Wall Progress

Happily, the damask wall papers are all gone. I am offering the 'before' picture of the dining room and living room archway so that we can all better appreciate the 'after' picture of the cleaned and resurfaced plaster walls. The walls are coming along nicely and it is my goal to be finished with living room, dining room and library walls by the end of May. Keep your fingers crossed.

Ghosts in the Attic

So, last Thursday I run out to 'The Beast' and take the rest of the books from the hospital book sale and my buckets of joint compound for my walls. I've got the intentions of spending the night and doing some serious work. While I'm unloading my truck I think I hear noises upstairs but I dismiss this because I am moving boxes and I figure it was my imagination. Later, while I'm working on the walls, I hear noises again. So, doing the dumb "scarey B movie move", I slowly walk up the stairs and take my Dollar Store broom with me for protection. This is probably the part in the movie where the person investigating the creepy noise gets their head chopped off however, luckily (this time) my only discovery is a little bird. The little bird eludes me all day on Thursday. It took me several tries throughout the following day to catch the bird and send him back out a window.

On Friday, while working, I hear noises in the kitchen. I find either another bird, or the same exact bird. Evidently the little guy/gal has come down the chimney and entered the house through the hole in the chimney left by the removal of that gas/wood burning Franklin fireplace my bro-in-law yanked out for me. So, I open the back door and get the little bird back outside.

I covered up the hole in the chimney to prevent re-entry.

Since I was unfamiliar with the bird I looked them up on line when I got home and discovered they were chimney swifts. These little birds are federally protected and I guess on an endangered watch list due to them losing their chimney homes because of modern building progress. They are cute little birds and quite interesting so now I can't possibly but a cover on the chimney. I will have to allow them access in the spring/summer and just consider them "Friends of The Beast." You can read about chimney swifts here http://www.chimneyswifts.org/. If a bird has a website you have to respect it.

Lawnmower Day

I'm not real crazy about yardwork. My son cuts grass at the family home which ranks him high in the greatest son in the world contest. However, at 'The Beast'...it appears to be all up to me. So, I wrangled the lawnmower into the truck and trekked over to cut the yard today. It was the first cut of the season and overdue. The grass in the back yard was about two feet tall so it actually took me two and a half hours to get the yard in decent shape so the neighbors don't drum me out of the town. Rain over the past two days probably encouraged the grass to grow extra tall. I guess I should be thankful the front yard is full of trees and there is not much grass, but the back yard sure makes up for it. Anyway...its done for a week or so.....