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Hot, sunny and HUMID today.

Mandy: It is definitely a tongue hanging, panting day!

Sunrise was interesting today. Not all pinks and purples, but more of just a red ball rising.  I was trying to figure out how to get a good photo of it, since my camera is actually in storage and I am having to take all the photos with my cell phone camera – though a pretty good one, not the best for trying to get some of these shots. Also a problem for my ‘duck’ photos.

Not the best for showing the ‘sun’. (above)

BUT –

I shot this one through a screen…yes, like a screen on a window and that allowed me to get the sun…though the sun was actually a red ball – not yellow.  Or at least so it appeared to the naked eye. Every other way I did it, you could not even see the sun.

Of course, I can’t forget about that duck….out sitting on the log in the river’s cove. Mandy and I kept getting closer, trying to get a better photo, but we are going to hone our sneaking talents because it took off again before I could get close enough to not have to use the ‘zoom’ function.  (The telephoto function on my phone blurs things a bit.) Wonder where all the rest of them have gone.

Mandy: Enough about that goofy duck already, Mom, Jeez!  It’s hot and I am leaving.

Good Thursday!

The siding has been there for a week, sitting outside. They were supposed to get that up this week, but no action as of last night.  You can see in this photo that there is a house between our’s and the one that has siding.  Now that house is framed and nearly at the point where our house is at on the outside.

However, they are all ready to do the sheet rocking on the inside.

Plastic, sheet rock and supplies for sheet rocking all around the place.

The house is also fully insulated now. (under plastic)

Foam insulation is actually now under the plastic – the photo below was taken earlier – before the plastic was put up to rock over.

Areas on the floor painted to keep track of where light and fan fixtures are.

The photo above is the dining area between the sun room and kitchen island.

Back of living room gas fireplace, before ready for sheet rock below.

We are supposed to have all lever door handles throughout the house. Below is the front door.

It was an upgrade to get levers, so we are paying extra for them. However, this is what we found on the garage and door to the patio….

Round doorknobs, so that will need to be corrected before closing on the house.  So far we have been trying to catch things as they go along so the punch sheet before closing won’t be quite so long.  The brown part of the door is packing to protect the door.

The house is coming along nicely – so far we are very pleased with how things are going and the attention being given to the things we ask about.

The sun is out but there is a light haze hanging over us today. Going to be a hot one!

Got some fishing going on out there!

Also…

finally got a ‘decent’ (not great) photo of my little friend that swims around calling to friends all of the time.  We’ve become well acquainted…I try and sneak up and she takes off, a game we play. 😉

Mandy: Sure…we sneak up…HA! (Mom is delusional). BTW this is what I do on hot days, you can see the reflection of the fan on the floor just above my head.

Good Wednesday to you!

Sunrise was beautiful. It is a shame the camera just doesn’t do it justice.  The pinks and purples are washed out. But you can see the reflection in the river’s cove pretty accurately.

This tree is interesting because it seems everyone gets their photo taken in it. If you look at the photo below you will see it is kind of unique.

It has quite the ‘lean’ to it so it makes it easy for families to stand ‘in/on’ the tree.

Deer across the river…too far for my camera to capture decently, but they walk around on the far river bank all the time.

Mandy: And THIS is the road out of here and part of my walking route a few times a day.

Mandy: Say, does this photo make my nose look too big?

Enjoy your Tuesday!

Mandy: Okay…Monday again, let’s do this.

The Sunrise today was lovely. Looking pretty overcast right now. No river fog today, but there is some river ‘foam’ floating by. You can see the white spots of foam on the photo below.

The massive Flamingo bombing has been undone and they are now back to the original few they had in their yard.

Have a good Monday!

A lot of things still happening with the house right now. Went out to see it yesterday evening.

The venting is in, electrical in. In the photo above you can see two white squares in the ceiling rafters. One is for the light over the dining table, the other – on the left side of the photo – you can see one for a ceiling fan.  There is another that needs to go in the Sun Room, that one isn’t there yet.  But there is another one like what is being shown up in the Master bedroom. So I have contacted the builder to ask about the missing ceiling fan receptacle.

Fireplace is in.

Tub in Main Bathroom is in.

Doors are on and window over door is in.  Hey – view from front door! That’s my car, but not my outhouse. 😉

Gloomy day, cool this morning. Says 56 degrees on the thermometer right now.  It will warm up into the 70’s, but it is pretty gray out right now.

Mandy: It feels like a Monday today, but it’s Thursday. Sigh….need sun!

Gray skies and breezy. You can see the dog on the bike in the lower portion of the photo – the bike’s wheel are spinning pretty fast – so the spokes look blurred.  Since it is 56 degrees outside right now, it feels cooler due to the wind.

Tough to see in the photo, taken by my phone across the river – two deer walking along the far river bank.

