Containers

I wish this were a post about groovy cool containers that sit in my kitchen or something a little prettier, but I present you with the holy trinity of mega storage: our shipping containers.

Pros: They hold just about everything. They're weather-tight. They've got big locks on them.

Cons: There's a jungle of stuff inside each one. Opening the doors to them can be a major pain. (Also, if you leave a box of Pelligrino in there that you forget to use, when it gets cold out they shatter and make a big mess.)

Behind door number one is our working/holding area, that houses our gigantic bundles of plank panelling, tile and whatever else is in there so it's out of the way until we're ready for it (like the washer and dryer).

Door number two mainly has boxes, and our kitchen table.

And door number three is where the furniture sleeps, all wrapped up and waiting for their turn to come into the house.

Drainage

We've come to expect unplanned projects around here (so far there's been an outbuilding demo, drywall demo, wiring upgrade, siding replacement...), so adding fixing the drainage around the house to the list was no surprise. Strangely enough, we don't freak out about these sorts of things -- it's all just part of the deal.

(Although talk to me if any more unplanned projects come up and I might have a different attitude.)

The original underground pipe that took the water away from the house had been crushed in the fall, and Trevor had done a panic dig to open up an area to let the water flow down to the ravine (I should also note here that he did his panic dig during heavy rain. Very dramatic.) Now that the weather is a little more on our side, it's a perfect time for things like this:

Trevor's in the orange digger...*ahem* excavator down there. (This is also the same excavator that a week ago dug a poorly placed hole over in the field and accidentally ripped up both the power to the well pump and the well line. Sorry Trevor, had to add that in!)

Just before we filled it in, here's the reference photo for the future, so no poorly placed holes find their way around here. Also, it's your first look at the back of the house in a while -- that crappy deck is coming off soon.

The Next Door Neighbours

We've discovered a large fence that runs between one side of our property and our neighbour's. It's not completely apparent because there are a ton of trees planted in front of it. It's no ordinary fence -- it was constructed due to some quarrelling between the people who used to live here and neighbours on the other side who have moved away (I'm placing blame on the people who used to live here, they were straight up bonkers).

The best part though, was discovering a piece of the fence missing...

...and finding CHICKENS!!! (Not that we haven't heard them, but we've never seen them.)

I cranked my head around to spy on some escapees:

The funniest part is that they looked to be having a party!

Frosty Sunrise

Rainy days

It's been raining like crazy lately, and things around here are waterlogged and muddy (from taking that photo above until now, the wheelbarrow is overflowing). Puddles are everywhere, and places that dip down and turn flat are small lakes. The duck pond has risen a ton -- all of the plants I put in at the end of the summer are gone (hopefully they come back!). Wellies are a must around here! Even with all of that, there are still a few pretty areas that I've managed to find:

Mushrooms, of the flat mushroom-y kind. (I know nothing about mushrooms.)

More mushrooms.

A piece of the fence in the pond, with all the leaves that blew in (which, by the way, I haven't touched a rake this year thanks to the wind).

The day the dump truck came

Did anyone see the holy beam of light shine down in this area not too long ago? Well, it brought forth a miracle in the form of a dump truck and digger-thingie (technical machine terms are not my strong point). And boy did they go! Most of the junk behind the house left (there's some paint and solvents we need to sort through) and a bunch more from around the scary barn. We had enough junk to fill 5 dump truck loads (and then some).

Not too shabby

Here's a photo of what the outside of the house looks like right now.  Neat and tidy, and almost ready to put up for sale.