This past week has gone by very quickly.  Casey, Robert and the grand kids came back up with their trailer to spend a few days camping with us and then Joe & Meghan came up with their kids for a day.  We had a chance to shoot guns, eat a lot of food, enjoy a few great campfires and even managed to get a little bit of work done.

Robert tore down all of the ship-lap pine in the living room that we didn’t want to keep and in the office ceiling, I discovered the biggest mouse nest imaginable.  Let’s just say it wasn’t water damage on the ceiling.  That’s the good news…  I didn’t have a water leak as I initially feared.  The bad news, of course, is it wasn’t a water leak.  I think I would have preferred that to the dozens of mummified mouse bodies, the cache of grass seed, dried corn and dog food, and of course, the other ‘stuff’ you find with any rodent nest.  From just one rafter bay, I filled two, heavy-duty, 50 gallon garbage bags with the shredded insulation and all of that smelly, dusty debris.  After cleaning it up and spraying everything down with bleach-water, the odors seem to be going away.

Sadly, Sandi’s short visit came to an end yesterday.  I took her down to the Colorado Springs airport for her trip back to Seattle and I headed back up here to our mountain.  I miss her already, but we had a chance to firm up some of our plans for the house, we got doors and windows ordered, and it will only be a couple of weeks before I fly up for our Alaska cruise.  The week after we get back, we’ll be packing, loading the U-Haul, cleaning, and then driving down together for the big move.

I need to get a bunch of things done in the next two weeks; framing the pantry, framing the downstairs bathroom, ripping out the rest of the office ceiling, and installing posts and a gate down at the bottom of the driveway.  For some reason, we’ve had a couple of uninvited guests just cruising around the property.  A gate and a couple of signs should discourage some of that.  Driving up the road is a challenge….  nobody in their right mind is going to want to stop at the gate and walk up.  Plus, in my experience, burglars are just too lazy for that kind of effort.

I have a guy coming tomorrow for the furnace and water heater.  I don’t know what he’ll say, but I’m willing to bet there will be dollar signs involved.  And finally, we had a sighting of the elusive electricians we’ve been waiting for.

I know the photo is a little blurry….  after waiting so long for them to show up, I was trying to be sneaky and quiet so as not to scare them off.  But I have proof….  we now have the mast, weather head, and meter base installed on the house, so the power company can install the new power pole and tie everything together.  Once that’s done, I’ll have a temporary power outlet so I won’t need to rely on the generator anymore. Great news.