There are also white spots flowing along in the river. We have seen this before, sometimes larger. Usually seen in the morning, not in the afternoon.  I am going to have to get a pair of binoculars.  Don’t know what that is, but we are thinking it might be foam?? Maybe due to the wind.  I found this when I was looking for answers:

• Wind direction or turbulence: Natural foam
occurrences on the beach coincide with onshore
winds. Often, windrows of foam can be found along
a shoreline and streaks of foam may form on open
waters during windy days. Natural occurrences in
rivers can be found downstream of a turbulent site.

Not sure what it is, of course, but one of these days I will get a better look at it.

Have a Thrilling Thursday!

Mandy: Okay, so Mom said I have a great shadow. What do you guys think? She is so weird but as you can see I *did* manage to sneak my nose into the photo. Anyway, on to some of the gardens and other scenes around the river here where we are living right now.

Of course, as mentioned yesterday, there is always a golf cart or two in view.

It is sunny, warm and very, very humid out right now. It didn’t start out sunny, it was really raining this morning with thunder, so a little bit of a storm passed through.

The Bluebird house above is actually inhabited by Bluebirds!

This is one of the well cared for gardens I was mentioning yesterday. Some really beautiful lots out here, especially those right on the river.

The one below usually has a big Class A RV sitting there, but they have taken off on some sort of trip.

Always just beautifully kept up though.  You can see a big wooden piece in the front. That is stairs with a big handrail.  That goes up next to the RV’s door to create a nice little pouch. They push it away when the leave to go somewhere else. You can see their shed, lawn furniture and beautiful bushes are awaiting their return.

We had some folks take off from the cove here on a fully loaded down canoe for a trip down the Mississippi River.  Looks like fun, I hope they have safe travels!

It’s looking a bit gray outside again, the river looks like it is running pretty fast, must be due to the rain. We will probably be getting more rain.

Have a Wild Wet Wednesday!

So this will actually be photos from yesterday evening, however, today we went for the Electrical Walk-through, but I didn’t really take photos.  We added quite a few changes today, which is what the meeting was for. Now, in about a week’s time, they should be able to tell us when we will be closing and moving into the house.

Just getting Mandy’s ‘paw of approval’. She likes going with us when we go. I am always afraid she will cut her paw on something, so when I am not walking her…I kind of scout for where she is putting her feet regardless.  Let’s just say I ‘mention’ it a lot. 🙂

You can see the duct work is pretty well done, a lot of the electrical was in, and they were working on that still this morning.

Furnace.

Air exchanger. (or whatever that is called). Gas lines…. so on and so forth.  It is all really starting to take shape.

Bright, sunny and warm today!

Mandy: So while walking along I found something that wasn’t there before.

Mandy: A speed bump…okay, so I am a retired racing Greyhound, but I haven’t been going that fast!

5 mph is all that is allowed here.  It feels like forever getting through the park to the road as we are nearly all the way to the back of the park. We don’t even drive down this road, but others do – mostly in golf carts.  It seems nearly everyone out here has a golf cart. We think walking is a much better way to get around.

The park isn’t all that large.  I’m pretty sure most of the golf carts go over 5 mph.

We think most people out here are older folks, retired probably. So many of them have elaborate gardens and take really good care of them.

When we are out on another walk Mandy and I will take photos to show some of the really nice ones.

Beautiful reflections in the water. You can tell where the cove gives way to the traveling water of the river. The constantly moving river looks so much clearer than the water of the cove. When you are watching the river it moves along at different rates depending on what is going on, and the cove always seems to be standing still. Though I know there is movement in both it doesn’t look like it.

Have a Terrific Tuesday!

They have the roof on and cleaned up, wrapping the outside is done. Windows in.

Below is inside the garage, have the box in and have the inspection board in place…some of the drywall.  Front door and garage access door to the house are leaning in the garage. Not in yet. Floor not yet poured.  Elec. walk through is early tomorrow morning where we can get outlets assigned to where we need them.

Getting some of the insulation in.

It has suddenly been coming along quickly after a long wait to get going. No doubt it will slow down some once the drywall goes in and the different trades need to get in and ‘do their thing’. We most likely still have about 3 more months, or there bouts, to be able to close and move in.

Fireplace framed in – living room.

Garage by breaker box. Windows to go in sat in garage.

Some drywall finished in garage.

Laundry & furnace room area.

Transom in dinning area between kitchen and sun room.

Windows in large shower and drying area in Master Bath.

Window in ‘flex room’ between garage and laundry room.

Lots of Sticks!

Mandy: Yep, Mom is still at the special effects photos….at any rate please enjoy today’s  photos!

These photos were taken early this morning. These guys were all lined up along the bank of the cove. Something a little different. Usually the geese are not around that early in the morning and normally in a ‘flock’, but today it looked like they came early to line up for a parade.

