Keagan and I were playing in the backyard this afternoon while Erik walked around the house with a contractor to discuss our exterior. This is the second visit by this contractor, but this time he brought someone he works with for a second opinion. I love it when they need "reinforcements" just to give an estimate. Makes you feel good about the state of your house. Sigh. They ended up on the roof as well, and yes, you guessed it, that needs to be done too. We actually "knew" about that but we didn't _know_ it was so dire. There's no point in making the siding look all nice and fix the rotted spots if we have a roof that is just going to leak all over it and rot it again though, is there. Double sigh.
Keagan already knows this contractor by name and wanted to be near the action and ask a million questions (and if you ask Keagan, the damage on the rotting side of the house was done by dragons) but I eventually succeeded in changing his focus so that the guys could actually talk to each other and not just my three year old. We had two fun discoveries. The first was a garter snake that was slithering along the side of the house who took his time weaving in and out of various flora. This made for a long observation opportunity for Keagan and me. It was a decent size snake too, so it was easy for Keagan to spot and watch. I think the contractors were shocked I didn't start squealing and run away. It's just a garter snake! If we came across a timber rattlesnake, I would have turned and ran. The second was acorns. Lots of them. The oak tree out back is spewing them right now and we had a blast collecting them into a big pile. We decided to bring them inside for a table decoration. Oh, and we also saw some mushrooms growing the front yard and I explained to Keagan these were not mushrooms for eating, like the ones from the store.
This is Torin hanging out in the stroller in the kitchen. He likes being higher than his baby chair on the floor to watch what's going on. He's not technically old enough to ride around in it like this yet, but sitting to watch me make dinner works well.
2 comments:
Wow, I would have run from thie garter snake. I know, I know, but I'm sorry, it's not the biting/potential poison that scares me about snakes, it's the slitheriness that freaks me out. Yeah, I'm a wimp.
Also - I keep hearing people saying that they haven't seen this many acorns in the fall since our last super snowy winter (I can't remember which year it was now) and that they think it means we're really in for it with snow this year. I can't decide if I'm happy or sad about that.
Before I read the story and double clicked the picture, it looked like Keagan had a box full of malted milk balls! Although, he would have a much happier face if there were milk balls in front of him. Lucky find to see the snake! I think Charlotte would pick up the snake if we found one. We look all the time, but haven't found one yet. She loves to hold salamanders, so that will have to do. Great pics!
Lisa
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