I’ve been finding it hard to sit down and write because my thoughts keep coming back to our Standard Poodle, Cleo.
As it always does, time is easing our pain. And although I’m not trying to forget her, it’s easier to try and push it her of my thoughts because when I don’t as I walk around the house and pass by where she used to lie it still tugs at my heart.
Our other Standard Poodle, Basil, started acting a bit odd the last few weeks. Although we used to put him in his crate at night, earlier this year we stopped doing so and now only put him in there when we leave.
But I’ve found him sleeping in his crate several times this past week (with the door open).
In addition, he’s slept in our walk-in closet a few nights, something he’s never done in the past. Up to the time she started losing the ability to easily turn around (last year), Cleo used to sleep in the closet. When she could no longer maneuver adequately to get in and out of the closet, she moved to lying beside the bed.
While she slept on one side of the bed, Basil slept on the other side of the bed, but this last week he has switched to sleeping where Cleo used to sleep.
Maybe it’s just our imagination, but it does at times seem like Basil is a bit sad and out of sorts too. Is it possible that he’s missing her as well?
Image may be NSFW.
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As usual for this time of year, I’m trying to finish up some projects I can’t or would rather not do once the snow comes.
But the weather has stayed nice for us so far, with freezing temperatures most nights now, but some very pleasant days. We had a few days where the temperatures didn’t rise much above freezing and it looked like winter had arrived, but since then the weather has taken a turn for the better.
One of the projects I wanted to finish before it snows was the front of the house garage. It needs to be sided and have the soffits and fascia replaced.
We’re replacing the brown trim and soffits on the house with green, to match the new building. I had started work on the front of the garage some time ago, but working on replacing soffits in the summer comes with the added hazard of dealing with paper wasps that nest in the gables.
Once the weather cooled off some I had a window of opportunity to remove the brown soffits and replace them with green. I did that a few weeks ago, and still encountered a fair share of wasps but they weren’t flying around and were sluggish from the cold.
After doing quite a bit of soffit work these last few years, I have to say I find it one of the most unpleasant, unsatisfying construction tasks…
I had to order more colored trim steel to finish the job, as well as find some vinyl J-channel (the edge trim) to match the plastic shake siding we bought to put on both the new building and house. We bought enough shake siding to use on the new building gables as well as on the gable end of the house garage.
However, when I returned to Menards a few weeks ago (about a year and a half after buying the shake siding), I was to find that the manufacturer (Certainteed) had discontinued that color and the matching J-channel (although it’s still listed in the flyer Menards has for the siding).
Call me a conspiracy theorist if you will, but a siding company would more money if they switched up their siding colors regularly. If you damaged some siding and wanted to replace a few pieces and they no longer made the color, instead of buying a little bit of siding, you would be forced to re-side the entire wall.
It’s not like we picked an odd color – our choice was a natural brown color. They still make several other tan/brown colors but none match what we’ve already got.
In our case we had more than enough siding, but had run out of trim. So I went to all the local home improvement stores looking for a match, and ended up settling on ordering the closest color I could find from Certainteed.
Since it doesn’t match the J-channel I have left, the remainder of that is useless to me; I will only be able to use the new J-channel once I get it.
When I ordered the trim steel I also ordered some ridge cap to complete the entryway roofs on the new building. Had I had the brown J-channel I would have also installed the shake siding on the gables of those roofs too, but I only had enough to do one door and will have to wait for the new J-channel to finish the other two doors.
Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
Unfortunately although we’re forecast for high temperatures nearing 60 for the next few days, at the end of the week they’re forecasting a temperature drop to daily highs around freezing, so our warmer weather is likely over for the year. That means I’ll have to finish the remainder of my work in colder temps (and possibly snow).
Hope everyone has a Happy Thanksgiving!