A Better Barn!

Our friends, Larry and Lu, came for a visit and mostly what they did is work.  This was our barn before.  Pretty sad.

Larry had quite a challenge getting everything to look straight on a barn that isn't.

And he did a great job.

All done but the door.

Next step was the back of the barn.

Lu and I hammered on tar paper as high as we could reach and then let the guys take over.

There is a chicken coop on the left side of the barn and that's the reason for the fencing stuck down in a trench at the base of the building.  We have foxes and skunks in the neighborhood that we don't want digging their way in.

We continued the fencing along the back of the barn.  Great idea, Galen!

Barn was done so Larry started on an enclosure around our well so somebody wouldn't come along and fall in.  I don't have a photo of it yet but it looks great and I will get one.

Stained glass

This was a total surprise gift from Galen - a stained glass dulcimer!  Awesome gift!  Thank you to my most favorite human being!

Finished!

I have been very remiss in keeping this blog up to date and today I am going to catch up.  Here is a photo of our house since it was finished.  It isn't haunted.  Those aren't ghosts hanging from the eaves, they are swallow deterrents and they have worked pretty well at keeping swallows from building nests on our pretty new stucco.  They are determined little critters but were more determined and every day checked the house for evidence of the beginnings of a new nest.  If we found one, we hosed it off and after about six weeks they finally gave up.

Our house - Step One

The stucco on our house is being repaired, reinforced, and repainted.  First step was to put scaffolding all around the house.  Second step was to cover half the house in plastic.  Stay tuned to see the next step.

Crane Festival - Monte Vista, CO

These photos were all taken at the Crane Festival - Sandhill cranes.  They are very cool birds that stand about 4' tall.  Twenty thousand of them are migrating through the valley and we'll miss them when they are gone.  They often fly right over our house.

Looks like sunset but this photo was taken at sunrise.

I took hundreds of photos and this is my favorite.  I played with it in Photoshop but don't remember what I did.

An eagle sent these sandhills flying.

A closer view.

Sandhills and sunrise.

Two photos Photoshopped together.

Two more photos Photoshopped together.

There are quite a few Canadian geese and a few pintail ducks around, too.

One of the stops we made on the bus tour.  The little dot in the tree in the background is a hawk.

A closer view of the hawk.

An owl winking at me.

A tree looking at me.

Another sunrise photo.

Two photos Photoshopped together.

That's all for now.

Weird icicles

The icicles around here grow in very odd directions like straight out.   We saw icicles pointing up to the sky on a house but didn't have the camera with us so you will have to take our word for it.

These icicles are hanging from the snow hanging from our roof.

A zoomed out photo showing a horizontal icicle.

Sandhill Cranes and Snowy Trees

The Valley is now being visited by thousands of sandhill cranes and we found a few on the way home from the dunes.  The cranes visit for several weeks every year and fly over our house twice a day.  They are very cool birds and will be missed when they leave.

We also photographed some snowy trees on the way home.

I especially like this photo that Galen took.  The trees growing on the side of the mountain make a cool background for it.