Also, instead of hanging around like normal – now a couple hours later, they are all gone.

Whatever the special occasion….have a Thrilling Thursday!

Hopefully, the house isn’t as crooked as my camera was. It is coming along.

Waking up the river –

Sunrise!

So far the day is cloudy and rainy so there is not much action on the river right now except for these ladies:

Yes – another bad photo of ducks…one of these days I will snap a decent photo of these ladies.

Mandy: Mom woke me up (seriously Mom?) just so I could say, ‘Have a ‘Waggin’ good Wednesday!

Sticks!

Yes, we finally have the framing for our house beginning.  

Below is a roof truss that should be up soon – lots of wood on both sides of the street for our house now.

The elec. walk through should be in a few weeks.  After the electrical walk through we should be able to get a better estimate of when the house will be finished and the closing can take place. We should get our moving in date.

Quick update on our mini-mansion. We were out to see it yesterday evening.

The lumber is there, should be some sticks going up this week.

Ahh –  actually it looks like the first couple of stick have already been set in place. Mandy is checking it out.

Mandy: What in the rawhide is going on here…they keep telling me to remember this number.

Once the sticks start going up it doesn’t take long for things to really take shape.

Mandy: Good morning!

Mandy: Don’t mind the photo, my Mom has been at the ‘special filters’ again. However, I just wanted to welcome you to today’s post. The photos were taken very early today.

There is no breeze…the dog’s bike wheels are still and our flag has lost its wave. Try to take a close look at the river.

A morning mist has appeared as the sun begins to warm up the traveling water.

The mist slowly lifts from the water’s surface and moves off the river in a different direction than the river’s flow.

Beautiful and a little eerie at the same time.

Above is a look at the ‘left’ point of the cove.

In just the amount of time it has taken to create this post – the mist has gone.

And it is business as usual.

Have a Terrific Tuesday!

Today it is a beautiful day on the river, of course it is only early morning and the weather changes pretty quickly around here. Let’s get on with the photos!

Before we see what’s going on, ON the river I want to show you want we saw yesterday evening in the parking lot of the eating establishment we were going into.

Just an awesome car! Check the eyes looking at you coming out of the hood. I love old cars and all of the wonderful ways people bring them back to life.

And now…TA DA… Today on the river! 🙂

Mandy: Good morning everyone…lets take a walk. I am leading the way today, so just follow me! (Mom quit taking photos of my butt please!)

So the above is a really BAD photo of a duck.  It was hard to capture it because of the angle of the sun making it impossible to actually see in the viewfinder.  However, this guy was the ONLY one on the river this morning and was going ‘quackers’ trying to attract company.  A lot of noisy quacking going on.  He was just swimming around calling to everyone who would listen while moving away from us.

This is a camper on the point. I was told the people would be fine with us fishing off their property. The folks who have been here a long time are telling us that fishing right in the little cove will not be much good, so fish off the point. I love to fish, but haven’t gone for a long time.  Maybe we will get to it yet.

This is the ‘other’ point on the opposite side of the cove. Occasionally people fish while sitting on the rocks under the big tree. You can see a few wild flowers and interesting reflections in the water.

Just trying out a ‘photo effect’…fun stuff, but also would like to point out the ripples in the water between the trees…toward the left tree.  Big fish jump out in the cove quite often, lots of little ones too of course, but the big ones are fun to see. Unfortunately they don’t wait to do it until you are ready to snap the camera!  So I end up getting a lot of ‘ripple’ shots. 🙂

And that brings back to the camper, we are done with our walk.

I do want to show you something new we got last night (mostly to bug my oldest daughter and apparently my grandson – I am putting in these last two photos). There is a metal purple flower – metal art! Very cool – it is solar powered.  Doesn’t spin, but it lights up when it is dark.

And as you can see – well I could see and feel, that this morning there is really no breeze. The dog’s bike wheels are not spinning.  Now I mentioned my children in this because for my daughter’s birthday, among other things, I got her one with an orange kitty on a bike that has a mouse in the basket.  The have two orange kitties…and they love cats, so that is the reason for the cat.  I was presented with this reaction when I gifted it to her,  she informed me, ‘Kee (my grandson) was asking about that dog on a bike wind catcher when they were out there visiting, was it his Meema’s and why would I get it’.  My daughter explained to my grandson that apparently it is what old people do, buy things like that.  By the way, we also have a palm tree that is a few years old, you may recall from earlier photos.  It lights up but does not spin with the wind…. then again we were younger when we purchased it. What can I say….hope you all like the metal flower. 😉

Have a Marvelous Monday.

Rain.

Granted it is still pretty early in the morning, but these guys are the only life I have seen out this morning. And they are hanging out under the trees.

Accept for this guy who has gone rogue.

Have a Fabulous Friday!