in the air

There are two exciting additions to the back yard. The first, and most interesting, is the new bird feeder we added. We wanted to attract some bigger birds, so decided too add a second feeder with Sunflower Seeds as primary food. This feeder also has cages for suet, which also seem popular. Unlike in Texas, suet doesn't melt here! Of course, not more than 2 hours after the feeder went up we had our first squirrel. You have to understand, this is the first time I have seen a squirrel in our yard! It remains to be seen if he will jump up on the feeder, so far he has chosen to eat from the ground.

Secondly, the workmen finally showed up to remedy the damage from Ernest when the Tree fell on the house. We've been looking at plastic for about three months now. So, two guys with ladders and shingles showed up on Friday and hammered and jabbered away for about two hours. The next day the suppervisor showed up and took a look at their work and vetoed the job. Seems the rows are out of line. Yep, it is always a comedy here when we have workmen!

Guest Closet/Toy Storage

Other storage advancements! This is a collection of before and after shots of the "stuff" that made a home in the guest room closet. This past week Eric made this book case for the grand-childrens puzzles, games and books. It looks so much nicer now, don't you think?

House on Elm Street

Yesterday turned out to be arbor day here in the neighborhood. Street trees, as they are called here in CrossRidge, are part of the landscape designs for each house. However, your tree isn't planted until the majority of the street is ready to be planted. In our case, this was now, a year after we moved into the neighborhood.

The attic room

Promised Pictures

These are Friday pictures of the room upstairs. Eric inspecting the ceiling. We are not 100% satisfied with the way the texture looks on the ceiling. Some of that can be contributed to a lack of communication between us and the guy. Some if sloppiness of the work. No matter who is to blame, it's too late now so we will just have to deal with it. I told him we just needs lots of glow in the dark stars, lots and lots of them. Zack would love it.

Baby Steps

This morning the Eagle warranty yard guys showed up to rework the bed around the Electric board. They did a nice job, not what I ultimately want, but it is a start. Since any improvement is progress, this is good. My neighbor would like some roses in this bed, and says she has some. At the moment all they did was throw mulch over the clay. Obviously we will have to do more work before we can plant something like roses, or any plants for that matter. A garden like Mike's butterfly garden would also be nice here too, though obviously ours would be seasonal.

Seven Months Later

About 3 months ago our neighbor's had to sign a release for a control board for the sprinklers and the street lights to be placed in their back yard. It took Eagle 3 or 4 tries to get their signatures right. When Eric and I came back from Texas, the control board was in our back yard. This was not a surprise to us, as we had been told it was going there. What we couldn't understand was why the neighbors had to sign and not us. Well, about 6 weeks ago, a man came to the door and asked for Mr. Genderson. Eric said, not me, that's next door. The man was incredulous, as if we didn't know our own name. At that moment he realized he had the wrong names on the release form! Oops!! Eric and I then had to make an appointment to sign the release. Several weeks later various utility men came and marked the grass so the men who would dig could avoid the cable, water and power already running though the side yard. Two weeks ago, two men showed up, looked at the multi-colored spaghetti marks, shook their heads and left. Yes, it was a tad confusing. Of course as a result of all this we have not had any sprinklers. But that, as they say, is another story.

So today, we finally had the big "DIG".

First we did the hole!

Then we pull the cable!

Then we cover up the hole!

Then we go home!

Obviously there will be more to this story, as these men can not actually hook up the cable.
Once the cable is hooked up, someone else will come and turn it on ....
and then the sprinkler people can come and hook up their controlers ....
and then someone else will come and finish filling the holes where the connections are made ....
then someone else will come and fix the yard .....
and someone else will come and lay grass ....
and in the meantime, maybe the sprinkers will run.
And if not, Eric will sneak out again and run them himself the old fashion way, with a turn key!

Happy New Year to All

I wish all of you a Happy New Year and hope if you are ever traveling in an area near us you will come and visit us in Glen Allen! We would love to see you!