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Daytime Bear Family

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A couple of days ago, I was lying on the couch trying to get some much needed sleep when some yelling and screaming disturbed me.  I was still in a lot of pain from my spinal injuries but I was now able to get a bit of sleep for an hour or so at a time.  What awoke me wasn't the sound of screaming kids playing though. This was older people yelling like they were rodeo cowboys and that is odd since we have no rodeo cowboys within hundreds of miles from here! After our encounter with a fox in our backyard a couple of weeks ago, I have a camera already set up with a long telephoto lens on it and ready to grab if something noteworthy happens again.  When I heard this commotion the other day, I got up and grabbed this camera and stepped outside the front door.   It sounded like the yelling was coming from a couple of doors down from our house and I suddenly saw a bear cub clawing its way up a big tree...  actually, I heard it first then suddenly saw the cub scr...
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A Few Small Outdoor Shower Updates

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A fter a week of excruciating spinal pain, I recovered enough this weekend to make a few nice updates to our outdoor shower. First, I built and installed that shelf above this seating/dressing area.  It is made from 1x1 strips that I ripped from a treated 2x4.  Now that the shelf was in place, I installed a spare bathroom mirror we had lying around waiting for our new indoor bathroom.   Another thing I did today (after these photos were captured, is I replaced the hoses that connect the valves on the back wall of the house to the plumbing for this outdoor shower.  I had originally pieced together three foot sections of garden hose but one of the hoses popped off the connector and we wasted a bunch of gallons of water.  Since then, we've been turning off those valves at the house whenever we finished using the shower.  This is incredibly inconvenient (and I often forgot to turn off the valves after a shower) so I replaced these garden hoses with two bra...
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In the Backyard with Some Friends

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Y esterday, at the last minute, we decided to invite a few people over since the weather was so nice for a change.  We've had far too much rain since April so it was nice to have a clear, sunny day that wasn't too hot.  Will (Sheila's dad), Frank and Christine came over and we had a really nice time.   I had an exceptionally rough week as far as my health goes but I was feeling well enough yesterday to have some guests over for a bit.  My spinal injuries were excruciating for the past week.  I couldn't even sleep for a few days because the pain was into the unbearable level constantly, even at rest.  I also needed a cane to get around for most of the week and even that was excruciating!  I think I overdid it in the yard over the previous couple of weeks and then my spinal injuries flared up enough to impinge nerves in my lumbar spine. This caused pain to my hips and throughout my lower abdomen as well as a couple of spots on my right leg.  As...
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Cruise on Lake Champlain

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T he weather forecast changed for the better one day last week so we changed our rainy day plans and headed toward Burlington to do a day cruise on Lake Champlain.  We do this cruise every summer with whichever kids and grandkids can meet us there.  This year, we had a rather small group but, as always, we all enjoyed ourselves.   We order snacks and drinks during the cruise and then, after the cruise, we walk up the hill into Burlington to visit one of the pubs to have an early dinner.  This is always a relaxing time even when Sheila and I do it alone.  We haven't done it alone in more than ten years but we've always enjoyed ourselves.   Below, we have the view of our backseat for the ride up to Burlington... Here is the group photo (minus the photographer) on the boat.  We always get the back corner tables on the top deck and this time was no different... One of these days, we're going to do a cruise on one of these two boats...  (we'v...
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Giant Jenga

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A few years ago, I designed and built a Giant Jenga set for our backyard.  It still gets a lot of use today and we happened to have enjoyed it over the past week while Kenzie and Lukey were staying with us! The blocks were fairly easy to make...  I cut 2x4s to size...  each piece the same length as three pieces side-by-side so they would stack evenly.  The hard and very time-consuming part was all the sanding that was required.  I needed to ensure each piece was perfectly smooth.  After the tedious process of sanding to a 400 grit (80 to 120 to 220 to 320 to 400), I waxed every piece so it slides easily without hanging up on rough spots.  These blocks are now nice and slick. Since this giant game is to be played on lawns which are never perfectly level, I made a base for the game that provides a stable and level starting point for stacking the blocks.  I installed leveling feet on this base so I can level it anywhere on the lawn.  You can't ...
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