Re-Wilding

On Sunday Lee Ann, Annie and I, along with 30 other people, tore down a house. This was on land obtained by Highlands Sanctuary for wilderness preservation. They call this "re-wilding" - a new word for me. It was a pretty cold day and we worked hard, but it was fun.

Potpourri

• Here are a selection of snapshots of our last week's adventures and accomplishments.
  The first photo is of our new yard light. We put this in at the end of the walk that goes to our parking area at the back of our lot. The post is an old wood porch post that had been broken off near the top, which made it perfect for this use. I had to run 100 feet of direct bury electric cable down the hill from the house to this spot. Now when you turn the back porch light on, this light comes on too.
  The second photo is of the new skirting I am building for the back porch. I am making this out of 3" wide cedar planks that I got with all that other lumber several weeks ago. I spent most of today making these two sections.
  The third photo is an action shot of me at our pharmacy building on Monday. We have now torn off all of the shed addition that we can until the gas meter, which is attached to it, gets relocated. Hopefully that will happen next week.
  The last photo is of me in front of the largest horseshoe crab in Ohio (and maybe the world). We have seen this several times while driving thru Blanchester OH on our way to Georgetown, and finally stopped to check it out. Originally it was built for an aquarium on the east coast, but somehow it ended up in front of a little church that uses it as a shelter for weddings and parties - the entrance is underneath the tail.
  
  
  
  

Halloween Costumes

Here we are in our Halloween costumes - Lee Ann as a Gypsy, Danny as a pumpkin, and me as The Invisible Man. Despite the fact that we live on Main Street in Lebanon, we only got one Trick-Or Treater this year, and that was our neighbor's kid.

Pharmacy Building - Georgetown

We own a commercial building in Georgetown, rented by a pharmacist for many years. Since we bought it three years ago I have been thinking about fixing or tearing off a shed addition to the back of the building whose roof had failed and caved in. On Friday I spent the day emptying the contents and pulling down the rotting wood. I hauled three pickup truck loads to the dump - a hard-working day. Tomorrow (Monday) Lee Ann and I are going back to figure out if we should rebuild or just remove the whole thing.

Highlands Sanctuary Visit

We had a fun day at the Highlands Sanctuary in Highland County (about a 60-mile drive) on Saturday. This is an organization we have donated to for several years, and this year we attended their "Donor Gathering." It was an all-day event, with music, hiking on the cave trails and presentations from various folks on saving the eastern forests.

I like this organization because it relies on individuals (like me) giving money to buy and protect woodlands into the future. The Highlands group builds trails, eradicates invasive non-native species and holds educational seminars on forestry and ecology-related topics. Annie is applying to be an intern there next summer. Photos show the opening music by Stephen Free and the hiking trail led by an intern in character as Edward Sullivant, 19th Century naturalist.

Auction Success!

Lee Ann and I spent a cool but sunny day today at an estate auction here in Lebanon. Among a (few) other things, we got the pine stepback cabinet and metal plant stand pictured.

A Recycling Project Disguised As A Porch

A few more weeks have gone by, and there is a bit more progress to show. I have been framing for windows, making the door latch and painting as I go.

I am using six old window sashes to "glass in" the porch. Originally these were halves of very large double-hung windows in the train depot at Hillsdale, Michigan, which was built in the 1870's. I got a big stack of these when we were living in Hillsdale in 1993 (most with the glass still in them) as the depot was being remodeled into a tae-kwon-do studio. A remodeling contractor was removing all the original building elements and tossing them into giant dumpsters, but we were able to save these sashes and have been dragging them around with us ever since, looking for a new use for them.

I already posted that the door came with a stack of old lumber I got at a barn auction a month ago. A lot of the trim molding from that auction is going into the porch too.

The flooring is that 1 inch oak left over from the big project we did at our last house, where I replaced termite eaten floorboards in two downstairs parlor rooms. The cedar siding is also a leftover, from the lovely garden shed I built in Georgetown five years ago.

We move pretty often and a big part of the move is relocating the huge collection of old house parts and miscellaneous building materials we always have. Lee Ann jokes (well, she is sorta joking) that we need our own warehouse.