Bad Boys Bad Boys what ja gonna do?

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The problem with having any amount of land is that people seem to think they can just use it. Our property is situated in such a way that it’s pretty convenient to ‘cut through’ it. We’ve tried to discourage that as much as possible. It is ‘fenced’ but that doesn’t seem to stop folks.

This morning was exciting. I was woken up by one of the girls letting me know there were kids in our field again. Last year they had built a hide out among the power lines. Which as far as that goes doesn’t bother me as much as they had taken tools from the barn to build their hide-out.

I’ve scared the bejezus out of the kids in the past, and have waited until they have crossed our property only to make them turn around and go back. Apparently this isn’t enough.

So I hopped up got dressed, grabbed the Excursion and headed out to the field and caught one of those nasty trespassers. I kindly explained that this was private property, and he was trespassing and I didn’t want to see him here again. Then I asked where his friends were, and he said there were a couple ‘over there’.

Over there as it turns out was a complete camp, with tents, tables, chairs, and a roaring fire.

Technically though it was on our neighbors property but I knew they didn’t have permission. So I decided to play camp counselor.

I popped in and introduced myself, let them know they were where they didn’t belong. I asked them to pack up and move along. They weren’t very enthusiastic, (I’m not sure I would have been either having slept through the cold last night). I explained to them that the Sheriff was on his way and if they left before then, well, that be in their best interest. Still they didn’t seem to move too fast, which was unfortunate for them.

Apparently this camp site has been there for a while. Possibly even last summer, which just proves my neighbor isn’t all that in tune with what happens at his property.

The ‘Law’ showed up, and hassled them a bit, and made them clean up. I think that probably scared them enough. Not like I ever did anything like that when I was a kid 🙂

We assume they’ll spread the word that the camp site is closed. We’ll keep an eye on it and have something special for the next round of visitors.

I’m thinking maybe we’ll drop a nice stink bomb in the middle of their camp at 6am next time.

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I had tried to take photos of the camp site but my camera had spent the night on the bike and was essentially frozen. By the time the ordeal was over, it was working again.

It’s always something.

Well it happened…

With just the right amount of rain and a little bit of wind that we had today…

This became this:

It was only a matter of time… This time a guy offered to at least cut it up for us and get it out of the driveway. He’s returning the favor because I let him cut down a certain type of tree along our tree line that he uses to make bows or something.

We’ll see how well this works out.

Ding! Attic’s done. (almost)

Well it didn’t quite take a year, but it seems like it.

We started finishing the attic a while ago. The roof is now completely enclosed, and we cleaned, and cleaned, and painted this weekend. It’s almost ready to move in. This past weekend Claudine too Maria to Vermont to visit relatives. Maggie, Molly, Michael and I attacked the attic ‘trading-spaces’ style.

This was the perfect opportunity. On that show you turn over a room someone who you trust (hopefully). While they are totally changing your room, you have no say in what stays or goes, what they toss, or how things are done. That was the logic behind last weekend. With Claudine out of town, she wouldn’t have any say on what we tossed during the clean out phase or what we painted either.

The photos below don’t do it justice. I didn’t take good photos of all the crap we has stored up there. While we all like the ‘natural’ wood look, the attic isn’t as bright as we wanted, and since we’ll be moving two girls up there, it wasn’t very ‘girly’ either. It turned out really well.

Now we need to tackle the air-conditioning or lack-there-of problem. We’re looking at installing a stand alone PACT unit up there.

More on that later.

Photos:

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Another one bites the dust, or will soon…

Shortly after cleaning up this mess.

I turn around to see this:

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This is a rather LARGE Catalpa tree, split down the middle with another 60 feet of it hanging over the driveway…

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I don’t think it will hit the barn when it falls… I don’t have the equipment to get that high and start topping it off, so we’re going to wait. I expect the next storm will bring it down.

These photos certainly don’t do it justice, this is a BIG tree… I’m going to miss the two biggest trees along our driveway.

Time to plant some thing new, something fast growing I suppose, and I’m going to need a bigger chain saw…

 

If a Tree falls in Trenton

and nobody is there to hear it. Did it make a sound?

Yesterday during the storm that blew through we got a new road block at the end of the driveway.

This will be fun to cut up and will result in a heck of a bon-fire.

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