Firewood moving day

Here are some photos of the firewood that resulted from 2/3 of the Grand Fir trees we had taken down early in the summer, as well as some of the redwood, hemlock and tanoak.  My folks helped with the splitting on a weekend visit (thank goodness for gas powered splitters!), and I finally moved the pile from where the trees fell to the area where we're stacking the wood.  A lot of energy goes into producing heat energy, eh?

Fall

Some autumnal shots...

Last of the marigolds

Fig tree turning yellow

Spider with its recently shed exoskeleton - woodpile resident

First storm of the season

First rains brought out banana slugs

...and giant salamanders eating banana slugs.

Lichen catching the first rains of the season

Waning daisy

Japanese maple leaves from the tree in back

Primed

Just needs paint.  And trim.  And lights.  And a floor.  Just those things :)

Husky-proofing the fence

Dig-proofing the fence to keep Leia in the yard was a lot of work.  We poured cement pads at each gate, put chicken wire at the base of the fence, laid rocks at the base of the fence in places.  The crates are full of rocks from the pond.  They're extra digging deterrents.

More photos from the dog's yard...

 Dog's deck out back.

Old abandoned nest in a rhododendron.

The former pond.  We might turn it into a little patio.

Some late late-summer photos

Just some photos from around the house this summer.

Dahlias and gladiolus...

Some local produce...

When deer season opened up, we got these adorable vests for the dogs.

More dogs...

The Long Awaited Water Tank

Here's one of our most prudent additions to the house - a 2500 gallon water tank.  We jumped on this project in late summer because we were about to put up the fence. But as it turned out the water system guy was undaunted by a little old fence, and since he couldn't get to use before the fence was built, he used his ropes skills (former arborist/tree faller) to hoist the tank over the fence and into place.  The water tank is good insurance against a dried up well and power outages.  Also, in combination with the ozonator and natural settling process, our water should be delicious and neutralized w/out the multi-step system that came with the house.