Up to Double Digits—Wall Ten!

Behind Every Cloud There’s A Silver Lining
Although the photo on the left looks rather ominous, the breeze it brought really felt good. Eventually a cool front pushed through the area lowering temperatures and dew points By Wednesday, the weather was sunny, cool and breezy.

The rains over the past week started the grass growing again and just in time my brother Jim and his family came to the rescue to help with a few chores and to help with the cordwood construction.

My nephew J.J. did a great job mowing the grass, making paper slurry and beating the adults in a game of Bocci Ball. My nephew Mark (Now known as Slurry Man.) was put in charge of making paper slurry and also helped beveling logs. Thanks to Mark and J.J., I now have enough paper slurry to probably complete the next wall. Jim and his wife Kathy helped mix mortar, build a cordwood wall and help prepare for the next cordwood wall. Tom came out to help too on Thursday so a lot of odds and ends got taken care of to end the week.

Pictured on the left is J.J. our groundskeeper and on the right is Mark, a.k.a. Slurry Man.

Having extra help on hand, we were able to finish the wall early and do other fun things too. We all went on a 20 mile bike hike along the Root River, played a few games of Bocci Ball and enjoyed a campfire under the stars.

The night also brought with it the haunting sounds from a few barred owls. Barred owls are frequent visitors in our area and after the young are out of the nest, it’s not uncommon to hear them at night. I’ve been able to attract the owls right to the cabin by playing the call of the owl. They seem to be quite fascinated by my digital rendition and after a bit of coaxing, two of them came into view for my brothers family to see.

Wall Number Ten
Hey! We’ve made double digits! The house is slowly but surely looking more and more like a cordwood house. After completing wall number ten, I spent Friday putting down a layer of gravel around the perimeter of the house. This will make a nice pathway around the house and also serve as a fire break in case we ever have grass fires. The gravel will also keep the weeds down too.

This week’s Beanie photo goes to the barred owls who are frequent visitors of Day Creek.