Monday, August 20, 2012

Back from Vacation

We spent a fabulous week in the Canadian Rockies - Jasper and Lake Louise. Saw elk, big horn sheep, a coyote, black bears, pikas, ground squirrels, and fantastic scenery. We flew United Airlines and the only reason I mention that is that they screwed us royally on both ends of the trip. I will not choose United again unless there is no other way to get there.

While we were gone construction began on the new garage/studio. This is what we saw yesterday afternoon when we returned. The footers have been dug and concrete poured. Iit rained after that and it looks like the trenches are filled with mud. Not so, it's just a thin layer of mud on top of the concrete.


Guess we won't be using this door for a while.


The dogwood tree is a casualty of the construction. It was just too big to justify the expense of moving it.


The remains of the driveway that used to be by the back door.


The root system of a white pine tree that we had taken down 20 years ago. Persistent little buggers.


The larger hole on the left of this picture is where the corner of the garage and the entrance to the stairs up to the studio will be.


And this is the view from above. They haven't arrived yet to work, so I don't know what's going to happen today. My husband is mourning the damage done to the lawn. He was hoping the dirt would be contained in a nice area around the construction hole. Not likely.


Such a mess. And since it's rained several times since this began, we have mud rivulets running down the hill through the grass. There are sediment controls set up, but I don't know if that was done before or after the rain. I think I'm glad I wasn't here to witness the digging; it's sort of like the loss of an old familiar friend.