Journal of Progress--December 14-January 10

 What can we say?  Progress is slow now--but steady.

Most of the deer seem to have moved to a different location.  We have one that seems to travel solitary and then a small herd of about five deer. The small herd seem very young and there is one baby among them.  Barbara is always sad when the solitary deer comes and eats up all of the food put out (currently apple pieces and kitchen scraps) and there is none left for the small herd.

See all those footprints in the snow below?  Barbara has been spreading some seed that is supposed to keep down erosion, is fire resistant, and will provide food for the birds and deer.  We were told to spread it on the snow.  It is called Western Badlands mix.

Don "playing" with his new "toy"--a Cub Cadet snow blower. First he clears snow from the front door to the driveway.

Then, along the street where the plow has piled it up. It takes him about an hour to clear all the snow.

Barbara forgot to photograph Don laying the finish floor in the rear entryway, by the back door. But here is the finished product.

The hard part was working around the stairs and making it come out even.

Next was laying the plywood subfloor in the dressing room. It's going to have carpet, but not until all the walls and ceiling are painted! Nevertheless, the plywood is a lot easier on bare feet than the particle board subfloor was!

No room to work in the dressing room, so Don had to move dressers around, store wood in the bathroom, and cut it in the dining room.

Don using his birthday present chainsaw to cut firewood. The last of the wood he got from his boss at the motion picture studio. Now it's all cut and out of the way so we can take delivery of the next order of firewood. Don's just wearing a hoodie, 'cause it's a balmy 25 degrees.

Finishing the partly-painted west wall. Painting around the hot stovepipe was the hardest part.