Good-Bye for a While

The trees started to turn this week with the maples producing the best color. The season’s peak will probably be next week the way it looks. The week was rather cool with nights in the upper 30’s and days in the 60’s. It was quite a pleasant week until the cold front came through around midday on Thursday. Although it was sunny, the winds gusted to over 40 mph and caused some minor damage to the water and ice shield on the roof.

This week marked the first week that most of my time was spent preparing the house for winter. My goals were to secure the 4 x 8 wall panels to the first floor and to install a stack vent pipe through the roof before the final roof goes on. I actually finished ahead of schedule for the week and left for home on Thursday afternoon. With Jo’s surgery coming up next week, the sooner I could get home the better.

The latest word from the roofers is that they should be ready to put on the standing seam galvanized roof sometime near the end of the month. The color of the roof, fascia and gutters will be terra cotta. It’s a reddish brown color and it should look really nice once it is up. I will still need to board up the second floor walls, but I will wait with those until their work is done. I hope they can get this roof up soon. I’ve had to make a few emergency repairs on the water and ice shield already.

It also looks like the well driller will be able to drill our well by mid-month. I’ve asked our plumber to give me a couple of days’ notice so I can make arrangements to drive up there for the drilling. I decided that it would be wise to get the well in now rather than the spring. The roads in the area are banned from heavy trucks until mid to late May. I will need water next spring to start the cordwood walls. If all things go as planned, the house should be ready for winter by the second week in November.

As I write this, I am glad that I arrived home on Thursday evening. Friday evening saw the first snow of the season in the La Crosse area. They received 2.5″ of snow on the first day of October. This is very unseasonable for the La Crosse area and it will be interesting to see what type of winter we end up with. The last two winters have been very mild. Is it payback time?

This week’s Beanie Baby picture goes to the six deer that leisurely walked across the lawn between the cabin and pole barn on Thursday morning. Three of the six deer were brown in color while the other three were more of a gray color. I’ve been told that the gray color is their winter coat. By the signs of things to come, the brown deer probably wished they had their winter coats already.

Look for the next update in two to three weeks. Talk to ya later!