if you feed them, they will come.....

I love hummingbirds, love 'em. I was quite disappointed when we moved from the old house with all it's nice birdy food and hiding places where we saw and heard them nearly every day, to the new house with nothing but dirt. I spent the summer planting things that I thought they would like in an effort to attract them over here. We saw a few during the summer, and got buzzed a few times, but nothing like we have now.

You see, there's not much food out there for them, and it's really cold, so they're absolutely addicted to the feeders on the porch. In fact, there's a daily hummingbird turf war going on and you have to be careful in the back yard because they zoom around chasing each other off the feeder. They're so hungry that they've drank the feeders dry twice now.

There's one in particular that sits on a big pine tree in the neighbors yard, you can see him if you know where to look. He protects his turf with an iron wing. He's there right now. It drives miss kitty NUTS to see the little birds fly by and she spends a great deal of time sitting in the window "talking" to them.

They'll be here all winter, and so will the feeders....

A year ago......

 

It's hard to believe we move in just a year ago.....These pics were taken while we were still in the process of moving. As you can see, cinnamon brown had already made herself at home.

Everything looks so new and fresh. We've done our best to maintain it, and I think we've done pretty well. There's some wear and tear in a few places, but nothing that can't be fixed or lived with.

We really love our new house and we're looking forward to working on the landscaping even more next season.

 

pump house - check

This week, it was all about working on the pump house.....We found some leftover siding at the local Restore....just enough to finish the garden side. It doesn't exactly match the other stuff, but, who cares?  Once it's all painted the same color, no one will really be able to tell. The next step with the pump house is to build a door, and then paint. We'll  work on putting a pump in it in the spring, before the garden is planted. That was the whole point, after all....to water the garden with the rain water runoff.

The next project will be gates and fences in the back. The fence builder is going to be on vacation for a couple of weeks here soon, so we're hoping to finish the gate over by the old house and the fence next to the dog kennel. HOPEFULLY that will deter the deer from the back yard.. We'll see. They're pretty determined devils and eating machines.

We're also planning on making a list of things we want to accomplish next season. Some of those things include more landscaping in the back, maybe another dry stream bed, a firepit and stone patio of sorts, cleaning and staining the deck, building a chicken coop, and, I'm sure, a whole bunch of other stuff. We're down to the fun projects now that can be accomplished in a weekend or two, and a whole lot of maintenance.

On the floor scene.......Friday,. we had a flooring inspector here to check it out. Our contractor made an appearance too (surprise!). You could just see his stomach sinking as the inspector did his work. We're pretty sure we may be getting a new floor, which is not as great as it sounds. They'll have to tear up all the old flooring, scrape it down and prep it, and install a new one, re-install all the baseboards and probably repaint the walls....all while we LIVE here. What a mess!!!!!!!!

We should know something this week..Although I'm looking forward to it getting done, I'm not sure I'm looking forward to getting it done. It has the possibility of being very, very bad.

The good news is, he also "promised" to fix the deck, so next spring we can hopefully clean and stain it. We'll see.....

painting away

Last sunday the fog broke enough to get out and finish my paint the shop project. It's all done, except a bit of trim and a second coat on the back door. Monsoon season has started now, so those last bits will probably have to wait until spring when it warms up and dries out.

In the bulb front, they're starting to get marked down now, so I took advantage of a couple of sales and bought 50 more crocus to finish my front yard project - there's 450 or so out there now - and some bulb iris, just for fun. A marked down huchera also followed me home from the depot. Most places are pretty much done with outside plants now, so it's all about waiting out the winter and starting again in February or so with the flower show. In the mean time, we'll be working on finishing the fencing in the back, building gates to keep the deer out, and generally winterizing things so that they'll make an appearance again next year.

We'll also be making our list of projects to finish and work on for the next winter and spring....I'm eying that fire pit that Lowes is going to have on their black Friday sale. It would be great to put away for next summer. (we have a plan)

This week, it's supposed to rain all week, so probably not too much outside stuff will make it on the adjenda.......